[Torg] A redesigned Possibility War

[Scott Palter]

Living Land was always a hard sell.  I argued against it being the first 
realm and lost.  The Cyber Papacy makes sense if you know that we had a 
French licensee who was very interested in such a realm in France for 
marketing reason.

Scott Palter
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Morgan Nash" <morgan.nash.uk at googlemail.com>
To: <torg at justintimeadventures.com>
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 5:41 AM
Subject: [Torg] A redesigned Possibility War


> 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
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