This is a very old post that I'm interested in.
Figured I'd bring it up again.
>From: Carl D Cravens
>Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 22:08:09 cst
>On Wed, 20 Dec 2000, Sam Hart wrote:
>> Hey, anyone converted Matix to FUDGE? Probably not
so hard
>Welllll... that depends. I've given a lot of thought
to it, but my first
>obstacle is that I don't want to convert the exact
setting of the movie...
>I don't buy the hokey "human battery" thing. But I
can come up with other
>reasons, possibly more interesting, for humans to be
stuck in the Matrix
>by the computers. Ones that give the humans a good
chance of finding a
>way out. (I'm inclined to go the route of
"computers, given the task of
>protecting humanity, decide that the best way to do
so is to put them in a
>simulated world where they can't really kill
themselves." Or something
>like that.)
Well, there are easier ways of handling the 'battery'
thing... maybe have cows in the tanks instead of
humans... but what about a combination? What if the
humans provided energy as well as the computers having
a need to protect them? And as for protection... it
would allow the machines to hunt down individual
humans in order to save the mass... sacrifice a couple
thousand to save billions.
>For purposes of a game, I think I'd throw out the
concept of a savior (the
>"One")... at least as fact. Once the savior shows
up, things change too
>much. (Maybe... supposedly The Matrix was all a
setup to do a superhero
>movie as a sequel... we'll see how they do.) So I
might keep it as a
>legend, but I don't think I'd go quite so far as
Neo's final ability.
The sequals suffer from "Every Issue Has New and More
Powerful Baddies" syndrom, which I think was dumb... I
mean, in the first one three squid robots was a huge
deal... in the later ones a hover ship could take
dozens and still be ok. I also don't like the idea of
The One as a character in an RPG as he or she would be
too powerful.
>But in either case, faithful adaptation or concept
adaptation, you come
>down to the problem of defining just what people can
and cannot do. How
>does an adept manipulate the Matrix? How far can
they stretch it? Which
>rules can be bent, which can be broken? A solid,
clearly understood model
>is important, in my opinion. I came up with a model
early on, but it's
>based on an object-oriented database paradigm and I'm
not sure a
>non-programmer could really work with it.
I think that the Magick system found in Mage: The
Ascension could be adapted fairly well to handle
hackers of the Matrix.
>If I were going to write rules to deal with
manipulating the Matrix, I'd
>be inclined to go with a simple "pool" of sorts.
Each combat round, you'd
>get X points (based on your ability) to manipulate
things... spread 'em
>thin or pile 'em on one ability, etc. That would be
faster than asking
>for Willpower rolls (or whatever) for every time they
want to bend or
>break a rule.
I don't like 'pools', but perhaps a Fudge Points
system could be used in a similar way as you
describe.... but I'd rather handle it much like a
high-powered magic campaign.
>Oh, the other problem that has to be dealt with...
the "hardline". I've
>never come up with a model that makes it make sense.
What is it? When
>they "cut it" you can't get out... but you're still
connected? As if
>you've "uploaded" your mind into the Matrix (and they
come close to
>implying that's what's going on.) That doesn't make
sense to me. But the
>type of story they want to tell requires being able
to *trap* people in
>the Matrix looking for a way out... no exciting
fights with agents if you
>can just jack out the moment they show up. If you
could come up with
>something to trap people in the Matrix without a
gross violation of common
>computer sense, it'd help a lot. (Or, you can throw
common sense out and
>buy the "hardline" thing, writing it off as a
necessary function of the
>genre.)
Well, I've been thinking... hover ships have to be in
broadcast depth and they have to find a way to connect
to the Matrix. The Matrix is obviously highly secure,
so the humans would have to find a way to break in...
maybe these weak points coincide with something the
machines represent with certain telephones. As for
being 'trapped', maybe it is easy to monitor and
broadcast small amounts of data into the Matrix... but
to broadcast huge amounts of data (aka: jacking in or
out of the matrix) you have to find those weak points.
The way the movie seems the handle this is that when a
person jacks into the matrix they create mini-programs
that are then controlled by their minds and it's so
real that the brain is fooled into thinking it is
real.... if one were to damage this mini-program you'd
hurt the mind quite badly... it's sort of like a
computer that if it's turned off without being
properly shutdown it would get corrupted.... Oh! Maybe
it can be handled this way: when you are in the Matrix
your mind is a 'file' that's constantly being saved to
and if you jack out inproperly that save file is
corrupted.
Anyways, I'm interested in making a Matrix RPG using
the Fudge engine. I hope others are interested as well.
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