Two more RPG Bundle offers - Torg
Apr. 25th, 2016 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ffuturesTorg is a huge sprawling multi-dimensional monster of a game, which tries to combine lots of different genres via a story arc in which various dimensional gates open on Earth leading to different worlds with different natural laws etc., e.g. worlds with high tech, with magic, etc. This lets you use the same rules for a lot of different settings, and optionally use them all in a campaign. I've never been a huge fan of this idea, games such as GURPS offer similar multi-genre possibilities without imposing a fixed campaign background, but it's obviously possible to cherry-pick the bits you like and omit the rest. It isn't a system I've played, and given that it's now more than 20 years old I'm not entirely sure why I never ran or played it, but it seems to be reasonably playable. There are two bundles - Torg 1, containing "essential" stuff, and Torg 2, the optional twiddly bits.
Torg 1
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Torg1-2016
"This offer (one of two running in parallel) launched Monday, April 25, and runs through 2PM Eastern US time (GMT -4) Thursday, May 5.
This is the first of two revived collections featuring Torg. Designed by Greg Gorden (Earthdawn, DC Heroes), Torg was originally published in 1990 by West End Games. In many ways it pushed the envelope for RPGs and enjoyed notable success. But when West End Games went under, Torg went dormant. German publishing company Ulisses Spiele now owns the rights and is preparing a new edition, Torg Infinity, due later this year.
In Torg's Earth, alien invaders called Possibility Raiders have taken over the planet and shaped their individual regions, or cosms, to match their native realities. So in Africa you'll find pulp adventure mixed with ancient Egyptian lore, but hop up to Europe to meet the high-tech Cyberpapacy, or over to Asia to explore megacorporate Nippon Tech.
Torg's player characters, called Storm Knights, are fighting to drive back the invaders and restore reality to its proper state. With their unique ability to maintain their own reality even within the cosms, they aim to overwhelm the High Lords and destroy the Darkness Devices that give them power.
It's a lot to digest. This first collection, revived from January 2015, is hand-picked to provide an accessible entry point -- if you're new to the game, start here. The Player's Collection has all the rules a player needs to create any kind of character; the Gamemaster's Collection focuses on three popular and well-supported cosms (the Nile Empire, Tharkold, and Nippon Tech), and it includes the single best-regarded supplement in the Torg line, Jim Bambra's The Cyberpapacy. The companion collection now in progress, the Torg 2 Bundle (revived from March 2015), includes all the remaining worldbooks and major supplements and adventures.
We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.
Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Doctors Without Borders.
The total retail value of the titles in this first offer is US$126. Customers who pay just $9.95 get all six titles in our Player's Collection (retail value $47) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:
Torg 2
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Torg2-2016
"This offer, from March 2015, is the second of two revived collections featuring the genre-spanning RPG Torg. If you're new to Torg, first please visit the promo page for the Torg 1 Bundle now in progress.
The original offer omitted many cosms (locations), because there was no room! Like Walt Whitman, the Torg setting is large and contains multitudes. This sequel collection remedies that lack. these two bundles present the entire line of cosm sourcebooks and all the important supplements.
We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.
Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Doctors Without Borders.
The total retail value of the titles in this second offer is US$122. Customers who pay just $9.95 get all six titles in our Starter Collection -- all the remaining worldbooks (retail value $54) -- as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:
These look to be reasonable value if possibly a bit dated - it'll be interesting to see what the new incarnation is like. I'm probably not going to bother downloading anything, I've owned a few of these books in dead tree format since the nineties and barely opened them, but it may be interesting to anyone who wants to run a REALLY big campaign. I'm a bit dubious about value on this one - I probably wouldn't buy them, but YMMV.
Torg 1
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Torg1-2016
"This offer (one of two running in parallel) launched Monday, April 25, and runs through 2PM Eastern US time (GMT -4) Thursday, May 5.
This is the first of two revived collections featuring Torg. Designed by Greg Gorden (Earthdawn, DC Heroes), Torg was originally published in 1990 by West End Games. In many ways it pushed the envelope for RPGs and enjoyed notable success. But when West End Games went under, Torg went dormant. German publishing company Ulisses Spiele now owns the rights and is preparing a new edition, Torg Infinity, due later this year.
In Torg's Earth, alien invaders called Possibility Raiders have taken over the planet and shaped their individual regions, or cosms, to match their native realities. So in Africa you'll find pulp adventure mixed with ancient Egyptian lore, but hop up to Europe to meet the high-tech Cyberpapacy, or over to Asia to explore megacorporate Nippon Tech.
Torg's player characters, called Storm Knights, are fighting to drive back the invaders and restore reality to its proper state. With their unique ability to maintain their own reality even within the cosms, they aim to overwhelm the High Lords and destroy the Darkness Devices that give them power.
It's a lot to digest. This first collection, revived from January 2015, is hand-picked to provide an accessible entry point -- if you're new to the game, start here. The Player's Collection has all the rules a player needs to create any kind of character; the Gamemaster's Collection focuses on three popular and well-supported cosms (the Nile Empire, Tharkold, and Nippon Tech), and it includes the single best-regarded supplement in the Torg line, Jim Bambra's The Cyberpapacy. The companion collection now in progress, the Torg 2 Bundle (revived from March 2015), includes all the remaining worldbooks and major supplements and adventures.
We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.
Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Doctors Without Borders.
The total retail value of the titles in this first offer is US$126. Customers who pay just $9.95 get all six titles in our Player's Collection (retail value $47) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:
- Torg: Revised & Expanded (retail $15): This updated corebook includes the "Drama Deck" of cinematic action.
- Introductory Pack (retail $2): Simplified rules, a sample character, and a tutorial mini-adventure, plus the Storm Knights novel.
- Storm Knight's Guide to the Possibility Wars (retail $9): New character generation rules, skills, equipment, and more for every Torg player.
- Character Collection (retail $9): Sixty unique Torg characters to use as your own or set in the world as allies or adversaries.
- Kanawa Personal Weapons (retail $7): Firearms, cyberweapons, lasers, explosives, and espionage armaments of many tech levels.
- Pixaud's Practical Grimoire (retail $5): The definitive guide to magic and spell design in Torg.
- High Lord's Guide to the Possibility Wars (retail $9): Invaluable advice for the Torg GM.
- Delphi Council Worldbook (retail $9): The sourcebook of Core Earth, holding down the front against the encroaching cosms.
- The Cyberpapacy (retail $9): In this cosm, cyberpunk collides with the French Inquisition. The single best-regarded Torg sourcebook.
- The GodNet (retail $5): Rules for jacking into cyberspace and netrunning, 1990s style.
- Nile Empire (retail $9): Dr. Mobius's cosm has turned Africa into a pulp playground, with pharaohs and hieroglyphs.
- Nippon Tech (retail $9): The megacorporate cosm of enigmatic High Lord 3327 occupies most of Asia.
- Tharkold (retail $9): High Lord Jezrael's army of techno-horror demons has made Los Angeles a living nightmare.
- Creatures of Tharkold (retail $5): ...And here are the techno-horror demons doing the nightmare-ing.
- The Berlin, Tokyo, and Los Angeles Citybooks (retail $5 each): Three urban battlegrounds for the cosms featured in this offer.
Torg 2
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Torg2-2016
"This offer, from March 2015, is the second of two revived collections featuring the genre-spanning RPG Torg. If you're new to Torg, first please visit the promo page for the Torg 1 Bundle now in progress.
The original offer omitted many cosms (locations), because there was no room! Like Walt Whitman, the Torg setting is large and contains multitudes. This sequel collection remedies that lack. these two bundles present the entire line of cosm sourcebooks and all the important supplements.
We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.
Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Doctors Without Borders.
The total retail value of the titles in this second offer is US$122. Customers who pay just $9.95 get all six titles in our Starter Collection -- all the remaining worldbooks (retail value $54) -- as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:
- Aysle (retail $9): The magical cosm of high fantasy that has conquered the United Kingdom.
- Orrorsh (retail $9): Horrific home of the mastermind behind the invasion of Earth, the terrible Gaunt Man.
- The Land Below (retail $9): Travel the mysterious tunnel network running throughout the Earth.
- The Living Land (retail $9): The realm of dinosaurs and spiritual magic that stretches across North America.
- Space Gods (retail $9): The biotech-psionic reality of the late arrivals in the invasion, the Akashans.
- Terra (retail $9): The cosm of pulp adventure, weird science, and the occasional Martian invasion.
- The Cassandra Files (retail $7): The Delphi Council prepared this array of mysteries for Storm Knights to solve.
- Clerics' Sourcebook (retail $9): The power of miracles and the people who command them.
- Creatures of Aysle and Creatures of Orrorsh (retail $5 each): The bestiaries for mythic Aysle and the horrific cosm of the Gaunt Man, the mastermind behind the Possibility War invasion.
- Kanawa Heavy Weapons and Kanawa Land Vehicles (retail $7 each): Two high-tech equipment guides from Nippon Tech, companions to Kanawa Personal Weapons in our Torg 1 offer.
- Ravagons (retail $7): Meet the Gaunt Man's most awesome lieutenants.
- The complete "Relics of Power" trilogy of adventures: The Destiny Map, The Possibility Chalice, and The Forever City (retail $7 each).
These look to be reasonable value if possibly a bit dated - it'll be interesting to see what the new incarnation is like. I'm probably not going to bother downloading anything, I've owned a few of these books in dead tree format since the nineties and barely opened them, but it may be interesting to anyone who wants to run a REALLY big campaign. I'm a bit dubious about value on this one - I probably wouldn't buy them, but YMMV.
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Date: 2016-04-26 07:02 am (UTC)It's unlikely I'll get to game again, so the only reason for going for this would be to read the bits I haven't already got and enjoy the concepts, but you can't argue with the price. Hmm. I'll think about it. Thank you for the heads-up.
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Date: 2016-04-26 08:47 am (UTC)