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

[Chad Dickhaut]

--- On Mon, 2/15/10, Jasyn Jones <jasynj at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 15, 2010, at 2:39 PM, Chad
> Dickhaut <pharaohmobius at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > 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.

Yes, I get that you're not proposing CE fiction determines the reality of other cosms.  However, since CE fiction is inspired by other cosms, being familiar with the concepts related to the genre inspired by another cosm would lead to being confronted with those concepts less jarring.

> 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).

And this is what underlies my objections to CEers developing personal 2nd axiom sets as your world law proposes.  Based on the bulk of your initial post I'd agree that local axiom shifts should be easier to achieve on Core Earth than in other cosms, but I don't think that logically leads to characters (even Storm Knights) effectively getting to proclaim "dual reality citizenship".  While Haiti might have had an effective Magic axiom of 8 and Silicon Valley might have had access to Tech 24, someone removed from those environments wouldn't necessarily have access to those higher axioms no matter how inspiring the stories about them were.

> 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.

Which is perfectly consistent with gaining a bonus to reconnecting with tools from a reality in which a CEer has such insight.  Heck, you could even go so far as to say it might make it easier (cheaper) to acquire contradictory skills from that reality.  However, insight doesn't mandate complete comprehension, which is what would be necessary IMHO for a character to "own" an axiom higher than his own.  Even if a character from CE really grokked Ayslish magic or Living Land spirituality, there will always be part of him that knows reality "shouldn't work that way".

> > 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.

They don't in isolation.  However, the mechanics of disconnection and reconnection by their very nature involve axiom level discrepancies, which are the very stuff of reality conflict.  

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

Color resides in the description, not the mechanic.  For example:

"Core Earth is a Possibility Nexus, which accounts for both the
overwhelming quantity of possibilities in the cosm and adaptability
of its natives.  Because Core Earthers are used to considering possibilities beyond what is possible under their own axioms, they
are more adaptable when confronted by other realities than characters
from other cosms; some even develop special affinities to other cosms.
Core Earth characters may develop an affinity to one alien reality of
their choice that they have personally encountered; developing an 
affinity to another cosm costs 1 possibility at character creation 
or 3 possibilities if developed during game play.  When a Core Earther 
disconnnects using a tool from the reality to which he is attuned, he receives a +3 bonus to reconnection totals with that tool."

I'd say that's easily as much color as "+3 to lie", and doesn't require the (IMO) kludginess of turning CE p-rateds into "glorified gospogs" (i.e. they can use tools from two realities equally well, plus they get to make contradictions).

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

If the above rule was expanded to allow for local axiom shifts to be created easier it would have application outside the P-wars.  For that matter, even as is it makes it easier for the axiom to be affected because innovators who disconnected due to a local axiom shift could recover easier than they would otherwise.

> 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.

Any set of mechanics can be described in a non-colorful way; if I was to describe your mechanic as "character gets to pick the higher of two axiom sets for his personal axioms" it would sound pretty flat too. 

And while we're on the subject of logical consequences, I still don't think your mechanic is a logical consequence of local axiom shifts, which seems to be what you're suggesting.  Saying that local axiom shifts are easier in CE (perhaps with a corollary stating that CE's axioms are a bit harder to permanently change) and that CE characters reconnect easier to CE reality than characters from other cosms do to their reality (thus making CE harder to conquer, but ironically a larger source of potential poss) is IMHO a more logical extension of the idea of "Haiti zones" than your proposed world law.  YMMV, I suppose, but that's where I'm coming from.

Chad