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

[Jasyn Jones]

On Feb 15, 2010, at 2:39 PM, Chad Dickhaut <pharaohmobius at yahoo.com>  
wrote:

> --- On Mon, 2/15/10, Phil Dack <philipdack at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>> 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?
>
> I'm in much the same boat.  I agree with the basic premise in regard  
> to
> genres in "CE" fiction reflecting other cosms (in fact, I'd always  
> more
> or less took that position as read), but I'm not so keen on the  
> proposed
> world law.  It isn't so much that it's game breaking, but it just sort
> of seems metaphysically wrong to me (read: it doesn't gibe with my  
> personal interpretation of Torg ;o)).  I can see how being familiar  
> with
> a genre
> that is similar to an invading cosm might help in adapting to that  
> cosm's reality (or at least cut down the culture

The game mechanic isn't a result of Core Earth's fiction. Both the  
fiction and the game mechanic are caused by, or arise from, the nature  
of CE's reality.

Just being familiar with fiction wouldn't help you at all,  
reconnection-wise or otherwise. What does help is the ability of Core  
Earth's reality to inspire.

In the case of writers and artists, it inspires fiction subtly shaped  
by other realities (this reflects an unconscious insight into  
alternate realities). In the case of scientists (and others), it  
inspires visions of what is possible at a higher axiom, driving the  
axiom up.

It inspires the populace with the same vision, giving rise to "Haiti"  
zones. For prateds, before the invasion, it allowed them access to  
higher axioms (the parenthetical axioms of Haiti and elsewhere).

The same ability of Core Earth to inspire gives rise to this mechanic.  
It is the "parenthetical Haiti Magic" that existed before the war,  
applied to the invading realities.

Core Earth inspires it's natives to envision what might be, and to  
make that real. It also inspires visions of what may be, elswhere.  
This gives Core Earth natives an innate implicit insight into foreign  
realities.

Storm Knights can take advantage of that insight, in a manner similar  
to what they already could do: gain a higher axiom, and the new  
abilities of the same. In this case, it's the higher axiom of one of  
the invading realities.

> if a Core Earther sets his expectations about how an invading  
> reality should work solely on "genre-related" fiction,

It isn't from the fiction, the fiction and this ability both come from  
the same properties of Earth's reality.

> I had thought of the "3-case contradiction" solution, but now I'm  
> leaning toward just adjusting CE reconnection difficulties

My problem with both of these is that they seem kind of tame and  
colorless. Bare mechanics of disconnection and reconnection are  
abstract and distant from the reality. They don't give us a feel for  
what the world is like.

6 PE for betrayal? That establishes color. +3 to lie, or +3 to  
intimidate? That establishes color. +3 to reconnect? Not so much.

Plus, they don't explain what the reality was like outside of or  
before the wars.

World Laws always had an effect, even before the Wars. If any World  
Law grants bonuses peculiar to crossing realm boundaries and the like,  
they should be a logical consequence of what the World Law did before  
another reality came along. That tells us what the cosm is really  
like, it reinforces the feel of the reality. Reconnection mechanics  
aren't distinctive or colorful.

IMHO.

Jasyn Jones

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Ulysses, Alfred Lord Tennyson