[Torg] Introduction/Earth's Genre (Core Earth World Laws 1 of 11)

[Jones Jasyn]

Torg is a cinematic multi-genre game. Its mechanics support not only multiple genres, but also trans-genre play.

In the game, each cosm is representative of a genre: Orrorsh for horror, Aysle for fantasy, the Nile for pulp action, and so forth.

These cosms are rated in Axioms—numeric levels of advancement—and World Laws. Axioms are invariant: a 23 means the same thing in all cosms. World Laws are custom rules, unique to a cosm, that define and implement the genre of that cosm.

Earth’s World Laws (originally published in the Delphi Council Worldbook) are widely regarded as among the worst. They are bland, uninspiring, and don’t seem to define any genre at all.

One can’t fully blame the writer; it’s hard to devise World Laws for a cosm with no defined genre and Core Earth, alone of all the cosms, has no explicit genre. We know Aysle is the Reality of Magic, but what is Core Earth the reality of?

This article gives new World Laws for Core Earth, World Laws that embody the genre of the cosm and offer mechanics to reflect that genre in play.

In order to devise appropriate World Laws for Earth, we first have to start by defining its genre.

The Genre of Earth

Defining Core Earth’s genre involves a straightforward restatement of what Core Earth actually is. Torg is a “cinematic” game, where “cinematic” means “reflecting the pacing and action of Action Movies.” Core Earth is the real world as it exists in Torg. Therefore, Core Earth is “cinematic” Earth: The real world as it is depicted in Action Movies. “Cinematic” Earth is the genre of Core Earth.

Not only is this a logical inevitability (if you have a “real world” setting in a cinematic game, it has to be the “cinematic real world”), but it also matches the nature of Earth as explored in the game material. More, it matches the themes and pace of Torg (almost by definition). And, as we shall later see, the tropes of action movies help explain some of the more fantastic elements of Core Earth’s reality.

By looking at the tropes and themes of “nearly real world” action movies (such as Die Hard, Speed, Lethal Weapon, Mission Impossible, and The Rock), we can gain insights into the genre of Core Earth, and thus derive World Laws for the cosm. Of course, the extant official material must guide us as well.

The Powers of Core Earth

Even though action movies form the core of Earth’s reality, they are not its whole. According to the game material, Core Earth has a powerful influence far beyond the borders of the cosm.

Core Earth forms more Storm Knights than any other reality involved in the Possibility Wars. The Storm Knights it creates are filled with Possibility Energy, more than any other cosm (see pg. 42 of the Ravagons Sourcebook).

Not only that, but Core Earth creates new Storm Knights in the realities invading Earth, Storm Knights of that reality, and does so even in their home cosms. These Knights are filled with extra Possibility Energy as well.

This means that, through a mechanism not explained in the official material, Core Earth has the ability to alter what happens in a Moment of Crisis, even the power to cause a Moment of Crisis and create a Storm Knight. This power extends throughout the Core Earth cosm and into the cosms attached to her.

There’s more. Core Earth is reaching out into the cosmverse, to far distant realities, and drawing Storm Knights to her, to aid against the High Lords (Core Earth cannot create Storm Knights there, but she can draw them to her). Core Earth’s influence extends far beyond the cosm itself, even beyond the cosms attached to Earth, out into the cosmverse.

All of these abilities are present in the official material (see pg. 184 of the Revised and Expanded Torg Rulebook) and are dramatically different than those any other reality has. They are custom rules, unique to the Core Earth cosm. That is, they are part of Core Earth’s World Laws, and any proposed Core Earth World Laws must account for them. In particular, the World Laws have to explain why Core Earth has an influence far beyond what is possible for any other reality.

Genres of Reality

Last, as Core Earth is the cinematic version of the Real World, it has the same media and cultures as the real world, including fantasy novels, horror novels, comic books, and cyberpunk novels. It can be noted, and seems a bit strange, that the invading cosms so neatly match the fiction of Earth.

Out-of-game, this is the result of a conscious choice by the designers of Torg to make a multi-genre game. There needs to be an in-game explanation as well, one that identifies why so many cosms match Earth’s fiction and what that means. The World Laws of Earth should provide this explanation.

Note: In devising new World Laws for Core Earth, I borrowed (or unknowingly duplicated) concepts and mechanics from Ks. Jim Ogle’s Core Earth World Law rewrite (http://www.sdc.org/~ksjim/ce-wls.html). Most of these appear in the Gift of Inspiration, specifically the section on the Possibility Wars. This World Law codifies ideas Jim tumbled to 13 years ago, that I only I stumbled across last week. Better late than never.
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Jasyn Jones
jasynj (at) gmail (dot) com

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

Check out my Torg webpage, Storm Knights:
web.me.com/stormknights/