Customer Reviews

Torg: Roleplaying the Possibility Wars [BOX SET]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is what roleplaying is all about. The best elements of roleplaying are packed within this game. The setting is totally unique and original and the games system is beautifully laid out. Drama is what makes a true RPG and the aspects of using drama cards knock this rpg out of the park. A must have for any true RPGer.

The product arrived early, and came in exactly the shape I expected it to be in. Very pleased with this purchase.

I doubt a lot of people are really looking to buy this game now but I thought I'd write a review just because this was one of my favorite role playing games back in the 90s.

I loved Torg, even though it only became fully fleshed out with the addition of supplements and it featured one of the most restrictive character creation systems in gaming. Part of the reason I loved it was the detailed setting and the spirit of the game.

The setting is "the near now", as game materials billed it. Set in the immediate future, Torg gave us a version of our world which had been invaded by "High Lords" from other realities. These invaders had imposed the rules of their own realities on large swaths of our world. Players were "Storm Knights", heroes from the various realities who banded together to oppose the High Lords' invasion. There were six different alternate realities in the game, each of which corresponded more or less to a genre of scifi/fantasy literature and gaming. North America had been invaded by The Living Land, a realm of neolithic technology, mysterious jungles, and living dinosaurs. The UK and Scandinavia had been turned into Aysle, a high fantasy realm divided between good and evil and filled with magic, dwarves, elves, and knights. France had been taken over by the Cyberpapacy a religiously themed cyberpunk realm. North Africa was controlled by The Nile Empire, a pulp fiction world of superheroes and pulp adventurers. Indonesia had succumbed to Orrorsh, a nineteenth century horror realm filled with terrifying monsters. Japan has been surreptitiously coopted by Nippon Tech, a near future realm of espionage. These realms would be developed much more fully in later supplements and would even be joined by new invaders representing even weirder realities.

As might be guessed from the existence of several high fantasy and action genres, the stories of Torg tended towards cinematic action. Indeed, the game explicitly aimed towards a cinematic feel and the language of adventures referred to "acts" and "scenes". Adventures were often globe trotting in nature and usually blended elements of several realities. Characters might go from trying to outrun dinosaurs to fighting off vampires, to trying to hack into a computer. The mechanics of the game could be somewhat clunky at times but tended to encourage grand adventure. Rules which allowed a player to roll again in certain circumstances allowed for the possibility of characters accomplishing truly amazing feats under unusual circumstances. Torg also used a somewhat clunky system of cards which were meant to enhance the story by influencing the nature of combat and introduce new subplots. The damage system stressed incapacitating damage over lethal wounds, similar to how movie protagonists may be knocked out often but rarely are killed.

A lot of the fun of Torg came from the mixing of different genres. Characters could be from a wide range of realities and you might have knights fighting alongside spies, wizards, and vampire hunters. The adventures tended to be fun and stressed Indiana Jones style adventures. The action in published adventures often went beyond simple combat and would involve problem solving or chases or other activities. As fleshed out in the supplements, the world of Torg was an interesting and well sketched one full of lots of possibilities for adventure.

The downside is that the mechanics could be somewhat clunky. In particular, character creation was surprisingly underdeveloped. As opposed to most games where you rolled or purchased abilities, Torg had pre created characters based on concepts like "Elvish Paladin" "Doubting Priest" or "Cyborg Warrior". These came with general histories, weapons, and attributes all predetermined. The main input a player has is distributing points among a pre-selected array of skills representative of that archetype. On the plus side this meant that someone could create a new character in a few minutes and begin playing. It also offered nice archetypes for a game master which helped flesh out the setting. But it also limited characters to a few choices of character.

My brother and I started playing TORG when it was first released. It quickly grew to be one of our favorites, ranking up there with Call of Cthulu. What made it so special? Two things: the cinematic/heroic theme, and the flexibility of the rules system and world.

The drama deck and "storm knights vs. the Gaunt Man and his minions" theme lent itself to heroic combat and adventure. We found that you could run typical rpg "missions" or "adventures" with limited aims (e.g. let's go find the missing infinity relic) or you could run campaigns that greatly changed the entire possibility wars (e.g. let's uproot that stelae and limit the influence of the Nippon Tech realm). In either case, there were clear cut goals and heroic opportunities.

Likewise, the rules allowed for great flexibility in designing characters of any rpg genre (e.g., superhero, pulp, modern military, fantasy). The rules used a logrithmic scale and was generalizable to all skills and powers, so one system could accommodate any genre. Also, the division of the Earth into many different realms, each occupied by a separate reality, allowed for great flexibility in plotting adventures and campaigns. As a gamemaster, you could essentially use TORG to create any reality that you wanted.

While support for TORG is no longer available, the old sourcebooks can still be found and bought online.

If you are a rpg fanatic and you haven't yet given TORG a try, you should as soon as possible, you'll be delighted that you did.

Torg is a unique game system that provides a very simple system for players and a very logical system for GMs. It panders to creating movie-like action sequences within most popular genres-- cyberpunk, pulp fiction, high fantasy, dark horror, and Lost World-esque areas of the world.

The idea of the reality invasion and the execution of it in game rules is a wonder to behold. No serious roleplayer can claim that title without having experienced the Torg system

This is an RPG that is truly unique. A clash of realities is on Earth and you can play anything from an elven mage, to a cybernetic warrior, to a prehistoric tribesman, to a corporate ninja. It is a world spanning game that gave me some of the best gaming I ever experienced.

Torg is the best RPG I've ever seen...it's very unique, with a huge range of options for characters. It's a must have for all RPGers