What kind of Muse do you start with in Eclipse Phase?

Question

In Eclipse Phase, the character creation rules state that every character gets a Muse for free. Later in the book it details multiple kinds of Muses, including one called a Standard Muse.

Based on the wording in the books, I'm not clear if a starting character can select any available Muse for the free starting Muse, or if your free Muse is required to be a Standard Muse. The other kinds are fairly specialized, but might be preferable under some circumstances.

Do starting characters get to choose their Muse type, or is it always a Standard Muse?

Answer 1

The Standard Muse is the one you get.

Check the excel character sheet, on the gear tab scroll down until you get to the Muses' and you'll see that the Standard Muse is pre-filled with 1.

While not officially canon (as far as I know), I'm not making any characters without that sheet!

Answer 2

We meant the standard muse -- that's why it says "standard muse" in the character creation chapter. The other AIs, as noted, are for specialized purposes, and aren't the same thing as the personalized AI assistant the standard muses is supposed to be.

Answer 3

Eclipse Phase doesn't make a big deal about money (indeed in some places in the setting it's not used at all) so the type of muse a starting character has is largely up to the player. That's the same mindset the game has about morph's: some are very powerful and others are not but there's not much to limit what a character starts with from a rules standpoint only a story one.