Hello all! I am currently working on my own RPG system based in the Matrix universe. I have done a lot of writing the past couple months and would like to share it with whoever is interested.
I've written out a lot of rules and character classes but don't have them typed up so I won't be able to share a super detailed breakdown of the mechanics right now. Just a basic rundown of the rules and the revised timeline for the setting. The system is at its core a d100 system with some elements of AD&D mixed in. At this point I have 3 classes worked out.
>9 stats: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, Size, Belief and Tolerance. These need no explanation except for the last two. Belief is a measure of how well a PC can make changes in the Matrix by literally believing them into existence. Tolerance determines how many times a PC can instantly download a skill into their brain. After rolling up their stats PCs will add or subtract modifiers to their scores baised on what age the PC was freed from the matrix.
>Young = higher belief score and less penalties to their physical body. Old = higher tolerance score but big penaltiesto physical body.
>1st class: The Gun Ninja. They believe their body can do crazy kung-fu and can wildly shoot lots of guns. Pretty straight forward.
>2nd class: The Prophet. They believe objects into/out of existence or simply change existing objects by their will. Basically the wizard/cleric class.
>3rd class: The Technician. These guys were freed from the Matrix later in life and have become dependant on it. They are unable to make changes like the other classes but are so familiar with it that they can perform skills like driving or lock picking as good as the most talented human could do, all without breaking the rules of the Matrix. Basically their strength lies in their ability to specialize their skills in a way the other classes cannot.
So there you have a basic rundown of the rules. Got a lot of specifics written out in my notebook I can share in the future. I plan to playtest soon.
What I want to share with you next is the rough draft of the timeline I made up to give you a good idea of what the setting looks like.
Alright here goes. Long story short everything that is said or happens after the first movie is wiped from existence and my timeline is put in place. Because of this I've taken to calling the game "The Matrix Revision." Here is the working timeline starting in the year 2199, the year when all the events of the fist movie takes place.
>inb4 this fag sucks at comming up with names
>2199- (Zion population ~250,000) Neo begins his “Great Negotiation” after killing off many of the Architect’s Agents. Neo stands in the position to swiftly destroy the Matrix, killing all inside and thereby ruining the Machines’ primary source of power. Neo is able to “negotiate” the establishment of a fortified network through which Zion’s hovercraft are able to operate more freely than ever before. The rate at which minds are freed immediately spikes as well as the accumulation of industrial resources. Zion begins expanding rapidly. Neo is 27 years old at this point.
>2201- (Zion population 750,000) Overpopulation leads to food shortages and lack of space. Neo leads a group of pioneers to form a new human settlement in the hopes of giving humanity more room to grow. Scientists and engineers among the Pioneers begin employing new "human computing" techniques to speed up the development of the settlement. The settlement is named Jericho. (Initial Jericho population ~10,000)
Nolan Harris
>2206- (Zion pop: ~690,000, Jericho pop: 160,000) The settelment has become a small city thanks to the success of the Human Computing project. Jericho pioneers have formed a special community that has taken responsibility for adapting newly freed Coppertops to live in the real world. This operation becomes known as “The Sacrorum.” The population of Jericho is mostly comprised of Coppertops. Many citizens of Zion (mainly coppertops) have flocked to Jericho as well.
>2209- (Zion pop: 700,000, Jericho pop: 400,000) Jericho is now over half as large as Zion and is nearly self sufficient, even christening Hovercraft of their own. Jericho’s fleet operates mostly independently from Zion’s fleet.
>2214- (Zion pop: 700,000, Jericho pop: 520,000) Jericho is about ¾ the size of Zion and is responsible for innovating new industrial technologies and now holds a fleet comparable to Zion’s. Neo begins talks with Jericho’s leaders to consider investing in pioneering a new settlement to become the third human city. Politicians in Zion are outraged upon learning of these plans, not being the first to be brought into the discussion. After fierce debate between the two cities’ governments, the people of Jericho unanimously declare that they have the right as free and independent people to make such plans and carry them out without the approval or involvement of their “motherland” and quickly begin work to construct the 3rd human city. The government of Zion responds rapidly by creating a new settlement of their own. Neo publicly claims Jericho as his home and Morpheus returns to Zion with the Nebuchadnezzar. Neo has a new Ship christened “The Last Letter to the Corinthians” which he is made the captain.
Nathaniel Hughes
>2218- Jericho has established “Sidon” and Zion “Laban.” Each settlement quickly became military bases rather than safe fronts for human communities to flourish. The fortified transportation networks in the sewer systems are hastily carved up into territorial boundaries. At this point Jericho has gained a significant technological advantage but remained fewer in number. Zion's forces were able to grab up territory more quickly, holding land and manpower advantage. The fortified transportation networks on both sides continue to be upgraded. Manned defensible watchpoints soon dot the subterranean landscape. Each government has established clearly defined militaries suited to combat human foes which are used to enforce territorial boundaries.
>2219- Jericho’s and Zion’s forces exchange in numerous isolated skirmishes due to border disputes. These exchanges are hidden from public view in both cities.
Oliver Reed
>2221- (Zion pop: 720,000, Jericho pop: 560,000) Zion’s forces launch a surprise attack on Jericho, attempting to simultaneously seize control of the Capital and major population centers. The attack was meant to be carried out swiftly and effectively in order to minimize the loss of life, but Jericho’s defense force was prepared to fight. A destructive, drawn out battle was fought. Many Jericho citizens were killed and many more left with destroyed homes. The Last letter to the Corinthians is reported by many eyewitnesses to have been shot down with Neo on board. The battle ended with a standoff, Zion forces unable to take the City but laying claim to nearly half of Jericho’s territory. Wreckage of The Last Letter to the Corinthians is apparently lost in the masses of rubble. Neo is presumed by both cities to be dead. Before Zion is able to set up for a second assault, two major events occur that hault their advance. Firstly, Morpheus stages a coup in effort to overthrow Zion’s government. The troops he was able to rally to his cause fought valiantly but were too few to succeed in their goal and were quickly defeated, the survivors apprehended. Secondly, Jericho’s government threatens the use of nuclear weapons, a capability at the time thought lost to humanity. Jericho displayed no proof to Zion’s military that they truly had access to such weapons, but the threat alone was enough keep them at bay. In the coming weeks, Morpheus, along with his surviving supporters were publicly executed and a military dictatorship put in place. Zion forces maintain control of captured Jericho territory, occasionally skirmishing with Jericho’s Hovercraft but do not make another direct assault on the city for fear of nuclear strike. A wide "no man's land" is established as a buffer between the two militaries. Each city takes no action in the Matrix for 6 months.
Christopher Lopez
>During this time thousands from each city flock to this no man's land forming micro settlements outside the rule of law of either parent city, many of which are deserters from both militaries who made off with stolen hovercraft. (Zion pop: 690,000 , Jericho pop: 490,000, No Man's Land pop: 40,000)
>2222- Zion is the first to send operators into the Matrix quickly followed by Jericho's forces. Carnage in the matrix dwarfs the loss of life in Jericho. The first few exchanges led to the leveling of buildings. Both sides agreed that the collateral damage must be stifled. Jericho's demand for peace talk was met Zion hovercraft using newly captured Jericho territory to their advantage. Zion forces were able to choke Jericho's entry to the Matrix, sharply limiting Jericho's operative capability. Jericho is unable to track Zion operatives within the matrix or outside.
Owen Peterson
>2224- Numerous disassociated groups from No Man's Land begin operating within the matrix. Groups with conflicting ideals, goals and alligences. Some vigilantes, some criminal, some claiming loyalty to one of the mother cities. Most begin freeing minds for themselves creating better established communities in the sewers. The only agreement among the fudeing groups is their collective desire to live in No Man's Land free from being governed by either Jericho or Zion. No man's land beings to widen some and poulation slowly increases. Violence is common within No Man's Land. Meanwhile Jericho manages to slowly replenish their numbers.
>2226- ( Zion pop: 720,000, Jericho pop: 510,000, NML pop: 75,000) Agents begin to appear in the matrix after nearly 20 years of absence. This is a devastating blow to operators from Jericho's and No Man's Land's operating groups. Zion forces continue operating invisible to Jericho's eyes. Agents never anywhere to be seen when Zion operators are around. Skirmishing between Jericho and Zion in the real world is halted by the growing collective power of No Man's Land but conflict in the Matrix continues. Jericho's threat against Zion remains in place. The presence of No Man's Land now means that both Jericho forces and Zion forces are able to act without being seen by the other. The situation is incredibly tense but seems to be stable as far as common citizens in the cities can tell.
Brody Torres
>2228- Settlements in No Man's Land have grown and continue to fight with each other. Operators from Zion, Jericho and No Man's Land groups continue to operate in the Matrix. Also the Oracle delivers the following prophecy: "Man and Machine lay divided and infighting. The One will illuminate a path to unification."
>2230- Current day. If Neo is alive, he is 58 years old. (Zion pop: 720,000, Jericho pop: 530,000, No Man's Land pop: 100,000)
There you have it. A large open world with lots of places to draw a character from with a wide variety of political opinions and scoial/economic statuses. Lots of possibilities.
So what do you think? I realize there are probably a lot of holes in the timeline so if you see any please point them out and I'll adress them. Additionally if you have any suggestions or opinions you'd like to share feel free. I'd be happy to implement them into my setting!
Thanks a lot for reading and have a good day!
Josiah Green
obligatory d100 is shit d6 is superior post coming through.
Daniel Morgan
I'm using d100 to impliment this multi layer crit system i have worked out. Skills/saving throws/etc that level over 100 have the chance to auto crit.
Say your driving is at level 115. You gain one auto degree of success for having the skill at 100 then have a 15% chance to crit for a second degree of success
Tyler King
Okay, I can actually see what you're going for.
What are you thinking your specialists skill levels will be then? Like your dedicated punchy guy. Would he be hovering around 300 or 120?
Zachary Nguyen
It's more like he puts driving at 100 then he's able to take up drifting, ramming, collision management, etc.
Jaxon Martinez
>Matrix universe >character classes
Aaand you lost me there.
Jose Ramirez
I think (hope) he means rough archetypes like Shadowrun.
Thats starting to sound remarkably rules heavy. If you've got a bunch of subsets for every skill that is.
Xavier Turner
It wouldn't really be an RPG if there weren't character classes.
But i can see what you mean and i have a solution. The classes i have made out are actually quite broad and loose. The only constraint a gun ninja has is that they shoot guns and punch people. The Prophet class change material to fit their will.
The players are encouraged to be creative witb what they want to do inside/outside of combat. The only limitation is the PC's Belief score.
Anthony Rivera
It's intentionally very rules heavy. I have plans for PCs to spend points out of their Belief score to affect the redius of AOE spell effect etc. The player would then calculate the size of the AOE on the grid to see who gets hit. If you have a triangle shaped AOE you'd need to use trigonometry lol
Landon Thomas
I don't see Matrix as being rule heavy. It shouldn't be narrative either, but in term of complexity shouldn't be more crunchy than Cyberpunk 2020 or Call of Cthulhu.
I'm also not a fan of d100 systems for "cinematic" games. I prefer a system where you have to roll over - it's more heroic than roll under.
Finally, I'm not an expert on the Matrix franchise, but if I would like to play such a game, I would like to do it during the time of the movie. I would want to fight agents and viruses, not other humans.
I'm compiling a cyberpunk aesthetic document for the 1996 - 2005 period. It's the one that is the most inspired by The Matrix. If the thread is still alive tomorrow, I'll post it - might interest you.
Brandon Thompson
I would love to see that thanks!
I definitely feel what you mean about it not being so crunchy and will ultimately be dialing back the vast majority of the overcomplicated mechanics when i actually play with my friends. The ideas for the super heavy rules are mainly for my own amusement.
Didn't you read the end of the timeline though? There are plenty of agents and other AI that players will encounter. The increase in human settlements are to emphasize the sandbox style gameplay that i prefer.
Jason White
Like I said, I'm no expert on the franchise. If someone tells me we're going to play a Matrix RPG, then I will assume that we're going to play in the movies' universe. But it's your game and your group, do want you want - it might give some mystery to the game.
Christian Young
>It wouldn't really be an RPG if there weren't character classes.
Nigga come on.
Asher King
Do you have any better ideas? Lol
Like I siad the classes I've come up with are pretty wide open.
Ethan Martinez
This sounds actively anti fun.
Josiah Harris
>The player would then calculate the size of the AOE on the grid to see who gets hit. If you have a triangle shaped AOE you'd need to use trigonometry lol
Well good luck with that!
Daniel Kelly
>Do you have any better ideas? Lol
OP, answer honestly: how many RPG systems have you played at least three sessions in, and how many have you ran games in?
Noah Nguyen
Bump
Jason Young
The Matrix movies have classes. You have the hovercraft captain, you have the operator, you have the guys who go inside the matrix, etc. Here, character classes would make sense.
Jack Mitchell
Ok. Here's the missing volume of the Cyberpunk Aesthetic booklets/guides.
Chase Rivera
I would never actually be able to implement this in an actual game lol
I just find the concept amusing
Isaiah Lopez
2 to be exact. I guess my problem is I haven't actually seen a system that doesn't use classes.
Maybe you could enlighten me?
Landon Foster
No offense, but it seems you don't have much RPG or game design experience. Instead of creating an entirely new system, wouldn't you fare better using an existing, proven system and modify it? I'm pretty certain that Savage Worlds, combined with Interface Zero and some house rules, would perfectly fit The Matrix.
Noah Miller
I recommend you this tread and its resources:
John Smith
Yeah, only you must've missed that one time they downloaded every skill they needed into their brains. And operator being the equivalent of Shadowrun decker, who operates on another layer of reality so he needs his own subsystem to be interesting and we know how this ends. And also if we were to focus on piloting hovercrafts and evading sentinels, that would be another game altogether so comparing those specialists with the guys who go in the Matrix is fucking retarded.
That's not even the issue, it's just that OP didn't even know about the existence of skill-based systems.
Jason Sanchez
If the players can download all skills they need, you don't need to worry about a skill system at all. The only things that would matter would be class-dependent feats and defects. That would be for inside the matrix.
Outside of the matrix we could go with a normal skill based system as the world is much more gritty and dark.
The whole problem is that it would be like playing two different games.
Ian Watson
That's what I'm talking about. But the granularity still can exist even though anything can be attempted at competent level. The guy who made this for example was thinking in a right direction:
Cooper Williams
I'm running a campaign which is kind of minimalist and complex at the same time. The party have no memory before waking up at the start of the campaign and only really see their dice rolls and some very basic info stats wise, there are many systems in place behind the scenes being effected by their interactions and exploration which hopefully feels more dynamic and less mechanical from their perspective and also has them feeling the weight of every action as they learn the rules of the strange realm they find themselves in (which is a largely grounded medieval horror low-fantasy setting).
I can't really be bothered to type out much more than that but I made an edited down lets play of our first session for anyone that want's to see it in action: youtube.com/watch?v=jIP5gSU-ifg
There's a part 0 with like 30 mins of exposition and handing out starting inventory but part 1 is when they leave their rooms and it gets watchable to be honest.
Evan Long
You're right about me having no game design experience but that doesn't mean it's impossible for me to make it work.
I also already did that. The basic framework borrows heavily from the standard d100 system.
I will definitely check put those systems you mentioned though.
Jordan Mitchell
That looks awesome! I'm ganna delve into that on my break. Thanks!
Reposting Matrix hovercraft art from the other Matrix thread.
Cameron Thompson
>51255147 The PC are limited in how many skills they can download baised off of their Tolerance score.
Also the "magic" system allows the player to customize their abilities. They spend points out of their Belief score pool to change the number of damage dice a spell does or the radius of an AOE, etc.
I have a really straight forward table writtenout for this.
As far as actions inside/outside the matrix go we have a Matrix phase and a real world phase in each combat round. And since all my players wanna be Matrix operators, all the real world duties will be taken care of by NPCs so that won't slow down combat too much.
Hudson Gonzalez
I saw this system a while back. It's actually what inspired me to write up this system in the first place.
Matthew Lewis
Nice! I've been looking for a new role play recording to check out. Thanks!
Jackson Walker
Looks pretty good! I actually started out just about all those weapons and even more a while ago. That was one of the funnest parts of making this system so far.
Bentley Gomez
>Character classes Why? I can understand using them in some cases, but in the Matrix it doesn't make sense. Look at Shadowrun, World of Darkness, Savage Worlds, or anything hip that isn't D&D. Sure general archetypes pop up, but you are still given much more in the way of freedom.
Luis Lopez
I adressed that concern in earlier replies. They're not restrictive at all I promise you.
How come noone cares about the timeline anyway?
Lincoln Anderson
Forgot to attach this lol
Easton Sullivan
The timeline is your own shit, arch: it really has nothing to do with the matrix everyone here is familiar with, so we got nothin' to say one way or the other. It's no better and no worse than the shit any of us might crap out. You do what you do and have fun. It just has nothing to do with the matrix as it is, so, other than you, who cares? Now, having said that, your future history is neat and thoughtful and I'm sure will be a cool environment to play in; but I won't, so I don't care. I'm here to talk the aesthetic of Matrix 1 because that shit is cash.
Ryder King
>Matrix RPG >9 stats >4 are physical >Classes >I have only played D&D. >AoEs >Grids
Try instead: Lifepath chargen, which builds a character based on your old life (what you did in the matrix or in Zion), your inciting incident (how you fell into your new dual life from either setting), and your relationships to other crew members and NPCs in both settings.
Fate-style freeform traits. Ambiguously physical/mental when statlike "vicious," "tough," "quick," and the like. Often flaw/ideal/bond like. Sometimes used to handle relationships.
When the GM tags this shit, instead of getting points to go along with it you lose a point from the trait and gain something between insanity and matrix power. Resisting your natural inclinations makes you into a wooden-acting superman.
You still haven't played enough games for even a much better idea to work in your hands. Seriously consider playing the following for inspiration.
Traveller Pendragon WFRP 1e or 2e Unknown Armies and/or Call of Cthulhu HERO system Something WoD and/or Shadowrun FATE Apocalypse World Something in the Gumshoe system Something Palladium WEG Star Wars Heavy Gear
They're not all going to be especially good, but they'll give you some more breadth in your experience and understanding of the genre.
