Monday, April 26, 2010

Eclipse Phase - a recommendable SciFi RPG

I've (finally!) found a pearl among free RPGs: Eclipse Phase. It's a "published" RPG, but available as an open gaming license game (or smthg like that). Well, it might not be a "pearl", but it's certainly a lot better than most free stuff. The free download is not printable (well, you can print it, but it would be dumb to do so), but gives a great opportunity to check out the game.
The book has a good layout with lots of nice SciFi pictures to set the mood. SciFi fans should love it (and the game in general). If I were to try this game, I'd definitely buy the book rather than print it.

The game's official website has the quickstart rules:
http://www.eclipsephase.com
The whole book as PDF can be downloaded here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?m2omciy4ymd

The game uses d100 (as "00 to 99"), with some nice ideas, but mostly very much like BRP (e.g. RQ, but simpler). Apparently the only die type used is d10.
The mechanics are easy, so anyone familiar with recent science fiction should be able to get into the game pretty easily.

Personally, I haven't read the kind of science of fiction this game is based on, so I'm not that interested in actually trying the game. I'm interested in mechanics, but this kind of easily accessible game obviously doesn't have what I'm looking for, although it has lots of good qualities. All in all, this game is one I feel I can recommend (after browsing and partially reading the rule book) to anyone looking for a new RPG, and especially to fans of science fiction.