From Jolly Blackburn Received EGG#8. Good show! As always an entirely good read. Thanks for the comments on SHADIS#4. I received several comments on that editorial from other self-publishers sharing your feelings. I must say that MGs are very fascinating. For the past three years I have been working on a political-game based in the Alderac milieu. It involves role-playing in conjunction with a normal AD&D campaign. The players struggle to move up the political system of the Reagan Empire. Players sabotage each other, build popular support, assassinate each other etc. It's been great fun. However, I quickly saw that the game had potential as a stand alone game. I was leaning toward a Play-By-Mail format and then I stumbled upon your Matrix Gaming. The MG system seems ideal for this type of game. I've done some preliminary groundwork converting the game to an MG but SHADIS takes up so much of my time I'm afraid it will be a few months before it's completed. At any rate, EGG does exactly what I demand from my reading, it challenges me to think and frequently inspires me to tackle now projects. Thanks! By the way. I was re-reading a great book the other day which has been largely over-looked. Have you ever read Micheal Crichton's EATERS OF THE DEAD!. It's a great read and has been recently re- released through Bantam Books in paperback. If you are not familiar with it I think you would definately find it worth your time. Although the book is often filed under fiction, it is actually a historical work based on a 10th century manuscript concerning the travels of an Arab who is kidnapped by Vikings and taken to the land of the Norsemen. It's filled with historical notes and insights into the Viking culture from the eyes of an outsider. Since you're a Viking fan, I had to mention it to you, just in case you had overlooked it. Well. good luck on EGG#9. Shadis #5 should be going out on 1 October unless this Gulf-Crisis gets out of hand and I'm shipped out. (Eggadds!) [Thanks for the book recommendation. I go to the local Science Fiction group to hear about what books might be good to read. I never have much time to read, so when I do I like to read something good. It sounds like an MG might work real well to run the background campaign of your game. One of the things I plan to do with MGs is to put out a generic matrix to run the back ground campaign for standard AD&D games. I've done a number of experiments with this that lead me to believe it will work. Maybe a quick description of them to you might help you in putting together an MG for your our game. First off, I always use the basic matrix resolution rules (just like in Solidarity). I mainly do this because its easy and if I get off on evolving MGs too much I never get the matrix done! Last winter I ran a Star Wars in which the MG handled all the political wheelings and dealings of the surrounding sectors. The players were all in the Bootes sector (where all the adventures took place). At first I had a matrix that described the Rebellion and the Empire. It was a campy matrix, filled with stuff like, "Evil sometimes wins" etc. The matrix was allowed to grow by the result of arguments and also by the agreement of the players that something "should" be part of the matrix. As referee I retained the right to veto any argument that would destroy my game (le wipe out the Empire or the Rebellion) but generally I let the players do what they wanted. During the first run, the players decided to "create" two sectors next to Bootes. The Sargoth sector was the scene of an epic battle between the evil admiral Slith and the noble rebels of Sir Sargon (a Jedi knight!). The sector, Slith, Sir Sargon, and even the epic battle were all made up by the players. They enjoyed the hell out of it. The creator of Slith, championed him throughout the rest of the winter. Other sectors were created and other conflicts created. At one point a player created a "Jedi artifact" of great power. This later fed into a scenario the players resolved. One player made an issue with the lack of character development In the Star Wars system. It occurred to me to use a matrix argument to resolve this. I told him, "Make an argument why your character should advance." So he did. It was a good argument, so I did not veto it. He rolled and won. In later games, he made more arguments. He did not always win but he seemed to like getting to try to improve. The next experiment is still going on. I decided to run a D&D game (exposed to gamma radiation of course so that the rules resemble D&D in name only). The normal (mutant here being the norm) rules of play remain the same. The players have plenty of holes to crawl around in, and all that. The MG part of it comes in how the players advance. Between each game the players are allowed to make two arguments. One of the arguments can be used to advance their skills or stats. The other argument can only be used to advance the player socially. The characteristic growth argument is done just like in Star Wars. The social development argument on the other hand is more like the political matrix. The players get to define who they have made contacts with! Think how much time GMs spend role playing vital but BORING social situations. This frees the GM from that. I've found that the players can then make life strategies beyond "I want to adventure, become wealthy beyond my wildest dreams and then die of boredom longing for the good old days when I was first level." There are times when I will let players make arguments while the game is in progress. In a resent game the players had reached an impass. They were all chopped up, one of their friends was captured, and they could not decide what to do. I gave them an argument. One of the player argued that the NPC parish preist had a vision from God, miraculously healed them and to advise them to rescue their friend. As it turned out, this happened and the players did as they were told. I am not using a formal matrix with my D&D game, but this might not work out so well you you, since your players have not done an MG before. I hope this is helpful in implementing an MG in your game. Back to Experimental Games Group # 9 Table of Contents Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1990 by Chris Engle This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com