Eine Charity-Aktion ist grundsätzlich toll. Es freut mich, dass ich mit Ulisses zusammen unterstützen kann. Drei unterschiedliche Abenteuer, drei Regionen und verschiedene Settings - jedoch alle ohne Kampf. Finde ich äußerst erfrischend. Tolle Illustrationen und Darstellungen, Pläne von Städten - so wünscht man sich das. Die Personen sind sehr gut dargestellt und die Handlungen durchdacht. Viele Spaßstunden am Spieltisch. Da lohnt sich das Unterstützen.

Aus meiner Sicht ein absolutes Muss für alle Magier. Die Strukturen des ODL werden sehr gut erklärt und bieten viele interessante Anregungen für die Ausgestaltung von (Grau-) Magiern. Es bietet die Einflechtung von Druiden, Hexen und nicht magischen Charakteren in das ODL, womit auch nicht Magier und Dillitanten hier auf ihre Kosten kommen können. Das kleine Büchlein liefert auch Inspiration für das ODL als Auftraggeber und somit für eigene Abenteuer. Sehr gelungen.

Je nachdem welche Charaktere mit ins Spiel kommen ist das Abenteuer spannend bis lustig. Auch die optionalen Enden des Abenteuers sind sehr gelungen. Insgesamt halte ich es für sehr empfehlenswert.

Der orkische-Misch-Masch, der hier angeboten wird, führt einen zunächst durch den Sumpf der Orkstämme, wobei das Format an den Almanach erinnert. Mit jeweils Gebiet, Anzahl, Kennzeichen, Kurzcharakteristik und 6 Zeilen Fließtext werden die Stämme Gharrachai, Korogai, Mokolasch, Olochtai, Orichai, Truanzhai, Tscharshai, Schurachai, Svelltlandorks und Zholochai abgedeckt. Es folgen Götterkästen, die ein wenig an AGÖ erinnern, wo heilige Talismane, Politischer Einfluss und Co beschrieben wird. Dann wird die Spezies Halbork und Ork beschrieben, das Format kennen wir aus dem GRW. Auch die Würfelei für Aussehen, Größe und Gewicht darf natürlich nicht fehlen. Auch aus dem GRW kennen wir schon das Format für die Kutluren, dass nun auf Orkland und "Räuberbande" angewandt wurde. Natürlich wurden auch die klassischen Professions-Einseiter (profan, geweiht und magisch) nicht vergessen, die wir aus vielen Publikationen kennen.

Ein kleines "Glossar" - eher Minilexikon - ist auch mit dabei. Da würde ich aber eher eine Fanspielhilfe empfehlen. Die machen das ausführlicher.

Regeltechnisch kommen passende Vorteile und Nachteile hinzu, wobei über den Ork hinaus gedacht wird. So ist der Vorteil "Natürlicher Rüstungsschutz I-II" für den Ork nur auf I erwerbbar (so scheint es zumindest). Die Vorteile "Biss" und "Natürliche Waffe (Biss)" gefallen mir nicht, da der Vorteil Natürliche Waffe (Biss) nur ein Freischaltungsvorteil ist, der den Vorteil Biss I-III erst kaufbar macht. Da hätte es schönere Lösungen gegeben. Das Buch beschenkt uns auch mit zwei neuen Kampfstilen, wobei einer gefällt und der andere einfach unkreativ und langweilig ist. Neue eKSF gibt es nicht, die bei den Kampfstilen genannten sind aber aufgeführt. Die Wesenszüge habe ich grob überflogen und sie gefallen mir im Grunde nicht. Zu oft bricht Flavor mit Regeltext oder der Regeltext ist schlicht schlecht formuliert. So erhalten misstrauische Orks eine Erschwernis andere zu überreden (schön für sie, aber wo ist da das Misstrauen?) und Olochtai, die sich nicht so leicht Einschüchtern lassen und kaum Angst haben, erhalten eine Erschwernis auf alle Gesellschaftstalente außer Willenskraft; also auch Einschüchtern... Außerdem scheint mir das Balancing nicht immer gegeben zu sein. Beispielsweise erhalten Zholochai eine Erleichterung auf Teilproben MU bei Selbstbeherrschung (Folter Widerstehen) und Willenskraft (Bedrohungen standhalten) und müssen dafür nur eine Erschwernis von 1 auf Etikette hinnehmen, was für gestandene Orks eh irrelevant ist. Teilprobensalate sind wir bei Wesenszügen gewohnt, weswegen ich nicht näher darauf eingehe. Mit Blutkriegern erhalten wir einen neuen Animisten, wobei interessant sein dürfte, was mit den Zaubern, die nun Animistenkräfte sind, (Kraft us Schmerzen und Brazoraghs Hieb) im Regelwiki passiert. Generell finde ich die Umsetzung passend, hätte mir vielleicht aber noch ein stärkeres Alleinstellungsmerkmal gewünscht. Ein Traditionsartefakt erhalten sie natürlich auch: Die Knochenkette. Da ist auch mindestens eine schöne Spielerei dabei. Als "echte" Geweihte gibt's die Graveshpriester und Tairachschamanen. Die AGÖs geben hier den Ton vor und wir erhalten die Tradition, Moralkodex und Aspekte für jeden Götterdiener. Die besondere Traditionsfähigkeit (z.B. Dunkelsicht bei Boron) finde ich hier leider relativ unspannend. Größtenteils bedienen sich die Autoren hier an schon existierenden Liturgien und Zeremonien, was sinnvoll ist. An dieser Stelle scheinen die Autoren auch einen weiteren Formulierungsfehler gemacht zu haben. So können Tairachschamanen keine Liturgien ausführen, die nicht dem Schamanenritus angehören. Später erhalten sie dann doch eigene Tairachschamanen-Liturgien. Eine Frage der Formulierung und mit zugedrückten Augen geht das noch. Ich hätte mir sowohl zu Gravesh als auch zu Tairach ein paar mehr eigene Liturgien gewünscht.

Orkische Waffen und Rüstungen ignoriere ich mal, da nichts groß neu ist.

Am Ende erhalten wir noch ein paar generische Meisterpersonen und Gegnerwerte. Brauch ich nicht, sind aber nett. Ich widerspreche den schlechten Werten des Elitekriegers vehement.

Zum Layout und der Form kann man sagen: Wie immer sehr hohes Niveau. Nur ein Index (digitales Inhaltsverzeichnis) fehlt, aber da habe ich mir dann selbst eins erzeugt. Kann aber nicht jeder, weswegen das eine sehr schlechte Entscheidung war.

Fazit: Wo ich mit einem reinen Regelknüller rechnete, wurde ich mit einer gesunden Mischung überrascht. Das Heftchen sollte jeden in die Lage versetzen, einen Ork zu spielen oder besser zu beschreiben. Schade finde ich die doch eher wenigen "wirklich" orkischen Liturgien und Zauber, aber damit kann ich noch gut leben, wenn man den Preis bedenkt. Als Käufer wäre ich nicht völlig zufrieden, aber auch nicht komplett abgeneigt. In jedem Fall bin ich aber sehr erfreut, dass das PDF erschienen ist und Orks wieder spielbar sind. Um die letzten beiden Sterne zu ergattern, hätte geschehen müssen: 1) Keine Unterschiede zwischen Beschreibung und Regel 2) Keine Freischaltungsvorteile bei den Vorteilen 3) (Mehr) Liturgien und Zauber, die den Ork stärker abgrenzen 4) Regeln für Rikai-Schamanen (in mindestens einem Roman haben sie übernatürliche Kräfte) 5) Digitales Inhaltsverzeichnis 6) Interessantere Kampfstilsonderfertigkeiten

Darüber hinaus, aber dann hätte es für den Preis noch das Sternchen gegeben 7) Eine Halbe- bis Seite Fließtext für jeden Orkgott

Ich stand tatsächlich kurz vor den 4 Sternen, obwohl ich viele Kritikpunkte habe. Grund dafür ist, dass der eingebundene Fluff für mich unerwartet kam und da auch nicht geschludert wurde. Daher gebe ich 3.5/5

EDIT: Ein grober Index (digitales Inhaltsverzeichnis) wurde hinzugefügt. Damit erhöhe ich meine Bewertung auf 3.7/5.

mMn nur ein paar spielmechanische Anpassungen von Perfekt entfernt. Layout, Detailgrad und Umfang lassen nichts vermissen.

Kudos to the other, far better reviews here than what I'm going to write :) .. but a few additional things you should know...

I would start by doing a google search for " writeups letsyouandhimfight evil mastermind torg eternity"... that will lead you to what is probably the best written review I've seen for Torg Eternity that mentions both the positive and negative aspects of this revamp of the original TORG game from the 1990's.

Like a lot of reviewers here I was a huge fan of the original TORG game from the 1990's... it was a lot of fun reading this rulebook and seeing how they've updated the material and I noted with delight that they included enough material in it to let you (in theory) run say the "Dancing on Needles" adventure supplement without even needing the Cyberpapacy sourcebook is a nice touch (Dancing on Needles takes place in the Cyberpapacy).

Honestly though to get your full enjoyment out of this game you should expect to at the very least purchase the seven sourcebooks... Cyberpapacy, Nile Empire, Orrosh, Living Land, Asyle and (when they are able to publish it apparently they're in the crowdfunding phase right now) the Pan Pacifica (replaces what we old guard TORG fans referrred to as "Nippon Tech") sourcebooks... honestly, if you don't buy these you're not going to enjoy the game as throughly as you normally would. I don't necessarily see that as an unfair thing - heck in order to play Dungeons and Dragons bare minimum you need the Dungeon Master's Guide, Player's Handbook and Monster Manual and more than likely you'll end up buying campaign settings and possibly pre published adventures too so this definitely isn't something outside the norm. At some point I'll be writing reviews of the three sourcebooks (Nile Empire, Living Land and Asyle) that I currently own here on the drivethru rpg website.

I also urge you to check out the "pay what you want" supplements though it's worth noting simply clicking on "Torg Eternity" and scrolling through the available products may not turn them up (or at least that was my experience), you may have to search for them individually by name but it's worth it... Torg Eternity Day One for example is a whopping 146 pages worth of material you can get cheaply if you choose to (grab the Day One Pre generated characters while you're at it too also pay what you want). The Reality Choir is another 146 pages worth (edit and update - I wrote a review on Reality Choir but short version, I consider it absolutely mandatory for Torg it's that good and at the pay what you want price it's a no brainer - grab it). Other pay what you want adventures and supplments include "Burden of Glory", "Ruins of the Living Land", "Death of the Mystery Men" , "Rooting Out Orrosh", "Living Land War of Religions" and "The Storm Knights Guide to Monster Hunters" (see however my review of Burden of Glory if you like, at some point I'll write a review for the other ones too). Personally I think it was very generous of the publisher to make these pay what you want titles - yes I know I know, the publisher is trying to encourage purchase of their core rule books, cosm setting sourcebooks and so forth by making the adventures/bonus campaign material free but in today's day and age where corporations are all out to make a quick buck and squeeze a customer mercilessly (at least here in the USA - Cyberpunk rpg except in real life here we come) it's a welcome change. "Dancing on Needletips" which has a fixed price of $1.99 might also be worth checking out and which I've also written a review on.

Also definitely grab the Torg Eternity Drama Deck pay what you want option too, which I also thought was incredibly generous of the publisher especially for people who are playing the game online though I'm not sure how you could use that pdf to randomly select cards for the players (maybe the GM assigns each a permanent number and uses a random number generator?) ... You also want to grab " Beta Clearance Player's Primer" and " Beta Clearance GM's Primer " for some helpful game information, also pay what you want titles. Other pay what you want titles which may or may not be helpful include "Random Enchanged Items", "Program Cards", " Torg Eternity Players Mat" and "Torg Eternity Game Mats" (maybe the images from these can be imported into Roll20 somehow? See below...)

On what I'm pretty sure is the publisher's website, they have announced that for fans of online gaming that Roll20 has created, for about $10 American, a drama deck and apparently Roll20 is free to play online as well (I know nothing about Roll20 and have never used it so can't say too much about it , how much of it is really free to play and so forth... but heck if it only cost $10 to buy and use the drama deck and the GM and players have pdf's of the TORG files I can see how that would work out really well ).

I'd also strongly recommend you sign up for the bundle of holding newsletter to be sent to your email - the publisher kindly ran a bundle of holding special twice over the years since they've released TORG Eternity and who knows they might do it again? Basically you were able to get a number of TORG titles at a cheap price that supported charity - I'll be writing reviews of these books as I get around to reading them.

Also worth noting is the change in narrative tone.. the original Torg books from West End games tried to be very dark and broody and their common catchphrase was "the storm is coming"... honestly though if you try running a campaign in say the USA and you and your gaming crew are all American and you try to say with a straight face " There's a lizard-man dude riding a dinosaur down the Brooklyn Bridge trying to trample you - what do you do?" .. I'm sorry it's just going to provoke hilarity from the players, or at least that was my experience when I gamesmastered it for my friends.. such a scene is completely in tune with the nature of TORG and I encourage you to run stuff like that and have fun with it but - expect laughter and jokes. Likewise imagine a gaming group living in say England gaming through the Asyle cosm.. " Hey elf and dwarf dudes (blokes?) help the dragon is trying to eat me ! HEEEEELLLLLLPPP ! " or listening to the gamesmaster talk about some fantastic mythical creature kidnapping the Queen of England and/or threatening to do something terrible to Big Ben if their demands aren't met (haven't read the Asyle sourcebook but going to assume Big Ben is some sort of Core Earth reality hardpoint I could be wrong) .. it's going to be met with similar hilarity... I like how the revamped book isn't as dark and broody in tone because - let's face it dark and broody's not going to happen.. so hopefully you're a fan of your campaigns being "action-comedy" because that's probably what it's going to lean towards. I could be wrong I'm sure there are gaming groups who can MAKE it dark and broody , goes without saying each gaming group can and will be different from the others in terms of play style, mood and atmosphere.. I'm just saying what my experience was both times I ran this for two different gaming groups.

It's also worth noting that the original TORG West End games (look for the ones that do not say "Torg Eternity", just " Torg" when you click on the publisher's name, Ulisses Spiele, here on the RPG website) are available very cheap as well.. don't bother with the Relics of Power Trilogy only because Ulisses Spiele has already updated it to the revamped TORG Eternity rules so you might as well purchase that instead.. and to be clear Ulisses Spiele has already published a LOT of impressive module/adventure type stuff so that should probably be your first stop (hopefully I will be able to write reviews for the godbox, Revenge Of The Carredon and Fires of Ra soon - they are each very long in page count which in my opinion is a good thing lots of material for the gamesmaster to work with) and the aforementioned pay what you want adventures detailed above should absolutely be your first stop. Having said that as an old school TORG fan I would personally have a lot of fun taking say The Temple of Rek Stalek and updating that to the revised Torg Eternity rules (though the risk you run is that the Temple of Rek Stalek events may not be considered "canon" in Torg Eternity - on the other hand I'm sure the publishers would be the first one to say " It's your campaign, have fun with it ! " ).

Regarding the criticisms leveled by other reviewers as far as the modules being too linear and railroading the players along a path... it's true that strides have been made towards making it less that way in other campaign settings but.. honestly if you're running a pre published adventure railroading is something you simply cannot escape in my experience no matter what and hopefully your players are mature enough to understand that (if not then you have a problem). It was understood with both my TORG gaming groups that the TORG campaign was secondary to anyone having the time and energy to write up their own original adventure material in some other RPG, which by definition is almost always more open ended and "sandbox like" when it's your own original creation ... but no sane gamesmaster out there will ever tell you that such a thing does not require enormous amounts of time and effort that not everybody has especially say the average 9 to 5 working person with a wife and kids, dogs/cats et cetera... just warn your players in advance " Look this is a prepublished adventure that is probably going to railroad you along a plot line at some point I hope you guys can deal with that because I honestly don't know what to do if you "jump" in a direction that the adventure didn't expect". I was the subject of some good natured teasing from my friends " Go that way the plot line is thicker ! " :) ... but they understood.

I do understand why say for example the Cyberpapacy Armor and Weapons aren't nearly as powerful in Torg Eternity as they were in say the original TORG setting... if you have a player character from the Cyberpapacy cosm for example all said PC has to do is liberate Church Police armor and weapons and s/he suddenly became a heck of a lot more powerful.. having said that given the high tech nature of the cosm I was a bit dismayed to see they've been "nerfed" such that they're really not that much more powerful than say a Core Earth Flak Jacket or Ballistic Armor.. from a game balance perspective I understand why they did this but I find myself wondering if a group might be tempted to experiment with more powerful equipment from the Cyberpapacy (with the GM's understanding s/he'd have to ramp up the power of the opposition accordingly).

I'm a bit confused about the other reviews on here stating that the Torg Eternity drama deck is impossible to get a hold of, at least here in the USA.. I just did a quick google search and I immediately saw that a deck was available from at least one online merchant and two listings for the drama deck on ebay if you don't mind buying it used (I don't)... on the other hand I can see how given there isn't a large and readily available supply of said decks it would get frustrating as opposed to say being practically guaranteed to be able to grab a copy of the D&D player's handbook for purchase whenever you feel like it .. as a former Torg gamesmaster from the 1990's West End game version let me say the Drama Deck is FUN .. really fun ! :) .. it takes some getting used to and your players will joke about it (one of mine loved to yell " trump ! " when he played his cards as he tossed them onto the table.. as in " I trump your hand" no reference intended to the former USA president this was in the 1990's people :P ) ... there was a criticism in one review about how one reviewer missed that "hard decision" as far as whether to spend possibilities as experience to upgrade your ability scores or skills or perks or what not or to spend them during gameplay.. personally I'm very happy that the publisher made experience points an entirely different category - I had one player express severe disappointment (later on circa.. hard to remember maybe 2010? .... with a different gaming group after I moved) that they had to quote "spend experience points to survive"... it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea but my players and I throughly enjoyed the old West End published drama deck in both groups where I ran the original TORG west end rules and I'm sure the Torg Eternity drama deck will be no exception ... I'm loving the cosm specific cards in particular which is a new and nice added touch.

As far as a virtual version of the Drama Deck for people who like to play online.. I tend to talk about Fantasy Grounds only because it's the only online RPG program tool type thing I'm familiar with as opposed to say roll20 for example... having said that I did a quick check on Fantasy Grounds and it looks like Torg Eternity is definitely an ongoing project over there with a lot of people putting a lot of hard work into making it viable for FG... however unlike Roll20, FG is NOT free so you'd have to decide if it's worth the purchase price or not (I think you can pay a minimal amount for one month's worth of subscription... mind you it's been a LONG time, over a decade since I last did FG but looking at the website it would appear a GM can pay four dollars American for a month's subscription, players can log on for free (not sure how long for though) and you could give it a trial run that way. Sadly with covid being a thing we have to pay attention to online gaming now in a way that people who prefer face to face gaming have never had to before. (edit and update - looks like the publisher has embraced Roll20 in particular ... if you do a google search for the words "torg eternity drama deck roll20" you'll come up with an online version of the drama deck that was apparently released by the publisher themselves... also if you do a google search for " stay at home and play torg eternity" it will come up with a link to a page on the publisher's... Ulisses .... website that mentions a lot of their pay what you want products ... keep scrolling down and you'll see a link to a video that shows you how to set up roll20 for Torg Eternity and they also give a link to the Fantasy Grounds extension to apparently get Torg Eternity up and running on there too)

Okay enough rambling :) .. long story short I think you're going to love Torg Eternity and in my humble opinion it's well worth the purchase price... buy the Core Rules, download the pay what you want stuff I mentioned above and give it a try with your gaming group :)

These documents have everything a player needs to play their character.

I'll probably be adding more to this review as time goes on and I have a chance to organize the notes I took (yes I literally took notes the product is that good :) ) ... but basically this is an absolute must-read for anyone who's a fan of Torg Eternity and I would go so far as to argue it's an absolutely essential purchase if you're going to be gaming in the Torg Eternity setting ... and given that the author has generously made it a pay what you want title purchasing it is an absolute no-brainer. I am guilty of paying less than the suggested price between a combination of university expenses for the two kids (it's pricey... very, very pricey) and my guilty desire to get a hold of this book but I will absolutely be making a note to myself to purchase another copy of this at the price I should have paid in the first place... years from now when the kids are out of school.. when it probably won't do the poor author any good :( ... but if you can afford the asking price it is absolutely, positively worth it.

Here's the reason I'm gushing with praise after having read the whole thing (and you get a LOT for your money, even when you leave out the table of contents and cover page it's roughly 160 pages of high quality material) ... I'm a long time fan of Torg from waaaaay back when they first released the game in the 1990's and I am thoroughly enjoying the updated version that Ulisses Spiele has released ... but (and this is something I will be addressing when I finally get around to reviewing the Torg Eternity cosm sourcebooks I am currently in the process of reading) ... given the page limits the publisher has to deal with in order to make the books financially viable (I'm guessing anyways) ... there's a lot of good quality content in the "official" Torg Eternity sourcebooks, a lot of "meat and bones" to give any gamesmaster worth their salt all the tools they need to run a viable, fun game... but then you have the people like me who are overly needy and demanding and want more :)

I'm going to talk about a completely different publisher and product here and I will explain why I am doing that afterwards... the Iron Kingdoms campaign setting was originally released for the third edition version of Dungeons and Dragons... the Iron Kingdoms World Guide book was 402 pages long, and maybe at most 2 percent of that dealt with crunchy rules oriented type stuff... the rest was just pure campaign setting, a lovingly detailed rendition of what the Iron Kingdoms world was like, the countries within it and the details of the cities within, the organizations, long entries on the legal system and barter and trade.. I freaking loved that book. Not all RPG'ers are like me, so very, very focused on the role playing, immersing yourself in the campaign world side of things ... there are players who are more interested in treating the RPG like a video game of sorts instead and there's nothing wrong with that at all, there are a million different ways to approach an RPG and a million different RPG groups that find that particular way that works for them.

But if you're someone who's looking for that "immersion" part .. a detailed account of exactly WHAT'S going on in the world of Torg Eternity that focuses less on "crunchy rules stuff" and more on that sort of loving detail (which I'm sure the Torg Eternity writers would have included if it wasn't for the fact that it would probably balloon their page count to something crazy like 300 pages instead of 160 for a Torg Eternity cosm sourcebook - which as mentioned is something the publisher probably cannot afford to do and still make a profit) ... then this is the book for you. I fell in love with the writer's exposition of exactly how the various intelligence agencies in different countries reacted to the invaders and the interaction between all of them and the invading cosms... which of course meant that the writer had to go into detail about how the invaders have affected the politics of Earth as well as the efforts of various intelligence agencies (think America's CIA only bigger ) to deal with Earth in a wartime setting with invaders from other dimensions literally transforming parts of Earth into "their turf"... and it's a fascinating read.

Having said that the part at the end that is "crunchy" in a sense in that it gives you a well written "mission generator" for intelligence agencies that provides a tremendously helpful starting point for a gamesmaster looking to create adventures for his players was also well done in my opinion.... I know there are gamesmasters who will literally create adventures "on the fly" making things up on the spot if the players "jump" in some totally different direction the gamesmaster wasn't anticipating and in a situation like that this would be tremendously helpful for such a gamesmaster to quickly flip through... personally I prefer a gamesmaster who tells his players " guys I really wasn't expecting you to go in this direction.. I can write something up for it but we need to call it a night and meet back next week when I have something for you" (assuming you are blessed with a GM who has that sort of spare time in the first place and it's completely understandable if the GM does not) but even in a situation like that this gives a GM like that an excellent starting point. There's some fun rules in there too for new gear and new perks which are well suited to intelligence agencies which were also very well written in my opinion but to me the best part was that "world immersion" that the author so expertly crafted ... what's going on politically in the world of Torg Eternity.

In my ignorance I had to look up what the "Torg Infiniverse Exchange" logo meant on the cover... if I understand correctly, the publisher of Torg Eternity has made the very wise decision of letting writers outside of the publisher (Ulisses Spiele ) write stuff for Torg Eternity ... honestly I think this book is so good it should have been included as an official Torg Eternity product and in the highly unlikely event Ulisses Spiele is reading this :) (not so much that they don't care and more so because they are busy cranking out a ton of material for Torg Eternity, which I applaud them for.. I've only read a few titles but super impressed at what I've read so far) ... guys you need to officially hire the author on to write other books for you, I'm serious :) ..

If I typed every single thing here that the author mentions in his book this review would drag on even longer than it already has (and apologies for that I know it's a gigantic wall of text) but some things that really caught my eye

• The Shield of Atlas, the mercenary organization that is more interesting in profiting off the possibility wars than they are in saving the world and the hilarious (in my opinion) reference to Shield from a large publisher of comic books I shall not name here for fear of copyright infringement but it's still funny as all heck :) .. particularly the flying headquarters/combat air vehicles they use courtesy of their alliance with a wierd science Nile Empire bad guy/genius (which shows right there just how mercenary they are to begin with) ..

• the long game the Cyberpapacy is playing to win the hearts and minds of the parts of Earth they haven't claimed by transforming it to their reality/dimension yet ... well written, fascinating stuff that melds perfectly with how politics would work in "real life Earth" if a sneaky yet undeniably evil presence that the Cyberpapacy was in play

• the Federation of Saladin ... I was delighted to see writing about Islam-dominant countries that goes beyond the Hollywood trope of "they're all terrorists who want to blow up the USA and convenient bad guys we can plop into our storyline because we're too lazy to come up with a more nuanced bad guy instead"... yes the writer addressed the terrorist factions (and if you know anything about Islam these terrorists are NOT Muslims in any sense of the word no matter how much they insist they are - it's a perversion of the faith, just as twisted as the "holy crusades" centuries ago with the looting, pillaging and so forth that no right minded Christian would ever in a million years view as a Christian thing - yet it was touted as a "Christian " thing back then despite being the complete opposite of it ) .. but the writer also includes the Muslims who are doing their best to control the terrorist factions who want to take control of the Federation of Saladin and who are far more concerned about rescuing the Muslim populations who have been endangered by the Possibility Wars

• an extremely in depth look at the Delphi Council , more detailed than what you'd find in the Torg Living Land sourcebook (which contains most of the Delphi Council "official" info from Ulisses Spiele as far as I can tell) that reads as a finely written love letter to the Delphi Council in Torg Eternity... really good stuff

• the Earth Defense Force , founded in part over a misunderstanding that is both cosmicly funny and also tragic... fans of the original Torg books from the 1990's are very familiar with Quinn Sebastian... as Ulisses Spiele has officially established, Quinn survived the possiblity wars detailed in the 1990's and "jumped infiniverses" over to the one detailed in Torg Eternity taking place today in the 2019's onwards or what have you (not sure what year it's officially supposed to be - I suspect Ulisses Spiele have deliberately left this vague so Torg Eternity GM's can set it in whatever year they like but it's probably going to be a modern one that takes into account the technology of today) .. and has been lending his expertise from having fought through his version of the possiblity wars to the defenders of earth in this infiniverse.. basically, the unconquered parts of Japan, China and Korea got wind of this.. but not the entire story, all they know is that Quinn is from another dimension... just like (to them anyways) the dimensional invaders... now they're convinced the Delphi Counci is compromised and have founded their own "Earth Defense Force", convinced they are now humanity's only hope. Beyond the funny/tragic part the Earth Defense Force is enormously well written too.

And just because I've given you highlights from the book doesn't mean I've completely given away the book's contents either (and I hope the author will forgive me for taking the liberty of doing so).. the reason I mention these things is to get you hooked on the fascinating concepts in this book so that you'll actually buy it and read about those concepts in greater detail which this book absolutely does ... in addition to going into far greater detail into these (and other) agencies , the author also talks about the interaction (often hostile or at least a "cold war" sort of situation though there are other instances where they ally with each other too ) of all these agencies in various "fields of operation" .... different regions of earth , both the areas conquered by the dimensional areas and the areas that are still (so far) free.. and it's a fantastic read.

If you've made it to the end of this long review thank you for reading all of that :) .. and I honestly hope I have convinced you by now to buy this book... to the author, you've truly crafted a work of art here in my humble opinion.

Detaillierte Karten, viele Informationen im Beiheft, super ausgearbeitet. Ich freue mich schon auf die nächste Ausgabe

Die Idee ist gut! Das Abenteuer wollten wir eigentlich garnicht spielen. Wir waren nur an den Buchkarten interessiert. Die Idee so viel wie möglich Fertigkeiten in die Bücher zu verteilen um sie daraus lernen zu können ist irgendwie inspirierend. Dann kam der Schock. Wir müssen Rätsel lösen um an die Buchkarten zu kommen.

Also teilten wir uns die Arbeit. Jeder in der Gruppe nahm sich ein Solo vor und spielte es in 20 Minuten durch. Die unterhaltsame Erzählweise vermittelt nebenbei auch ein paar gute Ideen Kopfkino zu erzeugen. Ich selbst hab dann die übrig gebliebenden Solo-Abenteuer gelesen um die anderen Buchkarten auch noch frei zu schalten.

Dass das offene Ende nicht zu jedem Verlauf der 6 Solos passt, ist irgendwie total egal. Es macht einfach Spaß sich drüber kaput zu lachen was die anderen Spieler in ihrem Solo erlebt haben und vor allem bei meinem Held gesehen haben. Tatsächlich hat der Autor darauf geachtet, dass sich alle 6 Helden in den verschiedenen Solos treffen und beobachten. Vermutlich wäre es weniger Arbeit gewesen nur 3 Solos zu bauen, diese jedoch ausführlicher zu schreiben. Hätte ich mir auch gewünscht. Ich hätte grade so weiter spielen können. Ist ja auch kein wirkliches Ende, sondern der perfekte Start in ein Gruppenabenteuer mit den Helden aus den Solos.

Danke für das kreative Werk! Mehr davon. Und vor allem mehr Buchkarten. Vielleicht noch etwas vereinfachen. Sonst super!

Hallo,

im Gegensatz zu den tollen Erweiterungsbänden ist dieser Band grauenhaft erarbeitet worden. Dieser Band steckt randvoll mit Fehlern. Angefangen von grundsätzlichen Rechtschreib- und Grammatikfehler bis hin zu Übersetzungsfehlern (z.B. taucht an einigen Stellen "Fokus" als Fertigkeit auf, was aber eigentlich "Konzentration" ist). Es wurden Beschreibungen zu Berufungen zur Häfte einige Seiten später eingefügt und Sortierungen durcheinander gebracht (Theurgiekräfte).

Bei der pdf-Version kann man nur hoffen, dass es dazu eine überarbeitet Version gibt... allen die eine Papierversion kaufen wollen kann ich nur raten: Finger weg davon!!! (Wir Backer sind dabei jetzt ganz schön angeschissen).

Im Grunde ein wirklich schönes Ding, jedoch und vor allem seit der 2.8 Version mit vielen Fehlern und Nervtötern. Man kann alles bearbeiten, eigene Sachen integrieren und viele schöne Sachen.

Negatives:

• Der Bogen braucht auch bei einem HighEnd-PC ziemlich lange, bis er lädt. Noch nerviger, wenn man Geschlechter wählt, weshalb ich männlich/weiblich Bögen separat gespeichert habe. Bei vielen, die sich nicht so ein PC leisten können, kann es bis zur halbe Minute dauern, bis sich da was aufbaut, was schon ziemlich blöd ist. Dazu noch, wenn man Werte ändert, kommt es oft vor, dass es in 2-3 Minutentakt ebenfalls dazu kommt, dass es sich kurz (ca.5-6 Sekunden) hängt, aber dann weitergeht.
• Ebenfalls seit 2.8: Wenn man einige Professionen (wie zB Tierkrieger, Trollzacker Profs., etc.) wählen möchte, kehrt der Bogen nicht mehr auf die originelle Seite zurück. Der Bogen berechnet zwar alles und fügt alle Werte hinzu, aber man kann die erste Seite nicht mehr verwenden.

Ich denke, dass sind große Gründe, wieso man dem schönen Bogen dennoch nur 3-Sterne geben muss. Dennoch arbeite ich gerne mit dem Bogen, weil er ansonsten zuverlässig ist und nicht die ganzen Berechnungsfehler drin hat, wie zB Optolith und die Anderen.

Der Inhalt ist sicher sehr nützlich. Leider ist der Kontrast der Schrift zum Untergrund sehr schlecht, schwach und ich kann es kaum lesen. Nicht jeder ist mit Adleraugen gesegnet und man sollte beim Erstellen solcher Spielhilfen ganz allgemein an alle denken, auch an Menschen die nicht 100% gut sehen. Normalerweise kann ich übrigens alle PDfs lesen. Die Schrift ist einfach viel zu hell, so das ich meine AUgen extrem anstrengen muss und Kopfschmerzen bekomme. Bitte auch an die DSA Spieler mit Einschränkungen denken und an die die einfach schon 50 Jahre und älter sind. (Wie ich.)

Top-Karten. Danke dafür.

Die Karten waren super für meine Gruppe und habend as leiten wesentlich erleichtert in Roll20.

Hallo,

danke für die Karten. Habe gerade die Reiseabschnitte sehr veranschaulicht und die Spieler aktiv werden lassen.