Basic Set - Worldbook.pdf - Torg - azathoth444

Introduction

egends. They speak of The

Place, in the Time of Noth-

ing. The Void was alone in

The Place, possessed by an

unending hunger but unable

to sate it. Then Eternity entered The Place,

full of dreams and possibilities locked

within its infinite instant with no method

of release. Void and Eternity met, and The

Maelstrom was formed.

The Void tasted the essence of Eternity,

and it became aware of what it craved.

Eternity boiled away into the Void and

billions of possibilities were destroyed.

Whole galaxies came and went as the Void

fed. The Maelstrom endlessly tossed out

possibilities that were destroyed in the

whirling currents of creation. But, even-

tually, two possibilities survived.

The Nameless One, a being that took

after the Void, was destruction personi-

fied. Apeiros, created from realized possi-

bilities, was of Eternity's image. The two

waged a war of creation and destruction

- Apeiros setting possibilities free, the

Nameless One feeding on their power. But

as fast as the Nameless One could feed,

Apeiros could create. There could be no

victor. Then the Nameless One invoked

the Void.

With no other course available, Apeiros

left The Place. It appealed to Eternity and

saw an infinite number of possibilities

opened before it. Apeiros took them all,

diffusing the possibilities throughout the

new place — throughout the cosmverse.

The Nameless One, now alone in The

Place with the Void, vowed to hunt down

Apeiros and Eternity, no matter how long

it took. It used what limited creative powers

it had learned during its war against

Apeiros to create the Darkness Devices.

Then it sent these items of evil into the

cosmverse to perpetuate acts of destruc-

tion and capture the dispersed shards of

Eternity.

Legends. They tell of the discovery of

the first Darkness Device, and how it

elevated its possessor to High Lord and

then led him to other cosms to destroy and

drain possibilities. Thus was born the first

of the Possibility Raiders; thus was spoken

The Prophecy — there would arise a High

Lord with the knowledge and power to

absorb so much energy as to become

immortal, all powerful, a god. And this

High Lord would be called the Torg!

Legends. They whisper of the Gaunt

Man, most powerful of the High Lords. It

was he who discovered Earth, a world

richer in possibilities than any ever dis-

covered before. It was he who planned the

Possibility Raid, gathered other High Lords

to help him, and orchestrated the con-

quest. It was he who proclaimed himself

Torg!

The Near Now. It is a time of legends in

the making, of designs that do not proceed

as smoothly as planned. It is a time of The

Possibility Wars!

The Possibility Wars have sundered

Earth's reality, overlaying much of it

with invading realities from other

cosms. This book is an introduction to

the world of the Possibility Wars. The

complexities of the Possibility Wars

and the invaders' realities, however,

can only be touched upon in this book.

This World Book is a handy refer-

ence tool for the Torg universe. The

invading realms of the Living Land,

the Nile Empire, Aysle, the Cyberpa-

pacy, Nippon Tech and Orrorsh, as

well as what remains of Core Earth,

are briefly described in this book. But

these descriptions are only starting

points — capsule reviews, if you will.

West End Games publishes source-

books on each of the invading realms,

TORG: Worldbook scan&ocr: dafek

and will update campaign events

through the Infiniverse Newsletter. We

recommend you pick up those source-

books that detail the realms that inter-

est you the most, as well as subscrib-

ing to the newsletter. But it all begins

here, and there is plenty to get you

started.

Each of the chapters that follow

cover one of the realms, including

details on the environment and axi-

oms, important personalities, and

creatures native to the area. They also

talk about relations with others realms,

upcoming plans and strategies, new

rules, new equipment, and other things

of interest.

possibility potential of "none", the

creature is never possibility rated. If

the potential is "some", the gamemas-

ter can decide whether or not the crea-

ture is possibility rated. As a guide,

there is a number given in parentheses

beside the "some". You may choose to

roll a die; if your final roll (rolling

again on 10s and 20s) is equal to or

greater than the number, the creature

or character is possibility rated.

Natural Tools . Natural tools in-

clude claws and teeth, or magical abili-

ties (but not skills), which are part of

the creature or character.

Equipment . Equipment includes

tools which have to be given to the

character or creature. Cyberware, now

part of a character's body, is consid-

ered equipment because it did not

originate in that character's body. If a

character type always has certain

equipment, the equipment is listed

under the equipment section. He may

have more if you decide to give it to

him.

Skills . Creatures and characters

may have skills which are only used

defensively, as the difficulty numbers

for another character's actions. Most

commonly these are interaction skills;

while it may be very difficult to taunt

an Udatok, it is certainly not the case

that an Udatok could easily taunt your

average character. Defensive skills are

listed parenthetically next to the skill

names.

If a creature or character is listed

with an ability which is not found in

the Rule Book, it will be defined in the

realm chapter where it is listed.

own economic systems. One of the

most obvious differences is the cur-

rency they use. In the Rule Book, the

prices for equipment are given in Core

Earth US dollars. The table below gives

the equivalents for the currency of

other realms.

For the game, you often need the

values of the measure of money for

determining equipment availability.

If the price is given in dollars, you just

look up the value of the measure of

that number of dollars. For other cur-

rency use the value modifier listed in

the realm column, applying it to the

value of the measure.

Example : The price of a Peugeot

707 is 50, 000 francs in the Cyberpa-

pacy. A measure of 50, 000 has a value

of 24. The modifier for a price given in

francs is -4; the value for determining

availability is 20, which is the same as

saying 50, 000 francs is worth approxi-

mately 10, 000 dollars.

Using the World

Book Entries

The World Book contains history,

characters, creatures, spells and other

rules for the realms. Some of the char-

acter templates (located in the back of

this book) require the rules listed in

their section. For example, the Gadget

Hero needs the power rules found in

the Nile Empire chapter, while the

Werewolf template needs the shape

change rules found in the Orrorsh

chapter.

Before setting an adventure in a

realm, read the realm entry to see if

there are any rules or background

material which are important to your

adventure.

Note: A realm is a portion of Earth

transformed and operating under the

axioms of a different reality.

The column labeled US$ translates

the values of dollar prices into the

value of realm currency. You can use

The Torg Value Chart (Rule Book, page

43) instead of dividing the price in

dollars by the exchange rate to find the

realm price.

Example: You believe the price of a

Nippon Tech motorcycle should be

about $2500. A measure of 2500 has a

value of 17. The modifier is +11, for a

yen value of 28. The motorcyle costs

400, 000 yen.

In the World Book entries, all val-

ues are given in terms of US$ for check-

ing equipment availability. The prices

are given in the local currency of the

realm.

Currency

Creatures and

Characters

Creatures and characters are listed

with their attributes first, and these

are abbreviated as follows:

DEX (Dexterity), STR (Strength),

TOU (Toughness), PER (Perception), MlN

(Mind), CHA (Charisma), SPR (Spirit).

As the High Lords have invaded

Core Earth, they have brought with

them their own societies, with their

Unit

Equivalent in

Core Earth US $

Value Modifiers

Realm

US $

Aysle

Equipment

Cyberpapacy

Living Land

New Nile

Nippon Tech

Orrorsh

Trades

Dollar

Franc

barter

Royal

Yen

Sterlings

0. 50

1. 00

0. 15

10. 00

0. 007

5. 00

-2

-4

-11

-5

+11

-4

Possibility Potential . Creatures are

also listed for their possibility poten-

tial, whether or not the creature is

possibility rated or not. If a creature

has a potential of "all", it is always

possibility rated. If the creature has a

Chapter One

Core Earth and the

Still World

He sent agents via dimthreads to

dozens, then hundreds, of cosms in

search of one filled with enough possi-

bility energy that he might fulfill an

ancient and legendary prophecy —

that he might become the Torg. Dec-

ades of futile expeditions were neces-

sary. Thousands of valuable agents

disappeared or were destroyed. But

the Gaunt Man perservered. Eventu-

ally he found Earth.

The High Lord was astonished by

the amount of possibility energy which

flowed through Earth. At a loss to

explain why this single planet was

situated in such a dense possibility

nexi, the Gaunt Man was not about to

overlook his good fortune. He pre-

pared for the invasion by sending

several of his best agents through. Their

appearance was spread over many,

many years, for the Gaunt Man ap-

proached Earth cautiously. This prize,

more than any of his earlier plunders,

had to be understood in order to be

fully exploited. Earth could be the cosm

which made the Gaunt Man the Torg,

a true immortal with god-like powers.

The invasion ran into an obstacle

large enough to temporarily halt the

Gaunt Man's plans. Earth had too

much possibility energy. In every

invasion there is a contest of realities,

in which possibility energy surges

from the invading cosm, then from the

defending cosm, then back to the in-

vading cosm, until one reality is tri-

umphant (see page 92 of The Rule

Book). Each High Lord uses his Dark-

ness Device to sustain and absorb the

surge from the defending cosm. But

the defensive surge from Earth was

too large to be handled by Orrorsh.

The excess energy would destroy ste-

lae, removing the protective bound-

ary from the invading reality, and

Earth's reality would quickly reassert

itself.

he Possibility Raiders

came from alien cosms of

differing realities, invad-

ing Earth in order to strip

this cosm of its enormous

amount of possibility energy. The

invasion was coordinated by the Gaunt

Man, the High Lord of Orrorsh. Earth

was too large a prize for even so

powerful a High Lord, so the Gaunt

Man contacted others to help him

invade Earth.

He contacted Baruk Kaah with his

primitive reality, a reality higher in

spiritual energies than any other cosm

subdued by a High Lord. The Gaunt

Man cajoled Uthorion, once his chief

officer and now lord of the fantasy

cosm of Aysle, into participating in

the invasion, although Lord Uthorion

was suspicious and had goals of his

own. Another of the Gaunt Man's ex-

lieutenants, now High Lord of a

techno-horror realm, was invited to

join, and accepted in light of recent

setbacks. Pope Jean Malraux I, High

Lord and antipope of a dark, medieval

world, was asked in by both the Gaunt

Man and Uthorion. Through an elabo-

rate maze of contacts, the lord of Or-

rorsh contacted Dr. Mobius, the in-

sane genius who proclaims himself

Pharaoh of a reality where the Nile

Empire still exists. Finally, a series of

complex, tense and expensive nego-

tiations with the Kanawa Corporation

brought the Nippon Tech cosm into

the plan.

The Gaunt Man's

Prize

From his squat, ugly observatory in

Orrorsh, the Gaunt Man, most power-

ful of the current High Lords, began

his search for new worlds to plunder.

TORG: Worldbook

stable for his tastes. Transformation of

the Scottish countryside, and many of

its people, posed the most immediate

danger to the United Kingdom. As the

realm of Aysle spread, the deteriora-

tion of technology became a far greater

problem than the occasional pixie or

ghost. London remained a hardpoint

for the British, and Ireland and parts

of Wales seemed to be less affected.

Norway fell completely to the in-

vaders. Resistance continues, but

Viking raiders have taken over many

of the smaller cities and cyclically loot

the larger ones.

Sweden fell as the Stockholm bridge

converted a large number of Swedes

and allowed the Viking fleets access to

the Norwegian Sea and the Gulf of

Bothnia. As the Vikings roamed, the

areas fell to the fantasy axioms. But

the town of Mora, Sweden remained a

Core Earth hardpoint. Storm Knights

were drawn there, and there a plan for

The Gaunt Man experimented,

theorized, worked obsessively on the

difficulties of draining Earth, but the

problem remained beyond even his

enormous powers. After years of

brooding, the Gaunt Man decided

there was only one solution: invade

Earth from several cosms within a short

span of time. This tactic would spread

the defensive surge across a number

of cosms, and allow all of them to

survive.

The Gaunt Man's calculation indi-

cated that nine cosms was the safest

number for invasion. With nine there

would be no chance of failure. The

minimum number which had any

chance of succeeding was four; with

four invading cosms there was a slight

chance Earth's possibility surge would

not eradicate all four invading reali-

ties. At five through eight, the chances

of an invading realm being eliminated

dropped off rapidly, and Earth's surge

manifested itself in more or fewer

stormers. In the end, the Gaunt Man

decided to invade with seven cosms,

giving each High Lord a substantial

gain in possibility energy, while being

safe enough to virtually guarantee the

success of the invasion.

Now the Gaunt Man's large prob-

lem was broken down into two smaller

problems— finding six other High

Lords he could trust (or manipulate)

well enough to plan the invasion, and

then coordinate the details of the inva-

sion.

was gathered to be ignored. Only in

Nippon Tech were the effects virtually

invisible, as the Kanawa Corporation

worked carefully to integrate itself into

the existing society before changing

reality.

The Gaunt Man was the first to

invade, dropping a maelstrom bridge

in Indonesia. He brought with him a

formidable army of horrors, more than

enough to establish a pure zone. Most

of the army then splintered into small

groups, more herded than led by the

agents who had been previously sent

to Indonesia. Sabotage and reality

storms did their work; for a short

period of time Indonesia was com-

pletely cut off from the rest of the

world. The incidents of terror increased

a hundredfold.

Almost immediately the Gaunt Man

moved his Darkness Device and his

possibility machine to the realm of

Orrorsh on Earth. At the same time he

unleashed waves of savagery across

the countryside, and in their wake he

planted fields of gospog.

The second invasion came from the

Living Land. Baruk Kaah dropped

three bridges down onto North Amer-

ica, one in Canada and two in the

United States. Whole tribes of edeinos

swarmed down the bridges. Extremely

violent reality storms wracked North

America as two hugely disparate re-

alities struggled against one another.

Huge winged reptiles called lakten

were pushed beyond their breaking

point, held together only by the power

of faith of their riders; these edeinos

then planted stelae to increase their

High Lord's demesne.

Canadian and United States mili-

tary forces were devastatingly effec-

tive outside of the stelae bounds, but

virtually useless within the reality of

the Living Land. Official doctrine is

not changing as fast as the battlefield

conditions, and a few field-brewed

solutions are being attempted. Secu-

rity forces currently have their hands

full trying to maintain order in the

areas they still hold, as there are mil-

lions of refugees streaming away from

the Living Land.

The fantasy cosm of Aysle invaded

next with several bridges, but the High

Lord Uthorion declined to personally

partake in the invasion, holding back

until the situation became a little more

chemes Within

Schemes: Uthorion and

Jean Malraux

The High Lords of Aysle and

the False Papacy cosms had

known each other for several

decades, and had developed an

appreciation for each other's

cynical manipulations of their

suppressed peoples. Uthorion

was unsettled by the Gaunt

Man's offer, edgy at again deal-

ing with his old master. But the

prize was too great for him to

turn down the offer. He and Jean

Malraux each requested, and

received, more detailed informa-

tion on the invasion from the

Gaunt Man. They each began to

plan, then joined in a conspiracy

to maximize their own gains.

Uthorion was to encourage

Baruk Kaah into overextending

himself, and lend him help in a

destructive form, most likely the

Wild Hunt. Jean Malraux was to

gain territory originally allotted

to Uthorion, and contain the

expansion and influence of the

clearly insane Dr. Mobius.

The High Lords

Attack

The invasion took a number of years

to prepare. The High Lords sent agents

to infiltrate Earth, to scout and report

on the forms and strength of resis-

tance. Most cosms, but particularly

the False Papacy and Nippon Tech,

sent agents to help prepare the people

of Earth to accept the new realities

which were about to establish bridge-

heads. A few weird events were re-

ported, but only the tabloids carried

the news. Then, as the cycle of events

quickened, respectable news agencies

carried the news. Reuters, the BBC,

Gemini News Service, Asiaweek, Le

Monde, IRNA, all began to carry sto-

ries as too much physical evidence

Basic Set - Worldbook.pdf

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