A Splinter in Your Mind - Matrix Quest

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◉ CODA ◉​

Alice Lovelace
​
Resolve
3/3​
Detachment
2​
Skill
6​
Gear
6/10​

Paths​
Path of Resistance
Level 1
When you Fight.exe.
When you gratuitously blow something up as an act of resistance.
The first time in a session you tell an authority to go fuck itself.
XP: ◉◉◉◉◎
You may spend Resistance XP to add or subtract Harm you give or take, 1-1.​
Path of Truth
Level 1
When you Prompt.exe.
When you follow your curiosity in a way that doesn't advance the mission.
The first time in a session you discover something new about the Matrix.
XP: ◉◉◉◎◎
You may spend Truth XP to reroll dice when you Charge or Refresh, 1-1d6.​
Path of Enlightenment
Level 1
When you Disconnect.exe.
When you refuse to back down or run away from impossible odds.
The first time you run out of Resolve in a session.
XP: ◉◉◎◎◎
You may spend Enlightenment XP as if they were Detachment, 1-1.​
Moves
Beginning to Believe: You gain +1 Detachment the first time you Charge.
Stop Trying to Hit Me: You take -1 Harm when on the Defensive in Fights.
Mine Now: Spend a Full Hit in Fight to disarm an enemy of their weapon. If you then shoot them with it, take +1.
Try Again: When you attempt a Disconnect you failed before and have not yet succeeded at, you may input one 6 as a True Hit.
Bit of Help: When you spend Detachment on any move other than Disconnect, you get two +1s. They can be applied to the same die or different ones.

Stunts
Jump Impossible Distances Lvl 2*
Hit with Implausible Force Lvl 1
Dodge Implausible Ways Lvl 1
Act with Implausible Slight of Hand Lvl 1

​


CW: Very 90s.

Also, this is going to be a seriously fucked up quest. I'm going to be doing my damndest to channel an appropriately edgy, teen-rage vibe. Expect violence, drugs, sex, etc.

There's also going to be some Pretty Uncomfortable Dysphoria-ing, trans readers be warned.​
 
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Skippy said:
Hooray! Thanks!

Then I think Regroup 3.0 should still work, thank god.
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Well, that settles that.
I think it should be net 0 Detachment 0XP, since if we're taking -2XP and putting a 3 to a 6 we're presumably spending our Detachment to Disconnect as well? On the bright side, IIRC we also get 1XP for Charging, so that evens out our inability to gain 2XP from Path stuff at this point. I mean, I guess we're still waiting on confirmation on that side of it, technically? I dunno.
 
I think that the dodge implausible ways is the way to go, but we need a good lead in. It needs to flow and seem cool.

I rewatched the og matrix and there's that scene where smith tortures Morpheus, saying "I hate humans, and once the resistance is crushed I'll be free." Maybe we should play off that kind of desire?

"You know, I understand that feeling, looking for bugs to remove day in day out, you just haven't found the root problem."
 
Tetra said:
Well, that settles that.
I think it should be net 0 Detachment 0XP, since if we're taking -2XP and putting a 3 to a 6 we're presumably spending our Detachment to Disconnect as well? On the bright side, IIRC we also get 1XP for Charging, so that evens out our inability to gain 2XP from Path stuff at this point. I mean, I guess we're still waiting on confirmation on that side of it, technically? I dunno.
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I had us spending all XP to Disconnect, actually, as my thought was that XP is less valuable to us right now than Detachment, which is also our HP.

My tally was:
-3 XP to take our 3 to a 6
+1 XP, +1 Detachment (Charge)
+2 XP (Disconnecting with stakes, and facing up to impossible odds)
= +1 Detachment, and 0 XP

Also, if you're happy with the plan, would you mind changing your vote? Just as right now we're still tied.
 
Skippy said:
I had us spending all XP to Disconnect, actually, as my thought was that XP is less valuable to us right now than Detachment, which is our HP.

My tally was:
-3 XP to take our 3 to a 6
+1 XP, +1 Detachment (Charge)
+2 XP (Disconnecting with stakes, and facing up to impossible odds)
= +1 Detachment, and 0 XP

Also, if you're happy with the plan, would you mind changing your vote? Just as right now we're still tied.
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Ah, gotcha. If I am correct and the Path XP caps out after 1 more we'd be choosing between +1 Detachment -1XP, or +0Detachment +0XP. This raises another important question: if we go below 9XP without taking an ability, can we still take the ability from having previously hit 9XP later on?

[X] Regroup V.3.0
 
Tetra said:
Ah, gotcha. If I am correct and the Path XP caps out after 1 more we'd be choosing between +1 Detachment -1XP, or +0Detachment +0XP. This raises another important question: if we go below 9XP without taking an ability, can we still take the ability from having previously hit 9XP later on?
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I think that as long as we're taking the negative XP before the positives, we shouldn't hit the cap, and it remains XP-neutral? Or if the accounting is only done on the net result of a player's actions in a scene, rather than individually. But honestly, in my experience, sketch is not super strict about stuff like that.

Honestly, the way the XP is laid out is somewhat non-intuitive - it took me a second to realise that the track under our Path is just for XP which counts for the Path, and is not identical to our current character XP. Also I'm not sure if XP that is spent, but comes from our Path, still counts for the Path tracker or not. (I would assume not?) A different name for the XP you gain from your Path (Sorta like Mastery Points vs. Victories in Flying Circus) might help with this, if they're being tracked for different things, although it does add complexity.
 
Skippy said:
I think that as long as we're taking the negative XP before the positives, we shouldn't hit the cap, and it remains XP-neutral? Or if the accounting is only done on the net result of a player's actions in a scene, rather than individually. But honestly, in my experience, sketch is not super strict about stuff like that.

Honestly, the way the XP is laid out is somewhat non-intuitive - it took me a second to realise that the track under our Path is just for XP which counts for the Path, and is not identical to our current character XP. Also I'm not sure if XP that is spent, but comes from our Path, still counts for the Path tracker or not. (I would assume not?) A different name for the XP you gain from your Path (Sorta like Mastery Points vs. Victories in Flying Circus) might help with this, if they're being tracked for different things, although it does add complexity.
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Hmm. That might be it. I was assuming that spending XP for our Path action wasn't decreasing our progress in the Path, but if that's the case I'm not 100% sure what our Path XP progress would be.
We're probably in a better spot if it does subtract that way, since being able to chain disconnects by using them to get XP is quite powerful. We'll have to see what the verdict from sketch is.
 
... i think this is what happens when i leave things too long, i've actually forgotten why i formatted our XP that way!!! shit!!!

i think what i'll do is just switch over to explicitly tracking your level instead of total XP.
 
open_sketch said:
... i think this is what happens when i leave things too long, i've actually forgotten why i formatted our XP that way!!! shit!!!

i think what i'll do is just switch over to explicitly tracking your level instead of total XP.
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My idea was that maybe your XP along the Path should be called Progress, to differentiate it. Progress adds an equivalent in XP, but they aren't the same. (Because you also gain XP by Charging.) Though this interpretation would mean you have to decide whether it is Progress or XP which is spent in Path of Enlightenment's ability - both of which introduce different issues.

Tracking just your current Level plus your current XP on the Path tracker might be simpler, yeah.

The only issue I see is that XP from Charge is still a fly in the soup. It feels like that should add in terms of getting to the next Level, but not so much for your Path progression. But then that requires tracking separately, in some sense.
 
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[X] Regroup V.3.0
-[X] [3] Prompt.Exe: "So you do bleed. No pain, though ... or did they forget about that too?"
-[X] [3+3XP=6] Dodge Implausible Ways
-[X] Charge

6d6 please.
 
Alright! Let's see how we do this time.
EDIT: Well, at least there's a 6 in there somewhere.
Tetra threw 6 6-faced dice. Reason: Charge Total: 19
4 4 6 6 1 1 3 3 4 4 1 1
 
Given that we're maxing out Path to Enlightenment I suspect leaving it may be correct. If we can leave it to restart it again then that'd work fine, but I'm guessing we can't do that, so would it be possible to get some other Path options to consider?
 
Tetra said:
Given that we're maxing out Path to Enlightenment I suspect leaving it may be correct. If we can leave it to restart it again then that'd work fine, but I'm guessing we can't do that, so would it be possible to get some other Path options to consider?
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If we spend a fair bit of XP to finish off this fight (and I think we will have to), then I don't think we'll finish it next scene. So @open_sketch does not immediately have to write more stuff. 😛

We may be finishing it soon, though. The ability is so immensely useful that I almost don't want to, though. It is apparently possible to stay on it after finishing, but it would no longer generate XP - or at least that was my impression.

(There were earlier versions of the Paths offered in a vote further back, I think, although I'm not sure if they had had abelites included, or were more about XP/outlook.)
 
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Skippy said:
If we spend a fair bit of XP to finish off this fight (and I think we will have to), then I don't think we'll finish it next scene, actually. So @open_sketch does not immediately have to write more stuff. 😛

We may be finishing it soon, though. The ability is so immensely useful that I almost don't want to, though. It is apparently possible to stay on it after finishing, but it would no longer generate XP - or at least that was my impression.

(There were some other Paths offered in a vote further back, I think, although I'm not sure if they had had abelites included, or were more about XP.)
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Right, I guess if the current trackers are accurate up to before this vote then we'll have 3 XP left in this path? It'd be pretty easy to finish it off if we want to (and the enlightenment ability is incentive to do that), but I agree we could avoid it if we were trying to do so.

If sketch is up to writing more updates but not more paths at the moment I'm ok with trying to avoid it, but if we're waiting either way then I'd like to have the options available.

The other paths alluded to so far don't have abilities yet, at least as far as the rules document goes.
 
[X] Regroup V.3.0
-[X] [3] Prompt.Exe: "So you do bleed. No pain, though ... or did they forget about that too?"
-[X] [3+3XP=6] Dodge Implausible Ways
-[X] Charge

Fuck it. Roll 6d6.
 
3.9 - Do Not Go Quiet
  • Threadmarks
    • "Knew it," you gasped weakly. "... you do bleed."

    The face of the not-man twitched slightly, but he hadn't yet pulled the trigger.

    "Not pain, though…" you continued, desperate for something, anything to needle him with. "Did they forget to give you that?"

    "No, it's just irrelevant," he said finally. "Like you."

    He pulled the trigger.

    You saw the hammer fall, in impossible slow motion, the fire light up and chase the bullet out of the barrel, spinning through the air as the slide retracted. It seemed to distort in the air as it travelled, as it went from travelling straight at you to, somehow, arc up and over your head, skimming your hair as you kipped up.

    Your hand grabbed the back of the weapon's slide before it finished its return journey, pushing it back to prevent the weapon from cycling. You were right up in his face, an inch away, glaring into those deceptively human eyes.

    "Not yet I'm not."

    ---

    You're back in this fight. You have two Detachment (remember, you can spend those to add +1 to any roll). Any action you make against the Agent will be at -2, unless you run. This agent is still the only thing between you and not only saving a crewmember, but getting San Francisco's access codes. Now or never.

    Study your abilities and position carefully. What do you do?
    ⚅⚄⚄⚃⚂​
     
  • Threadmarks
    • It feels like the answer is to spend our two detachment on the fives and burn down the house (metaphorically) with the triple sixes, right?
     
    Remembering the fine print:

    Agents take double damage from gunfire, if you can manage to hit one.

    That may not apply to our situation, but I just wanted to put it out there.
     
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