Unreview: Torg

[@PEGShane]

Thanks for the kind words, John! For the record, Pinnacle didn't have much to do with it other than provide some staff...this is all Ulisses. I did *write* most of the game, then Darrell Hayhurst, Markus Plotz, and many others made it actually good. ;)

[@BbBb-zx6sx]

Hey Shane, is this THE John Wick?

[@BrendanKOD]

Way back in the 80's, I still remember one bit from the review of the original in Dragon Magazine, where the reviewer was talking about their experience when one of their test players played the Nemesis subplot card from the Drama Deck. Specifically it was the first Nemesis meeting which the DM played by just having the bad guy go "Ah, we meet again," and basically allowing the player to ad lib their history in their response. The reviewer really loved how it helped said player engage in the gameplay more.

[@moloids]

21:00 In the early 90ies I did not really get the cyberpapacy. But 30 more years of human history taught me the hard way that cybertechnology plus religious fanatism were not a mere random mash up.

[@IsaacKuo]

Back in the day, I had only ever seen those classic mud green D&D dice, so the Torg die was a real eye-opener. I didn't know dice could look like that! By the end of the decade, of course, no big deal.

[@tomsharo8457]

Your review of this game is excellent and on point. I played Torg with a group of close friends in the 90's. Bought all the books, source books, add ons, and even subscribed to the Infiniverse news letter. I so loved this game. I am so happy to see it come back. Your review was so passionate, I could really tell you believed in what you were saying. You have a fan in me. Good luck with all future endeavours.

[@IsaacKuo]

Cosms and contradictions can (now) be explained to players in terms of WandaVision. For example, in WandaVision, when they sent a high tech observation drone into the Hex, it turned into an old fashioned toy airplane. When someone wearing a modern hazmat suit went in, he turned into a beekeeper.

[@BalooSJ]

Thank you for the review. I would add one bit to the end, where you recommend picking up at least the core rule book: also pick up the Drama Deck. The Drama Deck is really an essential part of the game. The rest of the things that are in the box are things that I'd consider value-adds: having the Possibility Tokens is cool, but you can make do with poker chips or glass beads or whatever. Adventures are great, but you could make them yourself. But the Drama Deck is really an integral part of the system, and the system is balanced with it in mind.

[@carlmatthews82]

The Free RPG Day pdf from last year is free on DrivethruRpg, if people want to try that out.

[@AsakoSoh]

Oh yes and definitely more Unreviews please

[@concibar4267]

Yeah, one for me too! Has John ever talked about burning wheel?

[@mjboyle691]

Great Unreview John. I'm running Torg during a hiatus from our 7th Sea campaign!

[@aponly]

Good unreview! I loved this game when it first came out and look forward to trying it again!

[@AsakoSoh]

Brilliant review John, fascinating. I stopped gaming in early 90s and missed out on TORG 1st time around but did back the KS. Very glad I did do in light of your thoughtful and clear review. Looking forward to my game arriving!

[@mbroooks]

Really liked the video! Can definitely see the seed of The Flux in how you talk about Torg.

[@questwise4077]

Great stuff, Sir! I have always been curious about TORG, but it wasn't anything that was popular in any of my local circles. I am very much going to seek this out now. Thanks again.

[@ebatbuok]

Very god review of an enthousiastic fan... It made me feel warm, I have the same feelings for Torg...

[@FishNotGhOTi]

Great unreview, thanks you. More please. :)

[@ExploringTheStorm]

Thanks for the unview. Hope you don't mind if we add you as a featured channel.

[@JohnWickPresents]

Sure!

[@moloids]

My problem with TORG Eternity: I love the concept of Day One adventures so much, that I can't run campaigns (yet). There are a 1000 adventures just in Day One.

[@northvashista]

Excellent review. Only thing I would have liked to hear would be what a consequence of violating a cosm might look like.

[@digitaljanus]

Forgive my hazy memories, but IIRC, the dominant cosm basically tries to make Contradictions conform to itself. E.g., if you come from a cosm with decently high Tech and Social ratings, and disconnect while in the Living Land, any technology more advanced than Stone Age will either transform into an equivalent (e.g., a metal crowbar becomes a wooden club), or not at all (a laptop computer goes away or becomes a rock or something). And the affected will not be able to form organized groups larger than a dozen or so. If I remember the backstory, the USA sent the military into the Living Land to rescue the missing President, and all the units immediately fell apart and became a bunch of unruly, spear-wielding, skins-wearing cavemen. Player characters are usually Storm Knights, the chosen few who can wield Possibility Energy, so they can often resist the effects of a Contradiction. But they can disconnect too, and then they basically have to make checks to see if they can reassert their own cosm's reality.

[@nortonroughley1890]

Another game to add to the list. Feels like you can run it as a flux game within itself

[@concibar4267]

Isn't it called Torg Eternity instead of Torg Infinity? Or are those different games?

[@adwardosa5575]

might be wrong because its been a while but i'm pretty sure torg infinity was the newsletter that added new stuff into the game

[@tomsharo8457]

@@adwardosa5575 Infiniverse was the newsletter

[@adwardosa5575]

@@tomsharo8457 yeah, IK cuz i kinda said that like a year ago, thanks thouh

[@gamecode6817]

did most of your videos disappear?

[@-inputoutput]

i mean frankly theres a lot of ppl who ONLY defend smthing bc they spent money on it, so if the thinking is getting smthing 4 free would taint ur review more, it rly wouldnt theres always an avenue 4 projection no matter how hard u try, so dw abt it, unless this weird limitation serves another personal purpose 4 u, then go 4 it