Another two RPG bundles - Torg Eternity

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Two offers for Torg Eternity - one a repeat from 2019, the other new.

Torg Essentials

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2023TorgEssentials

This revived September 2019 Torg Eternity Essentials is one of two offers in progress English-language ebooks for Torg Eternity, the cinematic cross-genre RPG of the Possibility Wars from Ulisses Spiele. The all-new companion offer, Torg Cosms 2, adds the Cyberpapacy and Orrorsh settings.

Published in 2018, Torg Eternity reboots but closely replicates the original Torg: Roleplaying the Possibility Wars published in 1990 by West End Games. Seven savage High Lords from parallel realities ("cosms") have attacked the Earth and divided it among themselves. Each cosm has transformed part of our world to reflect the Technological, Magical, Social, and Spiritual Axioms of its own reality. But rare individuals, the Storm Knights, having mastered the Possibility Energy that creates the world around us, are strong enough to resist and, perhaps, expel the conquerors.

The venerable Encyclopedia of Science Fiction summarized the original Torg well, and the description still applies to Eternity: "While each of the alien realities represents a particular subgenre of fantastic fiction, they are generally original and evocative, embodying novel twists on the conventions of their forms. [...] The design of Torg included several unusual and innovative mechanics. The gameplay is intended to be cinematic in feel, with rules that enable characters to perform the remarkable feats characteristic of much adventure fiction and a strong emphasis on highly structured linear narratives. A deck of cards is used to direct the flow of 'action scenes'; both the Gamemaster and the players may use cards which introduce such subplots as a romantic involvement or the appearance of a personal nemesis, or perform more mechanical functions such as enhancing characters' abilities or allowing them to escape from difficult predicaments."

In May 2017 Ulisses Spiele rebooted the Possibility Wars with the spectacular US$366K Torg Eternity Kickstarter campaign. Torg Eternity's lead designer is Shane Lacy Hensley of Pinnacle Entertainment, who got his professional start writing for Torg. The new line updates the rules and reimagines the cosms. This revived September 2019 Torg Eternity Essentials offer presents the Torg Eternity rulebook, two scenario collections, and play aids – everything you need to join the Possibility Wars.

We provide each title complete in .PDF. Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these ebooks have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their devices. (By publisher request, the DriveThruRPG versions of these files are inobtrusively watermarked.)

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to these two Torg Eternity Essentials offers' designated charity, Direct Relief. Direct Relief sends protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.

The total retail value of the titles in this Torg Eternity Essentials revival is US$37.50. Customers who pay just US$9.95 get all eight titles in this revived offer's Essentials Collection (retail value $37.50) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete Torg Eternity Core Rules (retail price $25) and Drama Deck (plus the Torg Eternity Free RPG Day Special), Delphi Missions: Rising Storm (retail $10), and the Character Journals record sheets (retail $2.50), along with many free and pay-what-you-want scenarios and play aids: the Torg Eternity GM Screen and Archetypes, the scenario collections Day One Adventure Book, and Session Zero.

Torg Cosms 2

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/TorgCosms2

This all-new Torg Eternity Cosms 2 Bundle is one of two offers in progress – one new, one revived – that feature English-language ebooks for Torg Eternity, the cinematic cross-genre RPG of the Possibility Wars from Ulisses Spiele. The companion offer revived from September 2019, Torg Eternity Essentials, has the core rulebook and Drama Deck; if you're new to the game, start there. This new companion adds lots of material for two "cosms" (parallel realities): the Cyberpapacy and Orrorsh settings. The Cyberpapacy is a repressive theocratic socialist dystopia where fanatics use a virtual reality to monitor and suppress their subjects. Orrosh is a land of Gothic horror, where the Victorian age never ended and nightmares come true.

Historically the most popular cosm in the Torg line after the Nile Empire, the Cyberpapacy rules Western Europe and most of Brazil. Its World Law "The One True Way" dictates that only Cyberpope Jean Malraux's teachings are true. From their capital in Avignon fanatical agumented Cyberpriests use terrifying holographic Hosts to brainwash the masses. Their New Inquisition, along with the World Law of Suspicion, imposes a technological reign of terror. Many Torg adventures involve stopovers in the Cyberpapacy, where Storm Knights find clues by searching the GodNet virtual reality.

In Orrosh the Victorian age never ended and nightmares come true. Its High Lord is none other than the Gaunt Man, leader of the Reality Raiders and the grandmaster strategist who organized the invasion of Earth. The Gaunt Man's domain covers India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and half of Pakistan, and is spreading across the rest of Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Orrorsh brings colonial rule, native suffering, and monsters straight out of humanity's worst nightmares. Its Law of Eternal Corruption grants powers and advantages at terrible personal cost, and the Law of Perseverance makes it more difficult for Storm Knights to heal their wounds.

Publisher Ulisses Spiele has systematically expanded the Torg Eternity line in a series of well-conceived, uniform crowdfunding campaigns, first on Kickstarter and later on Game on Tabletop. We presented the Living Land, the Nile Empire, and Aysle in our February 2022 Torg Cosms 1 Bundle. This offer features books from the November 2019 Cyberpapacy campaign and the January 2021 Orrorsh campaign. With two other campaigns – Tharkold (June 2020) and Pan-Pacifica (the renamed Nippon Tech, May 2022) – Ulisses has completed the original roster of seven invading cosms. Still ahead, presumably, is Core Earth; after that, who knows? Torg remains full of Possibilities.

We provide each title complete in .PDF. Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these ebooks have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their devices. (By publisher request, the DriveThruRPG versions of these files are inobtrusively watermarked.)

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to these two Torg offers' designated charity, Direct Relief. Direct Relief sends protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.

The total retail value of the titles in this Torg Eternity Cosms 2 Bundle is US$168. Customers who pay just US$17.95 get all four sourcebooks and adventures in our Starter Collection (retail value $75) as DRM-free ebooks, including the Cyberpapacy Sourcebook (retail price $20) and its full-length campaign Cyberpapacy: Unhallowed Data (retail $18), along with the Orrorsh Sourcebook (retail $20) and its campaign adventure Orrorsh: A Trifling Matter (retail $17.50).

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $29.95 to start, also get our entire Bonus Collection with thirteen more titles worth an additional $93:

• Delphi Missions: Cyberpapacy (retail price $12.50), the Cyberpapacy GM Screen & Archetypes (retail $10), the Cyberpapacy GM Pack (retail $5), Cyberpapacy Map Pack 1 and Map Pack 2 (retail $5 each), and the Cyberpapacy Digital-Only Set (retail $5)
• Delphi Missions: Orrorsh (retail $12.50), the Orrorsh GM Screen & Archeytpes, the Orrorsh GM Pack (retail $5), Orrorsh Map Pack 1 and Map Pack 2 (retail $5 each), and the Orrorsh Digital-Only Set (retail $5)
• Orrorsh: Torg or Treat

In 2019 I said "This is basically a grimmer, darker version of the original Torg game - in fact the first twelve pages of the rule book are largely introductions saying that, before actually explaining what the game is about - and suffers from many of the same flaws; you're going to have problems using it if you don't want to run the official campaign, and there really isn't anything for characters to do if they don't want to be "storm knights". This isn't exactly a unique flaw, lots of games are built around their campaign settings, but most have room for some variation in adventurer goals, and for characters who aren't "Big damn heroes". This was one of the reasons why I never got into the original system, and unfortunately I'm seeing nothing here to change my mind. On a more positive note, this is a cheap way to find out if you like the system, if I remember correctly the whole lot including the bonus collection costs less than the original rules did, and there might be something there you like."

I'm not really seeing anything here to change that.