[Torg] Mixed Zones: A New Interpretation

[James Knevitt]

On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 10:25 PM, <travisjhall at optusnet.com.au> wrote:

>
> If a Darkness Device can pour enough energy into a rival Darkness Device's
> stelae to flip it, why can't it pour that same energy into its own stelae to
> defend it (either against Storm Knights or other Darkness Devices)? It
> doesn't seem incongruous to me that Darkness Devices would have a "home
> ground advantage" concerning the control of their own stelae.



> This doesn't mean you can't allow Darkness Devices to do that, but you've
> expressed this as a problem within the canon, and I don't see that it really
> is a problem. Any argument that DDs should be able to exert influence on a
> rival stelae has a counter-argument that DDs should be able to exert even
> more influence on their own stelae.


Sure they could -- they do it all the time, and yet Storm Knights still have
a pretty good shot at uprooting a stelae regardless.

My use of the word 'flip' is perhaps a poor choice. What I'm suggesting is
that by a DD forcing an opposing stelae to complete a zone, it's not unlike
a Storm Knight engaging it in a reality storm (except instead of a Storm
Knight, it's a rival DD acting through its own stelae). *In essence*, one DD
is using two of its stelae to engage in a proxy reality storm with a third,
opposing stelae. The opposed DD could successfully defend against such an
attack (as it does when a Storm Knight fails to get a transform or maelstrom
result against a stelae).

I would run it as an invoked reality storm between the two Darkness Devices,
with a distance from the nearest bridge being a factor for both attacker and
defender. The attacking DD must initially score at least a Stormx5 result.
(Storm multiplier results are otherwise ignored, since the 'storm' is
localized within the stelae itself).  This means that the stelae has
successfully been tapped to form a mixed zone (but does not alter that
stelae's function with regard to other zones it creates).The battle between
the two DD continues until one DD or the other achieves a Transform result.
For a defender, this means that the attack has been repelled and the mixed
zone collapses. For an attacker, this means that the stelae's link with the
DD has been weakened, and that if agents of the attacking DD's reality
invokes a storm against the stelae to uproot it, they can immediately uproot
it on a transform *or* maelstrom result

Needless to say, once a mixed zone is established, it takes a while for it
to be repelled (or for the stelae's connection to be weakened).

Now, you can change the base assumptions if you just want more mixed zones,
> but in that case, just justify it by saying "I want more mixed zones," not
> "Here's why the canon makes no sense."
>

Why not? It's not like there aren't other places where the canon is totally
incongruous with itself. Besides, it's not like I'm trying to force changes
on people, or even change canon at all -- I was merely suggesting an
alternate reasoning behind mixed zones and how they could come about. YMMV.


-- 
James Knevitt
jknevitt at gmail.com

"O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you."
-- TS Eliot, 'The Waste Land'
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