Editing SGA 2003 Archive (section)

=TORG=
; Game System
: [http://www.westendgames.com/torg/indextorg.html TORG]
; Pitch
:Anybody up for Monday TORG?
:There'll be jungle mist, monster trucks, one of those big firefighting seaplanes, dinosaurs, a mountain lake hideaway, an Egyptian megalomaniac, ticking bombs, shootouts, swordfights, and, provisionally, syphillis.
:Characters will be provided. All you need bring is a d20.
::<blockquote style="background:aliceblue; border:1px solid black; padding:1em">Syphilis?  I have no goddamn idea what I was thinking when I sent this out.</blockquote>
; Game Master
:Johnzo
; Players
:Laura, Matt Wilson, Matt Borselli, and others. 
; Characters
: A bunch of templated guys.  I remember there was a lizardman and a mountie.  Maybe a wizard too.
; Date
: Monday, May 19, 2003
; Technical Notes
: 
; Recaps
: There wasn't much to this scenario.  It was just a tryout of the rules with several combat scenes, seeing how the oddball cards worked, etc.  The rules seemed to work fine.
: The only concrete thing I remember was that the lizardman came with a minigun that did completely ridiculous damage--it sawed a tyranosaur in half with one shot.  Plus there was a helicopter shootdown too.
; Player Thoughts
: '''Matt B.:''' I must say that I had a great time! As Keebler the Edinos, I got a good grasp of the system (Yet another that I must pick up, I fear).  And while poor Keebler took the final plunge in the plane, he was happy to see his companions Simon (the gadgeteer) and Holfgate (the Victorian big game hunter) parachute to safety.

:Especially memorable moments:

** Sgt. McKensie of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ramming a halftrack with the PCs transport (a bus).
** Simon rescuing a wounded man while utilizing his invisiblility device.
** Sgt. McKensie calling for the bad guys to surrender as Holfgate blows one away with his elephant gun.
** Keebler taking out a T Rex with the minigun amidst an Edinos attack.
** Phenomenal rolls by the Mage with psychic abilities.
** Simon and Holfgate clamoring aboard the plane and confronting Dr. Zarkon, while Keebler and the Mage try again and again to bring the plane down!
** Keebler jumping on the front nose of the plane and lobbing grenades into the cockpit (only one of which the co-pilot missed - to his detriment).
** Sgt. McKensie facing off alone against a tank!
** The vicious fight between Dr. Zarkon and Holfgate. Holfgate stabs Zarkon and Zarkon strangles Holfgate with his bare hands!
** Simon disarming the deadly bomb while sparring with Dr. Zarkon, culminating with Simon leaping from the plane with an unconscious Holfgate as the plane with Dr. Zarkon and Keebler plunges to the jungle below.

: Will Zarkon be back? That's up to Johnzo . . . .

: '''Laura:''' I also had a lot of fun. I noticed that there seemed to be a big advantage to playing someone from the particular curio? we were fighting in. Since Simon new the technology and the language he was able to do a lot.

: I was sorry that Allan's Mage character ended up not being able to do much at the end of the game.

: '''Matt W.:''' Hey Matt, you forgot one:

** Sgt. McKensie - writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear.

:I had a few beefs with Torg showing it's kludgy age, but I did think it was pretty smooth the way Johnzo slipped Laura's "Personal Stake" card in as a subplot.

:I think it would be cool to have a card deck that's purely subplots.

:The card deck in general was pretty interesting, though I think I'd tweak it to allow a broader definition of approved actions (for example, I'd have "maneuver" mean any sort of strategic movement), so that players aren't doing dumb things just to get cards.

:And as far as the deck determining initiative, I warmed up to it fairly well. I didn't use it for that when I ran Shatterzone, but I think I would if for some reason I ever ran that game again.

:Johnzo says he'd consider running Torg with the Hero Wars rules. I'd be up for that.

; Additional GM Thoughts
:Torg had long been a bridesmaid game of mine so it was fun to try it out.  Maybe TORG in 2006?