Feng Shui is a
great roleplaying system for a lot of reasons. The Matrix is a
great action movie where a lot of things blow up get shot (just pretend
that Reloaded and Revolutions never happened, if you like). The
two are a match made in heaven ! Here's the rationale how a new
juncture could open up in the Feng Shui universe to incorporate the
world of The Matrix, a few rules for running characters in The Matrix,
and some short fiction.
Important Timeline Events from the Feng
Shui Book
Important Timeline Events not from the Feng Shui Book
Game Notes
Trinity Battles the Buro in 2056 -
Short Fiction
Trinity Character Description for Feng Shui
These are the events as told in the Feng Shui Rulebook. They're
only presented here in order to draw your attention to them.
- 1996 - The Ascended
control the world. This is a present juncture (like 2056, 1850 and 69)
according to the book.
- 2014 - First meeting
of the Cross-Disciplinary Convergence Association (CDCA). Beginnings of
Arcanowave technology and Feng Shui are discussed by scientists.
- 2025 - The UN starts
controlling 3rd world countries by use of force. The CDCA is completely
funded and controlled by the UN.
- 2037 - The UN Bureau
of Tactical Management (BTM) controls the CDCA and starts to put
military installations on Feng Shui sites in 3rd world countries. The
CDCA opens the first Netherworld gate. The control of the Ascended over
third world countries is gone. The Ascended in industrialized nations
fail to realize that they have a problem.
- 2042 - The first
Abominations roll out of the CDCA's labs and onto battlefields. Nations
controlled by the BTM are police states. The Jammers are formed and
start blowing up things, particularly military installations around
Feng Shui sites.
- 2051 - The UN is
dissolved. The BTM (now called the Buro) has so much chi that 98% of
the Earth's population vote to put them in charge. The Ascended die out
without a whimper. The chief arcanowave scientist - Dr. Curtis
Boatman - and the buropresident - Johann Bonengel - decide to start
attacking Feng Shui sites in 1996.
- 2056 - Another
present juncture, according to the book.
- Not
From the Book -
These are the events
that happened to add The Matrix to the campaign millieu of Feng
Shui. Some are directly from the movie, others are my own
creation.
- 2069 - The hovercraft
Nebuchanezzar is built. It is one of the last large combat hovercraft
built completely without any arcanowave technology.
- 2149 - The first
arcanowave technology AI is made. It's an organic machine, more like a
cyborg computer that is heavily reliant on grafted in parts of several
human brains.
- 2178 - The arcanowave
AIs are somewhat common high-end computers. They are incorporated into
several important defense systems, the stock market, and a few large
machines that control military and civilian logistics.
- 2184 - The machines
secretly ally together. They build one ultra-secret base at ground zero
at the now abandoned Los Alamos nuclear test site. The radiation
doesn't bother them. Sentient arcanowave AI robots are built there.
They start infiltrating the military bases with Feng Shui sites and
taking them over. After all, an AI staff is much more efficient, and
trustworthy, than a merely human staff.
- 2191 - The machines
rebel. They physically take several Feng Shui sites from the Buro. A
pitched battle between the Buro and the Machines takes place. How the
war actually started is a mystery to anyone without the perfect memory
of the machines and they aren't talking. The Jammers form an uneasy
alliance with the Buro against the machines. Most of the leadership of
the Buro dies from Machine attacks, and from infighting within the Buro.
- 2200 - The forces of
Earth, now led by the Jammers, finally seize control of several nuclear
missile sites. They explode nuclear missiles in the air. They hope the
massive machine casualties from the hundreds of nuclear EMPs combined
with the lack of solar power will tip the balance in the war. Many
missiles are directed towards Feng Shui sites, which are destroyed.
Magic becomes very, very difficult for the few remaining human
sorcerers.
- 2201 - The
machines start using nuclear power. They store energy in highly
efficient capacitors for use by mobile units. Many mobile machines are
equipped to burn methane or hydrogen in fuel cells. The methane and
hydrogen are harvested from huge reaction vats of relatively common
bacterial cultures.
- 2204 - The few
straggling humans left alive are mostly Jammers. They realize that the
missiles have not damaged the machines terminally. The Jammers build
tunnels into the Earth, seeking the heat of the Earth's core against a
nuclear winter. The humans build a new base of operations against the
machines. Zion is founded.
- 2208 - The machines
keep trying to build totally mechanical inorganic AIs and are
unsuccessful. A scientific program run by machines into the nature of
chi yields three interesting results.
1)
Any purely inorganic robot cannot control chi.
2) A human intelligence can exert more control over chi than a cyborg
AI.
3) A dreaming human
can exert more control over chi than a human that is sedated. The first
Matrix units are built so that the machines can use the dreaming human
consciousness as a filter and a focus for chi energy of Feng Shui
sites. Of course, the process is hideously inefficient.
- 2210 - The machines
have built extensive farms of thousands of humans at each Feng Shui
site to properly tune the chi energy. The machines spread deliberate
misinformation to the humans in Zion. The humans (who have devolved
scientifically) truly believe that the machines need the humans for
energy. Of course, anyone with basic biological knowledge in 1996 would
know that this is completely impossible, because biology is just about
the most inefficient way to generate heat or electricity, especially if
nuclear power
is available. The knowledge of chi and of Feng Shui sites is lost to
the remaining humans.
- 2214 - Mr. Anderson,
alias Neo, is released from the Matrix. The events of the movie, The
Matrix occur.
- 2216 - The numbers of
free humans have swelled thanks to Neo and Trinity's actions within the
Matrix. The machines start losing control of a few of the remaining
Feng Shui sites. Neo re-discovers the power of chi, which explains some
of his amazing powers within the Matrix.
- 2217 - is a fifth
current juncture (like 69, 1850, 1996 and 2056.) Neo and Morpheus
disappear through a Netherworld gate IRL and disappear. Trinity breaks
through a maximum security machine base near where the heart of Hong
Kong used to be. She has to defeat the security in the Matrix, and then
break through IRL. She jumps through the same gate that Neo and
Morpheus went through and lands in the Netherworld. After a series of
misadventures, she ends up on the streets of 1996 looking for ways to
find her lover and mentor. She's also looking for a way to cause a
critical shift so the Architects never create an arcanowave AI.
Important
note, as far as Trinity knows (and many other people too) there are
Feng Shui Netherworld gates that go in between 2056, 1996, 1850 and 69.
None go TO 2217. The only gate known to Trinity in 2217 goes back to
1996. She has no known way to return home. Of course, "home" means
nothing without Neo and Morpheus.
Within
the
Matrix, any conscious human has a much greater control of chi than the
humans that are caught within the Matrix. This means that in the
Matrix, a conscious human will have extra fu powers that normally
aren't available IRL. Eventually, some of this training will transfer.
(As the player gains experience points and earns them naturally.) This
means that playing Feng Shui in the Matrix is a very high power game.
I'd suggest letting players add several fu or gun shticks, adding
several points to their stats and several points to their skills. Of
course, if they need a new skill in the Matrix, all they have to do is
call Tank...
On the
other hand, there are the Agents (Smith, Brown, Jones, Johnson...). In
my game the agents would be something like this...
Attributes:
Body 15, Chi 3 (Fu = 8), Mind 10, Ref 15
Skills:
Guns +5 (20), Martial Arts +5 (20), Police +5 (15), Detective +5 (15),
Driving (+3) 18, Intimidation +7 (17), Intrusion +2 (17),
Sabotage +2 (17)
Dodge 20,
Active Dodge 23, Parry 23
Shticks:
Fast draw, Hair Trigger Neck Hairs, Lightning Reload x3, Prodigous
Leap, Abundant Leap, Gathering of Clouds, Awesome Downpour.
Special
notes:
Killing
Agents: Should a PC actually inflict 35 points of damage on one
of
these guys, then the agent dissapears, and the PC is left with a dead
body (probably that of an innocent civilian). The agent can
reappear from
another human in the Matrix in a minute. Literally. If you're the
GM start counting seconds, and give your players one minute of real
time... and watch 'em sweat.
Agents
Transferring: If an Agent doesn't like the situation he's in,
he can
leave the body of the human he's in, and reappear in another. It always
takes the software a minute to affect the transfer.
The
One: Neo is a special case. Agents cannot hit him, cannot
hurt
him. He has special fu powers that allow him to destroy them.
This should be different for each game master as appropriate for her
campaign.
|
