Section Two: General Torg
14. What published material
is available for TORG?
15. What material is recommended
for a beginning TORG game?
16. Is there an index available?
Errata sheets?
17. What is the name of
<High Lord's> Darkness Device? What does it look like?
18. How high do stelae zones
go?
19. When casting a spell
do you add in your adds of the appropriate arcane knowledge when generating
the magic skill total?
20. How does spell construction
work? How do the Nile Gizmo construction rules work?
21. What does Elvis have
to do with the Space Gods?
22. Haven't I seen some
of the cover art somewhere else?
23. What's the GodNet MUD?
What's the TorgMush?
24. Is there a TORG email
game I can join?
25. What's the source of
the name "Apeiros"?
14. What published material is available for TORG?
As of this file's last revision date the following material has been produced for TORG - many stores no longer carry TORG material in stock but most items except the miniatures should be available from WEG. They do not have everything in stock anymore so they should be contacted before you make any orders (plus you should verify prices and shipping costs too.)
Torg boxed set (includes Infiniverse newsletter (volume
1) #1)
Infiniverse (volume 1, WEG) campaign newsletter (#2-40)
Inviniverse (volume 2, OGP) campaign newsletter (#1)
Sourcebooks-
Living Land, Nile Empire, Aysle, Cyberpapacy, Nippon
Tech, Orrorsh, Land Below, Space Gods, Tharkold, Delphi Council Worldbook
(Core Earth sourcebook), Terra
Adventures-
The Destiny Map (with GM screen), The Possibility
Chalice, The Forever City, Cassandra Files, Queenswrath, Full Moon Draw, High
Lord of Earth, Operation: Hard Sell, Crucible of Pain, Cylent Scream, The
Temple of Rec Stalek, City of Demons, Central Valley Gate, When Axioms Collide,
The Gaunt Man Returns, No Quarter Given, War's End
Novels-
Storm Knights, The Dark Realm, The Nightmare Realm,
Strange Tales From the Nile Empire, Dragons Over England, Mysterious Cairo,
Out of Nippon, Interview With Evil, City of Pain
Supplements-
The GodNet, Kanawa Personal Weapons Catalog, Pixaud's
Practical Grimoire, Creatures of Aysle, Kanawa Heavy Weapons Catalog, The
Storm Knights' Guide to the Possibility Wars, Infiniverse Update (Volumes
1,2 and 3), Creatures of Orrorsh, Kanawa Land Vehicles, Los Angeles Citybook
, Ravagons, Character Collection, Tokyo Citybook, Creatures of Tharkold,
High Lords' Guide to the Possibility Wars, Clerics' Sourcebook, Berlin Citybook
Miniatures (by Lance and Laser)-
The Gaunt Man w/Gibberfat, Baruk Kaah, Dr. Mobius,
Angar Uthorian, Thratchen, Pella Ardinay, Gospog, Ravagon, Bryce & Mara,
Kurst & Djil, Dwarf Tunnel Fighter, Elf Mage, Corporate Ninja, Giant Bruiser,
Jaz Fighter, Cyberlegger, Ryuchi Kanawa & corporate samurai, Jean Malraux,
Nile shocktroopers (?)
Misc-
Torg comic book (1, 2, 3 and 4), Stormshooters and
Troubleknights (a Paranoia/TORG crossover anthology book)
15. What material is recommended for a beginning TORG game?
The following products have been generally recommended by people on the list/newsgroup:
Sourcebooks:
Aysle, Cyberpapacy, Nippon Tech, and Orrorsh are generally given good marks by most people. Aysle also defines the magic system, Cyberpapacy defines cyberware and Nippon Tech defines martial arts. The Nile Empire is also good in most people's books. Opinion is generally split on the rest of the sourcebooks, though the Living Land SB is looked down upon by most people (being the first one written it certainly lacks in comparison to the rest.) The Terra sourcebook is useful for its revised gizmo rules and new material on pulp powers but it is more useful for a stand-alone pulp genre game than as part of the oveall TORG campaign setting.
Supplements:
Most of the supplements are considered optional by most people. The only supplements that have received high marks are the first two creature books (Creatures of Aysle and Creatures of Orrorsh), Ravagons, the Infiniverse newsletter, the Infiniverse Updates, and the High Lords' Guide to the Possibility Wars.
Adventures:
The Relics of Power trilogy are generally considered good adventures, the first moreso than the rest. The three adventures are The Destiny Map (which also includes the GM Screen), The Possibility Chalice, and The Forever City. The mini-adventure compendiums (Queenswrath, Full Moon Draw, and Cylent Scream) are also given good marks. The Gaunt Man Returns also received generally good reviews, but is meant for experienced characters.
16. Is there an index available? Errata sheets?
An index for the boxed set can be found in issues #27-29 of Infiniverse v1, in the High Lords' Guide to the Possibility Wars supplement, or on Joe Behrmann's TORG References page .
The only organized errata information was published in Infiniverse v1 #2 and #7; errata for the TORG boxed set was in #2 and errata for the Nile Empire sourcebook was in #7. There is more errata scattered through the entire run of Infiniverse but no one has yet collected it into one piece of information.
17. What is the name
of <High Lord's> Darkness Device? What does it
look like?
Information on most of the Darkness Devices can be found in the appropriate sourcebook or supplementary materials such as the Infiniverse Updates.
The following information is in the format of: Realm, (High Lord) and a brief description of the Darkness Device. All Darkness Devices are further described as being made of an obsidian-like material.
According to Infiniverse v1 #4, stelae zones usually extend 15 kilometers above the ground surface and 150 meters below the ground surface. Nippon Tech and the Cyberpapacy have extended their stelae zones to reach low Earth orbit, about 250 kilometers. According to the Land Below sourcebook the Gaunt Man extended Orrorsh's undergound range to a depth of 1000 meters.
19. When casting a spell do you add in your adds of the appropriate arcane knowledge when generating the magic skill total?
No. The only time you add an arcane knowledge to a magic skill is to determine if you can learn the spell and during the spell design process. When casting a spell you use just the appropriate magic skill value.
20. How does spell construction work? How do the Nile Gizmo construction rules work?
These two topics are too lengthy to be covered in this document. Perhaps someday a step-by-step description of each process will show up in the archives but until then you are on your own. You can post specific questions about the processes to the list and there will be people who can help you out though. The Terra sourcebook presents a revised version of the gizmo rules that goes to great lengths to make the process as painless as possible, including a worksheet that leads you step by step through the process. If you're having trouble with the Nile rules you may want to check it out.
21. What does Elvis have to do with the Space Gods?
Officially there is no established connection but the King is pictured on the cover of the Space Gods sourcebook. One of the icons in the light blue background is an Incan-style representation of Elvis, complete with microphone and that famous hairstyle. There are several scattered over the front and back cover; the easiest one to locate is on the front cover, very close to the word 'THE' on the spine of the sourcebook. Several people have suggested that Elvis was an Akashan, one of Those Who Wait, or even an Ayslish elf (the plural of Elvis is Elves, and there is a connection between the elves and the Space Gods). But other than Elvis the edeinos (an entirely different story) there is no official mention of Elvis in the TORG material.
22. Haven't I seen some of the cover art somewhere else?
Yes; the cover art on Kanawa Heavy Weapons Catalog and The Storm Knight's Guide to the Possibility Wars are what WEG calls 'secondhand art'. The art for KHVC is from the home release of the coin-op arcade game "Contra" and the SKGPW art is from the adventure game "Alternate Reality: The Dungeon". Also, the cover art from the Land Below sourcebook has appeared as a cover of the comic book "666 - The Number of the Beast." The cover of the Berlin Citybook was previously used as the cover for the TORG novel "City of Pain". The cover of the module "When Axioms Collide" has been used in other places as well including a recent CD-ROM computer game and a set of artwork trading cards.
23. What's the GodNet MUD? What's the TorgMush?
Both the GodNet MUD and the TorgMUSH were interactive, multi- player computer game environments accessible through the Internet. Plans to revive the GodNet were announced in 1995 but no movement appears to have been made towards actually reviving it.
24. Is there a TORG email game I can join?
There have been from time to time email campaigns but they are not usually always open to having new players join. A post to the list/newsgroup asking if there are any games looking for players is probably the best way to find one..
25. What's the source of the name "Apeiros"?
The following information was kindly provided by Neferset (I'm assuming the spelling she uses, Aperios, is from her reference source and not a misspelling.)
"The Pre Socratics (or quite a few of them anyway) spent their time trying to divine the 'one'true thing (element) behind the 'all' (everything). I'm not even sure element is not anachronistic... Basically, they wanted to know what indivisible thing made up all things. Anaxamander said that it was the unbounded or the limitless, which in Greek is Aperios. Both before and after him (but still withing the Presocratic timeline/tradition) philosophers had claimed that the 'one' was some sort of metaphorical substance. Thales, his teacher, claimed it was water in all of its various forms. Anaxemenes claimed it was air. Anaxamander claimed that his Aperios was pure matter that was not particulate and had no definitive quality of property."
"Also, the Greeks imagined the void in opposition to this unique and underlying one. They never defined properly how it is possible to have nothing if the definition of nothing is no thing, or that which is not--since by defintion, every that is isn't that which is not by logic alone. However, their void or no-thing can loosely translate to Torg as the Nameless One."
"It is also worthy of note that the Pythagoreans were mostly interested in 'the void'. From whichever point of view you take, in Presocratic Philosphy, no-thing was always in opposition to some-thing. Anaxamander just gave us a convenient word by which to call it."