Tales of Gor GOREAN ROLEPLAYI NG Fantastical Adventures on th e Counter-Earth Authorised and based on the Gorean books of John Norman Written by: James ‘Grim’ Desborough Art by: Michael Manning, (C) Postmortem Studios 2017 John Norman’s works by permission of the author and the author’s agents Richard Curtis Associates, Inc. John Norman’s works are published by Open Road Media http://www.openroadmedia.com/contributor/john-norman/ Do not ask the stones or the trees how to live; they cannot tell you; they do not have tongues. Do not ask the wise man how to live, for, if he knows, he will know he cannot tell you. If you would learn how to live, do not ask the question. Its answer is not in the question but in the answer, which is not in words. Do not ask how to live, but, instead, proceed to do so. To receive over twenty books, Preview completely new to me, out of the blue was an enormous gift and I threw myself into reading Booklet them, one after another until they I nt ro d uct i on were all done. Here was a series Tales of Gor is the imminently of books with much of the same released Gorean role-playing game. fantastical imagination as Edgar A science-fantasy/sword and Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series planet game of – somewhat – adult or the Hyborian fantasies of fantasy, set in the 30+ book series Robert E. Howard, but drawing of Gor novels by John Norman. on the same imagery of Greek and Roman heroism I’d learned at This booklet is something of a school and had seen in the films of preview for the game, showing Ray Harryhausen. some of the approach, some of the art and showing off some of Where Burroughs’ and Howard the material of the game and what coyly turned aside at the last it is about. minute, however, trapped by the relative prudishness of their Get ready! times (for all the livid covers and descriptions of a more liberated The Silver Ships are coming. – and naked – society), Norman’s hero did not. The fate of the handmaidens and slave girls that My Gor Tarl Cabot encountered was never I was gifted the first twenty-four in question, but then nor was the books of John Norman’s Chronicles fate of the oiled, male silk slaves of Gor when a friend of mine went under the aloof, free women of away to university. I was still at Gor’s cities. school at the time, in my final year, voraciously reading any and all science fiction and fantasy I could find (at the rate of up to six books a day on weekends). 1 Tarl Cabot’s struggles adapting ‘Political correctness’ in the late to the fierce Gorean world were eighties and through the nineties in many ways a reflection of made such sexually explicit and adolescence for me, and for many controversial fantasy difficult to others. Fiction helped many of us know what to do with and the to understand and accept the more ‘Social Justice Warrior’ mindset of adult and cutthroat world we were today causes similar problems. entering via the ravages of puberty. For many others – in the days Fortunately the Internet rose before the Internet – the Gorean during the same period and fans world was also their first exposure of Norman’s work began to form to the aesthetic of BDSM and their own communities online. D/S, their first hint that this was Forums and chat rooms sprang up something normal, or that it was by the dozen, Internet Relay Chat a kink shared by others. The played host to dozens of Gorean importance of that, to so many, role-play rooms, people sold, along with his book Imaginative Sex resold and naughtily transcribed cannot be underestimated. the books as they went out of print and created online resources for Despite the great success of the these communities as they arose. Gorean cycle, selling between six As the Internet advanced, so did and twelve million copies and the complexity of these resources Tarnsman of Gor being reprinted and as graphical role-play became twenty-two times, the Gorean possible it spread there, to the series was interrupted in 1988 point where – in 2009 – it was when it was dropped by its estimated that there were some publisher, allegedly for political fifty-thousand Gorean role-players reasons. There were, as a result, on Second Life alone as well as being thirteen years between Magicians of some of the first role-play groups Gor in 1988 and Witness of Gor in to arrive in The Palace and IMVU 2001 and another seven years after back when those started. that until Prize of Gor in 2008. The Internet would also come to the rescue of the series, in time. 2 The advent of cheap print on In all this time, however, there demand and e-books has meant the has never been an official Gorean series has managed to continue and role-playing game. Everything the entire back catalog has become that exists online is unofficial and available to purchase once again, organized by fans, strange for a via the company E-Reads (and series of fantasy books whose Open Road Media, and Orion’s publishing peak coincided with the Gateway Imprint) breathing new boom period of the popularity of life into the series and bringing Dungeons & Dragons and other role- new revelations and new stories to playing games. its fans. High time it had one. 3 Role-playing games emerged in the Role-playing nineteen-seventies with Dungeons & Dragons, the one role-playing game Games – or RPG – that most people have Role-playing games are games of heard of. Since then role-playing make-believe, but they’re games has expanded into a global hobby of make-believe that you describe with millions of players and a huge with your words and which have variety of different games using rules to determine what you can different rules and different ideas and cannot do and to stop people for many worlds from traditional arguing with each other. You can fantasy to horror and science think of them like telling a story fiction. In all this time, however, together or playing a board game there has never been a Gorean together, only without a board. role-playing game, though there You picture what’s happening in have been Gorean role-players for your mind and describe it to each a very long while. other, coming up with your own epic tales that span the Counter- Gorean role-play appears to have Earth. been through many different incarnations. There are fan When you play the game one versions that use various gaming player will take the part of the systems, there have been forum Games Master. They look after games, web-chat games, IRC games the rules and determine the and various graphical, online story that lies behind the action. games culminating in the currently They describe where you are, the very active Second Life Gorean role- enemies you face, the action as it players. unfolds and they come up the plots and enemies that you’ll solve and It’s our hope that Tales of Gor eliminate as you make your way will provide a common language from adventure to adventure. and basis for the existing Gorean community and will provide an introduction to tabletop role- playing for those who love the novels. 4 For those who are already role- Gor draws on diverse sources players it may introduce them to from the pulps, adventure stories, a classic series of science-fantasy science fiction, fantasy and ‘spicy fiction of a very different sort. tales’, but it also draws from human history and most especially Gor’s Genre and foundationally classical Greece and the Roman Empire upon The genre of Gor can be broadly which much of ‘civilised Gor’ described as science-fantasy since, derives aspects of its culture. despite the presence of aliens, space ships, immortality and From this heady mix you have strange technologies it primarily the potential for engaging and takes place at the level of fantasy. rewarding adventures on an alien Gor also shares a great many world, shaping the fates of cities, things in common with the classic civilisations and even planets – all ‘Planetary Romance’ novels and from the point of a sword. the barbarian fantasies of the pulp era. What made Gor even more risqué and controversial than the Example of Play pulps that inspired it – and were Tales of Gor uses a modified considered a bad influence in their version of the D6 System. The D6 day – were Gor’s more explicit System is an ‘open system’, which inclusion of sex and especially means there are many fanpages and dominance and submission, resources out there on the internet beating Fifty Shades of Grey to the for people to use and customise punch by fifty years and thirty into their own games. The D6 novels. System was also – once upon a time – used to power the first Star Wars role-playing game, for which it was a perfect introductory system and, which many people have fond memories of. 5 For Gor, which has a similar – in Even in the darkness of the night some ways – science fantasy setting you can see a few guards, half- of high adventure and which needs heartedly patrolling the walls, to appeal to new and old gamers complacent this close to Ar. alike, it seems perfect.