[Torg] Reality Storms

[Travis James Hall]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com 
> [mailto:torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com] On Behalf Of Steve Crow
> Sent: Saturday, 14 March 2009 7:09 AM
> To: torgmail
> Subject: RE: [Torg] Reality Storms
> 
> Obviously, a GM can build a "reality-strong" opponent. Just 
> as a PC can. The problem is, the PCs often have no idea 
> whether to judge if an opponent is the "wrong enemy" or not 
> prior to invoking a reality storm.

"The problem is..."? Why is that a problem? Since what we want is a reason
to discourage excessive reality storming and the occasional opportunity to
peg back a storm knight who goes overboard with this, a lack of information
on the part of the players in this regard is a good thing. It makes reality
storming for Possibilities akin to digging for buried treasure in a
minefield.

> I find that odd because once you invoke a Maelstrom, there is 
> no limit on the number of Possibilities you gain. Why would 
> someone only gain a small number?

Did you catch my earlier comment about 4 Possibilities and this lousy
t-shirt? I was referring to an incident that occurred when I played High
Lord or Earth. The adventure has a confrontation between the storm knights
and four Aztec gods. I reality stormed three of them, one after another. I
had a Reality skill of 21 at the time.

See, we got there, and Father Sean O'Malley (my character) was approached by
the jaguar-formed god. He tried and failed to invoke a defensive miracle
while it closed the distance, and without that miracle the good Father was
rather vulnerable to shredding at the claws of this Aztec god in the shape
of a jaguar. So, in a moment of tactical brilliance (if the look of shock on
the GM's face was anything to go by) I invoked Blessing on my Spirit,
getting a superior success and boosting his effective Reality from 16 to 21,
played for the critical moment to dump all my cards into my pool, played
Haste to take another action immediately, invoked a reality storm against
the jaguar, and burned the rest of my cards boosting the result.

By the time I came out of the storm, I was about 10 Possibilities up. Now, I
was no longer vulnerable to being shredded by an Aztec god in the shape of a
jaguar. Instead, I was about to be shredded by an Orrorshan horror in the
shape of a jaguar. Yeah, great plan, Father O'Malley. So, desperate to
remove myself from the physical battle, I invoked another storm against one
of the other gods.

A couple of bad rolls later, and I had lost all the Possibilities I gained
from the first storm and a few more besides. I managed to transform the
second god, but emerging from this storm left me in pretty much the same
situation, so I invoked yet another storm against a third god.

The third storm went better than the first two, and by the time it was done
I had recouped my losses and gained a few more Possibilities. When it ended,
I had gained a total of 4 Possibilities overall. The other storm knights had
taken care of the other three gods by this stage (two of whom were
significantly easier to take down as they had been stripped of
Possibilities), and the last went down quickly when attacked by the entire
group while having no Possibilities.

So, three storms netted 4 Possibilities for a character with an effective
Reality skill of 21. That hardly strikes me as excessive.

Anyhow, time to move beyond the anecdotal.

It's not true that the character with the higher Reality skill has complete
control over when a maelstrom ends. Even when one is started (which
certainly won't be every attempt - it'd be really easy for a strong-Reality
character to overshoot and achieve an instant transform instead, when
specifically aiming for a maelstrom result), 13+ result points on a reality
attack still drains 5 Possibilities from the opponent (and gives them to
you). Also, no matter what the player chooses, the NPC will still be losing
at least one Possibility every round, because the last thing the NPC wants
is for the PC to suck a hundred Possibilities out of the maelstrom and
*then* strip the PC of all his Possibilities. The NPC is better off losing
early, because while he'll have lost all his Possibilities, at least he
won't then be facing a PC with a hundred Possibilities. So, the NPC should
be spending a Possibility every round to boost his reality attack. Better
that than to give the PC free rein and eventually have the Possibilities
stripped away when the PC gets around to it.

So strictly by the book, the NPC loses at least one Possibility every round.
If the PC doesn't counter, the NPC is probably going to beat his Reality
value, which means the NPC gets to strip Possibilities from the PC. If the
PC does counter, he's down a Possibility too, slowing the flow into the PC.
And sooner or later, that transform result comes up, the drain comes
straight off the NPC's Reality adds (because he's spent his Possibilities)
which are reduced to 0, and the storm ends.

And then there's the option that the rules don't talk about - one that
applies not only here, but other times that somebody desires to lose a
confrontation. Since the NPC is better off losing quickly than losing slowly
(when he can't reasonably win) the smartest move he can make is to encourage
his own transformation. What happens when the opponent in a reality storm
stops resisting? The rules don't directly cover it, but I'd say that however
you'd handle a character who wants to lose in other situations should apply
here too. What happens when a PC throws a punch at an NPC, and the NPC wants
to cop it real good so he can bring down a lawsuit later? How much can he
lower his defense? The same applies. So the NPC suddenly stops resisting,
and the PC gets a transform (much sooner than he otherwise would) and the
storm is over.

Now, if you still think your players are going to take too much advantage of
this situation, a small change that is still pretty much in keeping with the
setting material concerning reality storms would be to simply eliminate the
rule that says that instant transform results are not possible once a
maelstrom starts. This would speed the ending of maelstroms which are a
foregone conclusion, as the NPC would not have to use up all his
Possibilities first. The first time the PC achieves a transform result, the
maelstrom ends.

> Also, stealing possibilities is the best defense against a 
> "wrong enemy." The more possibilities you get, the more you 
> can increase your reality to deal with any future wrong enemies.

Which makes instant-transform results more likely against the common
reality-rated foes, and still won't be enough when a Darkness Device decides
it can't have a guy with Reality 27 running around and arranges to storm
him.

> (Although two interesting questions: approved actions don't 
> matter in a reality storm, but do the action modifiers, the 
> Ups and Flurries and so on, kick in? Also, by definition 
> should any IRS be "dramatic," so you should always use the 
> dramatic line resolution?)

It's a conflict just like any other. All the standard rules apply, unless
altered by the rules specific to the situation. Prior to R&E, I'd have said
that means that approved actions are allowed, but most approved actions
would never apply. "Any" would, and so would "Attack" (except possibly while
in a maelstrom and absorbing Possibilities rather than draining them from
your opponent), but none of the others. R&E added a rule stating that
approved actions don't apply to participants in a storm (though Jim may have
found that rule in an earlier source that I just don't know about). R&E also
added the possibility of active defense against reality storming (which is
why the "Defend" action would never have applied).

> All of these factors 
> combined seemed to make it difficult to bring balance and/or 
> create an effective deterrence. You can't stage every 
> dramatic encounter around hundreds or thousands of Ords.

You seem to be focussed on a need to prevent every reality storm. Having an
occassional storm isn't a problem. Many storms will never result in a
maelstrom at all.

> All I can say is that it seems to happen with some 
> regularity. Keep in mind that a PC can go into an IRS armed 
> with the cards they need by trading beforehand. You'd be 
> surprised what a well-placed Presence card will do to get to 
> to a Maelstrom result.

This makes it sound like your players have worked out effective tactics to
game the situation, and are deliberately using them. You need to get your
own tactics in order. If they've been doing this a lot, it's time for you to
play to win. Just the once will probably do it. Put them up against a
strongly Reality-rated opponent, preferably with a home-ground advantage. If
they are inclined to play for the critical moment in order to get cards into
play quickly to win the storm, you could even have a decoy stormer, who will
persuade a storm knight to do precisely that, and after that storm is over,
bam! Hit him with the real antagonist. Strip the Reality-weenie of all his
Possibilities and his Reality skill, and see how everyone else reacts.

And before anyone says that the GM should be neutral and not engage in such
tactics, remember that turnabout is fair play. If I thought this was a
player-level problem, I'd say talk to the players, but it looks to me like
this is an in-game problem, with the characters not yet being really aware
of the consequences of their approach (and the GM likewise overlooking some
of those consequences).

> Also, I'll admit a seeming flaw of the above is that you're 
> letting a game mechanic drive your campaign.

The game mechanic is, in this case, an accurate modelling of a fact of the
game setting. If you don't like the way it works, you have to change the
setting, not just a random game mechanic.

> Taking a larger look, it seems that having a skill that in 
> some part lets you gain experience would inevitably cause 
> problems. It didn't seem to be addressed in the R&E, which I 
> found a little odd.

Maybe that should be taken as an indication that it does not inevitably
cause problems.

Travis Hall