[Torg] A TORG story

[Dominick Riesland]

Dominick Riesland, aka Rabbitball
Speaker, 5-Color Rules Committee
Creator of the Cosmversal Grimoire
"There are always possibilities, my sergeant told me. But he never had
his possibilities torn away like wings from a fly."



On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 7:56 PM, Sam Frazier II <sdf_ii at yahoo.com> wrote:
> This isn't in my game, but appearently from one back in the day....
> SDF II
> -----------------
[...]
> "Don't play dumb, the Possibility Chalice! We know you have it."
>
> "What are you talking about?!"
>
> At this point we drop out of character and I remind her about the box. "Oh, I left that back at the Castle. Didn't seem like we needed it." She even shows me her sheet which has it quite clearly marked as stored in the castle vault, which I now remember I had off-handedly offered the use of when someone asked if there was anyplace to store valuables.
>
> She didn't know the name of the Chalice, and the rest of the party there were even worse, they didn't even know there was such a thing. The villains could have done a mind probe and gotten absolutely nothing.
>
> And yeah, then I looked at the whole "fake lead" that led them to the train... and she was right, there was no compelling reason to think they needed the Chalice along, instead of leaving it in one of the more secure locations in the entire Infiniverse. Short-circuited the badguys' whole effort, because the game designers presumed no one ever leaves the MacGuffin behind. Brilliant

 YOU HAVE FOUND THE TEMPLE OF THE MAP
 HERE WHERE THE HUMANS JOIN HANDS
 THE TIME OF POSSIBILITIES HAS BEGUN
 SEE NOW THE RESTING PLACE OF THE CHALICE
 FOR ALL THESE UNTOLD EONS
 YOUR DESTINY CALLS YOU THERE
 TO ACCEPT THE DEFEAT OF THE FOUR COLORS AND FIND THE CHALICE
*THEN CARRY THE CUP NORTH FROM THE TEMPLE OF THE MAP
 TO WHERE THE MEN OF THE NORTH JOIN HANDS
 AND LIGHT THE SIGNAL FIRE TO CALL OUR DISTANT SAVIORS*

This inscription, from the first adventure, is repeated in the
Prologue section of the other two adventures in case a GM decides to
start in the middle. This is their guide through the adventure: find
the chalice, then carry it to the place where the Men of the North
join hands. Kinda hard to do that from the castle vault. Any group
that doesn't know what to do with the Chalice once they get it is
either dense or playing it that way.

 Fra Adrien's First Story (this is the designated mook who lets
himself get captured to provide the plot hook for the Orient Express)
 With apparently great reluctance, Fra Adrien tells the Knights the following:
 *) Pope Jean Malraux acquired a photograph of the Destiny Map (Adrien
does not know how). After deciphering the arcane writing on the photo,
Malraux believed that the "Signal Fire" mentioned on the map was an
ancient artifact recently found by his agents on Corsica.
 *) Malraux sent the Brothers to England to capture the Possibility
Chalice. *After capturing the Chalice, they were to take it to the
Orient Express train where others of the Cyberpope's agents awaited
with the Signal Fire. From there, they were to take the two artifacts
to their final destination.* Adrien does not know where that final
destination is; the Brothers were to be told on the train.

If they know about the Orient Express, they must have received the
above information. So how does a group who receives this not know that
the goal is to reunite the two artifacts, especially since the end of
the train ride is closer to their final destination than where they
are? If the story is true, I blame the GM for not reading through
everything and making the story clear.