kingandy | Matrix RPG

What with spending so much time playing Enter the Matrix lately, I've naturally been toying with the idea of running a Matrix tabletop game. (As you do.) I doubt I'll come up with anything as complex as any of these guys though. I was thinking of taking standard d20 (or Modern / Star Wars) and modifying it slightly...

I'd be going for a "fast and loose" playstyle, with none of that "realworld/digitalworld" division complicating things - the game would be wholly Matrix-side, except for maybe a couple of interaction scenes involving no dice rolls at all. I've been toying with a couple of mechanics ...

Slap a "Focus" trait in there - an expendable resource, used to add to any dice roll. I was thinking of refreshing it entirely between scenes, making it equal to your Con score, and limit spending by Wisdom modifier. Or the other way around. 'Cause it's about how much you can concentrate in the heat of battle, and concentration is based on Constitution ... or something. I'd make it Concentration checks, but that's getting too close to Force skills, and this is supposed to be simplistic after all. Actually, maybe multiply the amount/limit by a few times, I do see them pissing Focus ... maybe Wis x Level? Or instead say you get your level in bonuses for every point of Focus you spend, which amounts to the same thing but keeps it in nice easy chunks. (The nerd in me is suggesting that I develop classes and assign a different "Focus Bonus" progression to each of them ... agh.)
A bunch of arbitrary rulings about how much the Operator (an NPC here) can download into your mind at any given time. Neo's mentioned as being remarkable for his skill-download capacity - normal humans can't take nearly so many at once. I'd say you can take something like your Int modifier per day in add-on skills, chosen from the various Knowledge and Profession skills and maybe one or two others, and you'd get up to your normal level maximum in skill ranks. You'd probably also be able to use a slot to download a feat - like Martial Arts or something ("I know Kung Fu"). I might even make it "Int mod at any given time" and you can chop and change as you want ... or some other limit on swapouts. Maybe level-based (there's that "class progression" urge again). So like, a level 7 rebel with 13 Int can have 2 skills or feats downloaded, and swap them 7 times a day (Total? Each? Probably each). That works.
Players would be able to ask to use feats from any d20 source book, I'd consider them and pick and choose stuff that fits my view of what's do-able and what's not. (No magic, so no Metamagic. Maybe Item Creation...) I'd even let them invent their own. Feats that give you extra Focus or more I'm great like that.
Bonuses for crazy-ass stunts, like in Exalted, because I like that and it suits the genre.

Yeah, that's about it for now. Alternately I could just use Star Wars wholesale and bar some of the Force skills (the more esoteric ones like Drain Energy and Friendship). Or, shit, Big Eyes Small Mouth. I don't know, it's just idle musings at the moment.

In other news: Raj's headlights started playing up again on the way to work. Will have to see (in half an hour) whether this was temporary, or if they've gone again.

Plans for Birthday Week: Tomorrow - generating Runequest character with Chez Harber. Thursday - pubbage in Bolton. Weekend - The Incredibles at the Cinemas. Some of these events are depenedent on external factors like headlights.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Or you could turn it around a bit and have a 'freedom' value - from 'Free your mind'. The higher this is, the more extreme stuff a character can do. Success in rolling for actions increases this 'freedom' making it easier to perform subsequent actions but failure causes a big crash in ability through self doubt and lack of confidence.

A character could concentrate and boost up their 'freedom' but it costs time and requires inactivity. Alternatively characters can help each other with confidence boosting measures like Morpheus and later Trinity do for Neo in the first film. There would be lots of opportunity for good teamwork and roleplaying with this.

That's a nice spin on it. I took "Focus" from the Enter The Matrix game, so I'd like to keep it (being sort of canonical), but confidence/"freedom" could certainly play a part - without wanting to complicate things too badly.

Maybe I could keep the single stat (Focus) and just dole out extra for success, subtract for failure, allow charisma / leadership type rolls to boost other people's ... certainly in the game you get extra Focus for murdering enemies (a negligible amount but it is discernible).

Yeah, use a single stat to govern the matrixey features of the game with a starting value that is derived from the other character stats by some means.

Skills/classes could become almost irrelevant since they can be downloaded on demand although there could be limitations on how many skills a person can hold at any one time, skills could degrade with time, carrying lots of skills or swapping them a lot could be fatiguing and cause a loss of focus (see Neos stress during the combat training.)

Another possibility is that a person might have a particular affinity for aquiring skills of a particular type e.g. Mouse picks up hacking/techy skills best, Trinity does well with vehicles etc. so you can still have some classlike features.

Another stat you could track is how much a character stands out from the crowds of non-free humans - call it 'Trace'. This would be linked to use of Focus and is an attractor for Agents. Hence if you start doing all kinds of cool improbable stuff you get randomly appearing Agents on your tail - how close they can appear to you and how well they can track you depends on your Trace - you can use lots of Focus moves to stay ahead of them but that means they are always popping up again around you - see the final Agents/Neo chase in the first film. The other way to lose them is to go to ground and let your Trace value drop like Cypher appears to do during the escape from the ambush.

"Hence if you start doing all kinds of cool improbable stuff you get randomly appearing Agents on your tail -"

Or, as we sometimes call them, Paradox spirits. Then we're seriously into Mage territory...

We had this conversation once before - i asked why there was no Matrix RPG, and you replied there was, it's called Mage.

You had a point. Although i would use a cross between Mage and Adventure!

Arete/Inspiration would define how much of a download you can take.

Focus would be the expendable resource, and recorded like Willpower with a Perm and a Temp score.

Knacks/Magic would allow for the majority of the kewl shit, with Stunts picking up the slack.

The Operator would be a pooled background, and exceptionally useful. As would Ship, and maybe a rating of Potential and Destiny (Neo has both these in spades).

You can insert a Resonance/Facet trait to Focus as well.

I find D&D is far too rules heavy, and is in no way intuitive. WW games are lighter on the rules and make more sense (to me).

Yeah, i'd adapt Mage/A! It makes more sense.

I think I discarded Mage in this particular instance as being too ... something. Possibly complex. While the fundamentals and concepts lend themselves very nicely to it, you're basically using just the one end of it (ability modifiers rather than magical effects per se) and it isn't quite as smooth as it could be for that purpose - to make yourself better at martial arts for a scene, for example, you roll your magic and then make your martial arts rolls separately. I was after something quick and dirty here, hence the simple "spend to improve roll" mechanic. You'd have to meddle with Mage a fair amount to get the quantity of Focus stuff that goes on in the movies - lower the difficulty, raise the rate of quintessence recovery, or something. Plus, my Mage knowledge sort of straddles the first two (hardback) versions, and gets a little muddy at points.

I did consider using the new WoD though. Maybe with bits from Adventure and Mage and such. Or just some random shit that I make up. I don't know. :)

Hmmmm... I dont feel that Focus as an expendable resource accurately models the way it seems to be used in the films. There are never any signs of someone running out of it or having to ration their use of it. They way it seems to work is that if you have your shit together you can do extraordinary things but if you succumb to "fear, doubt, and disbelief" then it all fizzles.

Gameplaywise the system I'm thinking of would lead to getting 'winning streaks' going with each success reinforcing the next attempt until there is a failure/fumble that leaves you flat on your ass as the Agents close in - your teammates can help you back into action or you can just be outrageously lucky and pull it off in the nick of time.

The counterbalance to all this is Trace. You need to be careful about using madskillz especially with lots of witnesses because it draws Agents. It would be a highly volatile value, kinda like heat in some computer games where using afterburners makes it easy to lock missiles onto you. If you can get out of sight of Agents and humans your Trace 'cools down' and you can saunter off casually.

Focus is an expendable resource in the game - which

gowhonker has also played on his Gamecube, which may be why we're on the same wavelength there. It recharges very quickly, basically it starts to climb after about ten seconds of not using it (as does your health on a non-boss level, at least on Normal difficulty).

One of the scripted cutscenes (which I suppose are technically considered canon, I think they were written by or at least with the Witchitowskis) even has a character say "Just give me a second to focus -" which is probably how you'd talk about it IC (rather than "recharge my focus" or whatever).

I do like the idea that you regain it through success, but I think I'll stick with having to spend it to achieve those successes - sort of like Conviction in Hunter, if you've played that, only less so.

So, i think you should have Focus being a renewable resource, like Blood, or more like Rage, which i believe if the player does it right, can be pissed up the wall and still be regained whilst using it, or Conviction, which rewards you for taking a risk.
Focus could be regained through meditation and rest, and through uplifting success. Willpower could also be spent to give extra Focus (like in Orpheus).

Have Selected powers or feats or something. I'm sure running up walls and superspeed are specific powers, as are the self empowerment and the higher levels, like Neo's flying and his jumping into Agent Smith & asploding him.

Have Stunts to provide the imagination and vital edge.

Have an Operator as a background.

I think it'll work much better than a D20 system.

Ah.

gowhonker has just covered what I was going to say apart from to direct you to some of the Virtual Adept/Webspace stuff that's around. You could just take the generic WoD stuff without worrying too much about Mage and the like - apparently the new core rulebook is fairly non-setting specific.

Yes indeedy - it's basically rigged for Tales of Dark Mystery. Ordinay humans peering into the dark corners of the world and finding that it peers back, without ever actually finding any firm evidence of what is out there. That sort of thing.

Matrix RPG

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meant to say this earlier

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