Matrix: 1)the set of conditions which provides a background in which something grows or develops 2)a group of numbers or other symbols arranged in a rectangle which can be used together as a single unit to solve particular mathematical problems 3)a substance in which other things are fixed, buried, etc Via Cambridge Dictionary
The scenario I planned for this year's Morpheus Game had to do with Morpheus and crew returning to the Matrix to find out the true nature of Chaos and the purpose of the Matrix. They were supposed to be captured by Chaosians half-way through and locked in a matrix-induced mental asylum with all of their abilities taken away and doctors telling them that they had suffered from delusional fantasies. (hence, the title) While in this world which mirrors Corwin's shadow-earth, they were to find out that Amber is a series of books in some Matrix worlds written by a guy named Roger Zelazney. Escaping from the asylum, they were still stuck in the world and unable to bring up the pattern and escape. Well, the asylum still made a brief appearance, but due to a very slow start, the rest of the stuff planned for the game had to be scratched and filed away in my mind for next year.
In the original game, we played through each character in their setting and their meeting with Morpheus. I tried to provide this experience to the new players this year but it did not work as well since I had so much plot planned and had to also play through the returning characters and what is going on in "New Amber." (I need to decide on a name for this Amber setting. Morpheus Amber doesn't work since Julian is currently king. Matrix Amber doesn't work since the Matrix and Amber are seperate places. Right now, I'm thinking New Amber. It's not very original, but it works.) The other problem I had running these characters through their scenario was that all three characters came from books I've never read. We had Talia from Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books, Vlad Taltos from Stephen Brust's books and Soulcatcher from Glen Cook's Black Company series. So, I decided to teleport them to a fourth fantasy setting that I'm very familiar with, Elric's Melnibone and have them meet Morpheus there. Having them meet M together helped a little but it still took a while to get started, especialy with one character being extremely uncooperative. (I don't blame the player. She was just playing her character. I should have realized I needed more of a hook for her to get her to work with the other two at finding Morpheus and Amber.)
The Good: The players seemed pretty interesting on how things were working in the new Amber, how the rebuilding is going and what the political situation is. (Current politics in a nutshell- Julian is king. There are some people, such as Vril Dox, who believe that they are more suited to be king and some support Dox because he claims to be Oberon reborn. Most of the New Amberites are in support of Julian.) The players all did a really good job of playing their characters off of eachother. They seemed suprised and pleased with the ending revelation (which I sadly decided I will not reveal to anyone outside of the game).
The Bad: A slow start bogged the game down and although the players seemed very interested in the plot of rebuilding Amber, the plot I had planned was in shadow and the Matrix and I wasn't ready to ad-lib a whole new plot in Amber. The really neat scene I had planned where the Oracle hints to the group at what the true nature of Chaos is didn't happened and instead they got the information by mind-raping Neo.
Story Summary: Years ago, Oberon pattern shifted as far from Amber as he could and planted a tree, Yggdrasil there to mark the place where the power of the Pattern ends. "Beyond this tree lies Chaos."
When the black road crumbled at the end of Morpheus Calling it left survivors from New Zion stranded out in shadow. Morpheus spent the last year travelling shadows (the desert of the real) looking for both survivors and supplies to bring back to Amber. Many of his trips were alone but sometimes he would travel out with others who were doing the same. The black road left shadow an endless desert with only occassional pockets of life. During his most recent trip, Morpheus went out as far as he could looking for the tree, Yggdrasil, and found a huge black wall that borders all of creation. Touching it, he discovers that the black road was actually part of this wall trying to reach Amber and in the wall is a new Matrix. At game start, Morpheus had just returned to Amber and called the returning player characters, Adrienne, Trent "the Uncatchable", Fayne and Aeryn. Two other NPCs were also there: Shayera the four armed blue-skinned woman and Rygel. Morpheus tells them that Amber's enemy is still out there and it is time they found out who the enemy is. Also, he sensed that there was still some people in the Matrix and has already planted in the Matrix the seeds to their freedom. His plan is for them to travel out to the Matrix, rescue the others and try to capture the woman known as Oracle. If possible, he was hoping that they could also capture one of the enemy's flying ships.
Meanwhile in the Matrix....
The Queens Herald, Talia, sensed someone coming up the steps to her room in the tower. She opened the door to find a little girl, "a little," with a far away look. The little tells her that Morpheus, the lord of dreams, came to her in her sleep and told her to tell Talia that she was to seek "the other three." She then starts crying, scared and embaressed for being so bold to approach a herald like that. Talia comforted the girl until she felt better and the girl left.
(To be continued) ((EDIT- I never finished writing this up. Sorry.))
Via Arref, via Meera
This seems like a fun one, so here goes:
Years roleplaying: 15
Favourite three characters? (that I've created) This changes all the time. Right now: Lilly, Anoki and Nightshadow
Least favourite character? (that I've created) Lightray. (No relation to the New Gods character) He was the second character I ever created and a Superman clone. He was sooooo boring to play.
Male or female characters? I've played both but I mostly play men since, for obvious reasons, I understand them better. Still, I don't mind playing women and, as I said above, Lilly is currently one of my favorite characters.
Oldest character? Still playing regularly- Yagyu Jubei; That I would still like to play- Nightshadow; First character ever created- The Eagle
Newest character? Etienne du Lac
Most popular character? (to others) not sure. In the Champions group, probably Chango. In the Amber circles, maybe Alexander.
Character you've (made and) never played? The only one that comes to mind is Hotshot, a GURPS: Supers character. Theres a long story as to why he was never played. I should tell you it sometime.
Which character of yours would be most likely to...
Jump off a bridge? I play several superheroes who could do that routinely. If you mean, to take wild chances, Chango.
Get drunk and pass out? Chango.
Kill somebody in a very unorthodox way? Tie: Chango or Alexander. Chango because of plain wierdness. Alexander because....well....
Get married? Besides the ones already that way? Jubei, if the right women comes along.
Be far too hyper for their own good? Chango
Rape somebody? None of my character would ever rape someone.
Be raped? Alexander o_O The only woman I play right now is Lilly and noone would ever rape her. In human form she's really pretty but anyone who touches her would fall unconcious. In demon form, no one would be interested. See the picture linked to below. Alexander on the other hand, is the character who tends to find himself in predicaments like that.
Get lost and refuse to ask for directions? Chango
Get lung cancer? Lazarus Jones. I haven't played him in years but he's the only smoker I've ever played. Hey, it was the forties. What did we know about lung cancer?
Star in a horror movie? Alexander
Star in a whore movie? I didn't know that was a genre. Chango, the electric gigolo
Star in a video game? Jubei
Make the world a better place? Griffon.
Have a torrid gay love affair? (and this isn't their usual proclivity) Alexander.
Relate each word to a character of yours:
Love: Griffon
Hate: can't think of anyone
Money: Nightshadow
Seduction: Chango, the electric Gigolo! At least, he think he's seductive.
Lies: Alexander
Tragedy: T'Kal
Manipulation: can't think of anyone
Violence: Jubei
Politics: Jubei
Fire: Chango
Ice: Alexander
Would you ever...
Play a prostitute? Sure. It's a living.
Play a musician? Yes.
Play a pilot? Already have.
Play a homosexual? Yes.
Play a pedophile? No.
Play a politician? Already have.
Create a character for the sole purpose of smut? Only if that was the theme of the game.
Lastly, take each of your characters and assign a song to them:
That's a lot of characters. For characters that I'm currently playing in regular games- Griffon's easy- "Superman" by Five for Fighting. The song inspired the character. "Cuz I'm not crazy.... or anything." The players in AFDS may notice that now that he's gotten out of his depression, he's that naive and can fly again.
Anoki- a track from Sacred Spirits, a native american/new age band. I can't remember the title.
Jubei- Some traditional Japanese music. Jubei's old fashioned.
Lilly- I'm thinking about this one, I'll get back to it.
Chango- "Superfreak" He's superfreaky. Depending on his mood he can go from Barry White to Reggae, but "Superfreak" always fits him.
Lei Wu Long- "Kung-Fu Fighting"
Conrad Gareth- This is another one I need to think about and get back to.
...and one character that I haven't played in years: Nightshadow's song is the main theme from Dark Man, composed by Danny Elfman.
What licensed property would you really like to see make the jump to roleplaying games?
The Prisoner is the first thing to come to mind. There was an excellent GURPS supplement for the Prisoner, but I would love to see it get another treatment or more Prisoner books for GURPS.
Vampire Hunter D would make an excellent roleplaying setting with it's elements of high fantasy, science fiction and horror. Characters could play various hunters, mutants or supernaturals.
It's kind of a given that Harry Potter will eventually become a roleplaying game, but it would also make my list.
They wouldn't need their own systems, but I would love to see Isaac Asimov's Robot setting or Ray Bradbury's Mars (Martian Chronicles) become a supplement for GURPS or another existing game.
My all-time favorite wish-list game that will never get made, the wish that will prove the level of my geekiness: Battlestar Galactica! I've got it all figured out. The first book would have all the rules for creating colonial warriors and other members of the ragtag fleet looking for Earth or the Battlestar Pegasus. Adventures could consist of exploratory missions to new worlds, looking for food or fuel, battles/encounters with Cylons, and first contacts with new alien races. Players could be made up of battle-groups of pilots or teams of scientists/explorers for completely different styles of game. Future supplements could include information for playing in the Thirteen Colonies of Man, "Mysticism and the Lords Of Kobol" and Earth! (Setting a game where the characters at last find earth and not making it as bad as Galactica 1980.) Maybe I'll get my wish after the new miniseries premieres on Sci-Fi channel but I'm not wagering any cubits.
Ginger writes: Today's WISH is not about game systems, but about supplements:
What do you think about supplements to game systems? Do you like the additional material, or are you just annoyed about spending the money for the additional rules? Name up to three supplements you've really enjoyed, and describe why you liked them.
I have a love/hate relationship with supplements. I hate paying for them and most supplements don't end up being worth their price, especially at the prices of today's RPGs. As a GM of game set in White Wolf's "World of Darkness", I have bought countless supplements for White Wolf games and they represent the whole spectrum of how good a supplement can be. Many of them add very little of value to the game besides some interesting but poorly written "fluff." However, I'd say about a third of them have quickly found themselves indispensable. In my experience, here are the makings of a great roleplaying supplement:
Alexander's not evil. He's just hungry.-Simone
OK. Alexander has become a much darker and more tragic character than I ever wanted him to be. Training with Nestor, the black knife and last night's actions have built him up to be the perfect villain. Now, I have played evil characters before as a GM, but never before as a player. It's scary. As a player, I know his actions are wrong. In character, I feel completely justified. When I have GM'ed characters like him, I am only in character for short periods of time.
I have denied it for some time, but after last night I have to admit. Alexander is evil. He works hard to repair the pattern and tells everyone that he wants to see Amber restored. He does. He wants to do it himself, so he can control its power. The reason he works so hard at it right now is because he knows that if he doesn't do it quickly he will lose his chance. If Merlin and Colette do it, they will probably do it without him and he misses his chance.
The only saving grace of Alexander is his love for his family. (Simone, Jules and Philip.) Alexander has a strong bond with his full brothers and sisters and even a fairly strong bond with his half brothers and sisters. (Of the half brothers and sisters he feels a strong loyalty to Renee, Colette, Merlin and Henry.) His bond to these family members is far more important than his hunger for power. There have been times in the past that he could have greatly helped himself by betraying these family members, but he would never have thought of it. In fact he would probably take the proverbial bullet for any of the before-named family members.