PERSONA: THE DIGITAL PROJECTION OF YOUR PHYSICAL SELF

The Persona is the character’s presence in the Matrix.  Obviously, only Freeminds have Personas; Freeborns lack the hardware to generate one, and ordinary Humans don’t know any better.
When in the Matrix, Freeminds gain 2 points to their Mental and Physical Damage Thresholds, and 1 point to their Wound tallies, as they are aware that the damage that they are suffering is not real.  While using their Persona, characters may also make use of their Hacking abilities (see Hacking Abilities, below).
Because of all of these alterations to the character’s bare bones, a Freemind’s Matrix Persona Attributes and such are recorded on a separate sheet.  Note also that the Matrix Persona sheet has new spaces for age, sex, and appearance.  This is because a person’s Residual Self-Image – what the character looked like when they were in the Matrix – does not necessarily match the character’s appearance in the Real World.  See the Matrix comic ‘Burning Hope’ on the Matrix Website for proof of this.

Of the two characters, only Jason’s has a Persona.  The gains to his Thresholds and Wounds give him the following new stats:

  THERE IS NO SPOON: HACKING ABILITIES

For the purposes of the game, all Freeminds have the ability to bend the rules of the Matrix in the same fashion that most of them would bend the rules of the computer system; hence, these abilities are known as Hacking abilities.  Freeborns and ordinary Humans do not have access to these abilities, which only work while the Freemind is jacked into the Matrix.
There are three types of Hacking ability.  Persona abilities affect the character’s Persona and its reactions to the Matrix.  Combat abilities increase the character’s prowess in combat.  Movement abilities affect the character’s ability to move through the Matrix.  Characters distribute points equal to twice their Belief score, plus any modifiers for Priority, between any Hacking abilities they want.

COMBAT ABILITIES

Aiming
Type: Active
Use: Automatic
Duration: Permanent
Aiming augments the character’s prowess in ranged combat.  Each level reduces the Target for ranged attacks by 1, to a minimum of 2.  It can also be used to cancel out penalties for vision and aiming factors, although it cannot be used to cancel out the penalty for Total Darkness or Blindness, as the character cannot see at all.

Armour Bypass
Type: Active
Use: Player’s choice, whenever desired
Duration: Instantaneous
Armour Bypass allows the character to ignore some or all of their opponent’s armour while attacking.
Immediately after the character draws for the attack, they draw again, against their Armour Bypass score against a Target of 6, and consult the table below:

The reduction applies to both the Armour Value and the Absorption Value of the armour; fractions are rounded down to the nearest point for the Armour Value and down to the nearest 10% for the Absorption Value.  For example: Engel, with Armour Bypass: 6, is attacking a street thug wearing an armoured coat (Impact 4/50).  She is successful in the attack, and draws three successes on the Armour Bypass test.  This means that instead of the coat absorbing 4 points of damage and 50 percent of the remaining damage, it only stops (4×25%=)1 point of damage, and absorbs (50×25%=12.5% rounded down to)10% of the remaining damage.

Blind Fighting
Type: Passive
Use: Automatic
Duration: Permanent
Blind Fighting allows the character to use a sixth sense to orientate themselves while they cannot see.  Each Level in this ability removes 1 Rank of vision modifiers.  Hence, a person with Blind Fighting: 5 is equally at home acting in Full Darkness (+5 difficulty) as in normal light.

Improvised Missile
Type: Active
Use: Player’s choice, whenever desired
Duration: Instantaneous
Improvised Missile allows the character to turn almost any object into a ranged weapon.  As a rule of thumb, small objects (pens, bottles) have a base damage of 1, medium-sized objects (chair-legs, bricks) 3, large (chairs, tyres) 5, and extra large (doors, tables) 7.  It is up to the GM to decide what type of damage (Blade, Impact or (in rare cases) Ballistic) the object does in combat.  A character must have a Strength Attribute equal to the damage dealt by the item in order to wield it; so a character with Strength: 5 would not be able to use anything over Large size as a weapon.  In addition, the character must have the Level in this ability equal to the damage of the weapon being used (ie Level 1 for small, Level 3 for medium, and so on).

Improvised Weapon
Type: Active
Use: Player’s choice, whenever desired
Duration: Sustained
Improvised Weapon allows the character to turn almost any object into a weapon.  As a rule of thumb, small objects (pens, bottles) have a base damage of 2, medium-sized objects (chair-legs, belts) 4, large (chairs, tyres) 6, and extra large (doors, tables) 8.  It is up to the GM to decide what type of damage (Blade or Impact) the object does in combat.  A character must have a Strength Attribute equal to the damage dealt by the item in order to wield it; so a character with Strength: 6 would not be able to use anything over Large size as a weapon.  In addition, the character must have the Level  in this ability equal to the damage of the weapon being used (ie Level 2 for small, Level 4 for medium, and so on).

Increased Damage
Type: Active
Use: Player’s choice, whenever desired
Duration: Sustained
Each Level of Increase Damage allows the character to add 2 points to the base base damage of a close-combat weapon, up to a limit of twice the weapon’s initial damage.  It also allows the character to cause Physical damage (as opposed to Stun damage) with their bare hands.  This increase in bare-haded damage goes one way or the other; the character may either increase the Stun damage done by two points per level of Increase Damage, or cause Physical damage at the character’s normal Stun damage level, but not both.

Missile Parry
Type: Active
Use: Character’s choice, 1 use per Combat Turn.
Duration: Instantaneous
Missile Parry allows the character to deflect and catch slow-moving missiles.  To deflect a missile, The character must draw against this ability against a Target of 8; if successful, the missile does no damage, and is deflected in a random direction.  To catch a missile, the character must draw against a Target of 11.  If this is successful, the missile ends up in the character’s hand, and does no damage; the character may do with the missile what they will in their next Combat Action.
If the character fails to parry or catch a missile, then the missile does normal damage; if the character scores a Critical Failure, it does double damage.  This ability may be used once per Combat Turn; it does not count as the character’s action for the turn.

Nerve Strike
Type: Active
Use: Player’s choice, whenever desired.
Duration: Instantaneous
By using knowledge of pressure points, a character with Nerve Strike can use pinpoint attacks to immobilise an opponent in combat. When used, the character makes an ordinary combat roll, using the level of this ability in place of their Martial Arts or Brawling score.  Instead of causing damage with the attack, this ability reduces the opponent’s Quickness by one per success.  If Quickness is reduced to zero by a Nerve Strike, the opponent is immobilised.
For example: Engel (Nerve Strike: 6) is squared off against a rent-a-cop (Quickness 4, Brawling: 4) who stands between her and an exit.  She wants to get out fast, so she throws herself at the cop, using her Nerve Strike to bring him down without killing him.  In the first round of combat, Engel draws a massive 5 successes, and the cop manages only one.  Instead of taking Stun damage, the cop loses (5-1=)4 points of Quickness.  Because this reduces his Quickness to 0, he sinks to the ground, unable to move, and Engel gets away clean.
Lost Quickness points return at the rate of 1 point per day.

Smashing Blow
Type: Active
Use: Player’s choice, whenever desired.
Duration: Instantaneous
With this ability, characters can punch through solid walls as if they were cardboard, and break bones as if they were dry twigs – all without hurting themselves.  The character must be unarmed to use this ability, as it hardens the character’s Persona, and not what the character is carrying/wielding.
Consult the table below for the relative ease of breaking different materials:

When attempting to break through the material, the player draws using this ability against the Target listed above.  One success opens a hole of up to half a metre in diameter in the barrier; every success above it increases this maximum by a further half-metre.  If the character fails, then they suffer Physical damage equal to the Target.  A Critical Failure indicates that the character has broken their limb: the character automatically receives 2 Physical Wounds, and cannot use the limb until it is healed.
If a character fails to break open the surface, they may try again, at one level higher than the first attempt. This penalty decreases at rate of 1 level per hour.  The explanation for this is contained in one of Nu*ton’s laws of Matrix Construction:
“There is a tendency for all Matrix-Code building materials to be more resilient than their real-world counterparts – they are also able to repair themselves.  Hence, if a part of the Matrix is attacked but not destroyed, it is immediately reinforced by the Machines.”
For example: AJ needs to get through a welded-shut fire door in a hurry – the explosives he has wired are due to go off at any minute.  The door is made of aluminium (Target 16), and AJ has Breaking Blow 6.  He draws his five cards: two threes, a seven, and eight, and a nine, none of which are high enough to break the door.  Unfortunately, AJ also suffers 16 points of Physical damage.  Frantically, AJ searches for another way out – and promptly smacks himself on the forehead.  The walls around the door are brick, which at a Target of 8 is much easier to break than the door itself.  The last attempt saddled AJ with a Physical Wound, so the Target is up to 9; however, he still gets five chances to draw something higher than a 9.  AJ steels himself and winds up, drawing an ace, a four, a six, a nine and a ten for two successes.  AJ blasts a metre-wide hole in the wall and jumps through just in time.
The larger effects of this ability need to be made when using it in potentially dangerous situations.  For example, what happens if a stray punch knocks out the last support of a rickety building?
Reference: Agent Smith in the subway fight scene.

MOVEMENT ABILITIES

Dodge
Type: Active
Use: Player’s choice, whenever desired
Duration: See Below
Dodge allows the character to move out of the way of faster missiles not covered by Missile Parry.  Instead of defending, the player draws cards allowed for the level of the ability against a Target of 8, and consults the table below:

So if a character with a leather jacket (Ballistic 2/20) tries to Dodge an incoming bullet and draws two successes, his actual armour ratings for that shot (and all shots in that turn) are 5/50.
Because it tends to leave the character vulnerable in close combat, this ability is used more often against ranged attacks.  Note also that the character cannot attack while this ability is active.
Once activated, this ability continues against all attacks for that Combat Round with the same effect.  At the start of the next turn, the character either rolls again or deactivates the ability.
Reference: Neo and Agent Brown on the roof of the Government Building.

Free Fall
Type: Passive
Use: Automatic
Duration: Permanent
A character with this ability can fall up to two metres per level without fear of injury.  If a character falls further than the maximum distance they are protected against, then they take damage based solely on the remaining distance.  Note that this ability gives no protection against what might be on the ground where the character will land (like glass, flames, or a cartload of Agents…)
Reference: the group’s landing in the basement of the ambush building.

Increased Reaction
Type: Passive
Use: Automatic
Duration: Permanent
This ability increases the character’s Reaction and Speed.  Consult the table below for bonuses:

Reference: Neo and Trinity in the Lobby

Leap
Type: Active
Use: Player’s choice, once per distance
Duration: Instantaneous
Leap allows the character to jump extraordinary distances.  For each level of this ability, the character may lower the Target of any jumps by two; as always, this bonus cannot lower the Target below 2.

Note that this table shows the limits for running jumps; for standing-start jumps, add 1 Level to the difficulty.
Example: Trinity wants to clear a seven metre wide gap between two buildings.  She has Leap: 3 and is 170cm tall, so the gap is just over 4 times her height – ordinarily, that’s a draw against her Athletics skill with a Target of 14, but with Leap, Trinity only needs to beat a Target of 8.
This ability also allows the character to jump inhuman distances, provided that they have enough of a run up and a high enough Leap ability.  Every 10% or .5 of the character’s height over and above the maximum unaided jump adds two points to the jump Target, which can then be cancelled by the character’s Leap ability.  For example: Engel (Leap Level 7, height 190cm) needs to clear a fifteen-metre gap.  Fifteen metres is outside the regular human jump range – but Engel isn’t a normal human.  Legs pumping, she throws herself out across the void…  Fifteen metres is just less than eight times Engel’s height, which makes it a jump against a Target of 32!  However, as she has such a high Leap score, Engel’s player only has draw against a target of (32-14=)18.  Also, with her enhanced jumping ability, Engel’s maximum jump is 8.5 times her height, or about 16 metres.
The Vertical Leap distances shown above are a measure of how high a character can jump and land on their feet; a character’s height must be factored in if the character is attempting to leap and grab onto something, rather than land on it.  For example, if Trinity (175 cm) wants to leap and grab a fire escape three metres above the alley floor, then she only has to leap (300-170=) 130cm.  130cm is about 76% of 175cm, which makes it draw against a Target of 16.  However, as she has Leap at Level 3, Trinity only has to beat a Target of 8.
Reference: Trinity in the opening chase scene.

Limited Levitation
Type: Active
Use: Player’s choice, once per Turn
Duration: Instantaneous
Limited Levitation allows the character to become airborne for a limited amount of time – to be specific, one Combat Turn, or about three seconds.  While this may not seem to be a lot, it can give the character an edge over their opponents. For exmaple, if it is used against a Copper-top (human still trapped in the Matrix) then they viewers draw against their Willpower with a target of 10. If they fail, they spend their next Turn staring blankly at the person who just hovered three feet in the air before kicking their partner across the room...
Limited Levitation also extends the character’s ‘height’ by 5% per Level when calculating the difficulty of the jump, rounded down to the nearest centimetre.  So a 165cm tall character with Limited Levitation: 7 would use an objective height of 220cm.
This ability also adds half of its Rank to the character’s Free Fall ability in determining the distance a character can fall without injury.  So, a character with Free Fall Level 5 and Limited Levitation Level 4 can fall up to ([5+2]×2=)14 metres without injury.
Note that this ability is simple levitation, and not true flight.  A character cannot control their direction while in the air (although they can determine their direction on take-off), nor can it be sustained indefinitely.
Reference: Trinity in first fight scene/her dive at the end of the first chase scene.

Quick Draw
Type: Passive
Use: Automatic
Duration: Instantaneous
This ability allows the character to draw and attack in the same motion, removing the need for the character to use an action to ready their weapon.
Reference: Neo on the roof of the Government Building

Quick Strike
Type: Active
Use: Player’s choice, whenever desired
Duration: Instantaneous
This ability allows the character to attack first in the Combat Turn, regardless of their Reaction score.  This only counts for the first pass; after this, the character resumes their place in order.  If more than one character uses this ability, resolve who goes first in the same manner as ties in Reaction (highest Speed goes first, then highest draw).

Spider Climb
Type: Active
Use: Player’s choice, whenever desired
Duration: Sustained
Spider Climb allows the character to traverse seemingly impassible vertical surfaces.  The character may add the level of this ability to their Climbing skill (or use it in place of it, if the character doesn’t have it) when climbing, to a maximum of 10.  It also reduces the Targets for climbing by its level.

Tracelessness
Type: Active
Use: Player’s choice, whenever desired
Duration: Permanent
A character with Tracelessness leaves less of an impression on the environment than most people.  Every Level adds 1 to the character’s Stealth Attribute for any attempts to physically find or track the character by the trail they leave on the environment.
Tracelessness also has an impact on the character’s interaction with their immediate environment.  Characters with this ability do not leave fingerprints or any type of forensic evidence like hair and skin flakes (although they will still bleed), nor do they exert enough force to trip most sensors (the notable exceptions being those that work with light – IR beam and plain light sensors).  They also have negligible signature in the infra-red spectrum (+2 to Targets to spot them with thermographic vision systems), and make no sound as they move (+2 to Target to hear them).
Note that this ability only extends to the character’s immediate person and possessions; while it will muffle a character’s footsteps, if the character breaks a window or fires a gun, they will be heard – and well, in the case of the shot.

PERSONA ABILITIES

Ambidexterity
Type: Passive
Use: Player’s choice, whenever desired
Duration: Permanent
Ambidexterity allows the character to use either hand with a degree of competency; ordinarily, a character using an off-hand is automatically at +2 to the Target for anything they have to do.  When using this ability, the character uses the level of this ability when using the other hand. Note that this means that the character may be better with their off-hand than their regular hand.  In this case, the character must use the lower of either this score or their natural score.
For example: Mary, with Rank 7 Ambidexterity, wants to hose down a group of SWAT team officers with her twin Uzis (SMG: 8).  She draws them both and holds down the triggers; her first Uzi, held in her off-hand, shoots with a skill of 7, while the second shoots with Mary’s normal Machine Gun skill of 8.  If Mary had Ambidexterity at Level 8 instead of Level 7, she would have taken both shots with her initial Machine Gun score of 8.
There is a down side to this ability: using a burst-fire or full-auto weapon in one hand still attracts a Target penalty of 1 for every three bullets fired.  In the above example, for instance, both bursts attract an automatic +1 Target penalty.
Reference: Neo mowing down security in the lobby of the Government Building.

Armour
Type: Passive
Use: Automatic
Duration: Permanent
Armour toughens a character’s Matrix persona, making it less susceptible to damage.  Consult the table below for the bonuses to armour.

This armour is cumulative with any other armour worn, and does not count towards Encumbrance (see Armour).  This armour is also impervious to damage and Wear.  So, a character with Armour at Rank 6 wearing a leather jacket (2/10-1/10-0/10-1/10) would actually have Armour Ratings of 5/50-4/50-2/30-1/20.

Enhanced Senses
Type: Passive
Use: Player’s choice, whenever desired/Automatic
Duration: Permanent
A character with Enhanced Senses has honed one of their senses to superhuman levels, or has developed a sense that ordinary humans do not have.  Examples include:
Distance Vision: the character has developed vision comparable with eagles.  Any distance modifiers are reduced by 2, and all Targets for ranged combat are reduced by one.
Microscopic Vision: the character has developed the ability to see very small objects.  All Repair draws are made as if the Wear was one point less than indicated; if the Repair is being made on Electronics or similarly miniaturised equipment, the Wear is reduced by two for the purposes of the draw.
Enhanced Hearing/Smell/Touch/Taste: the character’s ears have developed to an almost animalistic level.  All tests based on these senses are made at –3 to the Target.  However, any attacks directed at the sense (Rotten Egg/ Tear Gas vs Smell, Concussion Grenades vs hearing, Flash Grenades vs Sight) act at double efficiency.
Direction Sense: the character can gauge which way they are facing, as well as their position relative to sea/ground level.
Timing: the character can tell the time, to the minute, without any outside aid.  This sense may be affected by changes in time zones, or long periods of travel, isolation, or unconsciousness.
Sense Dampening: the companion ability to Enhanced Sense, it removes the penalty for attacks against the enhanced sense.  If the character does not have the enhanced sense, reduce the power of any attacks by half instead.  This ability must be purchased separately for each sense.
Cat’s Eyes: the character can see in the dark.  As long as there is some light source, the character ignores darkness vision modifiers.  There is a drawback to this ability: unless the character has Sense Dampening for their sight, they suffer twice the listed modifiers for bright lights.
Thermographic Vision: the character has developed the ability to see into the infra-red spectrum, allowing them to see heat signatures.  This ability functions as a pair of infra-red goggles with regards to vision modifiers.
Every Level in this ability gives the character two types of enhanced sense.

Increased Physical/Mental Attribute
Type: Passive
Use: Automatic
Duration: Permanent
This ability allows a character to permanently increase an Attribute by one level per ability Level. The ability it must be purchased separately for each Attribute.  This increase may alter any associated abilities; for example, an increase in Endurance will alter a person’s Thresholds and Death’s Door. Attributes may not rise above 10 using this ability.
This ability is limited to half the character’s initial level in the increased Attribute.  Increasing a Primary Attribute costs two points per level; increasing a Secondary Attribute costs 1 point per level.  A character cannot increase their Belief Attribute with this ability; any additions to Willpower or intelligence will not raise it.

Increased Flash Memory
Type: Passive
Use: Automatic
Duration: Permanent
Each level of this ability adds 1 level to the character’s Flash Memory, up to a maximum of twice the character’s initial Flash Memory.  Every two levels also increase the number of skills a character can have by 1.

Increased Stamina
Type: Passive
Use: Automatic
Duration: Permanent
Increased Stamina increases the amount of damage the character can take while in the Matrix.  Consult the table below for the increase to Thresholds and Wound Tallies:

Reference: Morpheus.  ‘Nuff said.

Poison Resistance
Type: Passive
Use: Automatic
Duration: Permanent
This ability gives the character resistance to poisons and toxins in the Matrix, including nerve and tear gas.  When trying to resist the effects of the toxin, subtract the Level of this ability from the Power of the poison.

Rejuvenation
Type: Passive
Use: Automatic
Duration: See Below
This ability grants the character superhuman powers of healing.  At the start of each Combat Turn after the character has been hurt (before Reaction is drawn), the player draws against this ability, and consults the table below.

Effects are cumulative; so if Cosmo, with Level 4 Rejuvenation, drew three successes, he would gain back 16 points of Physical and Stun damage, as well as 1 Wound from each category.  This healing continues until the character is returned to full health.
Like many Hacking abilities, Rejuvenation is not a mystical, fairy-tale ability – it has its limits.  Rejuvenation will not regenerate lost body parts, nor can it cure diseases, or help someone to see, hear, or walk again.  Such miracles are the province of the Potentials…

Resist Pain
Type: Passive
Use: Automatic
Duration: Permanent
Resist Pain allows the character to ignore Target modifiers that come with injury.  Every Level cancels out the effects of one Wound, and a separate tally is kept for Stun and Physical Wounds.
For example: Engel has Resist Pain Level 3.  She takes two Stun Wounds from a police officer with a stun baton, and another three Physical Wounds from falling from a fourth-storey window.  However, as she has not suffered more than three Wounds in either category, she is free of penalties.  However, if an Agent shot Engel for another Physical Wound, she would be saddled with a +1 Target Rank modifier, because she now has 4 Physical Wounds, one more than she can handle with no penalty.
Note that this in no way increases the amount of damage the character can sustain; If Engel above was only able to take 4 Physical Wounds, she would have collapsed after being shot by the Agent.
Reference: Pretty much everyone.

Steel Nerves
Type: Active
Use: Automatic
Duration: Permanent
Steel Nerves allows the character to harden themselves against psychological or mental attack.  This incudes Code changes to their persona, as well as any attacks on the character’s mind (this includes Interrogation).  Any Targets for such attacks are increased by this ability’s level.

Once again, Jason’s Freemind character is the only character to receive Hacking Abilities.  He has allocated 10 points to Polar’s Hacking Ability modifier, giving him a +1 bonus, for a total of 11 points.  After considering his character’s orientation, he chooses the following Abilities:
Increased Reaction: 4
Rejuvenation: 4
Armour: 2