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Eclipse Phase is a sci-fi RPG dealing with AI, nanotech, biotech, mind copying, and other far-future issues, all played in a straight manner. By default, characters are part of an organization created to fight against existential risks, after they've become all too real.
That sounds freaking awesome! One question though: how loose is it? As in, how much breaking-the-rules-of-physics and going-beyond-the-impossible-kicking-reason-to-the-curb does it allow?
Also, are there "strictly legal means" of getting that for free? EDIT: It even has a legal torrent! Nice...
I created a few characters using the system, read through most of the book, and it's fairly loose with what you can accomplish. It seemed more limited by what a GM might allow than game rules, since characters have access to things like nanofactories, the ability to switch bodies, etc. Most of the in-game limitations are resource constraints, the lack of stats for large weapons platforms, and the pure strength of existentially threatening baddies. I get the impression you're supposed to die a lot while playing...
And yes, the content is Creative Commons licensed to allow the entire rulebook to be legally downloaded.
I have run a game of Eclipse Phase at an RPG convention in Sydney. I found it to be a very cool game, the setting in particular is very interesting and varied however the rules are a little complex for people who want to just try it.
There are a lot of bits which don't quite fit into hard sci-fi - aliens, psychics, nanotech that works like magic. However, it's pretty easy to leave these out, except it's difficult to know how realistic nanotech would work. I doubt we'll ever use it to create mundane things due to energy constraints, but I guess in the context of the game it works.
Where the game really shines is in dealing with mind uploading, "re-sleeving", virtual worlds and psychic surgery - you can copy minds and re-merge them, even edit them to some degree. It gives a lot of scope for games that work with meta-levels of reality and manipulation of minds. I would like to explore possible transhumanism using it if I ever get the time to.
It also has SIAI (named "Singularity Foundation") in the backstory.
Of course, any Hard Sci-Fi work should have at least that much. What I'm worried about is the role we'll play there... The vanguard of the new era, a ragtag bunch of pioneers whose work wasn't very fruitful in itself but tore open the path for greater endeavors, a plain old dead branch in the tree of science evolution... or harbingers of DOOM?
From the book (technically from the GM-only section, but not really a spoiler for most campaigns):
("Seed AI" is a term Eliezer coined, in case it isn't already obvious that the writers have been reading the SIAI website.)
LOL we did end up saving the world!
Actually, if I understand the setting right, the Earth itself ended up under the control of Unfriendly AI (the TITANs), so technically "the world" was not saved - although plenty of people were.
I'd be interested to playing this via google+ meetups or posts. Anyone else?
Anders Sandberg wrote some campaigns for Eclipse Phase. There's even one about gur evfxf nevfvat sebz n fhcrevagryyvtrag benpyr negvsvpvny vagryyvtrapr.