It’s time for another ready-to-run (ish) one-shot, this time for Ulysses Spiel’s remaster of frankly bonkers 90s multigenre pulp action TTRPG, TORG Eternity. Those of you unfamiliar with the utter gonzo-ness of this setting could do well to start with it’s wikipedia page, but in brief – invaders another dimensions take over the world, and change reality to reflect their own worlds. America become prehistory, Britain becomes D&D-ish fantasy, much of Asia becomes post-apocalyptic Tharkhold, etc etc. 

Large parts of continental Europe (and Brazil) are overtaken by one of the freshest (read: weirdest) takes on cyberpunk in the gaming landscape, the Cyberpapacy, where priests seek out heretics through the holy Godnet. It’s my favourite part of the setting, so I went for it for this one-shot I ran at Grogmeet (and originally at Virtual Grogmeet). 

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Con Pitch

This was the blurb I sent in to attract willing players to the game – a quick overview. More on con pitches here. 

Storm Knights, the Delphi Council needs you! Deep in the heart of the Cyberpapacy, we’ve heard from a senior Godnet programmer who wants to defect – trouble is, we lost contact with him soon after the transmission came in, and we’ve lost contact with the local Resistance fighters in Paris too. 

Losing contact in the surveillance state of the Cyberpapacy usually means something is very wrong – can you find and rescue the programmer and his vital knowledge, all the while evading the attentions of the Cyberpope Jean Malreux

Torg Eternity is an updated version of multiversal 1990 RPG TORG, where the earth has become the battleground for a gaggle of invading universes. You’ll play pulp avengers, dwarf warriors, mighty wizards and beat cops tracking trying to save the world! This is on the crunchier end of systems – it was the 1990s – but we’ll tackle it together, no prior experience needed. Assemble, Storm Knights!

Intro and CATS

When I’m running a system with a funky setting and/or rules, I like to prep my CATS introduction so I know I’ll get my players on the same page. More on CATS from The Gauntlet here.

Concept – TORG is a multi-genre system – Earth has been invaded by alternate realities led by the Gaunt Man – they seek to drain Earth’s energy – its Possibilities – for themselves. Each of the High Lords controls part of the world and twists it to their reality – the laws of physics change in these areas, kept stable by stelae – anchor points for these realities. Egypt – Dr Mobius / pulp adventure, USA – Baruk Kaah – prehistoric Lost Lands, UK – Uthorion, fantasy fiction, France – Jean Malreaux, the Cyberpope – initially sought to lead the fight, it was only later revealed he was a High Lord himself. You are Storm Knights – people with enough possibility energy to cross the axioms and operate anywhere, and you’re leading the resistance against the high lords. Superheroic genre-bending high adventure.

Aim – To have a fun one-shot! We’ll be pretty condensed and do some heavy scene framing so we cut to the chase. TORG is pretty rules-heavy but we’ll tackle it together.

Tone – High adventure. It’s light in tone, and the “evil antipope” thing isn’t a cutting commentary on the Catholic church, it’s just a cool idea that’s not been thought through that much.

Safety – X Card, Open Table

Prelude – Mission Briefing 

Once the pregens are selected – and I used the TORG Eternity standard ones – I did a quick tour of the character sheet and then launched into this as a way to start the game off.

As the scene opens, we see a shot of each of the PCs in their previous mission – which was in the UK, or Aylse, so fantasy D&D – what do we see each of you doing?

We cut to a plane flying across the channel – dragons are visible in the distance over Aylse – and your mission is read out to you.

This is Auguste Bissonette – fifth-tier programmer in the service of the Godnet – reality-rated, and we think he’s a Storm Knight. He sent an encrypted signal from inside Paris saying he wants to defect – but then we lost contact. We’ve not been able to get in touch with the local resistance either – but your contact there, Arlette Berger, should be helpful if you can make contact. Paris has fallen, remember – it used to be Core Earth, but the Cyberpope Jean Malreaux took over it. We’re dropping you in the countryside to the south so you can trek in without attracting too much attention hopefully – but take care! We believe Paris has been overtaken very quickly by the new reality – GodNet is everywhere!

With that, your cyberchutes are installed and you drop to the countryside.

Scene 1 – Parisien Countryside – Standard Scene

I’ve structured this to introduce skill checks and lead into a relatively easy training fight (although TORG is rigged well in favour of the PCs, it can be swingy) to learn the rules. Gosporg of the first planting are the bog-standard adversaries of the setting – I made them vineyard-flavoured here, showing my lack of knowledge of wine regions by assuming there are vineyards near Paris in the future.

Ruined farmhouses and the last vestiges of farming sit here, with grapes dying on the vine and an odd smell of industrial waste – as this place is filled with the pollution that is kept out of Paris. You can see the city glow in the distance, and there’s movement around the site – shapes left here to keep intruders out.

You need to proceed carefully towards Paris without attracting attention – for which I’ll need a skill check from all of you. How are you doing it? You could use Stealth to keep low to the ruins, or Find to search for the best route in – or even Computers to access GodNet and try and find a breach point. Either way, this will be Standard difficulty – target number 10.

As you pick your ways, you can see a spot where a vineyard opens into the city- but as you sneak up, you see from the vineyards a group of plant-like people – Gospog, the seeds left by The Gaunt Man for all his High Lords.

There are N+number of failures Gospog, where N is the number of PCs.

They close to melee quickly crawling out of the vineyards. After they are despatched, they can make their way into Paris

S2 – Finding Arlette and the Resistance – Standard Scene

As they approached Paris, I wanted to give them a Dramatic Task to locate Arlette. The sketch below showed what sort of skills I expected them to use, but at the table both times I was pretty flexible and let them lead the narration with what they wanted to do. I do love a Skill Challenge, and the Dramatic Task system works really well.

This is couched in a dramatic task.

Step A – you need to search for a way through the slums while avoiding the constant surveillance – DN 10 Stealth

It is clear there is still some resistance activity here – although finding anything is impossible without hacking the network

Step B – you need to hack the Godnet to find Arlette. This is a Computers check at DN 12

You see that GodNet appear to be reporting on flushing resistance members out of the city centre

Step C – you need to find her in the maze of tiny streets. This is DN 10 Find.

As you make your way through them they are mazes and strange things lie within.

Step D – you have found her – surrounded by loyalists – get her out of there – DN 12 Persuasion / Trick.

As usual, you have 5 rounds to achieve this – using the Drama Deck for pacing. 

Failure results in a squad of Church Police Streetbeaters ambushing  – wherever they are, mistaking them for the resistance. There are 6 of them, and they attack immediately, and they are accompanied by a Priest.

S3 – Into the Catacombs – Standard Scene (optional)

I added this when I realised I’d have 4 players and that it was quite difficult to know how long combats etc would take – if I had time, I’d have this mini-dungeon for them to navigate, if not, they can sneak into the catacombs with a group skill check and proceed to the final montage. 

Arlette explains that the resistance, with Arlette, are being held in the Catacombs – but the Church are all over them, so they will have to be careful. She gestures towards an entrance nearby – can the PCs get in? I sketched a point-crawl map of the dungeon, which I now can’t find, but you’ve got enough below to help you navigate. 3.3 is where they need to get to, 3.5 is a useful dead end. I used the excellent Bite-Sized Dungeons resource from Marcia B’s excellent Traverse Fantasy blog  to design this, and you can see it in the point-crawl map below.

3.6 Entrance – an entrance has a squad (6) of streetbeaters and a pair of Boost Dogs – can you distract them? Leads through to 3.4

3.4 You come to a water exchange plant – there’s a damaged boat that looks to be serviceable – and some serviceable cyberlungs you could use to dive – into the water there’s a route to 3.3 which needs a DN 12 Find roll to locate, or an obvious over-water route to 3.2

3.2 Has numerous runes and markings carved on the wall – DN 12 Streetwise to interpret them (+2 if from Cyberpapacy) show them indicating danger in both directions. North to 3.5 or W to 3.1

3.1 The ceiling is rigged to fall if disturbed as the water drops off. DN10 Dexterity or 10+1BD damage. Route to 3.3

3.3 Contains the resistance stronghold- just as it is attacked by a squad of Streetbeaters (2 per PC) – can they rescue them?

3.5 Contains a terrified Streetbeater surrounded by 8 Gospog of the First Planting – he will gladly defect if rescued. Pierre Bonnemarche is a true believer, but could be tricked into helping the PCs or convinced to join the resistance with a good social skill check and appropriate roleplaying.

S3 – Auguste the Programmer – Dramatic Scene

The finale begins with a 13th Age montage across Paris and ends with a big fight – in both times I’ve run this I’ve wanted to beef up the opposition based on the players developing a level of system mastery before facing this opposition, so feel free to have another wave of streetbeaters show up after the first round.

The revolutionaries says they had Auguste, but he … escaped. Something strange happened to him; he didn’t seem himself, and he said something about it being too dangerous for the rest of them being there. He managed to take a lot of the heat off him though, although he did seem a bit ill – with a temperature? A Faith test DC 10(or Reality DC12) shows this as a sign of demonic possession. He said something about trying to return to the point of the stelae – which is the Eiffel tower

It’s time to race to the Eiffel tower – barrate a 13th age-style montage to the Eiffel tower. As they arrive, they find him caught in the middle of a ritual – as ashen-faced watchers watch him writhe and buckle at the base. It will be a DC 14 Faith check to exorcise him – remember others can help the (presumably) renegade priest do this.

Upon success, the demon is ripped from his body and attacks – as a streetbeater wagon arrives with 8 streetbeaters and a Church Police Paragon “They have released a demon! They must be eliminated!” 

The PCs must fight both police and demon before their extraction craft arrives!

End the session with a brief scene with each player narrating what they do to celebrate having saved Paris.

Have you run TORG: Eternity? Any questions about how this runs in play, or my approach to session design? Comment below, and let me know what other one-shots you’d like to see on the blog.