The Matrix – DC Heroes RPG setting notes

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Partisan capabilities

In their physical bodies, the partisans presumably have mundane abilities, but with various technical skills in the 4-to-7-APs range.

Both Neo and Trinity were apparently highly skilled hackers before they were removed from the Matrix. Therefore, a 7 in Scientist (Computers) is a likely estimate assuming most people around them had realistic AP scores.

Hero Points  totals are assigned normally.

Partisans usually have :

1. Exile (Voluntary) to represent the drab, constrained life aboard a stealth craft such as the Nebuchadnezzar.
2. Mistrust to represent being constantly hunted by Sentinels.
3. A sort of Alter-Ego – their Matrix avatar.

Matrix avatar, part 1

Using specialised equipment, a partisan can be loaded up in the Matrix. This is comparable to injecting a virus into a computer. Like all humans in the Matrix, they have a virtual body therein – like a MMORPG  avatar.

While loaded in the Matrix, the partisan is unconconscious in the real world. And if their avatar is killed in the Matrix their mentality is destroyed.

Being loaded essentially means existing in the Matrix – only the meat body is left behind under medical care. Only Neo could survive the destruction of his avatar.

Existing within the Matrix is normally indistinguishable from existing in the real world. One’s body reacts and performs normally, the environment is as real as it gets, the laws of physics apply normally, etc.. It is a perfect simulation  – that’s the point.

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Matrix avatar, part 2

However, the partisans cheat at the “game”. Their avatars are twinked :

• They use editors to boost their “stats” and “skills”.
• They have cheat modes activated to enable superhuman feats. Often involving gravity lightening and super-speed.
• They have an override to turn telecoms within the Matrix into a mean of communicating with the real world.

The latter is doubly useful, since a person on the outside can inject code into the Matrix in a way a person on the inside normally cannot.

Though it’s not clearly established, how thoroughly one’s avatar can be buffed might correlate with the skills of the partisan as a hacker. It could be proportional to the level of intuitive understanding they have about computer systems.

One observes that highly talented hackers like Trinity or an early Neo perform on a high-cinematic /low-superheroic scale. Whereas seemingly less impressive hackers like Switch or Mouse performed closer to action hero levels.

Another unsupported hypothesis — just an impression — is that hacking the Matrix (like Tank does) and hacking within the Matrix (like Neo and Trinity used to do before taking the red pill) are related but different skill sets.

Common buffed  avatar traits, part 1

• High DEX (5+). This is the key one, giving partisans greater mobility, speed and combat prowess than ordinary people with normal avatars. As noted above it is possible that there is a mathematical relationship between hacking skill level and the DEX of the avatar.
• Augmented Weaponry, Vehicles and Martial Artist Skills. Frequently at DEX level or one AP above that. Since these are downloaded skills partisans usually have the full range rather than specific Subskills. Downloaded Skills are normally of the cinematic action hero kind.

• Gravity Decrease (Self Only), which seems proportionate to the Acrobatics score of the avatar. This can only be used as a burst during a single Phase. A traditional RPG approach would be to impose two full Phases without being used before it can be used again. Applications:
  1. Using it much like the Jumping powers by diminishing mass just as the person jumps. With an Acrobatics roll it is possible to perform Jumps with a very flat trajectory whilst Gravity Decrease (Self Only) lasts. Since gravity cannot impose a parabolic trajectory on the jumper, who is essentially flying during that Phase.
  2. Extra mobility such as running along a wall, from a standing start, for several seconds.
  3. At the GM’s discretion, mundane opponents lacking exposure to super-powers might be completely flat-footed by tactics relying on Gravity Decrease (Self Only). If so, they have their AVs and OVs penalised by as many APs as the APs of Gravity Decrease until they can adjust.
• Enhanced Initiative, which might be proportional to DEX.
• STR and BODY 1 or 2 APs above what they should be might be standard for skilled partisans.

Common buffed avatar traits, part 2

• A Misc. Advantage (worth 5 points) allowing them to use a telecoms terminal (say, a phone) to communicate with the real world outside the Matrix.
• A Misc. Advantage (worth 20 points) allowing them to disappear within one second by being logged out of the Matrix and returning to their physical body. This requires being able to communicate with the person monitoring their physical body, *and* having an access to a land line such as a pay phone. Wireless coms do not allow for that.
• Whilst in communication with a support technician (aboard the Nebuchadnezzar it was apparently Tank’s job ; partisans usually reached him using a hacked cell phone), it is possible to benefit from further abilities :
  • Flash downloads of predominantly physical Familiarities. This is often used to erase unfamiliarity penalties. For instance how to fly a specific model of helicopter without taking any time to familiarise oneself with the controls and flight characteristics.
  • A sort of insta-Area Knowledge. The support operator can browse through the code of the Matrix to display a 3D mesh of the area where the partisan is operating, and explore it with a “fly cam setting”. This can be useful to, say, guide a fleeing partisan by voice over their cell phone toward the nearest telecom device that can be used to log out. See our Area Knowledge modifiers in the New Advantages article.

Bullet time

One of the cinematographic innovations of The Matrix was the use of ramps of still cameras (set according to a 3D model of the scene to be filmed) and digital interpolation to create “bullet time” sequences. During these, time seems to freeze and/or move at different paces for the different protagonists – for instance to dodge bullets.

What actually happens — that is, how the events take place from the point of view of an uninvolved observer — during sequences filmed as bullet time is unclear. These can thus be interpreted in different ways.

Approach #1 – Enhanced Initiative

The simplest interpretation is that it is Enhanced Initiative in action. The person with the highest Initiative knows what the persons on the scene are about to do.

That simulates the apparent ability partisans and agents have to think about the situation and orient themselves as they slow down the flow of time.

It becomes possible to use certain Manoeuvres — particularly Laying Back — when “bullet time” is used in the original sense, to dodge attacks that cannot normally be avoided.

Approach #2 – Hero Points

“Bullet time” can also correlate with Hero Points use, particularly to boost OV while Laying Back against skilled opponents. Or when using Hero Points to boost Initiative in the first place.

This is not systematic. When Trinity is first seen using “bullet time” she completely outmatches her opponents and is not spending Hero Points. Still, “bullet time” can be a visual manifestation of significant Hero Points expenditure on a combat or athletic feat.

Approach #3 – Specific rule

A more explicit approach can be used if preferred.

Declaring “bullet time” could be done using a scaling Hero Points fee (first use is free, second use is 5 HPs, etc.). During the Phase where it is active, the partisan or agent can take two additional non-physical Dice Actions – usually Perception Checks.

They can also describe their next two physical Dice Actions after assessing the situation and deciding on tactics. If these actions take place as planned they receive a +1CS bonus to OV and AV.

A special +5 Initiative Bonus during the Phase that follows a “bullet time” Phase can also be considered.

In the more explicit approach, the ability to declare “bullet time” is a Misc. Advantage. But when somebody declares “bullet time” all persons present who have this Advantage (normally partisans and agents) benefit from the effects.

Agents seem more powerful yet less flexible than partisans in their use of bullet time. They apparently only could use it defensively.

Simulation of a simulation

Though it was cramped, the Nebuchadnezzar is best treated as an Expansive Headquarters Advantage.

The reason for this is that it can upload the consciousness of partisans into a sort of “lobby”. It works like the Matrix, but isn’t the Matrix proper.

Being a computer simulation, these “lobbies” can be filled as needed. They are often used as training rooms (for instance, a virtual dojo). Therein the partisans can learn how to operate in their buffed avatars, and become familiar with newly-downloaded enhancements.

One assumes that they are also occasionally use for R&R, to get a breather from living in submarine-like conditions.

Interestingly, items that are created in the “lobby” can then be injected into the Matrix along with the partisan. For combat missions, this means that the Nebuchadnezzar has the equivalent of an unlimited armoury. Plus sundries such as clothing, holsters, explosives, etc. and of course cell phones – but apparently not vehicles.

Everything has to be limited to weapons and articles that could exist in the Matrix, and thus the Earth of the late 1990s. Presumably, anomalies would be detected *much* faster by the system.

Genre notes

Killing Combat

Killing combat is always OK in the Matrix genre. Going for Bashing Combat to make sure to neutralise people without killing them is presumably accompanied by a +2CS OV/RV penalty unless using less-than-lethal weaponry.

Partisans employ maximum force even against run-of-the-mill cops and guards, so they can perform Multi-Attacks (often with a Critical to negate RV-related penalties) and avoid getting hit by a lucky roll.

Even hand-to-hand attacks break bones and inflict serious or lethal wounds, usually via Martial Artist EV sub.

The ethical implications of these are not explored during the first movie. One gets the impression that there’s a very limited number of field-capable partisans, and that losing even one such operative is bad news for free humans. Therefore, they’ll lower chances of capture at any cost.

The partisans often seemed to have a bit of contempt for “coppertops” as they sometimes call people still embedded in the Matrix.

This might be a deliberate bit of dehumanizing to help distance them from the psychological consequences of having to kill innocents in the course of their missions. This is a fairly common coping mechanism in war.

Blades and bullets

Firearms are particularly deadly in the Matrix Genre.

Partisans and agents can take hand-to-hand blows that punch through reinforced concrete, but do everything they can to avoid even medium-calibre handgun rounds. Yet these certainly do not punch through reinforced concrete.

The RV of persons and agents against bullets and blades is lowered by a full Column. This is not noted in weapons characteristics since this is a Genre rule.