Recruiting: Enter the Matrix, Are you a red pill, or a blue pill? Options

[Shadow]

I really love the idea of the Matrix moves, and I think a rp in the move setting would be just awesome. Currently I am running two games, I think I can handle a third but I would want everyone coming into it to know that the other two would get my highest priority. So the strict posting schedule I have in my other games would not apply to this one.

So to break it down.

Rule Set: SR4

The Setting: The Matrix (ala the movie)

Time: 2199 (believed) 2399 (actual) – Pre- Neo.

Roles that need filled:

Ships Captain (ala Morpheus)

1st officer.

4 - 8 soldiers.

The two non matrix crew, the Operator and the ships mechanic will be NPC’s.

Characters will use starting character creation rules. With a few notable exceptions: there is no need to purchase lifestyles, weapons, armor, ammo, vehicles, drones, Cyberware, and Bioware. There will also be no Meta’s or mages in the game.

All characters will be Physical adepts. Your ‘powers’ are the cool things you can do in the matrix cause you “freed your mind”. No spell casting or any powers relating to astral space though. Try to keep your characters in line with the matrix movies.

Uploading Skills:

In the movie Trinity has Tank upload a vehicle program. This is really cool, but how to do it in a game so that it doesn’t unbalance things. Here is what I think. Purchase all your skills as normal. These are the skills you learned during training, they are permanent skills that can be increased etc.

Now you have a number of ‘temporary skill slots’ equal to your Int+Will/2. What this will allow you to do is to have skills uploaded for ruse by the operator. Once you reach your maximum upload slots though, you have to ditch the uploaded skill for a new one. One skill point will take one slot.

You guys will have your own ship and be given missions. In the real world your characters will be completely average. So don’t get caught in the real world.

Submitting (Please no PM’s. my inbox is getting full :)

I want to give plenty of time to think about characters and stuff. So what I would like would be for whoever is interested to put together a paragraph about their character, what they did pre-pill, and how they got freed. When at all possible stick to the strict canon of the movies. If it wasn’t in the movies it isn’t possible. I would like a stat block at the beginning of this paragraph to include your,

Code Name:
Age:
Age since pill: (how long have you been free)
Sex:
Quote: Something your character would say.

Time Frame:

I wont start looking at characters for at least a week, so you have that much time to think about your characters before submitting. I wont make final selection until at least the 20th. Addendum to that: If your character is really awesome I reserve the right to accept you on the spot. I will let you know if I do. I also may play favorites with Players I am familiar with.

Weapons:

You can load your self out with whatever weapon you want in the Construct, so don’t worry to much about this. Use standard SR4 weapons, and weapons from Rayguns website. What we can do is just whip together a stat for any weapon people want to use.

Questions:

Please post any questions you have here, I haven’t thought of everything and I want to answer as much as I can.

RP details (to help fill in your background).

With the exception of the Operator and the Mechanic, you have all been serving together for at least one year. Your last ship (ZMS Caleb) was destroyed by Squidies. Your new ship is ZMS Sepulcher. ZMS stands for Zion Matrix Ship.

All right, anyone interested?

[JDragon]

Sounds like fun.

Great Idea!!

Just got a lot of games going on myself, so let me throw my name in and I'll think about it.

I know I will not want the Captian or 1st officer postion, just plain old solider for me.

When I decide either way I'll post.

JDragon

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

I have a few questions and annotations.

1) Setting: Just to be clear, this means the simulated reality of the Matrix is a contemporary world, not the standard SR or other cyberpunk/fantasy world? Something in between?

2) Time: This refers to the 'real' (as oposed to the simulated) year, right?

3) Roles to fill: Will there be room (and need) for infiltrator-, hacker-, tech-- and/or face-type characters, or is this a combat-only game?

4) Characters (this is just an annotation): Using the standart rules for CharGen will produce pc significantly less powerfull then the movie-characters. I.e. the movie-characters are generally stylish/cool (indicating hich cha/soc skills) and most if not all are former elite hackers (high logic and tech skills), while of course being excellent fighters with awsome powers as well. The standard SR-PC will hardly ever be two of these things and never reach close to the 'adept powers' displayed in the movies (i.e. all will probably have failed the jumping simulation and probbably no character will have matrix speed AND send people flying through the room with one kick). I don´t say this is good or bad, just something to consider.

5) Uploading Skills: Do uploaded skillpoints stack with learned skills or do they work like skillsofts? I.e. I have Artisan 2 but want to uploade the skill to have artisan 5, dos that use 3 or 5 slots?

[Toptomcat]

I am IN. I have had a Matrix concept kicking around my brain for the longest time now, believe it or not.

[Divine Virus]

COunt me in, will finish reading then edit in more. For the record I have been trying to sneak in Matrix type characters (such as a phys ad who attributed his abilities to have taken the red pill)

Alright.
I feel confident volenteering for the role of ships Captian. I am thouroughly familiar with the first matrix movie and the other two to a lesser extent. I have spent considerable time analyzing the philosophy of the matrix, so no worries there. I would highly recogmend the book Matrix Warrior, if you ever want an interesting read, which basically examines the Matrix from a Philip K. Dick/Carlos Castaneda point of view.

Anywho, will get back to you with more details later, in a formal post, once some of the questions other people have asked have been answered.

[BishopMcQ]

Expressing distinct interest, I just have to figure out if it will fit in with the games I'm already running/playing in and my other commitments.

[ludomastro]

I'm interested and will post the idea here most likely tomorrow.

[Kiedo]

Oh, man, I have been tossing around the idea of GMing a game like this for some time with my table to group. I am definately going to submit a character for this, probably for the slot of 1rst Officer. I just watched the Animatrix (by the way, does that count for things that are possible?), and want to build a character based on the detective(I can't remember what the story was called).

[Shadow]

[Divine Virus]

How frequently will edge refresh?
(now I have to rewatch the Animatrix)

[bishop186]

Sounds interesting, I think I'll be submitting something too.

One question: is there cyberware/bioware at all in this world?

[PBTHHHHT]

You will all be phys adepts and you'll be operating in the matrix world, judging from what I've seen of the movies and such and what I'm guessing what Shadow is going after, I don't see any cyberware/bioware. The only thing you'd have would be your reality character who'd only have the jack for jacking into the matrix.

[bishop186]

Yeah, I thought about it after I asked the question and earlier he said "late 20th century" so there definitely won't be any cyber/bio in the matrix part. Heh.

[Shadow]

[Toptomcat]

Would it be not entirely counterproductive to attempt to design a character that might possibly hope to contain an Agent in close combat, or would that just take valuable resources away from the killing-lesser-beings-and-running-from-Agents skills?

[Shadow]

It is entirely possible that you could hope to defeat an agent under the right circumstances. To me, what makes them really powerfull, is that even if you kill them, they just upload into a new host.


Needless to say martial arts and gun skills are a must. A note on Martial arts: Sr4 defaults to (Unarmed Combat) please feel free to list and use a style you like.

[Toptomcat]

Just because it's got a hell of a 'cool factor' and we probably don't want to dilute each others' characters by using the same styles...
I call Drunken Boxing. :D

[Divine Virus]

In the spirit of the "shotgun preacher" I'm considering somthing along the lines of the "shotgun philosopher."
Basically a man whose prime focus is A) keeping myself and his crew alive and B)groking the Matrix, and the implications there of.

The degree to which B) affects A) in unknown, but he has managed to pull of some remarkable stuff, and has incredable luck, which he tends to attribute to his introspective pursuits.

Personality wise, he is pretty much split three ways.
1) quite philosopher: ponderer, silent, and passive. Reflective, and almost speaks in whispers. Reserved for late at night, alone, and other times he sets aside for himself.

2) Celebrant: whenever he isn't pontificating on the nature of reality and the matrix, or his life or the life of his crew isn't being threatend, he is constantly cheerful and joyous. He is smiling, laughing, jokeing (rarely good jokes), and occasionaly creating (his poetry is worse then his jokes). Intensly aware of how brief and fragile the lives of himself and the crew is, he takes every moment when they are not fighting for their lives to celebrate being alive, but not a desperate hedonism, more of a constant, impassioned gratitude that he has lived to see this moment, and a prayer that he can see the next.

3)Survivor: When the sh*t hits the fan he looses all frivilousness. He is dead series, slightly optimistic, with a little crooked smile, still on his face, as if he is in cohoots with Destiny, and got to sneak a peak at what happens next. He wastes no gesture, no energy, because of paragon of grace, prowess, and unshakeable deturmination. Eyes constantly scanning, trying to see everything at once and turn it to his (and his crew's) advantage.


Physical: Spoiler for those of you who have not read Sandman, by Neil Gaiman.

[ Spoiler ]

alright, I confess. I got inspired for the physical description by Destruction , from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. Specifically Destruction as portraiyed in his story in Endless Nights.

For those of you who haven't read the series, He is very tall with red hair and a red beard, which he he mantains well by Real Zion World standers. He is broad shoulders, but hasn't really done enough excersizes in the RZW, so he is out of shape. he tends to wear the stander issue pants and ratty wool shirt, with a tatterned kimono, unbelted and hanging open like a trenchcoat. Its black and white with a dragn print.

[ Spoiler ]

[IMG]http://www.thekimonocompany.co.uk/acatalog/section_forest_dragon.jpg[/IMG]

Residual Self Image:
He tends to be much shorter in the matrix, only about 6' 3" or 6'4"
He is sometimes cleanshaven, and somtimes has a immaculately maintained beard.
On RARE occasions he seems to be far taller then normal, a good 7'5 or 7'6, but is VERY RARE.

Weapon of Choice?
Mossberg AM-CMDT

Signature Matrix Fancyness?
Is known for sudden burst of physical prowess, as well as a near aura providence that seems to surround him.

NOTES: high edge.

[NeonWraith]

This sounds pretty cool, so count me in...

Though if someone feels like helping with the char gen bit I'd appreciate it, since I've not really used the SR4 char gen rules yet.

Edit:

I'll pass on the whole leadership thing, thanks. So I'll go with being a soldier.

[Divine Virus]

Oh, quick question. Do you use the erra for ability expertise (or whatever its called, the one that gives you extra dice for skills), in that you cannot take more levels in it then half the skill level of what you are improving? Can you take it only for skills you have? or can you take it for a skill you plan of downloading frequently?
Can you download skill groups?

[Shadow]

Divine, my understanding of RSI is that it is beyond your control. You look like what you looked like before you took the pill. No changing height or anything. Different clothes can be gotten in the construct though.

Since it is Errata (took me a minute to figure out what you were saying) then yes, but no you cannot take it for skills you haven't spent skill points on.

[Divine Virus]

My understanding of RSI is that its how you think of yourself, how you imagine yourself to be in your mind when you picture yourself. Of course, no one can imagine themselves, perfectly, hence some idiosyncracies between RSI and and reality. He doesn't really recognize his hight, doesn't quite think of himself as being as tall as he is, hence his RSI is slightly shorter, and his beard is different. If he is in a violently different mood then he might appear differently in his RSI. Thats my interpitation anyways, I will stand by your ruleing if this hasn't changed your mind.

[Toptomcat]

He's much shorter in the Matrix, so he's only about SIX FOOT FIVE?
Am I reading this correctly?

[Kiedo]

A few questions.

1. You said we would not have to spend money on weapons, what about other gear?

2. How will contacts work? Would some contacts be matrix only, and some be real world only?

3. How will you handle qualities? For example, SINer, is that just off limits or will you convert it to be compatible with the world of the matrix.

[Divine Virus]

I would assume that contacts would be waved, as there isn't any real evidence of its equialent being present in the Matrix.

I think all the equiptment we need would either be with the ship in RZW, or downloaded from the Matrix.

And in the RZW, my character stands some 6'8"