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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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 Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2024 1:39 am Post subject: Getting out of the Matrix |
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OK, say someone captured your PCs, and put them mentally into a Matrix-like environment.
First, how easily would it be for those IN the matrix like environment to recognize they are IN one
Second, once they've realized, how hard would it be to get OUT?
PS Whill. Not sure if this or the GMs area is the best spot for this.. Feel free to move if needed.
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pakman
Commander
Joined: 20 Jul 2021
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| Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2024 11:53 am Post subject: |
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Realize they are in?
I would make it where maybe when under stress or duress - things just happen....
Objects moving, guns exploding, etc. Or maybe like one character makes a joke about being a bantha - then turns into a bantha something like that.
Another might be that force users can still access the force - but it does not work right etc.
Getting Out.
willpower or mental checks or tasks of some kind to get their minds to ignore the inputs and allow them to see the real world.
Could be facing internal fears or accepting past trauma or character flaws.
Or like maybe a loner character who is willing to really accept group help etc.
there could be a lot of really in depth role playing opportunities here - of course, different groups may have different desires for that kind of play.
best of luck in what ever you decide.
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Random_Axe
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 11 Sep 2013
Posts: 102
Location: Toronto
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| Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2024 10:12 pm Post subject: |
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| One way that PC's might notice the presence of the matrix is to allow them chances to see the "glitch in the matrix". An NPC's response seems out of place. Or he repeats his question instead of responding to the PC's answer. Or (my favorite) one particular NPC wasn't programmed with any dialog and so if approached by the PC's, he just walks off without recognizing their presence. |
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cheshire
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Joined: 04 Jan 2004
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2024 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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How would they realize? I think the cracks would show when the simulation was asked to provide too much detail in too rich an environment. Our NES games used to slow down when there were too many sprites on the screen. Lag happens when there's to much information for the bandwidth. People keep render times down by repeating textures in an environment.
If there's too much information to feed, then I would think they would take shortcuts that you might not notice at a first glance, but if someone was particularly perceptive they might either notice or maybe just get an uneasy feeling about if they can't put their finger on it. Maybe the man in the red vest appears three times in the same marketplace. Maybe there are people who have the same gait/posture/mannerisms even if they are "reskinned." Maybe the faces in the distance don't actually have expression or even recognizable features if you try to focus on them.
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Ziz
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Joined: 26 Feb 2022
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| Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2024 11:13 pm Post subject: |
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| cheshire wrote: | How would they realize? I think the cracks would show when the simulation was asked to provide too much detail in too rich an environment. Our NES games used to slow down when there were too many sprites on the screen. Lag happens when there's to much information for the bandwidth. People keep render times down by repeating textures in an environment.
If there's too much information to feed, then I would think they would take shortcuts that you might not notice at a first glance, but if someone was particularly perceptive they might either notice or maybe just get an uneasy feeling about if they can't put their finger on it. Maybe the man in the red vest appears three times in the same marketplace. Maybe there are people who have the same gait/posture/mannerisms even if they are "reskinned." Maybe the faces in the distance don't actually have expression or even recognizable features if you try to focus on them. |
Walking through a village, they see the same unit numbers on multiple doors. Seeing the same ship with some kind of unique marking in several places, Lots of ways to play with the repeating data idea. |
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2024 1:58 am Post subject: |
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What if in stead of a "matrix" like environment, it was some sort of alien tech, putting them into their "own head space".. Sort of like a constant dream, ala the torture the Espheni pushed on Tom Mason (the character) in the tv show Falling skies?
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pakman
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| Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2024 11:00 am Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | What if in stead of a "matrix" like environment, it was some sort of alien tech, putting them into their "own head space".. Sort of like a constant dream, ala the torture the Espheni pushed on Tom Mason (the character) in the tv show Falling skies? |
Same thing - have there be imperfections in the alien tech.
Either because of incompatibility with the character races brains, some lazy tech's who copied the same textures or whatever.
Think of old school early age video games - maybe the builders had imperfect models - or bad references or poorly made textures - things just don't look right...
It does not have to be just visual - could make some sounds mismatch - a slamming door sound like a cat, or a parakeet like crow etc.
Could also be language - which can have incredibly specific cultural or regional use - dialects or even poor use of idioms or habits like the classic "how many? Three ...." from inglorious b@st@rd*.
Maybe the aliens have four fingers - so to count to five they stop at 4 digits on one hand, and use another digit on the second. It might not even occur to them that this would look weird having a 5 finger race do this.
Best of luck in what ever you decide.
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garhkal
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2024 2:38 pm Post subject: |
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This is just a thinking exercise... Not actually planning a mission/module with it..
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garhkal
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2024 2:39 pm Post subject: |
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Now once they've figured out they're IN one, how would they then get OUT of it? What skills/attributes would they use to escape?
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Mamatried
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| Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2024 6:35 pm Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | Now once they've figured out they're IN one, how would they then get OUT of it? What skills/attributes would they use to escape? |
possibley the same as with menal force powers like Mind Trick?
I see this as a "mental illusion" you have to break out of and to me the closest thing is the rules for how to resit/break an illusion/mental force effect |
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2024 1:34 am Post subject: |
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Would it be a one roll and done, or a long term roll, trying to say hit a very high number, so you have to keep rolling till you hit it, OR something happens to stall the rolls??
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jtanzer
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cheshire
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| Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2024 11:17 am Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | Would it be a one roll and done, or a long term roll, trying to say hit a very high number, so you have to keep rolling till you hit it, OR something happens to stall the rolls?? |
I think you could do this in a number of ways. Part of me thinks it might be like waking yourself up from a dream when you suddenly realize that you ARE in a nightmare. Or if you have one of those dreams where you have to get up and go to work, so you wake up to get ready, but you've only dreamed that you're getting ready.
I would say that if they fail their initial roll to "wake up," then they experience a reality where they've broken out, but actually they're still in it. I would say that you could drop the difficulty to notice the artificial reality since they know what to look for.
If they roll exceptionally well to begin with, maybe they haven't completely broken out, but they've found the seams of the artificial reality. Have you ever seen the video game speedrunning videos where someone slips out of the 3D environment and clips beyond the walls? (Reference 1:15 of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27XPNp2bCgE .) You can see what things look like from the other side, and navigate where you want to in the artificial reality, or can get access to areas where you might be able to crash the simulation.
And maybe that's the trick, not trying to wake up, but forcing the simulation to do too much work it wasn't designed to do and crashing it.
What would be the psychological effects of experiencing a crashed reality? Woof, yeah, that's some kind of mental stamina roll.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind. |
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garhkal
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2024 3:57 pm Post subject: |
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Some nice reads there... Thanks
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Ziz
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| Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2024 12:12 am Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | Now once they've figured out they're IN one, how would they then get OUT of it? What skills/attributes would they use to escape? |
Back up a minute. I'd tend to think how they get out of it would depend on how they got into it, right? Is it physical devices the alien race hooked them up to? Did they participate in some kind of alien spirituality/bonding ritual as part of a diplomatic mission? Do the aliens naturally communicate via telepathy and the PCs become inadvertently subject to all the "mental signals" around them? |
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