How do I play a Matrix Game? Such a simple question. Deceptively simple. On one hand, they are VERY easy to play, but as I've found from years of experience, people seem to find them hard. In some cases it seems like the game becomes invisible to large parts of the population. They can't imagine a game working like Matrix Games do. That seems to be changing now (2018) but the question remains, how to play them?
First the simple answer.
If you follow the rules as written, you are playing a Matrix Game. For instance, the rules I use in my convention games: There is no order of play, Someone says something. Others can add to that or alter it. Any and everyone may ask a player to roll for their action. All very straight forward statements. You simply MAKE UP a story, build on other people's stories and only roll dice when the players can't agree. In the professional game players make arguments, a referee decides how likely they are and the players roll. Events build up to tell a story. Simple. The player just MAKES UP an argument.
You will notice my highlights. MAKE UP is the important common ground of all Matrix Games and this, I think, is where they run into trouble.
All games give players choices to make. A game without meaningful choices would be boring. But most games use a limited range of choices. With a little thought players can find optimal strategies. The randomness of games comes from the human factor. People make unpredictable, irrational, or even stupid moves that make outcomes different. Players who min max the best, or who are lucky, come out on top. They "win" the game. If this assumption about games is violated, it doesn't deliver a game, or at least not a game everyone wants to play.
If making stuff up is a central feature of all Matrix Games then it means there are no built in rules that limit the range of choices. Think about that for a minute. There are no limits on what you can do. You can try to do anything and work toward any outcome.
My experience is that when people think about it this way they quickly develop a headache. It is too big to wrap our brains around because it is the entire universe. It is like life. We can chose to go in any direction and are only hemmed in by the series of choices we make. There is no automatic "right" way to live but there are paths that are likely to be short and miserable. Personally I don't want to pick one of those but to each his own. Given a universe size blank slate, what do you do? Answering this question can feel like re-inventing the wheel each turn. This is much more work than most people are willing to do.
So teaching Matrix Games means not going down the rabbit hole of the literal meaning of the rules. Instead each game focuses in on the scenario being played. Say the game is a military campaign. The players are given two or more different countries, with lists of forces, histories that may help or hurt their actions, maps, political agendas and goals to work on. The player suddenly knows a lot about the world. The blank slate is filled in. In fact the blank slate is more filled than the information given because people's brains gestalt the holes with reasonable guesses about what was not said. This is the matrix of Matrix Games.
Knowing the game world allows players to pick what story they want to tell more easily. They have a number of obvious tropes and stereotypes to pick from. In theory they can do anything but they will likely do fairly predictable things. For example, consider two scenarios.
Historical Scenario: Operation Barbarossa: The Invasion of Russia in 1941. Is there any way the Germans could have carried that attack out in a way that would lead to victory? The number of "what if" questions is endless which is why people have been gaming this scenario since it happened (and even before). You might already be thinking of possibilities. If so, you are playing a Matrix Game in your mind right now. This is a game with a clear winner and loser and we know exactly what winning and losing means.
Present Day Scenario: The Syrian Civil War. As of writing this (2018) the Syrian civil war is ongoing. No side has yet won, and even when a side does "win" all the sides will be losers. It is a mess that has bad outcomes and worse outcomes. There are many players with many different definitions of story. There is no one dominant narrative. The USA player may think of it as a continuation of the War on Terror, the Russian player may see it as a continuation of the Cold War or even a 19th Century war to contain Russia from the Mediterranean Sea. The Iranian player may see it as part of a regional conflict that dates back to the Sunni Shia split or even to the Persian Empire. Forces inside Syria have even more contexts that flavor their moves. What does one do? I don't claim to have an answer. There is not one answer. It is a minefield with many paths. You might be feeling the headache about now because the range of options are so great and so uncertain. It is as much politics as it is cultural, military, and economic. But even with the large range of possibilities it still gives players obvious ideas to work on.
A well written scenario is vital to Matrix Games. Without one they just don't work. Maps, casts of characters, story starters, plot tracks (or other goal measures) art work, and even toy soldiers help. Scenarios don't have to be long and certainly don't have to be complete but they do need to be compelling. Like an advertisement, the scenario has to convince the player to give their attention (which means their time - which by extension means a part of their limited lives) to the game.
Once players are hooked there are some nuts and bolts of play that get games going quickly.
1. Briefly explain the scenario. People form a mental matrix as they listen to this even when they are not aware they are doing so.
2. Briefly explain the rules. Usually this means saying that the players will take turns making up what happens. Don't expect ANY of the players to understand how to play due to this explanation. That is why to keep this very brief.
3. Immediately start playing. For the first turn, go around the table and ask each player to make up something. Some will have an easy job of it. Others will struggle. If they struggle, skip them in a low key manner. If people feel shamed for not making stuff up they shut down and are unable to play. It sometimes helps to give encouragement. I've found saying "If this were any other game, you where your character, and this was the situation, what would you want to do first?" helpful. They can then pull on the rules of other games to help them overcome the brain lock that Matrix Games can cause.
4. Many if not all players will know how to play after this one turn. The people who had an easy time making up actions will dive in. Other players will engage more slowly, as the game unfolds. The game host needs to be patient with shy players. Don't rush them. They will come out when they are ready and not before.
5. Some people will hate this game. It grates on their nerves like finger nails on a chalk board. Often they will walk away. Let them go. Accept that Matrix Games are not everyone's cup of tea. Respect the difference of opinion.
6. After that just play the game. People learn fastest by playing. By the end of the first game the players will know all the rules and, though they might not believe it, they could run their own Matrix Game with no more knowledge. All they might lack is confidence.
The old medical teaching adage: See one. Do one. Teach one. Is a good thing to keep in mind. For Matrix Games it might be: Play one. Run one. Write one.
Beyond this people will always have questions about the minutia of movement, combat, economic and political rules of each scenario. I have no answers for those questions except to say that if you can't find an answer quickly, it is always okay to fall back on a Matrix Game trope and Just make it up!
Chris Engle