Move over Dungeons and Dragons, the Singularity has its own nerd-tastic role playing game to thrill geeks everywhere. Eclipse Phase is a table top pen and paper RPG based on the concept of accelerating technologies changing our world. What happens when biotech, nanotech, and robotics start to reshape humanity? You get Transhumanism, the real life cultural and intellectual movement interested in how humans will transcend their current limitations. Eclipse Phase jumps on and rides the Transhumanism train to create a RPG that is partly speculative and partly based in real technology.
Eclipse Phase is a new RPG that explores a world based on Transhumanism. Robots, nanotechnlogy, AI, genetic manipulation...sounds fun. Who's house should we play at?
Your characters can reshape their DNA, upload into robot bodies, and even live forever by storing digital backup copies of themselves. Players use these characters to help save the world from a vast conspiracy set on destroying transhumanity. If you want to play you can purchase a starting guide for just $15. It’s all just a game, and it’s definitely a nerd-fest in the making, but Eclipse Phase looks cool and it highlights how exponentially growing technology is starting to effect our culture. After all, we are what we game.
We’ve seen various incarnations of the Transhumanism philosophy before. There are groups of like minded people that meet in various communities, and there’s plenty of art that explores the concept. Eclipse Phase fits into the trend very well. It’s a game for fun, but there’s the subtext that the technology under discussion could, and probably will, be available some day. After all, these speculative technologies have their roots in current developments. Ray Kurzweil discussed living forever through uploading your personality into a computer in the movie Transcendent Man, designer babies with perfect genes are around the corner, and people are already working on getting nanobots in the body. The fact that someone’s developed a game around these concepts just shows that they are in the public awareness at some level. Which is good. Accelerating technologies could lead to big changes in the global civilization in the next few decades. Maybe gaming about them now will help us deal with them later.
The Eclipse Phase RPG lets you play as characters who can inhabit all kinds of futuristic robots. I love their tag line: "Your body is a shell...change it."
[image credit: Eclipse Phase - product of PostHuman Studios, published by Catalyst Game Labs]
[source: Eclipse Phase, PostHuman Studios]
Comments
If I were a venture capitalist, science fiction would guide my investments, even if the return was far off. These games facilitate out of the box speculation. The transhumanist games like Eclipse, Pulver’s Transhuman Space and Newman’s Human Contact do have a higher learning curve than most fantasy games. I do not expect accurate or specific time lines. If some game said that we should have flying cars by the year 2005, it doesn’t discredit the game itself, if it presents a thoughtful “hindsight” progression of how the game world arrived at that technology. When given to gamers that are well-versed in the literature of futurism, these roleplaying games lets us see what happens when disruptive technology is throw up against and proliferates through society. If the player characters and referee are sharp, they can take the new tech for a “test drive” in the game and discover little snags and nuances that didn’t pop up in the background material.
I think science fiction also grounds students in a purpose, a shared destiny to fuel their intellectual journeys.
Just wanted to add that Eclipse Phase was made under a creative commons licence so you can download the PDF of the rules for free.
I believe on the forums of the main site one of the writers has given out a link on his online resume for downloading.
Just wanted to add that Eclipse Phase was made under a creative commons licence so you can download the PDF of the rules for free.
I believe on the forums of the main site one of the writers has given out a link on his online resume for downloading.
Just wanted to add that Eclipse Phase was made under a creative commons licence so you can download the PDF of the rules for free.
I believe on the forums of the main site one of the writers has given out a link on his online resume for downloading.
The meaning of such games for transhumanism is that it is becoming not just some “nerdish futuristic tales” but a part of life. Today virtually everyone knows who are “elves” and “orcs” and “dragons” etc, but very few know anything about the exponential rate of progress, AI, NBIC and prospectives of longevity. And people will rather get known of that not from “nerdish” literature, but from their cool game experience. Transhumanism is becoming popular, it’s becoming part of our culture. In Russian-speaking world many transhumanists began thinking of such things after having read Yu. Nikitin’s “Transhuman”. And games today are even more attractive to fans than books.
On the other hand, the meaning of H+ for game industry is brand new gameplay experience that such games can bring. The concept of ego+morph changing, for example, is quite interesting. It’s becoming dull to play forever the same “elves vs orcs vs humans vs undeads” fantasy stuff, and traditional space opera SciFi is not far from that. Trying to play a transhuman is much more interesting. Besides, this goes far beyond just playing. Ultimately, playing is becoming the main cultural mechanism of our time. What to do, what goals to set, who to become and how to achieve all of this for the common good — the creations of yesterday, once written, are losing the answer for ever-chaning reality, and only real-time game experience today may hold the answer how to live tomorrow in RL. Because games and RL are ultimately becoming one.
The meaning of such games for transhumanism is that it is becoming not just some “nerdish futuristic tales” but a part of life. Today virtually everyone knows who are “elves” and “orcs” and “dragons” etc, but very few know anything about the exponential rate of progress, AI, NBIC and prospectives of longevity. And people will rather get known of that not from “nerdish” literature, but from their cool game experience. Transhumanism is becoming popular, it’s becoming part of our culture. In Russian-speaking world many transhumanists began thinking of such things after having read Yu. Nikitin’s “Transhuman”. And games today are even more attractive to fans than books.
On the other hand, the meaning of H+ for game industry is brand new gameplay experience that such games can bring. The concept of ego+morph changing, for example, is quite interesting. It’s becoming dull to play forever the same “elves vs orcs vs humans vs undeads” fantasy stuff, and traditional space opera SciFi is not far from that. Trying to play a transhuman is much more interesting. Besides, this goes far beyond just playing. Ultimately, playing is becoming the main cultural mechanism of our time. What to do, what goals to set, who to become and how to achieve all of this for the common good — the creations of yesterday, once written, are losing the answer for ever-chaning reality, and only real-time game experience today may hold the answer how to live tomorrow in RL. Because games and RL are ultimately becoming one.
The meaning of such games for transhumanism is that it is becoming not just some “nerdish futuristic tales” but a part of life. Today virtually everyone knows who are “elves” and “orcs” and “dragons” etc, but very few know anything about the exponential rate of progress, AI, NBIC and prospectives of longevity. And people will rather get known of that not from “nerdish” literature, but from their cool game experience. Transhumanism is becoming popular, it’s becoming part of our culture. In Russian-speaking world many transhumanists began thinking of such things after having read Yu. Nikitin’s “Transhuman”. And games today are even more attractive to fans than books.
On the other hand, the meaning of H+ for game industry is brand new gameplay experience that such games can bring. The concept of ego+morph changing, for example, is quite interesting. It’s becoming dull to play forever the same “elves vs orcs vs humans vs undeads” fantasy stuff, and traditional space opera SciFi is not far from that. Trying to play a transhuman is much more interesting. Besides, this goes far beyond just playing. Ultimately, playing is becoming the main cultural mechanism of our time. What to do, what goals to set, who to become and how to achieve all of this for the common good — the creations of yesterday, once written, are losing the answer for ever-chaning reality, and only real-time game experience today may hold the answer how to live tomorrow in RL. Because games and RL are ultimately becoming one.
Wow when will nerds get a life? Seriously if you think your going to be come a robot and transcend this world , you have played too many dungeon and dragon games. Get lives nerds
@How Sad
Project much?
DNFTT
Wow when will nerds get a life? Seriously if you think your going to be come a robot and transcend this world , you have played too many dungeon and dragon games. Get lives nerds
Wow when will nerds get a life? Seriously if you think your going to be come a robot and transcend this world , you have played too many dungeon and dragon games. Get lives nerds
@How Sad
Project much?
DNFTT
DNFTT
@How Sad
Project much?
Transhuman Space and Eclipse Phase are the main transhuman games, right now. Been out for a while. I find the system mechanics a bit twitchy, but the setting is interesting.
Transhuman Space and Eclipse Phase are the main transhuman games, right now. Been out for a while. I find the system mechanics a bit twitchy, but the setting is interesting.
Transhuman Space and Eclipse Phase are the main transhuman games, right now. Been out for a while. I find the system mechanics a bit twitchy, but the setting is interesting.
They’re kinda behind on this newsflash, Eclipse Phase came out quite a while ago… Though as a player for four months, I can confirm that it is Pretty Awesome
They’re kinda behind on this newsflash, Eclipse Phase came out quite a while ago… Though as a player for four months, I can confirm that it is Pretty Awesome
They’re kinda behind on this newsflash, Eclipse Phase came out quite a while ago… Though as a player for four months, I can confirm that it is Pretty Awesome
OMG! I think this is the beginning of the next revolution in games. This is just a tabletop dice game but the future evolutions of it, well… Think about it. Soon we’ll have full immersion VR. As our real life technology advances we will have nanosuits and foglets (utility fog/smart dust etc.), then we’ll have folks running around with avatars running around in real time having it out. There may soon be no distinction between gaming and real life, ie – life as we know it now. Whoah
No, it’s not the next revolution in games.
Recognize your exitement for what it is.
You just like the paint they put over this DnD-like game.
You like transhumanism, so you like anything with a transhumanism paintjob.
And those other technologies, we’re all waiting for those.
And we’ll be waiting a long time still.
This is a game, not a technology.
This game does NOTHING for those technologies.
Whether the game does anything for the technologies it describes depends on your point of view.
If you can believe that science fiction is an important way to inspire people to pursue these things in the real world, then you’re dead wrong.
If you think that only scientists & engineers who work directly on a given technology (say, AR or nano scale robotics), then you’re right. Our game is just speculation, and we should shut up, as should all of the people writing transhuman sci-fi.
I’d have to disagree with you, though. I know quite a few scientists & engineer, and most of them either read sci-fi or enjoyed it when they were younger. People who work on technology get inspiration from sci-fi all the time.
And aside from working on EP, a few of us have been active in promoting some of the technology described in the game in the real world, too. If you visit our Facebook page and blog, for example, you’ll see that Brian Cross gave a talk on the politics of bioengineering at an academic conference recently, and I’ve spoken and blogged about augmented reality in some pretty mainstream business venues.
Are we big authorities on this stuff? Do we think our game is going to reshape the world? Nope. But we do think these ideas are worth writing about and promoting, and gaming is just another way to do that.
OMG! I think this is the beginning of the next revolution in games. This is just a tabletop dice game but the future evolutions of it, well… Think about it. Soon we’ll have full immersion VR. As our real life technology advances we will have nanosuits and foglets (utility fog/smart dust etc.), then we’ll have folks running around with avatars running around in real time having it out. There may soon be no distinction between gaming and real life, ie – life as we know it now. Whoah
OMG! I think this is the beginning of the next revolution in games. This is just a tabletop dice game but the future evolutions of it, well… Think about it. Soon we’ll have full immersion VR. As our real life technology advances we will have nanosuits and foglets (utility fog/smart dust etc.), then we’ll have folks running around with avatars running around in real time having it out. There may soon be no distinction between gaming and real life, ie – life as we know it now. Whoah
No, it’s not the next revolution in games.
Recognize your exitement for what it is.
You just like the paint they put over this DnD-like game.
You like transhumanism, so you like anything with a transhumanism paintjob.
And those other technologies, we’re all waiting for those.
And we’ll be waiting a long time still.
This is a game, not a technology.
This game does NOTHING for those technologies.
Whether the game does anything for the technologies it describes depends on your point of view.
If you can believe that science fiction is an important way to inspire people to pursue these things in the real world, then you’re dead wrong.
If you think that only scientists & engineers who work directly on a given technology (say, AR or nano scale robotics), then you’re right. Our game is just speculation, and we should shut up, as should all of the people writing transhuman sci-fi.
I’d have to disagree with you, though. I know quite a few scientists & engineer, and most of them either read sci-fi or enjoyed it when they were younger. People who work on technology get inspiration from sci-fi all the time.
And aside from working on EP, a few of us have been active in promoting some of the technology described in the game in the real world, too. If you visit our Facebook page and blog, for example, you’ll see that Brian Cross gave a talk on the politics of bioengineering at an academic conference recently, and I’ve spoken and blogged about augmented reality in some pretty mainstream business venues.
Are we big authorities on this stuff? Do we think our game is going to reshape the world? Nope. But we do think these ideas are worth writing about and promoting, and gaming is just another way to do that.
Whether the game does anything for the technologies it describes depends on your point of view.
If you can believe that science fiction is an important way to inspire people to pursue these things in the real world, then you’re dead wrong.
If you think that only scientists & engineers who work directly on a given technology (say, AR or nano scale robotics), then you’re right. Our game is just speculation, and we should shut up, as should all of the people writing transhuman sci-fi.
I’d have to disagree with you, though. I know quite a few scientists & engineer, and most of them either read sci-fi or enjoyed it when they were younger. People who work on technology get inspiration from sci-fi all the time.
And aside from working on EP, a few of us have been active in promoting some of the technology described in the game in the real world, too. If you visit our Facebook page and blog, for example, you’ll see that Brian Cross gave a talk on the politics of bioengineering at an academic conference recently, and I’ve spoken and blogged about augmented reality in some pretty mainstream business venues.
Are we big authorities on this stuff? Do we think our game is going to reshape the world? Nope. But we do think these ideas are worth writing about and promoting, and gaming is just another way to do that.
No, it’s not the next revolution in games.
Recognize your exitement for what it is.
You just like the paint they put over this DnD-like game.
You like transhumanism, so you like anything with a transhumanism paintjob.
And those other technologies, we’re all waiting for those.
And we’ll be waiting a long time still.
This is a game, not a technology.
This game does NOTHING for those technologies.
You forgot about Transhuman Space powered by GURPS.
http://www.sjgames.com/transhuman/
You forgot about Transhuman Space powered by GURPS.
http://www.sjgames.com/transhuman/
You forgot about Transhuman Space powered by GURPS.
http://www.sjgames.com/transhuman/