From: "James H. Kiley" <jkiley@andy.bgsu.edu>
Subject: Re: GenCon Report (Incredibly long, thousands of spoilers)
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, 27 Aug 1992 00:36:52 GMT

As though it needed to be longer... :)

On Wed, 26 Aug 1992, Jim Ogle wrote:

> Jim Kiley reports:
> 
> [lots of spoilers coming]
> > 	_Berlin Rezoned_, also by John Terra.  Jez decides she wants to expand,
> >lays down some stelae around Berlin and gets one yanked by Doc Mobius, leaving
> > Berlin as a Tharkold/Nile mixed zone.  Nifty.
> 
> One wonders if Mobius will have reached Germany by that time or if his
> just substituting a Nile stelae will be sufficient to create the mixed
> zone.  

My money's on the latter, since WEG has never been real precise on how local
reality is determined, but Greg was unclear at the seminar.  (At least, I
*think* he was unclear, it could be the utter lack of sleep and nutrition
I got at the con that's disturbing my memory...

> > New Good Guy:
> > 	Something to do with the 5 Realms game.  Email me privately for more,
> > I promised not to blab.
> 
> Ugh.  I thought the "Five Realms" RPG stuff was cute but I really
> don't need a 'game-designer-turned-heroic-wonder' running around in my
> world.  After all, there's already Kansas Jim running around.... 8-)

Words from Greg indicate that not only is he running around, he's rather 
integral. :/

> > What about Kantovia?
> > 	Well, it *was* destroyed.  But there's this little pocket
> > dimension, see, where a lieutenant to the GM and Kurst, who betrayed both,
> > fled to when Kantovia was destroyed...
> > 	And guess where the 'land of the gods' that Huitzilopochtli (the
> > alleged CE DD) just happened to be?
> 
> Gak.  Why would Huitzilopochtli wander off to a little pocket
> dimension instead of his home cosm at the end of HLoE?  Sounds like a
> cheap plot device to weasel the Aztec Empire back into action
> somewhere.  

And/or give Kantovia a Darkness Device.  Either way, I personally consider
it to be a Major Cheese.

> I would guess that Rec Pakken finds a new High Lord from the Land
> Below, or at least attempts to do so.

Don't remember if Greg said that RP would even be a player after the Land
Below eruption or not.  Sorry...

> > Which leads us to the upcoming Pocket Dimensions SB, which will come about
> > as a result of the surge of Possibility Energy from the eruption of the
> > Land Below...  Note also that NYC will become LB, at least partially because
> > Greg Farshtey thinks it'd be pretty nifty to see NYC under the influence
> > of the Law of Wonders...
> 
> I really, really hope that the pocket realms are not going to be
> erupting into the CE cosm like the Land Below is - a RIFTS ripoff is
> not what I want to see happening.

I don't think that's going to be the case--the LB looks to be the
exception rather than the rule--the other pocket dimensions will be
accessible from CE (a la the Dreamtime) but certainly not moving in...

> > Jezrael novel in the works.  Jez apparently will start to have an affair with
> > Someone Important in the wars soon.  I don't know who.
> 
> We can probably rule out Baruk Kaah (since he's going to be bumped
> off) and 3327 is probably not in contention either.  Doubtful that it
> will be the Warrior of the Dark or Sarila either (I don't see WEG
> being that brave).  Jean Malraux and Rotan Ulka wouldn't go for it
> either I'd imagine.  That really only leaves Mobius (maybe they meet
> in the Berlin mixed zone) or one of the many lieutenants out there.
> (But we can count Wu Han out since he's already found true love. 8-)

I'm leaning toward Mobius personally, because I think it'd be nifty, but
Greg didn't indicate at all who it'd be grumble grumble...

> >(Kansas Jim's name got a smattering of applause at the seminar from all of the
> > Usenet folks in the audience.  You're a guru now... :) )
> 
> Aw, shucks.  8-)
> 
> BTW, who brought up my name?  Did Greg actually mention "Kansas Jim's
> Thratchen rewrite" or did someone in the audience use my name?  (And
> how many Usenet people were there?)

I pointedly mentioned the lack of a workable set of Thratch Stats, he
mentioned a writeup that'd been sent in, I asked 'Kansas Jim'?  (*applause
at this point*) He said 'Who?'  I said 'Jim Ogle' and he said yeah.  Then
we asked how many Usenetters were in our studio audience... I'd guess
around a dozen.  I met the Grant Man. :)
> 
> > Gutterby is dead.  The Warrior of the Dark is the new Aysle Highlord. 
> 
> Any mention of how/where/when/why Gutterby died?

The implication was that it was/will be in the Siege of Oxford, but I'm not
positive.

> > Details about Malraux's anonymous DD will be in Iverse Update II.
> 
> Did they say anything about when IU 2 might be out?

It will cover the year of the war after update I, whatever date that puts
it at... 

> > The War will go on as long as players continue to enjoy it.
> 
> So much for the "Five Year Plan".  

Yup.  And I personally back the Unlimited Mileage Plan...

> > Don't count on another realm dropping onto CE for a Long, Long Time, as
> > players have generally responded negatively to this.
> 
> So why are they bothering with this Kurst lieutenant finding the Aztec
> Darkness Device if it isn't coming to Earth?

Got me.

> > The PC's are going to have to defeat the Nameless One to keep the
> > cosmverse from getting destroyed, after the GM brings him back (?)  This
> > allegedly will take place over the course of a seriously long,
> > fifteen-part adventure thang (maybe a la Shadowrun's Harlequin?  It was
> > unclear.  Many many adventures.)
> 
> Sounds more like some of the Call of Cthulu modules than Shadowrun....

Yeah, wish I'd thought of that before posting--that's *exactly* what it
should be like. 
 
> > What about Argentina, Brazil, and Italy?
> 
> What about them?
> 
> > Brazil is the site of much CP activity, it was nearly a toss of the dice
> > whether the CP stelae would be dropped in Buenos Aires of Quebec.  Don't
> > be surprised to see the next ones put in BA.
> 
> Sometime soon hopefully.  I really wonder what Malraux was planning on
> doing in Canada with barren wastelands to the north and the Living
> Land right there next door.

Perhaps JP knew what was up re the Land Below eruptions?  (I know it's weak,
but it's the only thing that comes to mind...)

> > Will there be any CE *victories* in the near future?
> > 	The LL's destruction, for one, though expect to see a lot of fighting
> > between Tharkold and Nippon over who gets the Western Land.
> 
> And Malraux will probably get involved too since he's already got a
> base in the east.  Mobius has always been active in the Living Land so
> I imagine we'll see Nile activity in the US too.

And don't forget that Kanawa legally owns a remarkable amount of the land
once covered by the LL...  So we can expect to see him in the once-Eastern
Land...

> > A Star Sphere SB is in the distant future iffy-plans category, but don't
> > count on it soon as WEG is apparently putting together a new
> > science-fiction space opera style game.
> 
> Well, they are going to be revamping their Star Wars line starting in
> two months.  If they are doing a second one then they're just plain
> crazy unless they expand their staff a lot.
> 
> There was a rumor several months ago that WEG got the licensing rights
> to Star Trek, though I don't know if you'd call it space opera or not.

The new game is to be called 'Shatterzone' (after a big asteroid field at
the center (or was it edge?) of known space).  It's not Trek, and I
personally  don't know if it's such a good idea, the marketplace being what
it is right now, but that's not stopping me from working up submissions... :)

> > Mobius, Malraux, and 3327 have all got their mitts in Yugoslavia, which
> > hasn't fallen apart because they're fighting off three invaders.
> 
> But, they said recently that there is a civil war in Yugoslavia and
> that Mobius is arming one side and Malraux is arming the other side
> (while 3327 arms both sides I guess).  A civil war would suggest that
> it has fallen apart!

My notes may be misleading--I don't get Iverse and we had a more theoretical
discussion of why it seems that the good old fashioned intra-CE armed disputes
we're used to seem so rare nowadays...

> > Psionics and Tharkold?
> > 	The Tharkold SB came in *way* too long, and psionics was the thing
> > they cut.  Assume that Tharkoldu psionicists exist, but sort of in a
> > cult-type thing...
> 
> No, assume that the one sentence in the SG sourcebook is a typo and
> that there are no psionics in Tharkold (it is much easier than working
> up the details on a cult).

*grin*  I merely transcribe the Word of Greg, YMMV. ;)

> > A sourcebook for non-CE miracles (especially Nile and Greek gods)?
> > 	Don't expect one, they've had submissions for Miracle Sourcebooks,
> > but most of these were rejected because they wanted to limit CE miracles
> > to various religions and that is certainly not very PC. :)
> 
> Who needs it?  Give us a sourcebook on Nile magic and gizmos already!

Something emphatically endorsed by the audience.

> > Citybooks:
> > 	Tokyo is coming *soon*.
> > 	Paris was done, ready to roll, and the author's hard drive crapped
> > out and Utterly Destroyed it.  No kidding.  It's being worked on.
> 
> That'll teach him not to back up his drive.

She apparently had a nervous breakdown...

> > 	Berlin will be coming out after the Berlin Rezoned novel.
> > 	No London one is due in the forseeable future.
> > 	Expect to see Orrorsh in New Orleans and maybe the Nile in
> > Chicago, after the LL is removed from the field.
> 
> Well, Orrorsh is already showing up in New Orleans (last couple of
> Infiniverse issues) so it will probably be busy there soon after the
> GM gets out.

Is my gaming group the only one that thinks that the Nile in Chicago would
be Way Cool?

> Kansas Jim

jk
  
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