I'm currently running and Eclipse Phase game with a campaign journal and have played it quite a bit. So I'll break this down into a few areas.

Character Creation:

Both the Core and Transhuman character creation are pretty simple. Core's problem is that it's written in the wrong order so you end up jumping around your character a lot. If you want to build a character in Core you do it in 2 parts. First you build an Ego then you build a Morph.

Ego construction has the following steps:
  1. Choose your Background.
  2. Choose your Faction.
  3. Spend your Required Skill Points(400 Active 300 Knowledge).
  4. Buy your Positive/Negative Ego Traits(This may be above skills if you want to make a Psi Character) and any extra Moxie.
  5. Spend Free Points on skills(not all of them, but take any skills you feel you are missing/need to be higher).
  6. Write your 3 motivations.


Then use your remaining points on Morph construction. Ideally you want between 50 and 70 points for Morph building IMO.
  1. Buy your Morph
  2. Turn the rest of your CP into credits/rep
  3. Buy your software/blueprints(This is a bit more GM specific but I personally rule that these go with your character's Ego and not Morph)
  4. Buy the rest of your gear
  5. Write out your remaining credits/rep


Your done. The reason you do it this way is because Morph/Gear bonuses get added in AFTER all your Ego stuff is calculated. Also character's actually start with 3750 credits and Medichines and Tactical Network Software. Or 3000 and the Blueprints for Medichines and Tactical Network Software. But make sure you buy those two items.

Transhuman character creation is better written, but not actually any easier to do. The main problem is they never clearly explain that the points in each package aren't your skill level, but the amount of CP that package puts toward that skill.

Generally you want to burn most of your points on skills/traits and not gear.

Player Advice:

Your body is a piece of Gear. Your body is a piece of Gear. Your body is a piece of Gear. In case you were wondering, your body is a piece of Gear. You can lose your body. Your body can be stolen. It is no more valuable to you than a sword is to a swordsman. Valuable, but replaceable. It takes some getting to used to but once you understand that you can play an EP game. GM's remember this too. You don't need to go out of your way to make players switch bodies, it should naturally happen during game play.

You want Tactical Network and Medichines. Tactical Network is PC Hivemind++. You can make Perception checks through other people's noses. It's pretty sweet. Medichines is the best gear in the game in terms of price to effectiveness. It lets you ignore a wound and even rebuilds you as long as you don't hit your DR, all for the low price of 250 credits.

GM Advice:

Players are powerful. Relative to the non-Titan parts of the Solar System, the players are extremely skilled and powerful. That's without gear. Factoring in Gear, players can do almost whatever they want. So when running the game, remember, your players can handle it. Because, even if they die, they just come back. Aside from that just read the setting books, they are all oozing with ideas.

Personally I avoid the Space Whales, but that might just be me.

Finally some House Rules I have:
  • Buying a Blueprint gives you a physical copy of the object. This is to encourage people to buy blueprints.
  • To be part of a Tactical Network you need Tactical Network Software. This is a personal ruling, and you can rule it the other way(only one person needs it).