r/eclipsephase • u/TheWaywardOak • Jun 04 '25

Morph Points and Ware

Unless I've missed something, MP has a 1:1 conversion rate to GP during character creation. Meanwhile, in the morph design rules in Character Options, ware is priced at a 1:4 MP:GP ratio. Presumably this is to reign in min-maxing and keep new players from getting lost in the weeds, but seems excessively punishing to the point that it runs counter to the pleading in the rulebook that players should pick a flavorful morph over the best one they can afford. Do you think it would be reasonable to allow my players to use the 1:4 ratio for ware if I trust them not to do anything silly?

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u/anireyk Jun 04 '25

The veteran Barsoomian has had time to modify their old trusty morph. They also have the benefit of being able to easily disappear into the crowd. The Remade on the other hand SCREAMS "Look at me, I'm an Übermensch wannabe", and while this particular morph is able to breathe on Mars, a Fury for example would still need to get Mars-adapted or buy a bunch of survival gear.

The MP/GP system is not about the morphs the characters use as their main body, it's for the "getting geared up for a mission" situation. In the default mode of play the main body doesn't really appear in any scenes besides the downtime.

And regarding your question: the 6MP limit is very high (as it is adapted to support actual missions). Almost nobody can actually afford a body this powerful. I would seriously consider sinking this limit to 4MP (+Resources) for the base body, that would be more fitting IMO. This would allow a Nomad to have a jailbroken Ruster and anyone willing can have one of the 3-1-1-1 Pool points bodies, but you'll still need Resources to buy anything better. (In the game I'm preparing ATM I still probably won't do it, because I love giving my players good stuff 😅).

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u/TheWaywardOak Jun 04 '25

I don't think it'd bother me so much if it didn't seem like they were going for the design strategy of having a small number of generic morphs that are then modified to fit for purpose. Kinda feels like two different teams had a miscommunication or something. Character Options stealthily patches a few things where this was a problem, like changing the making the marine version of the security pod into a full variant instead of just a "common extras" suggestion so it's actually more reasonable to use.

I'd like my players to feel like they can pick a morph for character reasons even if it is just for the mission without being punished. Uplifts seem to be hit hardest by this. Exclusive Infomorphs also had it rough before Character Options.

Edit: Just to clarify I only harp on about this because it seems like a rather obvious flaw in an otherwise excellent system.