[Torg] A redesigned Possibility War

[Morgan Nash]

Hi everyone,

Thought that I'd float my ideas in front of you and you can comment as
you see fit. Now, the thinking behind this is not necessarily that
there is anything particularly wrong with the Torg "canon". My group
and I played it a lot some years back and loved it but to run a new
game without changing a few things would mean that the players would
a) know too much about the invading cosms and b) it wouldn't be as new
and sparkly and exciting. In addition, there were certain realms that
never excited us as much as others.

On the other hand, I don't want to lose some of the classic elements
of "canon" Torg nor do I want to spend hours writing new World Laws
for completely new cosms. So, here's what I'm currently planning:

Core Earth...
First of all, each of the PCs will be Core Earthers, re-inforcing the
alien nature of each invader (harder to do when all the players have
decided they want to be edeinos or pulp heroes or Victorians or
whatever). I want the feel of the game to be a little more grim so
that the players genuinely feel they are in a war rather than a
"thrilling new game-world", if you know what I mean. I want them to
actually feel like mostly-normal people who now have to fight for
Earth's survival. In addition, I'm going to play through the first
days of the invasion: this means less explanation of what is going on
before the game even begins. I can say: "It's the real world. Now,
let's start."  Ideally, they will be characters from a number of
nations so I'm thinking that having the first game set at the 2008
Olympics could be a chuckle.

First Invader...
Aysle: fantasy reality over Britain/Ireland/Scandinavia. Well, it's a
bit obvious. Magic + monsters = good; typical western european
mythology = meh. So, let's have fantasy China instead. Dragons,
demons, monsters, sorcery. Lo Pan and the Three Storms! Terracotta
golems! Long dragons with strange eyebrows! It's all good. Plus, China
has a lovely big population - very tasty for an invader from an
alternate "fantasy China" cosm. And it means a bridge can land in the
middle of the Olympic stadium as the opening scene. I'll probably dump
the Light vs Dark thing, though.

Second Invader...
Living Land: we had the same problem with this as with a lot of people
- it just felt that there wasn't enough "going on" in the Living Land.
The Land Below always felt more like what the Living Land should have
been. So that's what I'm going to do. Baruk Kaah + edeinos are still
the main threat but he's supported by slave races from previously
conquered cosms: white ape-people, wasp-riders, etc, etc. Still
primitive, still spiritual but just with more colour. And it's Western
Europe that's the target too. That way I get to have pteranodons
nesting on the Eiffel Tower, ape-men in the Alps and cool things like
that ;-)

Third Invader...
I had trouble getting inspired by the Cyberpapacy and potentially
having two cybernetic invaders (Tharkold) seems overkill. So, meet the
"Imperial Pain-Camps of South Africa".  It's Tharkold where Rome never
died. Caligula goes mad, summons demons, demons take over Imperial
Rome. Now, it's centuries later, the demons rule their world, human
"Cyturions" and demon "Alpha-Praetorians" form the vast armies, etc.
Terminator mixed with "The Iron Legion" (a Doctor Who comic strip from
years back) and plonked down over South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe,
etc. And a demon as High Lord, as it should be - none of this Jezrael
tomfoolery ...

Fourth Invader...
Strip the "cyber" away and you're left with The True Papacy, a really
nasty medieval place where human cruelty and oppression are at their
peak - witch-burnings, keeping the populace ignorant and fearful, an
almost Third Reich degree of "controlling the populace". The Gaunt
Man's plan was for the Papacy to invade South America (chock-full of
catholicism and people) but the Antipope has other plans. He doesn't
like demons and he spots a certain tendency for hard-line religion in
central africa and plonks his realm down covering places like Nigeria
and the Congo, turning the continent into a real war-zone as he
encourages the locals to find faith in him and resist the demons of
southern Africa. Well, the High Lords were never going to just meekly
follow the Gaunt Man's plan.

Fifth Invader...
Orrorsh itself. I'm keeping the feel of this pretty much as originally
written but I'm going to drop it over North America. That turns it
into a place more like "Sleepy Hollow" and the Deadlands game. I'm
thinking Victorian soldiers bravely coming to the New World to "help"
resist the horrors, gunfighters tackling horrors in the desert,
headless horsemen in New England, etc, etc. And I recall something
from the Orrorsh book about the Grand Canyon being the initial place
where horrors were encountered. Maybe he's got a reason to take this
Grand Canyon too.

Sixth Invader...
The Gaunt Man did not recruit the last invader who has
opportunistically got involved. We always loved the Nile Empire best
and, naturally, played there a lot so it needs a change. So, The
Dominion of the Sun is a pulp-Incan realm landing in South America.
I'm playing down the magic/spiritual side of the pulp realm a little
as it has enough going on as it is. Weird Science is the main element
and we're thinking a more "aerial", 40s angle - Sky-Captain, lots of
airships, giant mechanical golden condors, pulp villains based on
Incan myth, etc. Perhaps make Weird Science a little more common but
have it almost entirely controlled by the bad guys. Apart from the
heroic resistance forces, of course! And instead of Dr Mobius, it's
the Scarlet Jaguar (female, I think).

Anyway, there you go. You'll notice that Kanawa is gone entirely.
Ultimately, it's not "alien" enough and I'd kinda prefer Japan to be
on the side of the resistance. I think elements of Kanawa may appear
in Core Earth and "Tharkold" maybe.

Morgan