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Post by ayslyn on Mar 11, 2018 12:18:00 GMT -8
Got my group to play Torg. Last night was our first session. We're running through all the Day One adventures, and then they'll make their real characters.
The Day One adventures are exactly what it says on the tin. They're a series of seven adventures detailing what happens to a small group during the initial day of the invasion. Each adventure comes with six pre-generated characters for the area of the world that the invasion will occur. Also, if you play the series in order, you get a sort of tutorial of the system. Each adventure in sequence opens up more and more advanced systems.
The first Cosm featured is the Living Land (YAY!).
Everything went really well. Everyone had a great time, dice exploded, possibilities (think bennies ala Savage Worlds) were flying. Two dinosaurs were beaten into submission. The players got their first taste of just what was at stake if the Reality Raiders succeeded.
We got through two Acts of the first adventure. Acts are generally meant to be enough to run a session (which I suspect that they are measuring at around 4 hours). Below that are Scenes which are small contained sequences (much as Scenes in a movie, or chapters in a book).
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Post by the0gekko0state on Mar 11, 2018 12:51:00 GMT -8
I've heard tales of the original Torg, so I am tempted by this one. What is the dice system like? This all sounds fantastic, and glad it went well for you.
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Post by ayslyn on Mar 11, 2018 13:16:42 GMT -8
It's based on a d20, sort of. You roll the d20, 10s and 20s explode, and check the result against a chart to get a bonus to your Action Value (Stat + skill). Beat the Difficulty Number and succeed. Beat it by 5 for a Good success, and 10 for an Outstanding success. Modifiers are ALWAYS applied to your AV, and NEVER against the die roll.
Damage is a flat number, modified occasionally by a d6 bonus die, where the six is replaced with an infinity symbol. Infinity rolls count as a 5, and explode.
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Post by the0gekko0state on Mar 11, 2018 13:28:51 GMT -8
Hmm that sounds really interesting. Are there cards involved, I remember cards mentioned in the old one? I hope you keep us updated on how it goes!
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Post by ayslyn on Mar 11, 2018 13:38:47 GMT -8
Yes. There are three different card types.
The Drama deck controls initiative.
The Destiny deck is a toolkit of modifiers and special effects the players get access to.
The Cosm decks are broader reaching effects than the Destiny cards that also help reinforce the flavor of the new realities.
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Post by the0gekko0state on Mar 11, 2018 14:56:45 GMT -8
Thank you for answering my questions. I have one more. Is there a physical release?
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Post by ayslyn on Mar 11, 2018 15:05:28 GMT -8
Yup. It's up on their (Ulysses Speil) store, and should be in FLGS soonish(?)
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Post by the0gekko0state on Mar 11, 2018 15:19:54 GMT -8
Perfect! Thanks! I know a couple guys in my group loved the old one. Might have to see what I can do to get the new one.
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Post by ayslyn on Mar 24, 2018 20:09:17 GMT -8
Session Two-
We finished up the third Act of the Living Land adventure. The heroes take a ragtag group of refugees from the hospital that they are holed up in (and about to be over run) to the Holland Tunnel to escape to Philadelphia. Earlier they had encountered a crystal tower, which at the top had granted them visions of the surrounding area. Despite the invasion, Philly appeared to be held by Earth forces, and even more, the lights seem to be on! All of the bridges off of Manhattan are swarming with patrols of pterodactyl-like dinosaurs ridden by the fierce Edienos.
Utilizing the quickly rotting tank left outside the hospital to scare off a group of Edienos scouts, the group grabs all the supplies they can find, and head for the Holland Tunnel. Fighting off a TRex on the way, they finally reach the tunnel. It's power is out, and plants have overgrown everything. Carnivorous plants make the pitch black pathway a nightmare to navigate. Through hard work, and careful planning the heroes led the group of refugees through the tunnel, and right into the waiting forces of an Edienos warband leader, Treelik. During the combat, Leena -- formerly Colleen Bridges of Earth, who's transformation into a Stormknight connected her to the Living Land -- ensured the groups survival by sacrificing herself to take down Treelik.
AYSLE
We quickly moved on to the Day One adventure for Aysle. Five people in Trafalgar Square fight to rescue children from a bus about to fall into a chasm that opened up below it, vicious creatures from the underground who seem intent on kidnapping some of the people in the square, a dragon (wounded from it's fight with a pair of F-35s).... Upon retreating into the National Gallery, they discover that one of the children is missing. She's wandered off to look at some of the exhibits. A scream from below tells them exactly where she went! Running to the room, they find it empty, and the floor collapsed into a tunnel. Hurrying after, they find bodies, and signs that others have been dragged off through a series of tunnels that have grown up around the Underground. Following the trail lead them into a web-filled room. Spider creatures began taunting them, and swarming forward, intent on devouring the warm treats that had wandered into their larder! Through a harrowing series of waves, the heroes figure out which exit is the one they want, clear it of the foul, sticky webbing, wrench the door open, and brace it closed behind them.
There is a card in the Destiny deck called Glory. It's extremely important to the long term play of a Torg game. When the invading realities take over a territory, they drain all of the inhabitants of their possibility energy. Destroying the hold the invading reality has on the area would force those people to turn back.... With one BIG problem. They have no more possibility energy left to fuel the transformation. Only their life force itself will work. Glory gets played when anyone rolls higher than sixty on a check. It's such an epic moment that you actually fill everyone in the zone with a tiny drop of possibility energy.... Just enough to survive a transformation. Through epic tenacity, GREAT planning, and phenomenal luck, SIX copies of Glory got played tonight! The other thing that happens with Glory, is that everyone gets an extra Destiny card, and their hand size for Destiny cards is increased by one. The "problem" that this created was that over half the deck now ended up in everyone's hands. I am thinking about picking up a second Destiny deck to alleviate this problem.
Other than that, EVERYONE is having a ton of fun.
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Post by ayslyn on Apr 7, 2018 22:09:47 GMT -8
Session Three
Finishing up the Aysle storyline, the adventurers rescue a dwarf and an elf from an ambush. The pair of them lead the party deep into the Land Below, to a temple made of bones where a dark ritual is going on. Antenoch, a necromancer, is draining the Possibility energy from the innocents kidnapped from Trafalgar Square! After a daunting fight, and two of the characters falling before the mighty energies the necromancer was channeling, they defeated him, and brought the prisoners back up to the surface.
Onwards to the adventure that I've been looking forward to the most. There's a piece of advice from the writer that if more than one character survives this adventure, then something has gone awry. ^.^
PAN PACIFICA
A group of strangers wind up at the same vending machine, tucked into a tiny side street of Tokyo's Narajuku disctrict, looking for dinner. Congregating at an outdoor ramen vending machine, they all wait as a rude, old man feigns indecisiveness ahead of them. News of riots in China, and North Korea, as well as natural disasters in America and India have everyone on edge. Just as the waiting diners begin to think about doing something about the obstacle standing between themselves and dinner, a fresh bought of rain begins, and something leaps down upon the man at the head of the line. It's a....man? His leg appears to be shattered, and black blood leaks from his eyes and mouth. He tears out the old man's throat with his teeth!
Grabbing what makeshift weapons they can from items at hand, the heroes beat the creature into inactivity. One of the closed shops nearby opens up with an old man beckoning them to hurry and take shelter with him! They quickly do so, and he closes the steel shutters behind them. With his permission, they arm themselves with a few upgraded (barely) weapons. The tv news keeps getting worse and worse. Some sort of virus has spread throughout the Narajuku district! Police are quarantining the area, and the trains have been stopped. Something massive, and strong begins beating its way through the steel shutters. The store owner leads them to a back door from the shop, and they all flee for the Meiji Shrine, hoping against hope that its sacred grounds will protect them!
Arriving at the shrine, they find four more survivors. Raiding the nearby dojo, they again upgrade their weapons.... Until they explore the Treasury Museum, where they find a collection of true katanas! Feeling that their ancestors would forgive them for using these ancient weapons, they arm themselves and hunker down for the night.... or so they think! The shrine priestess, feeling that she's failed in her duty, and that these events are signs that the end times are upon her, gives in to despair and rigs the shine to burn down (with her, at least along). The characters realize what's happening in time to escape the blaze.
Out in the forest surrounding the shine, they are attacked by people infected by the virus. With their new arms, they defeat them soundly, only to be confronted by a new, mutated monstrosity! Super strong, and inhumanly resistant, their only choice is to run for their lives. They retreat from the forest into a nearby construction site. A pair of automated gun turrets open fire on them. They dash across the lot, pursued by the creature, and barely make it past the guns. The guns delay the creature long enough for them to pick the lock on the door to the building, and get inside. Within, they find a fully built lab, with some monstrous plant inside. Confronting a terrified scientist, they find out that the plant is the source of the "virus", and the riots occurring outside are a test of its effects! But, silver lining, there is a helipad on the roof of the building, and they already have orders to evacuate!
Just then, the creature smashes through the door and attacks again! They flee toward the roof! Heroically sacrificing himself to delay the creature, only to rise as one of them, one of the characters did buy just enough time for the rest of the group to make it to the roof. Right into the waiting guns of the Kanawa elite security team that had just landed. "Stormers," the commander drawls, contemptuously, "Take one and kill the rest!"
....
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Post by ayslyn on Apr 25, 2018 16:19:19 GMT -8
Session Four - Tharkold and The Nile Empire!
Both of these are single Act adventures, so we were able to cover both in a single evening.
Tharkold
Less than twenty-four hours ago, a storm erupted over Moscow, and a writhing tentacle of flesh and metal slammed down onto the Kremlin like a hammer. Terrible creatures followed it down and attacked the city. The General Staff have called a retreat, surrendering the city.
A team of Spetsnaz are tasked with entering the city to retrieve data from a hidden science station within the city limits, and rescue any of the scientists who might still be alive. Heading into the city, they first stumble upon a large group of humans preparing to destroy the VDNKh. Compelled to preserve the precious monuments, they stop and eliminate the threat in short order and continue on.
Reaching the coordinates of the lab, they find a run down apartment, and a group of refugees. Down in the basement, they discover the hatch to the lab. Before they are able to go in, however, they are attacked by strange corpse-like creatures and large, mosquito-like drones. Defending the refugees they fight off the patrol before opening the lab. Within they find a scene from a horror movie. Bloody chains dangle from the ceiling. The body of one of the scientists is impaled on several of them. A second lies upon a metal operating table, the flesh from their body dissolved off while they still lived. The third they find cowering in a corner. Clearly broken by something horrific, he babels to himself until he realizes who they are. “You're here?! They must have invoked the Svarog Protocol”.... A nuclear strike on the city itself!
Collecting the data, and the reluctant scientist, the team heads back upstairs to begin the evacuation. However, there is a wrinkle. While they were below, a group of escaped Thralls arrived. They beg the team to allow them to travel with them from the city. Sensing a chance to bring some prime intel back with them, they agree. Everyone bundles into their vehicles and the drive off, under the watchful eyes of several drones. The drones broadcast their position to the invading forces, and the evacuation turns into a race through the streets! Chased by motorcycles, and later a tank, the group flees the city, escaping just under the flight of jets that swoop in to nuke the Maelstorm Bridge! The resultant explosion drives the reality storm to unprecedented heights, and the fallout of the strike, and the debris of the bridge are swept away to contaminate huge swaths north of Moscow.
As the group recovers from being at the outermost edges of the blast, they are attacked by a technodemon – one of the foul masters of the invading reality! After an intense fight, where they lose one of their own, the group finally defeats the monster and returns to base. Sadly, they are “killed in action in a sortie” a few weeks later.
And now, onward to the land of exclamation points!!!
The Nile Empire
A group of tourists and workers are at the Pyramids of Giza when the Nile Empire’s maelstrom bridge descends from the sky, crushing the visitor’s center and unleashing a horde of goose-stepping invaders upon the site. The attackers eventually drive the heroes underground into a network of tunnels that shouldn’t exist.
The tunnels lead back to the Great Pyramid of Khafre, but they are riddled with death traps, puzzles, and stone guardians animated by the magic of the place. At the center of the network a giant stone scorpion protects a golden scroll that contains some answers to what’s happening—if anyone can read it!
By the time the explorers emerge from the pyramid night is falling. The strange stone portal is gone, but some villains and troopers remain behind searching for the scroll and the Storm Knights. They are holding other tourists hostage, and it’s up to the heroes to escape to Cairo with the scroll and anyone they can rescue.
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Post by ayslyn on May 13, 2018 8:42:10 GMT -8
Due to a bunch of factors, last night was a short session. We only got through one Act. So.... With that being said.... Onwards!
Cyberpapacy
A month ago, a blind priest in ragged robes came through the small village of Orange, France, a picturesque village, redone to look as it did back in the medieval period. He spoke of a coming storm, and horrible, violent times approaching. No one paid him much attention at the time, but recently.... With unusual weather patterns that have developed over the recent days, cell and internet services failing, and news of unrest across the globe, his words are coming back to people, and everyone in the village is feeling uneasy. Just this morning, three people went into the village to run some last minute errands. They haven't been heard from since. Their friends and loved ones have followed them into the village to try to find them.
Suddenly the stormy skies break, and a wave of energy washes over the village. Everyone's cell phones come back online, with a strange message, "Update in Progress. GodNet installing." Once the progress bar fills up, everyone has a signal again. Glowing, blue, cherubic figures descend from the clouds above to hover over the village. Simultaneously from both everyone's devices, and the figures musical voices the village is advised that all is well, and that there is a community meeting at a nearby Roman amphitheater. Hoping to find their loved ones, the group makes its way to the meeting.
There they are greeted with a priest in an ornate red and black robe. His staff is entwined with wires and circuitry, a glowing hologram of a crucifix slowly rotates atop it. He announces that the sins of the world have brought invaders from other realities. Images from across the globe appear on the walls behind him. Dinosaurs roaming the streets of New York, chasing a group of refugees, of a group of Japanese people in a sort of vending machine courtyard fighting off what looks like a dead man, of a team of Russian soldiers fighting in front of the VDNKh....
But all is well, he intones. For the Cyberpope Jean Malraux has come to France to save it, for it's piety and enlightened philosophy! All will be cared for. Your needs tended to. If you have any medical issues, please report to the Church Police so you can be routed to the hospitals for upgrades.
However, his face grows somber. "But there is danger... Demons are real. Those who would have congress with them, and do their bidding are also real. Witches walk among use, spreading lies and poison! Beware the witches, and report them to the authorities!" An image appears on the walls behind him of a local shop owned by a local woman named Arriel (a PC), along with a picture of her. "If you see this woman, alert the Church Police immediately."
The crowd erupts. Divided, some begin to denounce Arriel. Others defend her, citing that she has been an upstanding member of the community for years. Church Police begin forcing their way through the crowd toward the group. Quickly tempers flare and the crowd turns to violence! Teargas canisters land a throughout the mob as the police accost the group. After some tense fighting, they manage to subdue the police.
The priest from a month earlier appears out of the crowd and urges the group to come with him as more of the glowing figures drift down over the crowd. The group follows him to a nearby alley where he explains that he is a Proclaimer from a realm called Manga Verita. His job had been to precede the crusade, preaching the salvation of the church. However, since Malruax had come to power, he's seen the crusade turn darker. He believes that Malruax is corrupt and is corrupting the church. Their loved ones may have been taken to the hospital for upgrading. They need to hurry though, as if the procedure is completed, they may not be able to leave the boundaries of the Cyberpapacy.
Under time constraints, the group hurries to the local hospital. One the three is currently in a surgical suite, about to be upgraded. The others have been sent to the train station for Confession. One of the group fakes a heart attack to draw attention, while the others head back into the surgical suites to rescue the victim. Subduing the guard, they free him just in the nick of time. However, an alarm is tripped, and a massive mechanical gargoyle stomps into the hospital and attacks the fleeing group. Luckily, they are able to mostly keep ahead of it, and escape out the back.
They make their way to the train station, to try to find the other two missing people. Evading the guards they free all the prisoners from the train, and load them onto a nearby diesel engine to escape. They are chased by a glowing, winged humanoid creature as the train barrels towards the distant storm wall. Narrowly escaping with their lives... With the admonition that the Cyberpapacy now knows who they are and that they will be found.
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Post by ayslyn on Jun 15, 2018 19:59:08 GMT -8
And now, the Conclusion!
Orrorsh
The group is heading to a wedding! Friends, relatives, and spiritual advisors to the groom, they hire a bus to drive them to a small village in India. They were a little behind the groom, bride, and her parents as the bus had encountered some small mechanical trouble. The groom had called them last night to tell them they had reached the village, but strange storms had been brewing. The jungles of the area get more dangerous to navigate at night, especially in bad weather. The bus trundles through the jungle, passing empty cars and carts. Everyone seems to be off elsewhere. At one point, they pass by an ancient carriage in a ditch.
As the time goes by they come upon the lone petrol station near the village they are heading for. Deciding it would be wise to top off the bus before continuing, they stop. As they are refueling, they hear a child screaming from inside the station. They rush to help, and find a small boy, dangling from a pulley over a small pack of animated, vine covered corpses. The creatures attack them, and they snatch up what weapons they can find at hand to defend themselves. The make quick work of the creatures, and get the boy down. He tells them that a hunched figure and many of these monsters broke into his house last night. His parents shouted at him to run, and bought him the time to escape. He saw them get killed, and the figure drag their bodies away into the jungle.
Now, worried about their friend, they rush to get to the village. Unfortunately, they find it empty. And a strange altar of human remains has been built in the center of the village. One of the characters is a Hindu puraji. He decides to examine the altar. SUDDENLY, a animated tiger leapt from the jungle and attacked. The group made short work of it, and turned their attention back to the altar. The puraji began trying to dismantle it. Feeling some force turn it's attention toward him as he struggled with the altar, his companions held off waves and waves of the same corpses that had attacked them at the petrol station. Finally, after a titanic effort of will, the altar crumbled.
They began searching the houses, finding nearly all of them empty, and all with signs of some violent struggle having taken place. Finally, they find a survivor! A man, beaten and bloody, lies unconscious in the largest house in the village. He's dressed in tattered, but clearly Victorian style clothing. After they treat him, and rouse him, he introduces himself as Gant. He's from another reality called Gaea, which had been conquered by a High Lord named The Gaunt Man. He tells him about the Possibility Wars, and the creatures that they've been fighting called Gospog. Vile necromantically created creatures that the High Lords use as cannon fodder and shock troops. He suspects that the rest of the village has been harvested. And lastly, that Orrorsh becomes so very much more dangerous after the sun sets... Which will happen SOON! Realizing that they will not have time to get back to town, they begin scavenging the village for supplies to help get them through the night, and reinforcing the large house. They manage to scrounge up a generator, and enough fuel to run it through the night, and make a few petrol bombs.
As the sun slowly sinks below the horizon, a cacophony of high pitched shrieking starts up as a massive swarm of bats erupts from the jungle, blocking the sky. The storm clouds above open up, and rain pours down. Bizarre blue and red tinged lightning skips through the clouds and strikes the ground.
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And Gant begins to scream in pain as he drops to the floor. Leathery skin stretching between his arms and torso, thick dark fur covering him, his ears growing larger and pointed, his eyes darkening to the colour of pitch, and his nose flattening into a short, piggy snout. The bat creature shrieks and attacks! It destroys the generator and the swarm tears into the house. Hordes of Gospog begin to emerge from the jungle, shambling forward to the house. Two of the group kept to the top floor of the house, and began to lob the petrol bombs out at the gospog.
One of the players had attuned to the realm of Orrorsh when they became a Storm Knight, and she became what is known as a Slayer. As in Monster... Wielding pistols with specially enchanted ammo, these brave souls throw themselves against the horrors that stalk the realm. Armed with a load of silver shells, she hammered Gant and finally killed him. The bats fled the house.... And the entire back wall of the back wall of the house rotted away. A masked hunchback shambled into the house. Reaching out to one of the players, who had fallen from above when the loss of the wall took out part of the floor beneath her, he engulfed her face with some sort of fungus, knocking her out. The rest of the group managed to kill him, and the waves of gospog, and survive the night.
This was another great session where there was an insane number of Glory cards played. Five!!! Also, Orrorsh is a terrifying realm because one of the fundamental rules of the game changes for the worse. Storm Knights literally channel possibility energy, and can alter reality around them. This is the core of the Soak mechanic for damage. When you get hit, you can spend a Possibility to try to Soak the damage (Shock, quick, temporary damage that heals at the end of the fight; and Wounds, SERIOUS damage... You have three of those). They sift through the possible outcomes to find the reality where the blow doesn't do an damage. Ordinarily, if you succeed in the check, you reduce the Wounds you take by one, a Good success reduces it by two, and an Outstanding success eliminates them all. Not. In. Orrorsh... Here, you need a Good success to soak a single Wound, and an Outstanding one still soaks them all...
Thus concludes the Day One adventures for Torg. My players are making their actual characters and we'll be starting up soon.
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