12
\$\begingroup\$

When creating a character in Eclipse Phase, I faced a question from one of my players. We agreed that the first morph cost some CP (creation points), for example 75 CP for a fury. When buying a second morph as part of character equipement, that cost 75 more CP for a clone of the main morph. But it is also possible to convert only 40 CP into 40.000 credits, and buy a fury, which looks better. :)

In fact it is better to be an infolife with a lot of credits and buy one or more morph using credits after character creation!

Is this a bug in character creation, or am I missing something?

We have decided that the first morph should be bought using CP and others using credits.

How it is supposed to be done in the spirit and letter of the rules? Or is this just something that every table has to make a ruling on, like we have?

\$\endgroup\$

2 Answers 2

14
\$\begingroup\$

You have missed the following rule on p137 in Purchase Gear section (step 6 of character creation):

The one exception to buying gear with Credit is the purchase of additional morphs. Characters may buy extra morphs during character creation, but they must be bought with CP.

So all morphs must be bought using CP.

\$\endgroup\$
0
2
\$\begingroup\$

I believe that the original intent is to buy them using the CP cost; morphs in Eclipse Phase are some of the few things subject to scarcity, so cost and availability are not necessarily going to be 1:1 like they are for guns or computers; you might not see a Fury get horribly inflated prices (because there's another 40k credit morph that can more or less replicate its performance), but it has availability issues.

Of course, the real mechanical reason is balance. Morphs' credit costs and CP costs are not necessarily equivalent because some of them are just too potent.

In Eclipse Phase, this system RAW quickly becomes a balance issue. In every game I've played in or run it's typically been houseruled that you pay the lesser of the CP or Credit costs, because of the fact that CP is really the main way your character gets skills/aptitudes, which are infinitely more valuable than a morph. Anything gotten with credit, however, is easily lost, stolen, or left behind in a farcast. In the Transhuman character creation rules, morphs are handled via random roll or selections, depending on a character's lifepath, and that typically works better.

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ As an unrelated note, I typically tell my players explicitly not to spend more than 100 CP or 50 CP on morph/gear, depending on whether I want them to be self-sufficient or if I'm planning on issuing them things. That's just me as a GM. \$\endgroup\$ Jan 20, 2016 at 16:28

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .