TheRPGSite

[Revised Living Land, pt. 1]

For the last... well, over a decade, I've been revamping Torg material for my own campaign, called Storm Knights. Rules and ideas have been posted to the Torg List, the WEG forums, and (most recently) Google Plus (#Torg).

Several of them seem like they'd be of use to Torg fans. I want to begin with revised Axioms and World Laws for the Living Land.

First, a critique.

Variety is the Spice of Life (But Missing From the Living Land)

Recently, I re-read the Living Land Sourcebook, cover to cover. I found some problems.

One of the adventure seeds has this line in Act One: "[The players] wander around for a while, hunting for food and fending off beasts - typical Living Land stuff." Then the entirety of Act 2 is "Traveling to New York. Monsters, fighting, food." That's an entire Act.

These two Acts illustrate the problem with the Living Land: the lack of variety. The Living Land is, according to the Sourcebook as written, intended to be repetitive. The same thing, over and over.

It's an endless series of die rolls. Example:

Every 15 minutes of travel, you make a direction sense skill check. If you fail, the GM records each check you failed, and in order to get anywhere, you have to make a single success for every single failure.

Let's say that, Deep Mist and dinosaurs be damned, you can make 60 MPH on a highway in the LL. The first sample adventure involves a trip from Detroit, MI to Liberty, OH. According to Google Maps, that's a 4 hour drive. Assuming you can go that fast, that's 16 direction sense checks. Sixteen.

It's a 226 mile journey. Humans can walk about 3 mph. Assuming 24 miles a day (a long distance), this means they're walking 8 hours a day, and will get there in 9 days. That's 32 checks each day, 288 checks in all.

288 skill checks — at a minimum, because you can't fail a single one — is not fun. I cannot believe that anyone would find this interesting or compelling, or that it provides the fast-paced "Die Hard" experience a Torg game should.

And that's just one rule! There's also the daily survival rolls. Then there's the food issue. Then there's the "you lose your stuff" issue. And the Deep Mist. And others, all of which are intended to affect every single scene of every single act set in the Reality.

Tedious. Repetitive. Not fun.

This problem springs from the cosm's inspiration. The reality was heavily based on only 2 books, "Pellucidar", about Tarzan traveling to the Hollow Earth, and "The Lost World", about Professor Challenger on a dinosaur filled plateau.

The things that happened in those books — getting lost, losing your stuff, and other frustrations — became the entirety of the Reality.

Modules in the Living Land are supposed to, by deliberate design, repeat the experiences of those novels over and over. Different MacGuffins, but the same exact experience repeated to infinity.

My thesis — since confirmed by everyone who's commented on it — was that those who loved the Living Land rewrote the rules. And they should have. It's the only way to make the Reality interesting and playable.

They changed the bad rules and concentrated on what could be fun and entertaining. The next message contains new rules, new World Laws, based on the following approach:

The Living Land: The Lost Worlds Reality

[Note: I'm not sure how often to update the thread. There's not a small amount of material, and I want to get it all posted, without overwhelming anyone reading. Right now, I'm updating twice a day, several hours apart. Let me know if that's too fast or too slow.]

[Revised Living Land, pt. 2]

So, the World Laws of the Living Land are boring and repetitive. How do we fix them?

We chuck all of the World Laws and replace them with new ones, beginning with the following.

The Perils of a Living Land

Takta Ker is a vast, untamed wilderness filled with dangers. To those traveling here, or even just trying to survive, the wilderness is a dangerous place.

These dangers are called Perils, and there are an awful lot of them. They are a constant challenge.

(Some examples are given below. Gamemasters are encouraged to think up new and unique twists on these Perils.)

This World Law states that, once per Scene a Peril will occur. This Peril can either serve as a distraction, as an additional layer of opposition, or it can provide the main opposition for a Scene or Act. The gamemaster should plan potential Perils ahead of time, and link them to the events of the module.

The setting of the Living Land provides a great many potential Perils. The party might get lost, and have to find their way back to familiar surroundings. There can be natural obstacles, such as a swamp, a river valley, a mountain range. Just traversing these areas is challenging.

Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions can occur, even in tectonically stable locales. Rockslides, mudslides, and avalanches are also possible events.

Inclement weather, like tornadoes, thunderstorms, or hurricanes can threaten the party. Beware the empty riverbed — a flash flood is likely not far off.

Jakatts or Rek Stalek worshippers can attack. Perhaps they encounter a group of hostile refugees. Or one of the many creatures of the Living Land can make an appearance. Or perhaps lethal plantlife. ("Poppies! Poppies will make them sleepy.")

They may lose important equipment, or find that it breaks down. They may run out of bullets or fuel. They can run out of food or water (or find either spoiled) and have to forage for supplies. They may become sick or poisoned, or may suffer from a broken bone or sprained ankle.

There are many different potential Perils — but only one per Scene.

The first rule of Perils is this: "Make them interesting". Pick something that adds to the spectacle of the Living Land, that reinforces the primitive nature of the reality, and also serves as a challenge. An example:

To get to their destination, the players must traverse an immense chasm. While they are doing so, the first winds of a hurricane begin to blow and rain falls, making the rock slick. And lurking in the chasm below is a thriving ecosystem of giant insects.

Having to cross a vast chasm, making climb checks (perhaps as a DSR), while a hurricane is approaching and the rain is making the rocks slick, while in the chasm below lurk giant insects, is visceral and exciting. All Perils should be interesting and exciting.

The second rule of Perils is "Don't repeat yourself." Always look for new things to use as Perils. Don't so the same thing every time. Even if you use the same Peril in succeeding Scenes or different modules, each time it appears it should have a unique twist.

The third rule is "Pick something challenging, but not overwhelming." The players should find it difficult to deal with, but not find it frustrating. If necessary, the gamemaster can combine two Perils to make it more challenging — such as a thick fog that hinders sight and serves as a cover for an attack by creatures.

Perils are supposed to add to the Living Land's sense of adventure, and are not supposed to be burdensome or boring. They should be unique and varied and seldom repeated.

Analysis

As written, the Living Land is boring. The same obstacles (mist, losing stuff, food, etc.) exist constantly and there is no variety. This single World Law takes all the constant obstacles and makes them into "when appropriate", occasional events. This is utterly necessary.

The chasm idea above is a cool idea, but having to do it each and every Scene in the Living Land is boring and burdensome. The same goes for getting lost, losing equipment, and other elements of the current World Laws. Rather than spicing up the adventure, they become burdens.

This World Law takes the burdens of the Living Land and transforms them into virtues. It introduces a panoply of possible Perils. But only one significant Peril per Scene or Act.

You will get lost... in one Scene. In the next, it may be a vast chasm, a tribe of Rek Jakutta, or a herd of rampaging herbivore dinosaurs being chased by fast carnivores.

The Living Land needs natural perils. It needs the feel of a difficult struggle to survive. Page 99, Sourcebook: "In the Living Land life is more savage, and unglamorous day-to-day survival is the norm."

That's fine. That's perfect. But the implementation in the Sourcebook sucks.

So take every single existing Living Land World Law and throw them in the trash. They are all smaller parts of "The Perils of a Living Land". This one World Law implements all of the features we know, in a way that enhances the variety of the Reality.

The next two parts add some new elements to the mix.

[Revised Living Land, pt. 3]

Two more World Laws, for a better Living Land.

Lanala's Love of Life

This is the Living Land, a place that is teeming with Life. The Goddess of the world, Lanala, wills life to thrive and her will suffuses the whole world.

1.) Giant creatures exist here, in defiance of the laws of physics. Both mammals and insects can grow to sizes impossible elsewhere.

2.) The verdant plants of this reality grow with incredible speed. In a matter of weeks, they can cover buildings with growth that would normally take decades. This can cause severe property damage. As well, what grows isn't the native plant life of Core Earth, but plants of Takta Ker. The Living Land terraforms invaded worlds.

3.) The climate of the invaded Realm changes to match the humid and hot jungles that cover most of Takta Ker. This has a great deal of effects on local wildlife.

4.) For worshippers of Lanala, surviving in this wilderness is far easier than its perils would indicate. All worshippers of Lanala gain 1 add in survival as soon as they convert. In addition, survival DN's in the LL are one step lower for Jakatts.

5.) Lanala abhors non-living tools. Jakatts who use dead tools have a -3 Bonus Modifier when they do so. Those who use living tools (such as a hrockt spear) have a +3 Bonus Modifier when they do so.

(These bonuses are inverted for followers of Stalek. Stalek loves non-living tools.)

The Relics of Lost Worlds

The Living Land has invaded and conquered many cosms. In each cosm, the forces of Life inevitably overcome those of Death. Their buildings are torn down, their Dead things lost, and they themselves convert to worship of Lanala or die.

Lanala wishes all to be reminded of what happens to those who choose Death. By her will, a tiny remnant of the civilization is preserved, that her people can remember each victory and rejoice in the inevitable advancement of Life. Such relics are protected from the Perils of a Living Land and even the forces of Life (plants and creatures of the reality). Lanala wants this small remnant to survive.

As a result, the Living Land is filled with ruins and relics from those forgotten civilizations, including Core Earth. Here and there, Storm Knights will stumble across a strange building, obviously alien in origin, that has been engulfed by this reality. In such buildings they may find tools, pieces of artwork, or other remnants of the forgotten past.

The first civilization destroyed by the eidenos was the Ustanah, and Ustanah ruins dot Takta Ker. Due to this World Law, they can be found on Core Earth as well. As can buildings from the world of the Benthe, and many other cosms.

How does this happen? When the Living Land invades, Reality Storms transform Core Earth buildings and tools into those of destroyed cosms. And, when an invasion has finished, this World Law ensures that ruins of those destroyed civilizations appear on Takta Ker.

Part of the Lost World genre is discovering and plundering the ruins of ancient and forgotten civilizations. That includes scavenging Core Earth buildings that have been swallowed by the verdant plant growth of the Living Land. But it also includes ruins of the Ustanah, the Benthe, and many other cosms. And for those looking to "bake in" secrets for their game, the Ustanah ruins are a prime location to hide clues to those secrets.

[Revised Living Land, pt. 4]

Axioms and the Lost Worlds Reality

The last piece of the puzzle, in terms of revising the Canon setting, is to adjust the axioms. As with several other Realities, the axioms given in the material are very different from what is on display in the cosm.

For example, Tech. (All examples assume the R&E Tech axiom.) The Tech is listed a 7, which is the Bronze Age. Metal mining, metal smelting, a host of tools the Living Land just doesn't have. Axiom 5 is the Agricultural revolution, when people began planting fields of crops and harvesting them, which lead to the appearance of cities.

Neither are appropriate for the nomadic tribes of the Living Land and neither match what is on display in the Sourcebook. A "3" does.

Similar objections apply to the Social axiom as well. For those looking to reflect what exists in the cosm, the following axioms are a better match.

Magic: 0
Social: 5
Spirit: 24
Tech: 3

Using these axioms changes nothing, but it reflects the real Tech and Social of the canon Living Land.

I see what you're doing here. Pretty good. I like the revision. Certainly goes in the right direction.

Rewriting The Living Land: The Lost Worlds Reality

The World Laws and axioms presented thus far can be, and should be, used with the canon Living Land. (That is, the Living Land Sourcebook can be used as-is, without needing to rewrite anything.) They do entail changes, but the changes are for the better. But these World Laws don't go far enough in making the Living Land a playable setting.

This thread will cover a lot of suggestions for revamping the Living Land. In order to make it easier for GM's to do so, I've sorted them in increasing order of magnitude, separated into their own "series" of posts.

1. Revised Living Land — this series.

2. Rewriting the Living Land — changes to the religion and setting, to make it playable.

3. Amping-up the Living Land — adding new abilities and powers, to give players more options and to better reflect the Spirit Axiom.

4. Lifecrafting — a new FX system, that gives the Reality something unique.

5. Lost Worlds of the Living Land — a pretty radical addition, that makes the cosm something more than just "that primitive place".

6. Secrets of Takta Ker — a change beyond anything you'd imagine.

Staggered this way, GM's can choose which alterations to use (if any), and choose how radically to change the Living Land.

(Like I said, there's more than a few posts. I'll be making one or two a day, so as not to overwhelm people.)

Interesting stuff DW.

Quote from: Benoist;663037I see what you're doing here. Pretty good. I like the revision. Certainly goes in the right direction.

Thank you.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;663039Interesting stuff DW.

Thanks. :)

Honestly, I'm waiting to see people's reactions to the Lost Worlds idea (series #5). It's pretty out-there, even for Torg.

The Living Land: The Land of Lost Luggage

Quote from: James Gillen;663074The Living Land: The Land of Lost Luggage

Not any more. :)

(But yeah, that "you lose your stuff" rule was obnoxious in the extreme. Hated it. And I was the GM.)

Well, in retrospect, a lot of the problem is that The Living Land was the first of the realm books.  And it shows.  It didn't even have a format for World Laws, it just had stuff like the rule of lost luggage.

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;663093Well, in retrospect, a lot of the problem is that The Living Land was the first of the realm books.  And it shows.  It didn't even have a format for World Laws, it just had stuff like the rule of lost luggage.

Plus it was being written at the same time as the boxed set, the novel trilogy, and the first adventures were, on a very compressed timetable. (There was an excellent article in Journeys magazine talking about it.) The timetable problems also show with the artwork.

And there was vision problems, as the game being tested wasn't the one that got shipped. Scott Palter, the then owner of WEG and Publisher said "The creatives knew what they meant even if the book said something different." They playtested what was in their minds, and not what was on the page.

And there was no time to fix it. WEG's internal processes were a little dysfunctional. Palter: "[Senior staff had] little impact on the details of the products... there was a running joke between myself and the licensing manager that there was some magic eighth day of the week products finalized on. We would see details we didn't like and be told that as they didn't effect play why not fix them later. Then the magic eighth day would happen and any change however small would mean that we missed release date."

The time crunch, creatives not writing what was being tested, and dysfunctional culture all combined to produce one of the worst sourcebooks for Torg (not the worst, unfortunately), and a thoroughly uninteresting setting. (The least popular Reality, IIRC, based on a survey of Torg players.)

Rewriting the Living Land [pt. 1]

The first series was a revised Living Land — new Axioms and World Laws that make it a more playable setting. This series concentrates on actually rewriting the background of the cosm, to make it more playable.

This series is canon-friendly. Lanala and Rek Stalek are the only gods, and though the Living Land has new World Laws and axioms, no changes suggested in later series need apply.

Beginning

I like the Living Land. Despite that, the original sourcebook failed to deliver a compelling version of the cosm.

Of particular problem was the participation of edeinos characters in the war. The edeinos are the enemy, they mass murder with casual, cheerful commitment. The heat of battle gives them pleasure, and Earthers are Dead people anyway, walking corpses.

More, the religion mandates that Jakatts never use, never touch Dead things. It’s anathema. So any active participation outside the Living Land is pretty much a violation of their religion.

Walking along a street? Dead thing, morally wrong. Riding in a car? Dead thing, morally wrong. Flying to another Reality? Dead thing, morally wrong.

These are the kind of offenses edeinos kill others for, and yet to participate in the Wars, they simply have to do them. That’s a problem.

(I used to think their inhuman nature was a problem. I don’t any more. A couple of years ago I realized that, in the P-wars, people would quickly come to realize what edeinos were, and they’d be a known factor, not a scary alien. So just being a scale isn’t the problem I once thought it was. But the religion and culture of the Living Land is.)

So, to make edeinos characters playable, the religion needs to be rewritten, as do the cosm's cultural details. This series of posts is about both.

Great thread. I have a huge soft-spot for TORG. I love the system (I'm an old throw back who likes "model everything" RPGs), and if it wasn't so tied to the setting I'd use it in other games. One of these days I'll try MasterBook for myself, but from what I've read in the past the changes it made from TORG are ones I would disagree with.

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;663118Plus it was being written at the same time as the boxed set, the novel trilogy, and the first adventures were, on a very compressed timetable. (There was an excellent article in Journeys magazine talking about it.) The timetable problems also show with the artwork.

Sounds like an interesting article. Is it online by any chance?

QuoteThe time crunch, creatives not writing what was being tested, and dysfunctional culture all combined to produce one of the worst sourcebooks for Torg (not the worst, unfortunately), and a thoroughly uninteresting setting. (The least popular Reality, IIRC, based on a survey of Torg players.)

I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see the Living Land come last of the original cosms, but I would expect it to put in a good showing against the later additions of Space Gods and Tharkold.

For me it was always Nile Empire. IIRC the adventure in the core box and the first adventures trilogy both leaned heavily on the Nile Empire, which then really bedded that in for me.

Quote from: Grymbok;663152Great thread.

Thanks. :)

Quote from: Grymbok;663152Sounds like an interesting article. Is it online by any chance?

Unfortunately, no. I had to buy back issues to get the Torg articles.

Quote from: Grymbok;663152For me it was always Nile Empire.

The Nile was the favorite cosm, by far. (IIRC.)

A Religion of Loving Life
[Rewritten Living Land, pt. 2]

(A new take on the edeinos religion of Life.)

Edeinos worship Life, Life in all its glory. Not sensuality, but throwing one’s self into the experiences of living.

Working hard is a joy, conversation a joy, running and leaping a joy, bearing and raising children a joy. Even times of suffering are endured, not because they are a joy in themselves, but because even in suffering there are moments of happiness that can be savored. And when it passes, one’s joy is magnified, and Life can better be appreciated.

Life in the Living Land is hard. It is hard to provide food, and many times they go hungry. The perils are many, and often Jakatts are hurt, crippled, or killed. But their religion gives them the faith to endure; all these things are for the good of the Goddess and themselves.

Enduring suffering is an offering to the Goddess, the gift of an experience. When they die, and join with the Goddess, their experiences will flow into her and she will know their pains and their joys and know they fully lived the Life She gave them.

Everything in Takta Ker is alive. The people, the animals, the plants, the waters, the air, the land. The Living Land is alive.

The Earthers use tools made of metal and stone ("iknal", in Edeinal, the edeinos language). The edeinos despise these not because they’re “dead” (stone and metals are not dead, to an edeinos), but because they lead to spiritual death.

Earther technology makes life too easy. Comfort breeds complacency, ennui, anomie. By banishing suffering, Earthers have banished joy. In Edeinal, they suffer from takrekia: losing the ability to find joy in Life.

The edeinos don’t hate iknal, or those who use them. They feel pity. They want to help the takrekiadnos (“those whose Life has rotted away”) find joy.

For those trapped in the Living Land, the edeinos help stave off attacks by wild creatures and the Rek Jakutta [next message]. They help feed those without the skills to feed themselves. And they live fully, so that those who have lost their sense of joy can witness the joy their way of life brings, and chose to join the worship of Lanala.

Jakatts do not attack, do not massacre, do not make war. They defend themselves, but do not kill.

The gotaks are very different.

A Religion of Hating Life
[Rewritten Living Land, pt. 3]

The Rek Jakutta are the dark and corrupt worshippers of Rek Stalek, the God of Death. They reject Lanala, and hate her worshippers. Their priests are known as gotaks.

There are no gotaks or Rek Jakutta in the tribes of the Jakatts (no gospog, either). The followers of Death live apart.

Worshippers of Lanala are called Jakatts, which means Children. All living things are Children of Lanala, and they follow her like a child follows their parent.

"Jakutta" are a normal part of edeinos life. They are adolescent warriors, those without a mate or a home. They wander between tribes, and are the primary hunters of whatever tribe they are currently living with.

Rek Jakutta means "Death's Hunters", those who hunt the Living. It is they who attack resistance communities. They who breed the monstrosities that afflict much of the Living Land. They attack and kill, and revel in both. They are takgonos: “those without Life.” They have no love for living, no joy in life, only a burning hatred and a desire to kill.

The enemies of Core Earth are not the tribes of Jakatts, but the tribes of Rek Jakutta. During the earliest weeks of the Invasion, people learned this. Lanala is beneficent, she helps people survive. Even Core Earthers. Rek Stalek is the Bringer of Death, and his followers are the enemies of everyone.

Baruk Kaah is a legendary figure. The first Gotak, the chief Gotak, the immortal Gotak. He leads the worshippers of Stalek. He seeks to rule all of Takta Ker, all Edeinos. He claims the title of Saar, Chief of Chiefs. He is the High Lord. He is the invader. He is the conqueror.

The tribes of Jakatts are rebels against his corrupt and dictatorial rule. They are here only to help. Everyone knows this.

All of this is true. But all of this is also a lie.

Edeinos themselves are really cool, and if this allows them to be playable, so be it.

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;663458Edeinos themselves are really cool, and if this allows them to be playable, so be it.

I hope so. The first series fixes the Reality itself, this series allows the edeinos to participate in the Wars, the third series ("Amping-up") gives them more to do.

And after that? Well, that's just some really cool shit.

The Truth Behind Baruk Kaah
[Rewritten Living Land, pt. 4]

Baruk Kaah is the High Lord, is the chief Gotak. But he (or she) is not a Rek Jakutta. He is a Jakatt.

There are seven or eight luminaries of the Jakatt tribes, called the Enlightened. People who are lauded for their service and compassion, or their stature as hunters, leaders, or peacemakers. [At some point, I'll be writing these up as characters.] One of these — the GM chooses which — is secretly Baruk Kaah.

Baruk Kaah leads both sides, uses both sides in his invasions.

When he invades, he opens maelstrom bridges for the Rek Jakutta and the creatures of his Reality. Jakatts, seeking to help the Invaded, pray to Lanala and bridges open for them. (Though not because of their prayers. Because of Baruk Kaah.)

They enter the invaded territory, and the population of Jakatts and Rek Jakutta provide enough Invaders to flip the triangle from mixed to dominant. Possibilities begin to flow.

Life in the Living Land is harsh. Even for natives. Aliens do not know how to survive, so would die off in great numbers.

The Jakatts change all that. They take in aliens, or help teach resistance communities how to hunt and fish, which plants to eat and which to avoid. They provide miracles from Lanala, which helps them to survive.

Because they survive, Baruk Kaah can drain Possibilities even faster.

Baruk Kaah hasn't changed the Lanalan religion. He doesn't have to. He uses it to further his own goals.

He uses the Rek Jakutta the exact same way. He is manipulating the Rek Jakutta as much or more than the Jakatts.

Saar isn't an edeinos word, and "chief of chiefs" isn't an edeinos concept. Saar came from a near-Earth cosm, is of the same derivation as Kaisar or Tzar (originally "Caesar"). He uses the office, not because he actually seeks the position, but to motivate the Rek Jakutta.

He stokes their hatred of the Lanalans. He helps them create monstrosities. He leads them into battle. They think they are going to conquer the Living Land, and eradicate the worship of Lanala. They think their grand leader, Baruk Kaah, will actually become the Saar.

But all their efforts only drive humans into the arms of the Jakatts. Where they are sheltered, and fed, and often convert. Just as Kaah wishes.

Baruk Kaah is a master strategist. He uses the strength of his enemies to bolster his own position. And uses that position to pursue his ultimate goal.

Kaah's End Game
[Rewritten Living Land, pt. 5]

The best lies are truths. The Jakatts are allies, here to help. The Rek Jakutta are enemies, here to harm.

But the interplay between the two is a smokescreen for the real plans of Baruk Kaah. He intends to Ascend, to become the third deity of Takta Ker.

When he discovers the idea of the Torg, this becomes his goal. By becoming Torg, he becomes a god. By becoming a god, he takes his rightful place by the side of Lanala. He will be her equal. Her mate. Her lover.

And when that is accomplished, they can destroy the Rek Jakutta, destroy Rek Stalek, and rule over a truly Living Land.

Conclusion
[Rewritten Living Land, pt. 6]

So, this is a reorganization of the Living Land. A Living Land that is more playable. Less monotonous. More mysterious. More interesting. With more built-in secrets GM's can let players discover, that can sway the course of the War against the Reality.

Why is this canon-friendly? Because all of the essential elements of the Living Land are there, just rewritten and reframed.

Enemy tribes in the original, still present. Friendly tribes, still present. A religion of Life, still present. Gotaks and Optants, still there. Baruk Kaah and dinosaurs, all still present. Baruk Kaah's endgame is still the same.

All of the elements of the old cosm are present, but revised to make the cosm more practical, more playable.

The revised Lanalan religion allows edeinos to participate in the War. There is no problem working with Earthers, no problem traveling in jets and cars.

There are known friendly edeinos, so edeinos are not "shoot on sight" enemies. (Not that they are warmly welcomed, but they are not automatically the enemy.)

But the convert or die is missing. The "edeinos can't go there" is missing.

This allows for playable edeinos PC's. Taken with the new World Laws, it makes the Living Land a playable reality.

More, secrets are baked in. Who is Baruk Kaah? Is he really the first Gotak? What happened with the Ustanah? And why are they still here?

(Whoops, I didn't mention that. The ustanah are still here. More secrets for another time.)

And Kaah himself isn't an idiot, he's a tactical and strategic genius. Not only is he using his Reality against the Earth, he's using the warring elements of his Reality to further his own plan.

The Sourcebook failed to deliver a compelling Living Land Reality. I think this one is better.

Next Series

The next series — "The Amped-Up Living Land" — will greatly expand Player and GM options, specifically in the area of spiritual powers: Divine Boons, Intercessions, Prophets, and Legendary Miracles.

Amping-Up the Living Land [Series #3, pt. 1]

I started this with revised World Laws and Axioms, which addressed one of the major problems with the Living Land: punitive and not-fun rules.

The second series rewrote the background of the Living Land, altering the religion and setting to make it more interesting and more playable. (And along the way, make Baruk Kaah into the ruthless, obsessive genius he should be.) But even that rewriting isn't enough. The Living Land needs more.

So, this series contains suggestions on amping-up the reality, adding elements to make it more fun and more interesting. It includes toys for players and for GM's, and some expanded setting detail that gives the cosm greater depth and a sense of history. Taken together with the previous two series, it should make the cosm really pop.

Let's start with the toys.

"Toys"

One of the things I've criticized the Living Land for is the lack of player "toys." "Toys" meaning all of the neat "crunch" players glom onto for their characters to use: magic spells, miracles, cyberware, Pulp Powers, the occult, swami, martial arts, etc. Players use toys to make their characters distinctive, to give them a unique function in the party. Hence, a good variety of toys is essential for any healthy and playable cosm.

The Nile, the gold standard for variety, had several tool sets, most of which were unique (or unique takes on standard tools): Astronomy for miracles, Engineering, Mathematics, Pulp Powers, Weird Science & more, and that was just in the cosm Sourcebook. More came later.

In contrast the Living Land had one set of "toys": miracles. Which, despite their purported axiom, were really quite weak. And if you didn't play an optant, you didn't even get those.

Hence the plethora of "edeinos gone native" and "transformed edeinos" templates. There just wasn't anything else for edeinos to do. To be interesting, non-optant edeinos had to go to other cosms. That's a problem.

One of the core ideas and goals with my "amped-up" Living Land is to give players and GM's toys to play with.

What Toys?

First are expanded options for the Spirit axiom, including Divine Boons, prophets, Divine Intercessions, and Legendary miracles. (These four being the focus of this series). Second is Lifecrafting, a versatile, interesting, and unique ability not tied to being a priest. Third is a radical approach to the Reality's lost worlds. (These latter two will appear in their own series, posted later.)

The last series will cover a high Social Living Land, and explain how a tribal society can reflect a Social 28 (oTorg) Reality. It includes even more potent tools, including meta-linguistics, the insight skill, infective norms, and predictive sociology ("psycho-history").

But that's for the "Holy Crap!" series, not this one. This one just amps up the Reality, it doesn't recast it.

Virtues of this Approach

There isn't a lot of overlap between these "toys" and the toys available elsewhere. They're fairly unique in concept and feel, so give the Living Land an identity distinct from the other cosms.

Religion is still there, and is a strong focus of the cosm, but it isn't the only thing anymore. Edeinos who want to do something else can, and can do it very well.

With lots of interesting, and different, things for players to do, the cosm will be more approachable and more interesting. It's a Living Land I'd like to play in, that I'd like to run.

Divine Boons
[Amped-Up Living Land, pt. 2]

The first step in amping up the Living Land is to make better use of its most prominent aspect: the high Spirit axiom. In the Canon version, the Spirit axiom did little. There was only one religion, and its miracles were underpowered for their Axiom rating.

Rather than just powering up the miracles (though that needs to be done, at some point), I've decided to adopt some ideas from my revised Spirit Axiom: Divine Boons, prophets, Legendary Miracles, and Divine Intercessions. These concepts provide tools for players as well as GM's.

Divine Boons

Divine Boons are powerful gifts given to certain singular individuals among the faithful. (An example would be Sampson's strength, Solomon's wisdom, or Achilles' invulnerability.) They cannot be invoked, there is no rite or prayer to grant them. They appear at the sole discretion of the Divine.

At lower Axiom levels, they are only available to singular individuals, perhaps one in a generation. (These individuals invariably become significant figures in their religion, for good or ill. It was one such individual who caused the Rek Jakutta to schism away from the Jakatts.) At the Spirit axiom of the Living Land, all characters can start with a boon. (I've included one sample boon below.)

Boons are permanent. If the character disconnects in a realm that doesn't support the Spiritual axiom of the boon, they lose its benefits until they reconnect. Once reconnected, the boon operates normally.

Boons can be revoked, however. There may be some unusual religious stricture attached to them (as with Sampson), violation of which causes a revocation of the Boon. Or the Boon may be revoked for violating the tenets of the religion. (Another reason why Series 2 altered the religious doctrines of Keta Kalles.) Followers who honestly repent may be able to regain their Boon. Some religions might require the offender to undergo a Ritual of Purification (R&E, pg. 237). In all cases, the will of the Divine (as played by the GM) is the deciding factor.

Divine Boons are not the sole province of Jakatts. DM's can use them in any cosm with a sufficient Spirit axiom (12, using the canon Spirit axiom). They are exceedingly rare in realities with a Spirit axiom less than 18 (and the Boons are far less powerful than in 18+ Realities), meaning GM's should grant such abilities once or twice in an entire campaign, if then.

Friend Form

Lanala recognizes that spreading Her word becomes difficult, if her faithful cannot converse with unbelievers. The natural form of her worshippers are often alien and frightening to others. To aid her worshippers in their endeavors, Lanala allows them to appear as other species.

This isn't a disguise, the edeinos can't choose who to look like or alter their aspect once it has manifested. The appearance is chosen by Lanala. Most often, they appear as an average member of the species, of roughly the same attractiveness as themselves.

The boon crafts their appearance so their innate abilities, if displayed, won't be remarked on. For example, a strong edeinos will appear as a muscular human, a form that one would expect to be strong.

Other Boons

At some point in the future I'll be writing up several Boons. For now, these suggestions should get you started:

GM's can peruse the miracles of the Living Land for more ideas: often, a Divine Boon includes the ability to activate a miracle at-will. Or, permanent miraculous effects, akin to Blessing Vow, but applied to other miracles can be chosen. Attribute or skill packages can be Boons, as can "powers" (something analogous to Pulp Powers, for example).

GM's can charge 3 starting PE for especially powerful Boons, or even an Adventure Cost (if they feel it's appropriate). I wouldn't, unless the Boon were very powerful, but that option is open.

In such cases, not paying the Adventure Cost means the Boon is unavailable until it it paid. As Boons are not innate, there is no "light blight", nor can such Boons be permanently lost by failing to pay PE.

Prophets and Legendary Miracles
[Amped-Up Living Land, pt. 3]

These "toys" are more for the GM than for players. Even so, they make the cosm more interesting, and give GM's new options for depicting the Reality.

Prophets

Prophets are rare individuals, with a close relationship to the Divine and immense divine power, who found, revive, or reform a religion. They are sent by the Divine (the "gods") to teach the religion's mythos and doctrine among mortals. Moses, Buddha, Muhammed — these are prophets known (or believed) to have existed on Earth. Such individuals are chosen by the Divine — never themselves — and are given specific missions to advance the religion.

Prophets are rare at low Axiom levels; there may be only one true prophet in a millenia or two. At higher levels, they become far more common (though only one at a time). On Takta Ker, there are 8 Jakatts with such a role: the Enlightened.

(Rek Stalek is thought to have at least one prominent prophet: the often-talked-about, but seldom seen Baruk Kaah. The truth, however, is far more complicated. (See Series 2.))

Prophets invariably have high faith and focus values, higher than just about any other individual in the cosm. They always possess some kind of Divine Boon (if the Axiom allows), and can be assumed to have access to any miracle the religion offers. More, they are capable of invoking Legendary Miracles.

Legendary Miracles

In addition to the more mundane rituals and prayers of other cosms, the Living Land has access to a category of miracles so powerful, they are unthinkable anywhere else. Such Legendary Miracles are not quite as imposing as a Divine Intercession (see next message), but are still far beyond the scope of everyday life. Only prophets can invoke these miracles.

A writeup of the Legendary Miracles of the Living Land can be found here: Wrath of Life (http://stormknights.arcanearcade.com/campaigns/wrathoflife.html)

[Note that the linked article references the canon religion and setting of the Living Land. GM's who are using ideas from "Rewriting the Living Land" should change those sections, as necessary.]

Here is a sample miracle from that write-up, rewritten for the revised Living Land.

Wrath of Lanala

Spiritual Rating: 24
Community Rating: 11
Difficulty: 20
Range: 100 miles
Duration: Until ended.
Effect: Grants visions to Jakatts and motivates them to attack a foe.

This miracle calls down the wrath of Lanala upon enemies of the Faith — those who would harm Jakatts. It cannot be invoked against Jakatts.

Invoking this miracle involves a ritual, one which lasts for several hours. At the end of this ritual, the Enlightened nominates one location or group of enemies and calls down the wrath of Lanala upon them. All Jakatts within range then receive a clear vision of the foe who has so offended Lanala, and a clear feeling of the direction they need to travel to reach this foe. During this travel, each Jakatt can run tirelessly, far faster than normally possible, reaching a maximum Speed Value of 13.

All Jakatts naturally respond to this miracle. However, some may wish to avoid the compulsion to attack enemies of the faith. In such cases, the faith total achieved when invoking the miracle (its Effect Value) is the Difficulty Number for a willpower check. Failure at this check means the Jakatt complies with the will of Lanala.

This miracle is exclusive: it cannot be invoked against two different targets simultaneously. It can be ended at any time, according to the will of the invoker or Lanala.

Divine Intercessions
[Amped-Up Living Land, pt. 4]

Divine Intercessions

Divine Intercessions are singular and powerful Acts of Divinity, that occur only in times of great need where the survival of the faith as a whole is threatened. Examples (from the Old Testament) include the 10 plagues inflicted on Egypt, The Flood, the destruction of the Walls of Jericho, or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. As they only appear in times of great difficulty, and are quite spectacular, such events invariably become part of the scriptures or mythos of the religion.

A Divine Intercession is something only a priest or prophet can call for, and only in circumstances where the survival of the religion, or a substantial portion of it, is threatened. Its effects are always substantial, always proof of the Divine, and always more dramatic than even the highest level success on a Divine Invocation (see pg. 229-230, R&E).

At lower Axioms, only prophets — great and singular leaders responsible for the faith as a whole — can invoke Intercessions. At the Spirit of the Living Land, any priest can (though they had better have a good reason for doing so). If the Divine so orders, individual priests can cause great calamities or blessings.

Any priest can invoke an Intercession (though the Divine has final say on if it is granted), but Intercessions are often a result of the Divine acting independently: "I'm about to wipe these two cities off the face of the map. Get moving." "Rain. A lot of it. Build a boat or you and everyone else dies."

Rules

In extreme circumstances, where the very survival of the entire religion (or large portion of it) is at stake, the Divine may act to preserve the faith in obvious and awe-inspiring ways. Flattening mountains, draining seas, opening up vast chasms — nearly anything is possible, if the Divine so wills it.

Intercessions are incredible and singular events. Whether granted at the behest of the Divine or at the request of a priest, the occurrence of an intercession is up to GM fiat.

Optants and gotaks (the priests of Lanala and Rek Stalek, respectively) can request intercession from their respective deity. In the case of PC requests, the priest should roleplay his supplication to Lanala. Based on that supplication, and the GM's knowledge of the situation (is the survival of a significant portion of the faithful threatened) he can make the decision about whether or not to grant the intercession.

Divine Intercessions typically place some burden on the faithful to perform some rite, such as blood on the doorways in Egypt, walking around Jericho 7 times, etc. Individuals who fail to perform these acts will often not be aided by the Intercession, or can even fall victim to its effects.

Divine Intercessions require a Spirit axiom of no less than 14.

[Note: This is the last post in this series. Separate series covering Lifecrafting, Lost Worlds, and the "high Social" Living Land are forthcoming.]

Crafting Life in the Living Land
[Lifecrafting, pt. 1]

Nearly every cosm sourcebook introduced an unique FX system for that reality. There was psionics from the Space Gods, the plethora of options in the Nile, the Occult from Orrorsh (plus swami, true sight, and spirit medium), Nippon Tech's Business Warfare and Martial Arts rules, and more.

Nearly every cosm. Except the Living Land.

Lifecrafting fills in that gap.

In concept, it's pretty simple. Lifecrafting allows both Jakatts and Rek Jakutta (followers of Rek Stalek) to take normal plants and animals and alter them in ways they wish. By tapping into their inherent force of Life, they can alter the Life of others. Hence, Lifecrafting.

This series discusses its history, practice, origins, and already extant place in the canon. (That's right, a wholly new FX system already implicitly exists in the cosm. Crazy, man, crazy.) Why is that important?

The Living Land needs some major surgery. Even so, I've structured this revamp to respect the original cosm: GM's can change as much or as little as they want.

Lifecrafting already exists, in an implicit way. So, introducing a full-fledged rules set isn't a radical change in the already existing background. This makes it easier for the GM to integrate into their campaign.

But What is Lifecrafting?

Life, to the edeinos, is the force that pervades the world, that animates flesh, that distinguishes a corpse from something living. But Life is not just an energy, it contains within it the essence of a thing. All that something is or can be is contained by, and defined by, its Life.

Flowers grow from seeds, their Life is what makes this so. Everything else about flowers — and all other creatures — is defined by its Life.

Specially trained edeinos can Speak to the Life of a creature and Craft it, changing what that creature is. Using this ability, the edeinos have carefully molded their environment.

Their houses are plants Crafted to grow a certain way. Carefully Crafted animals serve as transportation, others provide food. Luminescent plants provide light. All of the many needs that humans fulfill using technology, edeinos fulfill with Crafted living organisms.

Such creatures, and the use of them, is pervasive throughout edeinos culture. Nearly everything the edeinos do is aided in some way by their Living technology. It is the single sharpest distinction between human and edeinos cultures.

And it comes from Lanala. We start with a myth.

The Words of Lanala
[Lifecrafting, pt. 2]

An excerpt from the holy teachings of the edeinos:

And Lanala Crafted all Life, Speaking unto each creature knowledge of what it was and how it should live, and each creature lived according to the words She Spoke. And after She Crafted all Life, She walked among Her creations, and watched them live and grow. And Her creatures grew, and thrived, and Lanala took joy from all of them save one, for whom She feared.

For all creatures lived as She spoke, save one only. Trees knew to grow towards the sun, they needed no parent to guide them. Spiders knew how to weave webs, they needed no teacher to show them. And crosktreckts knew how to hunt in packs, they needed no elder to lead them.

Yet of all Her creatures, the edeinos had no knowledge of the words of Life, for they had forgotten them and forgotten She who spoke them, and so they wandered in ignorance under the sun, separate and alone and in pain. Seeing the afflictions of Her children, Lanala was moved to mercy, and She stretched forth her Hand that She might heal the wounds of these, Her children.

Among the trees She found a wounded edeinos, far from his camp, starving and nearly dead. She lifted him from the jungle floor and carried him in Her arms, placing him in the crook of a limb of a tall, aged tree. She spoke to all Life in the jungle, and gave it a charge to protect and harbor the stricken hunter. She said that when he was well, She would return. And all Life bowed, and gave obeisance to the Goddess, and protected and succored he whom She had blessed.

The edeinos thirsted, and the vines caught the rains and gave him drink. The edeinos hungered, and the creatures of the jungle gave him food. The edeinos knew fear, and the tree grew tall, and lifted him high above the forest floor, that no creature could hunt him.

The edeinos was alone, and lonely, and all Life in the jungle called to his family with silent whispers, that they might come and comfort him. The edeinos grew old and infirm and feared Death's approach, and the tree bent near his ear and Whispered without speaking, teaching him the words of Lanala.

The edeinos died, and all Life in the jungle remembered him, and his life, and Spoke to his family of him, in Whispers that could not be heard, that he would not be forgotten. And his family interred his body beneath the roots of the tree, that in Death he might nourish the tree that had sheltered him in Life.

And they grew, the edeinos, in the jungle. Laying eggs, learning to live, living and mating and eventually dying. And Life Spoke to them in whispers that could not be heard, and they Whispered to each other, but did not speak. And the edeinos waited for Lanala to return.

And with the passing of ages, Lanala returned to those who were once hurt and lost, to teach them Her words. She found them living in the jungles, happy and contented, for all Life in the jungle had remembered Her words, and had Taught them to the edeinos, that they might know the truth and pay heed to the words of Lanala.

And She was pleased, and feared no more for Her children, for they knew the words of Lanala, and knew how they should live, and no longer wandered in ignorance under the sun.

You're right, most of this was implicit in the original cosm, given that Edeinos usually went around with spears crafted from living native material.

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;664428You're right, most of this was implicit in the original cosm, given that Edeinos usually went around with spears crafted from living native material.

Most of Storm Knights isn't a radical change to the game. (It started out radical, but didn't end up there.) Instead, I've taken the already-existing elements and amped them up. Lifecrafting is living technology, which is what edeinos (implicitly) had already.

Nippon Tech is the Wuxia Technothriller Reality. Fabulous martial arts, intrigue, and espionage: all elements that were already present, "turned up to 11".

Of course, the background of the cosms have changed, in some cases pretty radically. But the same play-style elements are (for the most part) present in all the same cosms. It's a better Torg, not a wholly new Torg. (IMHO.)

Crafting Life
[Life Crafting, pt. 3]

In the Living Land, everything is alive (even the ground, the waters, and the winds). Yet growing things — plants and animals — are imbued with Life far beyond that of anything else. And specially trained natives (Jakatts and Rek Jakutta) can Speak with Life, communing with each other, plants, and animals without using words. More, they also have the ability to Craft Life: to alter its essence, via spiritual communion.

Those with a scientific bent may draw certain conclusions based on this, but whatever a Core Earth biologist might think, the edeinos know nothing of DNA, nor does the Crafting itself work according to scientific principles. According to Jakatts, they commune with the Life of an organism, and that Life shapes itself to their will, to conform to the image they have in their minds.

The hrockt spear isn't the product of a miracle, it's a plant shoot that has been Crafted to grow in a certain form (that of a spear), to live without needing roots or much water (like a desert plant), and to sprout thorns in response to a specific physical stimulus. No miracle is required to make one — Crafters work to create them.

In other respects the plant is like other plants. It does require water, just not much, and nutrients of some sort. (Edeinos have Crafted certain animals so they secrete a substance that can serve this function, and most plants they Craft are changed so they can thrive on the stuff. In extremis, so can an edeinos.) Once the thorns have budded, the plant has to be fed again, and several days have to pass, before it can bud again.

These plants and animals are not magical or mystical. They live, they eat, they grow. They don't get to break natural laws. The physical form of a Hrockt spear is based on natural laws, as such it requires a Tech of 3. (The Tech for spears.)

Life Crafting, and the ability to commune with Life, is a special ability granted by Lanala, powered by Lanala's Love of Life (the World Law). It is a contradiction in all other Realities (though, like Weird Science, the organisms it produces are not).

Like all natural phenomena, Crafting certain characteristics has consequences. It always involves trade-offs, like all design processes (ask a programmer or materials engineer). By Crafting certain characteristics, the organisms have been optimized for certain functions, but this may leave them vulnerable in other ways.

For example, Hrockt spears don't produce seeds or fruit, and cannot reproduce from cuttings. They have to be Crafted from Hrockt shoots, one by one. Each Crafted organism is unique.

Even given these limitations, Crafted organisms are far more useful than those organisms that have evolved naturally. They form the primary basis of edeinos civilization: shelter, food, methods to plant and harvest, weapons and armor, transportation, communication, and many other functions are all provided by Crafted organisms.

Life Crafting Already Exists
[Lifecrafting, pt. 4]

A short while ago, I did a complete read through of the Living Land Sourcebook. Much to my surprise, I found copious evidence that Life Crafting already exists in the cosm. It's literally pervasive. Here are some quotes:

"During their war with the ustanahs, the edeinos saw that the tools the ustanahs used could be advantageous. But they were forbidden from creating such things as the ustanah had created them, for such creation involved using items that were dead. They asked Lanala for guidance, and through prayer the goddess granted them living plants that would grow in useful ways, thus simulating dead tools." (pg. 11)

"Every camp has 'houses' in it. The houses have hrockt shoots for frames and are covered with the leaves that Lanala causes to grow. In this way we can move from one site to the next but still live within something that is living." (pg. 18)

"Others would prepare living plant sculptures for the rituals for that night." (pg. 19)

"A typical shelter in a wooded area is simply a lean-to built of hrockt shoots covered with vines blessed with miraculous growth. The vines blend in with the natural green of the area and are difficult to spot except when an observer is very close (by which time the Jakatts are aware of him)." (pg. 24)

"Because of their taboo against using dead items, the Jakatts (specifically the edeinos) have devised ways of making living spears. The spears are a type of bamboo shoot that can be uprooted and re-planted again and again. The Jakatts pray to Lanala to take this living thing and make it a weapon to use against those who would use dead tools." (pg. 73)

"Simple spear allows a Jakatt to take a hrockt shoot and pray to Lanala to turn it into a weapon. The tip becomes sharp, the shaft strong." (pg. 78)

Many other "miracles" are, in fact, Life Crafting at work. Pain Sacks, for example, are thorned plants altered using this ability. Several of the miracles from Central Valley Gate (pg. 9-10) are examples of Crafting Life.

Life Crafting already exists in the cosm, though in a rudimentary form. My suggestion, to make the Living Land more interesting, is that the ability to Craft Life be made more versatile, and the living tools created by Crafters be made more ubiquitous. (In part, that means that Simple Spear, Pain Sacks, Blossom Spear, and similar miracles are no longer miracles, but applications of the Crafting Life ability.)

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;664439Most of Storm Knights isn't a radical change to the game. (It started out radical, but didn't end up there.) Instead, I've taken the already-existing elements and amped them up. Lifecrafting is living technology, which is what edeinos (implicitly) had already.

Nippon Tech is the Wuxia Technothriller Reality. Fabulous martial arts, intrigue, and espionage: all elements that were already present, "turned up to 11".

Of course, the background of the cosms have changed, in some cases pretty radically. But the same play-style elements are (for the most part) present in all the same cosms. It's a better Torg, not a wholly new Torg. (IMHO.)

Oh and by the way, thanks for calling it Storm Knights.  I always thought that half the problem with TORG is that the name, like GURPS, sounds like an unfortunate digestive noise.

JG

Rules for Crafting Life
[Lifecrafting, pt. 5]

Here is the first draft of the Lifecrafting rules. They take the form of a new skill, lifecrafting.

Life Crafting
Reality: Living Land

Lifecrafting is a Spirit-based skill available only to those with adds in faith (Keta Kalles) or faith (Rek Stalek). It allows the user to Speak with other life forms, such as animals, plants, and other sentients. It also allows them take already existing plants and animals, and Craft them to be useful tools.

This skill is powered by the World Law “Lanala’s Love of Life”. Its use is a contradiction in any other Reality.

To lifecraft, the character must first start with a non-sentient creature or plant (not a human, edeinos, or other sentient creature) that has the desired natural characteristics. If it exists as a natural characteristic, a Lifecrafter can enhance it, alter it, or add it to a creature lacking it. (Abilities based on psionics, magic, Pulp Powers, or other such sources cannot be affected.)

They then must define how they want to Craft the creature. By default, any characteristics the Lifecrafter doesn’t change, stay exactly the same.

The Base DN of this check is the highest EV or statistic (original or Crafted) of the resulting, Lifecrafted creature. This Base DN is modified as follows:

DN Modifier: Situation
+3: The creature is native to another cosm.
+3: Per each additional enhancement.
+5: Enhancement greatly changes the innate characteristics of the creature (making a plant that walks, allowing a fish to actually fly, making an animal that bears fruit.)

Any given organism can only be Crafted once: you can't stack multiple Craftings. However, any desired characteristic can be modified or added. Common enhancements include: Adding bony plates to a mount, to serve as armor. Adding poison to a creature’s bite. Making a “gun” out of a plant that shoots thorns. Creating a Hrockt spear. Enhancing the senses of a hunting animal.

(One Lifecrafting that John Condon came up with involves a benthok, a more primitive relative of the benthe (being related to benthe the same way chimpanzees are to humans). He modified the benthok to emit pheromones that pacified onlookers. People could see him, but his alien nature was no longer alarming. This wouldn’t affect people far away, those in powered armor or other airtight suits, or those looking through cameras, but for people within the 100m range of the pheromones, it is very effective.)

Once the final DN is set, the character must meditate in the edeinos manner (see pg. 16 of the Living Land Sourcebook), communing with the Life essence of the creature or plant to be Crafted. This takes approximately an hour.

If the character succeeds, the creature is Crafted as they desired, by the end of the communion. If they fail, they lose the ability to Craft for 24 hours or until they have undergone a Ritual of Life's Renewal (next post).

Lifecrafting materially alters the nature of the creature, hence changes made by Lifecrafting are permanent — for that creature. However, such changes are not inherited. Lifecrafting is a gift of Lanala, and She wants the edeinos to commune with each individual creature Crafted.

[Notes: I haven't written any rules for Speaking with others using this skill. It's on the pile. Also, there are a few rules changes which need to be implemented, like “standard” Craftings (which make commonly used Craftings, like hrockt spears, easier than spontaneous Craftings).]

Quote from: James Gillen;664676Oh and by the way, thanks for calling it Storm Knights.  I always thought that half the problem with TORG is that the name, like GURPS, sounds like an unfortunate digestive noise.

I completely agree.

Sample Craftings & Ritual of Life's Renewal
[Lifecrafting, pt. 6]

Sample Craftings

The Kralect is a large, furred dinosaur, much like a lizardish wooly mammoth. It has a Toughness of 16 (its highest statistic) and a Perception of 3. Adding 3 points of armor has a DN of 19 (the modified Toughness of the Crafted creature). Raising its Perception at the same time has an additional cost of +3 DN, for a total of 22. Just raising its Perception has a DN of 16, as that's the value of the creature's highest statistic.

A unmodified hrockt shoot has a Dam of +1 and a max. damage of 15 (its highest statistic). Raising the damage by +2 raises the max. damage to 17, the DN for the Crafting. (Under normal circumstances. In fact, the simple spear Crafting is one of the most common, and has an associated Method, with a DN of 10.)

Crafting a fruit so that it causes uncontrollable rage in anyone who eats it requires defining an Effect Value (to be compared to the target’s Mind or willpower). If the Effect Value is 15, that's the DN of the Crafting check.

Ritual of Life's Renewal

Failure at a lifecrafting check results in the character losing the ability to Craft Life for 24 hours or until they undergo this miracle. They can perform the miracle themselves, assuming they have the faith and focus skills.

Ritual of Life's Renewal
Spiritual Rating: 24
Community Rating: 10
Difficulty: 8
Range: voice
Duration: NA
Ritual Length: 17 (30 minutes)
Effect: restores lost lifecrafting

The ceremony of life's renewal heightens the character’s awareness of the energies of Life in himself and others. If successful, the target regains the use of his Lifecrafting ability.

Conclusion
[Lifecrafting, pt. 7]

How does Lifecrafting affect the cosm? For one, it adds something else for edeinos to do, besides just miracles. Hurray, hurray.

Second, it expands the range of their possible tools. This means GMs can (and will, if they want such tools to exist) come up with equipment lists for the cosm. Thorn guns, benthok maskers, rage grenades, sensory explosion grenades, all kinds of Lifecrafted goodies. ("West of Eden" and its sequels offer a lot of fodder for this.)

Lastly, in combination with the Rek Jakutta, it offers a break from the “big dumb creature” monster template.

Lanalans can only shape non-sentient animals and plants. The skill description even says so.

This doesn't hold for Gotaks.

(The Sourcebook says gotaks call upon the Darkness Device for miracles. In the re-written Living Land gotaks are priests of Stalek, pure and simple, and Stalek powers their miracles. They don't live in or with Jakatt tribes.)

The restriction of “don’t Life Shape sapient species” is one of Lanala’s. She doesn’t want edeinos shaping each other, or the species they conquer.

Worshippers of Stalek have no such restrictions, and can Lifecraft too, though they require adds in faith (Rek Stalek). They can Craft sentient species, such as edeinos or humans, and can even add sentience to non-sentient species.

You think a 20 foot tall spider is a problem? Now imagine one with the mind of a genius and abilities enhanced by Rek Jakutta Lifecrafters. Now imagine a dozen of them, invading a town.

This approach adds even more variety, and a new kind of threat. Bands of Rek Jakutta, serving Kaah’s will, Lifecraft monsters to use against the human armies, Storm Knights, and cities.

That’s a Living Land filled with opportunities for adventure. That's what Lifecrafting can add.

[Note: I need to do a more in-depth writeup of the rewritten Living Land's gotaks and Rek Jakutta. Something else that’s on the pile.]

The next series is about the Lost Worlds of the Living Land.

Lost World AND Empire of the Ants!

Forgot this, from the last post:

Also, Rek Jakutta get to cheat. They are not subject to the limitations imposed by Lanala: they can stack multiple Craftings onto a single creature. More, in some cases their Crafted creatures can breed and pass on their new characteristics. (Though Rek Jakutta cannot Speak without words. They don't commune with Life, they impose their will on the target.)

Lost Worlds of the Living Land [pt. 1]

I'm really not sure how to introduce this next series. All of the ideas presented thus far pretty obviously fit the Canon Living Land. This one does as well, but not so obviously. Let's start with the most basic question: What is the Living Land?

The Living Land is a Lost World reality. From the Adventure Book in the Torg boxed set: "The Living Land is our 'Lost World' genre". Can't get more definitive than that.

In "Lost World" stories, hostile natives inhabit the jungle, among which are ruins of past civilizations. In the Living Land as it exists, the ruins are our own: buildings, streets, and monuments overgrown by verdant plant life and inhabited by primitives and gigantic creatures.

Which is fine, as far as it goes. But I wanted more. From the original series on revamping the Living Land's World Laws:

The Relics of Lost Worlds

[T]he Living Land is filled with ruins and relics from [conquered Realities], including Core Earth. Here and there, Storm Knights will stumble across a strange building, obviously alien in origin, that has been engulfed by this reality. In such buildings they may find tools, pieces of artwork, or other remnants of the forgotten past.

The first civilization destroyed by the eidenos was the Ustanah, and Ustanah ruins dot Takta Ker. Due to this World Law, they can be found on Core Earth as well. As can buildings from the world of the Benthe, and many other cosms.

Part of the Lost World genre is discovering and plundering the ruins of ancient and forgotten civilizations. That includes scavenging Core Earth buildings that have been swallowed by the verdant plant growth of the Living Land. But it also includes ruins of the Ustanah, the Benthe, and many other cosms.

That's the purpose behind this World Law: no longer are the ruins just those of Earth, but those of every single cosm the Living Land has conquered.

In the middle of Ohio, surrounded by jungles, is a small clutch of the hulking, vitreous organic buildings once inhabited by the ustanah. The local, Core Earth buildings have been transformed to match these alien ruins. Players can stumble across them, and in them find records of that ancient war, and maybe some of the tools of the ustanah.

Taking It Even Further

Alien ruins are colorful, unique (both in the cosm and in the Possibility Wars as a whole), and fulfill one of the tropes of the reality: ruins of the past. They are necessary, and interesting and hence the World Law.

But I want to go further.

I want Lost Worlds that are more than just physical remnants of the alien Reality, but are actually pieces of foreign cosms. Fringe Realities, pocket dimensions that were once part of other cosms, that are now part of the Living Land. Remnants of Realities lost to the cosmverse.

They are literally Worlds that have been Lost.

How do we justify it? One sentence:

Takta Ker is very old.

Takta Ker is Very Old
[Lost Worlds, pt. 2]

Takta Ker is very old.

It is a world inundated with history. Once-great civilizations, now destroyed, have left behind only ruins.

Where once were cities, vast and dense, are now ruins, overgrown in jungle. Factories, warehouses, docks, houses: all once existed, all now gone.

What is left are a few, scattered remnants that hint at an ancient and forgotten truth: the edeinos were once masters of the stars.

Once, they too mined deep for ores, dug coal from the hills, and drilled oil from the ground. They, too built metal swords, printing presses, internal combustion engines. They, too built electronic circuits, computers, and artificial intelligences. They, too once reached for the stars. In massive and powerful spaceships, they traveled the hyper-dimensional star lanes.

They traveled their alien galaxy, fighting wars and making alliances. They brought back aliens to live among them: the ustanah, the benthe, the stalenger. They reached the pinnacle of society and technology.

In a single, great Cataclysm it was all wiped away. Their cities were destroyed, their technologies lost, their civilization torn apart. They were thrown back into barbarism.

But the ruins remained, hidden in the jungle. And the machines that caused the Cataclysm still function. And it is these machines that made the Lost Worlds.

A Star is Slain
[Lost Worlds, pt. 3]

What was the Cataclysm?

The edeinos mastered technology. They built great cities, and explored the stars, building hyper-dimensional star lanes to link far removed places.

But their star was dying. The edeinos had developed the technology to sap energy directly from their stellar primary, using it to fuel their vast civilization and its immense energy needs. But the dimensional portal had unexpected consequences: it disrupted the core of the sun itself. Within a few decades, it would explode as a nova, destroying the inner planets of their system, and throwing the outer planet off into deep space.

The edeinos conceived of a great plan. They could evacuate their homeworld easily, relocating their whole populace to other worlds. But Takta Ker was their home. And they were masters of dimensional technologies.

They would not evacuate from their homeworld. They would evacuate their homeworld itself.

Using powerful dimensional machines, they would remove Takta Ker from its orbit around the dying star, into orbit around a different sun altogether. As their ships moved through the hyperdimensional star lanes, their entire homeworld would do so as well.

It was ambitious, a massive undertaking. Their entire society, and those of their subject species, organized around the immense task. They stabilized their star, harvested and stored the immense amount of energy required, and built great dimensional warping machines on the surface of Takta Ker, these machines becoming whole cities in and of themselves.

It took a hundred years of frantic construction under the light of an unstable star. And it almost worked.

Something went wrong. Some physical law overlooked, an energy budget not quite large enough, or perhaps an unexpected aspect of the hyper-dimensional space. Whatever the reason, the process went badly awry.

The dimensional warping machines tore themselves from this space, instantly forming a score of pocket dimensions, taking with them whole chunks of space. Not chunks of the planet, chunks of the spatial continuum itself. Pieces of land that had been separated by hundreds of miles, suddenly collided together, now being separated by inches. All over the surface of the planet, the machines, and the great cities surrounding them, suddenly vanished.

The effect of this was... cataclysmic. Seismic events of world shaking proportions, quite literally. Continents torn apart or crushed together. The whole face of the planet was changed in an instant. And only the beneficence of Lanala allowed the edeinos to survive.

This cataclysmic event disrupted or destroyed the star lanes. No longer could any ship of any size or description travel trough conduits leading to other suns. Each planet was cut off from every other, and has remained so to this day.

The dimensional machines are still active. Within a score of pocket dimensions, machines that can warp the dimensional structure of the cosm still operate. It is these machines which, as a side effect of their malfunctioning existence, cause Takta Ker to form Lost Worlds: they tear off chunks of another cosm, as they once tore off chunks of their own.

And what of those vast cities, built around the dimensional machines? Laid to waste. Oh, they still exist, but as uninhabited ruins. Whether the cataclysm itself killed them off, or the harsh difficulties of living in a tiny fragment of dimensional space without a star or a source of air and water, the edeinos who had the knowledge of the machines, how to build them and how to turn them off, have all died.

(And if any have survived, surely they must have devolved into tribes of ignorant primitives, lacking even the most basic knowledge of how to control the machines amongst which they live. Surely. How could it be otherwise? The rumors of edeinos scientists and technicians, armed with advanced technology, who make expeditions into the primitive jungles of Takta Ker must just be rumors.)

Last, what of the edeinos? Even with the beneficence of Lanala, surely they could not survive the nova scouring the face of their planet?

That, at least, is the one triumph of the edeinos. Though the process of moving their world went terribly wrong, still it moved. The planet of Takta Ker moved, from the orbit of one star to the orbit of another, a young, yellow star rich with energy and light.

And around this yellow sun, the edeinos have survived (through the beneficence of Lanala) and thrived. And rebuilt their society, though in ways their forefathers could never have forseen.

Wait... What?
[Lost Worlds, pt. 4]

"A science fiction Livng Land... are you kidding? Doesn't that radically change the Living Land? And doesn't that destroy the uniqueness of the Space Gods?"

"No.", to both. Let me explain why.

This past, this background, changes nothing about the Living Land's present. It could be the background of the canon, and it would change nothing. (The concept of Lost Worlds does change the Living Land, but the notion of a highly advanced past doesn't.)

A massive Cataclysm, and two thousand years of history, separates the past from the present. Two millennia ago, the Living Land was a highly advanced cosm. Then came a Cataclysm that destroyed it, and today it's the primitive reality we are all familiar with.

Doesn't change anything.

As for the Space Gods, again we're dealing with the (very) distant past and the present. Whatever the Living Land was, it is no longer.

As an analogy, take Tharkold. As a near-Earth cosm, at one point it had men in plate armor, magical beasts, miracles, and spells. You know, just like Aysle.

Does the medieval magic past of Tharkold mean it somehow diminishes the cosm of magic? No. No more than the pre-Cataclysm Living Land diminishes the Space Gods.

What this past does, is make the cosm more interesting. The contrast between a secular, highly technological (Torg Tech 31) past and the primitive, religious present adds some texture to an otherwise one-note Reality.

"This cosm is primitive and religious. This cosm has always been primitive and religious." That's kind of boring.

"This cosm was scientifically advanced, but the civilization was destroyed in a Cataclysm. The survivors were on the verge of extinction, and were saved by Lanala."

It makes sense, why the edeinos became so rabidly religious: if a God saved your entire race from extinction, and continues to do so on a daily basis, you might be moved to religious fervor as well.

So, even though this past was devised to explain a fairly radical cosmology (more about that, in a couple of posts), it is a nice addition to even the canon. It explains why the Living Land, even after thousands of years, is still a primitive, but highly religious Reality.

Not "just because", but "because the past made it this way." That is, in my mind, far more satisfying.

The Cataclysm in Keta Kalles
[Lost Worlds, pt. 5]

Keta Kalles is the edeinos religion, the worship of Lanala and Life. The origins of the religion, and the details of the Cataclysm, are lost to time. Nevertheless, the Cataclysm is the second most important religious myth of Keta Kalles, second only to the tale of how Lanala created the world.

According to the religion, Lanala created Takta Ker and all Life in the cosm. As the edeinos grew in wealth and comfort, they embraced the use of iknal (implements made from metal, cut wood, and other "unliving" materials). The comfort and ease these brought allowed the edeinos to ignore their Goddess, turning a deaf ear to her voice. They began to suffer from takrekia, the erosion of their ability to love Life.

In this corrupted state, they caused the Cataclysm, and nearly destroyed all life on Takta Ker. Lanala intervened, however, preserving Life.

To ensure that her people live free of takrekia, Lanala forbid them the use of iknal. Instead, She taught Life Speaking and Life Crafting. The Cataclysm, in addition to being the key to the creation of the cosm’s Lost Worlds, also gave rise to the living technology of Life Crafting.

Even though the details of the Cataclysm, and life before it, are unknown, it has a profound effect on how Jakatts see the world. It underlies nearly all culture in the cosm and profoundly influenced the tenets of Keta Kalles.

Tenets of Keta Kalles

To simplify the religion immensely, its core tenets are:

• Life is sacred. It is to be savored and lived fully. The chief religious stricture of Keta Kalles is "tusakh tatak", which means "You must become one with Life". To be united with Life is to be united with Lanala. The state of being one with Life is referred to as tutatakia, and it is the highest moral state one can aspire to. Tutatakia is the polar opposite of takrekia.

• Iknal leads to moral rot and the inability to live and love Life. (Takrekia.) Takrekia lead to the destruction of the world. All iknal is therefore forbidden to Jakatts. It leads to unhappiness, spiritual rot, and, ultimately, the destruction of everything.

The Cataclysm is thus one of the central religious myths of the cosm. It is a symbol of all the evils of iknal. The use of iknal destroyed the world, and so they are forbidden.

(Not surprisingly, the Rek Jakutta believe just the opposite. Iknal allows people to lead better lives, and suffer less. Lanala is seen as a cruel and retributive Goddess, and her followers are hated for perpetuating her cruelty.)

[Note: The vocabulary in this writeup was developed by myself — aided by suggestions and comments — by reverse engineering words in the Living Land Sourcebook (including redefining some, to make the fit the rewritten religion). The still-in-progress writeup of Edeinal (the name of the language) can be found on Google Docs. Commentary is welcome. Link: http://goo.gl/q9VRq Note that some of the setting details in that writeup are from an earlier version of the cosm, and are not accurate.]

Next message: The Lost Worlds of the Living Land.

Lost Worlds World Law, Redux
[Lost Worlds, pt. 6]

For this version of the Living Land, the "Relics of Lost Worlds" World Law (from the first series) is should be replaced with the following.

The Lost Worlds of the Living Land

The Living Land is a cosm of Lost Worlds: remnants of places that used to exist, but don't anymore. Hidden in the jungle can be found portals to these Lost Worlds, or perhaps the Lost Worlds themselves.

These Lost Worlds are fragments of cosms the Living Land invaded. It's possible that every cosm the Living Land has invaded has its own Lost World; if not, the vast majority do.

Such places are very different from the Living Land. They are governed by entirely different Realities, with their own Axioms and World Laws. (See "The Cosmology of Lost Worlds" for details, next post.) They have their own climate, their own terrain, their own architecture, all alien to the Living Land. Some may have their own jungles, and plant life native to the Lost World may engulf the buildings there, but the Living Land's lush jungle does not. The Living Land's plants do not grow in Lost Worlds.

Some are inhabited by natives of those destroyed Realities, others are abandoned and empty. Most are filled with ruins, but some have been perfectly preserved, an eerie monument to a world long since vanished.

The inhabitants of these Lost Worlds retain the Reality of their former cosm, so long as they dwell in their Lost World. If they leave, they are as susceptible to transformation as any character in a foreign Reality.

Tools of the lost Reality can be found there. As the Lost World is a Dominant or Pure Zone of its Reality, they can be used with impunity in their originating Lost World. Used outside the Lost World, the user is subject to the normal chances of disconnection.

There is evidence that, at one time, the Living Land had very different Reality, with much higher axioms and different World Laws. There are rumors of a singular Lost World that reflects the ancient Reality of the cosm, though no one is known to have ever gone there.

If such a place exists, the secrets it no doubt holds may illuminate much of the forgotten history of the cosm. They may even prove the downfall of the heretofore undefeatable Baruk Kaah.

The Cosmology of Lost Worlds
[Lost Worlds, pt. 7]

To borrow an analogy from a previous commenter, the Lost Worlds are kind of like a cross between Ravenloft Domains and Brigadoon. Let me explain:

Many pocket dimensions share the same Reality as their "core" dimension. The Godnet, for example. Fringe Realities are pocket dimensions which do not. Core Earth's Atlantis and Avalon (from Infiniverse Update, Vol. 2) are the archetypal examples.

Lost Worlds are fringe Realities: they exist as part of the Living Land cosm, but with a Reality different from the Living Land itself. Their own Axioms, their own World Laws, and their own physical space.

This physical space sometimes comes into phase with the cosm proper (or its realm on Earth). When it is in phase, people can physically cross to the Lost World and back. In extremis, a Lost World can even materialize (kind of like Brigadoon). It can overlap or displace the physical space of either cosm, becoming physically a part of it, while still maintaining its own Reality. (More details on this, next post.)

Nearly every Lost World was once part of a cosm the Living Land conquered. (The one exception being those that reflect the pre-Cataclysm Reality of the Living Land.) There is reason to believe that every cosm conquered by the Living Land over the last 1000 years (near a hundred, maybe more) has its own Lost World. These include:

• The homes of the surviving Ustanah (this Lost World reflects the Axioms and World Laws of Takta Ker's original Reality).

• The alt-Earth where the term "Saar" came from, also known as the Detroit Dead Zone.

• Anything else the GM wishes. A variant fantasy world, a world of Gothic Pulp (like the Batman Animated Series), or anything else they want to add to their game, but can't find a place for.

There could be dozens, maybe a hundred such fringe Realities in the Living Land. And, during the Reality War on Earth, they can come into phase with our world. So, an empty patch of ground can suddenly be the site of a village from a plundered reality, sometimes with inhabitants, or sometimes not. Or a grove of trees can become a portal to a Lost World, and passing through the trees of our world leads to trees that are part of another world.

Lost Worlds, in Depth
[Lost Worlds, pt. 8]

Lost Worlds are fragments of cosms, anything from the size of a small village to an entire region (about the size of Scotland). They have the axioms and World Laws of the original Reality.

Lost Worlds are typically formed around hardpoints of the alien Reality, and their boundaries tend to loosely conform to that of the hardpoint. Accordingly, they usually have two zones: a Pure Zone of the alien Reality, at the core of the Lost World, and a larger Dominant Zone surrounding that.

Some are lifeless, many others still have natives. All of them contain relics and ruins from the original cosm.

These pocket dimensions can exist in one of three states at any given time. Most change from one to the other over time.

1.) Isolated. The dimension cannot be reached by any native tools of the Living Land. If the PC's have access to dimensional travel tools, and specific knowledge of the dimension, they may try to reach it (via the Dimensional Door spell, for example). This usually doesn't work, and if it does, people find it's almost always easier to cross into the Lost World than leave it.

2.) "In-phase." The dimensional walls between some place on Takta Ker (or the realm on Earth) has been weakened. People can cross to the Lost World and back. Walk the wrong direction, and you will leave this world and enter a Lost World.

Such events are typically marked by atmospheric anomalies (fog, storms, etc.) and navigation devices — GPS, compasses, whatever — cease to work. (These atmospheric anomalies are not the Deep Mist.) It is difficult to tell when one has crossed into the Lost World, and finding your way out may be just as difficult. Some people never do.

(Obvious module: A party of people wandered into a strange fog and were lost. Players sent to retrieve them, discover strange ruins.)

3.) Materialized. The Lost World has displaced a piece of Takta Ker or Core Earth. For example, since just after the Invasion began the city of Detroit was replaced by the Detroit Dead Zone, a region of 1915 France that includes a small French village, the surrounding countryside, and the front line trenches of an alt-Earth WWI (including a regimental German HQ).

Detroit still exists, in a pocket dimensional space. It's inhabitants are very frightened because, from their POV, the entire rest of the universe just disappeared.

Such displacements may be temporary, lasting a day or two, or may last for weeks or months. They may be one-time events or may recur periodically.

New Amsterdam
[Lost Worlds, pt. 9]

A sample Lost World: The GM wants to add a Reality of Georgian Fantasy (inspired by "Two Crowns for America" by Katherine Kurtz), but doesn't want another invading cosm. So he makes it a Lost World.

As with other Lost Worlds, this one came into existence as the result of a Reality Invasion. When Baruk Kaah invaded the Georgian Fantasy alternate Earth (in 1750), that world's New Amsterdam (the site of a fairly powerful hardpoint) broke off from its cosm and became a Lost World. It literally disappeared, leaving behind a Manhattan Island suddenly bereft of buildings, streets, and people. The disappearance was baffling.

From the point of view of people living on the island, it's the rest of the world that disappeared. The ocean, the entire continent of Columbia, everything outside Manhattan and the surrounding waters just vanished. They can take boats out onto the waters, but as soon as they get out of sight of land, they find themselves sailing back to the island, this time from the other side. So far as they can tell, the island has become its own world.

The Dutch and English settlers maintain an uneasy peace, enforced by the regiment of redcoats who have taken charge of the city. North of the city are the forests, in which live tribes of natives, both hostile and friendly. They trade with the city for supplies, and intermarriages, while uncommon, do occur.

It's been twenty years since the outside world disappeared. Occasionally, people set off onto the waters or into the woods and just vanish. And, rarely, strange people land on the shores of New Amsterdam. People with strange clothing who talk in unknown and unpronounceable tongues, people with metal limbs or strange powers, and sometimes things that are not people at all. Some are taken in, others attacked. But life on the island continues.

Belvedere Castle (in Core Earth's Central Park, Manhattan) is the site of an intermittent portal to New Amsterdam. Every few weeks, at midnight, a conduit opens up there, leading to the same place in the Lost World (though that's not required, the GM likes the mystical symmetry).

In New Amsterdam, the same location is the site of a massive mansion, once the home of the governor of the Colony of New Orange. The mansion is abandoned, and has been since shortly after the vanishing. It is rumored to be haunted.

The rest of Central Park has been turned into farmland. Aided by mystical workings, it produces barely enough food to sustain the city's 10,000 inhabitants. (They supplement their diet with fishing and small game from the forests. The latter is a luxury, as it requires risking native wrath.)

The inhabitants of the Lost World speak a pidgin of Dutch and English, leavened with loanwords from the native tribes. The inhabitants are not innately hostile, but are suspicious and wary of outsiders. They know nothing of the portals, Lost Worlds, or how either operates.

Neither the British Regiment nor the Dutch merchant guild (the two strongest factions in the city) have magisters on staff. Instead, the island depends on a couple of witchy women (who are primarily skilled in as midwifery and herbalism) and a hedge wizard whose magic workings are spotty, at best. If there is a magister living on the island, he keeps himself well hid.

If visitors have any abilities that will allow them to improve life in the city, they can readily trade them for shelter, food, or other luxuries. Food (or means to produce same) and metal implements are in high demand, but entertainment is welcome as well.

[Note: This should include Axioms and World Laws for the sample Lost World. Another task for the pile.]

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;665461Detroit still exists, in a pocket dimensional space. It's inhabitants are very frightened because, from their POV, the entire rest of the universe just disappeared.

Similar to the real world Detroit.

jg

The Land Below Makes No Sense
[Lost Worlds, pt. 10]

The Land Below makes no sense.

A Reality with Pulp Powers and Engineering (two unique FX systems from the Nile Empire), that shared World Laws with the Nile Empire, that shared two axioms with the Nile Empire, and was a Pulp Reality like the Nile Empire, was supposedly a pocket dimension of… Core Earth, the “real world”.

Right.

Then there were the variant Reality domed worlds, which somehow contained other Realities, Realities created by the invaders, but which were still part of the Land Below. The metaphysics of the game simply couldn’t support such a thing, yet there they were.

Sure.

Then there was the pocket dimension of the Ustanah. Of course a Reality containing survivors from the primeval Living Land was part of a pocket dimension of Core Earth.

Of course.

Makes. No. Sense.

Primitive Pulp is part of the Pulp genre. Tarzan. She. DC’s Warlord. And on and on.

Primitive Pulp is part of the Pulp genre, and is therefore part of the Nile Empire. In fact, it’s already part of the Sourcebook!

Proof? The Amazon template, from the Nile Empire Sourcebook. The Jungle Lord template, same place. Both are primitive pulp characters.

Then there’s Hespera (Sourcebook, pg. 46), a primitive pulp Ancient Greek city. And Khem (Sourcebook, pg. 10, third column), the ancient Egypt island (“steadfastly clung to their ancient Egyptian customs across the intervening millennia”). Primitive Pulp.

Primitive pulp locales and characters are already a part of the Nile Empire. They’re in the official Sourcebook.

The Land Below (in specific, Merretika, not the "variant Reality" domed worlds) is part of the Nile Empire. The Axioms, World Laws, FX systems, and genre of the Land Below (plus copious setting details of the Nile Empire itself) prove that.

So, in Storm Knights, that’s what the Land Below is: a pocket dimension of Terra, the home cosm of the Nile Empire.

That said, the concept of a “grab bag” of Realities is highly useful, colorful, and fun. But it isn’t, and shouldn’t be, part of the Nile. But it should be part of the Lost Worlds Reality.

New places, unexplored places, weird and bizarre and unknown places — that’s what the Lost Worlds genre is. And that’s what the Living Land is.

Conclusion
[Lost Worlds, pt. 11]

The Lost Worlds are one of the oddest, yet most compelling features of the Storm Knights Living Land. Though they are optional (like all the elements this far presented), they add so much to the cosm. So many adventure opportunities, so many character opportunities.

GM’s can make any Reality they want. And players can be from any Reality they wish (subject to GM approval, of course). Lost Worlds are the cosmological back door that allows GM’s and players to experiment with any idea they can conceive of. And, if the experiment doesn’t work out, the Lost World just goes away.

They allow for the same breadth as the Dome Worlds of the Land Below, while being better integrated into the cosmology and setting of the game.

The Cataclysm is a major addition to the mythos of the Living Land. As described in post 5, it explains why the religion developed the way it has and why the edeinos love Lanala so much. She literally saved all life on Takta Ker. Even if I weren't using the Lost Worlds, I'd still be using that as a background.

All settings (including Torg cosms) need a mythos, a history-as-story that explains why the setting became what it is. Shadowrun has the Awakening, Deadlands the Reckoning. My rewritten Living Land has the Cataclysm.

The Next Series

The next (and last, for now) Living Land series covers the high Social Living Land, and explains why a tribal society has a Social of 28.

Why?
[High Social Living Land, pt. 1]

I want to start off this series with a "why": What is the point of a high Social Living Land?

Back at the beginning of this thread, I pointed out that the Living Land was a monotonous, one-note Reality: mist, dinosaurs, stuff getting lost. That's it. Period.

More, it's an obvious Reality: everything about the Living Land is immediately apparent in the first five minutes in the Reality, and it never, ever changes. There is no depth, no surprises, nothing unexpected.

The Storm Knights Living Land, on the other hand, is all about the surprises. Baruk Kaah leads the Rek Jakutta, but is really a Jakatt. The primitive, religious Reality was, at one point, a High Tech, science-fiction cosm. And Lost Worlds, Lifecrafting, Legendary Miracles, and more.

Not what is expected.

The high Social Living Land is that, times ten. It's a completely unexpected element, the discovery of which will surprise and shock players who are used to thinking of the Living Land as "that primitive jungle place".

The high Social Axiom also adds something of immense value — tools that go beyond the religious theme of the Reality. Even in the variant Living Land, all the new tools and toys are miraculous or religious in nature — boons, intercessions, Lifecrafting, and so on. All religious. All spiritual.

The high Social Living Land adds something more  — high Social tools.

Metalinguistics, the ability to rapidly translate and learn alien languages. Lucid hypnosis, characters so persuasive they can rewrite your personality. The Insight skill, which allows them to almost read your mind, based solely on your body language and speech. Infectious norms, wholesale editing of cultures via social manipulation. Predictive sociology, an ability akin to Asimov's "psychohistory". And infinitely adaptive institutions, the ultimate form of social organization.

These are colorful tools, powerful tools, and highly unique tools. They mark the Living Land as an alien Reality, a place utterly unlike Earth.

So, despite it being a non-obvious choice, a high Social Living Land is very much an improved Living Land.

Of course, all this needs to be explained. How does this cosm have a high Social Axiom? Why does this cosm have a high Social Axiom? And what does the high Social Axiom mean?

I'll start with the explanations next post.

The Social Axiom, in 750 Words
[High Social Living Land, pt. 2]

For Storm Knights, I have been revamping the Axiom charts, including expanding and rewriting them. The high Social Living Land is the first Reality that takes advantage of the new entries at the upper end of the Social scale.

To explain why the Living Land has a high Social, I need to recap the concepts behind the revamped Social axiom. This will also help explain what their Social abilities are.

# # #

The social nature of humanity is built into our brains. Our neurology makes social interactions necessary and possible. (And, when the brain has structural variances, it can make socializing very difficult.)

We learn standards of behavior growing up. These standards of behavior — called "norms" — guide us in social situations.

Norms tell us what to do. But some people violate norms — they're rude, offensive, or even deviant. At low Social levels, with small-scale societies, this is punished by ostracism or exile.

People can only intimately know a limited number of others. (Recent data indicates this maxes out at 150 or so individuals.) When the community grows beyond that, social sanctions are not as effective — people care far less about what strangers think — so misbehavior becomes more common. Humans solved this with laws, a legal code, and judges.

These differed from norms by being explicit, verbal, and (often) recorded. The more people that lived and worked together in the same small space, the more explicit social structures were needed and the more complex they became.

Yet norms, conventions, and traditions (all variations of the same thing) are still useful. The United Kingdom's form of government is almost all determined by tradition — there is no written Constitution. Yet still it functions, and has for over a millennium.

Humanity almost always divides itself into "Us" and "Them". "They" are almost always enemies. The story of civilization and the Social axiom is the increasing size of the "Us".

Historically, hunter-gatherer bands numbered about 150 people (for good reasons, see above). Tribes numbered less than a thousand. Cities and city-states were thousands or tens of thousands. Countries were hundreds of thousands. And modern nations are numbered in the millions (or even billions). The larger the group being governed, the more complex the social structures.

Also advancing are scholarship and science — the ways in which we understand the world, including the social nature of living beings. The first way a high Social society differs from our own is this: they have learned all there is to know about societies. Language, ways of learning, psychology of individuals, nature of culture and social structures — such Societies have learned it all and mastered it all, to the extent that such knowledge is unconscious and innate.

We have to conduct studies to tease out psychological truths. They just know. We have to struggle with various forms of governments, arguing and warring over which is best. They just know. We have to hire efficiency experts, to streamline procedures and policies and methods and guidelines and… They just know.

All of the things we barely hope to understand, one day. They just know.

The second major difference is this: infinitely adaptive institutions.

At some point in the future, my Social axiom posits, people become able to understand their own motives and strengths with clarity and rationality. Emotional attachments exist, but they no longer compel behavior unconsciously. We eventually learn to consciously integrate emotional data, to overcome irrationalities like arrogance and insecurity.

This enables consensus decision making on a wide scale, among millions of people. No longer do we depend on rigid laws and bureaucracies. Instead people can make decisions in the moment, creating policies on the fly, and they will be more effective and more correct than any decision made by a central authority.

Authority and law become — in the modern term — crowd-sourced. There are still "laws", but these are a product of norms and decisions, not explicit and recorded constructs.

This isn't anarchy. There are still social structures and institutions — still a post office, still a military. (If either is needed.) But these institutions are far more adaptable than ever before. Infinitely adaptable. More, they are only the size they need to be: they change in size and structure as needs demand.

If the optimal size of a military is 30 people, that's approximately how large the military will be. If situations change, the military changes.

Traditional social structures have always evolved. Again, look at the gradual development of the UK's parliamentary system.

In a high Social society, everything is a tradition, and they evolve rapidly, sometimes in minutes. Social structures are no bigger than they need to be, and have the structure they need to deal with the situation at hand.

All of the above can be directly applied to the Living Land.

Time to Scare You
[High Social Living Land, pt. 4]

The high Social Living Land is a radically different vision of the cosm. How do this this work out in play?

Just remember, edeinos are not the stereotypical "stand around and gawp at the marvels of modern society" primitives we see in movies and TV shows. They're more socially adept than anyone you know. All of your complicated societies are child's playthings to them. Their whole attitude towards democracy and socialism is "nice, for what it is, but too complicated and inefficient". They do innately things we have to spend our lives learning.

They can fit in at any social function, sweet-talk nearly anyone, and feel at home in any kind of situation, ranging from a vicious shaman in the Land Below to a grand House ball in Aysle, to the Church Court in the Cyberpapacy. They can intuit the rules of these situations and turn them to their own advantage. They are the ultimate lawyers and bureaucrats (assuming they're motivated to try), and any sort of explicit legal system, political structure, or org chart can be bent, folded, spindled, or mutilated to produce the result the edeinos wants.

They can learn nearly any language rapidly, and speak it with a facility that stuns natives. They can seemingly read your mind, just by understanding social cues and speech.

They are born leaders, born psychologists, born storytellers, and born debaters. They can literally rewrite your attitudes and personality with their mad debating skills. More, if they take the time, they can rewrite the cultural norms of an entire society. In less than a decade, they could change the bohemian and technology-centric culture of San Francisco into a clone of the Amish.

Obviously, all the above require skill adds to fully realize — the descriptions are of the culture as a whole, not every individual edeinos. Yet the capabilities are there.

These are some truly frightening people, balanced by the fact that they don't really care enough about outsiders to deploy their full capabilities. They are more interested in their internal wars, Jakatt vs. Rek Jakutta, to bother rewriting our culture.

Which is fine. It means we can survive the encounter.

(I don't know how, but I posted part 4 first. Whoops. This is, indeed, supposed to be part 3.)

Takta Ker is Very Old [High Social Living Land, pt. 3]

Before we talk about what the high Social Living Land is, I have to explain why it exists. Specifically where it came from and how it survived.

Where it came from is easy: Takta Ker is very old.

The original galaxy-spanning confederacy of worlds had a massive Tech and a high Social. It had to. To quote from the R&E:

Social 27: "Social structures are advanced enough to incorporate factions and societies of a completely alien nature."

It's hard to get more alien than the amoeboid benthe and floating starfish stalengers. Yet these races are perfectly integrated into Takta Ker society. How? The Social axiom is high enough.

When the Cataclysm devastated Takta Ker, it destroyed their technology and industrial base, so the Tech axiom plummeted. But the Social remained the same.

How did the Social axiom survive?

Social advances don't depend on a technological base. They depend on norms, traditions, and conventions — things that are taught person-to-person.

Pre-Cataclysm Takta Ker had reached the "innate understanding of Social issues" stage. Thus, inhabitants of the cosm no longer needed conscious scholarship to understand complex sociological, psychological, linguistic, and cultural issues. Understanding of these areas was unconscious and taught person to person (like norms). Thus, even when the society became "tribal" scale (composed of groups of less than 150 individuals), they retained their mastery of Social issues. This mastery allowed them to adapt to the new, post-technological circumstances they found themselves in.

Remember also that their society was infinitely adaptive in scale: groups were no larger than needed, with the leadership structure that was needed. In the post-technology Living Land, tribal bands (or cells) of roughly 150 people are the ideal size. It maximizes their ability to hunt and gather food (necessary due to the absence of agriculture), and maximizes their ability to avoid and survive the perils of the natural world.

Takta Ker tribes are also fantastically flexible. In most tribal cultures, power structures are determined by centuries-old traditions. Matriarchy, patriarchy, rule by a council, rule by a Big Man, rule by hunters, rule by priests, rule by magicians — all of these are traditions, more or less set in stone.

Not in the Living Land. One day, the hunters may lead (as the tribe responds to a sudden food deficit). The next day, an optant (or priest) may take the lead. The next day, a communal decision by consensus, involving the entire tribe.

Power structures can change rapidly, if circumstances dictate. And one day's leader may become the next day's foot soldier. And everyone involved accepts that this is the way it should be.

What appears to be — at first glance — tribes are, in actuality, highly efficient social structures fine tuned for survival in the perilous jungles of Takta Ker. It's deceptive simplicity.

Such societies are highly flexible and highly resilient. Our society would (and has) fractured under the pressures of, for example, pandemics. And, after fracturing, the effective Social level drops, as former advances are forgotten or abandoned.

But an infinitely adaptive society can absorb the blow, adapt to their new circumstances, and still educate the youth in the necessary knowledge. Which is what happened on Takta Ker.

This adaptability is the hallmark of a high Social society. And, despite its seemingly primitive culture, that's what the Living Land is.

Tools of a High Social Axiom & Conclusion
[High Social Living Land, pt. 5]

There are two layers of "house rules" to the high Social Living Land. The first, and most obvious, is just giving the Reality a high Social axiom in the first place. The second is that the Torg Social axiom is, for the most part, amazingly empty. There are no entries for most of it, especially the upper reaches, let alone concrete tools that strongly distinguish the upper reaches from the lower Axioms. Thus, all of the tools available to the Living Land due to its high Social derive from my rewritten Social axiom. And here they are:

Innate understanding of social situations and scholarship — Edeinos have an innate grasp of social dynamics. They can acclimate to any social situation, no matter how bizarre, and ingratiate themselves (or not) with ease. They also innately understand science and scholarship, and are experts at both. These facilities are represented by a blanket +3 bonus to applicable skills, such as Artist, Business, Linguistics, Scholar, Science, Streetwise, Charm, Performance Art, Persuasion, Taunt, and Training.

Insight skill — Think of this as the "Hannibal Lector" skill. It allows edeinos to deduce a great many things about a person, based solely on a minimum of personal interaction. Motivations, personality, temperament, goals, the truth or falsity of statements, and so forth. A highly useful ability. Can also be used to enhance other social skills.

Metalinguistics — The ability to analyze and understand nearly any language, based solely on a minimal sample. Edeinos are master translators. More, they learn languages faster than any other cosm.

Infective norms — Editing cultures, or creating new ones from scratch. Edeinos make war with propaganda, more effectively than anyone else.

Lucid hypnosis — The ability to "hypnotize" a person, through normal social interaction. (Again, a "Hannibal Lector" skill.) Say a few words in the right way, and people will find themselves doing things they never imagined.

Predictive sociology — "Psychohistory". That is, the ability to predict trends and actions a population will take in the future.

Partial or preliminary rules for most of these have been written. At some point in the future, I'll be posting them to my Torg fan site, Storm Knights, here: http://stormknights.arcanearcade.com/

Conclusion

• All of these tools are unique. Most are unavailable in any other Reality, and even if available, the edeinos are simply better at them than anyone else. More, they are very different from the miracle-centric tools that dominate life in the cosm.

• They add variety. All cosms need variety — Aysle has magic and miracles, the Nile Weird Science and Pulp Powers, the Cyberpapacy miracles and cyberware. Now the Living Land has miraculous abilities and powerful social tools.

• They are colorful — they give the Living Land a distinct flavor or feel. As masters of social dynamics and interactions, edeinos stand out.

When complete, I expect the high Social Living Land to be something unique and very, very interesting.

In the original version, wasn't the Edeinos language ability more a physiological trait?  And doesn't this mean that disconnecting removes that advantage?

jg

Deceptive Simplicity & Conclusion

I think the Storm Knights Living Land is compelling and unique. It is certainly an easily graspable cosm — primitives, dinosaurs, and ruins of lost worlds. But that layer of common tropes conceals great depths.

The whole paradigm is that of deceptive simplicity. It seems like the edeinos are simple primitives, living low-Tech, simple lives. But their apparently simple tools are, in reality, Lifecrafted.

It seems like they're speaking a primitive, guttural tongue. But it is deceptively complex. (See here: http://goo.gl/q9VRq )

And it seems like a tribal society, just like any other. The truth is, they have just left all the social complexity behind. They have advanced past legal edifices, bureaucracies, and democracy.

What they seem to be is easy to portray. But, if players and DM's want to dig under the surface, they’ve a whole world of complexities awaiting them.

Conclusion

I came to hate the official Living Land. It was punitive to players (“You’re lost!” “You lose your stuff!”) and boring to run and play.

This Living Land, in contrast, is pure fun. This is an action-adventure Reality. Brave adventurers exploring an untamed wilderness, facing hostile natives (and friendly natives), dangerous wildlife, and ruins of lost civilizations.

The cosm is about exploring the strange new world imposed over our own, facing the dangers of nature (volcanos, blizzards, earthquakes, herds of stampeding dinosaurs), fighting massive and sometimes monstrous creatures, scavenging tools and supplies from ruined Earth cities, running supplies to resistance communities, exploring ancient alien ruins, encountering strange civilizations, and in general running "lost world" style pulpish adventures.

This Living Land, with Lost Worlds, Lifecrafting, advanced Social and Spiritual abilities, and a rewritten background is one I’d very much like to play in and run.

This is the end of my Living Land posts, for now. I want to, again, thank everyone who’s read and responded. I appreciate all the comments and compliments.

Cheers!