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Cool....
I have to ask..
Was it just an Amazing coincidence that Burn and Loomis were seemed to be "Destined" to fight each other?
Its just funny how simiar the two characters are...

I guess the gun nut description brings a certain closeness. But Loomis was alreay all done and had been played out once already before Burn was even created!

nice.
also...i can't help to ask. to we get the experience we so richly deserve from this campaign before teh next game starts?

The system has to be re-done first!

Uh Oh, Re-done means. (Yoda Talk)

Which means we'll be waiting a while, huh

And I still hate Khali, even though I finally managed to kill her...

arrg....
I need to shotgun somethign!

Why am I not surprised?

Uggh, Khali. Wasn't she the one that sat there skewering me for several turns, Before the agent showed up and lipped a Hummer over while I was in the Driver's seat......

Before the story analysis, some known facts about the new system:

- As SW is planning to be also, the used dice will change, from the positive/negative d6 to a d20 (twenty-sided die, for those of you who don't know that terminology). The reason for this change is actually coming from Matrix- Star Wars is just following suit- because of power-balancing in Matrix. There are LOTS of powers in the Matrix, and the d6/d6 system has too harsh a probability curve to be properly balanced. A d20 has a flat probability curve of 5% per number.

- The ethos will remain the same- talking and investigation will be less than Star Wars, in favour of enormous set-piece battles, rather like the films! These battles will be inevitable, but will have a win/loss structure like before; most major plot difference will depend on how well you fight.

- Provision will be made for a Philosophy section, in which, of course, there WILL be talking, and as it will be separated from the combat section, the pure fighty types won't be saddled with all that 'Matrix crap'... I am also personally planning a Philosophy practice session this time, to mirror the training sessions for fighting.

- The Templates are being re-designed from the ground up. Hacker, Veteran and Natural are still the main types, with each having three sub-variants. The Downloadable poriton of things will be a much smaller deal than before. The Hacker variants will equivocate roughly to Gunner/Martial Artist/All-rounder, the other template variants will be less direct. However, it is intended that pure gunners will not exist any more- everyone should be able to fight a duel against a martial artist up close to at least SOME extent.

- The Paths are being re-built also, as is the fighting system. it is intended to stay highly tacgical as it currently is... and in fact it will be becoming a little more in-depth. There may well be an effort to seperate out basic and avdnaced Paths. The older players will be encouraged to take whatever paths they want; newbies will be advised to stick with the basic ones, because whilst sturgglin to learn how to play, they don't want to worry about too much other stuff!

- The balance of combat is being changed so that people hit more, but can take more damage. Right now, there is far too much missing in combat, and hence far too little reason to use big powerful moves instead of small fast ones. Also some of the duels are extremely dull miss-fests. So, in the Neo/Smith spirit (as opposed to the Neo/Seraph spirit), you will now be whacking each other all the time! As this effect will be built into the new use of a d20, it will likely carry over to Star Wars as well.

- The other major change, which is the new complication to fights, will be 'Steps'. This is based on the idea that we don't want fights to be 'A attacks b, B attacks A, A attacks B, B attacks A..." ad nauseam. TRhe frame system kinda makes it not quite that simple, but all that means is that faster characters hit more often in a sequence.

No, the change we want here is that people will make SEQUENCES of blows. So the vibe will be- A makes SEVERAL blows on B, then B makes SEVERAL blows on A.

How will this work? Well, an 'attack' costs three frames, as before. But now, you will make several blows IN that attack, though currently, your flurry ends if you miss. Each attack can have three 'steps' worth of blows, and each fu power now has a step cost. So in a single attack of three steps worth, you could make one huge three-step super attack, or three little one-step attacks, or a two step and a one-step combo...

... except the complication is that you don't actually get three steps worth like that. You keep making your attacks until you make one that takes you past three steps. So, you could make two one-step attacks, and then make a huge three step one! Although this would technically take you to five steps, that's not the point- you were not past three steps until your third attack, so it is valid. It is far more efficent, then, to use a big step attack at the end of a combo.

Hence, people will be encouraged to make combos, to build up to a big finisher. Two small blows and then a huge killer blow in a row will become common. You can expect to see 'Straight Punch' become a three-stepper, so Agents will do a build up before the big blow! In effect, think of steps as 'mini-frames' inside attacks.

- Several Paths are complete and nearly ready to go. The weapon paths- including Jade Emperor's new rival, Silver Prince- are all done, as well as old favourites like Sharpened Scales and Hands of Light. Testing will begin once this basic set of Paths is ready... and I will be asking you guys to help! As an example, Jade Emperor is now decidely a high-step cost path- sword blows are powerful but cannot be easily comboed. Iron Butterfly has very LOW step costs. Step costs cannot actually be zero, but Iron Butterfly has attacks that do two blows in one step. New powers will start buggering around with the combo system, to allow players to build up awesome attack chains, which will be rather more like the films!

So, there you go...

Damn,
No more pure gunner Burn...
I liked that...
Wil; he be able to keep all his Gunner powers? or will I have to ditch him.
But I like the idea of the steps, probably would need something to figure it out, Like say another CTF game.....

A training mission sounds like fun...

And I'm still very much liking the Iron Butterfly path

Meh, I had to rebuild Barb anyway, he was like two systems obsolete.....

Meanwhile... development continued.

The first story of the game (the term 'assignments' was added by me for on-line use) was played, the mission at the airport, which I shall describe in more detail later. There were not many paths at this time, and everythting about the paths, the templates and the download system were entirely experiemental. Agents were ready to go, however, and our Natural- played in the same amusing style as our Acolyte Scrace in the Star Wars game, not surprising as the same guy was playing him- promptly got the shite kicked out of him by said Agent during the course of the mission, eventually, I seem to remember, being driven away by me in one of those motorises stairs used to get into planes with (he was somehow stuck on the airport roof at the time. Long story.)

Well, lots worked, and lots didn't, and the game was continually changing and changing and changing as time went by...
By this point, my brother introduced the idea of a second ship to manage excess players- at this time, the idea of the second ship was to allow players to join mid-story, whilst the main players played out conventional, followed soon after for that ship, but there were no personalities designed for it yet.

It was roughly at this time that I opened up the earliest thread in this area sounding out whether people would be interested in playing such a game here. Matrix fever was at its peak and a lot of people had asked about the idea, throwing around ideas about setting up ones of their own etc. It must be said, not wanting to sound pompous, but one reason I made this offer, which was quite a challenge at the time, is simply because I didn't like the look of the other ideas floating around, none of which really seemed to catch the point.

However, there was a problem. Bear in mind at this point:

1. The RP area was a lot smaller than it is today

2. There were no rules in the SW game- no visible rukles that players had to worry about, anyway.

My problem was that the Matrix game is designed, thematically, about the fighting. There was one exception to the no-rules SW game- duelling, which was regulated with a simple system of numbers (though the same victory criteria as existed in the full, off-line version).
This was because duels were such an integral and important part of the SW experience that it could not be left to a loose game mechnaic- however, SW duels were rare, so they could be taken care of separately like that.

Not only are Matrix duels NOT rare, but pretty much every single fight ever in it is actually of distinct importance. If you are going to play a Matrix game, it is important that these fights are detailed- typing in "I kick him then block then punch him" a hundred times might be simple but would make for an incredibly dull game. I knew that if Matrix were to be played on-line, which was a prospect I was looking forwards to trying, then it would need to be played with an in-built rules framework to cover the system. So that starting thread was created with, basically, two questions- 1. Would people like to play a Matrix RP built on the same basis as the SW one? I knew the answer to this would be yes. 2. Would people be willing to accept a rules system for it? Here I explained my reasoning. Somewhat to my surprise, the answer here was also yes! People seemed willing to give it a go.

And then nothing happened for a long time. I let people talk over possibilities, let slip the odd idea about how the plot would work (you had a ship and a captain and would be going on Zion missions between the first and second films).

It took time for the game to pan out at home, and much of it was still being played by the time you guys started. But eventually, enough had been played, and enough testing been done, for me to try and convert the system on-line.

And so I did, but not how it currently exists. I tried to design a simplified version of the Feng Shui system, with enough variety in to cover the basics of how it all works, without any of the complications.
Sequences were of four actions each, no frames- however, slower moves would increase your exertion, which might lead you to lose an action. This was a simple conversion of Feng Shui- it was assuming that a sequence was 12 frames in which you would normally take four three- frame actions. A 'slow' action was equivalent to a four frame action, obviously enough, you can only take three four-frame actions in 12 frames. The Paths were in, but you bought entire Paths in levels (starting off as a simple and advanced level, then a mid-level was pout in as well), and these levels allowed you to do various things- at first one thing per level, and then more. Fighting skills were out of 5, which was simply the same system as now scaled down in number- so if a 13 had become a 2, a 14 was a 15 etc. You might ask why fighting skills in FS basically kick off at 10 or 11 rather than 1, the answer is simply so that they are compatible with all other skills, which of course start off at your stats.

One thing that I could never port over properly was the grid-based download system; the visual nature of it was impossible. So instead I substituted a 'simple' points based system, which got the essence, but not really the point, as without the shapes, it was just a slightly extraverted character creation system- spend points to be better at different things.

Still, everything was in place, and people started to make characters. This was a long and slow process with lots of mistakes and problems and corrections being made on my part, and then a few times I had to tweak the rules as things were going wrong, and eventually we got KINDA of an idea together, only I was being overloaded with players, so now the Percy became not a means of adding in players mid-way through a story, but a fully realised second ship with which to take part in the main plot. The Captain and Operator were added about the time you played Assignment III.

Of course, we kicked off with a training mission, and a damn good thing too. Because it was player versus player, it was VERY easy for me to run, hence I could concentrate on seeing what was and was not working. Those who played I am sure still have their own memories of that mission- its still there for everyone to read if they want.
Incidentally, whilst it was testing the new rules and people's familiarity with their characters, it was also testing an ideal which has since become more prevalent in SW as well- organising a team, with a leader, and putting a plan together. Technically this should always be the way all RPs work, but there was a lot of hand-holding in SW as very few were used to RPing. I was looking for that to change, and in Matrix, it had to be like that from the off.

From there, we moved into the Dojo for more training, the Zion thread for mood acclimatization, and finally, with much anticipation, into the opening mission itself. The rest is history, and the plot events I
shall discuss later.

The player team fluctuated a lot until we eventually stabilised on a core group of dedicated players- which was nice. However, as everyone remembers, things were changing all the time in the Matrix, as the System made its insidious alterations...

Here is mainly what happened. Basically, my cut-down version kept doing things unsatisfactorily. So to fix the problems, I added more rules and tweaks. And then suddenly it hit me that all I was going to end up doing was create a system just as complex as the off-line one, but simply not working as well. Amidst tweaks to Paths and powers and the Download system I was already making, I took the huge plunge one day and thought... I am going to convert the whole lot, to the off-line system. I knew this would be a ***** and it would not work at first, but that in the long-term, it would be worth it.

And so eventually it all transformed to the full system we have to day, with pool and sequences and frames and the whole enchilada. But of course, I appreciate this was tough on you guys. The reasons that the rules kept changing every 30 seconds were therefore twofold- first, the main system off-line was continually being changed, as it was in effective beta testing. And second, because I was slowly converting the on-line system to the off-line system!

So I am really sorry you guys had so many changes to put up with- but you were helping test this game, and that help from all of you is very much appreciated.

Which may in turn lead you to ask- why, then, 18 months later, is the build-up to the next game still going to start with training and a system overhaul? The answer? Well, it just shows what a fiddly bastard system the Matrix has been to create...

For to be sure, the theory has proven superior to the practice. In the end, off-line and on, the full story was played, and it actually worked out pretty well, but often this was in spite of, rather than because of, the system. After numerous revisions that you all had to live through, the system WORKED, for sure- you all had your fights with little trouble. But it is full of holes, basically, which myself and my brother know, but we weren't telling you about, of course. Also... it didn't QUITE have the feel of the films,. Duelling was too much about trading blows and missing; big blows were never worth the risk, and you had to be Jericho-good before it felt like you were dishing out serious punishment (Agents not withstanding, of course).

Also, it was clear by now that the Download system had failed- the best simple example of theory vs, practice I have ever seen, In theory, the thematic idea of fitting in your blocks of programmes into your download grid was fabulous and everyone loved the idea. In practice, it ended up being totally exploited and boring and pointless. Some people just had crapper characters, others were producing sheets of 'best loadouts' for everyone else to use, until everyone was the same. By the end of the story the dream there was ruined- there is nothing like players trying to maximise a system to show up how rubbish it might be. No solution has solved the problem, so the decision has been made to dump it, basically.

On-line, the problem has never been so bad- basically because I never really simulated the system, it being just a matter of spending points. Even so, if you look at it objectively, it really is an unnecessary complication, and the last thing that the Matrix needs is ANY unnecessary complication- the necessaries are complicated enough! Actually, in the grand scheme of things, this system isn't complex- there are games that are way more so- but it is hard to describe things on-line, and furthermore Matrix is so tactical in play that it is important that players can take the rules for granted and concentrate on fighting correctly. Some version of downloading will still exist, but it will be a much smaller deal than before.

Matrix really has been a hard slog- for everyone irritated by continuous system changes, please don't think them whimsical cruelties on our part. It is a bastard to MAKE them on our part, at least as much as it is for you guys to adapt to them, and there is little worse than seeing hard-worked changes not work. At times, my brother has considered giving up on Matrix entirely and dumping the whole game. When you feel like this, it is best to change direction- my brother would suddenly skip back to Star Wars and do changes there, and he has also spent the last two years or so writing his own game, rules and setting from the ground up, which he has just finished- however, THAT proved such a hassle as well that he has sworn to never do that again either! And then, after a few months away, he will suddenly mail me a shedload of new Matrix rules to look at. Creativity works in bursts like that, and you can never worm on the same thing for long.

So rather than try and slowly introduce you to it, this time, you are going to be right in there testing the new system from the outset. It is better than before, for sure, but like any system needs testing for holes.

Meanwhile, the most unexpected change was that I then decided to port
the whole off-line system to Star Wars as well, with NO acclimatization period of slow changes, because as I described above, that proved to be a waste of time. You may ask- why did I feel the need to do this if it was less necessary with Star Wars?

A fair point. Take, for example, the fight against the augmented slaves as they boarded Xeth and Roan's vessel in Star Wars in the first episode of the new campaign, falling into their ambush. You will note that you guys slaughtered them easily. All the game system did there was slow down an inevitable result. If the whole game was like that, the system would be a waste.

But I had always had to be making compromises in SW for their being no system that players could see- some things were not adequately done. The new Campaign was approaching, and big things were planned for it. WITH the system in place, nothing would be out of bounds, and I could do everything that happened off-line, on-line. The much larger battles were never much good with no distinct system- now, everyone knows where they stand and what is going on. Frankly, the entire Dark Side plotline would not work without the system- I can TELL you that Osokans are very dangerous, but only when you see them in action with rules and how close they come to taking you out do you truly get that feel of danger and dread. The Light Side will likewise have its won threats- already Balek has been put into new perspective by the rules. It might not, then, be essential in Star Wars- but it certainly makes the game better. And as it had unexpectedly worked so well in the Matrix, it should work in SW, which was the easier game- remember, from our point of view off-line, Star Wars is the basic game, compared to Matrix being the advanced one.

So that is basically the story of how the Matrix game came to be here, and how it then drastically altered the AW game in turn!
As ever, feel free to raise points, discuss, or ask questions. To follow- the plot summary, a talk about Agents, and the Philosophy plotline.

WHAT?! Hah! That's hilarious....

Osokans

Meh, I never had any trouble with the rule changes...

You'll be amazed what he has gotten up to over time, in ANY franchise...

Tell us, tell us!!!

Yea the rule changes don't really bug me, Its just perfecting the system, I hope you DO eventually get it right, so were not continually changing them,
It would also be fun, later on down the road, after this game has een kicking for a while to go to newer players "YOU think you got it hard?? We were fighting Agents while the rules were changing EVERY OTHER MONTH!"
Just for S and G

Gosh, I dunno, there is so much to tell...

Pick the funniest bits,
And the long story about the rooftop....

Well, the funniest bit is probably in Vampire, but it is hard to get across the point of it unless you know all about that game.

I THINK I can remember the rooftop thing... actually, it's not that long, just that those of you who played that mission I thought would be amused as to how anyone got up there.

I played that game........

It is a VERY in-depth game; very much a specialist knowledge RP.

Unless you meant that Matrix Assignment, in which case, yes, you did.

I ment the Matrix game,
So spill! :P

I want to know how someone wound up on the roof!!!

And I thought we got up to some crazy stuff...

yea....

And I thought Heph jumping into a jeep full of soldiers was a silly idea...

(it was)

Who was it that made the suicidal dash at the helicopter at the end of the second assignment? That was pretty stupid though it DID work...

that was Zink......
I really wanted to shoot the gunner outta the copter, that would have been way cool.

That's who I thought it was...I think we were trying to shoot the guys out of the copter, it just didn't work I think my personal favorite "oh shit that was stupid" moment that I did was in the second assignment where Fire and I ran up the stairs into the room full of bad guys with guns....ooops? Heh.

The whole "let's escape the building I just blew up!" bit was, uh, interesting...heh...

Actually, someone did that in our game- we had a person with four levels of Eagle Eye and a good roll...

Ok, so, a diversion about how Tiberius ended up on the roof.

When we were doing the airport operation, the USB key snatch was being performed by the most of the players, under the leadership of Orpheus, who was a little indecisive at the time when the crisis started. Myself, Aeneas, was on watch in the lobby. Tiberius, played by the guy who plays Scrace in the SW game, was out in the car.

So it was me who spotted the incoming Agents (I immediately made a bee-line for the toilets when that happened) and belled up the crisis to Orpheus. Orpheus told me to pull out and they would make their escape separately.

High-tailing it out of there through the front doors, I got my first glimpse of Loomis blowing away half the security details. Immediately deciding "Not my business!" I sidled around the edge of the action and walked point-blank into the Agent. Luckily he muffed his first blow at me and Aeneas is a block/thrower, which is exactly what I did, tossing him into the nearest car, which pissed him off a tad. Tiberius had noticed some commotion by now and was driving over, but I mufed the chase and the Agent caught up with me. At this point Medea intervened, spraying the area liberally with bullets to give me a breathing space. Trying to climb the perimeter fence, she got a bit beaten around by the Agent; Tiberius had picked me up by now and we raced over to get her, whoever the hell she was, out of there. Giving us a curt 'thanks, but no thanks', she used the car as a springboard to get over the perimeter fence. So Tiberius and myself decided to bug out, at which point Tiberius drove into the Agent, wrecking the car.

Both of us got out the car ASAP, but the Agent had moved around to the driver's side. Tiberius' fight did not go well; he was a pole fighter, and his first task was to get the pole through the door of the car, which seemed somewhat comic, and just to rub it in, his first blow was intercept punched. Tiberius- a Natural close combat specialist, btw- totally fluffed his next blow, and then the Agent rolled +10 on a Straight Punch, twatting Tiberius so hard that he was blown across the car park into the next row of cars.

By this point I had drawn my Glock 18 and gotten around the side of the car and off-loaded my clip into the Agent, giving Tiberius time to get up. Tiberius, confident that he would handle things ok, told me to get out of there.

So I climbed the fence to chase Medea (not that we knew who she was at the time), and pursued her to Jericho's getaway van, whereupon the charming Khali opened up at me with a heavy machine gun, and they buggered off. At this point I would have gotten out myself, but unfortunately a crisis had now arisen.

Although it was a close run thing, escaping from the train- Orpheus and co had no guns (or even gunners) and were getting the shit blown out of them before they managed to board a jeep and eradicate the occupants up close- the snatch group got out. That left Tiberius who, fleeing the Agent, had actually fled inside the airport, which was not the best move as the other two Agents were in there. In a curious reversal of 'ascending villain' syndrome, Tiberius actually made his way up the stairs of the airport to the Terminal roof, on the idea that this was the best means of escape. When security followed him up there, he joyously laid waste to them all with his pole. When the Agent followed him up there, he was buggered.

Whilst Tiberius was being killed up top, the snatch group were halfway to the exit phone; Aeneas was on foot and so only I could rescue Tiberius. Wearily, I turned round and had to gun my way past half the security force of the airport- luckily, at the time, mooks were less dangerous in Matrix than they later became, so I was able to kill far more far easily than you guys could. I found a helicopter to rescue Tiberius with- sadly, it now transpired that in the amount of time it would take to download the pilot programme, Tiberius would be dead. So instead I nabbed a set of motorised stairs used to board planes with, and drove them over to the roof to rescue Tiberiius.

Which was entirely pointless as Tiberius had decided to make his own exit from the fight by now by jumping off the roof top, promptly taking him to 49 damage and a failed death check. Pausing only to say (in real life) "Nice one Matt, first game and you did it already...", Aeneas scooped up Tiberius and got away in the most absurd vehicle possible.

I'm always happy to relate this sort of tale because I want to dismiss the idea that we are an expert group of role-players that would thrash you amateurs. Nope, basically, things ALWAYS go wrong...

lol, thats awesome...

Wow.

Just....wow.

And I thought we had botched that mission pretty well....hahaha!!!

Heheh...I remember us wanting to run down the Agent....heeheehee...

I said no to that....
I remembered what Smith did to the Cars in Reloaded....

I seem to remember you saying "run him down" before you remembered that

well..it's not impossible to succede

Jesus Christ...I am definitely taking the Natural template!

If I had to do it again I would probably be a natural....
Pole fighting or block and throw allways sounded fun to play...

Pole fighting something I'd be good at in real life...ahh, flags, so much fun...

*thwap*

Lol,
*Blasts ears out with Trumpet.....*
Ahh teh pleasures of being a flute killer...

Ehehehehe....trust me...swinging around a pole which can cause mass bodily harm is a LOT of fun.

Unless you're like me and manage to smack yourself in the knee repeatedly. That's painful.