From: Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim) <jogle@aoc.nrao.edu>
Subject: REVIEW: When Axioms Collide
X-Gated-By: The Black Marble Wombat@morticia.cnns.unt.edu
X-Gated-From: torg mailing list
Organization: University of North Texas
X-Gatemail-Version: 1.0b
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 08:19:31 GMT

"When Axioms Collide" is a 64-page module set in the Cyberpapacy.  It
sells for $12.

Quick, spoilerless review first:

What begins as a simple job for the Resistance leads into a murder
mystery.  The murder mystery leads into an evil plot that will kill
thousands of people if it is allowed to continue and the evil plot is
the work of an Orrorshan Horror....

This is a good adventure, successfully mixing elements of the
Cyberpapacy and Orrorsh.  While it would be possible to run this as a
Tharkold adventure (cyberware and horror) I think you'd be missing out
on a lot of the good elements of the module if you were to do so.

The module is very complete (lots of references to sourcebook material
and what pages to check out), nicely thought out, and even though it
suffers from linearplotitis, thats ok.  The murder mystery isn't a
difficult one but it will take time to work out the details.  

You do need a cyberdecker though; while the module says you can get by
with an NPC decker handling everything it really spoils the climax to
let an NPC handle part of it without PC input (while in the earlier
GodNet runs of the module you could have a PC ride shotgun with the
NPC decker, you won't want to do that in the final scene).

The module makes good use of the Cyberpapacy, and its about time.
With the exception of the mini-adventure books Full Moon Draw and
Cylent Scream there have been no published adventures set in France.
Hopefully there will be more coming as this module has given me a good
handle on how to do things in the Cyberpapacy.  On top of that, it
also gives a good idea of how to handle an Orrorsh adventure too!
(Though some of the information gathering on true deaths and whatnot
is a bit blunt in presentation; GMs are advised to flesh out these
areas and make them more interesting and not quite so "2x4-ish".)

Onto the spoilerless details:

The artwork is fairly typical WEG stuff; nothing spectacular but
nothing horrible (although the Angel of Death is pretty bitchin').
The cover, while a nice piece of work, has nothing to do with the
adventure itself of course, but that's to be expected anymore.  There
are plenty of maps (no scaling of course) and even some player
handouts, though the handouts will have to be photocopied out of the
module if you don't feel like handing the module over to the PCs so
that they can read them.

Now, as for the editing job (you knew it was coming)...

they must have hired some more editors because I didn't even find
typos!  Hooray!  And not only that, but everything is up to date with
other Torg material - for example, the vehicles are all written up
with the information found in the Land Vehicles Catalog.

So, to sum up the spoilerless part of the review: a good module,
especially if you've been looking for something to do in the
Cyberpapacy.  Plus, you even get some good Orrorsh material in the
deal too.

On to the spoilers...



While the adventure actually starts in the Cyberpapacy, the story
begins in Orrorsh.  A Horror by the name of Talamous Scratch decides
that it would be a good idea for him to leave Orrorsh, as he's just
allowed a bunch of Victorian soldiers to raze the gospog field that
was his responsibility.  He randomly chooses France as his
destination.  Meanwhile, in a part of France that the PCs (and Scratch
of course) will eventually be travelling to, a Cyberpriest makes a
deal with the devil (actually a 4th planting CP gospog)....

The story begins for Our Heroes(tm) with a raid on a shipment of
MindBody Technologies cyberware.  The entire purpose of this scene is
just to introduce Our Heroes to the Resistance leader of the raid,
Patrice Cochereau, and to show Patrice that Our Heroes are a good
bunch of guys and that he can trust them to help him out in Scene Two.

Patrice receives a message from his hometown informing him that
several unsolved murders have occured there and that his daughter
Jeanette has been accused of being responsible (oh yeah, they're also
accusing her of being a witch and will be putting her on trial for
that as well.)  Patrice, needing help, of course turns to Our Heroes
for assistance.  During the trip to Patrice's hometown, the party
stops off at a roadside stop and leans a little more about what's
going on in New Culmont.  They also learn about something unusual
happening in the GodNet....

Arriving in New Culmont, Our Heroes are just in time, as Jeanette's
trial (by fire!) begins.  Our Heroes have several options here: wade
in, guns blazing, to rescue her; try to convince the people and the
Church that she's innocent (she's innocent of the murders, but she is
a witch); or do nothing.  In any event, things are interrupted by a
large group of gospogs attacking the proceedings - the 'pogs seem
intent on snatching Jeanette and spiriting her away!  (Which of course
further strengthens the claims that she's a witch in league with evil
forces.)  

Assuming the PCs help drive away the gospog horde (BTW, Patrice
convienently becomes incapacitated or killed during the attack and if
Jeanette is successfully spirited away she's never heard from again),
the Cyberpriest in charge thanks them and actually asks if they will
assist in solving the murders that have struck the town.  He is even
willing to give them Indulgences for their past sins if they help him.
(Oh yeah, perceptive characters may have noticed that Dumois, the
priest, seemed to be expecting the gospog attack.)

That's Act One.  In Act Two, Our Heroes get to investigate the murders
and do some probing around.  In addition to dealing with Dumois,
there's the Church Police to deal with (though if the party agrees to
help Dumois the Police aren't any problem), a group of cyberleggers,
some interesting NPCs to question (and suspect of being the murderer),
gruesome bodies to inspect (Perseverance Check!), and a trip into the
GodNet to gather some information.

The PCs will learn that one of the cyberleggers in the town had found
out something about the murders and that a decker with the VX image of
a ghostly horse and carriage is somehow involved.  The cyberlegger
tracked this decker to a VX address, but the address is only known by
that one cyberlegger.  However, he did put the address in a MemChip.
Unfortunately, the legger is dead, and his body has been taken away...
to the nearby gospog fields.

You guessed it, the Dramatic Scene of Act Two involves tromping
through the gospog fields to find the cyberleggers body and recover
his MemChip with the vital information.  Finding the body is no
problem, as the other cyberleggers can provide its approximate
location.  The problem is of course reaching that location.  To get
there involves sneaking/blasting your way past hundreds of first
planting gospogs and then dealing with a coven of third planting
gospogs and the overseer of the fields, a fourth planting gospog (who
may actually bargain with the PCs instead of just trying to kill
them.)  

Once the MemChip has been recovered, the decker in the party must
venture to the VX address, scope it out, learn its physical location,
deactivate its security, etc etc.  This is how Act Three starts.  (It
is possible to learn from the 4th planting gospog the physical address
of the VX location, in which case you can run the decking scene and
the other scenes simultaneously.)  The reason you have to learn the
exact physical location instead of just going out and searching for it
is because our old pal Scratch (who is the murderer, naturally) has
made his mansion invisible to anyone who doesn't know exactly where to
look.  

The GodNet construct has a nice haunted house feel to it, and
successful deckers will not only learn the physical location of the
address but will also discover information revealing the True Death of
Scratch's assistant Grosh (a third planting Orrorsh gospog, aka a
weretiger) as well as the fact that Scratch is creating a computer
virus that will kill thousands of people in the GodNet (which was
foreshadowed in Act One).

Physically entering Scratch's mansion is also like entering a haunted
house, only now you have to deal with the Power of Fear (bwah hah
hah!) and all kinds of nice touches like rotting floor boards, rats
everywhere, Perseverance Checks, a phantom coachman, a weretiger,
shaden, shadows, cybered DemonHounds, zombies, a giant cyber Horror of
truly interesting design, and of course Scratch himself - oh yeah, and
don't forget the GodNet virus, which gets unleashed in the final scene
as well (requiring someone to enter the GodNet and defeat the virus
before it can escape from Scratch's VX mansion - if it does, it will
replicate itself and it will be too late to stop it).

NOTE: the final scene is going to be a killer.  Scratch and his big
cyber horror will be real tough to stop and both are powerful enough
to kill even experienced PCs (even without the Power of Fear).  On top
of this, while the battle is raging someone has to enter the GodNet
and stop the virus - since time is limited that means that they have
to enter the GodNet at the port in the same room the battle is taking
place in!  So not only do the non-deckers have to deal with the two
Horrors, they have to protect the deckers as well (and Scratch will
make it his priority to kill anyone who jacks into the GodNet).  If
the party was fortunate enough to have their decker running Scratch's
VX mansion at the same time they went in, they will at least not have
to worry about protecting their decker's physical body from the
Horrors.  Oh yeah, the decker better be a good one with a bitchin'
deck and programs, because the virus is a muther!

Kansas Jim (jogle@aoc.nrao.edu)
Newsgroups: alt.games.torg