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Relevance of RPG books for Infinity Players

Discussion in 'Access Guide to the Human Sphere' started by Renfri, Mar 26, 2018.

  1. Renfri

    Renfri Well-Known Member

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    Hi All,

    The Infinity RPG book is available at my favourite retailer. I am not a huge RPG player (played 2 short campaigns) but I am edging buying it :

    - I wondered if there is significant Lore / background that would be interesting on its own ?
    - How complex is the RPG system, and would it be accessible to a neophite Game Master ?
     
  2. xagroth

    xagroth Mournful Echo

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    More than in the rulebooks, but you might prefer to pick the faction splatbooks if you really want more detail than that.

    Complexity: not too much.
    Ideality: Like when the CODA system was ported from Star Trek (where a skill-based system is really important) to Lord of the Rings (where you would focus as much as the GM would allow you into combat, spending the rest on skills to support what you were). That is, there are big holes the system is totally unable to address, dumping the work on you. For example, after a few games it is hard to not see the characters with most money as unstoppable killing machines, while the poorer ones are little more than baggage. Sure, all have the same XP, but the gear, man... is like getting thousands of gold coins at the start of every D&D game you can save to buy magic items.

    If you are starting, I would suggest looking for another option. If you want to play in the infinity setting, however, there is a FATE conversion of Eclipse Phase that has enough similarities to Infinity that you could roll with most mechanics unchanged (the name's Transhumanity's Fate), and since it's a Creative Commons game, you can legally download it from the game's creator blog here
    So you can get TF for the mechanics, and the Infinity RPG for the setting from your retail's shop.
     
    coleslaw likes this.
  3. Renfri

    Renfri Well-Known Member

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    The splat books ? what are these ?
     
  4. xagroth

    xagroth Mournful Echo

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    Each major faction will get its own book, which I'm assuming it will have a more detailed background for that specific faction, aside from the number-crunching stuff.

    For example, the first one will be Ariadna, with options for playable non-humans (I think Dog-Warriors or Wulvers)
     
  5. Flipswitch

    Flipswitch Sepsitorised by Intent

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    It's around 500 pages of just fluff, great for that alone imo, the art is great as well.
     
  6. xagroth

    xagroth Mournful Echo

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    I think the 500 pages do include the gaming system, the "nemeses", the gear... I would need to get home to check it, but no, no 500 pages of fluff there XD
     
  7. Flipswitch

    Flipswitch Sepsitorised by Intent

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    There's fluff in the nemesis sections and the gear. ;)

    Though: not "of just", slightly incorrect there, but there's definitely plenty of world building to get your teeth into.
     
    #7 Flipswitch, Mar 26, 2018
    Last edited: Mar 26, 2018
  8. stevenart74

    stevenart74 Well-Known Member

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    Exactly 528 pages of Basic Manual, with Pag. 12 to 25 as generic presentation of the Setting, then more thoroughly explained in Detail in the Human Sphere section of Background "Fluff" that goes from the pag. 140 to pag. 325, all chock full of immersive, EXTREMELY useful Info Tidbits about the Hyperpowers, the Planets of the Human Sphere and also the various Aliens. . .Ranging from the "Dire Foes" of the Combined Army, to the "Tryustworthy Allies" (Yeah, right !!!) of the Tohaa, and other important (such as the Digesters of the Cosmoliths) and less important (list of vanquished foes of the E.I. and the Tohaa, just a sidenote and name). . .

    I daresay that also the "Lifepath" section of Character Creation is useful for Immersive Background purposes as it explain very well how a given Faction Character evolve from Infancy, to School to Careers to "First Session Ready"; it goes from Pag. 38 to 74, with peculiar interest in the Section of Starting Careers (from Pag. 53 to 71) when EVERY relevant Career of Infinity have 10-12 lines of descriptive text AT LEAST, that explains how to properly frame it into the Gameworld. . .

    Equally important are the Gear Section, where between Pag. 328 to 394 almost EVERY meaningful Miniature Equipement is given a well-rounded description + "Rule Stats" and even for some some useful choice "Background Infos" (such as Manufacturing Companies and Production Models of the most important stuff); also there are Tons of Useful stuff that would have have never been relevant to the Tabletop Miniature Wargame, such as Lifestyle, Leisure, Cosmetic Enhancements, Luxury Vehicles and so on. . .

    Very important is the section about the pervasive, immersive "Web Technology" of Maya & Arachne, with the usefulness of wrist mounted "Comlogs" and the personalized Virtual Assistant "Geists" that are technically Allied N.P.C. along with the possibility of surfing the "Humanspherenet" with the same game efficacy than Shooting on a Battlefield or Socially Night-Clubbing to achieve the Mission Aims. . .

    And finally there are the Antagonists Section (Pag. 415 to 480) where there are very useful "Alien Critters" (comprising Terran Usefuls. like Guard Dogs and Riding Horses) and the most iconic, widespread "Faction Troops" and Hyperpowers Civilian Adversaries (don't freak for a Paratrooper + Special Forces, when You have to face a Corporate + Lawyer on a Finance Court Litigation !!!); I found that Section extra useful to Add to the existing "Racial Classes" (technically 4 = 1°) Baseline Womb-Born Human, 2°) Dogwarrior, 3°) Human Cyborg with variable % of Prosthethics and Gene-Biografts, 4°) totally Artificial "Full Body Conversion Adroid / Gynoid Frame" that could have been NEVER "Alive" as for A.L.E.P.H: Recreations and Combat Lhosts). . .

    That Foes Section I found extremely useful to "Reverse Engineering" existing "Templates" and insofar I managed to have well-balanced (have to playtest them anyway) Ariadnan Wulvers and Morats / Zerats as Playable Character Roles; Uberfallkommando Chimeras and Morlocks from Bakunin are instead just a "Specialized Character Flavour" (even if @Section9 had to do a lot of work with our shared G.M. to have a satysfying "Undercover Praxis Cop"). . .!!

    The "Kickstarters Backers" kind of Specialized "Elder Veteran Characters" range from the very useful (especially Mercenary T.A.G. Pilots) to the weird funny (an A.L.E.P.H. Lhost that is "Barney, The Lavender Dinosaur" that volunteer as E.M.T. on the Paradiso Frontlines ? ? ? ? ? :scream: :scream: :scream: !!). . .

    All in all I don't work neither for Modiphius nor for Corvus Belli (Yet. . . . .one could always dream !!!) but to ANYONE interested into Playing the R.P.G. or simply expanding the Knowledge of the Infinity Universe I really, Really, REALLY underscore the need to acquire AT LEAST the Basic Manual. . . . !!!

    If the "Faction Splats" have a similar Depth for the specific "Hyperpower Factions Background" then these will be a MUST HAVE for any "Faction Fan". . . . .!!!
     
  9. xagroth

    xagroth Mournful Echo

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    I was going to mention that, of pure background content, the Core book has 199 pages of such (granted, not pure text).

    The Ariadna sourcebook, for what I've been told, is 174 pages of pure text, of which 73 are devoted to Ariadna, Dawn, and Trade, plus 31 pages devoted to Antipodes, the rest being Gear, Lifepath, Adversaries and backers.
    I don't know about the overlap of data between the books, but Ariadna is about 12 pages devoted to the faction, plus about 8 pages to Dawn.

    So if you want detailed information on the factions with the minimum expense, pick just the faction books, but if you don't care about space (money shouldn't be an issue, considering it takes 3-4 months at least for each splatbook...), then go for the core book and then the splatbooks.
     
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  10. oldGregg

    oldGregg Well-Known Member

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    Does anybody know when these books will be published?
     
  11. Alkasyn

    Alkasyn Well-Known Member

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    Depends on which one. PanO and Ariadna are not far. The rest will take a while still.
     
  12. toadchild

    toadchild Premeasure

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    I've been reading through the core book and I definitely learned some interesting new things about the background. It goes into some things in greater detail, since there's more focus on what life is like for any given individual in the world. Quite a bit of new information on how cubes, resurrection, and silk work, for example, as well as much more info on comlogs and Maya.
     
  13. DaRedOne

    DaRedOne Morat Warrior Philosopher
    Warcor

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    I've picked the RPG recently and FINALLY!

    Seriously, the only thing I've hated about Infinity in my 2 years playing it is the lore. It's good, but there's so little of it to be found and in such loose way, that I always felt I was missing some key aspects. I remember asking one of the veteran players a silly question like "Who makes the beer the Morats drink?" and his answer was somewhere along the lines of "Who cares?"

    The RPG finally took the time to answer that kind of question, and I really love it for that. It helps make the environment of the game more real and, at least for me, more interesting. I love that it explains government systems, and helps paint an overview of how each faction and planet lives. It's not perfect, and I've seen wargames that go way more in depth with the lore (Malifaux is nothing short of beautiful), but it's a huge step in the right direction and highly recommended for people who want to know more about the Infinity Setting.
     
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  14. Flipswitch

    Flipswitch Sepsitorised by Intent

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    One thing I'm really looking forward to for the source book is the expanding how the alien factions operate outside of the HS context. :)
     
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  15. Death

    Death Well-Known Member

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    I'm looking forward to the sourcebooks. We are finally going to dive deep into the lore of all the factions.
     
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