[Torg] In A Wicked Reality (TORG Hack of "In a Wicked Age")

[jhosmer1 at cox.net]

Thought this might be interesting to you guys.

Last night, I ran a TORG game using "In a Wicked Age," an indie RPG 
written by Vincent Baker. http://www.lumpley.com/index.php

IAWA is a story-telling game that uses simple attributes (you can do 
things Directly, Covertly, With Violence, With Love, For Myself, and For 
Others), particular strengths ("powers"), and Oracles.  Oracles are 
randomly chosen statements that are used to create the story. My players 
used a deck of playing cards to select the following Oracles:

1.  A horrible killer known as the "Ripper" stalks and mutilates his or 
her victims in strange and mystical ways in order to open a portal to 
Tharkold

2.  The Dalai Lama is said to have an eternity shard in his possession 
that Nippon agents are hunting for.

3.  A mysterious woman known only as the Guildmaster is recruiting Storm 
Knights to join her organization: the Storm Guild, which is 
headquartered in Hawaii. She offers money and support, and is a target 
to agents from Nippon and Orrorsh.

4.  A composer of electronic motets' pilgrimage leads to a holy site on 
Core Earth and a premiere at the Royal Albert Hall that ends in a riot

We used these oracles to choose characters and create a plot for the 
game

We soon ended up with six characters:

1. Jack the Ripper, an Orrorshian serial killer who seeks to kill the 
Dalai Lama to open a portal to Tharkold
2. Samuel, an Orrorshian occultist who sought the Dalai Lama's eternity 
shard to use in a ritual to kill most of a city's population.  Possesses 
the Nocturna.
3. Natasha, the Guildmaster (not the canonical one, as my players are 
only loosely familiar with the setting.  They chose an original 
character.)  A Soviet psychic
4.  Robert, a Core Earth con man (based on a PC from an earlier TORG 
game we ran using the original rules)
5.  Brother Zwon, a monk who serves as the Dalai Lama's companion and 
bodyguard.
6.  Louis, a composer of electronic motets from the Cyberpapacy.

The players then chose their "best interests," which are goals that they 
try to achieve.

Jack wanted to open a portal to Tharkold
Samuel wanted the eternity shard (which we decided was the Dalai Lama's 
soul)
Natasha wanted to recruit Storm Knights and stop more realities from 
invading
Robert wanted to set Orrorsh and Nippon agents against each other
Brother Zwon wanted to protect the Dalai Lama
Louis wanted to hold a concert in honor of the Dalai Lama.

I made 4 NPCs... A NT ninja (Kaede) who seeks to kill the Guildmaster, a 
vampyre from Orrorsh (Gregor) who wants to drink the blood of a holy 
man, a Cyberpapal Inquisitor (Brother Etienne) seeking the composer, and 
the local police chief (Chief Watsap) who just wants to keep things 
orderly.

The game began, naturally, with a bar brawl, as Natasha's attempt to 
recruit Robert for the Guild led to chaos when the Dalai Lama arrived. 
The two Orrorshians tried to attack the Dalai Lama in the alley outside 
the bar (for their own reasons) while Louis and Brother Zwon tried to 
protect him (again, separately).  Louis managed to get the Dalai Lama 
away.

Gregor found Brother Zwon and attempted to mesmerize him, but Zwon used 
his martial arts to trap Gregor in a dumpster.

Kaede attempted to assassinate Natasha, who ran off.  She did manage to 
capture Robert, who she took back to her Nippon Tech bosses.  Because of 
his incredible powers of persuasion, the NT people decided to clone him 
to use him to sell their products.  Robert convinces them to let him go 
to convince the Dalai Lama to sign over his property to them.

Louis is confronted by Brother Etienne, but he manages to use the power 
of his music to overcome the Cyberpriet's miracles.  He reprograms 
Etienne's cyberware to constantly fill his mind with "good music."

It all ends with a battle royale in the lobby of a hotel, with vampyres, 
ninjas, occultists, police officers and every PC fighting to either save 
or sacrifice the Dalai Lama.  Samuel, the occultist, manages to maneuver 
Brother Zwon into killing the Dalai Lama by accident, and then Samuel 
absorbs the Dalai Lama's soul.  He uses that power to kill Gregor and 
absorb the vampire' power, which makes him a being of incredible power. 
He uses that power to banish Jack to Tharkold and knock all the other 
characters out.  The power of the Nocturna possesses the Ninja Kaede, 
and Natasha is driven mad when she inadvertantly opens her mind to the 
Nocturna's evil.

All in all, the game was free-wheeling, crazy, and captured some of the 
spirit of TORG.  We had a lot of fun.