[Torg] Reality Storms

[Kansas Jim]

Steve Crow wrote:

> Is it just us, or do invoked reality storms (IRS) tend to throw the 
> whole metapower/advancement into the toilet?

Only if the PCs are successful at it. ;)

> By invoking (or having one invoked upon oneself) a reality storm, it is 
> almost inevitable that you will gain possibilities. Maelstrom/transforms 
> aren't that hard to obtain.

My experiences were quite different. PCs who invoked storms lost as
often as they won, and even when they won it was rare for them to
come out more than a handful of P-Points ahead of where they were
when they went into it. I can recall maybe one case where they got
a maelstrom result and milked it for points, every other time it's
either been a rush to finish off the bad guy or a struggle not to
lose.

[...]

> Yes, there are circumstances which a GM can manipulate to make IRSs 
> unappealing. Lots of civilians, relatively delicate surroundings, and so on.

The other PCs....

> But given that reality-rated opponents constitute the vast majority of 
> opposition, a GM can't make invoked reality storms undesireable all the 
> time. And even if a GM could... wouldn't it be simpler either to modify 
> the IRS rules, or not allow them?

Vast majority? The boss villain should be P-Rated, maybe his major
sidekick, but the majority of the bad guys that the heroes encounter
should be Ords.

(Not that WEG stuck with that rule themselves, he says thinking of all
the modules which had PCs facing hordes of P-rated but otherwise
faceless ninjas....)

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