USH'S MATRIX GAME- General Discussion
About time I did one of these, I guess! This is the place to discuss the Matrix game, your characters, each other, the plot, the rules, give me feedback etc. I shall make a few comments to start with,
Well now, I rather think the whole Matrix thing is going extremely well- far bettee than I had hoped. Thank you all very much for playing! In fact it has been so popular that I have a couple of problems in having to make the situations so much larger, but more importantly in that everything is being played through at such a speed that that I might run out of stuff to do sooner than intended! Still, after the current plot is exhausted I might be able to put in a few 'bonus' assignments that are mini-plots in of themselves before I start the next big story, in order to give you things to do.
The game will continue to develop as time goes by. Powers will be tweaked, and some altered and added as I continue to gain confidence in how much complexity you can handle. Awesome Downpour was made more useful than it should be for simplicity's sake but I think I can turn that back into its original function (against Named characters (i.e. non-Mundanes) only) and also put in Rain of Fury into the Leaping Strm Path, which IS for use against Mundanes. Hands of Light has a couple of 'filler' powers right now that were made up to fill gaps (one-inch Punch and Strike of the Subtle). That will recevice a proper set of powers too, before long. As time goes by, more Path are planned but they all need system testing first and for their releance to be decided; one such Path is the Path of the Angry Monkey, entirely about throwing weapons. There aree some good ideas in the works for that but the worry is that a Throwing Weapon Path might invalidate guns, by eliminating a Martial Artist's principle weakness. As time goes by and these problems are ironed out, new powers and Paths will appear. Even Agents may need new powers over time, though of course you will only see them used the hard way... you got the very basic set of Agent powers in the first Assignment, of course, which was the point. I am sure you can imagine some more they may use.
In the VERY long term I plan to bring the system far more again towards the same system we use here at home, off-line. When I first designed it, it was about 25% of that system, the rest greatly simplified (back when Paths only had two powers each, stats were out of 4, combat skills out of 6, damage went to 20 etc.). After a while, and by the time I started the training mission, it was far more 50/50 as I realised you guys could handle it. As time goes by with more and more powers going on it is become more 60/40 in favour of the original system now. I plan to bring it ever further, which means changing some basics (Speed and Strength will become out of ten, for example). However, because that will involve some work for people (and will give extra options in the Download system), I think I will do it AFTER the first main plotline ends, which even at this rate is a few months away yet. Then people can do it whilst spending experience and teaching new players how to play. As it stands, how difficult is it to learn to play right now? I appreciate it is some effort, maybe some great effort, but simply by observing others new players seem to get the hang pretty fast now- especially after a round or two of practical experience! I certainly don't seem to have a lack of players due to difficulty. Talking of which...
We reach a logical limit of maximum players eventaully- certainly maximum players on a mission, in any case! The Shez and Percy between them can only carry so much and, rather like my Star Wars game, the plot will dictate some points during which new character entry becomes impractical. What do people think of this? I'd like player feedback on the benefits vs. problems of getting as many players as possible.
Other than that, what do people make of the set-up? It would be nice if players from the different ships divide along personality lines as the shops themselves do, but it is not necessary. To demonstrate, though, here is the idea- the Shez gets Captain Dallas who is, not to put to fine a point on it, manic, whilst the Percy gets the far more thoughtfu; (certainly far more Morpheus like) Captain Marduk. Percy gets FInn, the Operator who keeps cool in a crisis and can can always guide you to safety, whilst the Shez gets Ariadne, who can get rather emotional but is VERY fast on the keyboard, bringing things up for you, checking on different parts of the Matrix etc. It is all very spontaneous style vs. careful style, the Shez having a reputation for being very... well, direct! And with Fire, Ares and Burn on board, you can certainly see why.
Talking of Dallas, what do people make of him? I remember Rex saying after the short story I wrote that Dallas seemed like Kuylen. Oooh, I could only giggle at that, at the time saying that you might notice a few differences 'during gameplay'... noticed them now, I hope! Dallas' style contracts very much with Kuylen's rather dour (and lethal) professionalism. Both are very experienced combatants and both tend to go on instinct rather than forehtought (in Kuylen's case that is because he is a Living Force adept; an evil Qui-Gon in many ways), with Dallas it's because... well, I shall leave you to imagine why it is for him. Certainly not who many of you expectec as a Captain I am sure, and we have already had questions asked about HOW he became one in the first place... certainly you will have a much easier time under Marduk, Percy guys! Kosta told me Dallas seemed like a Redneck- I am sure a 'Texan' would take that badly but I think we can all see what Kosta is getting at!
And finally, anyone got any ideas about the main plot yet? I'll leave you some unanswered questions.
- What the deal with Jericho? As has been explored, every idea you come up with raises a dozen more questions.
- IS that actually Jericho and his crew?
- Why won't the Oracle give you the info you need? Whay has she sent you on this apparently fruitless course?
- Who is this Melitus guy?
- And just how DID Dallas become a Captain...?