What is the power of the Matrix?

I was wanting to recreate the Matrix (from the Transformers, not the
movie with Neo) in the Champions RPG, and I needed to list all it's
powers.

In the TV show it seems to be a receptical of knowledge of all the
Autobots who carried it. It also can reformat Cybertonians into more
powerful forms who can utilize it, it can activate Vector Sigma and it
can destroy the hate plague. It is also handy for blowing up giant
killer robot planets who are about to eat you.

In the Marvel comic book it could grank sparks/sentience to lifeless
robots, be used to telekinetically mechanical parts, could bring back
the dead. It also let Starscream merge with a giant planet ship. It was
more a living computer program then an item, but later it was placed in
a receptical which looked like the TV Matrix. Also, in the comic
organic beings could possess the Matrix!

In Dreamwave comics it can reactivate masses of Cybertonians in an
emergency as well as most of the above items.

Anything else?

Mathew

Mathew wrote:
> I was wanting to recreate the Matrix (from the Transformers, not the
> movie with Neo) in the Champions RPG, and I needed to list all it's
> powers.

I'm not familiar with the Champions engine; is it really going to be
practical to list all of the Matrix' *specific* powers in the offchance
that you will need to use one of them during gameplay? I can see how
it would be handy to know ahead of time that it can let you communicate
with the spirits of the dead, or build a stronger body, etc., but
saying that it can also cure diseases or turn badguys into weeping,
stalactite-encrusted wartmonsters seems like it might just be begging
to bend the game around the artefact's utility, and not the other way
around.

Is there a way to put it in some generic category of, basically,
"Goodness Box / Granter of Wishes", activated only by such-and-such
level of ambient danger, something like that? Kind of like the Amulet
of NIMH, to mix genres a little.

I'd be interested in hearing more about how you plan on using this
universe and characters in your game, as well as if and how it does
actually go down right.

When I helped to script and GM the Decepticons LARP at VeriCon 3, I
wrote the Matrix as something that could nullify any single specific
historical event--it could bring a dead character back to life, or
prevent an ambush, or keep a rival from finding a power-up. And that
was IT. However, only its possessor would know that its power had been
consumed--everybody else would spend the rest of the game going, "ooh,
MATRIX!", and the player's ability to bluff would determine how things
progressed.

As memory serves, Starscream got the Matrix very early on and used it
to convince a lot of the other 'Cons to side with him against Megatron.
But then RID Scourge (yeah, I know) launched a nuclear missile at
everybody and so Starscream had to use the Matrix wish-power to make it
go away. And Blackarachnia won. (Yeah, I KNOW. I'm such a geek.)