[Torg] Mixed Zones: A New Interpretation

[Kansas Jim]

James Knevitt wrote:

[...]

> 1) Cooperation between High Lords and their Darkness devices is 
> extremely rare; the only times that non-CE mixed zones have been created 
> in the manner described above have been either in California (LL/NT, 
> NT/TH) or in Berlin (TH/NE). The very nature of the Possibility Wars 
> (essentially a 'land grab' for p-energy) would seem to indicate that 
> getting any p-energy is better than getting no p-energy at all. This 
> notion contradicts with the generally adversarial nature of the High 
> Lords. It is in their best interest to create mixed zones where the 
> p-energy gained outstrips the energy required to maintain them, and yet 
> they do not do so.

Except that the High Lords gain no P-Energy from mixed zones at all.
It is basically never in their best interests to create mixed zones
and keep them mixed zones for any substantial amount of time. Mixed
zones are supposed to be unstable and dangerous, continually wracked
by reality storms until it settles down into a dominant or pure zone
of some reality. That the High Lords would deliberately keep California
and Berlin as mixed zones has never made any sense to me.

But admittedly, there's an obvious opportunity for adding additional
story potential to the game by mixing up the invaded realities and
creating something new but still familiar, so I can understand why
WEG did it. The rules purist in me doesn't like it, but I can understand
it. The following responses except for the very end come from the rules
purist side....

> 2) "Normally a stelae will only link to stelae from its own reality". 
> This seems conceptually inaccurate.  Stelae, after all, are devices that 
> simply gather and channel p-energy to the associated Darkness Device. By 

Stelae are not just random objects though, they must be ritually
prepared objects which are then energized by the Darkness Device in
order to be able to function as stelae. Saying that they can just flip
a switch on someone else's stelae makes as much sense as saying I can
flip a switch on my car and change it into a motorcycle.

> it is still feasible). This seems incongruous with the power level of 
> Darkness Devices: if a stelae can have reality storms invoked against 
> them by Storm Knights, and then be physically uprooted and destroyed, 
> why can't a Darkness Device pour possibility energy into a rival stelae 
> and flip it?

Because it has no connection to a foreign stelae, it has no way of
pouring P-Energy into it any more than it can pour energy into a random
rock.

Now if you want to say that a High Lord's minions can uproot a foreign
stelae, perform the proper rituals so that the Darkness Device can
attune itself to this stelae and thus make it into one of its own,
that's different. No wait, it's actually very different because then
you wouldn't get a mixed zone because the foreign stelae has been
changed into a native stelae. Never mind.

> If a Darkness Device wills it, a zone can be formed by using two stelae 
> associated with that Darkness Device and a third associated with another 
> Darkness Device. In practical terms, the Darkness Device forces a 
> connection between the stelae through vast expenditures of p-energy. 

Which actually must be WEG's explanation for how the Berlin zone even
exists since there is no connection to a Nile maelstrom bridge (ala the
Nippon Tech/Living Land mixed zone in California) to provide the Nile
reality that is supposed to be part of the zone.

> While this forced connection takes a lot of p-energy to maintain, 
> creation of such a zone would be profitable if it were in a high 
> p-energy area (such as a city or other densely populated area). The 

Except for that bugaboo about mixed zones not providing Darkness
Devices with any p-energy....

> the zone. If the 'forced' Darkness Device wishes to also draw energy, it 
> must enter into a bargain with the other Darkness Device, as has been 
> done in the past. After an extended period of time, it becomes much 

Cooperation as in the case of the California zones, but not in the case
of the Berlin zone.

> How does this affect Storm Knights and gameplay? It allows more 
> disconnection protection in many areas, due to the overall higher axioms 
> of mixed zones. Reality storms between realms can be abated, allowing 
> easier travel through mixed zone 'corridors'. It allows for new 

Except that mixed zones are supposed to be unstable and full of reality
storms, it should actually be harder to travel through them not easier.

My suggestion is if you really want to make more use of these combined
stelae zones, don't call them mixed zones. Create a fourth type of
stelae zone that is like mixed but stable and can only exist as the
combination of stelae from different Darkness Devices. Call it a
Combined Zone or something like that and say that it's stable and
because of that it can produce a little bit of P-Energy for the DDs.
I'd say less energy than it gets from a Dominant zone and for less time
than it can get energy out of Pure zones so they're not really worth
much to a Darkness Device, but maybe they'd be useful in some strategic
situations.

(I just had a sudden feeling of deja vu rereading that last paragraph.
Anyone else remember something similar coming up in the past? I don't,
at least not consciously.)

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