Torg is a cinematic cross-genre tabletop role-playing game created by Greg Gorden and Bill Slavicsek, with art by Daniel Horne. It was first published by West End Games (WEG) in 1990. Game resolution uses a single twenty-sided die, drama cards and a logarithmic results table, which later formed the basis for WEG's 1992 sci-fi RPG Shatterzone and 1994 universal RPG Masterbook. WEG produced over fifty supplements, novels and comics for the first edition. A revised and expanded core rule book was produced in 2005, with a single adventure.
After WEG closed in 2010, Torg was sold to Ulisses Spiele, who, after a successful crowdfunding campaign, published a new edition called Torg: Eternity in 2018.
Overview
Torg takes place in a near future setting, known officially as "the near now". At the starting point in the game setting, Earth has been subjected to an inter-dimensional invasion by a series of "High Lords", who have changed the natural laws of large swaths of the planet, to reflect those of their home dimensions. The players assume the role of "Storm Knights": heroes from Earth and the various invading realms, who possess limited reality-altering abilities used to oppose the plans of the High Lords. The game's title, Torg, refers to an ultimate in-game title that individual leaders of the invasion strive to achieve.
Game mechanics
Torg branded itself as a "cinematic" game and tried to emphasize game play in a manner similar to adventure films such as Indiana Jones or Land of the Lost. Terminology used in the game reflects this fact. For example, encounters are divided into sub units known as "acts" and "scenes". Conflict resolution also reflects the cinematic nature of the game. Actions are resolved by a player rolling a twenty-sided die, resulting in a modifier which is applied to the relevant attribute or skill, which is compared against a difficulty number. The degree by which the total exceeds the difficulty number of the task influences how successful the player is at the action. Rolls of 10 or 20 allow the player to roll again, adding their new total to the previous. This can be continued indefinitely as long as the player rolls a 10 or 20, allowing for fantastic feats in a cinematic style. The wound system, which stresses incapacitating damage over lethal kinds, also mimics the style of adventure films, wherein the hero may often be incapacitated, but is rarely killed.
In addition, Torg uses an unusual card-based system to augment gameplay. From Torg's unique "Drama Deck", a hand of 4 cards are dealt to each player at the beginning of the game. The rest are stacked in front of the game master. Cards can be used by both players and game masters to influence play. Whenever a combat encounter begins, the game master flips over a card which dictates certain advantages and disadvantages for the players and the non-player characters (NPCs). Players can also use cards to give themselves advantages, or even plotlines, which could result in extra points.
Players are rewarded with "possibility points", which can be spent to improve the characters abilities, similar to many other role-playing games. However, unlike in most role-playing games, possibility points (or "possibility energy") also exists as an in-game phenomenon, and characters may spend these points to achieve certain effects, such as healing, or changing results during play.
Character creation is limited. Both the basic set, as well as subsequent supplements, provide several character templates based on general archetypes such as "Eidenos Hunter", "Vengeful Human" or "Werewolf". These come complete with a general background story and a pre-set roster of attributes and possessions. Character customization is limited to distributing points among an array of dictated skills. Even though there is a simplified instruction to create templates in the back of the core rulebook, further supplements allow for more freedom in designing characters.
Characters Player characters are dubbed "Storm Knights". These are heroes who are able to alter reality in limited ways. Storm Knights can come from all of the different realities in the game, and oppose the invaders for various personal reasons. Although one can play as a normal human, some of the Storm Knights are natives of the invaders' home worlds, and some are natives of Earth who have "flipped" to the invaders' reality, allowing them to use abilities and technology as if born to that reality. A person becomes a Storm Knight by experiencing a reality crisis, which links them to a particular invading reality that 'washes' over them during the initial invasion.
The primary way in which Storm Knights are able to shape reality is the ability to impose the rules of their own reality on a limited area of another reality. Each reality, or "cosm", has a set of four "axioms", which delineate what could be achieved under its rules. The most important of these for gameplay are the social, technological, magical, and spiritual axioms. For ordinary people, violating the laws of a reality is improbable, and becomes increasingly impossible over time. For example, when the Neolithic reality of The Living Land invades North America, soldiers find that their guns and radios no longer work because the tech-axiom of the cosm only allows for a Neolithic level of technology. Storm Knights, however, carry their own reality with them. Normally, they can perform under their own reality wherever they go, sometimes requiring a check against their reality skill, the key skill possessed by all Storm Knights, to accomplish feats which particularly violate the rules of a reality.
Storm Knights can also spend possibility energy in order to influence reality. One way they can do this is to impose their own reality temporarily on a limited area around them. The most common use of possibility energy is to effect rapid healing or create contradictions, allowing higher tech weapons to work in a lower tech realm. It is possible for a character to disconnect from their own reality, through forcing changes with the Reality skill, and actually change physically, into a denizen of the new cosm; from a human into an Elf or caveman for example. They are then considered a native to the laws of the new realm and must alter skills and abilities to fit the new paradigm.
Notable features
Torg is designed to allow players to derive enjoyment from how characters, equipment, and environments of the various realities interact, such as having Terminator-style futuristic cyborgs adventure alongside Dungeons & Dragons–style mages in an Indiana Jones–style pulp setting. It also allows playing a game with an explicitly epic or 'cinematic' overtone (as in Star Wars or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as opposed to RPGs like Vampire: The Masquerade or Dungeons & Dragons).
Torg uses a unified mechanics system designed to support different fictional settings; character attributes and game mechanics use a shared sliding scale, where the same numerical values can represent different types of measurements, skills, or resources. The game uses a unified method of task resolution involving a 20-sided die.
Torg also features an open-ended die mechanic in which a single twenty-sided die roll is converted into a bonus using a chart. Under certain circumstances, the die may be rolled again, with additional results added to the original roll when a 10 or 20 is rolled. Further modifiers may be gained through spent possibilities, card play, and other game elements, affecting the results of character actions.
The game's backstory involves 'possibility energy', which can be used by Storm Knights to achieve heroic feats. In the game mechanics a spent possibility gives a player a chance to make an additional die roll, potentially leading to greater success. Similarly, an included deck of cards provides bonus rolls or skill points and contains ideas for additional character interaction. Some of these cards can be used instead of Possibility energy. It places an emphasis on groupwork and character interaction by exchange and giving of cards, coordination rules, and the use of "group powers".
At the time of its release Torg 'Infiniverse' campaign was an ambitious attempt at creating an interactive campaign setting. Subscribers to West End's Infiniverse magazine received response forms, through which they could inform WEG of the progress of their campaigns. Player input actually influenced the campaign setting through a 'rumor' system ('rumors' were introduced in Infiniverse magazines and published adventures, and the majority of responses would determine whether that rumor was 'true' or not). The Infiniverse campaign ran until April 1994.
Setting
The game setting describes a number of different realities, each a different genre, self-contained but with two elements common to all: a Darkness Device and its linked ruler, the High Lord. Together each is an individual cosm with its own four axioms and three World Laws. Each cosm survives by invading other realms and converting them to its reality. The inhabitants of most invaded realms transform into those of the invading cosm, while a few become Storm Knights. Storm Knights are the player characters of Torg. The conversion drains possibility energy which feeds the Darkness Device and High Lord. Earth is an unusual realm rich in possibility energy and the only way to access all of it was to have a number of cosms invade at once. This was organized by The Gaunt Man, High Lord of Orrorsh, the most successful and powerful of the High Lords. Initially six cosms invaded, all are detailed in the Worldbook, then in their own sourcebook.
Core Earth A near future Earth with basic magic and religious miracles, and without a Darkness Device and High Lord. Its alternate history has the United States government taken over by a shadowy cabal known as the Delphi Council. Core Earth is detailed in The Delphi Council Worldbook Volume I.
The Living Land
A primitive, mist-filled Lost World-style jungle that covers two separate areas of North America; a strip on West coast, and a larger area on the east coast. The invading cosm, Takta Ker is home to humanoid dinosaurs called edeinos, ruled by the High Lord Baruk Kaah and its Darkness Device, a huge forest called Rec Pakken. Technology and magic are almost nonexistent, but the inhabitants' religion gives them powerful miracles. The Living Land sourcebook was the first published for Torg in 1990.
The Nile Empire
A pulp action cosm combined a restored Ancient Egypt that invaded North Africa. It is characterized by 1930s technology working side by side with Egyptian magical astronomy and "weird science" powers and gizmos. Costumed Mystery Men patrolled the alleyways of Cairo. Ruled by Dr. Mobius, also known as Pharaoh Mobius, one of the most devious High Lords. His darkness device was a crocodile-headed idol called Kefertiti. The Nile Empire sourcebook was the second published for Torg in 1990.
Aysle
Aysle, is a magical cosm with many of the elements of traditional fantasy fiction, including knights, dwarves and dragons. It covers most of the United Kingdom and parts of Scandinavia. Aysle is ruled by the High Lord Pella Ardinary and her Darkness Device, an ornate crown called Drakacanus. High magic and low-technology are the dominant axioms, with Aysle having its own internal war between light and dark. The Aysle sourcebook was the third published for Torg in 1990.
The Cyberpapacy