Yaaaay!
Though of course, there is no such thing as jumping off the side of a mountain. A mountain is a vast geographical feature and unless you are a titan you cannot jump off of one any more than you can jump off the world itself.
The side of a mountain is a generally steep incline on average. What you can jump off- or fall down- are crevasses, rock shelves... chasms even.
This area is more like Switzerland or Tibet than the Alps and Everest. So it's not so bad.
Certainly bad enough to need AL though.
Well blimey! That darn well took forever! Ok, well, sometimes things don't go as planned, and when that happens, as the GM I have two options- allow things to play out and watch half the group die, or break out the system, slow things down and allow people to work their way out of it. Of course, there are limits, which is why I had to start imposing deadlines.
Much has been made of players not going down this fight. Don't make too much of that. Downed players were dead players in this situation, so I tried to make such disaster very clear before it happened. Normally a disaster only comes after a few downings, but here it was all building already.
Ok, let's break some things down here.
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Gosh, that took ages. What was this story about again?
Ok yes indeed. Where the first story was a mass battle teaser introducing some characters and concepts, this one introduced the plotline, albeit in a way that probably bypassed most people.
This Assignment broke into four parts.
First, you talked to the Oracle. Now, I am not going to say what bits of that were and were not important but as ever, Philosophy players should take note. One central point to the consultation with the Oracle was her outright refusal to help you with the door. In fact, she said she couldn't help you, though this was not believed.
The outside setting of this segment is simply because we have so many darn players!
Secondly, you had to steal the helicopters. Literally, this part need not have existed, but operations in which sheer twatting factor is the key are not 100% in the Matrix. This was an introduction into more thoughtful military-style operations. Hopefully lessons were learned.
Marduk's plan of "I'll wait for someone else to get it wrong and start a fight, and sneak in then" worked perfectly and says something about Marduk's practical nature, especially when working with Dallas.
The third part was the meeting with Lo Qi and the Monks at the Monastery. This, of course, was very important plot wise, and again Philo players will want to bear the conversation in mind.
Both when talking with the Oracle and with Lo Qi, people were playing very ignorant about the nature and reason of Exiles. I don’t know if this was genuine RPing or simply whether some of the stuff from the films has slipped people’s minds. Here is what Reloaded had to say about them:
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Neo: Programs hacking programs. Why?
The Oracle: They have their reasons, but usually a program chooses exile when it faces deletion.
Neo: And why would a program be deleted?
The Oracle: Maybe it breaks down. Maybe a better program is created to replace it - happens all the time, and when it does, a program can either choose to hide here, or return to The Source.
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It is basically assumed that this is information you have access to- seeing as it is impossible, really, to get people into the spirit of playing without that info, and as it is only a starting point, it is not a problem. Certainly both Oracle and Lo Qi convos were based upon the information above being known.
Make of Lo Qi what you will- he is an interesting character.
Finally, we had the big fight at the Monastery, which was meant to be two different scenarios- one of intelligent covering of each other to get Dallas to the helicopters- which went ok though was greatly aided by the other team running into many of the SWAT meant for you. Really a fight won by brute force rather than a perfectly formed plan.
Inside, the situation was about sheer escape, fast movement, trying to navigate in an unknown environment with the aide of your Operators. Failure to move fast, comprehend the environment or call the Operators is what led to the downfall, with a slow moving mass group being very easy pickings indeed for the forces moving to cut you off. What happened in the end is that in a panic situation it started to become every man/woman for him/herself, with some actions being taken to preserve self, heedless of consequences for others. This kind of thinking is very anti-military. Plotwise it might be inevitable, as the kind of thinking that prevents this kind of panic is all based on discipline, and as Morpheus points out in Reloaded, if any of you were the disciplines sort you would never have escaped the matrix at all. Nonetheless there must be a balance, because it can’t go on like that.
Suffice to say the intention was that you would move towards the two different escape routes- one based on stealth, the other on acrobatics- with two teams organized in advance to be suitable for those roles. Ah well, so much for planning.
The other point of that combat was to introduce how Agents work now. Oooh. Well, you certainly got a good idea of THAT…
Originally the intention was for the Philo players to be inside and the Combat team outside, which makes sense in many ways, especially with more clues to be found inside. However, in the end I decided to keep artificial separation down to a minimum, and people could go where they wanted.
What would have happened if we had gone to the Fortress instead?
Basically you wouldn’t have had much luck and would have ended up at the Monastery anyway.
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Lo Qi told us the Oracle knows what is behind the door because she can tell the future. Sounds right to me, so what is all this about her not being able to help us?
The thing she cannot help you with is to give advice on what you should do in your situation- i.e. opening the door without knowing what is behind it. The Oracle cannot advise you there because she can never make such decisions without already knowing what will happen. As Lo Qi said, it’s an interesting situation of a powerful being actually being limited by such power.
Of course, you may find that limitation totally trivial as she could indeed just tell you what is in there. So then it becomes a matter of faith. Trust the Oracle that she did not think telling you was useful (normally if she does this, it is because she thinks it is better you find out yourself), or simply se her as the manipulative type. Your call.
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How hard is Lo Qi then?
Hard enough, though not Neo level. His high skill may actually be matchable by Hackers with a bunch of experience points, though the kicker is that he combines that with a lot of powers active at one time, and horribly high mental stats.
Lo Qi also lacks one important factor- experience. He’s dueled in his Dojo but he’s spent his life in quiet contemplation. You guys have spent it on the front lines.
Of course, that never stopped Neo being the best thing ever. But on that same point, Lo Qi notes that all his skills are genuinely learned, the hard way, rather than programmed in. He’s had centuries in which to learn.
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So, what exactly is Lo Qi?
As presented, Lo Qi is a (presumably) powerful programme who voluntarily self-exiled at around about the time the Matrix was built. His raison d’etre is that he was not interested in living in machine society, but instead wanted to spend his time in quiet contemplation. He and his followers- the Monks- came to live in the Matrix. By building their Monastery around the Door, they could provide a service to the machines by watching over it, and so justify their existence (remember, Machines consume power, and so the System doesn’t like freeloaders who do not contribute anything back)
This actually makes him far older than you know, as Lo Qi will be well aware of the recurring nature of the Matrix, and that this is the sixth time the whole deal with the one has happened. He didn’t feel like burdening you with that, though, which is fair enough.
Other than that, it does indeed seem that Lo Qi and his followers just… think about things.
An interesting question would be- what was Lo Qi designed for? What was his purpose in the Machine world before he left? Interesting but completely unanswered, because no-one asked.
Wait… ok, what did he used to do?
I’m going to answer this just to give some consistency, because the length of time passed in the game might have led some people to lose the thread.
Basically, Lo Qi would not answer this question. He would draw allegories to yourselves, saying just as you fairly much equate your true existence from the time you freed yourself from the Matrix, he likewise does not accord any value to his time before he left the System. He is as you see him now- what he wants to be, not what anyone else is trying to force him to be.
Was there anything important about the old beardy advisor with the staff?
Lo Qi introduced him as his ‘Advisor’. Make of that what you will. He didn’t seem to interest anyone.
Does Lo Qi know what’s behind the door?
Either he does not or he is a very good liar. Hephaestus’ overheard conversation puts interesting perspective on this.
Why did Lo Qi help us?
Feel free to think about that. Lo Qi’s stance appears to be entirely neutral. But whereas he entirely stonewalled the Agents, he told you pretty much everything you wanted to know. The Oracle seemed to direct you to the Monastery entirely to speak to Lo Qi.
However, Lo Qi seemed very reluctant to let you near the door unless you had thought about it.
And Lo Qi has really been in charge of the door for centuries and never been tempted to open it even though he had the key?
So it would seem.
Who stole the key?
Good question. Regardless, the Merovingian ended up with it. As the Oracle said, that is ironic, because as he controls the Keymaker, the Merovingian is the one person of importance who wouldn’t actually need the key anyway.
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Enough, enough of mad monks. How did the Agents find us?
Two simple facts.
a. The Agents knew you had the key
b. The Agents know where the door is
Work it out from there.
A DOZEN Agents?
Yes. Actually, no-one paid enough attention to that. That is a ridiculous response. Agent resources for the System are highly limited. Even when they found most of the crews of Zion at the start of Reloaded, with neo on-site, they sent three. To send a dozen, they must have seriously compromised their security network.
The point is- the System is very VERY much against you opening the door. Make of that what you will.
Ok. But a dozen Agents and an army of SWAT failed to kill us. Are they crap?
No. Well, yes to the SWAT. Two points on this really though- first, you guys are heroes and it is part of your purpose to win out against the bad guys in such situations.
More in-game wise, though, the Agents expected you all to run. Dallas launching a frontal assault really did catch them off-guard. As did Dallas bringing along SAMs- bear in mind that this area is completely different to the normal situation Agents are used to. Dallas’ assault also drew SWAT away from the perimeter allowing the rest of you to get out.
Once bitten twice shy though- the Agents won’t make the same mistake twice.
Why didn’t they follow?
The Agents definitely stayed at the Monastery. Work out what their orders are from there. Besides, they know you are without any means of escape or supply.
Crap, they’re right. How do we get out of this one?
Play on and perhaps options will become clear…
Well, I know that I personally wasn't sure exactly or could remember what we would have known about Exiles when we were talking to the Oracle.
Agents are evil, I'm going to start smacking people to try and get some more of a teamwork vibe together (we're doing better on that regard than the first game, at least, though I also think the large number of people somewhat hampers this), I like how we always seem to manage to somehow do the complete opposite of what you intend to happen...Dallas is still insane...I want to know how we're going to get out of this...I still say only 2 people going down is impressive, compared to our track record and just how nasty a fight this was...
...and I still want to know how this went offline, hehe.
Okay, I think we could excuse some things with Melkor being a bit of newbie....
But doesn`t Zion have some issues with trusting a Machine as much?
By the way, I regret a bit that Commisar from OT game has the same first name as my Matrix character.... It would be better if we refer to him as Esgabath ot Commisar.... I have him more developed, and I don`t want Matrix Melkor to have similar personality traits.