accomplishedIt had been decided during the early part of the week that the Friday night group would play a session of the Torg: Eternity RPG, since they'd heard something about it through some of my blog entries and some searching on the internet. In particular, Kathy, who had played the original TORG: The Possibility Wars RPG, was quite eager to see what the new version of the game involved and how it had changed. Besides, she still wants to play her original character again on this different Earth. :)
When the players arrived at my place, we talked for about 10 minutes and caught up with each other about life during the past week. Then we sat down, and got down to the Torg: Eternity game.
I talked to the players a little about the game (since most of them had never heard of the game in either incarnation!), explaining about the game universe (Cosms, Realms, The High Lords, how Reality works in the game and the Axioms, the Torg, and Storm Knights) and then a quick overview of the basic rules. It was enough to intrigue them. They chose their characters, and then got on with it.
CHARACTERS
Helen Archer (Kathy) - The Wannabe Athlete
Dr. Sarah Rappaport (Angela) - The Egghead Professor
Halle Clarke (Ellie) - The Quasi Celebrity
Randall Crane (DavidM) - The Jaded Paramedic
Jimmy ("Gears") Williams (Mark) - The Petty Crook
The Storm Knights all started the adventure in the Battery Park area, Helen Archer saving a couple of children from falling rubble and debris and befriended Randall Crane when he came over to check on the children. Jimmy was searching through the debris near Battery Park for stuff to steal, and this became a common theme throughout the evening's game session. Helen, Randall, and Jimmy all joined forces to track a group of the lizard-like edeinos when they saw they had a young blond woman whom Helen recognised as quasi celebrity Halle Clarke. They were able to free Halle, and rather than thanking them she played the wounded actress, and the characters saw how vain she was.
Attracted by the sound of gunfire, they came upon Dr. Sarah Rappaport, who was watching a tri-horned dinosaur much on plants. It was Helen who realised the dinosaur had trapped a woman in a car, and after rescuing her, the characters all agreed to help her find her son. Meanwhile, Halle kept going on about her adoring fans, and where were they all? She soon got her answer, as in the rescue attempt on the son from the home inside the apartment building, the group had to fight some feral humans, and it was only through some luck, skill [and a few Possibilities] that they defeated the feral humans (Dr. Rappaport refusing to let them kill them).
The group continued on to the site where they had heard gunfire, and after taking up some weapons and armour (in the case of Helen), the group was attacked by some of the edeinos. The characters handled themselves well, suffering some injuries [and narrowly avoiding a Disconnection in one instance], but were able to defeat the edeinos and claim some of their weapons (the so-called Hrocht shoot spears) for themselves.
The Storm Knights then came upon some survivors of the initial attack, several of which didn't seem quite "human" any longer, and agreed to escort them to a local hospital that was inside a somewhat "safe zone" (whatever that meant; the man who mentioned it died shortly thereafter of his wounds, no matter what Randall Crane attempted to do).
The player characters and the surviving humans made their way to the hospital, but had to fend off an attack by edeinos (led by a Stormer shaman), some natural dangers, and finally the attack by the transformed humans into ferals, but eventually reached the safety of the hospital, and the soldiers there.
Friday night's session of the Torg: Eternity game using the Free RPG Day booklet scenario was a lot of fun. It had a bit of everything in it, and reminded me how much fun I used to have with the game system. While the card decks (Drama, Destiny, Cosm) weren't available for this (and I don't have an old Drama Deck from the 1st Edition), I managed to evoke the feeling the game had/has with the cards, and was generous with the Possibilities. The players did a good job with the characters and the limited backgrounds they had. Kathy played the Wannabe Athlete nicely, and used her baseball bat effectively. Angela played the professor nicely, rather more science/knowledge oriented than people oriented, and gave the other players some good laughs. The hit of the night was Ellie's Quasi Celebrity, as she just annoyed the other characters no end with her vanity, but her Helper Perk was quite useful. DavidM played his Jaded Paramedic, Randall Crane, very well as the underpaid, overworked guy, who found himself in the middle of this mess with lots of injured people and not enough time or equipment to handle it all, but his medical training was useful. And finally Mark's "Gears", the Petty Crook, just insinuated himself among the others, and they took the help he offered, his sneaking abilities (not to mention pistol and switchblade) being quite useful in their own way.
Overall, it was a fun evening of roleplaying, and I had a good time running the Torg: Eternity Free RPG Day scenario, and adding a bit more to it. The players absolutely *loved* the game, especially DavidM, who hadn't experienced a game quite like this. I just know I'm looking forward to the full game and running it! :)