From: Jim Ogle (Ks. Jim) <jogle@aoc.nrao.edu>
Subject: Infiniverse #29
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: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 22:31:26 GMT

Well, it took a trip to the Post Office to get it (they were holding
my mail past the date I told them to, the morons) but the November
(that's right, the NOVEMBER) issue of Infiniverse is finally here.
Now if WEG will just get the December issue out sometime soon....

The cover art is everyone's favorite High Lord, straight from the
cover of The Gaunt Man Returns module.  Doesn't look as good in black
& white.

Future Releases:

I won't bother copying down the New Release (Character Collection) or
the December Release (GMR), which just leaves us with the January
Release... 

TOKYO CITYBOOK: The Rauru Block takes you on a tour of Tokyo, from the
corporate boardrooms to the bloody back streets.  Learn the secrets of
Kanawa's capital city in this book, intended for players and
gamemasters alike.  Includes maps, adventure hooks and new character
templates.  (128 page supplement, $18)

Shatterzone Plug:

The first novel for WEG's next RPG, Shatterzone, is detailed slightly.
For some reason the one-line descriptions of the characters in the
novel (which, BTW, is called "The River of God" and came out back in
November) make me think of what I've heard about the new SF show on
CBS, _Space Rangers_ (which premires tonight I think), and that
doesn't reassure me....

WEG is also looking for people to demo Shatterzone at conventions, and
hopes to have their demo program ready by January...if they're running
on the same schedule as Infiniverse is, no way are they ready yet.
(But they did actually get GMR out early last month, so who knows.)
If interested, write to "Shatterzone Demo Team" at the usual WEG
address.

Stuff:

About 50 submissions for Creatures of Tharkold were accepted by WEG;
61 creatures will be featured in the book and supposedly the cover art
will be for a submitted creature (a first they say, but considering
there's only been two other creature books, not terribly exciting
information.)  As we all know, Clint Wolf won first place in the
contest with his Liquidator.  Second place went to Jeffrey Hersch for
the Shards, and Third went to Pete Venters for the Priestburner.  

WEG has not yet decided on what the next submission contest will be.

The December issue of Infiniverse (#30 for you who buy them as back
issues instead of subscribing) will contain four pages of new charts
for gamemasters, including cosm limits (I assume they mean attribute
limits), disconnection tables, skill lists, and other stuff.  The
tables will include all the realms/cosms including Tz'Ravok.

After that issue, they will be doing player handouts for each of the
realms/cosms.  Now we'll finally have an official baseline of what
information is public knowledge in the various realms.  (I can hear
the arguments starting on this list already....)

Main Feature:

The final part of the Torg index, S - Z.  Yippee.

Dispatches, Rumors, Stuff:

Normally I don't discuss the dispatches and rumors much, to avoid
spoilers and the like, but there were a couple things in this issue
that I felt need to be mentioned.

Louisiana: Past issues have detailed Orrorshan activities in this area
of the United States, though nothing really major (the odd Horror and
whatnot).  Well, there are still Horrors wandering around (killing
Cyberpapal agents) but the big news is the presence of an Orrorshan
reality tree near New Orleans....  (Some Akashan needs to be taken
aside and beaten severly for that one!)

Ravagons: The ravagon vampire out of the Ravagons sourcebook appears
in a dispatch.

Mobius' invasion of Europe: A dispatch mentions offhandly that Mobius
is in Greece overseeing the invasion of that country...nice of WEG to
inform us of this little bit of military action!  The last they said
anything about it was way back in June or July when they mentioned
his taking Crete and planting some stelae in the Mediterranean.  While
I didn't assume Mobius would just sit in Crete and do nothing, the
fact that he's expanded into Greece as this dispatch implies should
have been mentioned at a sooner date.

New creatures:  We get a new Orrorshan Horror (nice, but nothing
spectacular), and a new race from the Land Below (but not from the
domed world of Merretika!)  There's the corrupt eternity shard rumor
mentioned a while ago by Smooge and Rick and a rumor of people trying
to locate Santa Claus....

Stuff from the Letters:

They mention that an updated version of Thratchen will appear in the
next Infiniverse Update, but fail to mention where they got it from
(fume fume fume...and where's my check!)

NEGATING POSSIBILITIES: According to whoever answers the letters,
*anyone* who is aware of what is going on in a given situation can
cancel a Possibility that has been spent, not just the person who is
being acted upon (which is how I and most people seem to have
interpreted that rule).  The example they give is six Storm Knights
against one P-rated villain; if the villain spends a Possibility on a
die roll, any of those six (who are conscious) may negate the P-Point.

Now, since they say you have to be aware of what is going on, that
would imply (to me at least) that if you don't know someone is
spending a P-Point (say a sniper targeting your unsuspecting head, or
a ninja you aren't expecting making a Stealth roll) you cannot negate
it.  We discussed that a few months ago but I don't think we ever
arrived at a net-consensus.


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