From: gdavis@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Grant R. Davis)
Newsgroups: alt.games.torg
Subject: Re: GenCon Report (Incredibly long, thousands of spoilers)
Date: 28 Aug 92 02:17:32 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

In article <gatemail1.0b2381415218083@morticia> jkiley@andy.bgsu.edu (James H. Kiley) writes:

>And I went to the seminar.  Now we see if I can decode my notes...
>[Note please that the below may seem incredibly fragmented as the seminar was
>mainly Q and A, please forgive any inaccuracies, if I'd thought ahead I
>would've brought a tape recorder...]

I was there too, and I have a few things to add.

The Gaunt Man knew that the Signal Fire would call the Space Gods.

>Core Earth's axioms extend throughout our universe, for clarification
>purposes.  Though it is possible that another world somewhere else has
>brought up to higher axioms and the axioms are slowly rippling throughout 
>space and will reach us eventually...

Greg confirmed that ords have to disconnect before they transform. When I asked
him how they could use the Laws of Hope and Glory if they were disconnected, 
his response was (paraphrased): "The Law of Glory wasn't *my* idea".
He also said that the Rijato Warrior can disconnect from his battlesuit, but
we didn't cover the question of characters with axioms 'shifted' from normal.

The nuclear question [my notes are really lousy, Jim, so maybe you can help
me on this]:
Regrding the use of nuclear weapons agains the Nile, Greg muttered something
about Mobius having weird science devices that defended against them. He also
pointed out that Mobius disarmed Quadaffi's nuke, so he knows how they work,
but there is no plan in the Nile to build nukes (as far as we know...). 
When terrorists were mentioned, he said that most of the fringe groups work
for Mobius now (huh?).
Against the Cyberpapacy, he said that the New USSR is very worried about
being conquered, but is also intrigued by the Godnet and didn't want to 
destroy it (or something like that). The question was also raised that if 
we had nukes at Tech 23, what could Malraux get at Tech 26?

While we're on the subject of escalation, there was a spirited discussion
about Big Guns. Greg said that people complained about them when Space Gods 
came out; when Tharkold came out, they didn't complain anymore. He said that
there was a conscious decision to have the weapons advance realistically
along the tech levels, and that Star Wars had a lot to do with it. Most of
the following discussion was a lot like the talk on alt.games.torg; just take
away their usefulness.

There aren't any plans for a TORG boardgame (darn!) because their survey
said that the 'yeas' were only slightly greater than the 'nays' and most
of the yeas were of the 'sure, why not, what the hell' variety.

>Details about Malraux's anonymous DD will be in Iverse Update II.

It's name is Fred! :-)

>The Pocket Dimensions SB will contain a Toon cosm.

There will also be Atlantis and Avalon.

>The War will go on as long as players continue to enjoy it.

They said it was originally planned to last 5 years (someone on the Net 
mentioned this before, and I guess they were right).

>What about CE psioncs and alignment?

I swear I didn't bring this up.

>	(Don't quote me here, I don't know the psi rules well at all, just 
>bought the SG SB)
>	A Core Earth psionic doesn't _need_ an alignment, but he _can_
>take one as a contradiction.

I thought that he said that aligned psi powers were only available if the 
philosophy was learned. My notes are sketchy, but I remember thinking "now I
can't have my Serial Narrarator character!"

>A Star Sphere SB is in the distant future iffy-plans category,...

Greg said that he would love to do it, but there just wasn't enough interest
in the SGs. This brought up the points that: 1) most people can (or will) only
buy 1 product per month, and 2) every game except AD&D doesn't sell enough to
put out something that not everyone will buy (like, say, the LA sourcebook:-).

>... but don't count on it soon as WEG is apparently putting together a new
>science-fiction space opera style game.

He said that Shatterzone (the new game) was a 'grim-n-gritty' SF game, not
space opera. It sounds neat; I hope they don't screw up ship combat.

>Mobius, Malraux, and 3327 have all got their mitts in Yugoslavia, which
>hasn't fallen apart because they're fighting off three invaders.

Basically, all the conflicts on Earth were 'put aside' until the Possibility
wars were over. This means that Desert Storm never happened (I still think
that's a copout, but it's their prerogative).

>Citybooks:

Has anyone noticed how they've completely ignored St. Louis? It's right on
the frontlines, and the Gateway arch is *huge*. McDonnell Douglas is also in
St. Louis, and they have the Phantom Works :->.

Miniatures rules are coming!

This may not mean much, but Greg said that the best way for someone to get 
started in TORG was to buy the novels, the game, and the sourcebook that looked
the most interesting (yeah, right).

And finally, the Index is coming! I think it'll be in Infiniverse, but I'm not
positive.

>Jim Kiley, Astronomer Wannabe

The Grant Man
gdavis@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu

"This is good[beer]. Remind me to take this world."-Lost Destiny
Newsgroups: alt.games.torg