From: agreene@mta.ca
Subject: Re: My campaign...
Reply-To: agreene@mta.ca
Organization: Mount Allison U, Sackville, N.B. Canada 
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 23:30:42 GMT

In article <gatemail1.0b3141323479915@morticia>, Brother Andrek <arakins@iastate.edu> writes:
>
>  It just occured to me that I have been posting
>templates, creatures, and spells, but I have not 
>described my actual campaign. I thought some of you
>might be interested...so here it goes:
>
(gracious text deleted)

>  How my campaign differs from the "official" campaign:
>  I LOVE horror. Love it. And most of my players do too.
>When we bought TORG, we fought over wether to buy TORG
>or Vampire...we decided TORG simply because we could
>have a simple Horror campaign if we wanted...but we
>can also branch out. We have not regretted the decision. :)
>  So in my world, Tharkhold and Orrorosh are growing. Bigger.
>Stelae of these two dark realms are being planted left and
>right. And Orrorosh has dropped another Maelstrom bridge in
>my world: In southern California (heh heh). And Tharkhold
>has spread past L.A.
>  The space gods are confused in my world, and they are
>arguing among themselves on what to do...consequencly, they 
>are not involved.
>  The Cyberpapacy is faltering...

	My complements on running a horror game.  But why should Cp be
faltering.  IMHO it has the most potential for sheer horror of all realms.
Tharkhold and Orrosh may have a touch of chill to them, but horror in those
realms rely purely on Monsters.  Monsters at first be the bread and butter
of terror, but they also have many weaknesses, particularly from a mood
perspective.  Monsters CAN be drug out into the light and exposed as 
imposible in our reality (which, alas, we must always return to at night
after the game session.)  Cyberpapacy, however, best reflects the horrors
that mankind can create, and the atrocity of one (or more) man dominating
a society his his (or their) ideologies.  Mankind is the one thing that none 
of us can escape, and it's, IMHO, the single source of true horror.
	Consider it.  The most horrific classical monsters are not just
vague abominations that can swallow a dozen men (these monsters are left to
Aysle, and other heroic fantasy realms).  The best classical monsters
(VAMPIRES, among others) are, or at least once were, HUMAN.  The vampire
myth is horryfying not because of dozen or so people are murdered by the
monster (on that scale, it couldn't hold a candle to wars, plagues, etc.),
but because it shows the deterioration of an individual into a monster.
The Vampire game overwhelmed me with its insight into this line of horror; 
the chills and challenge from that game don't come from defeating advesaries,
but by trying to hold onto your humanity, and the inevitable domination
of the monster inside.  Consider the Master's (HP Lovecraft) works as well.
Do you think Cthulhu, Azathoth, or those other amorphous masses would be
at all horrific if there was no humanity to be horrified by them?  Lovecraft's
tales are nearly all written in first person point of view, and they are 
for a reason:  to give insight on HOW these monsters belittle the narrator
and shatter any concepts of the supremacy of mankind.

(step down from soapbox)

	Sorry to preach like that, but horror's a very dear topic to me.
I find it hard to believe that Cp is not the best medium for a horror game
in Torg; after all, monsters can be (and are) defeated in the game, but
its a lot harder to defeat an entire society.  If you haven't read them,
read Matt Wagner's _Grendel_ (the issues of the 4th Grendel).  George
Orwell's _1984_ is a better example of horror in a totalitarian society, but
its not exactly conductive to an action game like Torg.
 
>
>  That's about it...
>
>  Thanks again for your help Kansas Jim and everyon else...
>Don't worry, I imagine I'll have some more comments/questions
>later....:)
>
>-- Andrew Akins
>   aka Brother Andrek
>   Iowa State University
>   arakins@iastate.edu
>
	Please post more about your campaign, how well it's going, and
how you're handling the horror theme.  I would really like to know
how you convey the atmosphere properly.  I always found that SKs were too
hard to kill (munchkin weapons/armor, and being able to reduce damage with
Possibilites) to really work in a horror game.


--Anthony Greene
-Mobius!  Oh, Mobius!  Come out, come out, you rat-headed llama...