Matrix RP - "World At War" (Ideas)
What up guys?
I was thinking about starting a Matrix RP that goes beyond just the sparring matches we have started up now, but I've never had much experience in designing RPs - only participating. Thought I'd come to youz guyz and see what you all thought of the idea and/or how to get it started.
As for the premise:
It takes place a few-dozen years after the "peace" was established (the end of Matrix Revolutions). There is no longer a physical threat to Zion since, as part of the cease-fire agreement, search-and-destroy equipments like the "Squiddies" have been disassembled. There's been a re-emergence of the machines drive for superiority and they've begun writing code to destroy humanity from within the Matrix, by altering humans on a psychological level, making them more prone to wanton aggression and violence. They'd figured out that it was humans' gift of 'choice' which had initially made them open-minded enough to have the anomaly known as Neo to come into existence. So, as an attempt to keep such a thing from ever happening again, they executed countless series of events, within the daily lives of each human jacked in, to feed their natural taste for violence. Over a long period of time, this transformed the 'world' into a very dangerous place to be, no matter where you lived. The machines were willing to have the humans tear each other apart, from the inside, because they understood their own harvesting methods enough, by now, to withstand a severe loss in bio-fuel and still continue to function. This gradual decrease of the number of humans on the "planet" will give the machines enough time to create and test other methods of survival for the future, so they don't have to worry about the pesky human-bioelectricity-for-power problem anymore.
Most of the people you see on the streets are now insane, by yesterday's standards - violently insane. It is a virtual hell on earth and a great deal of people have been exposed to talk of the Matrix. It is one of the world's most infamous 'conspiracy theories', rivaling the likes of UFO encounters and hauntings. Anyone who's anyone remembers 'that one time when they felt they'd seen beyond the veil.'
What the humans know as 'just a conspiracy theory', the machines know is an acceleration of the human drive to "wake up." The humans are learning about the elasticity of physics that actually does exist, and such widespread awareness would only lead to more 'rebels' being born inside the Matrix, instead of having to be freed by a ship, like Morpheus freed Neo. This is a serious threat to the machines. Inside the Matrix, most of the world government is now dominated by sentient programs (like Agents), instead of actual human consciousness. The authorities are coming for all proponents of the "Matrix Conspiracy." People who know of its reality are treated like terrorists, for spreading anti-authoritative talk, which many consider treason. Rebels who have already been out of the Matrix must constantly find these "talkers" before the police do. They bring them to safe-houses and fill them in on the "true" nature of the Matrix. They tell them everything about how the way things really are. They arm them with knowledge and send the 'conspiracy theorists' back out with even stronger messages for their audiences.
Anyway, all that is basically the state of the world. What I'm looking for is something to make it all interesting enough to play out. Like I said, I don't have much experience in that aspect of RP. I mean, I can always come up with small situations whatnot, but - from those of you who know about running RP better than I do - how would you work all of that into a fun RP?
Also, since our characters would be representative of ourselves, instead of made-up characters, it would be badass if we could somehow incorporate the RP into our lucid dreaming practices. Not sure what would be a good way to intertwine the two activities, but if anyone has any ideas on that, too, let me know.
Feel free to reply here, or PM me, with any input.
