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In the Eclipse Phase core rule book, there are rules for buying a muse. It is listed with stats and a price in the section with other AIs like Vecheil AIs and Hacking (Kaos) AIs. It notes that all PCs start with a muse.

Because it is statted and has a price, presumably by paying more you can get a better one. Do any books provide muse improvements/upgrades?

I had a look in Transhuman, which gives some suggestions on interacting with muses, but not much beyond fluff.

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There's a good discussion of how to break out the costs of muse improvement over at the official Eclipse Phase forum: http://www.eclipsephase.com/nonstandard-muses . Note the people who inhabit the forums are pretty hard core into EP, so if they're coming up with their own rules for this in the forum, it's because it's not covered in the books.

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There is a muse upgrade available in Rimward (page 199) for "Titanian Muses":

Titanian muses commonly have the following skills: Academics: History 60, Academics: Political Science 60, Interest: Parliamentary Procedure 60, and Profession: Law 60. A common muse upgrade, the Plurality package, contains all of these skills and may be acquired from several Titanian microcorps at a cost of [Moderate].

Interestingly, that source book also describes a custom Jovian muse called a "minder", but there are no stats, so perhaps that is just a standard morph and the extra functionality is roleplayed if necessary.

Transhuman (page 168) indirectly warns against improving the skills and aptitudes of a muse:

Obviously the muse should not be a crutch that always has perfect advice. They have significant limitations, namely their low aptitudes and small selection of skills. Gamemasters should only use muses as a way to advise players when they are not taking certain options or clues that they should know into account.

In roleplaying terms, you could say muses have a specific hardware specification and therefore cannot physically raise their skills or aptitudes above this level. Muses are also designed to perform a specific function, effectively act as a Siri and companionship, so their base set of skills makes sense. I seriously question why a player would want to make a custom muse, other than to try and game the system.

It will also get to an "uncanny valley" level if you do so - with sufficiently high aptitudes, is the muse sentient?

That's not to stop you creating a souped-up muse for an NPC enemy, for an adventure exploring the limits of muse technology. My advice would be to not afford that ability to the players.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ He wanted to spend more money on his muse, solely for the prestige. He was a hypercorp elite. So the idea of using a simple consumer grade muse? He has never, and probably will never roll a test with his muse -- he took the muse skill set himself. \$\endgroup\$ Apr 24, 2014 at 14:05

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