Matrix RPG

[kingandy]

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.

Comments

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

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.

[kingandy]

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.