 GM needs help resolving a plot idea..., Without resorting to clichés (long post) |
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 Aug 22 2005, 08:04 PM
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Moving Target  Group: Members Posts: 745 Joined: 26-July 03 From: Montréal, QC, Canada Member No.: 5,029  |
I'm in the process of writing up a scenario for my PCs and I can't seem to generate a satisfying ending. I'd really appreciate any help you guys could offer.
Nova, Sunday_Gamer et al... do yourselves a favour and stop reading now. You'll just blow it for yourselves. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Okay, so the basic idea is this: near the conclusion of their last run, the PCs were taken prisoner. I hadn't planned for it to happen, but it did. Without going into the nitty-gritty, they're prisoners of a group who are conducting experiments with metahuman matrix immersion. Put simply, the PCs have been jacked into a UV host without their knowledge and are being run through a series of simulations. These simulations are designed to test metahuman responses to specific stimuli when said individual is unaware that they're jacked in. When we next convene to game (next week), the characters will "wake up" in a cell. There'll be opportunities to escape and an "adventure" will ensue. What they don't know is that none of it is real: it's all taking place inside a UV host. Furthermore, this is nth time the group has run through the "escape" simulation: every other time they've failed to escape and been "killed." Cue the rewind, start the sim over without any of the test subjects being the wiser. Now, I want the adventure we actually run next week to be the final simulation, the one where the characters finally (after x run-throughs) figure out that they're in a UV host and not "really" running through this prison facility. The final act of the adventure should feature the PCs realizing what's happening to them. Specifically, I want the decker character to figure it out. The PC has been sidelined during the last few runs, so I really want him to shine here. My questions to you are these: 1. How can I leave clues to the true nature of the place they're in? The clues have to be obvious enough that a player will eventually figure it out but subtle enough to justify it having taken the PC ten or fifty or a hundred runs to figure it out. 2. How can I avoid a cheesy re-hash of Neo's awakening at the end of The Matrix? "There is no spoon..." is most emphatically not the feel I'm going for here. :) One idea I'm toying with is that the decker had already started to figure it out on previous runs, but always clued in a fraction of a second too late to do anything about it. However, he managed to leave a minor clue for himself in the simulation itself by quickly (on-the-fly) programming an adjustment to the system's architecture. An adjustment so subtle that it was missed by the system's "administrator" but sufficiently permanent to survive the "reboot" that occurs between simulations. The next time he ran through the sim, the decker saw the clue but again was too late to do anything about it. However, he built on the clue for his "next run." After a few clues left like this, the evidence has accrued to the point where he has a chance to see the truth in time to act on it. (is any of this making sense?) As a final bit of background data, the group is composed of three runners: 1. Nova, a street sam with a background as a Lone Star agent; 2. Kong, a shaman of Monkey and a Grade 3 Initiate who loves illusions; 3. Gage, a penetration decker who specializes in data sifting and is a competent back-up sam; All the characters are quite competent (~150 Karma) and have forged good teamwork skills. They trust each other and have risked their lives to help their teammates in the past. Gage is the PC who should figure out the truth. The player is an IT professional with an amateur interest in cryptography and puzzles. Gage's Matrix persona is named 'Hex' so I was toying with the idea of a clue written in hexadecimal. Okay, kids--gimme whatcha got. |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:17 PM
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#2
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 3,420 Joined: 30-October 03 Member No.: 5,776 |
This just sounds too much like the Matrix not to at least suggest a couple of things from there. One would be to have the "deja vu" effect, where something gets changed in the UV host and the characters see something repeat itselfs. Or at least that could be what clued Gage in on it in a previous attempt.
I'd have it be that Gage was able to create a glitch in the system. If you ever watched the Animatrix, you'll know what I mean. A spot within which the laws of physics or nature don't function properly or function erratically. One of the stories in the Animatrix had this happening to a particular abondoned building within the Matrix. There were spots where gravity stopped just short of the ground (if a bird tried to land on the ground it would be sit on thin air a couple inches above the surfact). Another was that an object broken against the ground would shatter and then reverse itself back into the original form. Rain coming out of a perfectly clear sky, strong wind coming down an empty hallway, etc. |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:17 PM
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#3
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Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
[ Spoiler ]
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Aug 22 2005, 08:24 PM
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 745 Joined: 26-July 03 From: Montréal, QC, Canada Member No.: 5,029 |
I know, and I'm a little worried about that. Honestly (I can take criticism), is this idea cheesy, stupid or predictable? |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:27 PM
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#5
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Target Group: Members Posts: 35 Joined: 17-August 05 From: Atlanta, GA Member No.: 7,565 |
Two thoughts: 1.) Have you seen Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence? If not, do. It's got a great solution to exactly this problem. And one that might fit a Shadowrun game, too, depending on the characters' interests. >8-> 2.) Does the decker have any ability to manipulate the environment through code? If so, then he could do subtle things with object patterns. Perhaps the bars on the cell door are spaced variably, and as he nudges them a little each time they look more and more like a bar code. Perhaps there'll be bricks in the tunnel or marks on the wall displaying an ascending series of prime numbers, only some primes will be missing or some numbers will not be prime, and those numbers will map back to letters. Or maybe the lightbulbs are working or blown out in a binary pattern. If you roll (or decide) that the decker character notices the existence of a pattern, you can decide how hard you want to make it for the player to figure out, based on what you know of the player. Heck, just the fact that there is a pattern might be enough to tip them off. If not, you can nudge them a little by having it appear in more and more places. (Representing the decker's "prior" attempts.) |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:27 PM
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#6
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 3,420 Joined: 30-October 03 Member No.: 5,776 |
Oh I wasn't saying the idea is a bad one. I rather like it. I just couldn't help myself from suggesting Matrix related ideas.
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Aug 22 2005, 08:29 PM
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#7
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 745 Joined: 26-July 03 From: Montréal, QC, Canada Member No.: 5,029 |
That's a good start... How could I justify the glitch surviving the reboot between simulations? And wouldn't the technicians who're maintaining the system catch the error and correct it? |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:29 PM
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 3,420 Joined: 30-October 03 Member No.: 5,776 |
Oh yeah, I had forgotten that scene in GitS 2. That is exactly like his scenario. |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:31 PM
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#9
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 745 Joined: 26-July 03 From: Montréal, QC, Canada Member No.: 5,029 |
Thanks for using "spoiler" tags. :) The serial number idea is really interesting, especially if I encode it a step further. I'm really interested in working in a hexadecimal reference somewhere, maybe that'd be a place to do it. Hmm... |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:33 PM
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#10
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 3,066 Joined: 5-February 03 Member No.: 4,017 |
Well, if Kong were to try anything magical, most UV hosts would just send an error message back.
If it's an intelligently made UV host, it will try to mimic a high background count by just tazing the mage every time he tries to use mana while in the system. If it's an amazingly made UV host, it will have a magic subroutine that is fairly convincing and may even keep the mage tricked until he tries something it doesn't support and provides an error response. As for the clues, I can't suggest anything intelligently without knowing your players and PCs in a much better sense than can easily be conveyed. |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:39 PM
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#11
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 745 Joined: 26-July 03 From: Montréal, QC, Canada Member No.: 5,029 |
Not yet, but I will now. :)
These are some great ideas! I think that Gage would have an ability to manipulate environment, he just doesn't know he can--yet. In previous iterations of the simulation, he should have figured out this ability and exploited it for a nanosecond. I especially like the prime number ideas and the mapping back to numbers. I'm an idiot with cryptography, but I could probably figure something out...
I wasn't offended or anything, but I am worried about resorting to clichés here. I realize that the Matrix comparisons are inevitable, but I'd like to try and do something a little different if possible. |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:40 PM
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#12
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Target Group: Members Posts: 9 Joined: 18-August 05 Member No.: 7,573 |
I'm thinkng of a MMORPG video game. Every once in a while the system "hiccups". For instance you're running with your character and you end up somewhere else, like through a wall or partially through a wall. Or someone lags and the enemy is 20 feet away, then they are ten feet away. Have everybody notice these things (through perception tests of course), which could be interpreted as a drug induced hallucination. Maybe because the decker has headware his "connection" might be faster than the rest of the team's so he can see things like this occurring more frequently.
Maybe a bad guy could pixelate for a second? The sky could do something strange? |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:49 PM
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#13
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,070 Joined: 7-February 04 From: NYC Member No.: 6,058 |
How could a host ever mimic magic? It'd need the ability to read the character's mind for that, becasue, AFAIK, there is no "magical" lobe of the brain it could monitor for neural activity... And if it can read the character's mind, then how can you justify leaving clues behing that the UV host somehow won't notice? I think your best bet - one that doesn't stretch credibility too much - is to introduce a third party with their own agenda that is trying to sabotage the experiment or subvert it for its own use, which leads the characters to discover discrepancies, or leaves openings that they can exploit. Best make it unsympathetic to the PCs, though, to cut down on the echoes of Morpheus contacting Neo inside the Matrix... Also, you might want to consider - rather than wiping the characters' minds and having complete resets - having them remember old "experiments" performed on them by the prison doctors, unsuccessful escape attempts, and the resulting trips to the "infirmary". Limited resets, in effect (the simulation is evolving organically as the system learns more from the subjects), that lead to strange changes in the environment that will alert the players that something is up. Edit: Just had a neat idea for one effect (glitch in the system) that ought to really mess with people's heads... Have one of the player's Matrix persona be a mirror reflection of his real-world self. He can't tell the difference - as far as he's concerned, he still has the same dominant hand, and the world basically looks normal to him aside from an undefinable feeling of wrongness he just can't shake (since the prison cells are uniform and symmetrical enough he can't use them as a good reference) - but as far as everyone else is concerned (if they notice) he's now suddenly left-handed (if he was right-handed to begin with), his heart is now located slightly on the right, etc., and he reacts the wrong way when someone tells him to "turn" right or "open the right locker". Though I guess that could be too much... |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:52 PM
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#14
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 745 Joined: 26-July 03 From: Montréal, QC, Canada Member No.: 5,029 |
Regarding Kong, I was thinking that the host would be able to simulate whatever magical effect he was going for based off what the shaman expected to happen. Is that unreasonable? As for the PCs, here's a little more information. Hope it helps: 1. Nova is a pretty law-and-order guy, despite his chosen profession. He was in Lone Star's anti-gang unit before being dismissed a few years prior to the start of the campaign. He's the team's muscle, tactical brain and de facto leader. He runs the shadows because he can't imagine taking a job that doesn't involve getting shot at. 2. Kong is a highly moral person who'll go out of his way to minimize fatalities during a run. He favours stun and illusion magics, preferring to confuse, distract and incapacitate rather than harm. He runs because it's a source of easy nuyen which he uses for a variety of philanthropic causes. 3. Gage is the most mercenary of the three and he runs the shadows because he has expensive tastes: no soy, just real steak, lobster and beluga caviar. No flophouse or coffin hotel for him, he lives the High Life(style) and blows his nuyen on trips to Malta, St. Tropez and the glacial pleasuredomes of Reykjavik. He's a brilliant data trawler, great at sifting through terapulses of junk data for the one useful nugget. He's also handy with his smartlinked Ingram and has a custom-built 'deck in his cyberlimb. |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:58 PM
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#15
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,070 Joined: 7-February 04 From: NYC Member No.: 6,058 |
I think it's stretching things... See my post above. |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:58 PM
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#16
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 745 Joined: 26-July 03 From: Montréal, QC, Canada Member No.: 5,029 |
Not to nitpick, but aren't all UV hosts "amazingly made"? Isn't a UV host top-of-the-line by definition?
It would also eliminate the problem of explaining why Gage's changes remain between simulations. |
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Aug 22 2005, 08:58 PM
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#17
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Incertum est quo loco te mors expectet; Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,546 Joined: 24-October 03 From: DeeCee, U.S. Member No.: 5,760 |
Oooh... I love hyzmarca's idea. Full points on subtle but informative there.
You could do something Star Trek, "it was caught in my positronic buffer" sort of thing. Either have something in the decker's deck, or something in the system (one time he was tricky enough both to figure out the secret and to actually break out of the host, or otherwise get to a segment that isn't rewritten every time, and left a message for him. Something very quick, since he was in a rush, like "check the guns"). Personally, the whole matrix stuff IS over done. But that doesn't keep you from doing other tricky things like ahve been suggested. Once the decker knows whats going on, he can introduce clipping problems, or really frag things up and you end up with scenes like something from the Cell. Of course, if he's not careful, you get a full crash and deadly dumpshock, but I think it would be a fun part 2 to be in a world where physics randomly stop applying and you just need to get out before they stop applying on YOU. |
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Aug 22 2005, 09:02 PM
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#18
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 745 Joined: 26-July 03 From: Montréal, QC, Canada Member No.: 5,029 |
Curse you and your damned Vulcan logic! :) I hadn't actually thought of that. Shit. Okay, back to square one with the shaman... grr. |
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Aug 22 2005, 09:05 PM
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#19
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,278 Joined: 15-April 05 Member No.: 7,336 |
The decker should have tattooed a symmetric key (description here) on himself. Because the monitors are concerned with maintaining the prison more so than the prisoners, they could have missed this (especially if he puts it in a subtle place).
Couple this with patterns written on the wall or lights and encrypted using the key he has on him. Once he notices both parts it will be a simple matter for him to use his own math SPU or whatever else he's got to compute the message. I also really love the gun idea. That and similar minor glitches could maintain the air of suspense quite nicely and keep the characters guessing. |
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Aug 22 2005, 09:08 PM
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#20
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,070 Joined: 7-February 04 From: NYC Member No.: 6,058 |
I don't recall... Are there any drugs that suppress magical ability? Hell, there don't really have to be - the captors just need to convince your shaman that one exists and they pumped him full of it. |
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Aug 22 2005, 09:09 PM
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#21
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 3,420 Joined: 30-October 03 Member No.: 5,776 |
Well, i'd say that the UV Host is designed to look for thoughts/impulses regarding the use of magic. It's obviously designed to take the thoughts/impulses regarding normal actions of the characters. Is it really that big a stretch to have it also look for thoughts/impulses on the use of magic? Since the the mental thoughts regarding what exactly the characters may be in/hooked up to have no visible effect in the world, the UV host has no reason to pay attention to them. It's designed to mimic their actions, not analyze their thought processes. |
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Aug 22 2005, 09:16 PM
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#22
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Target Group: Members Posts: 36 Joined: 6-August 03 Member No.: 5,328 |
What about throwing the shaman into a sim before-hand where he thinks he's been told by Monkey that he(the shaman) is outside the bounds of Monkey's protection?
If the people behind this don't know what sort of shaman Kong is, they could make him seem extremely vague until Kong mentions that he's talking to Monkey, "Monkey why can't you protect me?" EDIT*: At this point the guys behind the scenes know who the totem is and can have the host respond accordingly. This way, Kong has reasoning as to why the magic won't work. Or else go with HoV's background count idea. *I'm an idiot and posted without adding that sentence in to explain a wee bit more. |
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Aug 22 2005, 09:20 PM
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#23
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,001 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Michigan Member No.: 1,514 |
Sure there are likely drugs that do that, but does he want to leave his players an out or kill them?
Personally I think you're being to rough on the Matrix since that's basically what you're running. Use the GitS reference along with some matrix cinematography and you have a game. |
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Aug 22 2005, 09:38 PM
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#24
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Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
I suspect that the UV host's programer would jurry ring a convincing magic simulation based on the magic engine of Karl Kombat Mage: The video game. They could use a simulated background count to help cover up the deficiencies in the programing. |
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Aug 22 2005, 10:27 PM
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#25
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,001 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Michigan Member No.: 1,514 |
But highly intricate or not, how does it know which spell he is casting?
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