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Page 1: Torg Adventure Book
Page 2: Torg Adventure Book

Introduction

Introductionhe group waited in darksilence, feeling the walls ofthe small cabin pressing in.Outside, they could hear thefrightening howl of a tresir

on the prowl. They hoped the savage beastwouldn't find their hiding place as ittrekked through the new-grown jungle.

"If he doesn't show up soon, I say wegive him up for lost," the Yellow Crabmuttered, his muffled voice loud in thesilence. "Let's face it, the scales probablygot him and are enjoying a good mealwhile we sit here ..."

"That's enough," commanded Crow-fire. All humor fled from the Crab's man-ner. "We'll give Quin another hour andthen ..."

"And then what?" The cabin doorswung open, stirring the stale air.

Crowfire, the Yellow Crab and Sabrinalooked up to see Quin Sebastian standingin the open doorway. He was dirty andragged, but he was alive — and there was

fire in his eyes. The Crab shifted nerv-ously. He'd seen that fire before.

"I've got the information we needed,"Quin stated as he shut the door. "And it'sall bad. The Edeinos are going to stormPhilly. They're just waiting for the newestcrop of gospog to bloom - - a couple ofhundred third-generation gospogs, due intwo days, max. There's no way the Armywill be able to stop them. They need time toregroup and resupply."

The Yellow Crab turned pale beneathhis mask. "You're not suggesting —

"That's exactly what I'm suggesting,"Quin said flatly. "We have to destroy thegospog fields before the harvest. Other-wise the city will be overrun."

Quin looked at each of them in turn;Crowfire, the Yellow Crab, Sabrina,Vancen. Each one, reluctantly perhaps,nodded in assent.

The soldier of fortune smiled grimly."Then what are we waiting for? Let'smove out!"

Important: This book is for game-masters only. Players should not readit — or at least they should delay read-ing it until after their gamemaster hasrun the adventure and hooks within.

The Adventure Book contains in-formation on how to run Torg adven-tures and how to design adventures ofyour own. It also contains a completeadventure to introduce gamemastersand players to the world of Torg, aswell as adventure hooks to give youideas of the types of adventures thatcan take place in the Near Now.

The Adventure Book builds on in-formation provided in the Rule Bookand World Book. The gamemastershould read the Rule Book first, thenat least skim the World Book beforereading this one.

What's in this BookThe first chapter of this book intro-

duces you to the gamemaster andexplains just what this important per-son does. The second chapter talksabout "Running Adventures." It ex-amines the methods and techniques ofgamemastering a role playing gamesession — especially a session of Torg.The third takes an in-depth look atcard play, a critical part of the Torggame. The fourth takes you throughthe steps of creating adventures, fromstory concept to the ready-to-play,fully-realized version. Next is the firstadventure for Torg, called "Before theDawn." Finally, we present a series ofadventure hooks. These are brief plotsynopses that serve as starting pointsfor building your own adventures.

In addition, on the center eightpages we have gathered together themost important charts and tablesneeded to run the game as well ashandouts for the adventure. These canbe removed for easy reference; we sug-gest that you photocopy them andkeep a backup set well away from thegaming table (which is usually cov-ered with glasses of soda just waitingto be knocked over in the heat of battle).

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TORG: Adventure Book scan & ocr: dafek

Chapter One

Introduction toGamemastering

he essential differencebetween roleplayinggames and other adven-ture games is the referee,or gamemaster. While

other games are designed so that play-ers interact with situations defined bythe game rules, roleplayers interactwith situations created by a gamemas-ter, who uses the rules as a guide. Therules are not meant to limit or con-strain a gamemaster: they are meant togive him direction.

A good gamemaster is more than arules lawyer. Gamemastering requiresquick wit, dramatic flair, a sense oftiming, and a level of fairness andimpartiality not found in other typesof games. Remember, the gamemasteris not playing against the players -there are no winners as the term isdefined in traditional games. Every-one, players and gamemaster alike,wins if a roleplaying session is fun,exciting, and extends a sense of ac-complishment (or acceptable loss) toall involved.

The gamemaster, then, is a judge, areferee, and a storyteller all in one.

There are plenty of tricks and simpleprinciples that can improve yourgamemastering style, and we'll go overa few of them here. But the best way tobecome better, more dramatic, andmore creative as a gamemaster is togamemaster.

The Role of theGamemaster

The gamemaster's primary task isto create and present adventure sto-ries for his players to participate in.The players' characters are the heroesof the stories, blessed with extraordi-

nary abilities and destined (or cursed)to play a central role in the PossibilityWars.

The players cannot be heroes with-out you. You devise the fiendish plotsof the villains. You play the roles of thebad guys, their henchmen and min-ions, the threatened innocents, andthe cast of thousands. Yours are thehuge fortresses filled with evil mist,the mighty war machines of the newEmpire of the Nile, and the creaturesthat rule the night. You combine theseelements into a story, a story with agoal, obstacles, opposing characters,interesting encounters, and a satisfy-ing climax.

Gamemastering is more difficultthan playing. A player controls hischaracter — one piece of the story. Ifhe plays his role well, he's doing allhe's supposed to. The player does noteven have to know the rules very well— the gamemaster can be counted on

to correct any missteps. The game-master is responsible for the rest of theworld.

Isn't This a Lot to Do?In a word, yes. But it's well worth

the effort. Every bit of energy you putinto the game will result in a bettersession. A session in which the playersare enjoying themselves is quite apayoff — when they become excitedby the story, their enthusiasm is infec-tious. They win, you win, and every-body has a good time. Despite theappearance of the gamemaster as theone running all the bad guys and doinghis best to thwart the heroes, one of themost enjoyable aspects of roleplayinggames is when you and your playersreally work together to create an excit-ing story.

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There is another benefit for all thework you do — you are the only onewho really knows where the story isgoing. We find that gamemastering isthe most exciting form of authoring astory, with your ideas played out rightin front of you.

The gamemaster's job can be bro-ken down into six tasks: refereeing,roleplaying gamemaster characters,describing the scene, setting the tone,sustaining suspension of disbelief, andresponding to players' wishes.

RefereeingRefereeing means interpreting the

rules, making sure that the playersabide by them, and resolving disputesin an impartial and reasonable way.To do this, you of course need to havea good understanding of the rules (andit is important to know them at least aswell as your most knowledgeableplayer does). When the rules do notcover a situation, you have to impro-vise a solution. If a dispute arises, yourdecision is final.

As the players describe the actionsof their characters, you decide whetheror not they can do what they describe,or how difficult the action is. You inter-pret the card play and dice rolls ac-cording to the rules, and then tell theplayers what happens. You also de-cide what the gamemaster charactersare doing, roll the dice, and determinethe results of their actions as well.

We find it useful to think of role-playing games as a language for tellinginteractive stories. The roleplayinglanguage has many rules, akin to gram-mar, which control what sort of thingsyou may and may not do in the contextof the game. If a friend said to you,"Roses quickly very bullfrog aliengazebo," she has spoken a sentencewhich makes no sense. To communi-cate her idea, she would have to re-phrase it according to the rules ofEnglish.

The same holds true for the lan-guage of the game. If your friend triesto have a character do something whichmakes no sense according to the rules,you have to tell her that the character'saction cannot be done. Your job is not

to guard the "purity" of the rules byadhering to every line of every para-graph, but to make sure that what isbeing done in the story makes sense inthe language of the rules.

RoleplayingGamemasterCharacters

The players are the heroes of thestories you create together. But adven-ture stories also need dozens of char-acters besides the heroes, includingvillains, allies, and bit players. You areexpected to bring these gamemastercharacters to life when they appear inthe story, giving them unique person-alities, perhaps with individual quirksand beliefs.

If a particular gamemaster charac-ter is going to be prominent in a story,it is worth lavishing some time andeffort to flesh out his personality. Whatdoes he look like? Where does he come

from? Does he have any unusualmannerisms or speech patterns? Themore detail you put into characteriz-ing important characters, the better.And if the player characters are likelyto interact with the character throughthe game system — that is, they arelikely to fight, bargain with, spy on,ensorcel, or be ensorcelled by him —you had better give some thought tohis attributes, skills, spells, equipment,and so forth.

But some characters are just spearcarriers, minor functionaries who helpthe story along and then disappear.Don't bother working up much detailon them—doing so is actually counter-productive. If every character is de-scribed in a wealth of detail, they willall blur together after a while. A singledetail will often suffice to distinguisha character who plays a supportingrole: a policeman may have a veryrotund face, a clerk at the night deskmay have a squeaky voice. Only thevery important gamemaster charac-ters need complete backgrounds, turnsof phrase, and game values.

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Describing theScene

You are the senses of your playercharacters. You describe what theysee, what they hear, touch, taste andsmell. Descriptions with sensory depthhelp suspend disbelief, and makeplayers believe their characters reallyare in the scene. Props can help, butprops cannot integrate a character intoa scene as well as a good description.

Remember that most of the timeyour descriptions to the players willbe from their characters' point of view.For the most part you should limit theinformation they receive to what theircharacters can sense. Sometimes, forstory purposes, the point of view canchange, as it does in movies; this tech-nique is described in the next chapter.

Example: The player characters visitDr. Leyden, an acquaintance in Cairo.The gamemaster knows that two Nileshocktroopers are holding the doctorin an upstairs bedroom, having forcedLeyden to write a hurried note excus-ing his absence when the shocktroop-ers spotted the heroes' car approach-ing. The game goes something likethis ...

Gamemaster: The door to Dr.Leyden's townhouse is locked. Youknock, and there is no answer. A sec-ond, louder knock brings no betterresponse.

Barb: Fortunately he gave Sabrinathe key (rotates wrist to mimic open-ing the door). I open the door.

Paul: Hold on here. What if he's justin the kitchen making some warm milk,and we sneak in ...

Doug: Who said anything aboutsneaking? (cups his hands) "DoctorLeyden, it's us!"

Paul: ... Of course, if it is a trap, wejust let everybody know we're here.

Barb: Fine time to bring that up.What do I see?

Gamemaster: The foyer is a mess,with lots of dust and papers piled onthe endtables. The coat closet is open,the hat rack is piled with weatheredpith helmets. Smells as though dinnertonight was roast beef.

Doug: I'm checking the kitchen.Gamemaster: Dishes are piled in

the sink. The kitchen is filled with thesmell of cooked beef. Vancen (Doug'scharacter) notices heat from the ovenand a note on the kitchen table.

Paul: Quin is going upstairs.Doug: What does the note say?Gamemaster: It says "Dear Fellows.

I have been called away on a bit ofurgent business. Back by Friday. Allmy best, Andy Leyden."

Barb: Andy? I thought he hatedthat name. Didn't he tell us never tocall him "Andy?"

Doug: I'm checking out the kitchen.Anything unusual?

Gamemaster (while scribbling anote for Paul): The oven was left on,and the roasting pan inside has notbeen cleaned.

Barb: But the pan hasn't burned?Gamemaster: Nope. (Hands note

to Paul which reads): "A shocktroopermotions for silence while pointing anautomatic pistol at you."

Doug: Uh-oh. "Quin, you foundanything up there?"

The gamemaster in the example wasgiving out very limited information.The players had to act to get the fullstory, and were drawing their ownconclusions. By handing Paul the note,the gamemaster has restricted the in-formation even further; though, with-out telling Doug and Barb what washappening upstairs, he clued them into the fact that something was up.

While limited, most of the descrip-tion provided was pertinent -- thesmell of dinner led to the kitchen, for

instance. Not wishing to make it tooobvious, the gamemaster also threwin a few other details to muddy thewater; the players could have chosento ignore the smell of dinner, insteaddeciding to, say, search the closet orexamine the dusty correspondence inthe hallway. But basically, the game-master limited his description to in-formation important to the story.

Setting the ToneThe gamemaster sets the tone of

each play session by the way he de-scribes the scene, the characters, andthe available information. Each of therealms has a different feel to it, and asimilar encounter taking place in twodifferent realms might have two verydifferent tones. When playing a game-master character, remember that theyare living examples of their homerealm.

Example: In the Nile Empire ...

Player (as character): Excuse me,do you know where the offices of Men-hotep Excavations are?

Gamemaster (as gamemaster char-acter, rustling a newspaper): Say,would you take a gander at this! Soonthey'll be sending rocket ships to themoon! All the science wizzes need is amineral some big ape lord is trying tokeep for himself — the silly sap! Ain'the learned yet that what the Pharaohwants, the Pharaoh gets?

Player: Fascinating. But aboutMenhotep Excavations?

Gamemaster: It's two blocks, overon El Asimat, past the new pyramid;can't miss it. You know, pal, going tothe moon might be easier than gettingin there — it's tighter than a gambler'ssmile. See? This rag's got pictures:shocktroops, burp-guns, half-tracks.Say. Why do you want to get in there,anyway?

Example: In Orrorsh ...

Player (as character): Excuse me,but do you know how to get to thegovernor general's office?

Gamemaster (as gamemaster char-acter, rustling a newspaper): Whoknows anything these days? Look atthe nonsense they print in this ... this

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yellow rag! "Shredded Bodies FoundAfter Climbing Mishap: Fall Blamed."Ten experienced climbers all fell totheir deaths? And how did they get"shredded" - perhaps the bloodymountain goats did it. Preposterous— absolute rubbish! Can't anyone seewhat is going on around us?

Player: I can see I may not get to thegovernor general's office.

Gamemaster: Well excuse me all tobloody hell for wasting your valuabletime, your lordships! The governorgeneral can be found in the ornatemansion beside the cemetery.

You can do the same thing withdescriptions of scenery, or the tone ofyou voice. Think of books and movieswhich have the tone you want, anddraw on them for inspiration.

Suspension ofDisbelief

Roleplaying sessions are works ofimagination. Playing the game re-quires you and your players to sus-pend your disbelief while playing —otherwise it is just like a novel or moviewhere you cannot believe the charac-ter can or would do the things he does.Disbelief destroys a story. Keepingdisbelief at bay requires the coopera-tion of the players, but you are the key.

Be consistent. Be consistent in yourinterpretation of the rules. If you de-cide that a skill can be used in a waynot mentioned in the rules, make surethe skill works that way for all charac-ters from then on. Be consistent inyour descriptions. If a dining roomhas mahogany furniture, it should nothave oak furniture, or no furniture,the next time the characters see it,unless there is a good reason. Keepnotes to jog your memory.

Another important way to keepyour players believing in your story isto make sure that gamemaster charac-ters act according to their personality,motivations, and the knowledge thatthey — not you — have. As gamemas-ter, you have knowledge of your playercharacter's plans and actions whichthe villains of the story would not.Your villains should be as clever, orincompetent, as their skills and per-

sonality allow—and they should onlyhave information they could obtainthrough actions they have taken, notinformation gained from your omnis-cient viewpoint as gamemaster.

For example, if the characters areplotting an escape from prison in adark corner of their cell, you can hearthe players discuss their plan ... butthe guards cannot. So don't have themact as if they could.

Respond to YourPlayers' Wishes

Respond to your players' wishes.Get feedback about the sort of storiesthey want to see. Do they like myster-ies and puzzles? Lots of fast action?Confrontations with many repercus-sions across the realms? Personal gain?When playing, do they want more orless descriptions? Fewer fights, morecharacter interaction? If players havequestions, try to answer them (as longas you don't divulge any critical plottwists). If they are confused by yourstories, try to discover where the con-fusion lies and clear it up. By respond-ing to the wishes of the players youcan better cooperate to build an excit-ing story.

Respond to the players' wishesduring the game, as well. Improvisewhen the player characters do some-thing slightly unexpected; "wing it"as best you can. A strictly linear, rigidplotline — where the characters mustgo where you tell them, must do ex-actly what you have planned for themto do — severely inhibits the players'imagination. But when you wing it,wing it with the rest of the story inmind.

Example: The heroes are lookingfor a lost diamond mine, recently foundby the Tankhanic Corporation. Youexpect them to find an old map hiddenin the false bottom of a chest they haveinherited, hire guides and march offinto the jungle to look for the mine. Tothat end, you have created a numberof jungle-type encounters and a cli-mactic battle in the mineshaft itself.

However, the players don't evenlook for the map; instead, they decideto infiltrate Tankhanic Corporation

ricks of the Trade:Maintaining Secrecy

Discourage your players fromreading much beyond the play-ers' section of the Rule Book. Partof the fun of Torg is in discover-ing the secrets of the realms asplay proceeds. Also, as long asthey don't know what's in therest of these books, they'll al-ways wonder what you knowthat they don't know. It doesn'tmatter if you have secret infor-mation or not. If your playersthink that you do, you'll be ableto maintain a sense of mysteryand uncertainty.

Let this carry through in theway you run adventures. Nevergive away any information thatyour player characters cannotknow through normal senses,and never give away secrets thatthey haven't worked to uncover.Remember, secrets keep themstriving for answers, and pro-vide you with a powerful con-trolling tool — curiosity.

posing as rich entrepreneurs lookingto invest their money in the NewEmpire's growing mining industry.

Thinking quickly, you let them setup a meeting with an unctuous under-ling and attempt to con him. If suc-cessful, they earn an appointment withthe villain herself, who puts themthrough a pretty rigorous grilling,threatening to unravel their cover al-together. If they can con the villain,they can bid for rights to the mine andthus obtain its secret location. Oncethey've got it, they hire guides and setoff into the jungle - - and theadventure's back on track.

All of the improvisations have ledthe players back into your originalplotline. You could have had them getcaught in a stockholders struggle forcontrol of the corporation, but youdidn't: that would not advance theplot at hand.

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Chapter Two

RunningAdventures

roleplaying game adven-ture is a story told by agroup of people as theyplay a roleplaying game.In other words, the

people take on the roles of characters,and these characters interact with thegame system, and with situations andevents set up by another person, thegamemaster.

These elements are expressed dra-matically within a definite structure.All adventures have a beginning, amiddle, and an end. The charactersmay go on to experience other adven-tures — which may be linked togetherin a campaign — but each individualadventure follows the basic story for-mat.

Adventures are stories created forplayers — stories that their characterscan experience, complete with sup-porting cast, an interesting plot, andrewards for success. What's more,players help the stories grow to a sat-isfying conclusion by the things theybring to an adventuring session -their own ideas, the way they havetheir characters behave, and the waythey interact with the other players.

When you play a Torg adventure,you create your own Torg "movie."The "movie" stars the player charac-ters, and the gamemaster acts as direc-tor, writer, and supporting cast.

Preparing for aSession

By now, you've read the rules andhave a basic understanding of the Torggame. Now what do you do to begin toplay?

Read the AdventureWell, if you're using a packaged

adventure, the first thing you shoulddo is read it. We suggest you run theadventure that comes with this book,"Before the Dawn," as your first ad-venture. It was designed to introduceyou and your players to the world andgame of Torg.

Make sure you read through theadventure at least once so that you canidentify the main events of the storyand have an idea of the charactersyou'll be called upon to portray. Youdon't need to memorize it word forword, but you do need to know whereyou can find things later. If you absorbthe essential elements, you'll be ableto improvise or look up specific de-tails as you need them.

Stock UpIt's good to be prepared, so stock up

on all the props and accessories you'regoing to need for a night of play. Aphotocopy machine will make yourjob infinitely easier. Photocopyingcharacter templates, important maps,or other props makes the game runmore smoothly and gives the playerssomething to hold on to and examine(players love hand-outs). Having lotsof copies of important charts can makeyour life easier, as well.

You'll also need plenty of pens andpencils, paper to write and draw on, asmany 20-sided dice as you can find (orhave your players each bring theirown), and something to eat and drink.Gaming is meant to be a fun socialactivity, and munchies make for a funtime. But be fair; have everyone con-tribute to the refreshment pool.

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Gather Your FriendsFinally, after you have done all of

your preparation, invite your friendsover to play. We find that the mostmanageable-sized group for a role-playing session ranges from three tosix players.

Session LengthA session of play should last as long

as you are comfortable running, theplayers are comfortable playing, andthe game remains fun. While this canvary from group to group, we've foundthat most gaming sessions last fromthree to five hours.

If an adventure runs over one ses-sion of play, we suggest that you endthe sessions with the old cliff hangergimmick. Leave the player charactersin some perilous situation — in themiddle of a firefight, on a raft headingstraight for the falls, or, indeed, dan-gling over a 1000-meter cliff. This way,you leave the players wanting more.They'll go home thinking about theirsituation and trying to figure out whatto do next.

Running a TypicalAdventure

What goes into a typical adventuresession? Let's examine one and see ...

IntroducingCharacters

At the beginning of a session, haveeach player introduce his character tothe rest of the group. Introductionsshould be short and to the point so thatplay can begin quickly. The playersshould announce their characters'name and template type and describetheir appearance, including distinc-tive garments, armor and visibleweapons. It helps build mood if theplayers introduce themselves "in char-acter," speaking as they think theircharacter would.

Getting theAdventure RollingNext, you have to get these charac-

ters into the story you have devised.This involves providing backgroundinformation that the characters wouldknow because they live in the gameuniverse, as well as getting them inter-ested and emotionally involved.

You could accomplish this with along monologue, but there are betterways available. Setting up short scriptsfor the players to read to each other incharacter can begin an adventure witha bang. You can give them quite a bit ofinformation through the dialog, andno one is bored because everyoneparticipates.

Another method for getting thingsrolling is to begin in media res. That'sLatin for "in the middle of things."Starting an adventure in media res is atechnique that plunges player charac-ters right into the action. The gamesession begins with something inter-esting, instead of spending a lot oftime getting to where the action is.

For example, in "Before the Dawn,"the adventure opens with the heroesfighting a group of Edeinos. They don'tlearn the adventure's objectives untilafter the battle is over.

Maintaining aLively Pace

Players may take a little while to getgoing. They may get stuck on what todo next, or they may not be able tosolve a problem you've placed beforethem. They may bicker over some littlething, not know what they are to donext, or they may simply be too cau-tious. If it seems that a particular sceneis taking too long, or the session isgetting dull, then it is up to you to thestory moving again. Here are somesuggestions:

VillainsThere are a lot of bad guys in Torg.

You can always have Nile shocktroopsor Nippon ninjas or Aysle dragonsshow up in a scene. Nothing focuses aplayer's attention like the appearanceof a vile villain.

InformationIf the players are at a dead end or

torn between too many options, feedthem new information: a new clue, acooperative or venal gamemastercharacter, a bit of overheard conversa-tion; any of these can be used to pointthe group in the right direction.

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TimeTime passes, even in a game world.

Time in the adventure must alwaysmove forward, or the illusion of storyand world are lost. If the characters aredithering, that doesn't mean that thevillains are simply waiting patientlyfor them to resume their actions. Settime limits as to how long before apatrol comes along, or the invadingarmy arrives, or an important contacttires of waiting for the player charac-ters to show up.

Also, you can skip over the "boringparts" of a story by using a combina-tion of cinematic techniques. If theplayer characters are jetting over toAustralia and you have nothing sched-uled to occur on the plane ride, simplywipe to (or fade to, or cut to) SidneyAirport instead of roleplaying out theuneventful trip.

AvoidingAnticlimax

Heroes should not die in the firstreel of a movie, or the first chapter of abook. Death and failure — while realpossibilities — should not be commonexperiences for heroes. On the otherhand, they shouldn't defeat the mainvillain 10 minutes into the story, ei-ther. The purpose of a roleplayinggame such as Torg is to tell an epicstory. The heroes may win or theymay lose, but only in true heroic style.

The rules allow you to decide ifactions succeed or fail; sometimes, aswe've mentioned before, the rules getin the way of the story. This usuallyoccurs during those scenes when, fordramatic reasons, the heroes mustsucceed or fail in order to tell a satisfy-ing story.

For example, say your adventureopens in media res, with the heroeschasing the evil Dr. Mobius down thePacific Coastal Highway. The object ofthe scene is to get everybody's bloodracing and to give the heroes a clue (ascrap of paper the Pharoah leaves inhis car when he abandons it at the endof the scene). If the heroes get off alucky shot and blow out Dr. Mobius'stire, sending the car and the doctor

plummeting 75 meters straight downinto the Pacific Ocean, the story isn'texactly satisfying to you or your play-ers. Similarly, if Dr. Mobius sends theheroes to a watery grave with a single,well-placed shot of his disinto-ray,ending the adventure before the open-ing credits have finished rolling, no-body is going to be happy.

At these times, you must use yourpower as gamemaster to come to therescue of the adventure. How? Youhave a couple of alternatives.

Alter RealityWhat the players don't know won't

annoy them. You have control over theenvironment and reality; you can eas-ily change either out of the players'sight.

In our example above, when theheroes got off the lucky shot, sendingDr. Mobius's car off the cliff, you hadassumed that the good Doctor wasdriving a standard automobile. How-ever, to salvage the adventure, youquickly decide that the car was a spe-cial pulp-style auto, full of weird sci-ence gadgets and gizmos. As the carplummets, explosive charges blow theroof off and the car seat ejects theDoctor into the air. Mobius activateshis rocket boots and, as the heroeswatch helplessly, flies serenely out intothe Pacific Ocean (to be picked up laterby a Nile submarine). The battered carlies in a crumpled heap at the foot ofthe cliff, waiting for the player charac-ters to climb down and investigate it.

Don't do this lightly: if the playerssuspect that you are capriciouslychanging reality on them, they willsoon become frustrated. If you areforced to alter reality because the he-roes have been too successful, youshould reward them with an extraPossibility each at the end of the act.

Fudge Dice-RollsThis is even easier than the above

method. If you make rolls for thegamemaster characters in secret (orwithout revealing the characters' val-ues), you can lower or raise the resultpoints as necessary.

Again, in the example above, whenDr. Mobius fires his disinto-ray at theheroes' vehicle, he rolls incredibly well,getting, say, 15 result points on the car,totalling it and sending it in an uncon-trolled crash through the guard-rails.You decide that this is an inappropri-ate way to end the adventure (andprobably the heroes' lives).

If you rolled for the Doctor in se-cret, you could simply lie about yourroll, and tell the players that Mobiusgot only, say, four points, enough topuncture the radiator and knock theheroes out of the chase. They have tostop and repair it; they limp into thenearest town several hours later, wherethey find the Doctor's abandoned carsitting on the beach (Mobius radioedhis submarine to send a boat to pickhim up there).

Remember, this is "cheating" infavor of a satisfying game, not to vic-timize players or benefit one over theother.

Dramatic failure is always accept-able, but random, senseless failure isnot. However, never let your playersknow this. To keep the dramatic ten-sion, they must believe that their char-acters can fail. Otherwise, why play?Use your gamemaster prerogativesparingly.

The Reality SkillAccording to the rules, characters

must make a reality check for discon-nection every time they begin a scenein a cosm whose axioms are lowerthan necessary to maintain the passiveequipment they carry. Additionally,any time "they actively use a piece ofequipment and roll badly — from astraight 1 to a 1-4, depending upon thecosm and the circumstances — theymay disconnect. These rules are im-portant to maintain the flavor andbalance of Torg.

Remember that disconnection af-fects more than just equipment. Acharacter who disconnects in the Liv-ing Land must live under all of theLiving Land's axioms, not just thetechnological axiom. As the LivingLand's social axiom is remarkably low,he will lose his ability to understandesoteric concepts such as "nations,"

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Chapter Two

"money," and "health insurance." Asthe Living Land's magic axiom is zero,the character will not be able to use anymagic until he reconnects. In manyways, these effects are as devastatingas losing the ability to understand howto pull a trigger.

Disconnection means more than justloss of high-tech or spiritual or magi-cal goodies. A character who discon-nects becomes part of the realm inwhich he disconnects. Until he recon-nects, he should roleplay his characteras if he were a native of the realm. Inthe Living Land, he might wonderwhat all of that funny green paper heis carrying around is for and use it tostart fires. In the Nile Empire, he mightstart wearing strange costumes andspeaking only in exclamation points.

Encounter BalanceAre five elves with crossbows equal

to two soldiers with M- l6s? How manymagicians does it take to kill a dino-saur? Can a cyber-priest take on aninja-werewolf? As you can see, withso many possible mixes, Torg can be anextremely difficult game to balance.

The player characters are heroes,and, with heroes, you naturally expectthem to face overwhelming odds —and, hopefully, emerge victorious. Sowhat kind of odds are overwhelming,but beatable?

The 10-PointAdvantage

To get a rough handle on variouscharacters' relative abilities, add to-gether each character's relevant attackskill, defense skill, damage value ofthe weapon they are using, and armorpoints. If one has a total 10 pointshigher than the other, he's got a deci-sive advantage and, all else beingequal, will win 99 percent of the time.

A character who is that much betterthan his opponents can take on threeor four of them without raising muchof a sweat. This holds true no matterwhat they are fighting with: spells,chainsaws, blunderbusses, miracles,or any combination thereof.

Naturally, if the difference is lessthan 10 points, the odds begin to evenout, though the higher character stillhas a bit of an edge even if he bettershis opponent by only a couple of points.

Remember that this is only a roughestimate of combat potential. It caneasily be crocked by environmentalconditions, or if one of the combatantshas an unusually high or low value inone of the categories. Note also that itis easier to defeat three characters whohave a 10-point disadvantage than it isto defeat one who has an equal num-ber of points.

Home-CosmAdvantage

The odds change if one of the char-acters is fighting in his home cosm andthe other is an intruder, shifting by asignificant amount in the homecharacter's advantage as the intruderrisks disconnection with every action.The shift is smaller if the invadingcharacter is Possibility-rated, but he isstill at a disadvantage.

Possibility-RatedCharacters

A Possibility-rated hero can whipan Ord who is his equal or better underalmost any circumstances — if he hasthe points and is willing to spend them.A hero can even overcome Ords with10-point or greater advantages, thoughshe may go through an exorbitantnumber of Possibility points to do so.More on this below.

Standard EncountersIn standard encounters, the deck is

weighted in the heroes' favor. Theyreceive the initiative more often thannot; the villains are often stymied,fatigued, or otherwise hindered. In allliklihood, the heroes are facing Ords(a battle against Possibility-ratedopponents is, almost by definition,dramatic).

Under these circumstances, theheroes should wipe the floor with theiropponents no matter who they are.

They can easily face twice their num-ber in soldiers, or a couple of decentmagicians, or a medium to largemonster without much trouble.

The combat is quick, and the heroesare expected to win in a short time.They should not have to spend morethan one Possibility point each; if theyhave had to spend much more thanthat, the encounter was probablysomewhat unbalanced against them.(See "Adventure Balance," page 11.)

Dramatic EncountersIn dramatic encounters, the heroes

are expected to work for their victory.The villains are tougher, more power-ful, and, quite possibly, Possibility-rated. The cards are stacked againstthem: the villains often receive theinitiative and other advantages; theheroes are sometimes stymied, con-fused, or otherwise hindered.

The best way to balance a dramaticencounter is to use Possibility-ratedvillains in the battle. They should be astough or tougher than the player char-acters, (though probably fewer innumber), and backed up by a coupleof Ords.

In general, the villains' side shouldreceive around two Possibility pointsper player character they face; i.e., ifthree cyber-ninjas face six player char-acters in a dramatic encounter, theyshould have 12 Possibilities betweenthem, split up as you like.

On average, the heroes shouldexpend two Possibilities in a dramaticencounter. If they are always spend-ing a lot more or less than that, yourdramatic encounters are probably toodifficult or easy.

Approved ActionsAs said before, the purpose of ap-

proved actions is to introduce a newdimension to combat, i.e., to keepplayer characters from merely bash-ing on their opposition until they havepounded them into the ground.

We picked "Maneuver," "Trick,""Test of Wills," "Taunt," and "Intimi-date" because they occur most fre-quently in the action movies and seri-

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als we like to watch; these are generali-zations of a whole gamut of tacticsused by adventure heroes throughouthistory to dismay or outwit theiropponents.

What exactly do these represent?

• Maneuver. Using your speed andDexterity to confuse, outflank, or tireout your opponent. Rolling betweenthe giant's legs as he swings at you isa good example, as is leaping onto theback of the triceratops or faking leftand then dodging right.

It would be basically impossible toout maneuver an opponent who doesnot move, for example a stone statuewho attacks strictly through magic.

• Trick. Essentially, this is an at-tempt to outwit your opponent, to dosomething completely unexpected.Throwing sand in his face, for instance,or reaching down and jerking out the

rug he is standing on, or attempting toconvince him someone is right behindhim.

It is difficult to trick someone who isreally smart; it is also difficult to tricksomeone who is really, really stupid(like a dinosaur).

• Test of Wills. An attempt to pityour willpower and determinationagainst your opponent, to stare himdown, to make him doubt himself.Gunslingers do this before pulling theirguns. A modern variant would beplaying "chicken."

It is difficult to stare down a skele-ton or a robot. It is, however, possibleto stare down a bear or a lion.

• Taunt. Any attempt to mock youropponent, to infuriate him into mak-ing a mistake. Telling someone hismother smelled of elderberries, mak-ing a rude noise or gesture, laughingat him, would all count as taunts.

Again, not having egos, skeletonsand robots are remarkably resistant totaunting. A lion probably couldn't betaunted, while a dog or great ape could.Vampires and pulp villains, beingegomaniacs by nature, might be easyto taunt.

• Intimidation. This is quite simi-lar to Test, except that you are pittingyour indominable human spirit againstyour opponent, not the force of yourmind. Intimidation involves an elementof fear; if there seems to be no reason tofear a character, he cannot intimidate.Standing up and roaring at the blackbear who is about to attack is an ex-ample of intimidation in action, as is aman walking directly toward his op-ponents and calmly telling them tosurrender or they will surely be killedby the three dozen soldiers hiding inthe surrounding woods.

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Animals can be intimidated; onceagain, skeletons and robots probablycannot (unless the robots are as so-phisticated as, say, the ones in StarWars). It is very tough to intimidate avampire or a blue whale.

Defensive SkillsThough a pulp robot may be resis-

tant to intimidation, it is unlikely thatthe robot will attempt to intimidatesomeone else; unless very sophisti-cated indeed, it is much more likely tosimply try to shoot its opponent withits mega-death ray.

Creatures or beings with a highresistance to a combat skill but whoare unable or highly unlikely to usethat skill against an opponent are givenvalues in the skill, but they are paren-thesized to show that they cannot usethe skill offensively. Some creaturesmight be given two values, one paren-thesized and one not, the parenthe-sized value used defensively, theunparenthesized one offensively.

RewardingCharacters

There are two types of awards to begiven to player characters. These areAct Awards and Adventure Awards.

Act AwardsAdventures are broken down into

segments called acts (see the next chap-ter). At the conclusion of each act, youmust award Possibilities to the playercharacters. We recommend from oneto three Possibilities for each characterafter each act, with two being the stan-dard. You are encouraged to awardPossibilities according to the play ofeach individual character. Guidelinesfor this follow.

Adventure AwardsAfter the final act in an adventure,

rather than give out act awards, youmust distribute the big payoff — ad-venture awards.

At the conclusion of an adventure,give each player character from six to12 Possibilities, with nine being thestandard. In addition, for each suc-cessfully played Glory card, awardevery player character three Possibili-ties. And, for every Drama card re-tained in a player's hand, award thatplayer's character three additionalPossibilities. See the Rule Book, Game-master Section Chapter Four, for moredetails on the play of these cards.

Award GuidelinesYou should vary the actual Possi-

bility awards depending on:

• How Well the Players Did Over-all. If the players solved all the puzzles,came up with ingenius solutions, andout-fought and out-thought the op-penents, give them each an extra Pos-sibility or two. If they failed, awardzero or one.

• How Well Each Player Did Indi-vidually. If a player really contributedto a session — coming up with goodideas, refereeing group disputes, act-ing intelligently — give that player anextra Possibility or two. If a player didnothing, give him no extra Possibili-ties. If a player actively obstructed theother players, remove a Possibility ortwo from his award total.

• Whether the Players Cooperatedor Argued. If the players worked to-gether and mediated disputes, rewardthem appropriately. If they arguedamong themselves and threw tan-trums, penalize them.

• Whether They Amused You andEach Other. If you and everyone elsehad a good time, that's worth a Possi-bility all around.

• Whether They Played in Charac-ter. If a player had his character trysomething risky or lose somethingvaluable — because that's how thecharacter would act — reward thatplayer. In a roleplaying game, some-one willing to play his role well should

always be rewarded. On the otherhand, if a player constantly acts con-trary to his character's nature, or failsto develop a character's personalityjust to "win" the adventure, he shouldbe penalized.

Adventure BalanceIn Torg, Possibilities are the coin of

the realm. They are used to dramati-cally enhance a character's chance ofsurvival, perform great feats, andimprove his skills between adventures.Characters receive more Possibilitieswhen they are doing well, less whenthey are not. You can judge the way anadventure is going by the characters'expenditure of Possibility points.Here's how it works.

At the start of the adventure, writedown each character's starting num-ber of Possibility points. As the adven-ture progresses, keep track of pointsthey spend and new points awardedthem between acts. This will give youa good idea of how they are doing.

In general, if her player is wise, acharacter will spend at most one ortwo Possibilities per act in non-dra-matic situations — interaction, skilluse, standard conflict, and the like.She will probably spend two possibili-ties during each dramatic conflictscene. So, if your adventure has onedramatic conflict per act, she will bespending around three or four Possi-bilities each act.

If you follow the guidelines above,you will be giving her around twoPossibility points back at the end ofeach act. So, she will be running adeficit of one or two points each act.This is just what should be going on.

If your adventure is properly bal-anced, a character will be down four tosix Possibilities by its conclusion. Ifthe character's play was competent,you will award her around nine to 12bonus Possibilities at the adventure'send; this will mean a net gain of aroundfive or six Possibilities per adventure.

This does not include Glory or Dramacard bonuses; those are special bo-nuses the player earns by herself andshould not be included in your calcu-lations.

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Chapter Three

Tips on Card Playhapter Four of the Game-master Section discussesdrama card play in Torgin detail. This chapterprovides additional tips

and suggestions to help you use thecards more effectively.

Gamemaster FiatYou are able to invoke gamemaster

fiat up to three times during each dra-matic encounter. You take the top fourcards off of the drama deck, discardthree, and place one on the action stack.When do you do this and which carddo you pick? Well, there are basicallytwo reasons to invoke gamemaster fiat:the players are doing too well or theplayers are doing too poorly.

According to our play tests, an av-erage dramatic encounter runs about12 to 14 rounds. It doesn't seem tomatter much how tough the opposi-tion is: by that time, the player charac-ters have won or have been defeated.If, in your dramatic encounter, theplayer characters have virtually wipedout the opposition by the third or fourthround, you might wish to invokegamemaster fiat and search for a cardto slow them down. If, on the otherhand, it's the seventh or eighth roundand the heroes haven't really yet madea dent or built up good pools, youmight invoke gamemaster fiat to finda helpful card.

Note: It's important to rememberthat you can use gamemaster fiat tohelp the players; this kind of option isnot usually open in other roleplayinggames and is all too easily forgotten.

ead Time

In the heat of battle, as it ap-proaches the climax and every-body has a big pool in front ofhim, you are likely to find your-self spending a lot of time wait-ing while the players wrestle withtheir cards. They will be fever-ishly attempting to figure outthe optimum way to play theones they have; they may be trad-ing cards with each other, playingLeadership Cards, and doing any-thing else they can think of toenhance somebody's upcomingBig Attack.

One of our gamemasters hasclocked the time spent setting upa single player's Big Attack asjust over four minutes of ex-tended card-trading! During thistime, he had nothing to do ex-cept sit there and watch the play-ers argue.

What should you do to speedthe players up?

Nothing.This is fun. The players are

cooperating on a critical portionof the story, using one of theirmost important advantages —the cards — to whup the opposi-tion. Unless it goes on intermi-nably, say five minutes withoutsign of conclusion, let the play-ers go.

You should spend that deadtime embellishing later scenes inyour adventure or scarfing upthe nacho chips.

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Which Cards to Play

Villain Inspiration is about the nasti-est card there is. Villain Up and HeroSetback are almost as bad. Less viciousbut still unpleasant are Hero Stymiedand Villain Flurry. The most beneficialcards are Hero Flurry, Hero Up, andHero Inspiration. Failing any of these,you should look for a card which fa-tigues the side you wish to penalize, orgives the other side the initiative, orboth.

Glory CardsGlory Cards are extremely difficult

to get into play. There aren't many ofthem, and it isn't often a player charac-ter manages to roll 60 or better underany circumstances. In short, a GloryCard is a really big deal.

Glory Cards represent a great deedworthy of the telling, filling everyonewho hears of it with hope and possibil-

ity energy. Therefore, when one isplayed, the characters have donesomething spectacular, and peopleknow about it.

In addition to the three Possibilitypoints you award the player charac-ters at the end of the adventure, youshould award them some glory, too.Maybe they get a ticker-tape parade inPhiladelphia. Perhaps they are ap-proached by representatives of PellaArdinay and asked to join her KnightsTemplar, or the Delphi Council de-cides that they are a force to be reck-oned with, and makes high-tech weap-onry and vehicles available to them atlittle or no cost.

By the same token, the villains willalso begin to take note of the heroes.Perhaps the player characters willshortly find themselves the targets of aninja hit squad, or Dr. Mobius willattempt to capture them to place themin his eternity machine. With increasedglory comes increased danger — butthat comes with the territory.

Note: It is very bad form to take aGlory Card out of a player's pool afteryou have Intimidated or Taunted hischaracter successfully.

SubplotsSubplots are fun, and add an extra

dimension to the game, as your play-ers get directly involved in determin-ing the course of the adventure. En-courage all of the players to get theircharacters involved in them.

If Quin is romantically involvedwith the slave girl from Queen Erika'scourt, it would be fitting (and amus-ing) for the Yellow Crab to declarehimself also smitten with the slave girland do his best to woo her away fromSebastian. This adds a neat complica-tion to an already difficult situation,and provides much-needed comicrelief too. Give every player characterwho advances the story of a subplot apossibility point award, not just theplayer character who played the card.

It's important, however, not to let asubplot overshadow the adventureitself - - they must always remainsecondary to the main plot. Whetheror not Quin Sebastian is in fact the LostDauphin, it does not change the factthat he and his friends have to destroythe gospog fields before the Edeinostrash Philly. If a subplot begins to getin the way, use your power as game-master to write it out of the story.

Connection CardsThese cards can be quite useful at

getting the characters out of a jam;they can also mess up a story some-thing fierce. Remember that, to play aconnection, there has to be at least amarginally plausible connection. If youcan't think one up, and your playercannot either, the card cannot beplayed. At your option, you can givethe player a Possibility and have himdiscard the card, or allow him to re-turn it to his hand for possible lateruse.

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Chapter Four

DesigningAdventures

hen you roleplay, you areengaged in group storytelling. But how do youtell these stories? Andwhat kind of stories do

you tell? Does it all happen spontane-ously?

To answer the last question first,no, it doesn't. Every good roleplayingsession began with an adventure forthe gamemaster to follow. An adven-ture is a guide to a story, completewith plot, setup, confrontations, andpossible resolutions. When you addplayers, their characters work withinthe framework of the adventure tocreate the story. Every adventure tellsa different story depending on theplayers who run through it.

An adventure must be more than aseries of battles. You must come upwith a storyline, complete with a be-ginning, middle and end, a goal for theplayer characters, and a full cast ofgamemaster characters to help or hin-der the player characters.

Types of StoriesWhat types of stories can you tell

with Torg? The game is built upon thepremise that alternate realities haveattacked Earth, bringing their laws ofnature with them. We designed theserealities to correspond with certaingenres of fiction — a particular kind ofstory that is easily recognizable. Theeasiest stories to tell in Torg are storieswhich conform to those genres, orstories which mix those genres.

The Living Land is our "Lost World"genre, complete with dinosaurs andprimitive people. The Nile Empire isour pulp adventure genre. Aysle isour fantasy setting; Orrorsh is ourhorror genre. The Cyberpapacy paystribute to cybertech, but with a dash of

religious fanaticism thrown in forspice. And Nippon Tech allows you torun high-tech science fiction and es-pionage adventures. Because each canbe combined, you can design cross-over stories that jump from one genreto another, or create a whole new set-ting by mixing the genre elements innew ways.

GenresThese are the major reality genres

that invade Earth in Torg: The Possibil-ity Wars. Please see the World Bookand separate sourcebooks for more in-formation.

The Living LandThe primitive reality of the Living

Land is designed to tell action/adven-ture stories in the tradition of EdgarRice Burroughs and Arthur ConanDoyle, stories about lost worlds, pre-historic creatures, and the arrival ofmodern-day explorers. Except, the lostworld in Torg is in your own backyard, a United States that has beenmutated by Baruk Kaah and his Edei-nos followers.

This genre is often filled withstraightforward action stories. Char-acters are presented with tasks (find-ing the hidden city, exploring theprimitive settlement, capturing thestrange beast), then confronted byobstacles they must overcome tocomplete the task (natural disasterslike earthquakes, natural obstacles likewater-falls and mountains, wild crea-tures, evil enemies). Exploration, track-ing and survival are central to thesestories, and opportunities abound forcharacters to use their combat skillshere.

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The Empire of the NileThe pulp adventure reality of the

Empire of the Nile is designed to show-case stories similar to those from 1930'sand 40's movie serials, old pulp maga-zines, and early comic books. Theseare also action/adventure stories likethose told in the Living Land, but withimplausible science, flashy magic, andstrange religions added. Here, theweird science of E. E. "Doc" Smith andA. E. Van Vogt governs technology,the soldiers of a conquest-crazed dic-tator march in the streets, stalwartheroes battle crime, perfidious villainsplan schemes, and the dark gods ofancient Eygpt brood in their hiddentemples.

This genre deals with the same typeof straightforward plots prevalent inall action/adventure stories, with afew added conventions. These talesare of good versus evil, with highlymotivated heroes and villains, lots ofhigh-speed action, and a touch ofhumor and melodrama.

Tasks here range from recoveringlost artifacts, to stopping dangerouscults, to thwarting the plots of archvil-lains and their minions. Obstaclesinclude dastardly traps, ancient curses,jackbooted Nile shocktroopers, andawful supernatural creatures.

AysleThe reality of Aysle follows the

conventions of the fantasy genre. It isa realm of dreams; a place of noblewarriors, of beautiful princesses, ofevil dragons. It is a fantastic world ofunmapped regions and powerful crea-tures, of magic swords and skillfulsorcery. But, as a flipside to the realmof dreams, we have built a region ofnightmare. Here is dark fantasy coex-isting beside the light, making life moreinteresting — and more dangerous.

All kinds of stories are possible here,as long as they follow a few guide-lines. Monsters and fantastic beingsabound, as do unknown lands anddark dungeons. Magic items and treas-ure exist for the taking, if one knowswhere to look. Political intrigue is away of life since the changes wroughtby High Lord Pella Ardinay's trans-formation. And epic battles are com-monplace; indeed, everything in thisgenre should have an epic or grandfeel to it.

The CyberpapacyHere is a genre melded from two

seemingly opposite concepts. Becauseof this, we think it is one of the moreinteresting places to set adventures.

Take all of the conventions of the dark,brutally cynical cyberpunk genre,combine it with a warped theocracy,and you get the Cyberpapacy. Thisbleak realm is ruled by a dark-agesphilosophy that slaughters heretics,wages holy wars, and practices inqui-sitions. Here grim, fanatical priests,armed with high-technology devicesand the might of a vengeful god, dobattle with drug-addicted, bionically-enhanced street punks.

The tone is oppressive and grim.Stories can be action oriented, butmany will be stealthy, mysterious, andhorrific in nature. Some will concen-trate solely on either the cyber or fa-natical religion elements, others willcombine the two in nasty, brutal ways.

Tasks include rescuing "heretics,"escaping inquisitors, breaching theGodNet computer, helping the ortho-dox church, and gaining powerfulcyber weapons. Obstacles include evilcyberpriests, inquisitors, the GodNetand its defenses, cygoyles, and cyberknights.

Nippon TechNippon Tech is science fiction of

the near future. The technology isbetter than ours, but not so much thatwe cannot understand it. Again,however, we have added a twist,adding the popular mythos of Japanto the sf. Nippon Tech is a realm ofgreat corporations, of espionage, ofspys and ninjas with high-tech gear.

Mostly, the scenarios of NipponTech are active and grim. They in-volve cloak-and-dagger deeds likespying, sabotage and assassination.Tasks require intricate and clever plansto succeed; stealth is more useful thanbloodshed. Grim, efficient enemieslurk behind every corner, and betrayalis commonplace.

Big business intrigue and Japanesestereotypes abound. Nippon Tech isfilled with corporate power brokers,high-tech samurai, martial artists, giantrobots and radioactive monsters, allbattling to take control of the world'seconomy.

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OrrorshThe horror reality of Orrorsh fol-

lows all the conventions of classic andmodern horror stories. Tales set hereare tales of terror, designed to scareboth the characters and players. Asthe realm is based upon a world viewsimilar to the Victorian Era, there is ahost of opportunities for using gothictrappings. However, shambling mon-sters and run-down houses are notenough to make it a horror genre -the shambling monster must firstfrighten before it attacks, the housemust induce fear before its skeletonsappear.

Monsters lurk in these stories, hid-ing just out of sight. Around the nextcorner, perhaps. Or out in the jungle,or lying, cold and clammy in theircoffins with preternatural patience,waiting for night. And whatever youdo, don't go down in the basement!

Old, dark settings, deep shadows,the supernatural invading the natural,things lurking just beyond one's vi-sion, terrified gamemaster characters,inexplicable monsters, strange weather— these are characteristics of the hor-

ror story. Keep the players off guard— and scare the pants off of them, if

you can.

Common AdventureThemes

Besides telling the traditional sto-ries associated with our genres, youcan tell other kinds of stories, as well.

MysteryThe mystery presents player char-

acters with a puzzle to solve. Often,this puzzle takes the form of a murderor some other crime. This is a thinkingadventure, not usually a combat-ori-ented one, requiring lots of interactionwith gamemaster characters andplenty of roleplaying. A good one toset in Orrorsh, the Cyperpapacy, orNippon Tech.

RevengeRevenge is a grim ad venture theme

characterized by violence and strongemotions. Someone has done some-thing terrible to the player characters

or to someone they love. It could be adastardly crime (murder of a lovedone), a grave insult, or a blood fuedthat inspires the course of the story. Agood theme for an adventure set in theNile Empire, or possibly Aysle.

ComedyWhile the tone of Torg is usually

grim — or at least serious — some-times a humorous story is just theticket for a change of pace. It is fun forfun's sake, light entertainment withlittle true danger. We do not suggestusing this theme constantly in Torg,but once in a great while you shouldlighten things up a bit.

Comedy is characterized by plansthat go completely astray, witty dia-logue, weird encounters, strangegamemaster characters, amusing vil-lains, bumbling henchmen, and pecu-liar goals.

Building anAdventure

An adventure for Torg is made upof a number of acts needed to tell aparticular story, usually from one tosix. Each act is divided into scenes, theexact number depending on how manyyou need to get the characters to thenext act. But before we can go further,we need an idea for a story.

Where do you get ideas? They cancome from a lot of different places.From published adventures, frombooks, from movies, from TV shows,from your players — ideas can comefrom anywhere.

Once you have the idea, you haveto build a plot around it. Then youneed to break the plot into a sequenceof acts, each with its own minor prob-lem that has to be solved in order to

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advance the plot toward the story'sclimax. Finally, you have to translatethe problems you present into gameterms so that you can resolve them asthey occur during a gaming session.

OutlineOkay. You've got an idea for an

adventure and you've worked out aplot. You have to break the plot intoseveral acts, saving the resolution ofthe major problem until the climax.For example:

• Adventure Idea. A group of StormKnights is hired to protect a news crewon a journey through the Living Land.

• Background. The news crew isactually an elaborate cover for a groupof big game hunters hired by the Del-phi Council to wipe out a tribe ofhumans who have gone native andapparently learned to communicatewith a special breed of dinosaurs.

Though the humans have in factgone native and made friends with anespecially intelligent breed of dino-saur, they are diametrically opposedto Baruk Kah, and have rescued manya traveler from his forces' clutches andother perils. They are a definite forcefor good in the Living Land, and de-serve to survive.

The hunters, while quite willing andable to deal with the humans anddinosaurs they have been hired to kill,want protection from other incidentalperils of the trip. They are especiallyfearful of a band of Core Earth scaven-gers who operate along the route theymust take to the tribe's territory.

The hunters hope to keep their coverat least until the Storm Knights helpthem reach the tribe's grounds. Thenthey will show their true nature andexterminate the "traitorous" humansand their special dinosaurs.

The trail will take the Knights andtheir devious charges from Core EarthKentucky, through a transformedIndiana, and finally to the tribe's homein primitive Ohio.

• Act One. The Storm Knights meetwith the news crew's producer aboutemployment as guards. Then comesthe first leg of the journey. The Knightsmust get the crew past carnivorousdinosaurs and other dangers of theprimitive realm. They find themselvesbeing followed.

• Act Two. The caravan is attackedby a Core Earth scavenger team. Thescavengers are intent on robbing thetravelers as they make their way acrossthe mutated Indiana landscape. Achase ensues, followed by a pitchedbattle as the scavenger team cornersthe caravan.

After the battle, the group is at-tacked by a herd of terrible thunderlizards. They fight the herd, but thereare too many of them. The Knights areabout to be overwhelmed, when,suddenly, a weird, high-pitched cry isheard in the distance. The thunderlizards flee at the sound, and what-ever made the cry gives chase. Thejourney continues.

• Act Three. The Storm Knightsfinally get the news crew safely toOhio. Here they find a tribe of humanswho have flipped over to the primi-tive reality of the Living Land andallied themselves with a herd of me-dium-sized dinosaurs, gifted with adocile disposition and superior intelli-gence. The tribe is peaceful, and, theheroes learn, were the ones who savedthem from the thunder lizards.

The big game hunters don't care:they draw their weapons and begingunning down the helpless humansand dinosaurs.

• Conclusion. The Knights battlethe hunters to save themselves, theconverted humans, and the gentledinosaurs that saved their lives.

ActsEach act should be interesting in its

own right, including all the same in-gredients that make the entire storyexciting. Each act is a block of dra-matic action that has its own begin-ning, middle and end. An individualact should also have its own tone, basedupon which of the different realities itis set in.

Act One is the setup. It presents theplayer characters with a situation,defines the major problem that facesthem, and gets them started towardthe climax. Near the conclusion of theact, a plot point is presented. A plotpoint is an incident or event that theact builds toward. It gives the act itspayoff and leads to the next act.

Example: In the outline above, thesetup presents the Storm Knights witha simple job — accompany and pro-tect a news crew through the LivingLand while the crew films a documen-tary for a Core Earth television station.Shortly after the journey begins, thedangers of the primitive reality start tomanifest themselves. The plot pointhere is an event that reveals that thedanger that has been stalking them isnot Edeinos, but something that uses"dead" tools and weapons.

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Act Two (and subsequent acts otherthan the last act) contains one or moreconfrontations. The basis of all drama isconflict, and this act is filled with inci-dental conflicts leading toward themajor conflict. Another plot pointshould be planned to give the act payoffand send the characters onto the restof the adventure.

Example: Using our outline again,the confrontation in Act Two takes theform of a major obstacle between thecharacters and their goal. This obstacleis the scavenger team, and they aretrying to waylay the heroes and pre-vent them from getting the news crewto their destination (the supposed goalof the entire adventure at this point).The plot point that leads to the climaxis the attack of the thunder lizards andthe timely rescue by the humans andthe dinosaurs.

Act Three (or the final act) is theclimax and resolution.Here, all the majorthreads of the story come together forthe ultimate climax. And it comestogether in a strong ending that an-chors your strong story.

Example: Back to our outline, thefinal scenes are set in and around thecamp of a tribe of humans who havesuccumbed to the primitive axioms. Aplot twist is thrown in here, revealingthat the Storm Knights have beenduped. The news crew is really a gang

sing the Drama Deck

The drama deck helps the flowof the story as your adventureunfolds. Be aware that you mayneed to plan for certain card playduring the course of an adven-ture.

Specifically, you may want todetermine how the followingspecial villain actions work dur-ing dramatic encounters: Taunt,Trick, Intimidation, Test of Wills,Maneuver, Attack, and Defend.These have standard defaultmeanings, which certainly canbe employed, but, if you havethe time, you might find if en-hances play to have a few specialresults up your sleeve.

For example, in the adventureoutlined above, a Villain Intimi-

dation comes up in the final, cli-mactic battle. The head villaincalls to a Core Earth Knight dur-ing a lull in the battle, telling himthat the Delphi Council knowswhere his family is, and threat-ens them with retribution if hedoes not come over to their sidenow. This is certainly an Intimi-dation, and a potent one, at that!

Also, be prepared with a fewvillain and hero setbacks, andthrow in a Dramatic Skill Reso-lution or two during the courseof an adventure.

See the previous chapter andGamemaster Chapter Four of theRule Book for more informationon using the drama deck.

of big game hunters out to wipe out atribe of humans and their tame dino-saurs. They needed the Knights to helpthem past the scavengers. The Knightsmust step aside, or be blown awayalong with their targets. Now comesthe climax, where the story is resolved.Great acts of heroism are performed,important decisions are made, lots ofPossibilities are used up, and the he-roes win or lose in a Big Finish.

To Recap: An adventure is a dra-matic structure defined as a lineararrangement of related events leadingto a dramatic conclusion. It is dividedinto a number of acts, each having itsown beginning, middle and end. It hasdirection determined by plot points,the place in each act you want thecharacters to get to. And it has inter-esting gamemaster characters whoserve as enemies, allies, and neutralsfor the player characters to interactwith.

Most importantly, as you plot eachact, think about your players' charac-ters. Keep in mind all of their strongpoints and weaknesses, and try topicture what each will be able to do ina scene. In this way, you'll be able toplan scenes where each character hasa chance to shine and show off. Theplayers will feel that they were in-volved in the story — and that's thepurpose and attraction of roleplaying.

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Chapter Four

ScenesScenes are discrete units of action

within each act. The purpose of everyscene is to move the act forward. Eachscene is made up of a setting, game-master characters, and goal. Scenescan be used to provide information, orto set an action sequence -- be itcombat, a chase, interaction, or prob-lem-solving. Use as many scenes asnecessary to move the act to its conclu-sion.

Within each scene, you need todecide what the action will be andwhat events you want to occur.

Example: In Act One, the first sceneis a meeting between the head of the"news crew" and the Storm Knights. Itis set in a dimly-lit bar in Core EarthKentucky. The major gamemastercharacter is Alexander Becker, whoclaims to be the producer for the "LAAction" TV news magazine. The StormKnights' goal is to find out what theproducer wants and to come to termsif they want the job.

The ActionThe action in a scene tells us what

the player characters will be doing.Not in a specific sense, mind you, butin general. In the above example, theaction is a meeting between the StormKnights and a gamemaster character.The action, in general terms, involvesdiscussion and negotiation. How theplayers decide to have their characters

eginningsAlways try to start with some

sort of action. This can be accom-plished by dropping the playercharacters into a combat scene inmedia res, by presenting themwith a problem to solve, or byforcing them to interact withother characters. No matter howyou do it, if you can start thingsoff with a bang, then the rest ofthe adventure will follow thelead.

ettingsSettings work along with tone

and genre to place an adventurefirmly in front of the players. Ide-ally, each act should have its ownunusual and distinct setting. Sto-ries can be pretty much the samefrom genre to genre, tales of de-sire, greed, foolishness, love,honor and valor. But what makesa Torg story truly horrific or fan-tastic or mysterious is the setting.A Victorian mansion sequestered

in a dark, Indonesian jungle; anenchanted circle of standingstones on an English moor; ashadowy, rain-slicked street,bathed in the glow of neon andfluorescent lights. Each of thesesettings is simply a background,but each makes its presence feltand makes the story seem com-plete. Pay attention to one or twodetails, and the setting becomesreal.

handle the action is up to them. Whenthe action is finished, they should havedone a good deal of roleplaying, a fairamount of dice rolling, and perhapssome note-taking. You have gottenthem into the adventure and giventhem a good idea about what's goingon.

The essence of roleplaying is ac-tion. In some scenes, the player char-acters act, and gamemaster charactersreact to their actions. In other scenes,the player characters react to actionshappening to them. You need a fairmix of both kinds of scenes to make asatisfying adventure.

Each scene should involve onlyone primary action. If there is anotheraction, it should probably be split intoanother scene.

Torg divides scenes into two types— standard and dramatic. A dramatic

scene is one which is pivotal to theresolution of the act. In general, thereshould only be one of these in an act.All other scenes are standard — theykeep the action moving, but rarelymean life and death for the charactersor the adventure. Put more time intodeveloping the dramatic scenes, andthe standard scenes will take care ofthemselves.

EventsAn event is an interactive situation

which depends upon timing and set-ting. It is an occurrence or incident ofsignificance within a particular scene.

Events can occur whenever a game-master wants to use one within a scene.

In the scene example above, theStorm Knights are meeting with thenews crew producer. The event sched-uled for this scene is an encounterwith a storytelling drunk. He over-hears the ongoing conversation anddecides to put in his own two cents. Hetells a story about the time he wentinto the Living Land and was stalkedby a carnivorous monster. The onlything that saved him was the interven-tion of a group of primitive humansriding dinosaurs. If the player charac-ters try to send the drunk away, theylose a valuable piece of intelligence —though they may not recognize it assuch at the time.

VariablesVariables are sections that plan for

alternate directions in the storyline.They are not designed to cover everypossibility -- indeed, no adventurecould—but they are set up to give yousome guidelines if the players decideto stray.

In our famous first scene, the StormKnights decide not to accept theproducer's offer. This is a probablevariable and one that should beplanned for. What do you do if theytake this course? You could have theproducer offer more incentives, butyou never want to give too much upfront. Or you could have the drunkinform them that the producer is actu-ally a big game hunter recently seen in

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lot Twists

Even in the most straightfor-ward adventure, it pays to throwin a surprise or two. A plot twistgrabs the story as it runs along itstrack and hurls it in a new direc-tion.

Adventures must begin bygiving players enough informa-tion for them to determine theircharacters' actions intelligently.But an adventure will become alot more interesting if you keepsome information secret untillater. In the outline above, themajor plot twist is revealed whenthe news crew turns out to besomething other than it seemed.Twists surprise players and keepthem alert.

In general, plot twists dependon the players having incompleteinformation. If you give the play-ers just enough information tomake them think in the directionyou want them to, you can easilyhit them with twists. The unex-pected happens -- or the ex-pected fails to happen. You'llcreate an adventure that will keepthe players guessing — and ex-cited to see what happens.

the company of agents for the DelphiCouncil. This might convince theplayer characters to play along withhim, to find out what he is up to.

Plan for two or three variables thatare most likely to arise during play. Ifsomething you weren't expectingoccurs, you'll have to rework yourvariable scenes to account for it, but atleast you'll have a place to begin.

FlagsFlags are conditional events that are

activated by the player characters'actions, and not necessarily connectedto a specific setting. In fact, a flag maynot even occur, depending on whatthe player characters wind up doingduring the adventure.

Bits, like stacks, are events thatare not part of the central sto-ryline. But, like stacks, they canbe inserted into the adventure toprovide running gags, comicrelief, red herrings, or to just spiceup a stretch that has turned outto be duller than the way youplanned it.

Bits should be short bursts ofaction that are not set in anyspecific locale. They should befree floating, available for you touse as you see fit.

For example, you could de-sign an attack by a large flyingdinosaur, who swoops down outof the mist and attempts to carryoff the smallest character. Thiscould occur virtually anywherein the Living Land or nearbyCore Earth; it could be insertedvirtually any time things beginto drag.

Design flags that add new twists,new menaces, or new information tothe adventure when they are activated.

Here are two examples of flags inaction.

Flag One: If the Storm Knights de-cide not to take the job offer in ActOne, a flag is activated. It presents anevent to get the characters back intothe storyline. A delegation from theCommon Ground Association asks theStorm Knights to lead them into theLiving Land to meet with a primitivetribe in Ohio. If they accept, it will beeasy enough to retrofit the rest of theadventure to this new plot; most of theintermediate acts can be used virtu-ally as is. And if the player charactersreach the tribe at the same time as thehunters, the climax will remain almostexactly the same, as well.

Flag Two: In Act Two, if the Knightsare having too easy a time, a menaceflag is activated. This triggers an eventthat introduces a tribe of Edeinoswarriors roaming the area, searchingfor human prey.

tacks

Stacks are scenes that existseparate and apart from individ-ual acts. But they are designed totie into the storyline smoothly ifthe need arises.

Stacks work with the subplotcards in the drama deck to addnew elements to the overall plot.You should plan for these sub-plots in very general ways, be-cause you may not be called uponto drop a stack into an adven-ture. But if a player decides toplay a subplot card, you will needa general idea on how to inte-grate that particular subplot intothe story.

The subplot cards are:Martyr, Mistaken Identity,

Nemesis, Personal Stake, Ro-mance (there are two of thesecards), Suspicion, True Identity,and Campaign.

In addition, there is a specialConnection card that you willneed to plan for as well.

You will find detailed expla-nations of these cards and theirspecific uses in the Rule Book,Gamemaster Section, ChapterFour.

AwardsAt the end of each act and at the end

of the adventure, you must awardcharacters for their efforts. See theprevious chapter for award guidelines.

Cut To...The final section of an act is the

lead-in to the next one. It is brief, giv-ing simple directions on how to shiftfrom the current act to the next one.This will always be included in ourpublished adventures, but you cancertainly do it on the fly or skip italtogether in your home-grown ad-ventures.

20

its

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Before the Dawn Map 1Assault on the Digging Device

1 River2 Swamp3 Path4 Rubble

5 Digging Device6 Treesx Shocktroopers

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INTERACTION RESULTS TABLE

ResultPoints

S123456789101112131415+2

IntimidateTest

UnskilledUnskilledUnskilledUnskilledUnskilledStymiedStymiedStymiedStymiedStymiedSetbackSetbackSetbackSetbackSetbackBreak

Player's Call

TauntTrick

UnskilledUnskilledUnskilledUnskilledUnskilledStymiedStymiedStymiedStymiedStymiedSetbackSetbackSetbackSetbackSetback

Up/ SetbackPlayer's Call

Interrogate

EnemyEnemyEnemyHostileHostileHostileHostileNeutralNeutralNeutralNeutralNeutralFriendlyFriendlyFriendly

LoyalLoyal

CharmPersuade

LoyalFriendlyFriendlyNeutralNeutralNeutralNeutralHostileHostileHostileHostileHostileEnemyEnemy

Enemy +1Enemy +1Enemy +1

Maneuver

UnskilledUnskilledUnskilledUnskilledUnskilledFatiguedFatiguedFatiguedFatiguedFatiguedStymied/ FatiguedStymied/ FatiguedStymied/ FatiguedStymied/ FatiguedStymied/ FatiguedSetback/ FatiguedPlayer's Call

COMBAT RESULTS TABLE

S123456789101112131415+2

Ords

1OlK lO203K3Knockdown K/O 4Knockdown K/O 5Wnd K/O 7Wnd K/O 9Wnd K/O 102WndK/O 112 Wnd KO 123WndKO133Wnd KO 144 Wnd KO 15+lWnd

Possibility-rated

11OlK l202Knockdown O 2Knockdown K 2Knockdown K 2WndK3W n d K 4WndO4WndK52Wnd O 42Wnd KO 53Wnd KO 5+lWnd

GENERAL

S123456789101112131415+2

Success

MinimalAverageAverageGoodGoodGoodGoodSuperiorSuperiorSuperiorSuperiorSuperiorSpectac.Spectac.Spectac.Spectac.

AND PUSH RESULTS TABLE

Speed

0+1(4)+1(3)+1(2)+1(1)+2(10)+2(9)+2(8)+2(7)+2(6)+2(5)+2(4)+2(3)+2(2)+2(1)+2(0)

Power

+1(3)+1(2)+1(1)+2(6)+2(3)+2(1)+3(10)+3(8)+3(6)+4(10)+4(8)+4(6)+5(10)+5(8)+5(6)+6(10)+0(-2)

Storm

-1-1-2-2-2 Storm x2-3 Storm x2-3 Storm x5-4 Storm x2-4 Storm x5-5 Maelstrom-6 Maelstrom-7 Maelstrom-8 MaelstromTransform (5)Transform (5)Transform (5)

LINK DIFFICULTY CHART

Characteris from:

Core EarthLiving LandAysleNippon TechCyberpapacyOrrorshNile Empire

Character is in:CoreEarth

01614591111

LivingLand

180

2019211716

Aysle

111001112810

NipponTech

816170121512

Cyberpapacy

612117088

Orrorsh

8968905

NileEmpire

6987860

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BONUS CHART

DieRollBonus #

1-12

2-10

34-8

56

-5

78

-2

910-1

11120

13141

152

163

174

185

196

207

21258

26309

313510

364011

41 4645 50 +512 13 +1

SKILLANALYSIS CHART

Physical Evidence Difficulty

Familiar objects,expected use 8

Familiar objects,uncommon useor unfamiliarobjects, common use 10

Uncommon objects,uncommon effect 12

Criminal tried toconceal evidence +2

Master criminalconcealed evidence +5

LANGUAGE CHART

Situation Difficulty

Different dialect of ownlanguage 3

Language is derived fromcommon language (e.g.Spanish and French) 8

Completely foreignlanguage (e.g. Chinese) 12

Alien language, languagefrom another Cosm 22

ARTIST CHART

Success Work Quality

Minimal Good beginner's effort(no mini- mum time)

Average Journeyman effort(minimum one hour)

Good Professional effort {oneday)

Superior Expert craftsmanship(one week)

Spectacular Masterpiece (one month)

FALLING CHART

Distance Fallen Difficulty #

1 story (15 feet) 32 stories (16-30 feet) 85 stories (31-100 feet) 12Over 5 stories 15

LOCKPICKING CHART

Sample Locks Difficulty

Typical Interior Door 3Padlock 8Wall Safe/ Deadbolt 12Bank Vault 15

STEALTH CHART

Condition DifficultyModifier

Rain, sleet, etc. -1Dawn or dusk,

fog, trees,walls, crowd, etc. -2

Night -3Dozing guards -3Dense concealment(jungle, crowdin costume) -5

Very close scrutiny +1Open terrain +2Broad daylight +3

CHARTSVAULTING/SPRINGING

CHART

Obstacle Difficulty #

Hopping a Fence 3Grabbing an overhang

and swinging over apit 8

Vaulting or swingingover a tricky obstacle 12

Bouncing off an awningduring a free fall toreach a specificdestination 15

SURVIVAL CHART

Wilderness Type Difficulty #

Woods 3High Mountains 8Desert 12Polar Regions 15

CLIMBING CHART

Climb Difficulty

Ladder -3Tree 5Wall w/handholds,

natural rock 8Smooth stone, metal 15Darkness +2Rain +5Ice-covered +5

TRACKING CHART

Situation ModifierTrail is a day old +2Trail is a few days old +5Trail is a week old +8Tracking during

inclement weather +5Tracking over a hard

surface (e.g. cement) +10Tracking through

mud or snow -5Tracking a vehicle -5

FIRST AID CHART

Wound Level Difficulty

Wound, K, O,and/or shock 8

Heavy Wound 12Mortal 15Dead No first aid

possible

SCIENCE CHART

Complexity Difficulty #

Simple 8Average 12Complex 15Prototype 18From cosm with

lower tech axiom -5From cosm with

higher tech axiom +10Consists of many

integrated systems +5Consists of hundreds of

integrated systems +10

ACTION SUMMARY

Tactic Attribute

Intimidate SpiritTaunt CharismaTest MindTrick Perception

COMBAT OPTIONS CHART

Action DamageValue Value

RANGE MODPoint Blank M1 0Short 0 0Medium -3 -3Long -5 -5

FIRE OPTIONSBurst fire as single 0 -3Full Auto +3 +3Single fire as multi 0 +3

ATTACK OPTIONSAim +3 0(a)Vital Blow -8 +4All-out Attack +3 +1 (b)Sweep Attack +5 -5Opportunity Attack -3 -3 (c)Location Attack 0 0 (d)

DEFENSE OPTIONSActive Defense Ml naAggressive Defense -4 0 (e)

CONCEALMENTPartial -3 **Medium -5 **High -10 **

SITUATIONBlindside Attack +3 +3Complete Surprise (f)Normal Surprise (g)

KEYMl = Minimum bonus of one; ** = Use

Cover Value chart for damage modifiers; na =not applicable; (a) = Takes one round; (b) =Attacks against are +3/+3; (c) = Holds action;(d) = Holds for location; (e) = Defense total de-creased by 2; (f) = Two rounds of cardplay; (g)= One round of cardplay

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TORG

Val.

012345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334

Meas.

11.52.54610152540601001502504006001,0001,5002,5004,0006,00010,00015,00025,00040,00060,000100,000150,000250,000400,000600,0001 Million1.5 E+62.5 E+64 E+66 E+6

Val.

3536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869

VALUE CHART

Meas.

1E+71.5 E+72.5 E+74E+76 E+71E+81.5E+82.5 E+84E+86 E+81 billion1.5E+92.5 E+94E+96 E+91 E+101.5E+102.5 E+104 E+106 E+101E+111.5 E+112.5E+114E+116E+111 trillion1.5E+122.5E+124E+126E+121 E+131.5E+132.5 E+134 E+136 E+13

Val.

707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100

Meas.

1 E+141.5E+142.5 E+144 E+146 E+141 E+151.5E+152.5 E+154 E+156 E+151 E+161.5E+162.5 E+164 E+166 E+161E+171.5E+172.5 E+174E+176 E+171E+181.5E+182.5E+184E+186E+181E+191.51+192.5E+194E+196E+191 E+20

TORG BENCHMARK CHART

Value Time Weight Distance

023

9

10

11121516171820222324

25272829

30

32

33

34

35

38

3941

45

Second

Minute

Hour

Day

Week

Month

Year

1 kilo

Humanbaby

Humanfemale

Humanmale

LionBrown BearSmall CarLarge CarElephant

Empty TruckAPC

LoadedTruck

Blue WhaleBoeing 747C5A GalaxyTrampFreighter

Destroyer

Six-flatbuilding

Fully loadedtrain

BattleshipAircraftCarrier

Loaded OilTanker

1 meterTallest human

Football FieldCity block

KilometerMile

Marathon race

Length ofGreat Britain

Paris to Moscow

New York to L.A.New York to

LondonLondon toTokyo

Circumferenceof Earth

DIFFICULTY NUMBERSCALE

Description

Very EasyEasyAverage2:1 AgainstDifficult10:1Heroic100:11000:1Never Tell

Me theOdds

#

358101213151822

25

Modifier

-5-30

+2+4

+5+7+10+14

+17

THE

Core EarthLiving LandAysleNippon TechCyberpapacyOrrorshNile Empire

AXIOMS OF THE COSMS

Magic

70182101512

Social

2171822182020

Spirit.

924168

141717

Tech.

2371524261921

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SKILL LIST

CHARISMA PERCEPTION

Charm Air vehiclesPersuasion AlterationTaunt magic

DivinationDEXTERITY magic

Acrobatics EvidenceBeast riding analysisDodge FindEnergy First aid

weapons Land vehiclesFire combat LanguageFlight ScholarHeavy Space

weapons vehiclesLock picking TrackingLong jumping TrickManeuver WaterMelee vehicles

weaponsMissile MIND

weapons ApportationPrestidigitation magicRunning ArtistStealth ConjurationSwimming magicUnarmed Medicine

combat ScienceSurvival

SPIRITTest of Will

Faith WillpowerFocusIntimidation STRENGTH

Reality ClimbingLifting

Skills listed in boldfacecannot be used unskilled.

TRANSFORMATION TABLE

Time

1 second1 minute1 hour1 day1 week

1 month3 months6 months1 year

18 months2 years3 years4 years5 years

The "E "which is 10

Pure AreaTransform

1 /E75 / E 63/ E47/10005/100

20/10050/10075/10093/100

98/100100/100100/100100/100100/100

Roll #10590604026

181263

2————

notation is shorthand for largeto the seventh power,

Dominant AreaTransform

2/E89/E75/E51/E49/1000

4/10011/10025/10037/100

50/10060/10075/10084/10090/100

numbers. "E7" would be

Roll#130100

777238

28191714

129643

10,000,000,or a one followed by seven zeroes.

MULTI-ACTION CHARTS

Many On One# Char. Bonus How Many

Modifier Succeed

1 DN2 +2 DN+23-4 +3 DN+45-6 +4 DN+67-10 +5 DN+811-15 +6 DN+10

One On Many# Char. Toughness How Many

Increase Succeed/DifficultyIncrease

1 DN+22 +2 DN+43-4 +3 DN+65-6 +4 DN+87-10 +5 DN+1011-15 +6 DN+12

DN = difficulty number; DN + ? meansadd the listed amount to the difficulty

number.

MEASURECONVERSION

Measure isin units of

SecondsMinutesHoursDaysWeeksMonthsYears

Metersper round

MPHKMH

KilosPoundsTons

MetersFeetKilometersMiles

CHART

ValueModifier

0+9

+18+25+29+32+38

0+3+2

0-2

+15

0-3

+15+16

COVER VALUE CHARTType of Example Add/Max.Cover

Soft Bush, +3/15car door

Medium Logs, +10/25brick wall

Hard Steel, +15/40stone wall

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Chapter Four

GamemasterCharacters

One of the great joys of gamemas-tering is playing all the allies, neutrals,creatures, and villains that exist in anadventure to help, hinder, and opposethe player characters. These are thegamemaster characters, and if theyare designed right, they can enliven anadventure. Even a combat-orientedscene can be jazzed up by creating anopponent who has a few unusual skills,or a trick or two to use against theplayer characters.

What makes a gamemaster charac-ter interesting?

• Distinctive Appearance. Jotdown an adjective or two to use whenyou describe the character's appear-ance to the players—bald, ugly, beau-tiful, thin, tall, bulky, short, dark, fair,etc. This gives the players a tag withwhich to visualize the character.

• Distinctive Speech. Different.characters should talk in differentways. A street thug, for example,speaks much differently from a col-lege professor, and an Edeinos hunterdifferently from a pulp villain. Varydifferent characters' accents, vocabu-laries, and figures of speech.

• Definite Objective. Every game-master character, from a lowly Ord toa Possibility-laden master villain,should be given a definite objective.The character should want to getsomething out of his encounter withthe player characters, be it informa-tion, help, power, or a few laughs. Ifyou know what the character wants, itwill be much easier to portray him.

• Skills. You do not need to designevery gamemaster character with acomplete set of skills and attributes,but you should note those you expectthe character to use during an encoun-ter.

Example:Name: Alexander BeckerTemplate: Big Game Hunter (dis-

guised as TV news producer)Appearance: six feet tall, blonde hair,

chiseled featuresSpeech: Hollywood mogul style —

"Let's feel the vibes on this shot. Workwith me baby, work with me."

Objective: To trick the player char-acters into believing he is a producer;to wipe out the human tribe.

Values: DEX 11, STR 10, TOU 10,PER 10, MIN 9, CHA 8, SPI 8; reality 9,dodge 13, fire combat 13, unarmedcombat 12

Possibility Points: 9

In addition, when creating game-master characters, spend some timethinking about the role they will playin your plot. Types of roles include:

• Motivation. The character's pur-pose is to motivate the player charac-ters toward a specific series of action.This character helps direct the courseof the adventure.

• Information Source. This charac-ter is used to provide information andclues to the player characters.

• Obstacle. Whether through com-bat, uncooperativeness, or some othermeans, this character is designed toimpede the player characters' prog-ress through the adventure. Manyobstacle characters are minor hench-men and lieutenants of the major vil-lain of the adventure and are activelyworking against the characters, thoughothers — officious customs officials,punks, highwaymen, missionaries,wild dogs — are merely in the way.

• Major Villain. No adventure iscomplete without a hateful major vil-lain to serve as an antagonist. Themajor villain must be powerful enoughto stand up against a group of StormKnights, clever enough to be behindthe evil plans, and interesting enoughto warrant a major role in the story.

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In some adventures, the major villainis a shadowy figure who manipulatesevents from behind the scenes, neveractually showing himself at all — oronly in the last scene of the last act."Before the Dawn" is an example ofthis type. Dr. Mobius is the antagonistof this adventure, but the player char-acters never get within a mile of him— and a good thing for them theydon't, too!

• Comic Relief. This bumbling,funny, or otherwise amusing charac-ter is designed to lighten up portionsof an adventure.

• Mood-Setting Device. Any char-acters designed to work with and re-flect a particular setting help set themood and tone of an act or wholeadventure. For example, a fly-eatingmadman named Igor met at the startof a story will certainly set the horrormood.

MapsBy drawing simple maps for the

players, you help them visualize whatis going on and where they are in aparticular act or scene. Most of themaps you'll want to sketch are thoseareas where combat is likely to occur.But you might also want to drawsimple maps of buildings, towns orcities, in case someone asks for details.

It is sometimes useful to preparetwo versions of the same map

one for your reference with all thepertinent details in place, and one forthe players showing them only whattheir characters could know or believe.

Scripts and HandoutsAnything you feel inspired to pre-

pare for the adventure will only makethe story that much more memorableand exciting. A good script to open theadventure in media res, clue-filledhandouts such as newspaper clippingsor computer screen printouts, andother types of props all work together

to make the adventure more visual —and, therefore, more real.Take a look at what we include in ourpublished adventures to get a betteridea of the range of handouts you cancreate.

Remember, all scripts and hand-outs should serve the following pur-poses: to impart information, to helpvisualize a scene, to give the playerssomething to examine and refer to.

A Further Word onPlots

Below we'll briefly discuss the mostcommon plots used to set up Torgadventures. You'll notice that mostinvolve movement from one setting toanother. An experienced gamemastercan run an adventure set in a singlesetting but, unless the setting is un-usually rich and well-thought out, it isdifficult to maintain the players' inter-est.

The QuestThe quest is an epic plot, wherein

the player characters undertake (orare given) a task to perform. Thesetasks could be anything from remov-ing a stelae, to rescuing a capturedinnocent, to throwing an evil magicitem into a deep crevice. But while thegoal might be quite straight-forward,the path leading up to that goal mustbe fraught with danger, intrigue, falseclues, and deceptive omens.

Often, a quest will require that someitem be acquired first, and then some-thing done with that item before themajor task can be performed.

The GauntletThis dramatic type of plot also in-

volves a quest of sorts, but the path tothe goal is deadly. Along the route tothe specific goal, the player charactersmust "run the gauntlet." In other

words, they must make their waythrough obstacle after obstacle,through villain after villain, in orderto achieve their destination. Each stepof the gauntlet has a distinctive per-sonality, and each step wears downthe heroes — perhaps even killing afew — so that by the time they reachthe final goal, they have no doubt thatone side or the other will be utterlydestroyed in the final conflict.

The GatheringIn this type of plot, the player char-

acters must go from place to place andaccumulate elements to be used tocomplete their goal. They may beforced to roam from realm to realm intheir travels, or the entire adventuremight take place in a single realm.They may be gathering anything fromclues, to pieces of a powerful relic, tohard evidence, or even allies to helpfight against a terrible threat.

Finally, the ClimaxIn addition to everything else, the

climax should present the player char-acters with plenty of opportunities toaccomplish amazing feats. Never de-sign an adventure where the playercharacters take a back seat to a game-master character. They should be to-tally involved and completely instru-mental in the climatic events and reso-lutions of the adventure. After all, theydidn't play through the entire thingjust to sit and watch the conclusionhappen to someone else!

Some types of climaxes include theclassic fight-to-the-finish with themajor villain, the timely arrival toprevent the villain's goal and save theday, the chase to the villain's last ref-uge, and the bloody clash of majorforces while the heroes confront thebad guy. It doesn't matter which cli-max you use, just as long as the playercharacters play a major role in theoutcome.

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Chapter Five

Before the DawnA Torg Adventure

Mobius, perplexed, stepped away fromhis Darkness Device. He examined thethread that led to the realm of Orrorsh,running his gloved hand over its stonesurface. The hieroglyphics carved into thesmooth stone praised his power and do-minion in a thousand different ways. Thenthe praises started again, curving up towhere the thread faded in mid air.

"I do not understand," Mobius saidaloud. He turned to address the six sar-cophagi of the previous pharaohs of Egyptwhich rested at the base of the Device."Why does not my loyal servant returnfrom Orrorsh realm? Why does not theGaunt Man answer my request for anaudience?"

"Perhaps, Pharaoh," replied the rav-agon as it entered the vast chamber, "theTorg would grant your request if he wereable. But his most-trusted lieutenant,Thratchen, sends his greetings."

"I told you and your kind never to enterthis room!" Mobius raged at the wingeddemon.

"A thousand pardons, High Lord," theravagon said in mock regret. "I assumedyou would want the information that Ihave brought. But if I disturb you ..." Theravagon let the sentence hang unfinishedas he turned to leave.

"Wait," Mobius commanded. "Whatnews have you brought?"

"Just this. The Torg has taken a shorttrip, as he is wont to do. During his ab-sence, he has left Thratchen to oversee therealm. Thratchen says to carry on withyour work, and leave him to carry on withhis."

The Gaunt Man is away? At this criti-cal moment? Well, thought Mobius, thenperhaps the time is right for me to put myplan in motion ...

"Summon Professor Shariff," Mobiuscalled, striding from the chamber. Therewas work to be done.

Lieutenant Adams wiped the sweat fromhis brow as he swept the forward area withhis binoculars. The perpetual storm sur-rounding Philadelphia obscured much ofhis view, but, from what he could see, theEdeinos were once more in retreat.

"All right. Call this another win for thegood guys," he said to Corporal Morrison,his radioman. "The enemy is pulling back."

He squinted up at the sun, cursing itsimmobility. By his watch, it was 2:00 am;the sun had been in that same position for20 hours. Already, the temperature hadrisen nearly six degrees from yesterday'srecord high.

The casualty reports began to come in.Adams listened with growing dismay. Twomen of his depleted company killed, threemissing, and 12 wounded. Half of theinjured were cases of exhaustion and heat-prostration. Hell, they had lost more mento the weather than to enemy action!

If the temperature continued to climb,he didn't think his company would sur-vive a week.

Introduction"Before the Dawn" is the first ad-

venture set in the Near Now of Torg. Itis designed for up to six players and agamemaster. The gamemaster shouldread the World Book and the entireadventure prior to play, in order tobecome familiar with the overall Torgstory and the adventure plotline. Play-ers should not read the adventure, asknowing what is going to happenremoves the suspense and excitementof the story.

This adventure is designed to intro-duce a group of Storm Knights to eachother and to the world of Torg. It is setjust after the Earth has stopped spin-

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ning (see "Core Earth" in the WorldBook), and allows them to meet deni-zens of the Living Land, the Empire ofthe Nile, and Orrorsh.

Everything you need to play "Be-fore the Dawn" is in the game box.Begin by helping the players createcharacters (see the Rule Book), thenstart the adventure.

Adventure FormatEach act starts with its own synop-

sis, called "The Major Beat," whichoutlines what the player charactersmust accomplish before they can moveon to the next act. Within an act thecharacters can move about ratherfreely, perhaps even skipping somescenes, but until they finish the majorbeat, they cannot move forward in theadventure. Acts are broken into smallersegments, called "Scenes," and theseare defined as either "standard" or"dramatic" for purposes of drama cardplay (see the Rule Book). Scenes beginwith sections called "The Situation,"and these may be read aloud or para-phrased by the gamemaster in orderto set the scene.

AdventureBackground

Some important things have hap-pened to Earth over the past threemonths. It all started with the appear-ance of the maelstrom bridges and thesweeping storms that changed reality.The World Book describes what therealities of different portions of Earthhave changed to, but suffice to say thatin some places the laws of nature havebecome very strange indeed. Millionsof people have transformed into beingsmore suited to these new realities.Technology has broken down in someplaces; in others it has become fright-eningly advanced.

Death and destruction accompa-nied the storms of change, as did theterrible Possibility Raiders. Theseinvaders have attacked our planet withblinding speed and ferocity, killedhundreds of thousands, enslavedcountless others. And now, as the thirdmonth of the invasion comes to a close,

the planet itself has started to breakdown — the planet Earth has stoppedspinning and even more deaths areimminent from heat and cold.

The Gaunt Man, leader of the in-vading realms, has been neutralizedby another group of Storm Knights(see the "Possibility Wars" novel tril-ogy, available where you purchasedthis game). This has left his mystic-science machine for siphoning off theEarth's energy unsupervised. It restsbeneath the Indian Ocean, in the JavaTrench, waiting for the command torelease its stored energy.

Pharaoh Mobius, High Lord of theNile Empire, has discovered the greatvortex of power that marks themachine's location. With his ownweird science, the Pharaoh knows hecan get the machine to give him theenergy. Then he can claim the Torgtitle and the cosmverse will be his!

But a second group of Storm Knights- the player characters — happen

upon the Pharaoh's scheme. Not onlymust they deny Mobius this energy,they must return it to the Earth so thatthe planet can resume its spin beforeall life is destroyed by the extremetemperatures settling across theplanet's surface.

Adventure SynopsisThe adventure begins during the

second night of the Still World. Theplayer characters are in the LivingLand, returning from a successfulresupply mission, when a tire blowson their army vehicle. While they arerepairing it, a young woman rushesup to them and begins shouting wildlyat them — unfortunately, in German.While they attempt to calm her andfigure out what she is saying, they areattacked by a group of Edeinos.

After the attackers are beaten off,the woman tells the heroes that sheand her father have been taken pris-oner in the New Empire of the Nile,and forced to accompany ProfessorShariff to the Living Land in a fantasticdigging machine of her father's de-sign, from where she recently escaped.She also tells them that, from what shehas overheard, Professor Shariff'smission has something to do with thestopping of the Earth!

Act One climaxes with the battlebetween the Storm Knights and Pro-fessor Shariff's forces.

In Act Two, the heroes meet thegirl's father, Doctor Marlen, and searchthe digging machine. They discoverthat Professor Shariff was in the Liv-ing Land at Dr. Mobius's command, totrade Edeinos warriors weapons, inreturn for some kind of an "egg," whichwould be useful to him in stealing theenergy the Gaunt Man gained by stop-ping the Earth. They hope to discoverthe Earth-stopping machine's locationby journeying to Shariff's base in theNile Empire.

The heroes may choose to stickaround and, pretending to be Shariff'smen, trade the weaponry for the egg(or steal it from the Edeinos); if so, theywill be puzzled to discover that it is aFaberge egg, a stunning and beautifulpiece of jewelry, but of dubious mili-tary, magical, or scientific value.

The Storm Knights take the diggingmachine back to the base in the NileEmpire. Here, they skulk around,evading Nile shocktroopers, interro-gating prisoners, and attempting todiscover the location of the Earth-stop-ping device. They learn its exact loca-tion — and that Mobius himself willshortly be arriving to board a seaplane(in a nearby hangar) to go there him-self!

The Storm Knights determine tosteal the plane and beat Mobius to thepunch. The battle to steal the plane isferocious and bloody, but, as the shock-troopers are surprised to be attackedthis deep within their own lines, theyare ultimately defeated, and the StormKnights steal the seaplane.

Act Two ends with a battle betweenthe seaplane and a pair of Nile fighterplanes. The fight is complicated by thearrival of Shul, a huge brute of a me-chanic who was hidden aboard theseaplane when it took off. Shul doeshis very best to kill everyone he en-counters — while the fighter planespepper the seaplane from outside!

In Act Three, the heroes arrive inthe realm of Orrorsh. They fly to thelocation marked on the map, discov-ering there a weird, unnatural tor-nado, fixed in position directly at thecoordinates. They land their plane asclose to the tornado as possible.

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Once landed on the sea, their air-ship is attacked by a huge white shark,who slams into its hull with frighten-ing violence. This shark is a demonnamed Gibberfat. Once they "kill" thedemon shark, it transforms into a vi-cious electric eel. Once the eel is dis-patched, Gibberfat assumes his trueform. He calls to them in English, tell-ing them to desist or they will perish.If the Knights have the egg, they canuse it to buy Gibberfat off, otherwise,they must fight him. Once he dies or isbribed, the heroes must face the lastobstacle between them and the GauntMan's device.

The climactic battle for the Earthtakes place 50 meters beneath thesurface of the ocean. The StormKnights, wearing old-fashioned div-ing suits and armed with various weirdscience weapons from the arsenal ofDr. Mobius, battle against the finalguardians of the Earth-stopping de-vice - skeletal, long-dead pirates!Some of the heroes must hold off thepirates while the others work fever-ishly to master the controls of themachine. Meanwhile, the ocean flooritself begins to bubble and melt; soon

it will be so hot that the device will fallstraight through into the mantle, tak-ing the heroes, and all hope of restart-ing the Earth, with it!

If they are successful, the Earthgradually resumes its spin, and thou-sands of people's lives are saved. Ifnot, the Still World is permanent; in afew short years, most of this planetwill be uninhabitable.

ACT ONEA Hot Time in theOld Town Tonight

The Major BeatIn this act, while traveling in the

Living Land, the heroes meet HildyMarlen, a beautiful young damsel indistress. They rescue her father, Doc-tor Marlen, from the clutches of theevil Professor Shariff, a servant of theeven more evil Dr. Mobius. The heroes(incorrectly) come to understand thatDr. Mobius has something to do with

the stopping of the Earth. They mayacquire a Faberge egg, which they be-lieve will aid them in restarting theworld.

Following their slim leads, theyboard a fabulous tunneling machineto a secret base in the Empire of theNile, where they hope to find the loca-tion of the device which has causedthe Earth to stop and possibly learnhow to restart the planet.

SCENE ONE:The Meeting

The SituationStandard. The heroes are running

supplies into the Living Land. Thisscene takes place on a dirt road, deepin the jungle, when their tire blowsout. As the heroes are changing a tireon their truck, they meet a beautifulyoung German woman.

The world has surely gone to hellrecently. The USA has been invadedby dinosaurs and lizard-men; theUnited Kingdom and Scandinavia

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have been overrun by knights in ar-mor, Vikings and sorcerers; France hasbeen transformed into a dark-agestheocracy; the Middle East has beentaken over by a raygun-weilding lu-natic who wishes to recreate the glo-ries of Ancient Egypt. It's been a badcouple of months.

And now the Earth has stoppedmoving. The sun has been in the sameplace for over 20 hours — somewhereover the ocean near South America —and the temperature over NorthAmerica has risen almost six degreesabove the record high for this day.You shudder to think what it must belike in South America now — andwhat it will be like here in a week.

But there's nothing you can do aboutthat, so you are doing the best you can,running supplies into the boundariesof the so-called "Living Land" - aplace that used to be called Ohio.Despite the invasion of the dinosaursand the Edeinos, despite the destruc-tion of the cities, despite the collapseof technology, people still live there,refusing to leave their beloved homes.

They may be foolish — even crazy- but you cannot simply let them

starve or die for lack of food or propermedicine. So, every day for the lastcouple of weeks, you have been run-ning a truckload of supplies into Ohiofrom still-normal Kentucky, at thesame time, attempting to convince thepeople to leave.

After a few terrifying experiencesin the first trips, you've gotten thehang of it by now — more or less —and this trip has so far been unevent-ful. You are heading down a dirt roadback toward Kentucky. The road hasdegraded significantly, and, hitting asharp rock, your front left tire blowsout.

The ActionHave the Knight driving the truck

generate a land vehicles total. If the totalexceeds 5, he brings the truck to a safestop. If less, the truck crashes. An armydeuce-and-a-half, the truck is sturdyand emerges unscathed; each Knightis hit with a damage value of 5.

he Deep Mist

The Living Land is en-shrouded in a veil of mist, called"The Deep Mist." The Deep Mistobscures vision; a character can-not ever see more than 10 metersaround him. In addition, theDeep Mist screws up compassesand other direction-finding de-vices, making it very difficult toget anywhere without gettinglost.

Deuce-and-a-Half: Tech 22, Speed100kph/60mph (value 12), Passengers14, TOU 22. Price: 60k (value 24).

Description: The deuce-and-a-halfis so-named because it weighs around2.5 tons; it's not so easy to change atire. The difficulty of changing a tire is8 (land vehicles skill); the base timevalue is 17, or around 40 minutes.Subtract one from the time value foreach level of success above minimal thecharacter receives (that is, on an aver-age succes it takes 25 minutes; goodsuccess, 15 minutes; etc.). The coordi-nation difficulty of this task is 5.

Enter HildyWhile the heroes are repairing their

tire (at least five minutes before theyhave finished), they hear somethingcoming down the road toward them.Whatever it is, it is not attempting tobe silent; they can easily hear it splash-ing through puddles, crackingbranches, and so forth. The Knightsmay attempt find or Perception rollsagainst a difficulty of 8 to learn more.

Under no circumstances should theKnights be allowed to kill Hildy. Ifanyone foolishly wishes to fire off aburst before seeing what they are fir-ing at, Hildy gives off a frightenedscream (she saw a large snake in thetrees) just as they are about to fire. Ifthe Knights insist upon firing anyway,they miss. Period.

Seconds later, Hildy appears out ofthe Mist. Seeing the Knights, shethrows herself in the arms of the near-est handsome male and begins jabber-

ing at him hysterically -- unfortu-nately, in German — while pointingdown the road from whence she came.

Hildy Marlen (Damsel in Distress):DEX 8, STR 7, TOU 7, PER 7, MIN 8,CHA 12, SPI 10.

Skills: dodge 10, running 10, un-armed combat 9, scholar (geology) 13,charm 14.

Description: Beautiful young blondGerman woman. Dressed in standardexplorer's gear in pretty disarray.

Once the characters succeed in calm-ing her, she manages to remember herEnglish, and says, "Please help me! Iam being chased by those terrible, howyou say? I forget the words. Oh, yes, Iremember now! Lizards!"

Right about then the lizards showup.

The Edeinos AttackThere are seven Edeinos in the

hunting party — six warriors and oneoptant (an Edeinos priest). They pickedup Hildy's trail about three miles back;though they could have captured herat any time, they let her run, to in-crease the fun of the chase. They areabout to pay dearly for that decision.

When they left their tribe this morn-ing, the hunting party was blessedwith the miracle See Through Mist, al-lowing them to see up to 40 metersthrough the Deep Mist (remember,the heroes can see only 10 meters).When they get within sight of the truck,the warriors spread out, planning toencircle the truck and hit it simultane-ously from all sides. Meanwhile, theoptant begins to cast the miracle, Ani-mate Plant on the jungle around thetruck. Once cast, the Edeinos attack.

Edeinos Warriors (6): DEX 11, STR 9,TOU 10, PER 9, MIN 9, CHA 8, SPI 10.

Skills: dodge 12, melee weapons12, missile weapons 12, stealth 12,unarmed combat 12, tracking 10, fo-cus 11, faith 11.

Natural Tools: claws 13, teeth 11,tail 9.

Equipment: hrockt spears; damage12, range 5/10/15.

Notes: Can see 40 meters throughmist because of See Through Mist mir-acle.

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Edeinos Optant: Same attributes andskills as warriors, except: SPI 12, faith14, reality 13. Possibilities 2.

Miracle: Animate Plant, communityrating 12, difficulty 16; range: sight;duration 18. Area of effect: 20 meterradius. Cast time two rounds. Effect:Immobilizes victims.

When the Animate Plant miracle iscast, all of the plants within the area ofeffect writhe and wriggle as if alive,seeking to entwine anything nearby,attacking animals and beings with anunarmed combat skill of 12. If success-ful, the plants have wrapped aroundthe character, immobilizing him andcausing him to suffer a -4 to all Dexter-ity-based skills or any skills whichrequire movement. The character mayattempt to break free by making aStrength roll of difficulty 13; other freecharacters can help, coordination dif-ficulty 5.

The plants are animate only for oneround (though anything they catchwill be held for the full duration of thespell); after the first round, other char-acters can enter the area without risk.

Hildy's StoryRead the following or paraphrase it

in answer to the Knights' questions:

"I am the daughter of Herr DoctorHeinrich Marlen, a famous engineer.We were in Cairo when the Pharoahcame. My father was captured, andforced to work for the Pharoah, underthe direction of Professor Shariff."(Here she gives a pretty shudder.) "Pro-fessor Shariff said he would do things— terrible things! — to me if my fatherdid not work for him.

"In the next two months, my fatherbuilt a fantastic digging device. Hecould never do this before; I think hechanged somehow when the worlddid." (In fact he transformed into a weirdscientist.)

"Three days ago, Professor Sharifftook my father and myself onto thedigging device and forced my fatherto drive it to this place. During thetwo-day trip, we overheard the Pro-fessor talking to the soldiers. He told

them that they were to meet someEdeinos, to trade weapons — there areseveral hundred rifles on the device—for a key. He said that Pharoah wouldbe able to use the key to unlock thepower of the Still World!"

"When we arrived here this morn-ing, the Professor met with some of thelizards — I do not know what theysaid. Then the lizards left; we havebeen waiting ever since. Two hoursago, my father and I were let out of thedevice to get some fresh air. My fatherhit our guard on the back of the headand told me to run and get help. As Ileft he was struggling with the guard.

"An hour later, I was discovered bythe Edeinos. They chased me until Imet you.

"My father is an old man; they aresure to kill him! Won't you pleaserescue him?"

The Storm Knights may be more in-terested in the "key" to the Earth-stop-ping device than in rescuing the doc-tor; in any event, they must go to thedigging device if the adventure is tocontinue. Hildy knows the way back(more or less); the journey takes about45 minutes.

Cut To...Forty minutes later. The Knights

follow Hildy back down the road andup a trail. She tells them that she thinksthe camp is just up ahead, somewherein the mist.

SCENE TWO:Doctor Marlen's

IncredibleDigging Device

The SituationDramatic. The heroes head down

the road in the direction Hildy camefrom. Ten minutes later, they hit apath leading off into the jungle. Fol-lowing that, they eventually reach theclearing where Doctor Marlen's in-credible digging device is located.

From what Hildy has told you, thedigging device is just up ahead, maybe50 meters down the path, which runsbetween the jungle and the swamp offto your right. There are 10 shocktroop-ers on board, armed with some kind ofmachine pistol or gun; Hildy doesn'tknow what kind of weaponry Profes-sor Shariff may have. She also tells youthat it takes five minutes to start up thedigging machine when the engine iscold. Other than that, she doesn't knowmuch of any use.

The ActionSee the "Assault on the Digging

Device" map in the pullout section:the guards are located at the spotsmarked "X"; six more and ProfessorShariff are inside the digging machine.The heroes arrive from the south, about30 meters below the two shocktroop-ers guarding the southern path.

The shocktroopers' first priority isto sound the alarm. The moment theyspot the Knights — or, if the Knightsare being sneaky, the moment they areattacked by the Knights — they firetheir weapons to alert the other guards.The other guards rush toward thesound of battle, except for the guardatop the pile of dirt and rubble, whohas orders to stay there and guard themachine.

The guards inside the diggingmachine emerge in the first roundfollowing the alarm sounding; Profes-sor Shariff emerges in the next round.Professor Shariff is a fanatically loyalservant of Dr. Mobius; he fights to thedeath. If it looks as if he is going to bedefeated, he retreats into the diggingmachine and attempts to initiate thestart-up sequence. This takes roughlyfive minutes (or 30 rounds). The doorto the digging machine has a Toughnessof 24; the lock has a lockpicking diffi-culty of 10.

Shocktroops (10): DEX 9, STR 9, TOU9, PER 7, MIN 7, CHA 7, SPI 9.

Skills: dodge 10, fire combat 10,unarmed combat 10, climbing 10.

Equipment: Schemisser Machine-guns; damage 17, range 15/25/100.Knives; damage STR + 3.

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Professor Shariff: DEX 9,STR 10, TOU8/20*, PER 9, MIN 12, CHA 9, SPI 9.

Skills: reality 12, dodge 13, energyweapons 14, maneuver 11, unarmedcombat 10, land vehicles 12, scholar(weird science) 13, science 13, test 13,weird science 14, willpower 14, charm12, taunt 11, intimidation 12.

Possibilities: 10.

The Sound-Gun: This weird sciencegizmo looks like a cross between amegaphone and raygun. It has threesettings and power for 12 shots.

Stun Setting: +3 to hit. Damage: 20(Stun, KO, Knockdown damage only).

Wound Setting: Damage: 16 (normaldamage plus deafness for a number ofrounds equal to half the result pointsof the shot).

Kill Setting: Damage: 20 (twocharges per shot. Normal damage plusdeafness for a number of rounds equalto the result points of the shot).

*Force Field Generator: This gizmolooks like a bulky backpack. Whenturned on, Professor Shariff is sur-rounded by a heavy nimbus of electri-cal energy, making him almost pain-ful to look at. There is power for 15rounds' continuous use. The force fieldgives the equivalent of +12 armorprotection, increasing ProfessorShariff's Armor Value to 20.

VariablesThe main risk here is that the Storm

Knights will be defeated. If so, Profes-sor Shariff will attempt to capture themand imprison them in the digging ma-chine, so that he can gloat over them athis leisure, and bring them back to Dr.Mobius as prizes. If this occurs, youwill have to give them an opportunityto break free of their bonds and over-whelm their opponents, either duringthe trip, or when they reach the base(see the next act).

Another risk is that the heroessomehow manage to completely de-stroy the digging device — possiblyby the injudicious use of magic or highexplosives. Don't let them! This causesyou no end of headaches — it destroysan important clue, kills Dr. Marlen,and removes the vehicle which issupposed to take them into the nextact. Assume that, since most of it is stillunderground, the device gains a lot of

protection from the rock and dirt. Anypotentially lethal attacks do at mostheavy damage to the digger, requiringseveral hours' time to repair.

Finally, you may be in trouble if theKnights decide not to attack at all, in-stead preferring to return to Kentuckyto get help or do something else alto-gether. You have a number of choices:you can use Edeinos to herd themback to the encounter; once they are inKentucky, you can feed them cluesand hints suggesting that they go tothe Nile Empire and find the hiddenbase; or you can somehow get themdirectly to Act Three in Indonesia,skipping Act Two altogether.

If the Knights simply refuse to haveanything to do with Dr. Mobius or at-tempting to start up the Earth, youwill have to run your campaign in theStill World setting, as described in theWorld Book.

AftermathIn all likelihood, the heroes have

emerged victorious, having killedProfessor Shariff and killed or drivenoff the shocktroopers. Hildy has atearful reunion with her father, tiedup inside the digger. After ransackingthe machine, the Knights find Pro-fesser Shariff's diary; give the players"Professor Shariff's Diary" handoutfrom the pullout. If they don't find thediary, Dr. Marlen knows the informa-tion, having snuck a look at the diaryduring the trip.

Cut To...If the Knights stay around to get the

egg, cut to Scene Three. If they pro-ceed directly to the secret base, cut toScene Four. If they do somethingcompletely unexpected, cut to the ActAwards and following Cut To sectionfor advice.

SCENE THREE:Guns for Butter

(or Eggs)The Situation

Standard. This scene occurs only ifthe heroes decide to stick around andget the egg from the Edeinos.

The heroes have several hours be-fore the Edeinos return; they can spendthis time tidying up the battlefield,questioning Dr. Marlen, disguisingthemselves as shocktroopers, and soforth. Once they have completed theirpreparations, cut to the arrival of theEdeinos.

The ActionClever Storm Knights will attempt

to con the Edeinos into giving the eggin return for the weapons (which theyhave time to render inoperable beforethe Edeinos arrive); bloodthirstyKnights will probably choose to fightit out with the lizards. If so, they maybe a bit dismayed when a dozen Edei-

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nos show up riding a Bor Aka, a dino-saur roughly the size of a bad-tem-pered football field. This may con-vince them to take a less violent ap-proach: if not, let the chips fall wherethey may.

The thing to remember is that theEdeinos are not expecting any trouble.They have been given an assignmentby Baruk Kaah himself, to pick up apackage from another group of Edei-nos and bring it to Professor Shariff,who will in return give them severalcrates of weapons. If the heroes keepcool, the Edeinos will notice nothing(all humans look alike, after all). Theywill be unable to test the weapons,which they detest as dead things anddo not understand how to operateanyway.

If the humans give them any trouble,the Edeinos riding the Bor Aka willcheerfully turn it loose, telling it tostomp all of the humans into so muchpaste.

Edeinos (12): Same as those in SceneOne. There is no optant in this party,and they have not been blessed withthe miracle See Through Mist.

Bor Aka: DEX 10, STR 41, TOU 43,PER 10, MIN 5, CHA 5, SPI 5.

Skills: running 11,swimming 11,trick (13), test 12, willpower 12, intimi-dation 14, taunt (7).

Natural Tools: bite 42, trample 44.Description: A very, very large

creature, roughly similar to a bron-tasaurus. The Bor Aka is a vegetarian;so (for whatever it is worth) it will spitout any characters it picks up andchews to a pulp.

hat are those GunsFor, Anyway?

Baruk Kaah plans to arm sev-eral hundred Gospog with theweapons and use them to leadthe next assault upon Philadel-phia. If the Storm Knights do notdisable the weapons before giv-ing them to the Edeinos, the sol-diers at Philly are going to be infor a very nasty surprise...

Cut To...Scene Four.

SCENE FOUR:Off to EgyptThe Situation.

Standard. The Storm Knights willprobably choose to commandeer thedigging device and head back to thesecret base in the Empire of the Nile.Doctor Marlen will gladly operate thedevice, as long as they first go toKentucky and drop his daughter offwith the authorities. The trip to Egypttakes two days (the device travelsamazingly quickly underground);there's just enough power left in themega-batteries to make the returnjourney.

The Knights -- particularly anyweird scientists in the bunch — canfiddle with the device to their hearts'content; it looks a lot like a Flash Gor-don-like space ship with a big screw ateither end. Feel free to make up inter-nal details to match; it should havelots of dials and floor-mountedthrottles, sparking Van De Graaf gen-

erators, and be built almost entirely ofbig riveted plates. It's a goofy weirdscience device, so have fun with it (seethe accompanying diagram).

Remember that Professor Shariff'sdiary is hidden in the captain's cabin.

Digger: Tech 21ws (24s), speed160kph/100mph (value 14), Passen-gers 20, TOU 32.

Act AwardsThe player characters should re-

ceive around two Possibility pointsfor this act. One if their play was wellbelow average, and three if they wereoutstanding.

Cut To...Act Two, Scene One. There's no-

where else they can easily go; if theysomehow learn the Earth-stoppingmachine's location through their owndevices (esoteric magic or whatever);they can skip the next act and go di-rectly to Act Three. If they do this, theywill need to provide their own under-water gear, however.

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ACT TWOInto the Empire

of the NileThe Major Beat

The Knights travel to Egypt, to asecret airbase deep within the Empireof the Nile, to learn the location of theEarth-stopping device. They can stealthe pilot's flight plans or they can stealthe pilot. Once they have the plans intheir possession, they travel to theIndian Ocean near Indonesia, proba-bly stealing Dr. Mobius's PBY sea-plane to do so.

SCENE ONE:The Airbase

The Situation

Standard. The airbase is locatedabout 10 miles outside of Thebesproper, in a Pure Nile zone. If theKnights have taken the digging ma-chine, they have no problems findingthe base, as the machine is pre-pro-grammed to return to its dock (a secretchamber located below ProfessorShariff's quarters in the base). If theheroes haven't taken the diggingmachine, Dr. Marlen knows the base'slocation; if he's not around, they willhave to bribe or con Empire officials tofind it.

till Worldand the Nile

Remember how it was veryhot in the Kentucky scenes, andthe sun was high in the sky —even at 3:00 a.m.? Well, the Nileis just the opposite — or it wouldbe if not for Mobius' science. TheNile Empire is on the dark side ofthe Still World, and it is verycold. But Mobius has placed anartificial sun in the sky, and thisprovides light and heat to hisrealm.

38

The ActionThere is a map of the base in the

pullout; refer to it when reading thefollowing descriptions.

The base consists of a number ofprefabricated metal buildings sur-rounded by barbed wire. It is locatedin the middle of the desert, 10 milesfrom the nearest population center,Thebes. There are 20 guards on duty atall times (at the locations marked onthe map), plus 10 or more workersdoing maintenance, repairs, and soforth. There are an additional 20guards asleep in barracks A.

Barbed Wire Fences: The wire isthree meters in height. There are twosets of fences, with two meters be-tween them. That area is patrolled byfour guard dogs.

Guard Towers: The towers areseven meters tall. They are standardprison-camp-style towers -- smallrooms on top of an open woodenframework. Each tower is equippedwith a searchlight and is manned bytwo guards.

Kennels: Small building where thedogs sleep.

CO's Office: This building containsa small office with two desks, a largetwo-way radio, and a tactical map ofthe base and surrounding area on thewall. The commanding officer, Colo-nel Manotep, and his secretary areusually found in this building.

Motor Pool: Contains the base'svehicles, mainly army trucks and jeeps.

Generator Room: This buildingholds the base's electricity generatorand water pumps. Outside is the gaso-line tank. One or two maintenanceworkers here at all times.

Barracks: A: Contains 20 sleepingshocktroopers. B: Empty; where work-ers sleep.

Shariff's Qtrs: Semi-opulent housewith substantial library of weird sci-ence literature; secret door in kitchenleading down to tunneler dock.

PBY Hangar: A large open struc-ture with a canal running in undergarage-style hangar door on north side.The walls are lined with airplanemaintenance tools; the center of thebuilding is taken up by the PBY air-plane, floating in the canal. It barely

fits through the hangar doors. Smallpilots' office in southeast corner; pos-sible location for flight plans. Twomaintenance workers here; plus thepilot, Captain Lefleur.

Officer's Qtrs: Four beds and foot-lockers line the walls; table in center ofbuilding. Nothing of special interesthere.

Pilot's Qtrs: Beds, weather reports,map case, other pilot stuff. Possiblelocation for flight plans.

Warehouse: Food, equipment,weapons locker in back, contains sev-eral dozen schmeisser machineguns,ammunition, grenades, and the like.Two workers here.

Cast of CharactersShocktroopers (40): DEX 9, STR 9,TOU 9, PER 7, MIN 7, CHA 7, SPI 9.

Skills: dodge 10, fire combat 10,unarmedcombat 10, climbing 10.

Equipment: Schmeisser Machine-guns, damage 17, range 15/25/100.Knives, damage STR +3.

Colonel Manotep: DEX 10, STR 10,TOU 11, PER 10, MIN 8, CHA 8, SPI 9.

Skills: reality 10, dodge 12, firecombat 12, unarmed combat 12,climbing 12, trick 12, test 12, taunt 12,intimidation 12.

Possibilities: 4.Equipment: Schmeisser Machine-

gun, damage 17, range 15/25/100.Knife, damage STR +3.

Personality: Shrewd, careful. Fol-lows orders to the letter. Not too easilyconned or frightened.

Workers: DEX 8, STR 8, TOU 8, PER 8,MIN 8, CHA 8, SPI 8.

Skills: 10 in work-related skills(maintenance, dish-washing, vehiclerepair skills, etc.).

Captain Lefleur (Pilot): DEX 10, STR8, TOU 8, PER 10, MIN 10, CHA 10,SPI 10.

Skills: air vehicles 14.Personality: Bitter, sarcastic. Hates

Mobius, Nile Realm, and everythingelse. A native of Terra, Lefleur worksfor Mobius because he sees him as his

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only chance to get back home. Mightjump at a chance to hurt Mobius — ifit involves no personal risk. SpeaksEnglish. Has memorized the locationof the Earth-stopping device.

ObjectivesThe Knights need to learn the loca-

tion of the Earth-stopping device.There are a number of places withinthe base where they could find thisinformation — in a locker in the pilots'quarters, in a small office in the PBYhangar, or from the pilot, CaptainLefleur, who could be found in eitherthe hangar, the pilots' quarters, or, ifyou want to be difficult about it, in thebrig (in the CO's office) for drunkenand disorderly conduct.

Attached to the flight plans is acargo manifest, listing, among otherthings, a half-a-dozen diving suits andoxygen tanks. From this, the heroesshould assume that their final destina-tion is somewhere under water.

Once they have the location, theheroes can escape in any way theychoose. For your purposes, it is muchbetter if they take the fueled PBY sea-plane — not only do they then get thediving suits necessary to finish theadventure, but it also allows you torun the exciting climax to this act —the "Big Dogfight."

Running the SceneThis scene is a big production — if

this were a movie, probably 30 percentof the film's budget would be spent onthe special effects for this one. Theheroes of the film are infiltrating theenemy base. In the beginning, theymay disguise themselves as shock-troopers or Nile officials, bamboozlingthe foolish enemy, but at some timethey will probably be discovered andthe scene ended in a blaze of gunfire.

On the outside, things look prettygrim for the Knights. The heroes facearound 50 well-armed and trainedopponents. The base is surrounded bybarbed wire, and soldiers with spot-lights watch all approaches. Even ifthe Knights use the digging device toget in, arriving at the secret dock underProfessor Shariff's quarters, there are

a number of guards stationed on theinside of the base, and a whole lotmore within easy hailing distance.

However, in this case, appearancesare deceiving. This encounter is stan-dard, not dramatic. That means thatthe Drama Deck is heavily weightedin the Knights' favor. Though thingsmay appear tough, if the Knights keeptheir wits about them, they shouldhave little trouble defeating the shock-troopers. Try to run this encounter asthough it were a scene from yourfavorite Macho American Bodybuildervs. the Dimwitted Foreigners who Can'tShoot Worth a Damn film. The herowades out into a storm of automaticfire, taking not a scratch, and, with asingle burst of his M-16, knocks theenemy soldiers down like tenpins.Encourage the players to be flam-bouyant — let even outrageous planssucceed, if they are cinematicallyappropriate to the genre.

Let the Knights attack a sentry (or,if outside, a patrol) to get their uni-forms. Let them blow up the generatorto create a lovely pyrotechnical diver-sion, hopefully immolating a bunch ofguards in the process. Let them steal a

truck and drive it through a barrack ortwo, or into the base of a guard tower.Maybe one hero slips outside and firesoff a burst of gunfire, drawing a largenumber of guards out after him whilethe other heroes trash the base. Thehero outside dispatches a bunch ofsoldiers, leading the others on a merrychase. When the other heroes accom-plish their mission and head down thecanal in the PBY, the hero leaps ontothe outside of the airplane, clinging toa strut while it roars off into the sky.

The scene is dangerous, and withan unlucky turn of the dice a herocould get hurt or killed, but, more thananything else, this should be a lot ofwholesome, violent fun.

Don't worry about going too lighton the heroes; you can really hammerthem in the next scene.

Cut To...Scene Two if the Knights steal the

seaplane; you'll have to extemporizetheir escape if they do not. The heroeswill have to find their own transporta-tion to the Indian Ocean; they will alsohave to come up with their own divingsuits or other underwater gear.

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SCENE TWO:The Big Dogfight

The SituationDramatic. The heroes have stolen

the flight plans, giving them the loca-tion of the Earth-stopping device. Theyhave also stolen the PBY seaplane andare roaring off into the night.

When the heroes are in the plane,describe it according to the accompa-nying diagram. Don't mention thesecret compartment, unless someonespecifically searches the area behindthe cargo and generates a find total of14 or higher — with all hell breakingloose, the heroes probably won't dothis until it is too late. If they do searchthis area successfully, they will meetShul ahead of schedule, which is un-fortunate, but not catastrophic.

In any event, in this scene the he-roes get to experience a dogfight. Theirplane is very slow and very unwieldy,but it has been equipped with threemachinegun cupolas. The opposition

is in the form of two Nile fighter planes,Spitfires, manned by Possibility-ratedpilots.

And just when things look theirgrimmest, they get a whole lot worse.The mechanic, Shul, who has beenhiding in the secret compartment aft,steps forth and does his best to poundthe heroes into dust. As Shul is a hugebrute of a man and also Possibility-rated, this should be quite an interest-ing experience for the heroes.

You've got the flight plans; you'vegot a plane capable of getting there;and it's loaded with the equipmentyou need to complete your mission.Considering that you have had to gothrough 50-odd guards to get this,everything has gone quite smoothly,indeed. Why does that make you nerv-ous?

In a moment you find out why, astwo Nile Spitfires come screaming outof the clouds. Taking up positions toyour rear, they call over the radio anddemand to know who you are andwhat you are doing.

The Action

There are two things the heroes cando: attempt to con the pilots into let-ting them pass, or say "the heck withit" and blast merrily away.

Conning the PilotsThe pilots' statistics are below. Both

speak English (on Terra, as on Earth,all international pilots must speakEnglish). They are aware that Dr.Mobius is supposed to take off in thePBY, though they were told that hewould not be leaving for another fewhours. If the Knight on the radio con-cocts a plausible story, let his playergenerate a Persuade total against thepilots' Minds of 11.

The pilots are currently neutral tothe plane. On a negotiated agreement,the pilots will hold off attacking;however, they will not let the planetravel any further toward the Nileborder until they receive confirmationfrom Ground Control (it will takeGround Control about 10 minutes tocontact the base, which will probablyblow the heroes' story sky-high).

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On a yes result, the pilots will let theplane proceed. They will still radio into Ground Control for confirmation,however; when the heroes' story isblown, they roar off after the plane,catching up to it about two minutesbefore the plane leaves Nile airspace.

The DogfightThe air battle will resemble more a

fighter attack against a WWII B17Flying Fortress than it will a dogfightbetween fighters. The PBY is slow andclunky; there is no way it can outrunthe Spitfires (see the chase rules inChapter Seven of the Rule Book).

During the chase, if the Knightflying the PBY generates a higher airvehicles total than a pilot, he decideswhat his airplane's relationship to theSpitfires is — he can be in front, be-hind, to the left or right. The co-pilotcan combine on this roll: coordinationdifficulty of 8. If the pilot's total ishigher, you decide where the Spitfireis in relationship to the PBY.

This is important because the PBY'smachineguns have limited fire arcs:one can fire only to the front, one to theleft, and one to the right. Note that theSpitfires' machineguns are forward-firing only; however, because of theirgreater speed and maneuverability,the pilots can always manage to maketheir attack runs head-on — they fireeach round, if they choose, no matterwhose air vehicle totals were highest.

The pilots can use all of their com-bat skills, including maneuver, trick,test and so forth in this battle. They canspend Possibility points to reducedamage to their vehicles. Normally,all damage caused by machinegun fireis against the target vehicle; the gun-ners can attempt to shoot at Knightsvisible within the vehicle — the pilot,anyone in a cupola firing a weapon —this is a vital blow attack.

PBY Seaplane: Tech 21,Speed 200kph/120mph (value 14), Passengers 20,TOU 17.

Weapons: Three Vickers Machine-gun Cupolas, 2 aft, 1 fore; damage 23,range100/500/1K.

Spitfires: Tech 21, Speed 600kph/380mph (value 16), Passenger 1, TOU17.

Weapons: One Spandau Machine-gun on each; damage 24, range 100/500/1K.

Pilots: DEX 11, STR 9, TOU 10, PER 11,MIN 11,CHA8,SPI9.

Skills: air vehicles 14, air vehicleweapons 14, maneuver 14, reality 10,trick 12, test 12, taunt 10, intimidate 12.

Possibilities: 4.

A Small ComplicationAt about the time the air battle

begins, a small complication arises.When the Knights entered theseaplane's hangar, Shul, a mechanic,was inside the airplane, supposedlymaking some last-minute repairs.However, he had decided to slip intothe secret compartment of the plane tocatch a quick nap. He slept throughany unpleasantness at the base (thecompartment is soundproofed), andonly awoke once the plane was air-borne. At first terrified that Dr. Mo-bius was on the plane and wouldpunish him severely, he kept hidden.Once the air battle commenced, how-ever, he emerged to offer his services.

Imagine his surprise when he dis-covers that the plane has been hijacked.Not the subtlest of individuals, Shuldecides to do what comes naturally:he picks up heavy things and attemptsto bounce them against the heroes'heads.

Shul: DEX 10, STR 14, TOU 12, PER 8,MIN 8,CHA 8, SPI8.

Skills: reality 9, dodge 12, firecombat 12, unarmed combat 14, trick10, test 10, taunt 14, intimidation 14,vehicle repair 14.

Possibilities: 4.Weapons: Luger; damage 14, range

10/25/50. Knife; damage STR +3.

Running the DogfightRemember the fight between Indi-

ana Jones and the big hulking bruiseroutside of the airplane in Raiders of theLost Ark? Well, the combat in the backof the plane should work like that —except with the added complication ofa dogfight in progress.

The pilot of the PBY dives straightdown, attempting to avoid the Spit-fires, dumping everyone in back in aheap; Shul yanks someone away fromhis machinegun and tries to throwhim out a door; the crates in the back ofthe plane come loose and slide alarm-ingly across the floor; a burst of gun-fire rakes the PBY's wing, puncturinga gas tank and setting an engine onfire...

Cut back and forth between theaction outside the plane and the actioninside; keep things moving. Thoughthere are a lot fewer opponents, this isprobably a lot more dangerous thanthe previous encounter.

If the heroes' airplane is mortallywounded, it will stall and head to-ward the ground. The pilot must makea difficulty 12 air vehicles roll to landsafely. The heroes must then eitherrepair their vehicle or find other trans-port to Indonesia.

Searching the Plane

In the crates stored aboard thepontoon plane, the Knights find 10 fulldiving suits with air tanks, 10 spearguns, 10 octi-grenades, 10 Nile sunblades, and 10 torpedo pistols. See ActFour for their statistics.

Cut To...As the characters fly off into the

darkness, read:

It is dark and very, very cold -outside of the range of Dr. Mobius'sartificial sun, it is about 15 degreescolder than it should be. Below you,you see the lights of a few cities andtowns bravely attempting to carry onin the face of the unending night, butyou know that, if the Earth does notsoon begin moving, they will all die inthe cold darkness.

Hours pass. You cross the Indianocean, flying south to avoid Indianairspace — a good thing to do, flying aNile airplane. Up ahead you see light-ning and dark black clouds. It is theborder to Orrorsh, the dark realm.Beyond, in what used to be the Indo-nesian Sea, is your destination. Youtighten your seatbelts and prepare tobrave the storm.

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Act AwardsThe heroes should receive three

Possibilities for this act.

ACT THREEIt's Always Darkest

The Major BeatThe final act takes the Knights to

the Indian Ocean, inside the Orrorshrealm, where they must destroy themachine that has stilled the Earth andreturn the energy needed to restart theworld's spin. They must first get pastthe outer guardian, a demon namedGibberfat; once past him, they musthold off the machine's inner defend-ers, skeletal pirates, while one of theKnights reverses the machine.

SCENE ONE:The Dead Sea

The SituationDramatic. The plane approaches the

area marked on the flight plans, butyou would recognize it anyway. Agreat vortex of energy spirals out ofthe sky and plunges into the sea, pierc-ing the darkness with unearthly light.According to the charts, you are justnorth of Christmas Island in the In-dian Ocean. The water around thevortex is surprisingly calm.

The ActionFirst, the Knights must get past

Gibberfat, a demon placed here by theGaunt Man to ward off intruders.Gibberfat has three different forms —that of a great white shark, a giantelectric eel, and his true form, a deepred, horned, somewhat portly human-oid. All three must be defeated in turn.

Round One:The Shark

When the Knights land their sea-plane, they notice a giant white fin cutthe water near their boat. After cir-cling once, the fin disappears. Severalseconds later, their plane is rocked as

the shark rams it from underneath.The shark continues to attack the planefrom underneath, where the plane'smachineguns cannot hit it, until theheroes come out to play.

Gibberfat's Great White Shark Form:DEX 12, STR 18, TOU 18, PER 8, MIN12, CHA 12, SPI 12.

Skills: reality 14, dodge 14, maneu-ver 14, swimming 14, unarmed com-bat 14, trick 10, test 14, willpower 14,taunt 14, intimidation 14.

Possibilities: 10.Natural Tools: hide armor +3, bite

21, ram 18.

Round Two:The Electric Eel

When the shark is "killed," the bodysinks out of sight, where it transformsinto a giant electric eel. The eel willwait to attack the Knights when theyare in the water. (See the sidebar fordescriptions of the equipment andweaponry the Knights will most proba-bly use in this battle.)

Gibberfat's Electric Eel Form: DEX18, STR 12, TOU 12, PER 12, MIN 12,CHA 12, SPI 12.

Skills: reality 14, dodge 20, maneu-ver 20, shock 20, swimming 20, trick14, test 14, willpower 14, taunt 14,intimidation 14.

Possibilities: 10 minus those usedin round one.

Natural Tools: hide armor +2, elec-tric shock 20.

Round Three:Gibberfat's True Form

Once the eel is killed, its body toowill sink into the ocean, where it willtransform into Gibberfat's true form,that of a pudgy, bright red humanoidwith gills and webbed feet and hands.The demon will swim up to the Knightsand tell them in a sonorous voice: "Fleepuny humans! Or I will send you tothe coldest pit of hell, where you willwrithe in agony for all eternity!" Hewill ruin the effect somewhat by sneez-ing violently at the end of his recital.

The heroes have two options: if theyhave brought the egg with them, theycan offer it to Gibberfat in exchangefor free passage; otherwise, they mustfight him.

Bribing GibberfatIf the heroes have got the egg, Gib-

berfat takes it eagerly. He thanks themprofusely, telling them that he can useit to buy his way out of this unpleasantassignment, bribing the Gaunt Man'sdemon overseer, an Efreet with a realweakness for fine craftsmanship. Heapologizes for his earlier attacks, ex-plaining that "one has to keep up ap-pearances — when the Gaunt Mangives you an assignment, you had bet-ter live up to it, you know?"

Beyond that, Gibberfat is an ami-able, somewhat vainglorious sort. He'sfrom another plane, doesn't know any-thing about conditions on this one,and couldn't care less. He can tell theheroes something about the Earth-stopping device (see sidebar), and thatthere are further guardians below,"some dead humans, I believe. Nasty,reclusive sorts; I'd be careful of them ifI were you."

Then he takes his leave, disappear-ing into a vortex of black light, clutch-ing his precious egg to him.

Fighting GibberfatThough he looks pudgy and some-

what ridiculous, Gibberfat is anythingbut a pushover. He is physically pow-erful and well-versed in the magicarts. He will use all methods at hisdisposal to defeat the heroes.

Gibberfat will continue to fight un-til he is mortally wounded, at whichpoint he is banished back to his ownplane of existence for 1,000 years anda day.

Gibberfat in True Form: DEX 14, STR14, TOU 14, PER 14, MIN 12, CHA 12,SPI 12.

Skills: reality 14, dodge 16, maneu-ver 16, swimming 16, unarmed com-bat 16, alteration magic 16, divinationmagic 16, trick 16, apportation magic16, conjuration magic 16, test 14, will-power 14, taunt 14, intimidation 14.

Possibilities: 10 minus those usedin rounds one and two.

Natural Tools: magical toughness+2, rending claws 17.

Arcane Knowledge: death 3, life 3,inanimate forces 3, living forces 3,water 5, elemental 3, control 3.

Spells:Charm Person: As spell in Rule Book.

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Cold: This spell works exactly as theLightning spell, except that the castersends out waves of numbing cold forfour rounds, effect value of 15. Theskill is alteration inanimate force 19.

Ink: Similar to Mage Dark, but worksunderwater.

Strength: As spell in Rule Book.Weakness: As spell in Rule Book.

SCENE TWO:The Final Battle

The Situation

Dramatic. The Knights follow theVortex down to its source far belowthe waves. 100 meters down, they findthat the vortex funnels into a thin beamand enters a 17th Century shipwreckresting atop an undersea mountain.

The vessel, an old pirate ship, con-tains the main controls to a giganticmachine that extends far below intothe crust of the planet. Guarding themachine is the ship's undead crew ofskeletal pirates. To succeed, some ofthe Knights must hold off the pirateswhile the others use dramatic skillresolution to deal with the machine.

Treat your descriptions as if theywere part of a horror story, for evenwith their suit lamps, the shadows arethick and murky. Build suspense bytelling the Knights they catch move-ment out the side of their helmets, butthey see nothing when they turn. Andsound is muffled and strange underthe sea and inside a pressurized suit.

When the heroes touch the ship, thevortex begins spinning faster andfaster. Several skeletal figures emergefrom below decks, walking drunkenly,carrying cutlasses. The dramatic con-flict begins.

See the map of the pirate vessel inthe pullout.

The PiratesThere are 12 pirates aboard the

vessel. They cannot be reasoned with;they cannot be tricked; they cannot befrightened off. They have only oneresponsibility: to hold off attackersuntil the Earth-stopping device has achance to retreat deep into the centerof the Earth. They fight until destroyed.

he Equipment

There are 10 of each of the fol-lowing aboard the seaplane,packed in the crates in the back.When clad in a diving suit, a herocan carry up to three of the weap-ons strapped to his belt where hecan get at them easily; any addi-tional equipment must be awk-wardly tied or strapped on, re-quiring two or more rounds toget at.

Diving Suits: These are bulky,cumbersome, 30's-style suits.They are composed of heavyrubber-coated cloth coveringtorso and limbs, with big steelhelmets with little glass portalsto the front and sides. They havebig airtanks on back, connectingto the helmet, with enough airfor two hours. When wearing asuit, a character suffers a penaltyof -1 to all Dexterity , Perception,and Strength-related skills. Thesuits are equipped with head-mounted lamps and radio com-municators.

The suits provide +3 protec-

tion. They are segmented & self-sealing; if a section is punctured(the character takes a wound orworse), several gallons of waterpours in and then the hole orslash seals. The victim suffers anadditional -1 to Dexterity andStrength-based skills.

If the attacker gets 12 resultpoints or better in one attack, hehas cracked the glass on the suit'shelmet. The victim begins todrown in a number of roundsequal to his Toughness - 6; beforethat time passes he must activatethe emergency escape rockets onthe suit's boots; this will propellhim immediately to the surface.

Spear Gun: damage 14, ammo5, range 5/10/25.

Torpedo Pistol: damage 18,ammo 3, range 25/40/100.

Octi-Grenade: damage 20,ammo 1, range 3/5/7.

Nile Sun Blade: (Designed toprovide light, and serve as aweapon against Orrorsh crea-tures) damage STR+5, max 19.

Skeletal Pirates (12): DEX 6, STR 8,TOU 9, PER 4, MIN 6, CHA 2, SPI 12.

Skills: melee weapons 9, swimming10, unarmed combat 9, trick 8, test(12), taunt 10, intimidation 16.

Natural Tools: Bite 12. Do not takeshock damage; cannot be KO'ed. Re-generation: Completely healed whenVillain Up card is drawn. Can only bestopped permanently if dismemberedonce "killed" (takes three rounds ofconcerted breakage).

Equipment: Cutlass, damage STR+5.

The Infernal MachineBelow deck the Knights find an item

that was definitely not aboard thevessel when it sunk. A large machinefills much of the forward hold. Themachine is covered with dials, electricglobes, switches, and other mecha-

nisms out of a mad scientist's dreams— the vortex control center. Atop the

machine is a rotating globe. This iswhere the tight beam of the vortexterminates.

Beneath the control center, throughplaces where the deck has brokenaway, the Knights can see that the restof the machine descends down intothe ocean floor. The machine is huge,warm to the touch, and glitters withpower. As the Knights study it, it growsappreciably hotter.

The Gaunt Man has somehowimbued the machine with Possibilityenergy. Any physical, mental or spiri-tual attacks against it are absorbed asthough "bought off" with Possibilitypoints. Short of effects not in any wayavailable to the heroes, the machinecannot be destroyed. It might also benoted that it would do no good todestroy the machine; it would not

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restore movement to the Earth. To dothat, the machine has to be reversed.

There is a certain urgency to thetask, as well. The machine continuesto grow hotter from the moment theheroes touch the pirate ship, a securitymeasure placed there by the GauntMan: if any Possibility-rated beingtouches the ship, the device releasessome of its stored energy as heat,melting the ground around the ma-chine, causing it to sink deep into theplanet's core.

This of course makes it exceedinglydifficult for the Gaunt Man to get atthe machine to take its stored energyand become Torg, but he figures thathe is more capable of doing so thanalmost anyone else. He's correct.

From the moment they set foot onthe pirate ship, the Knights have 20rounds to fight through the piratesand reverse the machine. Deactivat-ing the machine must be done throughdramatic skill resolution; if all stepsare not completed by the 20th round,the heroes will have failed and theEarth will not regain its motion. It isalso quite likely that they will be par-boiled by the heat of the machine, butthat's small potatoes when comparedto the calamities the rest of humanitywill suffer.

Dramatic Skill Resolution

While the pirates attack, someKnights must try to figure out andreverse the Gaunt Man's machine. Thisis simulated by dramatic skill resolu-tion. Knights may coordinate theirefforts on the machine (as long as theyare not involved in combat). The coor-dination difficulty is 8. All coordinat-ing characters must have at least oneof the following skills to use: science;weird science; air, land or water vehiclerepair; scholar (engineering); alterationmagic; etc.

The steps involved in this skill testare as follows.

Step A allows the Knights to deter-mine the machine's controls; difficulty10. Step B allows them to turn off thevortex; difficulty 12. Step C lets themreset the controls to reverse; difficulty10. Step D throws the proper switchesto return the energy to Earth; diffi-culty 12.

If the Knights only get as far as stepB or C by the 20th card flip, the ma-

he Infernal Machine and Other Loose Ends

As is described elsewhere infull detail, the Gaunt Man hasintiated the attack against theEarth for one purpose: to gainthe Possibility energy necessaryto achieve immortality and be-come Torg. However, there isanother, little-mentioned facet tothe process of becoming Torg:the High Lord must, at the sametime he infuses himself withPossibility energy, infuse him-self with physical energy as well— otherwise, he would literally

burst from the power of the Pos-sibility energy he consumed.

The physical energy requiredis enormous. The Gaunt Man hasstolen this energy from the Earth.Basically, the infernal machinehas taken the Earth's kinetic en-ergy — that which caused it tospin — and stored it in a huge,otherworldly battery, deep be-low the planet's surface. Thevortex is merely a side-effect ofthe energy drain.

The Gaunt Man had plannedto tap into the device as soon as ithad fully drained the Earth of

motion, but he was preventedfrom doing so by the timely in-tervention of several StormKnights (see The Possibility Warsnovel trilogy).

Figuring out the Gaunt Man'sintentions, Professor Mobiusdecided to take advantage of hisabsence to steal the energy fromthe device. Mobius sent a partyto scout the device; they did so,reporting the existence of theguardian Gibberfat who, afterkilling several, let the othersescape, telling them that hewould let anyone pass who car-ried "a gold and silver egg ofunsurpassed craftsmanship andbeauty."

Mobius correctly interpretedthat to refer to a Faberge Egg,several of which were on exhibitin New York City when the inva-sion began. Mobius made a dealwith his ally Baruk Kaah to tradethe egg for weapons — though,of course, without telling Kaahwhat he wanted it for. The he-roes arrived when Mobius sentShariff to pick up the egg.

chine collapses through the nowmagma-hot ocean floor. The Knightscannot return the stolen energy backto the planet, but neither can Mobiususe it to become Torg. It is sealed withinthe machine until the Gaunt Manclaims it. You must set your campaignwithin the Still World (see the WorldBook).

If the Knights return the energy tothe planet, then the machine destroysitself in spectacular fashion (anotherfailsafe so that it cannot be used again).You are ready to begin a Torg "In-finiverse" campaign.

The Epic Conclusion

Assuming the Knights use themachine to restore the stolen energy to

Earth, once they reach the surface theysee a most heartening sight.

As they take off in the pontoonplane to head back home, the skyslowly brightens as the sun rises overthe horizon. The Earth has resumed itsspin and, although the Raiders are stillhere, there is hope for the future.

AwardsIf the Knights stop Mobius from

becoming the Torg but don't restartthe Earth, give each character six Pos-sibilities.

If the Knights reverse the machineand restart the planet, give each char-acter 12 Possibilities.

In addition, see Chapter Two of thisbook for other award guidelines.

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Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Adventure Ideasere are a series of ad-venture ideas that youcan expand into fulladventures like "Beforethe Dawn." You will need

to break the acts into scenes, deter-mine where to use standard and dra-matic encounters, and design statis-tics for the characters, creatures, andequipment described.

IDEA ONE:Terror Island

Setting: Orrorsh.Theme: Horror.Goal: To survive and escape.

A thick, lush jungle sprawls in all di-rections, covering the island. But for allthe flourishing life, the island is silent,still. On closer inspection, the plants appearas nightmarish parodies of themselves —sharp thorns drip from tangled vines. Foulfungi hang from bent, twisted trees, whichseem to rustle though there is no wind.

And then, breaking the unnatural si-lence, a terrible sound echoes out of thejungle. And the sound is coming closer ...

BackgroundIn this adventure, a group of Storm

Knights is marooned on a small islandin Indonesia. The island, in good hor-ror-story fashion, is alive. It is themonster of the story. It hopes to lurethe Knights to its lair somewhere inthe center of the jungle. The Knightsmust survive the obstacles that theisland throws at them and defeat themonster, or find a way to escape be-fore they are destroyed.

Unknown to the Knights, the islandis being explored by Orrorsh Victori-ans at present, and they have set up acommand post on the far side of theisland. The Victorians do not know

what is going on here either; depend-ing upon the heroes' actions, they maybe additional foes or possible allies forthe Knights.

ACT ONE:The Crash

The Storm Knights, on their waythrough the Orrorsh realm, encountera terrible storm. The storm disablestheir vehicle (be it plane or ship) andwashes them ashore one of the smallislands that dot the seas around Indo-nesia. You can make the opening moreexciting by calling for survival checksas they battle the elements to survivethe crash. Or, if you really want adramatic opening, they can bestranded some distance from the shorewhen a huge sea monster attacks. Theymust then fend off the creature as theyrig paddles to get them to shore.

The Knights eventually find them-selves on a deserted beach. The beachis surrounded on three sides by thedark jungle, on one side by the ocean.The beach is eerily quiet. No soundscan be heard anywhere, except theconstant lapping of the waves.

Decide up front whether or not youwant this to be a true test of survival. Ifso, you can have most of the Knights'equipment lost in the crash. Then theywill have to build weapons and othergear from whatever they find in thejungle.

ACT TWO:The Labyrinth

The island is a living, semi-intelli-gent entity with animal-level cunning.It provides the Knights with a clearpath into the jungle, but if they try togo back the way they came they findthe path overgrown and blocked off.The island forms a labyrinth of plant

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growth that leads the Knights towardthe island's center; the path is filledwith minor hazards to weaken theisland's prey. As they trek deeper intothe jungle, the Knights can encounterany of the following hazards:

Vine covered pits; tangling, thorny,self-propelled plants; man-eatingplants; walking trees; human-shapedextensions of the island made fromrock, mud, or plants; quicksand; earth-quakes; and frightened Victorians(who are also being pursued by theisland).

While the Victorians and Knightswill probably initially distrust eachother; they may eventually agree toally against the common foe. (In addi-tion, the Victorians make useful mood-setters: whenever the tone gets toolight, you can have the heroes stumbleacross the remains of a soldier, killedin some gruesomely spectacular fash-ion.)

If the Knights decide to fight theirway along the coast (and make someheroic die rolls), they discover theremains of a cargo ship. No sign of thecrew remains. But the Knights do findmaterial to make passable firebombs(styrofoam pellets, gasoline, and long-necked soda bottles).

Eventually, the path leads them tothe very heart of the island.

ACT THREE:Heart of Darkness

At the center of the island theKnights find an ancient statue. Framedby a living canopy of leaves and brush,the statue resembles a demonic gar-goyle. Its stone lips are locked in a per-manent grin; its jewelled eyes glowwith evil intelligence.

The statue is host to a foul entitythat has extended its control to the

island itself, and now the island servesas one of Orrorsh's outer defenses.Craving warm flesh and hot blood, theentity has led the Knights to its centerof power in order to consume them.

As the heroes approach the statue,the very ground they walk on beginsto form itself into huge stone and dirthands, which attempt to grab andcrush them. The statue comes to lifeand strides toward them as well. Thestatue is impervious to all damage,unless the attack is specificallytargetted toward its jewelled eyes.These too are remarkably resistant;however, if destroyed, the whole statueshatters into a million pieces and thestone hands subside. Several minuteslater, the island itself begins to breakup.

The heroes have only a short time toreach the Victorian camp and the boatthat is moored there before the islanddisintegrates.

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Chapter Six

IDEA TWO:

The CruiseSetting: Core Earth.Theme: Mystery.Goal: Protect Core Earth scientists.

The passengers are enjoying themselvesthis night, putting the problems of thereality-torn world behind them until thestart of the conference in the morning.They talk and joke, but none speak of theinvaders. That is for tomorrow, to be dis-cussed in the light.

Then a scream comes from the Lidopool. A figures lies face-down within,framed by a slowly growing red stain. Theproblems of the world have found even thistiny vessel floating in the Caribbean Sea.

BackgroundIn this adventure, a group of Storm

Knights joins the passengers aboardThe Caribbean Lady, a luxury cruiseship bound for the Caribbean Sea. TheKnights have been hired to provideprotection for the passengers — scien-tists from the nations of Core Earthattempting to come up with a defenseagainst the Possibility Raiders.

The United States is host to thisgathering, and attending scientistscome from the Soviet Union, Austra-lia, West Germany, China, and othernations. But some uninvited guestshave stowed away on the ship also —agents from the invading realms.

Each of these agents has his ownreason for coming aboard. The DarkShadow, a pulp villain from the Nile,has been sent by Mobius to disrupt themeetings through sabotage. BrotherPierre, a cyberpriest, is aboard to gatherinformation on the scientific capabili-ties of the heathen nations that mustbe purified by the fires of the Cyberpa-pacy. Lady Yuka is an assassin sent tofoster animosity among the Core Earthnations by murdering selected scien-tists and leaving evidence that blamesdelegates from another nations. Fi-nally, Lord Bonterre, a vampire fromOrrorsh, has been sent by Thratchento observe the other High Lord'sagents, and perhaps assist the CoreEarthers if the opportunity to discreditthe other Raiders presents itself.

ACT ONE:Who Done It?

The Knights are hired as guards forthe First Conference of World Scien-tists They spend some time minglingwith the various passengers aboardThe Caribbean Lady when the firstmurder is discovered. The victim is aphycisist from Italy, and evidence atthe scene points to a German biologistas the likely suspect. Additional mur-ders occur, and the Knights encounterloads of possible suspects, includingBrother Pierre. To complicate matters,Lady Yuka decides to play up to one ofthe Knights in a romantic fashion inorder to stay near them in case they gettoo close to discovering her role in themurders.

ACT TWO:A Dagger in the Dark

The Knights interrupt the DarkShadow as the villain goes about anact of sabotage. After that battle, theyfind themselves too late to save theSoviet delegate — an assassin's dag-ger is buried in her back. Finally, thebloodless body of the Brazilian diplo-mat leads the Knights to Lord Bon-terre. The vampire is powerful and ashape-changer, and unless the Knightscan dispatch him quickly, he will es-cape into the night.

ACT THREE:Assassin Foiled

Deciding that the conference mustgo on, the remaining scientists meet inthe morning. But by being all in oneplace, they play into the assassin'shands. Lady Yuka and her team ofNinjas cut the lights and begin to stalkthe scientists. Now the Knights mustdefeat the high-tech killers before allof Earth's top scientific minds aremurdered. If they succeed, the confer-ence can go on to develop some im-portant theories which may in a year'stime yield a defense against the invad-ing realms.

IDEA THREE:

Wizard's ShameSetting: Aysle, Cyber France.Theme: Fantasy, Cyberpapacy.Goal: To stop a war.

The wizard stepped away from his worktable, removed his glasses, and wiped themwith a dirty cloth, smearing the greasemore than removing it. Replacing theglasses onto his long nose, he once againbent to examine the item on the table.

"I have no choice, Quebert," the wizardsaid to the cat-sized dragon that sat on hisshoulder, holding the note up for the dragonto read. "I must kill Bishop Bernard ..."

BackgroundThe wizard Duncan's name comes

to the Storm Knights via a dead cyber-priest. The cyberpriest was on his wayto exterminate the wizard when theKnights dispatched him. Now all theyhave is a data readout with Duncan'sname, Nottingham address, and ex-termination order on it.

Though the heroes don't know it,agents from Orrorsh have kidnappedthe wizard's daughter. If he does notdo what they want, they will kill theyoung woman. To secure her freedom,the wizard must go to CyberpapistFrance and destroy Bishop Bernard, ahigh-ranking church official, using themost potent spell he can cast in theAvignon reality. This will set in mo-tion a war between the Cyberpopeand Aysle, which will keep LadyArdinay too busy to provide adequatehelp to the nations of Core Earth — orto bother Thratchen as he fights tosecure his own station in Orrorsh.

Since Lady Ardinay is not yet in fullcommand in Aysle, there is no reasonto believe that she would emerge vic-torious from the battle — her defeat atthis time would be disastrous to Eu-rope and to the entire Earth.

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ACT ONE:Presto Chango!

The Knights arrive in Nottingham,England, at the address of WizardDuncan. The wizard, who has divinedthat the Knights would come to stophim, has set a trap for the heroes. Beinga good man, he does not want to hurtthe Knights, but he does want to de-tain them so they cannot interrupt hismission. He will not risk his daughter'slife by failing the task set before him.

So he prepares a massive spell tochange the Knights into somethingharmless — frogs! After the spell goesoff, the wizard apologizes and takeshis leave, shutting the Frog Knightsup in his English flat. But the Knightsare still Possibility-rated heroes, nomatter what their form, and they fig-ure that one of the potions on the fartable will change them back. All theyhave to do is survive such hazards asthe now giant-sized apartment andthe wizard's pets — a snake, threewhite rats, and a tiny dragon.

ACT TWO:Cyber France

Once the Knights reach the potionsand turn themselves back into theiroriginal forms, they find the note fromDr. Randall of the Victorian Instituteof Science, which tells the wizard thatthey are holding her daughter andtells him what he must do to get herback. This leads the heroes to France,

which is now operating under theaxioms of the Cyberpapacy. As StormKnights, they are marked by the In-quisitor and must deal with his agentsand the church police. Then they againpick up the wizard's trail. But he evadesthem using more spells.

The heroes also discover that thewizard plans to kill the bishop at thisevening's midnight mass. That givesthem a few hours to find the wizard'sdaughter before they return to thechurch to stop Duncan from starting awar between the realms.

Orrorsh has an embassy in CyberFrance, and this is where Dr. Randallholds Duncan's daughter. The em-bassy is guarded by gospog, a rav-agon, and the doctor himself, whochanges into a berserk monster bydowning a vile potion of his owndesign. The Knights must defeat himto rescue the young woman.

ACT THREE:Burn the Wizard!

With the rescued daughter in tow,the Knights return to the church whereBishop Bernard is holding mass. Theyarrive just prior to midnight and findthat things aren't the way they thoughtthey would be. Duncan has been cap-tured and is tied to a stake set in thechurch's courtyard. The bishop him-self is about to begin a mass which willconclude with the burning of a hea-then practicioner of the foul arts.

Of course, Duncan's daughter nowpleads with the Knights to save her

father. After all, Duncan is a favoredadvisor of Lady Ardinay, and burninghim at the stake will just as effectivelybegin the war that Orrorsh wants.

To save the wizard, the Knightsmust defeat the church guards and theattending cygoyles. Bishop Bernard,in typical villain fashion, escapes byinciting the crowd of believers to sui-cidal action.

OTHER IDEASTorg provides many unique oppor-

tunities for interesting play. And, be-cause of its very nature, you can playTorg without giving up the campaignthat you have been playing in for years.

For example, if you have been partof a long-running fantasy campaignand have grown very attached to yourcharacters, you can bring them overinto the Torg world. On one hand,your fantasy world can be part ofAysle, which has attached itself toEarth. Or, if you want to go back inhistory, Uthorion could invade yourfantasy world for its possibility en-ergy. Even better, instead of Earthbeing the focus of the Gaunt Man'sinvasion, your fantasy world can bethe cosm he and the other High Lordschoose to invade. You could even makeyour particular roleplaying campaignworld a good cosm which decides toattach to Earth in order to help stop thePossibility Raiders. The story is thething in Torg, and there are so manyways to hook into it. The possibilitiesare literally endless.

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