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Matrix Games Wiki: What is a Matrix Game?

Matrix Games are a simple game engine that allows players to simulate scenarios not easily done by other games. Whenever situations are fluid and up in the air, Matrix Games are there. Their flexibility comes from how turns are resolved. Rather than try to make up rules for every instance, players make an argument for what they want to happen next in the game. Another player sets a "to happen" roll, and a die roll later, you know which actions become facts and which just didn’t happen. I know it sounds too simple (or too complicated) to work, but it does. Matrix Games are a low tech way to game events that make supercomputers twitch.

What can you game with them? What about a murder mystery where no one knows who did it at the start of the game, that plays in 2 hours, and that never plays the same way twice? Or why not try a horror game in which the players discover a different evil plot each time and then save the world? Or maybe a literary game about a classic story that allows you to explore a universe of "what if" scenarios? Of course there are wargame and political campaigns. There are even games for education, psychotherapy, and planning. So Matrix Games live in the space between boardgames and roleplaying games. They are neither fish nor fowl, but boy do they taste good!

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Sample Matrix Game rules

Engle Matrix Games License

Engle Matrix Games are copyright Chris Engle and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. If you create derivative works, please include the sentence, "Matrix Games were invented by Chris Engle."