So, here is yet another brain storm (my brain in neutral evil, by the way) I have had…
In the worlds of the Matrix movies, Neo is a “natural” phenomena as far as the humans of Zion are concerned because they are unaware of his “true” status as an anomaly created by the Architect that was supposed to be under a nominal amount of control by the machines.
The humans of Zion have been working at hacking the Matrix of the machines for at least a century.
The humans under the control of the machines are raised from fertilized ovum and spend their entire lives in coffin-like pods while their minds are connected to a system where in an illusionary world is presented to keep them occupied. Until they are removed, most humans utterly believe in their world and its rules as they understand them.
Some, but not all, of the Zion humans believe in the prophecy of “The One,” while even they that do not believe he is a messiah find him useful.
So this is where the evil starts…
Some of the Zion humans have hacked a relatively isolated tower of coffin-pods containing humans and as such, they have been able to control the section of Matrix in which these humans exist. Only the programmed world has been altered – the machines are still drawing power from the trapped humans.
To produce a small army of individuals with abilities that are comparable to those of the One, certain Zion humans have radically altered the section of the Matrix in which the trapped humans live. In so doing, they condition those humans to believe in the radically different set of physical laws. The Zion humans do intend to remove these special trapped humans from their special section of the Matrix. In theory, these people will keep their abilities – granted by the different set of rules they were raised to believe in – when they enter the standard Matrix.
In this different world, exist things like wizards, dragons, elves, clerics, spells, magic weapons…
(Or, if you prefer, mutant animals with ninja abilities, mutant hero humans, human-looking aliens that can fly…)
Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
How is that for a way to yank the rug out from under the players? Alternatively, just as an explanation for “the Shadow?” Or a way to integrate – in a grinding-gear, nightmare kind of way – standard D&D with d20 Modern?
Edited to add spoiler tag - & I haven't seen it yet, either, so I'm keeping my eyes closed while typing.
- Eridanis
In the worlds of the Matrix movies, Neo is a “natural” phenomena as far as the humans of Zion are concerned because they are unaware of his “true” status as an anomaly created by the Architect that was supposed to be under a nominal amount of control by the machines.
The humans of Zion have been working at hacking the Matrix of the machines for at least a century.
The humans under the control of the machines are raised from fertilized ovum and spend their entire lives in coffin-like pods while their minds are connected to a system where in an illusionary world is presented to keep them occupied. Until they are removed, most humans utterly believe in their world and its rules as they understand them.
Some, but not all, of the Zion humans believe in the prophecy of “The One,” while even they that do not believe he is a messiah find him useful.
So this is where the evil starts…
Some of the Zion humans have hacked a relatively isolated tower of coffin-pods containing humans and as such, they have been able to control the section of Matrix in which these humans exist. Only the programmed world has been altered – the machines are still drawing power from the trapped humans.
To produce a small army of individuals with abilities that are comparable to those of the One, certain Zion humans have radically altered the section of the Matrix in which the trapped humans live. In so doing, they condition those humans to believe in the radically different set of physical laws. The Zion humans do intend to remove these special trapped humans from their special section of the Matrix. In theory, these people will keep their abilities – granted by the different set of rules they were raised to believe in – when they enter the standard Matrix.
In this different world, exist things like wizards, dragons, elves, clerics, spells, magic weapons…
(Or, if you prefer, mutant animals with ninja abilities, mutant hero humans, human-looking aliens that can fly…)
Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
How is that for a way to yank the rug out from under the players? Alternatively, just as an explanation for “the Shadow?” Or a way to integrate – in a grinding-gear, nightmare kind of way – standard D&D with d20 Modern?
Edited to add spoiler tag - & I haven't seen it yet, either, so I'm keeping my eyes closed while typing.

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