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Ulisses Spiele GmbH now owns TORG

TORG logo According to a post on the West End Game fan forums, WEG’s Eric Gibson sold the rights to TORG to the German company Ulisses Spiele GmbH, which is known as the publisher of “Das Schwarze Auge” (aka The Dark Eye).

This is definitely great news. Markus Plötz, the chief executive of Ulisses Spiele is a great fan of the game (he even uses TORG as his username on the official Ulisses forums) and I have no doubts that they will put this license to good use. Alas they don’t plan to release an English version, so they are looking for a licensee. Until this licensee is found English-speaking TORG fans will have to keep on waiting for a new version of TORG.

By the way, I once played in a game of Werewolf run by Markus Plötz, many years ago. But I doubt he still remembers me. 🙂
Stargazer

Michael Wolf is a German games designer and enthusiast best known for his English language role-playing games blog, Stargazer's World, and for creating the free rules-light medieval fantasy adventure game Warrior, Rogue & Mage. He has also worked as an English translator on the German-language Dungeonslayers role-playing game and was part of its editorial team. In addition to his work on Warrior, Rogue & Mage and Dungeonslayers, he has created several self-published games and also performed layout services and published other independent role-playing games such as A Wanderer's Romance, Badass, and the Wyrm System derivative Resolute, Adventurer & Genius, all released through his imprint Stargazer Games. Professionally, he works as a video technician and information technologies specialist. Stargazer's World was started by Michael in August 2008.

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Siskoid

I'm a Torg fan on principle, though the execution hasn't always wowed me. I've got most products from the original line and they're uneven at best. An early game back in the day failed to accumulate enthusiasm from the players. And one using GURPS fell through last year (but that's nobody's fault). The adventure in the basic set, I've used a couple times as a one-shot, and that did work.

I'd love to see Torg return, but I'd also love it to ditch most or all the Cosms from the West End version. Is that wrong of me? I think Torg can definitely survive in concept without the old Cosms. In other words, a reboot from scratch. No more uninspired Aysle or Orrorsh or Nippon Tech (my main cuts for sure).

What do you think?

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Stargazer

I doubt that Ulisses will totally reboot TORG. This is probably not what the majority of the old-time fans want. But I can understand what you are getting at. I didn't like Nippon Tech either.

And I definitely hope they ditch the old system. That's what always kept me from running TORG myself.

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Sunglar

Oh these are great news! Even if it's just in German for now, knowing the game is alive gives me hope. 

I loved the concept, hated the system, and have a lot (but not all) of the books. I even ran a prequel game set in modern times using D20 Modern in 2008. If I go back to that game I'll be switching to Savage Worlds.

As far as reebots go… I don't know, I think the original Cosms could be reworked to make them more interesting buy I'd hate to see them go.

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Stargazer

I think TORG would work great as a Savage Worlds game.

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Siskoid

There is a Savage Torg document out there on the Nets. That's what I'd use too, it's got the right pulp feel.

Recycling the old Cosms into better versions would do me as well. Aysle really needs to have a clearer merging with the 21st-century and not be such a generic fantasy world. Since Torg came out, there's been the rise of Steampunk and the game could reflect that for example.

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Sunglar

Savaged Torg link…

http://getsavaged.blogspot.com/2007/12/savage-tor…

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