Shane Lacy Hensley, Darrell Hayhurst, Markus Plötz
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TORG ETERNITY DESIGN TEAM This product was created under license from Writing and Design: Shane Lacy Hensley, Darrell Ulisses North America. Torg Eternity, its respective Hayhurst, Markus Plötz , Dean Gilbert, Ross logos, as well as Infiniverse, Storm Knight, Stormer, Watson Aysle, Cyberpapacy, Living Land, Orrorsh, Nile Empire, Takta Ker, Tharkold, Maelstrom Bridge, Contributors: Greg Gorden, Jim Ogle, Steve and their respective logos, are trademarks of Kenson, Ed Stark, George Strayton, Henry Lopez, Ulisses North America. The title and contents of Aaron Pavao, Angus Abranson, Steven Marsh, this book are protected under the copyright laws Patrick Kapera, Bill Keyes, John Terra, James of the United States of America. No part of this Knevitt, Jonathan Thompson, Andy Vetromile, publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval Joseph Wolf systems, or transmitted, in any form or by any Art Director: Aaron Acevedo means, without written consent from Ulisses North Graphic Design: Aaron Acevedo, Jason Engle America. This publication includes material that was APEX PREDATOR TEAM produced by Ulisses North America and/or other Writing: Scott Schomburg authors and which is protected under applicable Graphic Design: Aaron Acevedo, Jason Engle, copyright laws. Use of such material is granted Scott Schomburg under the Community Content Agreement for the INFINIVERSE EXCHANGE. Cover: Scott Schomburg, after Daniel R. Horne All original content in this work is copyright Interior Illustrations: Scott Schomburg 2019 by Scott Schomburg and published under the Community Content Agreement for the INFINIVERSE EXCHANGE. Torg, The Possibility Wars, and all unique characters, concepts, locations, and creatures are trademarks and / or copyrights of Ulisses North SampleAmerica. All rights reserved. file 1 APEX PREDATOR INTRODUCTION 4 Timing and Difficulty 17 Overview 18 TOONVILLE 6 ACT ONE: BOMBARDMENT 18 World Laws 6 The Law of Absurdity . 6 Scene One: The Safe House 18 The Law of Permanence. 7 Investigate the Crime Scene . .20 The Law of Funny 7 Map Details . .20 A Stalenger in a Strange Land . 8 Skull Icons . .20 Running a Game in Toonville 8 First Floor. .20 Inhabiting a Toonville character . 8 Second Floor . .23 Body Language . 8 Third Floor . .23 Funny Voices and Sound Effects . 9 Max . .24 Having a catch phrase . 9 The Apex Cases . .27 The Silent Type . 9 The Banana-nator . .27 A Soundtrack . 9 The Tiny Anvil. .28 Visuals, Game Aids, and Props. 9 Can I Interest You in Our Cyberlord? . .28 Theme . 9 Bombshell Appears. .28 Game Balance and Cosm Cards . 9 Scene Two: Catch Me If You Can 29 Cosm Cards 10 Church Checkpoint. .29 Adventure Background 12 Gangers. .31 The Apartment Feuille de chêne building . .31 THE ADVENTURE BEGINS 12 Scene Three: Art Show 33 The Adventure’s Nonplayer Characters 13 Duct Appears . .34 Duct Apex . .13 Cut Scene . .35 Little Bunny Foo Foo . .13 Overview 36 Rémy Allard, Church Police Streetbeater . .14 ACT TWO: CONFRONTATION 36 Milton . .15 The Cartoon King . .15 Scene One: Welcoming Committee 36 Duck Apex (the older brother) . .16 Scene Two: The Dungeon 38 Adventure Synopsis 16 The Cartoon King’s Dungeon . .38 Act One 16 Scene Three: The Palace 39 Act Two 16 Scene Four: Yo Ho, Yo Ho 39 ActSample Three 17 Overview file 42 2 ACT THREE: REALITY CHECK 42 Inhabitants of Toonville Castle 56 Scene One: The Machines 42 Cartoon King’s Royal Guard 56 The Factory Gates . .43 The Cartoon King 56 Scene Two: Buzzsaws For Hands 46 Wild Bunch Gang Member 56 The Apex Catalog . .47 Inhabitants of Pirate Cove 56 Danger, Will Robinson! . .49 Animated Cannonballs 56 Factory Mayhem Chart . .49 Pirates 56 Stage One. .49 Inhabitants of Apex Factory 56 Stage Two. .49 Guard-bots 56 Stage Three . .50 Milton 57 Finding the Laboratory . .50 Worker-bots 57 Scene Three: The Dreamer of Dreams 51 Inhabitants of Unreality 57 What is a Toonville/Unreality Mixed Zone? 51 Spectral Reality Warped Pirates . .57 The Laboratory . .51 The Unreality Beast. .57 Rémy Returns . .52 ADDITIONAL CONTENT 58 Milton Awakes . .52 Afterword 58 Future Adventures 53 Appendix: References 59 CHARACTERS & CREATURES 54 Movies where the cartoon world collides with another reality. .59 Nonplayer Characters 54 Animation from the 1930s . .59 Duct Apex . .54 Contemporary animation that has just the right Little Bunny Foo Foo . .54 amount of zany slapstick for inspiration. .59 Inhabitants of Le Havre, France . .54 Video Games in the same style of the 1930s Bombshell. .54 Animation . .59 Church Police Streetbeater . .55 Some Music for a Toonville Soundtrack . .59 Crucifaces Gang Member . .55 Table Tent 60 Herald . .55 Cosm Cards 61 Rémy Allard, Church Police Streetbeater . .55 The End 73 Sample file 3 n April, 1992 Infiniverse Volume 1, number 22 was published. Inside was the write up for The I Cartoon Cosm, an April Fool’s joke that deserved a single page, but ran on for several more.* Although the content was mostly in jest, it sparked my imagination and for over twenty five years I’ve asked myself “What if there had been a genuine cartoon cosm?” I have tried to answer that question in this adventure. I had two goals putting this together. First was just to get this crazy idea down on paper. Some of these ideas have rattled around in my head for years and needed to get out. I had an unnatural desire to bring the cartoon cosm into the new Torg setting in some way. With the creation of the Infiniverse Exchange I had the perfect place to share this content with other Torg fans. My second goal was to test the waters for this cosm theme and excite other creators. I wish I had the time and talent to pen an entire book for a cartoon cosm, but that is a grand task for someone more talented. By sharing this adventure with other players, like- minded fans hopefully pick up the torch and run with it. I encourage anyone who is inspired by this setting to take these ideas and make them yours. Write up the entire history of the cosm, add more Cosm cards, or write another adventure and get them on the Infiniverse Exchange. I don’t want to have to do all the work myself. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. — Scott *For those who do not have access to the original run of Infinivese newsletters, in 1993 the cartoon cosm content was reprinted in Infiniverse Campaign SampleGame Update, Volume II , pagesfile 81-85. This time the INTRODUCTION joke had a piece of art to accompany it! 4 Most of this adventure is set in a new reality, the cartoon cosm of Toonville. Before you jump RELIGION IN A GAME into the adventure itself, a brief introduction to Toonville is in order. If you prefer to skip ahead to This adventure includes fictional religions the adventure proper, it starts on page 12. as they exist and operate in the fictional setting of the Torg Eternity game. It is in If you are looking for a summary of the adventure no way intended to portray a real religion see page 16, Adventure Synopsis. operating in the real world. This adventure is scaled for an “Alpha“ Clearance Level group of Storm Knights. The group’s Clearance Level helps the Game Master determine challenges or insert published adventures into the campaign. Sample file 5 MAGIC SOCIAL SPIRIT TECH 29 16 5 17 he cartoon cosm of Toonville is a mashup have little interest in the Possibility Wars happening of vintage to classic animation. It pulls on Earth. Their cosm has a history of disinterest T plots and tropes from the classic animation in the schemes of High Lords and their reality- of the 1970s and blends it with the visual style of spanning search for Possibilities. Past incursions golden age of animation from the 1930s. So even into their own cosm by other invaders quickly though the visuals are straight from the inkblot ended when the intruders realized they had bit off cartoon style, characters are just as likely to pull more than they could chew. Eventually, Toonville Warner Brothers shenanigans like dropping an citizens decided they would remain neutral in anvil on an adversary or running them over with cosmic battles, including the Possibility Wars of a steamroller. Early animation was pretty light on Earth. They closed their borders ceremoniously the plot; often the setting and story were little more and forbade travel to the war zones. than a reason to dance and sing. Adventures set in Recently a Toonville wizard and scientific genius Toonville can be as complex as you like, but the broke through the cosmic barriers and made contact source material doesn’t inspire complex adventure with Core Earth, specifically with Ebenuscrux, the unless you string several animated shorts together Darkness Device of the Cyberpapacy. It saw an into a larger narrative. opportunity to exploit the greedy Toonville wizard Toonville is an absurd magical land of singing and has been facilitating cross-cosm arms deals to trees and talking animals. The world is full of aid the Cyberpapal war effort. bright colors and hilarious physical humor. The inhabitants have such a high affinity for magic, they don’t even realize they are using it most of WORLD LAWS the time. Using magic is as effortless as breathing. Everyone can fit an infinite amount of household THE LAW OF ABSURDITY items in their slacks, and no one ever dies. The This is an insane, chaotic, and illogical world. streets are filled with every imaginable creature Anything can happen and the events usually end and shining down on this crazy world is a sun and in a crescendo of cartoon violence and crimes moon who not only can set their own schedule against the laws of physics.