The original Orrorsh game supplement is harder to track down than some, but Amazon has a number of copies still. A different interpretation of the Gaunt Man features on this cover. Those interested should follow (I will get a small commission).

Preamble:

A long time ago, I rewrote some fairly fundamental parts of Orrorsh, the Horror Realm, for reasons explained in the text below. While packing, I discovered where it had been filed away (hidden?).

This is not a complete standalone work; you will still need the official supplement.

Why, then, should I read it?

First, because it demonstrates how to solve a particular design problem that can occur in creating any game world: that the first draft doesn’t deliver what’s promised on the cover.

Second, some of that is achieved by rules changes, so it also demonstrates how to change the official rules of a game system to customize it to a particular set of requirements.

Third, Horror and Scary have a place in any genre, and this can be used as a foundation for bringing those elements to anything from Traveller to D&D/Pathfinder.

Fourth, because game balance isn’t just a gamey phrase, and it’s a target that is easily missed. I think this supplement achieves that, though my TORG players might disagree.

And, finally, because it can be used as a game setting for campaigns / game systems outside TORG (with a bit of work), and one that’s quite different to the normal offerings.

Knowledge Assumed

I do note that this supplement requires more than the usual level of knowledge about TORG and it’s internal background/evolving story. For example, there’s an assumed level of cognizance about The Gaunt Man. I’ll smooth over those rough spots with insertions.

Definitions / Background

Like this.

The original runs to 27 pages. With those inserts included, I can see this stretching to 28-29-30 pages of 10-point text. My goal is to capture the whole in 3 parts, but it might end up being 4 or 5 before the whole thing is done. Or it might be done in two, since most of it is transcription.

Player Comments

The one taste the players had of the Horror Realm involved a guest player acting the role of the Monster/Horror. That player asked a number of questions using post-it notes to clarify different points – some of them specific to the Horror that they were running, and some more generic in nature. I’ve decided to include these, for whatever they are worth, in a different style of inclusion:

Player’s Question

Like this.

— [Reply]

Second Thoughts & Style Notes

Finally, 25 years after the fact, I have a few side-observations to make of my own. Once again, this will be added by way of a text panel that looks just a bit different to the others:

Author’s Note

Like this.

I should also add that I’ve tried a few layout tricks that I’ve never used before. Some of these have worked; some of them have failed catastrophically. NOW FIXED!! The theory was sound, but with HTML and CSS, there can be a vast gulf between theory and actual practice, as I have learned on numerous occasions.

In consequence, it looks like the chapter titles are being repeated – first in graphic form, and then again in the usual section-heading font. I’m leaving these failed experiments in place so that I can come back to them if I ever find the solution. FIXED, FIXED, FIXED!!

For the record, I was trying keep the headings but make the font white and the text 1-pt high or less. (And while I’m on the subject, can anytone explain why align=”aligncenter” only works properly when there’s a caption – even if it’s a virtually invisible full-stop, and how to fix it., I’d be extremely grateful. <<-- STILL A PROBLEM, OH WELL. I'll repeat an edited version of this Preamble at the head of each post. [caption id="attachment_49242" align="aligncenter" width="544"] .[/caption]

1. Why?

Orrorsh just isn’t scary enough. It reads too much like an amalgam of 1950s B-grade monster movies – and while some of these could be mildly scary, anything really scary never have been made in those days as it would not have been commercially viable.

The modern movement toward making movies truly scary for adults and not ‘safe for teens’ started with Stephen King, and Wes Craven, and Nightmare On Elm Street, though the roots of the trend can be traced back to Lovecraft. Compared to them, and those that followed, those B-grade movies can’t cut it.

The reason for the choice of sub-genre is clearly two-fold. (1) The authors liked them (as do I); and (2) you can show them to younger teens without scaring them away, i.e. alienating the early-teen market. My gaming group, in contrast to the average, is (was) adult, experienced, and not likely to find official Orrorsh all that scary. They would act as PCs do – if it moves, shoot it.

2. The Goal

I want the feelings generated by Alien, Nightmare On Elm Street II, The Thing, Hellraiser, and the like. I want the players to be nervous, which will translate to fear in their characters when they roleplay, if it is refereed properly. Combat should have Alien’s ‘Jump Out Of Your Skin quality about it.

3. How?

Through Techniques and Content. the techniques are designed to generate a particular state of mind in the players; Fear is the buildup of tension in an atmosphere of discomfort, suddenly discharged without relieving the atmosphere. The key terms are Atmosphere, Tension, and Discharge without relief.

Atmosphere in roleplaying derives from Environment, Description, Style & Language, and Tone.

Tension Buildup results from Mood and Action.

Discharge comes from Pace and Delivery.

All these terms are defined in detail below.

3.1 Environment

The term applies to the background of the adventure. Playing in an appropriate setting makes it easier to establish – dimmed lights, flickering candles, deep shadows, etc – but none of that is necessary. The environment in-game should be one that produces wariness.

3.2 Description

Description should be loaded with atmosphere-building terms and phrases which reinforce the setting. Make lists of these in advance, if possible. Look for a downbeat, fear-inducing alternative to everything you say.

Instead of “He is 6′ tall and has brown heir and bluer eyes,” try for “His head passes twelve inches beneath the 7-foot high gallows post, his hair is the color of a freshly-opened grave; his complexion is pale, and his eyes so wide and bulging with feat that you have to force yourselves to notice that they are blue”.

Prepare descriptions for generic people and places, not just key locations; when you’re trying to establish an atmosphere, everyone, everywhere, and everything, are all key items.

However, it’s important not to go overboard – emphasis one element, and gloss over the rest. Otherwise, you will drown the more significant contributions out. The example offered above goes too far – edit out the color-comparison of the hair and re-read it, and you will see the difference for yourself. The gallows suggests bulging eyes, which are reinforced by the description. The man who looks hanged is both memorable and conducive to atmosphere.

Author’s Note

Refer to The Secrets Of Stylish Narrative for more tips and tricks in this department.

3.3 Style & Language

Everyone has a preferred style

Author’s Note

…which has usually developed without conscious decisions on their part.

Mine tends towards putting the party in problem-solving situations, with atmosphere overshadowed by vast conceptual leaps. I come up with an idea of a plan and let the party try to figure out what’ going on and how to stop it. That style simply won’t work in Orrorsh without heavy modification – it’s too cerebral.

The style has to be prepared, and practiced, and polished, in advance. Bring something to read (briefly) that will put you in the appropriate frame of mind, hopefully with pictures. Alter the layout from the usu8al, if possible, to prevent your falling into old habits. Atmosphere helps you maintain your style, too.

3.4 Tone

The tone of a session is strongly related to the Style and the nature of descriptions used. Graphic, Blunt, Abstract – all different tones. More than anything else, tone refers to the way you react to events in the unfolding story, especially the mixture of game terminology vs descriptive passages and the content of those passages.

The Tone I set tends to be fairly immediate and abstract, with results described fairly immediately after dice get rolled. Those results will be a 70:30 split between in-game narrative and out-of-game mechanics, which also then generally lead to a narrated outcome. That works well in superhero and modern environments, acceptably in Fantasy environments, and won’t work at all in Orrorsh.

A better tone to set would result from requiring a roll, NOT announcing immediately if it succeeds or fails, instead narrating some action leading up to the crux point that leads to the narrative that includes the results of the roll purely by describing the outcome and the new situation.

Author’s Notes

That won’t work in combat, not without stretching the length of a battle unacceptably. So it should lean the other way, and be short and sharp and full of surprise elements. Some actions – reality alteration, the use of powers – should always interrupt combat with a brief burst of narrative, however.

3.5 Mood:

Getting a mood is difficult, every player and character will have their own at the start of a game session, and – while influenced by the mood of others – will follow their own trajectory thereafter. Mood is the maintenance of Atmosphere.

You can use the Atmosphere generated by the Tone techniques described to help steer everyone into an appropriate mood, but then you have to cultivate and maintain it, which slowly builds up tension.

Game mechanics can be murder on Atmosphere. Nothing shatters a mood and brings the party back to life faster than the tinkling of dice across the table – except possibly side conversations. Most referees evolve a tone that is resistant to these – I like to dwell on the significance or difficulty of the circumstances while it is being made, and to prevent side conversations that aren’t relevant by giving players not directly engaged something to think about while conducting a brief private sub-session for those who are engaged. But as soon as the dice start rolling, the mood shifts to lets-get-down-to-business – whether I like it or not.

Needing to consult the rules, or a spell description, or whatever, is also a dash of cold water.

There are solutions to these problems but they aren’t universal and aren’t 100% effective.

3.5.1 Pre-rolling

Get characters (the referee does this for regular NPCs who will be appearing and characters with absent players) to generate a few dozen die rolls at the start of a game session (you can add to leftovers from last time if you like).

Sub-critical situations

Unless the situation is a critical one, the GM/player can choose which of their rolls they will use, but must then cross it off the list. If the referee keeps the list and does the crossing out, he can keep going without ever breaking narrative. The player doesn’t have to know what the ‘die roll’ is for before he chooses.

12-24 rolls will get you through most game sessions, 30 gives some leeway.

Expect players to respond very tactically to the option of choosing a die roll – they won’t want to waste a good one on trivial side-issues, and may want to get ride of any bad ones when they don’t think it’s going to matter.

Critical situations

In more serious situations, the referee has a choice – either switch to live rolling (and spend a lot of time rattling dice in the hands quietly while delivering narrative, see below) or use the next pre-roll result on the list, regardless of whether it is good or bad. In general, I subdivide ‘critical situations’ into ‘critical’ and ‘supercritical’ – the latter being when overall success or failure, or life or death, hangs in the balance. I save the live rolling for the latter.

Again, if the referee keeps the list of rolls, he can switch to a more mood-supportive narrative mode and keep the game mechanics in the background. But it’s always a player’s choice what their character does.

Author’s notes

I have seen some players who deliberately try to invoke situations at the start of a session where die rolls are called for simply to use up bad rolls, or to expend really good rolls on things they think will benefit their character.

Feel free to play games, inserting unexpectedly critical moments or having the benefits of a good roll be substantial but very temporary, needing a later roll to ‘cement’ them for the longer term if this happens.

Min-maxers seem to be especially prone to this. It may also be necessary to get the players concerned to make an extra 6-12 pre-rolls.

Another thought.

I know of at least one GM who uses this system but with a twist – he gets players to generate two complete sets of die rolls (once) and choose blindly between them. Whichever one is not chosen gets archived for use by an NPC or saved to become the alternate set for the next game session, depending on his needs of the day.

He also likes to ‘maintain game balance’ by using the one NPC pre-roll pool for all his NPCs and absent players. So some will benefit from good rolls and some will suffer from bad ones, but overall he thinks he is seen to be averaging a straight 10.5 on d20 or 3d6.

Offered for whatever they are worth as technique refinements.

3.5.2 Stalling while tension builds

In critical moments, delay giving results or making decisive actions as long as possible. Don’t be so obvious as to talk about the weather while rattling dice -keep it relevant – but if the players can TELL that you’re building up to something, the tension will rise. (Having an NPC talk about the weather as a deliberate, intentional, overt, stalling tactic, is entirely fair game, however!)

3.5.3 Recall takes game time – for everyone

If a player can’t remember something, let them look it up, but maintain the action while they are doing so. Their character can be fumbling in his pack, racking his brains trying to recall an elusive memory, backing away from danger, momentarily frozen in fear, or whatever.

Author’s Notes

Some players find this objectionable because it ignores the difference between them and their characters.

It’s a fair point.

GMs may like to burn a pre-roll made against the character’s INT – success buys a small amount of leeway to look something up – maybe 5 seconds per point of success, or maybe some less formal tolerance.

Again, with some players, you may need to add extra pre-rolls to cover this (anticipated) need.

3.5.4 Pass The Buck or Spontaneous Creativity

When YOU can’t remember something, or need to look something up, you have three choices.

1. Stall the game while you do what you have to. Maybe call a 5-minute recess to cover your delay. Neither goes over well if you are even semi-strict about player/PC recall. Sauce for the goose, as they say, should be sauce for the gander.
2. You can pass the buck, asking another player to look whatever it is up for you while play continues. Prevent abuse (on your part) by having whatever that character does, while they are busy, yield an automatic success.
3. Or you can make something up on the spot, and even if it’s not correct, the outcome stands – good, bad, or indifferent. No take-backs.

3.5.5 Crutches

Sound effects and music can work wonders. That’s why the movies use them. It’s not as easy for the GM to do so – it’s something else that you need to manage when you’re already overloaded, and most GMs can’t compose and perform an orchestral score during the improvisational drama called a role-playing game – but do what you can.

Hint: Inappropriate music is generally ignored until it becomes appropriate. Inappropriate effects tend to provide comic relief but can break mood.

2nd Hint: Appropriate music/effects, if too loud for casual conversation to be heard by the whole table, can be even more distracting than wildly inappropriate music/effects.

3.5.6 Work those NPCs

Finally, don’t overlook the power of the NPC to maintain and strengthen a mood. The best technique is to have the NPCs mood continuously just a little worse than you want the mood amongst the PCs to be – if the party are wary (start of a session), have one or more NPCs become nervous and fidgety.

If the party are nervous, let the NPC become edgy. And so on.

Keep this up properly, and the PCs will be panicky by the time the NPC reaches terrified – the buildup plus the atmosphere will see to that.

Author’s Notes

In addition to the techniques described above, there are more insights and techniques relevant to this subject offered in the 2-part Swell And Lull series, and it’s 4-part sequel series, Further Thoughts On Pacing, here at Campaign Mastery.

3.6 Action

PCs are creatures of action. They DO things even in conversation – it’s fairly rare for players to speak in ‘the voice of their character’, the first and third person are also common. “I say to him…” – “My character says…” – “Frank tells him…” and so on.

There are times when this is useful and appropriate – combat for example.

There are times when it’s a pain.

A lot of the power of the mood evaporates when a critical game-mechanics barrier intervenes. Pre-rolls are meant to prevent this. You want the players to identify with their (fearful) characters one-on-one as strongly as possible.

I characterize the two types of situation as Verb and Character periods.

3.6.1 Character Periods

During a Character period, you can induce and strengthen the identification with the character by stealing some tricks from novelists. They never say “Frank says” and try hard to avoid using “Frank replies”, and so the technique of implying these things was developed centuries ago – at the same time as Prose, in fact.

Instead of one of these banal and insipid placeholders, describe an action by the speaker and then recite his statement:

John shakes his head slowly. “That is not true – you’re lying, and we both know it.”
“No I’m not, no I’m not!”

Reaction/Action implies the source of the statement that follows, the content of which is a piece of dialogue, which in turn implies that the second voice is that of the party being addressed within that dialogue.

Author’s Notes

You can only maintain that sort of daisy-chain for so long without refreshing the identification in some fashion.

Mix it up a little – you can have the party about to be spoken to react to what he’s just heard:

As John continues, George turns away, unable to bear what he’s hearing and not wanting to give John the satisfaction of seeing his reaction.

Context makes it clear who ‘owns’ the next passage of dialogue.

You can even have a third party do the acting/reacting, if you are then explicit as to the speaker.

Judge Mackintosh frowns and makes a note to himself. Jeremy continues, “blah blah blah”.

Note that not all literary tricks translate into genres as well as others. Pick a writer you like and a work that’s genre appropriate and study it for tricks, noting especially any tricks they have used that left a momentary confusion as to who was speaking the next line as something not to do without extra care.

You can even get away with “Henry said” and make it powerful, if used in the right way. Compare this:

“And what did the defendant say or do next?”
“That’s when I heard him say he wuz gonna kill him.”

with this:

“And what did the defendant say or do next?”
[loudly] “Patrick said he wuz gonna kill him, and that’s just what he done did, too!”

The stage direction to the GM reading this is probably unnecessary, but it means there’s one thing less that he has to think about on the spot. But keep them REALLY short and simple.

3.6.2 Verb Periods

The actual discharge of of tension takes place in a Verb Period, so-called because someone is doing something.

In Verb Periods, the action should be dramatic and startling.

The door bursts open and a severed head bounces into the room and rolls into the corner. A gust of wind extinguishes the candle and it’s suddenly pitch-black!

try to avoid asking mood-distracting obvious questions like “What do you do?” – the players will TELL you what their characters are doing without such placeholders. If necessary, gesture toward the player who you expect to respond when you’ve finished your prepared text / dialogue.

3.7 Pace and Delivery

Which brings me to the final elements of how I use pace to create tension and excitement.

3.7.1 Delivery

Try to use a steady, deliberate, pace and serious vocal tones until the moment of a tension discharge, when something dramatic happens – like combat, or a plot twist.

Note that this does not being monotonous or wooden, or droning.

As you approach the moment of tension discharge, you can even lower your voice a bit and slow your delivery even more to give the impression of a hush descending.

Equate the pacing of your delivery to the heart rate of the characters. The human nervous system reacts to a steadily increasing then slowing then increasing pace with the expectation of a release of tension. The adrenaline flows, the heart reacts and begins to speed up and may beat harder, and so on – all the physiological effect of Fight-Or-Flight.

The adrenaline makes people jumpier, more excitable more excited, more prone to seize on the mood that you have created and amplify it.

3.7.2 Game Session Analysis

Below is an analysis of a typical game session using these principles. I did the scaling by eye, so it’s not quite right, but it’s close enough.

This charts tension and nervousness against time, the latter on the horizontal axis. Natural Tension in blue, Induced Tension in Purple, resulting Nervousness / Excitement in green. The game session has been divided into 7 stages – start, first buildup, slowdown, 2nd buildup, negative slowdown, 3rd buildup, and Combat (which should, more accurately, have been labeled ‘Resolution’, but there wasn’t enough space for that. The numbers in green refer to specific notes to be called out in the main text, below.

Natural Tension always tends to rise as a game session moves toward the end of play for the day, especially if you have a reputation for cliffhangers or big finishes.

Induced Tension is the tension you create with your tone, pacing, etc.

Nervousness / Excitement is sometimes referred to by the more general term, Emotional Intensity or just Intensity.

Authors Notes

Again, let me point readers to the Swell And Lull series, and thet sequel series, Further Thoughts On Pacing.

What this text makes clear that I don’t think ever got mentioned in any of those articles is that it is the mood and content of your delivery in the context of genre that determines what the emotional response being intensified is.

In this game supplement, the goal is to create the suspense of a horror movie when everything goes quiet and you know that something is about to happen – and still usually jump when it does.

In other campaigns or settings, you might be looking for excitement or drama or a sense of wonder or any number of other emotional qualities. You can even change the goal from one adventure to another to suit the content.

Key Observations

First, two general observations about the chart layout that were important enough to note them on the chart itself.

• The three curves have been offset one vertical division each. Each of the curves starts at their respective zero positions.
• There is a cause-and-effect relationship being shown. Green is always indicating the response to what happened at the previous purple point. The significance of this is explained in the main observations list to follow.

So, to the main observations:

1. at this point, induced tension is rising faster than the intensity response because the rate of induced tension increase is itself increasing as though you were heading for a dramatic moment.
2. at the second point, instead of that expected dramatic moment, the G< slows his pace and softens his delivery. This is a characteristic of a slowdown phase. Because of the lag, though, intensity continues to rise for a bit. It doesn't fall as far as the dialing down that the GM does because the induced tension is again starting to be increased before it gets that far
3. Without resolution, induced tension resists dropping too far. A good rule of thumb is that half of whatever increase followed the previous slowdown phase is conserved. Since the previous one was “pre-game”, half of the total increase to date is conserved.
4. At the second slowdown, half of the gains since the first are conserved, and added to those previously conserved. This shows that repeated slowdowns have a diminishing impact; they aren’t a magic bullet that you can fire at the game session, but instead need to be planned for maximum impact. Two in a game session is usually a practical limit. If there was a third one at the “7” position, it would have negligible impact.
5. Notice that the second slowdown, while real, didn’t carry a pause in the attempts to build tension, unlike the first one. This is deliberate.
6. this point shows the impact – the players anticipate a more comprehensive chance to catch their emotional ‘breaths’ but the incessant increases in tension don’t give them the chance. The net effect of the short, sharp 2nd buildup and almost negligible easing off is to ‘prime’ the players to over-react to the third buildup.
7. At point 7, the GM really starts to turn up the heat. Once again, because of the lag, intensity doesn’t rise as fast as tension, but will tend to overshoot when the buildup ends.
8. The trajectory of the green line is therefore in complete opposition to the resolution brought by Combat (in this case) or Resolution in general. This increase that “should” take place, but doesn’t, gets internalized by the players, who subconsciously ‘park’ the excess intensity – and the baggage that comes with it – your tone, mood, atmosphere, etc. You induce a tendency for the players to react emotionally in the manner that you want, in other words.

With the techniques of refereeing Orrorsh now established, we have a delivery system – all we need now is some Content to deliver with it.

3.8 Content Nuance

The “Camp” nature of the horrors and the background they they develop tends to engender laughter and not fear, and genuine laughter dissipates tension.

This makes it clear why the reference sub-genre has to change.

The key elements of content in a TORG Realm or Cosm are the World Laws that define the reality and how it works; the Axiom Levels which constrain and define the culture and society that provides a framework for those World Laws to operate in; the effects of both on the Realm’s population and institutions; the Geography and Political, Social, and Economic realities of the Realm; and the character of the High Lord and how this is reflected in the Realm. Each of these, as they pertain to Orrorsh, is discussed in the following sections.

Definitions / Background

High Lord –
Each reality has a ruler who has the power to shape that reality, but who must also reflect the reality that they have created. High Lords can be overthrown or taken down either by Storm Knights (usually PCs), or by Rivals from within (one of whom then gets to be High Lord), or by the High Lord from another Cosm. Each High Lord has a Darkness Device (to be defined later) which extracts “possibility energy” from the subject populace and uses it or makes it available for use by the High Lord. This is the source of much of their power.

Storm Knight – Sometimes, when you get caught in the middle of someone else changing reality, you gain the ability to do so yourself. The details don’t matter much. The PCs in a TORG campaign are almost always Storm Knights.

Cosm –
The “reality” from which the High Lord and any number of his servants derives. The other ongoing series of articles under the umbrella of the broader series is all about the Cosm of Aysle.

Realm –
Humans, for some reason not explained officially to my knowledge, have vastly more possibility energy to be harvested than the inhabitants of any other reality – so much so that the High Lords feared what they might do with it, but also so much that each feared the consequences of invading, even though (at the time) there was no High Lord of Earth. So the Gaunt Man got a bunch of High Lords together and coordinated a combined invasion by them all; each got a part of the world in which to establish a simulacrum of their Cosm, imposing a new set of natural laws over the population and making that population subject to the World Laws of the new reality. Such an invaded territory is known as a Realm.

World Laws –
The World Laws define the ‘operating principles’ of the reality, both within the Cosm and within a Realm subject to that Cosm.

4. World Laws

The Orrorsh Sourcebook talks about the powers of Fear and Corruption (completely different tot he Ayslish World-Law of Corruption), but it never actually enunciates any World Laws.

Infiniverse Volume II lists three, but only actually labeled one of them a Law; the others were Powers, and not particularly frightening ones, at that: “Wicked acts lead to Corruption”

What encourages the Victorian-era residents to commit these Wicked Acts?

The power of Fear prevents Storm Knights from playing to the critical moment or invoking reality storms to change reality? The players in my TORG campaign (as of the time of writing the original supplement) have done the first once and the second not at all, so that would really set them quaking – not!

The Law of Eternal Corruption brings monsters back in due course – somewhere else. That’s the most frightening World Law they could come up with?

Perseverance is the best of the ideas, it encourages Storm Knights to push on when their Fear gets the better of them, even though the PCs would do so anyway and protest vehemently id prevented from doing so by the referee.

And, of course, if the residents are subject to Perseverance, what do they need Storm Knights for, anyway?

This extremely-critical analysis should demonstrate that the redesign of Orrorsh has to go considerably deeper than just creating some scarier Horrors. It has to happen from the ground up – by recreating the World Laws that I was just criticizing.

(By the way, it’s no accident that some aspects of the redesign bear a striking resemblance to concepts from Call Of Cthulhu).

Orrorsh now has 5 World Laws:

• The Law of Evil;
• The Law of Duality;
• The Law of Fear;
• The Law of Perseverance; and
• The Law of Truth.

4.1 The Law Of Evil:

Acts of Evil are rewarded with Power.

Hekaton, the Darkness Device of Orrorsh, invests part of its accumulated possibility in those who commit Acts Of Evil, granting them powers. The use of this energy generates Fear in the populace, which feeds more power to Hekaton. Persisting in the face of fear reduces this fear through the release of the possibility energy of the unpowered, feeding more power back to the Darkness Device.

One Horror can bring fear to hundreds or even thousands, so the gains of this approach are vastly greater than the investment.

Player’s Question

So Perseverance feeds Hekaton?

— If it’s by a non-Horror, and not by a Storm Knight, yes. Horrors are pretty much immune to the fear they induce in others, and Storm Knights can reshape the reality into one whose laws are more beneficial for them, so they render the law of Perseverance null and void. But ordinary people and some higher animals, absolutely. Creates a delicate balancing act, doesn’t it? Enough Fear to scare people, not so much that they won’t resist it, and that resistance is what Hekaton really wants. The whole first law is just a means to that end.

Definitions / Background

Darkness Device – Mentioned already, it is the possession of one of these that elevates someone to the rank of High Lord by giving them access to huge amounts of raw power.

Possibility Energy – Anyone can change the world, in theory, but few people ever actually do so. This potential, which otherwise would simply be wasted, powers the High Lords by way of their Darkness Devices. This possibility potential can interact with a wave front of changing reality to create a Storm Knight who not only has far more possibility energy at their disposal than most, they can actively use the possibility energy to create a (temporary) bubble of changed reality, similar to what the Darkness Device does (but on a much smaller scale).

4.2 The Law of Duality;

Everything has two sides, the Public and the True.

True Death vs death, True Vision vs sight, True Form vs perceived body, inner being vs Public Face – notice the pattern? Everyone and everything in Orrorsh has two sides to their nature, two different personalities. The hidden persona – body and spirit – can only be perceived in moments of great stress or when utilizing the powers granted the True Form, or when perceived with the powers of Truth.

Player’s Question

Isn’t one just the opposite of the other?

— One personality / persona can be the opposite of the other, and they often have some traits which follow this pattern just to ensure contrast, but they don’t have to be. More interesting characters sometimes result when the two have something in common – for example, both may be very intelligent, but they use this intellect for very different things.

It’s more important that the character and his internal, often suppressed, desires make as much sense, given the character’s identity and past, as the public face of the person they think they are.

Author’s notes

The text in section 4.2 also clarifies an important omission from the text in 5.1 – that Hekaton can gift some powers to the public persona, some powers to the hidden persona, and some powers that either can use. No matter how these break down in allocation, the total will always be the sum of what Hekaton can grant the individual.

It’s entirely common for most of the powers to be allocated to the hidden persona, but not a requirement. Think Werewolf, who only has his powers in his wolven form, and contrast it with a Vampire, whose hidden true self is a corpse, but whose public face has great power.

I was still figuring some of the details out as I was writing. 4.2 implies the above, without stating it outright; 4.1, which talks about the granting of powers, doesn’t mention it at all.

4.3 The Power Of Fear:

True Fear lies at the heart of all acts, Fear at the heart of all Evil.

The True Fear of a character is something defined by the character’s owner at the time of creation / transition to Orrorsh. It is the ultimate motivation, a phobia so deep that its suppression and/or denial defines the character’s motives and deepest desires. It is not always entirely rational.

A True Fear can always be expressed in three-to-four words, the first two of which are “Fear Of”.

As True Fear grows, it causes obsessive behavior and insanity. Only Power can overcome True Fear, i.e. only the commission of Evil Acts can return the lunatic to sanity – and simultaniously weaken the will to resist committing more such acts for more power. Ultimately, Megalomania and Evil are the only ‘cure’ for madness.

Fear is the paralyzing inability to act in an extraordinary fashion due to the dangers, real or imagined, that one is confronting. One of the most fundamental and common of the Powers granted by Hekaton is the ability to generate Fear in others, which of course, is one of the most basic uses of power in general. It also increases self-reliance, easing the wielder’ s own fears.

Player’s Questions

So the only way to ease one’s own fears is to make other people more scared than you are.

— Not necessarily “More scared than you are”, just “More scared of you than they were.” Keep ratcheting up that Fear and eventually you will reach any given milestone. Power enables you to be a bully or a nightmare; with powers that can be used for dark things; being a bully permits you to pretend not to be afraid yourself, earns you more power, which creates more fear.

Are True Fears good or bad for a Horror? Like a Cthulhu Insanity power?

— True Fear is a motivation. Decide what your character is scared of and I can tell you what kinds of Horrors you might become to evade that fear. Fear of death leads to immortality at any price – vampirism. It can also lead to Dr Frankenstein in his laboratory seeking to master death, though that’s more usually a fear of the death of another, i.e. Fear of Loss. There are several pathways leading to Lycanthropy. Fear of Humiliation or of Women can lead to Mr Hyde syndrome. And so on – those are just the traditional ones.

4.4: The Law Of Perseverance

Perseverance is self-fulfilling.

Everyone has the ability to resist the desire to acquire Power through Evil Acts. Similarly, everyone has the ability to persevere in the face of Fear. Doing so is required for any act other than a Wicked Act performed to gain power, and using it for this purpose increases the ability to do so again in the future.

This is the reason Victorians are unable to escape Orrorsh – they would only do so out of fear, and if they can act despite their fears, they have no need to do so. The only alternatives are to fight or submit.

Fleeing would be an act of submission, which eliminates the need to flee.

Definitions / Background

Victorians – The social norms and technological capabilities of the residents of Orrorsh are generally those of Victorian England. Steam Trains, early manufacturing, and so on. An age of Peasants and Gentlemen and Ladies. The era in which professionals rose in general esteem to be counted – in some cases – in the latter parts of society, whereas previously they were all in the lower reaches of society save for the good will of the landed gentry..

That’s a slight oversimplification. Most street lamps are gas lamps, for example, but there will be a few experimenting in electric lighting, which is more of an Edwardian development. But that’s the label that the sourcebook applied, so Victorians it is.

4.5 The Law Of Truth

The Truth has powers that can only be learned through Fear; and only the Truth can destroy Evil.

Knowledge is power? Not in Orrorsh!

Truth is what has the power here – an instinctive connection to the Occult that permits the user to see True Forms, determine the manner of True Death, etc. The problem is that it requires the sacrifice of some of that affinity in order to to do so.

Actually using Truth, in the form of the True Death of a Horror, is greatly disruptive, as each Horror i a fundamental component of the current pattern of Occult Forces. To continue doing so, it is necessary to risk Sanity and Soul in re-developing the affinity with the Occult.

4.5.1 Horror Is Forever?

The second part of the Law Of Truth replaces ‘The Law Of Eternal Corruption’ in the sourcebooks, and says almost exactly the same thing – unless you use the manner of the True Death to end a Horror, KNOWING that it is the True Death, a Horror will not die forever.

Why the caveat on Knowing? Two reasons.

First, it prevents Storm Knights from keeping a checklist and trying each one in succession: Okay, we’ve tried burning it, stake through it’s heart, sunlight, moonlight, silver bullets, running water — what’s left?” The ‘knowledge’ requirement means that even if they pick the right manner of death, it won’t be a permanent end. In fact, they can cross the True Death off their list because the Horror ‘survived’ it!

The other reason is conceptual in nature – what makes this the True Death? Well, you aren’t just killing a Horror, you’re killing it with with The Power Of Truth – a nice philosophic point which is the leftover from the original World Laws of the original Cosm of Orrorsh, long since sucked dry of Possibility Energies to feed The Gaunt Man.

4.5.2 True Deaths

Only Horrors have True Deaths and a True Death always stems in some fashion back to the True Fear(s) of the uncorrupted being who became the Horror. Just as a Horror no longer fears, so he no longer has a True Fear – only an unquenchable thirst for Evil and Power.

Player’s Questions

So Horrors are w/out fear? Except when low in power?

— No. They always have their True Death to fear, and the price of getting int the way of some other Horror that’s bigger and meaner than you are. But they commit evil acts to give themselves defenses, so they are no longer driven by any fear except the most secret and innermost one, from which they can never escape..

Author’s notes

I don’t honestly remember if it was hinted at or stated directly in the sourcebooks or if this was something that I came up with on my own.

These world laws turn the entire population into components of a process for the generation and harvesting of Perseverance. Anyone who resists the cycle of terror that it inflicts on the population is themselves part of the process, because nothing generates feat faster than giving the people hope only to demonstrate that it was always false, and that the villain was merely toying with the brave resistance – not for his own pleasure, that’s just a side-benefit, but because of the effect that it will have on those who invested hope in the failed resistance.

Running out of such energy diminishes a population. You can’t operate such a social machine forever, there’s only enough ‘fuel’ to keep it running for so long.

It’s no good having powers if you can’t use them every now and then for something cruel and despicable. And you can’t generate real fear by playing hackysack – no, you’re going to have to get right in there and do something mean and scary and – for someone – lethal. Preferably with witnesses but some sort of calling card or signature will do.

That also uses up population. Sooner or later, the factory is going to have to shut down and move shop to somewhere with more sheep to be shorn.

So, the Cosm currently called Orrorsh isn’t the first, and probably won’t be the last, to bear that name.

Implications

There are a number of implications to consider. There’s a wide scale between trivial little men and women who are granted the occasional crumb of power and granting someone the powers and independence of true Horror status; the Gaunt Man and Hekaton aren’t going to give those levels of authority out to just anyone. Prospects would be vetted, trained, cultivated, and – a lot of the time – rejected. They want people whose agendas will add to or help fulfill the Gaunt Man’s agenda. They want Horrors who will use their powers to that end, and who will be smart about it.

Every time a Horror is ended before it has done all it can do in furtherance of that agenda, both Gaunt Man and Darkness Device are diminished. End enough horrors, and the whole system might fall apart. It’s not tolerable for victories over their creations to become habitual.

Finally, a system as fiendishly clever as this set of World Laws won’t have sprung into existence from whole cloth; there will have been variation after variation tried until this system evolved. Is it perfect? Probably not – the next Orrorsh Cosm will probably have some small amendment to its nature.

4.6 Comparing The Old

So what’s the difference, really, between this set of World Laws and those official? Persistence seems to work in much the same way as it did, True Death is much the same, as is Fear, and Evil is not that far removed from the old law of Corruption – what’s really changed?

The answer lies in two additions – the Law Of Truth, which REQUIRES Fear to end a Horror, and the Law of Duality and it’s daughter concept, the True Fear, which mandates a Fear so powerful that the character is likely to turn to Evil before he confronts it.

As in Call Of Cthulhu, characters are now required to court insanity and terror to succeed – under the old rules, they simply had to Persevere.

4.6.1 Walking A Fine Line on a Slippery Slope paved with Good Intentions

As the game mechanics will show, even the Power Of Truth is not enough to deliver the True Death to a Horror; genuine Power is needed, of the kind you only get from Wicked Acts.

The characters have to balance fighting the enemy against the risk of becoming the enemy, supplanting the old Horror with an even worse one – themselves.

Having Possibilities to assist in rolls now becomes extremely valuable, and the value of Storm Knights vs Ords, no matter how Persistent the latter, becomes meaningful.

4.6.2 An Elegant Solution

This arrangement is also more elegant in three major ways.

4.6.2.1 Population Control

Active intervention by the High Lord is no longer needed to keep the proportions of Horrors to population correct.

If a second Horror pops up in a region already controlled, the increase in Fear makes it easier to determine Truth. The one that’s smarter and more capable will be able to avoid the Horror Hunters longer than the other one.

The more Horrors that are unleashed, the greater the population pressure acting to get rid of the weaker ones. Unless the new Horror is really competent, experience probably gives the older, more established one, the edge, leading to the extinction of the upstart, but assuming that advantage will always be decisive is a good way to end up very Dead.

4.6.2.2 Evolution

It forces evolution and conflict amongst the Horrors – the more capable of spreading genuine fear they are, the harder it will be for a rival to perform acts of sufficient villainy to obtain the power to displace them.

The old pattern was too cut-and-dried, too stagnant, and too close to ordinary politics; now a Horror maintains and enhances his power and edge not through political machinations and intrigue, or bureaucratic skill and toadying, but through the successful exercise of his primary power – Fear.

To the scariest monster goes the most power.



This is an excerpt from the rendition of the Gaunt Man that graced the cover of “The Gaunt Man returns”. While Amazon has a few 2nd-hand copies at ridiculous prices, there are some new copies left at Days Of Knights.com that are far more affordable. I have slightly enhanced the contrast, brightness, and saturation so that it looks more like the cover of my copy.


4.6.2.3 The Gaunt Man

By extension, it lifts the Gaunt Man one step closer to the pinnacle of power, to becoming the ultimate in terror. To get to the top, he had to be scarier than the rest, and to stay there, he has to stay that way.

Since the players will know or deduce this fairly easily, it becomes a partially self-fulfilling prophecy – they are going to be less effective when it comes to dealing with him, and that will make him more effective against them.

He’s supposed to be scary enough to scare six other High Lords, for Pete’s sake! How scary can you get?

4.6.2.4 But – he’s dead, isn’t he?

It should be noted that in my campaign, the Gaunt Man [was, at this time,] DEAD, torn apart by the Reality Storm which was created by the destruction of the extension of Hekaton in which he was storing all the possibilities that he had looted in his attempt to become TORG. No Eternity Shard, No Eye Of The Coyote, No Dice, Compadre.. Now, if only I could {have] convince[d] the players of that…!

Author’s notes

I have to admit that I fell in love with the Look of the Gaunt Man and with the portrait of him as the unifying factor that brought another 6 High Lords to the party and intimidated them enough to keep them in line, at least for a while.

I was so looking forward to running him as an NPC…! But, when the stats and background arrived, what I was offered was a pitiful fragment of the ultimate Evil Villain that I had imagined.

A Vision of Darkness

I had imagined him smart, continually three steps ahead of everyone, but vulnerable to his own Hubris and Ego. I wanted the PCs to have a decent chance of beating him – one scheme at a time – but for them to have to work for it, each and every time.

Compared to this vision, the character presented by the adventure modules etc was as thick as a mausoleum wall and twice as dense. It was inconceivable that a character so flawed could have achieved half the things attributed to the Gaunt Man.

Orrorsh Will Fix It

Well, no, it didn’t. But in that failure lies at least part of the source of my disappointment in the original sourcebook.

The GM’s Whiteout

So, I had the character make his bid to become TORG, as shown in one of the early adventures for the game system (I forget which and they are now all packed away), only to discover that he had underestimated the difficulty. Internal politics amongst the other Dark Lords, all of whom feared what he would become if he succeeded, led to discrete hints and aid being provided by a couple of them to the opposition, which put them in the right place with the right tools to write him out of the plot – at least until I could fix things.

In the adventure, the authors had given the Gaunt Man a couple of strategies for backing out before it was too late. I took those away (the other High Lords again) and I deliberately wrote the character out until it could all be made good.

And I shipped the entire thing into the background of events taking place before a PC in my campaign ever set foot on Earth, a fait accompli, done and dusted.

The Return of The Gaunt Man

It was always my intention to bring him back at the penultimate climax of the campaign. My vision of the Gaunt Man was such that he would have laid plans, and backup plans, and back-up plans for the back-up plans; a succession of outs in case he had bitten off more than he could chew.

I always remembered that supposedly he was the only one expert enough in possibility energy and its uses that he could conceive of the plan to become TORG. That fitted well with my vision of the character and didn’t fit the depiction of him in the official material at all.

The Campaign never got that far. So I never did get to run a “New and Improved” Gaunt Man, in the end. Oh well, maybe one day…

Whew! I had forgotten just how much I was able to squeeze onto a full A4 page with a reasonably small font – that’s not 9 pages, that’s just 4½! But the supplement is about to shift into Game Mechanics, so this is an opportune point to end this article.

Things won’t be so neat next time – 4½ pages will be about 2/3 of the way through “How To Destroy A Horror”, and I won’t want to break that up. If I could get another page-and-a-half done, that would see me completely through the “Orrorsh Events” sequence, which would be far preferable – but I’m not sure time will permit that – unless I can squeeze out an extra day or two while dealing with other articles.

So, while I’d love to be certain about what will be in the next part of this series, or this sub-series, we’ll all just have to wait and see!