Hi. I'm Todd Furler.
Torg is my favorite role-playing game system ever. From 1992 to 1998, I ran a Torg campaign. Every other Thursday, from four to nine players met at my house to tell stories about make-believe characters, using our imaginations and our dice. Each story was a drama about individuals. But over time, the stories wove themselves into a saga of epic proportions.
I'm by no means a master of the metaphysics of Torg. I sometimes forget some of the rules. But I think I run a good game. Apparently, my friend Russ Fernsler thought so as well, because he encouraged me to run a Torg game at a convention in Easton, Pennsylvania, which is near my home. I balked. Russ had lots of experience with gaming conventions because he helped organize several of them in college. But at that point, I had attended only two conventions, and I wasn't sure I was up to the task alone. So Russ suggested we run a game together. I accepted his offer.
Our first game ran for twelve hours! It's obvious now that it was ridiculously long. But at the time, it didn't sound as if it would take a lot of effort. When the game ended, the players and spectators applauded. I think we both blushed at that. I know we were speechless for a time. Then we said our thanks, packed up our props, and slinked off to get something cold and wet to soothe our hoarse throats. Twelve hours -- what were we thinking?
That was many years ago. Since then, I've run Torg at anywhere from eight to twelve gaming conventions each year -- initially with Russ as my co-GM, but I've been on my own for quite some time now. With each game, Russ and I tried to offer something a little different, a little more catchy, a little bigger. Most of our ideas worked well. Some didn't. But we've tried to keep it always interesting. Many of our players keep returning. They look for us at conventions. So we must be doing something right.
I'm still hoarse after every convention, though.
I was very sad when West End Games dropped the Torg line. A small company made up of Torg enthusiasts picked up the license to the game, which was encouraging. But they fell victim to some of the stark realities of the economics of publishing games, and they were only able to put out one product (although it was a very good product) before they returned the Torg license to WEG. That news was discouraging.
Then in July of 1998, West End Games announced bankruptcy. I was positively heartbroken. I had been dealing with WEG on a regular basis; they provided their products for us to give out as prizes at the conventions. I knew several of the people who worked there. WEG had been an aspiration of mine: one of the last of the full-time game companies (you'd be surprised how many game publishers have full-time staffs that you can count on one hand), publishers of my favorite game system, and located right in my back yard (relatively speaking).
I really want Torg to come back. I don't have the resources to make that happen. But I've come to realize that if anyone ever does bring Torg back, someone's going to have to market it to the gamers. One of the cheapest ways to market a role-playing game is to show it off at conventions. That way, people can test drive it -- play it at a con before they sink significant bucks into buying the thing. And for every person who actually plays the game at a convention, there will be ten who'll see the game as they walk by the table, and maybe thirty who'll have seen it listed in the program. That's some exposure, anyway.
That's the idea behind this web site. I want to give you the resources to run a game that will be noticed. In a good way. In a way that makes people talk about it to their friends. If everybody's talking about Torg, who knows? Maybe it'll come back after all.
Todd Furler