The Eclipse Phase: Character Pack is created for Eclipse Phase Second Edition, containing all sixteen sample characters, with two pages of reference material for most characters and four pages for characters that have access to Psi.
Eclipse Phase presents a large, detailed world with many options for character creation. Player character teams are often best off specializing around a type of operation (e.g., gatecrashing, space ops), a geography (the outer system, large cities), or a faction (criminals, scientists). This helps players come up with a concept that plugs into the overall group and speeds up the process of defining relationships between characters. Four sample player character teams built along these principles follow. Use them as player characters, or as inspiration for players creating their own team.
Firewall Sunward Ops:
At their best on the densely settled, high-gravity worlds of the inner solar system, the planetary ops team is Firewall's go-to for missions in the Martian outback, the floating cities of Venus, or the caverns of Luna. On a planetary ops team, surveillance and security hacking, investigative networking, and scientific evidence analysis are key competencies. Skill in interviewing leads and being good with a gun are also handy. The team will need a diverse set of contacts to follow leads, but hypercorp and guangxi connections are especially important.
Firewall Rimward Ops:
Heavy on technical and scientific muscle and expert at operating in space and low-G environments, the rimward ops team covers Firewall missions in the asteroid belts, Saturn's rings, and the ice worlds of the system's farthest reaches. Research and academic skills, specialist know-how, and the ability to navigate the outer system's complex social networks are key competencies. Having the contacts to obtain morphs and gear in far-flung autonomist habitats is important to this team, as is having the brainpower to neutralize threats to transhumanity from the dark periphery of circumsolar space.
Gatecrashers:
Gatecrashing teams specialize in exploring and surviving on the xeno-planets found beyond Pandora gates (see p. XX). On a gatecrashing team, scientific knowledge, outdoorsmanship, repair skills, and combat proficiency are key competencies. Because the team is regularly cut off from transhuman civilization beyond the gates, hacking, social skills, and networking are used less frequently. A good reputation is still important to continue getting more gatecrashing jobs, though. The gatecrashing team described here is also a recent recruit to Firewall, but this part of their background can be ignored in a non-Firewall campaign.
Guangxi:
Gathered from criminal gangs, semi-legal occupations, and underclass clades, teams of professionals come together through shared contacts in the Guangxi underworld and its associated reputation network. On a professional team, stealthy combat, social manipulation, and larcenous technical skills are key competencies. Maintaining cred with a variety of factions beyond the big criminal gangs is important, because no professionals team is complete without drawing on the specialized skills of scum, scavengers, and other marginal groups.
