The Matrix in Deadlands: Hell on Earth
INTRODUCTION
Hi, all. If you're a player, kindly leave now - this whole piece is for Marshals only!
I had originally intended to send this after making up all the stats for everyone and all the NPC's but life is not dealing me a hand that makes that possible. So instead, here is the basic outline for the game. I figure all you really need is the premise anyway, as most of you out there will modify to your own ends. So enjoy.
After seeing my favorite movie of the year, I pondered how I might incorporate it into my favorite game. This is a little adventure I came up with, utilizing characters and ideas from the film "The Matrix" (Copyright 1999-2000 by Warner Brothers) within the Deadlands setting.
This game scenario is designed so that players of both Deadlands and HOE can play it, although I recommend that it squarely be played by those from HOE, as it may make those from DL find their gaming experience in DL less enjoyable once they learn the "truth" of their world. Again, this is set up as a HOE adventure. This is a perfect chance to introduce HOE to your DL players, and is actually the way I recommend doing it. This way you can have twice the fun. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask me.
YOU ARE CAUGHT IN THE MATRIX by Ray "Rayman" Johnson
To begin with, let your players create characters for both DL and HOE. I suggest you let them play DL for a few sessions with those characters with no real casualties. Let them get to know their characters. This is essential to this scenario. The players need to have feel for the DL setting, and their characters. Once you have played a few games start having the characters notice "odd" things.
For example, they may notice an event occurs twice. A stagecoach drives by a saloon, with dust kicking up all over the place. Then it happens again a split second later in an identical fashion. They should have experiences with deja vu. They may even notice townsfolk subtly
changing appearances.
Once they get the feeling that something is amiss start making them paranoid by having mysterious men in black follow them. These men disappear/appear at will, and can never be captured or confronted by the players.
Now, let one of the characters start to experience weird dreams. If one of them has the Night Terrors hindrance then this is when it hits them. The dream is of a dark man, who calls himself Morpheus, and his message is quite clear. "You are caught in the Matrix. If you want to live you must break free of its hold before it's too late."
The players should experience this for several nights. Now things start rolling. The player having the dream should be confronted by one of the men in black when he is alone. The man will identify himself as Agent Smith, and say he is with the Pinkertons. He will inquire about whether the character/s have met Morpheus. When they respond negatively Smith will smile and give them a warning about Morpheus.
Smith's comments should run along the lines of Morpheus is a dangerous man, he cannot be trusted, in fact he isn't even human. He is a monster of a terrible nature, and if they should be contacted by him the PC's should contact him at once. Smith paints a dangerous picture of
Morpheus, and his "gang of outlaws" the Hackers. The agent will provide means for locating or contacting him when the time comes. Smith then disappears without a trace.
If the PC is, in fact, a Pinkerton then all the better. Smith will be able to produce whatever documents he will need to convince the others that he is telling the truth. Smith should give the PC some sort of bad vibe, something that marks him as unnatural. Nothing definite, just feelings, but the player should not feel comfortable around him.
That night the PC will dream of Morpheus again, only this time, Morpheus is completely able to hold a conversation, he wants a meeting, and he names a time and place. The location is a day's ride from the posse's current location. The meeting place is an old cave, known as Mo-dem, the
Indians in the area believe is haunted. The cave's name is an ancient word that means gateway. He assures the PC that Smith is an agent of evil and not to be trusted. Hopefully, Morpheus will be able to convince the PC that he is on the level, and that they should make the journey required.
If the party decides to go against Morpheus
Well, somewhere something went wrong, and they've opted to contact Smith anyway. Don't worry, we can fix that. Have the party arrange a meeting with Smith. Let them give him all the details. Once he's in the know, Smith will tell the party to go to the meeting place anyway, so he can catch Morpheus and the Hackers unawares.
The party will then go to the prearranged place. Morpheus and two others, both women, will be awaiting their arrival. One woman wears all black, and the other is clothed in white. Once the posse arrives the trio greets them. The woman in black introduces herself as Trinity, and the
other as Switch. Morpheus explains that he can only free the party from the matrix at a place of power. The cave they stand before is such a place, and to break free of the matrix all the party need do is follow them inside.
Before the party can make a move either way Smith arrives with 2 other agents. They open fire on everyone at once. For dramatic effect you can have the agents kill one of Morpheus's lady friends, or just severely wound one of them. Smith will openly attack the PC that made contact with Morpheus without hesitation. No matter what the PC's do they cannot hurt the evil agents. They will dodge any bullets, but can be hurt by spells, miracles, and the like. If an Agent is killed, his body morphs into that of another person. You may want to dramatize this fact by having one of the agents dodge a bullet so that there is no mistaking what he has just done. The agents are incredible fast and agile. Eventually the PC's will figure out their only hope for survival will be to flee into the cavern. Once the go inside their whole world in for a change. Literally.
Or if the party decides in favor of Morpheus:
Then everything is easy. Have them rendezvous at the cave as planned. They meet Morpheus and his friends. He is willing to explain things, but only after they go through the cave. He doesn't feel safe out in the open, and for good reason. Morph will tell the party everything he can once they're on the other side, but for now his concern is the cave.
If the party gets too curious, or is unwilling to just go blindly into the cave, then have Smith arrive. In this case, he's alone. He will attack, shooting at Morpheus first, and the PC he made contact with thereafter. He is the impetus to get the posse into the cave. Again, Smith is immune to any and all attacks save for point blank assaults on his person. The party seeing the futility of fighting him should beat a hasty retreat into the cavern. Once inside they see a bright
blinding flash and then. . . . .
You are now free of the matrix
Having entered the cave the posse is in for a shock. They are not who they thought they were. In fact, their world isn't even real. They have awakened in the era of Hell on Earth, and nothing they have known will prepare them for this. The party awakens individually in glass globes filled with a viscous semi-transparent fluid. They are completely hairless.
THE SET UP:
Now that the characters awaken, and find that they are not who they thought they were it will take a day or so for them to readjust. They may not want to believe they just came from an artificial world. They will now assume their HOE characters, and play them as if they had memories of being both characters. It may be difficult at first, but once Morpheus settles them
down he ought to be able to get them to see reason. Now he tells them how one of them is the ONE, and how important that person is.
Who is the ONE?
The ONE is an individual that can rewrite the reality of the Matrix as he or she sees fit. So powerful is this ability, that even the Matrix itself cannot change these alterations. What's the bad news? Well, first of all, the posse has to go back inside the Matrix to find out who the ONE is, and destroy the Matrix. How do we know who the ONE is? All of the players will make a WILL
role with a penalizing modifier, the one that best succeeds is the ONE. In the Matrix willpower is everything. Once the player is inside the Matrix and knows he is the ONE he will have to make a WILL check whenever he wants to alter the Matrix's reality. Failure means nothing happens, success means reality is his to play with. After performing 10 successful WILL checks the
power becomes automatic. Players may get a clue of who the ONE is when one of them accidentally moves faster or becomes stronger than possible.
What can Morpheus do?
For starters once inside the Matrix he can give them any edges, traits, or skills they'll need. Physically, they'll remain just as mortal, but making a WILL check means they can move faster or perform an amazing physical feat. Doing this 10 times enables them to do it naturally. Thus, most of Morpheus's Hackers have abnormally high amounts of skills that are all maxed to the upper limits.
What is Morpheus's Plan?
The man wants to return to the Matrix, while the posse,(which splits up) attacks the Matrix head on internally and externally simultaneously. He wants to shut the Matrix down and free all the souls trapped inside. He also needs to make sure that he doesn't release a flood of manitous from the Matrix as it dies. He'll need someone to keep the machines and cyborgs off his back while he goes for the Central Processing Unit. He'll split the party up, half of his posse will go with half of the PC's into the Matrix (with the one they Believe is the ONE), and the rest will go with him to assault the CPU. His posse should include Dozer, Tank, and Cypher.
The Bad News
Bad news is Morpheus, having been betrayed by Cypher, is captured. While he gets cut off from the rest of the posse he is inserted into the Matrix. Now, the parties will have to rescue him in two worlds in order to save him. At this point it should be incredibly difficult to use the powers of the ONE. No outright reality manipulation. They'll have to rely on physical skills and mental prowess. Morpheus is being held by the three agents inside the Matrix. They are trying to learn of Zion's location. Once the posses make it to Morpheus the Matrix will attack. In the real world it will send some HK's and Harrowed Cyborgs. In the Matrix it will send the Agents.
How do they destroy the Matrix?
The Matrix must be faced on two fronts. It must be damaged in the real world, and have it's core personality erased by the ONE. Once the Agents are destroyed, which should be simple if the ONE emerges, the Matrix will appear as an energy being and will start duking it out with the ONE. Once it has manifested it is just as powerful as the ONE, they can cancel each other out. Good news is it has to make WILL checks just like the ONE does, until it succeeds 5 times, then it is all powerful without having to make a check. The ONE must lock onto it spiritually, and combining his SPIRIT and WILL to attack. The matrix has only WILL, no SPIRIT of it's own. Give the Matrix a could ego, after all, it has been GOD for hundreds of years.
If they destroy the Matrix's mind, but not the Machine:
If the ONE succeeds, but Morpheus and his crew fail then the HK's and other drones will continue to harvest people for the Matrix. Only now the matrix will be run without wiping people's minds or personalities. Characters will go to sleep in HOE and wake up in DL the weird west without
explanation. Morpheus will continue to try and free the souls and people
trapped, but will never win.
If they Stop the Machine but not the Matrix Itself:
Well, the Matrix is destroyed, but all the manitous are released into the world, and everyone hooked into the Matrix dies. All the drones and HK's and even the Harrowed borgs will kick the bucket.
If they Kill the Matrix and it's CPU:
If the party succeeds, then all the souls trapped are released and head to their proper destinations. Living people awaken and find they are in a world they have never known. Morpheus will lead the survivors to Zion, which will incorporate the old Matrix as part of the city itself.
Things to know about the Matrix
1.) The Matrix and Souls
The Matrix is not a computer network. In reality, it is a collection of souls. Each time a mind is entered into the Matrix its personality is reconfigured into a personality that would fit into the 1800's. Junkers tend to become Mad Scientists, Crusaders become Blessed, Lawdogs become gunslingers, etc. The core personality cannot be erased, good people remain good at heart, and bad people carry their darkness into their new lives. The core remains the same, while the mind is altered. Those caught in the Matrix are rewritten. They get new names, new looks (i.e. Residual Self-Image), and new skills. Their old memories are erased and lost after 5 days. While in the Matrix time is three times faster, so people get to live out up to 3 lifespans in the soul web.
I say lifespans, because they can live numerous lifetimes. Gunslingers tend to get shot a lot faster than farmers. So heroes often get reincarnated more than average folks. It works like this. You are captured by the hunter drones. They attach you to the cybernetic uplinks, and download your mind and soul into the matrix. The soul remains attached to the original body, but the mind is shuttled away to a holding tank.
Minds that are deemed evil enough are saved. They get programmed into Harrowed Cyborgs, Hunter Drones, and Killbots. These minds are altered so that they serve the Matrix, and in no way can they act against it. Minds that are deemed of high moral fiber or "average" are used only as templates, the majority of them are lost forever. After five days the Matrix has dominated the core mind and it can never be made into what it was if freed. The soul then gets assigned a new mind and personality. The cycle of getting new personalities will continue until the body connected to the soul dies. Once this happens several things occur. First, the body is broken down into a nutritious liquid, and it is fed to the other helpless beings caught in the Matrix. Bodies deemed to be in excellent shape escape liquidisation and are instead used in the Harrowed program. At the moment of death the soul becomes a permanent part of the Matrix. It can never be retrieved again. Good souls become background characters, almost like character actors on a movie set. They get shuffled and reshuffled as parts are needed. Pure souls become angelic beings, nature spirits, and so on. Wicked souls become manitous and abominations. Simply corrupt souls become 2 bit villains. The only way to free these souls is to destroy the Matrix.
2) The Harrowed Program
The Matrix knows how to defend itself, after all it has had hundreds of years to learn how to do so. Besides building Killbots and Hunter drones it also creates a unique creature, the Harrowed Cyborg. That in and of itself is not unique. These harrowed, however, are.
The Matrix uses bodies like Junkers do trash. To be more specific, bodies are shells that can have minds inserted or removed at will. In fact, particularly successful minds are copied, so even if a party manages to kill Wild Bill the mad 'Borg, they may find themselves facing him again. They
may even run into him more than once at one time. Especially skillful harrowed are often replicated 3,4, even 5 times. So Wild Bills will roam the land looking for whatever the Matrix directs them to find.
Sometimes, and this is a rare occurrence, someone will prove to be a big enough threat to the Matrix that it will send one of it's virus programs out in a Harrowed body. Virus programs cannot be replicated, so the Matrix uses them sparingly. If a virus is lost, then it will take the Matrix years to recreate it.
3) Virus Programs
There are only 3 virus programs in the Matrix at a time. Each is a self aware program that serves the Matrix. Their goals are to keep the souls under control. They also try to keep freejacks like Morpheus and his crew out of the Matrix. In all the hundreds of years the Matrix has existed
it has never lost a virus program.
The Virus programs are the AGENTS. The Agents are superhuman in the Matrix. They are faster, stronger, more agile. They are expert marksmen, master brawlers knowing every form of hand to hand combat imaginable, and can get any other skills they need in an instant. Agents can dodge bullets and spells, bend steel or punch through concrete, and walk on a tight rope as easily as crossing the street. The complex programs are susceptible to bullets at extremely close range and al spells.
Morpheus has one rule for dealing with Agents. Run!!!
4) Physical LAWS in the Matrix
Reality works differently in the Matrix. Physical laws can be bent or broken. For example, a freejack (someone who has entered the Matrix from outside and knows the rules of the Matrix) can jump hundreds of feet or move faster than an average human ever could. This is how the Agents manage to dodge bullets and leap huge distances. They can bend the physical laws, but
they are unable to break them. This means that freejacks are superhuman compared to the unknowing souls caught in the Matrix. Ords (ordinary folks to you an me) can still be
dangerous, but one on one they can't compete with freejacks.
Once the PC's are aware of the Matrix, and they reenter it, they may download HoE weapons, and use any HoE based capabilities they have as HoE PC's. The Matrix itself cannot create HoE
weapons or powers, due to it's innate programming that restricts it to the 1800's. Yes, it is aware of what goes on around it, but it cannot replicate them inside it's core self. Outside, is another matter. It can instill any Edges, Hindrances, skills, and so on into it's cyborg harrowed.
Morpheus believes that someday the ONE will appear. He or she will be able to rewrite the physical laws in the Matrix at will. He also believes that a member of the posse is the one.
5) Zion
Zion is a city built by Freejacks which is located deep underground. The Matrix knows about Zion, and desperately wants to destroy it, but it has yet to learn of it's location. If that information is ever made available to it, then it will send every available Hunter drone, Killbot, and cyborg
at it's disposal to obliterate the city and it's inhabitants.
Agents try to discover it's location from freejacks, hunters scan the depths for lone adventurers, and the Matrix waits. It knows that someday it will find Zion. All Freejacks, in order to protect the city, have implants in their brains that will mindwipe them if they are ever downloaded into the
Matrix. This prevents the Matrix from gleaning the information by simply reading the mind of a downloaded victim. Thus, the Matrix offers great incentives for people to produce the information.
Fortunately, the way to Zion is so confusing and secretive that only a small number of guides know the way. Not all freejacks can find their way to or from the underground city. Morpheus is one such person.
CHARACTERS IN THE MATRIX
Morpheus
Morpheus is an Old Soldier, who has been battling the Matrix for years. He recruits those that he can, and kills the ones he can't save. He seeks the "ONE", the person that can manipulate the reality of the Matrix at will. He believes he has now found him in the PC's posse.
Trinity
Morpheus's right hand woman. She was once a Lawdog, now she is locked in battle with the Matrix, which claimed her entire posse.
Neo
Morpheus thought Neo was the "ONE", but he was wrong. A former Indian Brave, Neo was the latest one snatched by the Matrix before the new party arrived.
Apoc
A mutant rejected by the Matrix due to his genetic incompatibility. He was saved by Morpheus, and now follows him out of respect and loyalty.
Switch
Switch is a Templar. She follows Morpheus because she nearly lost herself in the matrix, and she has vowed to destroy it. Inside she often poses as a Blessed, wearing all white and carrying a bible.
Cypher
Unbeknownst to the group, Cypher died in the Matrix a few weeks ago, and was replaced with another personality. The current personality has cut a deal with Smith, give him Morpheus and he keeps the body. Give him Zion, and he gets to leave the Matrix altogether. So far, the doppelganger has yet to be discovered, but lately it has been acting in ways a little different than it's host would. The others all think he is just under some strain and will get over it soon.
Tank
Born in Zion, and brother to Dozer, Tank is a standard gunman. His large size enables him to overpower most men in a fight. He is Morpheus's personal body guard.
Dozer
Born in Zion like his brother, Dozer cannot Jack into the Matrix. His responsibility is to locate capable personalities recently captured by the Matrix and lead Morpheus to them. He is an expert computer hacker, and should be considered an ancient style Mad Scientist.
Mouse
A small time programmer. Mouse is a Syker in HOE, and in the Matrix DL he is a Huckster.
The Agents
The Agents are the fist and steel of the Matrix. Since all the Matrix is able to do is contain the souls it houses, and feed off of their fear, it had to create a way to control the ever growing population of souls. A Viral Program, that of the Agents, was designed to control the unwitting spirits and make sure no one escaped. The Agents are complex programs that are able to exceed the physical laws contained within the Matrix universe. They are stronger than even freejacks, and capable of far more.
The Agents use the souls around them as "Carriers", hence the viral name. They attach onto a free soul, and convert that soul's self image into that of their own. They also completely dominate that soul's mind and personality. So, until an Agent leaves it's host spirit, the possessed soul
does not exist, it is "overwritten". Agents are not invulnerable. They can be shot, an act which rips it from it's host (who "dies" and is reassigned to another identity), but not killed. Shooting an Agent only forces it to overtake another soul. They will grab the closest soul to them as fast as possible. Agents are immune to magic completely.
Despite their power Agents are not omnipotent. They cannot create extra bullets, weapons, or other items. Also, they cannot use magic in any form.
Agent Brown & Agent Green
These two function as well as Smith, but do not have the evolved personality that he has. They are there purely to serve the Matrix. They have no outside ambitions.
Agent Smith
Smith is the de facto leader of the virus programs. Despite their equality, Smith is more capable than the others, and far more driven. He desperately wants out of the Matrix. He has been promised that if he can deliver the location of Zion he will be given a Harrowed Cybernetically enhanced body for himself. This fact alone has given him a greater ambition to do his job that the other 2 Agents lack, and so they follow him out of respect. Smith will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. He dreams of eradicating the Freejacks and any of their allies thereby gaining his freedom.
Smith was the first virus program the Matrix created. He feels more than the other Agents due to his prolonged exposure to the trapped souls. Because of this Smith has become more than what he was designed to be. He has become an abomination in his own right, a "Cyber Ghost" seeking to be free of that which birthed him.
The Matrix
The matrix is the copied brain pattern of Darius Hellstromme. So, at it's core it lives to study fear. That was why it was created, after all. All the Matrix desires is to gather more souls and expand its base. It is patient, and waits. It has all the time in the world.
Why was the Matrix created?
Hellstromme invented it because he wanted a way to immortalize himself, and continue a study of his beloved fear. He copied his brain patterns onto a computer program and gave it the ability to store souls. It was to use these souls over and over again, studying how they react to various stimuli. Over time, after Darious went on to other projects, the Matrix began expanding. It did not wait for Hellstromme to send it new subjects, it began catching its own. It also began expanding it's power base. Once a small factory, the underground complex is the size of a large city. Thousands of living beings exist in its computerized world at a time. Some have been born there. The matrix wants two things. To capture more victims and study their responses to fear. It tries to recreate the weird west of the 1800's as accurately as possible, without upsetting any kind of balance. To be honest, the Matrix has become an abomination. The truth is all it seeks is more souls for it to hold.
The following was submitted from the HoE list by Dominic a while back. I recommend that you
use these as simple guidelines for your own machines. As I said before tailor it to your setting.
Hunter Drones
Killbots/Killbot droids (formerly Hunter/Killer)
Description:
A sleek, menacing torpedo shaped droid. It is powered by two external power packs connected in series with its gun. The gun is a six barrel repeating laser under slung with a fixed front 90 degree fire arc. The droid can move at a top speed of 200mph, and has an acceleration of 10 mph. The two main VTOL engines are hung on either side of the droid's body with a long control fin running down the back. The exterior power packs are hung on either side of the fin. The sensor package is contained in the nose section of the droid and has a 180 degree arc of view.
Stats:
Size: 7, Acc: 10mph/max speed 200mph VTOL
AI: 5d6 Smarts
Brains: 1d4, running attack and evade programs (4 slots)
Attack: 5d10, Dodge: 5d10
Quickness: 5d10
The hunter is unarmored, but has a durability of 10/2 and takes 1/5 damage from small arms (pistols and rifles of D8 or less damage). The sensor is active sonar with a 1000 yard range and a passive 10 yard infra red capability (for finding the little ba****ds when they hide). It has a power jack for energy transfer from the batteries (-10 to hit) and if hit power to the engines stops and the hunter falls like a lump of metal.
The gun has a RI of 10 and can ignore the first -2 of range penalties, the first -3 of relative speed penalties, and the first -5 of motion penalties due to a complex targeting computer. It has a ROF of 15, doing 3d8 damage per shot. It will not fire if the target cannot be clearly located (any minus modifiers left over and the gun doesn't fire). It also has a power input socket, but this is easier to hit (-6) and if hit will prevent the gun from firing for 1d6 rounds per weapon damage die.
The hunter droid has a drain of 25/hr +2 per day. The gun has cost 37 points of drain for a 15 round burst. When down to 60 points of drain the droid will call reinforcements and retreat at maximum speed to base.
Worker/Repair Droids
Description:
A 5'10'' metal box with three arms: left, right and one extending over the head area. Two small feet protrude from a small gap about 4'' above the floor. A large black disc lies at the mid point of the body front (this is -4 to hit and contains all the visual sensors - it is unarmored). The upper arm carries a small laser nozzle which is used for welding. The left arm has an under slung circular saw (please use the appropriate safety equipment when you are being sliced up by it). All the hands have opposable thumbs and three finger attachments (the upper arm has 2 finger attachments and one nozzle). A small cable runs from the left side of the robot to a power conduit in the floor.
Marshal notes: The droid has no peripheral vision and is therefore at +6 to be hit from the flanks or behind but it gets a +2 bonus to attacks at the front, if the party "pulls the plug" (cable leading to floor), the droid will run on internal power with all weapons for 10 rounds and will then wander off, completely oblivious to all that is happening to recharge. The droid takes 1 extra die damage to the arms but no extra damage to the gizzards unless the roll had one raise in which case it hits the visual sensor (treat a head hit as the upper arm). The droid is perfectly silent as it goes about its business, even if that is beating up on a posse. This requires a foolproof 3 guts check. If failed, roll 1d4 on the scart table.
Stats:
Size: 6
Attack: welder 5d6, fightin' saw 2d6
Armor: 2, durability 9/2
Damage: welder 5d6, AP 5, speed 4, ROF 1
Damage: saw Str(5d12+2) + 2d12+2, speed 4, def +1
Brains: processor 2d4, two slug slots
Agility, Deftness & Nimbleness: 5d6
Passive visual sensor: 2d4, range 100yrd
Super strength: 5d12+2
Armor 2
Welder (flash gordon see above)
Saw arm (weapon smith see above)
Locomotion acc 5mph bipedial max speed 20mph
14 x 10 point power packs for exterior work, one power jack for interior connection & recharge.
Harrowed Cyborgs
These creatures can be of any power level and appearance conceivable. I leave this section totally up to you Marshals. Have fun.