Torg and D20 Modern

[Gargoyle]

Have you had a chance to use approved actions to gain more cards for roleplaying or dramatic skill resolution? Also, have you had a chance to actually run a subplot? My next game isn't for a week and a half...I'm jealous...

 

[Bibliophile]

I've never played TORG and have only a slight, brief idea of what it's about. However, these cards people are mentioning sound interesting if just to include them in a normal d20 modern game. Could somebody give me a breakdown of the cards/how to use them and a brief description of TORG?

 

[Benedict]

James, in brief, yes. A couple of players tried out the approved actions, and they roleplayed the use of all the cards (with the exception of Second Chance which is, of course, just a re-roll). Unfortunately no sub-plots came up in a timely fashion, but my wife is holding a Connection card that she hopes to use during the next game. As for dramatic resolution, I'm not really using that at this time, and I'm not sure I will. I prefer a more free flowing resolution at that level and I think the cards would be a hinderance rather than an aid for my style of GMing.

And now the report...

Approved Actions on the Drama Cards are my focus for today. Here are the basic rules.

Succeed at any of the seven (six really) approved actions and draw a new Drama Card that can be played into the Action Pool immediately.

• Any – Any of the actions listed below.
• Attack – An attack action of any kind, just succeed.
• Defend – Use of some means of active defense, i.e. Defensive Combat, Full Defense, or a retreat. Additionally the character might defend another.
• Intimidate – Use the skill Intimidate against a foe to make him do what you wish. The standard DC for this action is 10 + the targets Hit Dice or level. See the d20 Modern skill listing for more details. Full Action.
• Maneuver – Using Climb, Jump, or Tumble you force your opponent to chase you, or to put him off balance.
• Taunt – Using Bluff or Perform (Stand Up) you irritate your target. The idea being to make him lose his cool and do something foolhardy. Full Action
• Test – (Test of Wills) There is no good equivalent to this one in d20 Modern. And it’s got a very sketchy description in the original TORG rulebook. I don’t have a very good idea for converting this. I think I will ignore the appearance of the TEST result for now.
• Trick – A Trick can be any unexpected action that the player can use to his benefit. Dumping a table onto an enemy in a restaurant, dropping a chandelier on the Cardinals guards, or kicking dirt into the beach bully’s eyes are all examples.

As a side note, I have noticed that combat in the d20 system has a tendency to be short lived. 2-4 rounds are the average for my gaming group. I’m wondering if this makes players less likely to take advantage of Approved Actions? The carrot-on-the-stick for Approved Actions is to acquire new cards when you need them most – in combat. If the combat ends too soon then the players won’t bother, knowing that a full hand is coming their way when the combat ends. In my opinion that is exactly what I am seeing in this regard so far. To correct this I am thinking of allowing a refill of hands only so often…

benedict

 

[Benedict]

Bibliophile,

TORG (That Other Roleplaying Game) came out in May of 1990, a product of West End Games. The setting is a meta-genre mix. The Earth has been attacked by other realities where different laws of nature hold sway. There is a Horror Setting, a Cyberpunk Setting, a Pulp Setting, a Savage World Setting, a Fantasy Setting, and a Cybernetic Inquisition Setting. The players play character from Core Earth and the Invading realms trying to stop the High Lords from despoiling the Earth and robbing it of it's "possibilities". --whew!

The cards

There are 156 cards in a TORG deck.
--Every card has a line for Initiative in a standard encounter.
--Every card has a line for Initiative in a dramatic encounter.
--On the initiative lines there are sometimes descriptors that modify the actions of the heroes and/or villains.
--Each card has an "action line" that indicates 2 actions that the players can perform to earn an extra card (they sometimes expend cards to enhance their actions and need to refill their hand somehow) for their hand of 4 cards.
--The Players End of the Card: This end of the card has a positive modifier that players can use in actions; Subplots that they can call into play for their benefit; and cards that work a lot like action points.

--rewhew!

benedict

 

[Gargoyle]

Test – (Test of Wills) There is no good equivalent to this one in d20 Modern. And it’s got a very sketchy description in the original TORG rulebook. I don’t have a very good idea for converting this. I think I will ignore the appearance of the TEST result for now.

I never really liked Test of Wills in Torg anyway, it was too much like Intimidate. Maybe (in d20 Torg) some uses of the Reality feat could be the approved actions when a Test of Wills comes up. Causing a contradiction without disconnecting or invoking a reality storm might be approved actions for ToW. Doesn't help in a non-Torg d20 Modern game that happens to be using the cards, I know, just thinking out loud...

As a side note, I have noticed that combat in the d20 system has a tendency to be short lived. 2-4 rounds are the average for my gaming group. I’m wondering if this makes players less likely to take advantage of Approved Actions? The carrot-on-the-stick for Approved Actions is to acquire new cards when you need them most – in combat. If the combat ends too soon then the players won’t bother, knowing that a full hand is coming their way when the combat ends. In my opinion that is exactly what I am seeing in this regard so far. To correct this I am thinking of allowing a refill of hands only so often…

benedict

Yes, the length of combat seems shorter. I think in d20 Torg it won't be so short though, because of the abundance of action points. It's something I'm looking forward to playtesting the heck out of...

One thing about the approved actions is that in Torg they need to draw a lot of cards to build a killer hand for the dramatic scenes. I don't know how you're building your adventures, but if you use the rules for standard and dramatic scenes, and the dramatic scenes are built to be very challenging, the players will learn to use approved actions to prepare for those scenes. Often they'll hoard drama, hero, opponent fails, and rally cards for those tough combats. So the carrot-on-a-stick isn't merely for the current encounter, it's for later on in the adventure.

 

[Gargoyle]

I've never played TORG and have only a slight, brief idea of what it's about. However, these cards people are mentioning sound interesting if just to include them in a normal d20 modern game. Could somebody give me a breakdown of the cards/how to use them and a brief description of TORG?

Benedict gave a good rundown. Check out this site for more info:

http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~jogle/TORG/index.html

You can also still buy Torg and the cards directly from West End Games, at http://www.westendgames.com

 

[Gargoyle]

Oh, and by the way, my messageboards (including the d20 Torg board) are currently down...my webhost is working on the issue.

(Earlier my e-mail and the whole website were down...arrrgghh)

Edit: The boards are back up now...

 

[Benedict]

Gargoyle,

Have you added the cards to your game yet? If so, how did they work for your gaming group?

benedict

 

[Gargoyle]

Nope, I'm just finishing up a long running campaign, and after talking to my players about it I decided not to change gears right at the end. After this weekend I'm going to do it though. The only problem I have is that a lot of my games are playtests, and I don't want to use the cards when playtesting a regular d20 product. So I probably won't get to use them as much as I would like...

James

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

A side note:
Playtesting - if more people would do it, we would have more good products. So more power to you, Gargoyle...

Mustrum Ridcully