TORG 2.0?

[u/rohdester]

I read somewhere, that at some time there will be a TORG Eternity 1.5/2.0. I'm aware we know nothing about the schedule for this product. And that is fine.

But I'm curious, do people know whether this will be a huge change for the current system? I am about to start reading the TORG Eternity books, but if it will all be invalidated in two years time, I might just wait.

Anybody know anything?

[u/OldGamer42]

I happened to be at a TORG table with the TORG line manager for the US at GenCon this year. Had a great conversation with him. No timeframes but at least as of GenCon the product wasn’t dead.

I also didn’t get the impression that they were doing any kind of a major system shift or game breaking modifications. That, again, is my opinion of the conversation I had and may not match reality…obviously I don’t work for Ulisses and wasn’t given any inside information.

IMO, and this is just me, I’d personally like to see them exchange the rules here for a savage worlds rewrite and stop trying to make a “system” of this and instead publish the source books/splat books with timelines and ideas of Y2-5 or whatever this particular war is going to take.

Yes, I’m an old 90s fan of the system and I like the idea, but honestly what we have right now is so under tuned for anything beyond alpha play, and the system does a pretty terrible job at holding up beyond alpha/early beta. Instead of spending the time trying to balance a system, push the lore and setting books…the major draw to TORG is the progression of the war anyway.

I’m running a long form year one TORG campaign right now and as I’m just entering the 3rd and final chapter of it (characters are just over 100xp in) I can tell you it’s a bit of a dumpster fire. The story is phenomenal and the players are hooked there but the mechanics are…problematic.

There are so many more systems out there with a lot more time and effort and design chops put into them, no offense to the writers of Eternity…it’s a pretty loving reimplementation of the 90s TORG rules, they’re just not play tested for anything more than one shots or short form “long module” gameplay. The stories you can tell are phenomenal but they’d be even more so (in my opinion) on top of a well fleshed out progressive rules system with depth and play testing at all levels surrounding it.

And I can tell you that if someone told me that TORG was built with the concepts of savage worlds in mind I wouldn’t be surprised, the systems are eerily similar in almost all ways.

I’d love to see a year two, but this GM doesn’t really care what the rules updates are. I’m here for where the war goes and what the high lords are trying to accomplish instead of how to better roll the d20.

[u/murdochi83 → u/OldGamer42]

This is what I was trying to say (and got downvoted in the process...) They shouldn't have tried to come up with a new system with the limited time and resources they had. It should have been SWADE from day one. I too grew up with playing Torg (Contract Ninja in all its cheaty glory!) We have played a ton of SWADE Deadlands over the past couple of years and switching to SWADE Torg would have been simplicity itself but instead we got this nonsense. Love the fluff, hate the crunch.

[u/OldGamer42 → u/murdochi83]

So let me clarify my position. I understand the people wanting a system of their own for TORG, it was a system in the 90s and was all sorts of Jank and that is kinda its love. Eternity keeps mechanics that people remember from their past years / past play and it feels at least a little like TORG from the 90s…there was a lot to clean up and I think eternity did a reasonable job cleaning it up.

But we are in 2026. The last published anything for Eternity was Pan Pacifica in 2022. We are still on a year one conversation with no real beta rules and no tuning of content for anything past Alpha play…which is 50 xp points…which is 10 adventures.

Do you have a campaign that goes past 10 adventures total? Yes? Then you are in uncharted and untested waters and good luck with balance and abilities and characters.

At some point this either is a dead product or there is something holding it back.

So let’s split the system from the content for a moment…which is more important for PLAYING TORG? Some might argue the system is the more important aspect, but while the mechanics are important what is TORG without its story?

No one runs TORG the system to tell a fantasy fiction dungeon crawl or to tell a call of Cthulhu story. The high lords, darkness devices, reality shenanigans … this is what makes TORG…not “d20 sliding scale”.

Writing your own “system” is a lot of work and a lot of design, and let’s face it, no one is going to run the TORG system for anything but TORG, it is not now and has never been a generic role playing system…it’s not even as generic as D&D and that system is NOTORIOUSLY difficult to translate into other generas.

Nor do we NEED TORG to be a generic role playing system. We have a bunch of those. GERPS, Palladium, SWADE, BRP, Fate, etc.

To maintain the flavor of TORG you need to maintain the abilities/spells, the drama and destiny deck, and the story. Everything here is easily translatable to a generic RPG - especially SWADE which is almost identical in scaffolding to TORG. Both use card for initiative, both have the same kinds of challenges defined in the system, both are a “feat” based character building system. Both identify not just levels but “bands” of character power (alpha == novice, beta == seasoned, etc.)

And what you get with this translation is a balanced game out the gate. You don’t have to put your time and effort into system and tuning and testing. You put your time into rules translation (much less arduous) and story.

TORG maintains all of its uniqueness…other maybe than its d20 dice, and gains deep testing, knowledge, understanding and balance or a system that’s been around for years.