Eclipse Phase character concepts

If you've read AREva, you know that I like tabletop RPGs. However, the reason I stopped writing it is because we stopped playing it. Why? Scheduling issues. This is the bane of any RPG, and it's the reason these characters never got the chance to be played. However, good characters should not go to waste. Even if I'll never get to play them, I hope that someone reading this might.

These characters were made for Eclipse Phase. It's a very strange setting that takes place ten years after the singularity- an event where technology advances so much it radically changes our nature. In Eclipse Phase, your body might be a suave-looking man, a sexy lady, a walking tank, even a cloud of nanomachines. Anything you have the money to buy.

My character in the game was based around the concept of forking- copying your mind into a new body. Whenever he goes to some place he hasn't been before, he somehow acquires a new body and forks his mind into it. The forked personality then connects to a network he has set up that lets him know where all of his kin are. This way, he knows if he already has family wherever he's going. The way this would've worked in-game is that whenever the party goes somewhere, the GM rolls a die to see if any of his kin are there. If so, the GM then rolls on a table of pre-made NPCs to see who the party might meet.

My friend's character was a bit less serious than mine, and is based pretty much entirely in gameplay, with no backstory. He had an affinity for cheap bodies, and stuck to them exclusively. This is because he went through them very quickly. His strategy in battle was to charge the enemy, attack until he's killed, and charge back in with a new body. In effect, a one man blitzkrieg. Our GM had nicknamed him "Kenny."

Even if I never get to experience these two, I hope someone else might be able to. As always, this post is under Creative Commons. So if this missive inspires you, feel free to run with it. Just be sure to credit me somewhere.

A character and some weapons

Gasp! A new post! Anyway, I've thought of quite a few things for Leonidas or Whatever I'm Going to Call This* over the past few days, such as weapons, a new character, and some badass creeds for the characters. Without further ado, let the blah commence!

Sniper: I'm not sure what to name this guy, mostly because I haven't decided on his heritage and personality. His weapons are an Akimborama** personal defense weapon for close encounters, and two shoulder-mounted computer-aided low recoil sniper rifles described below that are attached to his suit. He takes good care of them.

He will not be a Cold Sniper, but I haven't decided on his personality yet.

Sniper's special rifle: This isn't a customized rifle. This is an entirely new design built by RND specifically for its owner. It is a very long gun, almost Freudian in its proportions. The fact that it is also a part of its master's suit helps him steady the gun and handle the recoil. The gun is also entirely ambidextrous, allowing two of the beasts to be attached to one suit and subsequently dual-wielded.

It also is on a slide for when not in use. when the gun's master no longer needs his trustworthy companion, he will simply raise it up and slide it down along a mechanism built into the weapon. Once the gun has found its temporary resting place, it fits snugly across the back of its master's suit. When the weapon is needed again, it can be brought out is a second. Reloading is equally painless, as the magazine is stored on top for easy access and replacement.

If some long-range sniping is required, the gun's onboard camera will activate and zoom in, augmenting the user's manipulations of the controls with its own fine adjustments. The gun's master need not look through the camera itself- he can look through the camera and see what his gun sees. The controls are located on the handle for easy access.

Another fine feature of the rifle is the Gauss Accelerator at the end of the barrel. When the gun is fired, an electromagnet at the end of the barrel will activate, assisting the stalwart bullet on its journey. Once the projectile has passed, the electromagnet's job is done and thus it deactivates.

Super-silenced pistol: A long-range pistol used by this guy for when he needs to be stealthy. Considering his audacious personality and the company he keeps, it doesn't get much use. The design is now being used by the Japanese military.

The pistol is pretty normal, except that it uses rather large ammunition (caseless rifle rounds) and is entirely encased in a soundproof plastic and rubber combination. Because of these factors, the only sound from the gun that is audible to the ear is the click of the trigger, which is not covered for obvious reasons.

The weapon is notable for being completely silenced, yet very powerful due to the chosen cartridge. However, because of the chosen ammunition, the handle is somewhat long and has been padded at the sides to make up for this. The rounds are also slanted, and pushed into their correct position when loaded into the chamber.

The result is a totally silent handgun that can blow your arm off. What's not to like?

*I'm thinking I might use "Wars of Our Sons" as a title. How's that sound?

** Designed to be dual-wielded, but works great if one is held with both hands.

Idea for a Magnificent Bastard character

Note: I'm copy and pasting this from a post I made here in the TV Tropes fora.

Said character is the main general for a deliberately small anarchist military colony that frequently collaborates with similar colonies. There's really no structure, everything's based on trust and and IOUs are pretty much the local currency- you do someone a favor and they owe you a favor.

Anyway, he's trying to prevent World War III from getting too bad, and he has about 150 ex-fratboy soldiers in Powered Armor at his disposal. As I said, he's a Magnificent Bastard, though he's a good guy. Actually, he's half Magnificent Bastard and half Crazy Prepared- he manipulates people and politicians like puppets, but his plans don't always work out. Thus, he has contingencies. Lots of contingencies.

The origin for all of this is pretty simple- he's a DM. His players (who are also main characters) would constantly go Off The Rails and he would therefore develop these contingencies in advance. Later he started to try to convince his players to not want to go off the rails, thus his Magnificent Bastardom. Another favorite tactic of his that carries over into his war strategies is the Red Herring- convince the players that they've gone off the rails when they were leaping on them, possibly from another plotline he'd set up.

Anyways, I'd like some feedback and a possible name for this character, as Ross Cortney dosen't fit him at all.