From: Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim) <jogle@aoc.nrao.edu>
Subject: Infiniverse #25
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, 24 Jul 1992 20:57:40 GMT

	Well, while the boss is busy elsewhere I'll post the synopsis
of this months issue of Infiniverse (#25 if you're keeping track).

The cover shows the artwork for the cover of "When Axioms Collide",
the module due out in August.  It looks good, though for some reason
it strikes me more as a Cyberpapal/Nile crossover than a Cyberpapal/
Orrorsh mix (the circuit board pattern keeps reminding me of those
striped Egyptian headdresses).

NEW RELEASES (ie, this month)

Delphi Council World Book, Vol. 1 - "While the Possibility Wars rage
in the eight realms, what's happened to Core Earth?  The Delphi
Council makes its report to the President, listing changes in Europe,
America, the Middle East and Asia, along with locations, stats of
important NPCs, and new templates."  (128 pages, $18)

Also mentioned in relation to the DCWB - "Just how have the countries
not yet invaded been handling the insanity of the Possibility Wars?
What nations are the High Lords likely to target next?  What are the
Core Earth world laws, and how do they work?  For that matter, how
does voodoo work?"

AUGUST

When Axioms Collide - "Storm Knights travel to the Cyberpapacy, only
to learn that ther eis more to fear than a Church gone mad.  A trail
of death leads them to an Orrorshan Nightmare with plans to turn the
GodNet into a weapon of horror!" (64 pages, $12)

SEPTEMBER

Out of Nippon - "This full-length novel takes you from the intrigue
and manipulation of the realm of Nippon Tech, to the horror-haunted
jungles of Orrorsh.  There, corporate greed and scientific
experimentation clash with the occult and the ancient terrors of the
land."  (352 pages, $4.95)  [Author is Nigel Findley.]

OCTOBER

Ravagons - Yes, the Ravagon sourcebook will finally be coming out
(just in time for Halloween of course).  "...a 96-page supplement by
Torg co-creator Bill Slavicsek, detailing the Gaunt Man's awesom
lieutenants.  Stats, skills, details on the cosm of Tz'Ravok and
Irishantism, new templates and ways to create your own ravagon player
characters!"  

[It's about time...only the veteran ravagons have put any scare into
my PCs and that's just from them reading the writeups in the Orrorsh
sourcebook.  I haven't bothered to use ravagons in over a year because
they are nothing impressive, certainly not as impressive as their post
with the Gaunt Man would imply.]

NOVEMBER

Character Template Book - "...128 pages of heroes and villains,
suitable for use as player or non-player characters.  This idea-filled
book also includes rules for creating your own advanced player
characters!"  

[I will have to buy it simply because a character from my campaign
should be one of the heroes in the book.]

DECEMBER

The Gaunt Man returns.  

[I would assume in a module of some kind.]

FEBRUARY, 1993

Autobiography of the Gaunt Man - novel by John Terra.

[He wrote "Cry Havoc" in the latest Nile anthology, _Mysterious
Cairo_.  Hopefully the problems I had with "Cry Havoc" will not show
up in the novel.]

You'll notice that WEG has gone from two Torg products a month to just
one per month.  This is almost certainly due to WEG kicking a lot of
their efforts into new Star Wars RPG material (including 2nd edition
rules) that is supposed to start coming out this month or in August.

TORG T-SHIRTS!

Get yours now!  They're not from West End Games but a company in
California called California Images.  Right now they only have one
shirt done, an Orrorsh one (front image is the cover of the Orrorsh
Sourcebook, on the back it says "The storm has a name...") that is
probably only available in black (they don't say anything about colors
available).  The company is supposedly hard at work on a Tharkold
shirt and then probably a Nile shirt.  Both of those are supposed to
be done in August.

They of course forget to provide us with such information as PRICE, so
you'll either have to call or write California Images for information.

California Images
PO Box 672
Morro Bay, CA 93443
805/772-2533

The owner of CI is a Torg player himself and has apparently had some
fun wearing the shirt around Morro Bay (wherever that is); people seem
to think that Orrorsh is the name of a heavy metal band and the Gaunt
Man is their lead singer.... 8-)

TORG FANZINE?

Yes, such a thing exists.  It's called "Heralds of Reality" and is put
out by a guy named Michael Maloney and his fellow gamers in Rhode
Island.  Write to:

Heralds of Reality
22 Lynch Street
Providence, RI 02908


The main feature in this month's Infiniverse is some new Akashan
biotech weaponry, gauss weapons for Tech 24-26, and the Terran
Gangster template.  All of these are player submissions to
Infiniverse.  The biotech weapons are interesting and nasty.  The
gauss weapons are a bit uneven; the Tech 24 rail gun (tank-sized gun)
is given a seperate damage value for long range, which the Torg rules
already account for (though it is possible that this is in addition to
the -5 already provided by the rules, as there is mention of a loss of
"accurate long range fire".)  The Tech 26 gauss sniper rifle seems a
bit extreme (its a Tharkold gun of course, and seems to be doing heavy
weapons level damage).

The template doesn't seem anything special, and I notice that there is
no Inclination given.  I would assume Good simply because he's
fighting Mobius for more than business/personal reasons (of course,
you wouldn't have to run him that way).


Elves (and one would assume giants) do not get their enhancement
packages from the Ayslish world laws (despite the fact the Law of
Magic says so) but because they are "enchanted folk".  As a result,
the packages are only a contradiction in realms with a Magic axiom
less than 10.  If an elf is transformed to a new reality (but not
physically transformed) it gets to keep its enhancement packages if
the new reality has a Magic axiom of 10 or better.

[My guess is that they decided to retcon the 'packages are from the
Law of Magic' bit simply because every cosm since Aysle has not linked
enhancement packages to a world law, just to the axioms (Space Gods ->
Tech, Tharkold -> Tech and/or Magic).  It would have been nicer if
they had said it that way instead of glossing over the fact that the
Aysle SB does say the packages are due to the Law of Magic....]

Someone asked about inventing new Nile spells!  Unfortunately, the
answer is "we don't have a system".  Good going guys.  They do say
they are reviewing a product proposal for it though.

Someone gives them hell for their 'we never promised maelstrom bridge
rules' bit from a few months back.  Their answer is basically the same
as what they told me on GEnie (editorial changes resulted in no one
even knowing such a promise had been made), but they say that since
they did promise it they are trying to get Lou Prosperi (the guy who
claimed that there would be maelstrom bridge rules, I think) to make
some up for next year's "High Lords Guide" (whatever the heck that
will be).

Sigh - they continue to stand by their story that Thratchen did all
that stupid invoked reality storm stuff to survive in Orrorsh, though
they admitted it caused a lot of controversy.  Of course, they do say
that Thratchen lost all of his reality adds in the transformations,
but its certainly convenient that he was able to build all of them
back up (after two transformations!) in time for his appearance in the
"City of Demons" module....  8-(

Guess I am now forced to submit my rewrite of Thratchen and what
really happened to him to Infiniverse just so we can get away from
this silly business of invoking reality storms on himself....  (Dave
Oakes suggests I submit it for the Creatures of Tharkold book, but I
wonder if an NPC like Thratchen is suitable for a creature book...then
again, Creatures of Aysle had unique NPC creatures in it, so why not?)

Mecha!  Well, not actually.  One of the dispatches mentions a "huge
robot gadget" in the Nile Empire....

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