Torg is a role-playing game released by West End Games in 1990.

Contents

1 Game description 2 Notable features 3 Game history 4 External links

Game description

Torg is a cinematic multi-genre RPG which at the time of its release used several innovative techniques. Players take the role of Storm Knights, deliberately larger-than-life heroes engaged in fighting the invasion of Earth, to prevent it being conquered by several invading dimensions (called cosms), each with its own separate reality; cosms largely correspond with popular roleplaying genres.

Notable features

• Deriving enjoyment from how characters, equipment, and environments of the various realities interact, such as having Terminator-style futuristic cyborgs adventure alongside Dungeons & Dragons-style mages in an Indiana Jones-style pulp setting.
• Playing a game with an explicitly epic or 'cinematic' overtone (as in Star Wars or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as opposed to RPGs like Vampire The Masquerade or Dungeons & Dragons).
• A unified mechanics system suitable for any setting; character attributes and game mechanics use a single sliding scale ('18' can equally mean an hour of time, a truckload of weight, an expert markman's skill, or $4,000) and a unified method of task resolution involving a d20.
• The game's backstory involves 'possibility energy', which can be used by Storm Knights to achieve heroic feats. In the game mechanics a spent possibility gives a player a chance to make an additional role, and higher achievement is expected. A deck of cards helps players to role their character dramatically, too. Some of these cards can be used instead of Possibility energy.
• Emphasis on groupwork and character interaction by exchange and giving of cards.

Game history

Torg initially achieved some success in a saturated market. However, various factors such as poor quality control in new products, a large amount of required game material to purchase, and unwillingness to use the Internet as a medium, meant that by 1994 only a few hardcore fans remained. Various sales of the property and failed attempts at resurrecting the game ensued. As of 2004, Torg is again under ownership of West End Games (although WEG itself is under new ownership) and a new version is under development.

External links

• Official site (http://www.westendgames.com/html/plytorg.html)
• Product list (http://www.westendgames.com/html/torgcat.html)
• Definitive fan site by Torg aficionado Kansas Jim (http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~jogle/TORG/index.html)
• The pioneering Torg fan site by Jasyn Jones. (http://darleyconsulting.com/games/stormknights/)

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Torg is also the name of the protagonist of the long-running webcomic Sluggy Freelance.