From: Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim) <jogle@aoc.nrao.edu>
Subject: Infiniverse #27
X-Gated-By: The Black Marble Wombat@morticia.cnns.unt.edu
X-Gated-From: torg mailing list
Organization: University of North Texas
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Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 06:59:49 GMT

Finally, last months Infiniverse has arrived in my mailbox!  I guess I
shouldn't complain, its only two weeks late....

Cover art is for the Ravagons sourcebook.  It's not bad, but the
ravagons still look too much like edeinos with wings.  The feet and
hands are a bit more talon-like and the eyes look less human but
that's about it for differences (and the wings of course.)

October releases:

RAVAGONS - "Welcome to the brutal world of Tz'Ravok, home of the Gaunt
Man's deadly lieutenants, the ravagons.  Learn the secrets of this
frightening race, including axioms, world laws, new skills, character
templates, and instructions on how to create ravagon player
characters."  

96-page supplement, $15

November releases:

TORG CHARACTER COLLECTION - "The Guildmaster introduces you to a
collection of heroes and villains of the Possibility Wars, in this
volume featuring the work of TORG players.  This book features 60
pregenerated characters, suitable for use as PCs or NPCs, as well as a
system for creating advanced characters."

128-page supplement, $18

There's also a bit of information regarding upcoming novels (I won't
bother posting the info about "Out of Nippon", since its already on
shelves):

"Interview With Evil", by John Terra, comes out in February.  This is
the infamous autobiography of the Gaunt Man.  "A beautiful young
journalist travels to Illmound Keep to learn the true story of the
Gaunt Man.  But can anyone hear such a tale and retain their sanity?"

(The fact that she's actively seeking out the Gaunt Man in the first
place leads me to question her sanity beforehand!  And how does she
learn that the GM is in Illmound Keep?)

"Find out the details of the Gaunt Man's true home cosm; the origin of
Skutharka and Uthorion; how the Gaunt Man found Heketon; the inside
story of the conquest of Kantovia (and just what did happen to all
those Dire Wolves?)"

"City in the Sky", by Bill Slavicsek, comes out in March.  It tells of
the days immediately preceding the arrival of the Akashan lightships
to Earth.  "...a gripping tale of intrigue, terror and glory that
should not be missed."

(Funny, in my campaign things were pretty dull and slow, but thats
because the players sat on their butts in Peru for two months waiting
for the Akashans to arrive.  Of course, that was partially my fault
but it would have been damn nice of WEG to have given us a bit more
information about the arrival when it happened instead of 16 months
later!!!  *rant mode off*)

"Berlin Rezoned", also by John Terra, comes out in May.  Tharkold
plans on invading Berlin but Mobius interferes, uprooting one of the
Tharkold stelae and replacing it with one of his own.  "Berlin turns
into a twisted mixture of heroes, villains and techno-horror.  Major
Havoc and his comrades battle the bloodlust of the Tharkoldu and the
darkness within their own souls in this powerful new book."

(How can Nile heroes have "darkness within their own souls",
considering how the Law of Morality works?  At least this should get
Major Havoc off the Grant Man's case for a while. 8-)

The main feature this issue is the first installment of the official
TORG index.  The index is for the boxed set only and it will be
interesting to compare this index with the one in our archives.  The
next two parts will be printed in the next two issues of Iverse.  

STUFF
-----

There's a cute cartoon showing two edeinos taking advantage of a typo
in the Kanawa Personal Weapons catalog (Stun Gloves, p76, are listed
as being Tech 5.)

They're still beating around the bush concerning the new Ayslish High
Lord but are beginning the build-up to the coming war in Aysle.

Most of the rumors are subscriber submissions, including one
concerning the new faction of Comaghaz (ie, not controlled by Sarila
but by someone else - a lorbaat.)

LETTERS
-------

Someone asks about the possiblity of resurrecting a character as a
Robocop-type cyborg in Tharkold.  While WEG did offer some advice, I
was glad to see them say that they'd prefer resurrections not become
part of TORG; "If it is too simple to 'resurrect' a character, the
players will begin to lose the 'edge' that role-playing in a dangerous
situation has."

But then they had to go and print something I disagree with...ninja
can have Dexterity values of 16!  It seems that those extra three
attribute points ninja get for learning ninjitsu (Nippon Tech SB, p58)
can be used to take an attribute (normally Dexterity) above the cosm
limit.  "This is one of the reasons ninja cannot spend possibilities
on their Reality skill - their very existence is a perversion of
reality and martial arts.  They belong, wholly, to no one cosm or
disipline."

GAG!  No way!  Giving a ninja a three point attribute advantage on a
PC isn't enough, now they can have Dexterity scores above 13 too!
Oh, and they don't get to spend Possibilities on their Reality skill -
I bet that just balances everything out for ninja who never leave
their home cosm!  What about all those Core Earth ninja before the
Wars started?  Not much of a penalty when its something you'll never
use, is it?!?

Sheesh...they'll be hearing from me about this.

That's about it - not much in the way of excitement, certainly not
worth the extra two weeks wait....

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