SPAM: [Torg] A redesigned Possibility War

[Kansas Jim]

Morgan writes:

> 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.

Pretty much everyone has at one time or another talked about revising
canon, moving realms around and stuff like that, especially if you're
trying to keep it fresh for players who know all the old stuff.

> 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.

Lots of people have tried this, from reports it's a mixed bag. Making
it grim may be a more realistic approach to the concept but it also
runs the risk of being too much of a downer to make for fun gaming.
(Whenever I've tried introducing a little grim reality into my Torg
games the players would get uncomfortable and do their best to get away
from it as quickly as possible so they could get on with the fun stuff,
bashing the bad guys.) On the other hand, the WTF!? factor can be a
gripping way of getting a game started.

One thing I've noticed is parties that are predominantly/entirely Core
Earth characters tend to start feeling a little bland and dull to
players after they start encountering the other realities. It makes
sense for the initial group if it's set during the first days of the war
but probably sooner rather than later some of the players will start
wanting to play something from another realm because the other realms
get all the cool stuff.

[...]

[Chinese fantasy realm instead of Aysle]

> middle of the Olympic stadium as the opening scene. I'll probably dump
> the Light vs Dark thing, though.

With an Asian angle, Light and Dark should probably be more of a Yin/
Yang thing than warring opposites.

[...]

> 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.

Nippon Tech is really a product of the late 80s/early 90s and difficult
to justify as a realm today. It's been how long since anyone was afraid
of Japan buying up the United States? Cyberpunkish megacorps, Yakuza
and Ninjas just aren't what people think of when they think of Japan
anymore.

-- 
Kansas Jim, Torg guru (ksjim (at) sdc (dot) org)
Torg website: http://www.sdc.org/~ksjim/index.html