Matrix D20 (PEACH)

[imp_fireball]

http://dicefreaks.superforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2170&p=55056#p55056

Still a work in progress.

Haven't thought of turning it into a whole game setting. Still reliant on feedback.

Have a few other projects, but this one could probably get done pretty quickly if reviews turn out positive.

[Ravens_Wing]

Here is a Post Matrix campaign idea I had ages ago.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33928


Your Stats were far more fleshed out than anything I ever got around to putting together. But if you like take a look and feel free to use any ideas you can get out of it. I never got around to running it so if others can get use out of it they are welcome to it.

[Anonymouswizard]

The rebels need bonus strength, dexterity, speed, and unarmed damage in the matrix (due to them being able to bend the rules). Maybe something along the lines of:

Fighter ACF
Insert name here
In exchange for your 1st level bonus feat you gain the following benefits when you are in the matrix: a +4 enhancement bonus to strength and dexterity, a +10 bonus to speed and deal d6 lethal damage with unarmed attacks.

As far as I know Neo couldn't dominate machines.

[imp_fireball]

The rebels need bonus strength, dexterity, speed, and unarmed damage in the matrix (due to them being able to bend the rules). Maybe something along the lines of:

Fighter ACF
Insert name here
In exchange for your 1st level bonus feat you gain the following benefits when you are in the matrix: a +4 enhancement bonus to strength and dexterity, a +10 bonus to speed and deal d6 lethal damage with unarmed attacks.

As far as I know Neo couldn't dominate machines.

Read the wiki.

Also, the ACF is a good idea.

EDIT: Made them feats.

[imp_fireball]

Bump (I think thread necro is 7 months, am I wrong?).

Anyway...

I was going to say that different Red Pills demonstrate different abilities in the matrix and I'm not sure if it can represent a linear feat chain.

The idea I'm going with currently is the feat chain - so pretty much every red pill burns a level or two in fighter. Outside of the matrix, everything depends on tactics and thinking and advancement is based largely on personal finance (or WBL which is not so much WBL but wealth by (time playing the game or XP) - outside of the matrix, PCs can die very easily since they're just human flesh and bones so in order to become better skilled, they have to spend XP that they earn on perks. On rare occassions, they may gain an additional HD to reflect natural tenacity central on survival (ie. stabbed in the lung or heart; through pure will power, they can still walk) as well as heavier pain tolerance, etc.

The matrix (particularly the animatrix, at least I found) is largely romance/sexual themed (the movie is more just typical drama romance/epic romance among two heros or whatever), so in regards to roleplaying, players should be prepared for that. I won't create anything to necessarily encourage it, but just say that it is possible that you might have a couple doin' it in a virtual environment (like in the animatrix, again).

Outside the matrix, there isn't much direct combat - direct combat is mostly a desperation scenario (unless it involves powered armor or vehicles), so a lot of the roleplaying and character development will be based on mingling with the crew. A crew is where most of the adventure is had - without a 22nd century tech hover ship, you can't really get out of Zion - it's all empty tunnels and lots of walking otherwise. Also there's barely any other vehicles besides hover ships and hover ships are essential to preserving Zion's way of life. Progress Level wise, Zion is largely rooted in the bronze/iron age way of life. People, as residents, live poor, but there's the odd high-tech computer system here and there and the hover ships utilize the highest degree of military tech that mankind has available.

Government wise, Zion is oligarchical and feigned democracy (a trait of many oligarchies), where a few groups elect a new council member every so often - the actual government is Zion's council.

Inside the matrix, PCs could fulfill various missions (ie. collect a package from a keymaster, or whatever) - and there's also the potential for the more classy direct combat and dungeon crawling. PCs have much more Hp in the matrix, since their will alone can sustain their bodies (if they do die, it's usually from a brain ayneurism; also the fluff seems to suggest that taking intense wounds in the matrix and suffering pain (all felt of course), can cause typical psychosomatic related injury such as bleeding from the nose in the real world as the red pill is forced to exert incredible will power to stay alive - in the matrix will power has more meaning and is of course as largely dependent on physical bodies). So jacking into the matrix is sort of like a meditative/martial art.

If there are psions (ie.; not necessarily wizards since the whole studying spells and readying/day mechanic makes no sense if everything relies on will to make it happen), their abilities may only work in the matrix - they specialize in a meditative art that allows them to control the matrix externally. They could also probably expend psionic focus (or retain greater psionic focus with a larger concentrate DC) to recover power points more quickly.

Fighting Agents is hard - agents can adapt and ressurrect themselves (like tarrasques) if you don't kill them permanently (killing a specific agent permanently is a very specific hack that other agents can adapt and render themselves immune to; then there's epic abilities like what Neo has of course - the sort of things that bump PCs up to 15 or 20+ solo CR and come at epic level equivalent inside the matrix).

Killing an agent can be easy (just surprise one) but their combat prowess is absolutely epic and so a direct turn by turn encounter will most likely kill a PC outright (unless an operator saves him without a phone booth; a difficult hack probably).
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On a ship, PCs will typically be ruled under by an NPC captain early on. Later on, if they make enough money (and they need ALOT), they can purchase a hover craft of their own and be it's commander - and what comes with that is looking after and maintaining it as well as choosing your own crew. Being a ship captain isn't a military position (Zion doesn't really have much of an official military except border guardians), so much as a trade - fortunately such a trade is most profitable when it serves Zion (since machines of all kinds exist in the outside world ready to kill you).

Operator PCs are essentially hackers with reflexes. Use Technological Device is a key skill for them (for making something work when they want it to or work at all). The job of operator isn't a class however - it's merely just a job covered by some skills... but PCs can get better at it though (maybe with a perk or skill trick system again). This way, operators can do more than one thing or serve one role - Tank, ie. (first Matrix movie), had high pain tolerance (more than one HD) and could use a lightning gun quite proficiently. As a perk, he could have taken 'second wind' (adopted from modern).

The lightning gun itself mainly just burns living creatures with its electrical damage - against constructs like the machines however, it can short out circuits and ignore hardness (if the construct has vulnerability to the damage).