[Torg] World Law (Genre and Being Real, 6 of 6)

[Phil Dack]

I'm not going to get massively involved in the metaphysical discussion of Torg and genres, broadly for two reasons.

1. To me it's a non-issue, for two main reasons. Firstly, I took Torg as a game, and so it never concerned me. Secondly, Core Earth is demonstrably not Earth as we know it, it's more the Earth of James Bond and John MacLean, so it strikes me that the residents of that world are already representatives of fiction, invaded by yet more fiction. It's Russian Dolls :-)

2. I find Jasyn's treatise compelling and sign up 100%.

Well.... maybe not 100%. The bit I wouldn't implement is the world law. I like the idea, I like the possibility exchange and possibility flexibility, but the specific world law suggested wouldn't work for me. I can see the natural consequences of Jasyn's argument, but it strikes me that the increased adaptability should be more universal than cosm-specific. I wonder whether simply making 4-case contradictions into 3-case contradictions for Core Earthers would do it?

Phil


----- Original Message ----
> Core Earth characters can choose one alien reality to become 
> attuned to. By investing the possibilities to learn a skill otherwise alien to 
> Earth, they gain the benefit of one of the axioms of the alien reality, the 
> axiom corresponding to that new skill.
>
> unbalancing! It wrecks the game! Why it makes some 1-case contradictions to 
> 0-case (in the reality they’re attuned to) and makes some 4-case contradictions 
> into 1-case (everywhere else). Well, that’s not so bad. Not game-breaking, 
> anyway.”