Torg Player Rules

Different Faiths
What separates one faith skill from another is left up
to each gaming group to decide for itself. The sample
limitations provided in the faith skill description represent
broad, general categories of religious beliefs and group
many similar belief systems together. The first five given
in the skill entry cover most Core Earth religions and the
rest represent religious systems found in the other realities
involved in the Possibility Wars. Atheism is available as a
belief system in all of the realities involved in the Possibility
Wars with the exception of the Living Land.
If more diversity is desired, these groups (except for
Atheism, which is all-inclusive) may be broken up into
smaller groups. How many groups depend on how specific
you want to make each faith skill. For example, Honor could
be broken up into a separate faith for each of the six gods in
Aysle’s pantheon of honorable gods, or it could be divided
into three faiths - the honor gods of the humans, the honor
gods of the elves and the honor god of the half-folk.
The rules involving faith are intended to describe religions
as they exist in the fictional game setting of Torg.
They should not be interpreted as statements about the
state or nature of religions in the real world. When dealing
with real world religions in the game, players should use
the amount of generalization or specification that makes
them feel most comfortable.
treated as a sort of negative belief system. Rules for how to handle
faith(Atheism) can be found in Chapter Eleven.
Focus
Use: Cannot be used unskilled.
Sample specializations: None.
Axiom: Spirit 2
The focus skill represents a character’s ability to tap into the
spiritual energies of a religious belief system and somewhat reliably
create “miracles” with that energy. It is not used alone however,
miracles are not possible without the faith skill also being involved
(though in some cases miracles can occur without needing the focus
skill.) The complete rules for performing miracles can be found in
Chapter Eleven.
Focus is an unusual skill in that it cannot normally be taught
to another character. In most belief systems, the ability to perform
miracles is seen as a gift or a blessing, not something that can
simply be learned like any other ability. Players who wish to have
their characters acquire the focus skill during gameplay will need
to discuss the matter with their gamemaster and determine how, and
if, the character can get the skill.
Frenzy
Use: Cannot be used unskilled.
Sample specializations: None
Reality: Aysle , certain character types only.
Chapter Three: Attributes and Skills
Frenzy is a special ability that allows a character to work himself
up into a deadly, berserk rage. It is a skill only available to two
specific types of characters in the Possibility Wars, Ayslish vikings
and the Draygaak race of the Star Sphere.
When frenzied, the character becomes little more than a killing
machine. They will attack all enemy characters or creatures without
hesitation and if there are no enemies nearby, they may attack anyone
close by, even their own comrades and allies.
Frenzied characters may not make ranged attacks, all combat must
be conducted with either melee weapons or barehanded. Frenzied
characters may not use interaction skills such as maneuver, trick, test
or taunt though intimidation is allowed. Frenzied characters cannot
perform an active defense against any kind of attack, they may only
passively defend. Shields however may be used during combat.
The difficulty of entering frenzy is based on the character’s
wound level. The more injured a character is, the easier it is for
him to frenzy. A character already involved in a combat situation
receives a +5 bonus to his skill total.
A frenzied character has his Dexterity, Strength and Toughness
temporarily increased while frenzied. The amount of the increase
is based on the success level of the skill check. On a Minimal or
Average success, the increase is +1; Good success +2; Superior
success +3; Spectacular success +4.
This is not a bonus, it is an actual increase in the attribute and
will affect any game values based off of an attribute (such as the base
damage value of melee weapons and the amount of shock damage
a character can take before being knocked unconscious.) While
frenzied, characters are immune to fatigue results and ignore any
action penalties from wound damage (see Chapter Four for details
on fatigue and damage penalties.)
A f r e n z i e d
character that has
no enemies to
attack may lash
out at anyone who
is nearby, even if
they are on his side.
To keep himself from
attacking an ally, the
frenzied character must
make a willpower check
against a difficulty of
12. If the character fails,
he will attack the nearest
person with the same ferocity
he used on his enemies. If the
frenzied character succeeds,
he doesn’t attack anyone that
round. Another willpower check
is required the next round and
in subsequent rounds until the
character has someone to attack or
the frenzy comes to an end.
A frenzy lasts for no more than
12 rounds, though a character
can attempt to come out of it
sooner. The difficulty for ending
frenzy is based on the character’s
wound level, though in this case the more injured the character is
the harder it is to come out of it.
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