World Laws

of Earth

Jasyn Jones
1 Title
World Laws of Earth
Game Design: Jasyn Jones
Commentary: Phil Dack, Ks. Jim Ogle, Winston, Gordon R. Dell
Editing, Layout & Graphic Design: Jasyn Jones

Copyright © 2001-2007 by Jasyn Jones. All rights reserved. (See the copyright section
for Creative Commons licensing terms.)

Produced under license from West End Games.

These are original rules, intended for use with TORG: Roleplaying the Possibility Wars.
The most recent version of these rules (and other TORG resources) can be found on the
STORM KNIGHTS website:

http://darleyconsulting.com/games/stormknights/

TORG is ®, TM, & © 2007 by Purgatory Publishing, Inc. (See the copyright section for
more information.)

Updated: June 20, 2007

Introduction
TORG is a cinematic multi-genre game. Its
mechanics support not only multiple gen-
res, but also trans-genre play.
Each genre is represented by a specific
cosm- Orrorsh for horror, Aysle for fantasy,
the Nile for pulp action, and so forth.
These cosms are rated in Axioms, numeric
levels of advancement, and World Laws.
Axioms are invariant- a 23 means the same
thing in all cosms. World Laws are custom
rules, unique to a cosm, that define and
implement the genre of that cosm.
Earth’s World Laws (originally pub-
lished in the Delphi Council Worldbook)
are widely regarded as among the worst.
The Genre of Earth
Defining Core Earth’s genre involves a
straightforward restatement of what Core
Earth actually is. TORG is a cinematic
action-movie “Hollywood blockbuster”
game. Earth is the near Real World cosm
of that game. Hence, Earth’s genre is de-
1 Wo r l d L aw s o f E a rt h
They are bland, uninspiring, and don’t
seem to define any genre at all.
This is a consequence of the central
problem of Core Earth. Unlike every other
cosm, pocket dimension, and fringe reality,
the genre of Earth has never been explic-
itly defined, something necessary for the
proper implementation of World Laws.
This problem of genre definition has
plagued Core Earth from the advent of the
game until now. This article defines the
genre of Core Earth, investigates the nature
of that genre, and suggests colorful and
epic World Laws for the cosm that embody
its genre.
fined by near Real World action movies,
Earth is the near Real World action movie
reality, and the World Laws of Earth should
be written to implement the genre tropes
common to near Real World Action mov-
ies.
 This genre matches with the nature of
Earth as explored in the game material,
matches well with the themes and pace of
TORG, and is represented by a host of dif-
ferent movies. Die Hard, Lethal Weapon,
Under Siege, Executive Decision, Mission
Impossible, The Rock, and other movies
like them form the body of work we can
look to for inspiration when designing
World Laws.
Even given that, it has been difficult to
identify World Laws for Earth, because so
much of the genre tropes of near “real
world” action movies have been subsumed
into the game as a whole. This is a posi-
tive feature of TORG- as these are necessary
for the game- but it leaves Earth high and
dry.
The solution to the problem lies in the
game as written and in the essence of the
“cinematic” nature of TORG’s action movie
roots. It requires the willingness to look
deeper into the genre tropes of TORG and
to accept a fundamental reimagining of
parts of TORG- to see them in a new way.
Most action movies follow a similar
story template: a villain launches a dan-
gerous plot, which a hero accidentally
stumbles upon and, after a struggle against
great odds, overcomes. This is the central
World Law Precis
The Power of Hope: Whenever villainy mani-
fests, a hero will arise to confront it. If the hero
perseveres, they can overcome and succeed
against incredible odds. No matter how bleak
the situation may seem, there is always hope.
The Threat of Villainy: Heroes and villains are
extraordinary individuals who have made a
choice to follow a specific moral path. Heroes
choose the path of benevolence and selflessness,
villains the path of selfishness and malevolence.
Villains will conspire to gain power, wealth, or to
indulge other selfish drives.
The Gift of Imagination: Heroes and villains
are larger-than-life. They have access to abilities
and resources beyond those of ordinary people.
Storm Knights
Sources and Inspiration
While designing these World Laws, the
author drew on a wide varety of “near real-
world” action-adventure movies for inspiration,
including the following:
Die Hard, Die Harder, Die Hard With a
Vengeance, Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies,
The World is Not Enough, Lethal Weapon, Lethal
Weapon 2, Under Siege, Executive Decision,
Murder at 1600, Broken Arrow, Face/Off, Mission
Impossible 1, Mission Impossible 2, The Sum of
All Fears, Moonraker, Con Air, The Rock, Bad
Boys, S.W.A.T., Speed, True Lies, Eraser.
plot of movies like the “Die Hard” series,
“Under Siege”, “Broken Arrow”, “Face/
Off”, and others too numerous to mention.
This action movie plot template is cen-
tral to the play of TORG, as well. It de-
scribes “High Lord of Earth,” “Operation:
Hard Sell,” “The Gaunt Man Returns,”
“When Axioms Collide,” and nearly every
other TORG module or adventure seed. It
even describes most of the TORG fiction. It
is therefore an assumed part of the “cine-
matic” nature of TORG.
Yet, the above story template differs
significantly from those that are found in
most of the genres of the invading realities.
For example, it isn’t the template of horror
movies or of cyberpunk novels.
Also, in the cinematic game of TORG,
heroes are assumed to win most of the
time. (See the “Adventure Response Form”
for confirmation.)
Yet, when we look at the invading reali-
ties, this genre trope simply isn’t true. Not
in Orrorsh. Not in Aysle. Not in the Cy-
berpapacy. Not in Marketplace. Not in
Tharkold. It isn’t even true in the Nile.
The realities of the High Lords are ones in
which, not only can villains win, but they
usually win.
Heroes, in the Possibility Wars, usually
win. In other realities, removed from the
Wars, this just isn’t true.
For some reason, the plot templates of
2
cosms involved in the Possibility Wars dif-
fer from those they would normally have.
Heroes win, when they normally
shouldn’t. Obviously, there is some influ-
ence at work in the Possibility Wars that
changes the normal order of things, even
in invading realities.
What makes the difference? The reality
of Earth.
The conceptual breakthrough is this:
much of what we assume to be part of the
default nature of TORG is instead a facet of
Earth’s reality. Heroes can win, because
3 Wo r l d L aw s o f E a rt h
the reality of Earth says they can and
makes this true even in places where it
wasn’t.
Earth’s central paradigm is this: “Vil-
lains plot to do evil, that heroes may strive
and endure and overcome them.” In
Earth, heroes have the upper hand. This is
simply not true of the other realities.
So why does Earth’s paradigm suffuse
the Possibility Wars, to the extent of domi-
nating the game? The nature of the Earth
World Laws provides the answer.
The World Laws
The Power of Hope
The Power of Hope states this: “Whenever
villainy manifests, a hero will arise to con-
front it. If the hero perseveres, they can
overcome and succeed against incredible
odds. No matter how bleak the situation
may seem, there is always hope.”
This World Law drives the central as-
sumptions of the Possibility Wars: villains
launch plots, but heroes will always be
there to oppose them and, no matter how
difficult the opposition, the heroes can
prevail. (Of course, failure is always pos-
sible.)
The High Lords are used to winning.
After all, they have always won. Other
than Kranod, every High Lord who in-
vaded Earth has won every single invasion.
Most High Lords can muster such over-
Storm Knights
whelming force that their targets have no
chance to resist. In Earth, this situation no
longer holds true.
This, the first World Law of Earth real-
ity, is a Power, like Orrorsh’s Powers of
Fear and Corruption. Thus, it automati-
cally affects all those who enter the Earth
cosm (and that, without contradiction).
But this World Law does even more. It
holds sway even in the foreign realms at-
tached to Earth.
The reality of Earth is powerful, and it
intrudes even into places where it other-
wise wouldn’t. It molds Possibility Energy
and uses it to cancel the possibilities the
Everlaw of One would normally use to en-
force its dictates.
The reality of Earth is so powerful (be-
4
ing driven by an immense reservoir of Pos-
sibility Energy filtered through the cosm’s
Possibility Nexus), it has effects even in the
home cosms of those realities attacking
Earth. In those realities, the Power of
Hope enforces the above template: when
villainy arises, heroes are there to fight it,
and these heroes have a chance to win.
This World Law causes the plot tem-
plate of Earth to be a force in all the reali-
ties of the Possibility Wars. It manifests
itself in other ways as well.
The first of which is this: whenever a
Threat of Villainy arises (see the next World
Law) a Storm Knight will be there to
counter the plot. Storm Knights are drawn,
through apparent coincidences, to the
place where Threats of Villainy will mani-
fest (or have manifested).
Ords in Earth live lives virtually indis-
tinguishable from those lived by people in
the “Real World.” Storm Knights in Earth
tend to be at the center of unusual events
much of their lives. Coincidence drives
them to stumble upon Threats of Villainy,
and villains seem inexplicably drawn to
them.
If there were one Storm Knight in all of
California and one vampire in all of Cali-
fornia, the vampire would coincidentally
choose to attack the hometown of the
Storm Knight, or his sister, or him. The
same stuff can happen to a guy twice, no
matter how outré it seems.
This World Law has altered the possi-
bility nexus of Earth in such a way as to
draw Storm Knights to this cosm from
other realities, even realities far removed
from the Wars. Through coincidence or
happenstance, ancient enemies of the
High Lords are finding themselves drawn
to this cosm (see the TORG Rulebook, pg.
103).
In extreme circumstances, there may
be no Storm Knights close enough who
can stumble upon the Threat of Villainy. In
5 Wo r l d L aw s o f E a rt h
such cases, the World Law will create one-
it will simply cause an appropriate ord to
transcend. The ord gains the reality skill at
1 add, 10 possibilities, 10 attribute points
and 3 skill points.
Example: A common street cop is at-
tending a Halloween party, when a band
of terrorists take the partiers, including his
estranged wife, hostage. Though he was
originally an ord, he is the only potential
hero in the vicinity, so the Power of Hope
infuses him with possibility energy, and
causes him to transcend. He becomes a
Storm Knight.
This event is a modified Moment of
Crisis. It occurs when an ord confronts a
Threat of Villainy and chooses to act heroi-
cally. The Power of Hope responds by
empowering the ord with the ability to
overcome the Threat.
The Power of Hope ensures that, no
matter the ploy a villain (including a High
Lord) attempts, a Storm Knight will be
there to oppose it. This story template-
when a Threat of Villainy arises, a Storm
Knight is there to oppose it- is now true in
the realities of the High Lords as well.
Earth had an abundance of Storm
Knights even before the invasion- the
World Laws of Earth created them. Due to
the intrusion of this aspect of the Power of
Hope, new heroes (that is, Storm Knights)
are being created in the home cosms of
the High Lords (see pg. 103 of the TORG
Rulebook). These heroes can fight the
High Lords on their own home ground and
win.
The Power of Hope creates new Storm
Knights, but it also empowers those reality-
rated individuals who choose to act like
Storm Knights. Reality-rated individuals
who are willing to act heroic will find
themselves placed in situations where they
can strike back at High Lords.
 This World Law means that, for any
High Lord involved in the Wars, the stakes
are very high. Most High Lords rule their
home cosms unchallenged. Storm
Knights, those who fight the High Lords,
are rare and rarely succeed. The odds are
just too heavily stacked against them. In
Earth, this isn’t true. More, because of the
Power of Hope, it isn’t true in the High
Lords’ home cosms anymore.
They may be able to achieve Torg-
hood, but the sudden creation of dozens
or hundreds of new Storm Knights- who,
against all odds, have the upper hand-
threatens their power base. If they falter,
they may fall.
In other realities, reality-rated individu-
als receive 5 possibilities upon transcend-
ing (see the Ravagons Sourcebook, pg. 42).
In Earth, Storm Knights (those who tran-
scend because of a heroic choice) receive
10 possibilities when they transcend.
Also, because of the Power of Hope,
newly created Storm Knights from the
other realities attached to Earth receive this
benefit as well.
Reality rated individuals, because of
the attribute and skill increases and their
ability to boost skill checks, usually be-
come significant individuals within their
home cosms. There is no guarantee of
this, however. A transcended reality-rated
individual is just as likely to be a retiring,
bookish type as a great leader or other im-
pressive figure.
In the reality of Earth, this is different.
The World Laws of Earth seek to influence
reality-rateds to act as larger than life he-
roes or conspiring villains. Those who
transcend from the Earth reality are far
likelier to be heroes or villains because
this reality proactively acts to transcend
heroes and villains. It transcends ords
who will fulfill either of those roles and it
provides benefits for those who choose to
act in those capacities. The benefits of Vil-
Storm Knights
lainy are explained in the next World Law.
The benefits of heroes are few, but potent.
The Power of Hope empowers individ-
ual Storm Knights, that they may succeed
when placed into improbable and im-
probably dangerous situations. The Power
of Hope allows Storm Knights to inspire
their group (as the conflict line advantage,
see the TORG Rulebook, pg. 60) once per
module. Heroes can also seize initiative
(as the card) once per module. Lastly,
Storm Knights have one additional card in
their hands and can place one card into
their card pools immediately at the start of
round play.
(These effects are only available to
Earth Storm Knights, or alien Storm Knights
in the Earth reality who make a contradic-
tion check. They are not available to all
Storm Knights in the Wars.)
Even as the Power of Hope empowers
individual Storm Knights, it also seeks to
empower groups of Storm Knights. The
Power of Hope, working through apparent
coincidences again, also drives the crea-
tion of Storm Knight groups (who can
manifest Group Powers). Outrageous and
improbable circumstances tend to drive
complete strangers into close proximity, all
of whom are Storm Knights (or potential
Storm Knights). These strangers then form
close bonds and quickly learn to trust each
other, even when circumstances might in-
dicate otherwise.
The Power of Hope empowers these
Storm Knight groups. In Earth (and thus, in
the alien realms and the home cosms of
the High Lords attacking Earth), only
groups of Storm Knights can manifest
Group Powers. Groups of stormers simply
cannot.
Earth’s reality seeks to encourage
reality-rated individuals to act as either he-
roes or villains. Not all people in Earth are
heroes or villains. The vast majority of
humanity are just people, without the
6
drive to conform to heroism or villainy. It
takes great drive and ambition to be a hero
or villain.
Ords may be heroic or villainous, but
they lack the ability to achieve the signifi-
cance and power of true heroes and vil-
lains. Those ords who do show such drive,
are proactively transcended by these
World Laws. This World Law ensures that
Earth has more and more active reality-
rateds than any other cosm.
This is the reason that the areas that
have been conquered by the High Lords
exhibit more Storm Knight activity than the
High Lords are used to. Earth’s reality, in
The Threat of Villainy
This World Law states: “Heroes and vil-
lains are extraordinary individuals who
have made a choice to follow a specific
moral path. Heroes choose the path of
benevolence and selflessness, villains the
path of selfishness and malevolence. Vil-
lains will conspire to gain power, wealth,
or to indulge other selfish drives.”
This World Law is a Power, like the
Power of Hope. It follows similar rules, in
that it automatically affects all those who
enter the Earth cosm. It also affects all in
foreign realms attached to Earth and it
even affects the home cosms of those reali-
ties attached to Earth.
The heroes and villains of Earth are, by
definition, reality-rated individuals. In-
deed, making a strong choice for villainy
or heroism is what triggers transcendence
in Earth. Heroes are “Storm Knights”, vil-
lains “stormers.” As villains, stormers are
encouraged to conspire and plot, so that
the Threat of Villainy may manifest. As he-
roes, Storm Knights are placed in situations
where they can oppose the plots of vil-
lains.
The most basic facet of this World Law
is to define villainy and heroism, that is, to
7 Wo r l d L aw s o f E a rt h
its last act before being overwhelmed by
the invading reality, creates heroes to fight
the villains. Thus each new stelae triangle
that is created also creates more heroes to
fight the invasion.
In the past, High Lords only needed to
send a few stormers into newly conquered
areas in order to subdue the heroic back-
lash. This response was inadequate for
Earth, and stemmed from a fundamental
misunderstanding of Earth’s nature. High
Lords who do not take this into account
may find each stelae triangle they take to
be more trouble than it is worth.
define what separates the “good guys”
from the “bad guys.” In most cosms, there
is no definite line between heroism and
villainy.
The Nile is an obvious exception, with
its stark contrast between Good and Evil.
Nevertheless, the Law of Morality doesn’t
define the difference between hero and
villain- a shopkeeper who is Good isn’t
necessarily a larger-than-life hero.
In contrast, cosms like Tharkold lack a
definite morality, and moral decisions are
colored in tones of gray. The very notion
of a “hero” would strike most Tharkoldu or
Race members as a bizarre, aberrant state
of mind- a person who tried to act heroic
in Tharkold would very quickly wind up
dead. The odds are just too stacked
against him. The ugly, grinding brutality of
the War makes heroism impractical. In
addition, the World Laws of Tharkold en-
courage behavior that is unheroic (Domi-
nation, Pain, and so forth). The morality of
Earth lies somewhere between the stark
Good/Evil of the Nile and the brutal moral
ambiguity of Tharkold.
Villains are people who seek to fulfill
their own needs and desires above those
of any other. They have little concern for
others, save in those cases where others
can help them achieve their goals. Villains
are malevolent. They enjoy the suffering of
others, or simply ignore it. They have no
desire to help those in need. Villains, in
Earth, are known as stormers.
Earth heroes are those who take up the
burden to defend the innocent, protect the
defenseless, and act with courage in the
face of danger. Heroes are people who
have a strong sense of duty, selflessness,
and responsibility. Heroes seek to aid the
needy, protect the helpless, and ease the
suffering of others. They are benevolent,
decent, and charitable. Heroes, in Earth,
are called Storm Knights.
Even those reality-rated individuals
who transcended long before coming to
Earth find themselves being forced to
choose sides. People fighting against the
High Lords for the reality of Earth often
take upon themselves the moral outlook of
Earth heroes. Those who act as heroes are
considered Storm Knights. Those fighting
for the High Lords often take upon them-
selves the moral outlook of Earth villains.
Those who act as villains are considered
stormers. These two phenomena are en-
couraged by the World Law, but are not
mandatory.
Unlike the Nile, these categories are
not proscriptive- no one is forced to fit into
either. On the contrary, these are descrip-
tive- they define certain behaviors, and in-
dividuals who follow those behaviors are
proactively transcended, while those who
do not remain ordinary.
Transcendence, in other realities, is a
matter of pure chance. Whether by con-
fronting an alien reality or through the
graces of the Everlaw of 4, those who suc-
cessfully transcend do so on a random ba-
sis. A strong moral choice is required to
become reality-rated, but this doesn’t
mean that the individual will continue
Storm Knights
making strong moral choices. Many indi-
viduals are morally gray, and there is noth-
ing that indicates clearly which they are-
hero or villain. Some may act like a hero
in certain circumstances, but act like a vil-
lain in others.
Earth’s reality acts to encourage reality-
rated individuals to choose between acting
heroic or acting villainously. It is intoler-
ant of those who choose to do neither.
Reality-rateds who refuse to act as a hero
or a villain, or who are weak, retiring, or
vacillating face penalties, as do Storm
Knights who refuse to confront a Threat of
Villainy or villains who refuse to plot to
create a Threat of Villainy. Just as this
World Law causes ords to transcend when
necessary, it can also change Earth reality-
rateds back into ords, stripping them of
their special abilities.
Native Earth reality-rateds (and only
natives) who do not make a definite moral
choice and stick with it, but rather drift be-
tween the two, are often stripped of their
status as stormers. Also, Storm Knights
who are placed into a situation where they
can confront a Threat of Villainy, but who
refuse to do so may find themselves
stripped of their status as a reality-rated
character. Villains who, upon being of-
fered the opportunity to create a Threat of
Villainy, decline may be stripped of their
status as well. In each case, the individual
loses their reality skill, all Possibilities, 3
skill adds and 10 attribute points.
This World Law also exists to encour-
age the Threats of Villainy that heroes en-
counter and fight against. It empowers vil-
lains to take those actions that cause a
Threat of Villainy to manifest.
Villains have many goals, chief of
which are wealth and power. In order to
achieve these goals, Earth villains devise
and enact intricate and improbable plots.
Normally, these plots are planned and
launched with no interference (the World
8
Law ensures that this is so). It is only after
the plot has progressed far enough to con-
stitute a dangerous threat that a hero will
stumble upon it.
Not all crimes qualify as a Threat of Vil-
lainy. Shoplifting or even a normal bank
robbery is simply not intricate enough or
significant enough to matter. An attempt
to blackmail the President with a satellite
that causes earthquakes (see the Gift of
Imagination, below) is significant enough.
The police can solve normal crimes.
Threats of Villainy require the direct inter-
vention of a larger-than-life hero, or even a
group of heroes. A Threat of Villainy is a
plot so large, so ambitious, and so danger-
ous that only reality-rated heroes have a
chance to stop it, and then only after a
significant, sustained effort in the face of
nearly overwhelming opposition.
Villains who organize a plot find that
this World Law actively aids them. As with
the Power of Hope, this World Law ma-
nipulates events through seeming coinci-
dences. These coincidences can even in-
spire the plot in the first place, by provid-
ing the villain with previously unavailable
information.
In a bar, the villain may overhear a
whispered conversation about a rare dia-
mond that is coming to a local museum.
A childhood friend, now working for the
Pentagon, might inadvertently reveal the
existence of a devastating weapon. The
villain may accidentally learn about the
peccadilloes of a prominent politician,
making blackmail a real possibility.
Whatever the specific manifestation,
the coincidence will provide enough in-
formation for the villain to begin plotting
and planning. (Villains who reject an op-
portunity thus presented, often find them-
selves stripped of their reality-rated status.)
Nor do the coincidences stop there.
Through seeming coincidences, the villain
9 Wo r l d L aw s o f E a rt h
will find just the individuals they need to
carry out their plot. They will find lieuten-
ants with the knowledge and skills that are
required, they will find officials who can
be bribed, scientists who can be black-
mailed, or inventors who have created the
exact tool that the villain needs. (Very of-
ten, their chief lieutenants will themselves
be reality-rated villains- assisting in an-
other villain’s plot satisfies the demands of
the Threat of Villainy as well.)
Apparent coincidences will aid the vil-
lain in other ways. The police, the FBI,
and other mundane authorities will remain
ignorant of the plot, allowing the villain to
carry out most activities completely unop-
posed. The villain will conveniently gain
access to plans, blueprints, or other
sources of information. They will gain ac-
cess to enough money to finance the
elaborate scheme. Very little will go
wrong, up until the moment when the vil-
lains plan has progressed far enough to
prove a real threat to a band of heroes. At
that point, the Power of Hope takes effect.
The Threat of Villainy causes these
seeming coincidences to occur. Like the
Power of Hope, it affects events in other
cosms. Thus, villains in and from other
realities attached to Earth will find that the
Threat of Villainy aids them as well. Their
plotting and planning will go far better
than mere chance would dictate, up until
the moment when a hero responds.
It may seem that this World Law is op-
posed to the Power of Hope. In reality,
this World Law seeks to provide the cir-
cumstances that allow Hope to exist. If
there were no dangers, courage would be
impossible. If there were no challenges,
hope would be superfluous. Villains exist
to endanger and challenge innocents and
heroes. In this manner, villains make hope
possible.
The Gift of Imagination
This World Law states: “Heroes and vil-
lains are larger-than-life. They have access
to abilities and resources beyond those of
ordinary people.”
For the vast majority of the population,
life in Earth is indistinguishable from the
life of people in the real world. Life for
villains and heroes is not. Not only are
both drawn to plot or to oppose plots (re-
spectively), but the parameters of the plots
themselves tend to be both baroque and
grandiose, no matter how simple the origi-
nal goal. The reality of Earth acts to
maximize the breadth and impact of any
individual plot, upping the ante for both
villains and heroes.
A small robbery, involving two or three
individuals and a hundred thousand in
cash, can grow into an elaborate scheme,
involving a dozen dump trucks, tons of
gold, dozens of co-conspirators, and a se-
ries of explosive devices, each with an at-
tached riddle that will disarm them. Be-
cause minor plots do not qualify as Threats
of Villainy, the reality seeks to encourage
and enable larger, more elaborate, and
more dramatic plots.
The larger the potential impact of a
plot, the more byzantine and sophisticated
it will become. A plot to kill all mankind
and reseed the earth with 24 perfect
specimens of humanity may take decades
to enact, involve the creation of whole
corporations, the employment of thou-
sands of soldiers and flunkies, the
achievement of groundbreaking scientific
research, and may even require the estab-
lishment of a secret space launch facility,
all before the penultimate moment when
the heroes stumble across the Threat.
In the real world, such plots would be
highly implausible, overly complex, and
virtually guaranteed to fail. The reality of
Storm Knights
Earth ensures that these plots remain un-
discovered and unchecked, until the Threat
fully manifests itself and a hero can rise to
confront the villain. The reality of Earth
rewards villains who do not think small.
This aspect of the Gift of Imagination
affects other realities, like both the Power
of Hope and the Threat of Villainy. It can
affect villains in every cosm and realm,
driving the villains to launch more ambi-
tious plots. In the cosm of Earth, it has ad-
ditional effects.
Heroes and villains of Earth have ac-
cess to skills and tools that bend or even
break the axioms of this reality. A villain’s
plan will often include inventions that are
not possible at Tech 23 (such as a satellite
that can cause an earthquake), or may in-
clude mystical or religious relics that do
not operate under the cosm’s normal Spiri-
tual and Magical axiom limits. Likewise,
heroes often have access to weapons,
spells, miracles, or other tools that are just
too advanced to be explained by the nor-
mal axioms of Earth.
This World Law allows for the existence
of tools and effects that exceed the limits
of the axioms of Earth’s reality. During
character creation, a reality-rated character
can replace their normal axiom with one
(and only one) of the following axioms:
Tech: 23 (24)
Magic: 7 (9)
Spirit: 9 (11)
This increased axiom is noted as a par-
enthetical axiom on the character sheet:
Tech 23 (24). The use of these altered axi-
oms does not in and of itself create a con-
tradiction in Earth, nor in other realities
(unless the tool’s axiom is above the for-
eign reality’s axiom, of course).
Not only do these axiom levels allow
the character to use tools that violate the
10
normal bounds of Earth’s reality, they will
(through improbable coincidences) find
themselves in situation where extraordi-
nary tools of the chosen axiom are placed
at their disposal.
For Example: The hero (who chose the
Tech option) must board an airplane in
flight undetected. Against all logic, the
hero gains access to a stealth plane capa-
ble of attaching itself to another plane in
flight. This modified stealth aircraft is Tech
24.
For Example: A hero (who chose to al-
ter his Spirit axiom) is investigating a devil-
worshipping cult in New York. His
grandmother gives him a cross, an old
family heirloom that manifests the ward
enemy miracle.
For Example: A villain (who chose the
Tech option) is seeking to extort the British
government out of hundreds of millions of
dollars. He discovers that the Russian
government has a satellite that can gener-
ate a massive electromagnetic pulse, de-
stroying computer and other electronic
circuits for hundreds of miles around.
Such a satellite is Tech 24.
These altered axioms can also affect an
area (or realm) of Earth reality. These are
rare, but far more common in this cosm
than in others. Areas of altered axioms do
not have to conform to the altered axioms
listed above, but should almost never be
higher. An example of such an area is
Haiti, with its increased Magic and Spirit
axioms.
In addition, this World Law works with
the immense amount of Possibility Energy
of the cosm to make the axiom limits as
flexible as possible. Due to this World
Law, Earth is nearly all dominant zones
11
(save for the areas around hardpoints).
Heroes and villains are extraordinary
individuals. They have abilities beyond
those of ordinary people and, because of
this World Law, beyond those of other
reality-rateds.
At character creation, Earth stormers
and Storm Knights can get either a type
specialization or a trademark specializa-
tion without spending any possibilities.
More, they gain one free roll-again per
module to use with that one specialization
at any time. In general, characters who
choose such a specialization will gain a
reputation as being “the best” at what they
do- it will become their signature feature,
even above a tag skill.
This World Law seeks to raise the ante
for both heroes and villains. It does so for
villains by increasing the stakes involved
in their plots. It does so for heroes by
making the Threat of Villainy personal.
Whenever a Threat of Villainy mani-
fests, a Earth Storm Knight can choose to
activate a Personal Stake subplot (as the
card) without having to draw the subplot
from the Drama Deck. This subplot repre-
sents a friend, relative, partner, or other
emotionally significant NPC being drawn
into the villain’s plot. The character must
roleplay the subplot accordingly, evincing
a desire to save their NPC, just as if the
Personal Stake subplot was in play. This
may only be declared once per adventure,
and does not count towards the player’s
two-subplot-per-adventure maximum. As
with all subplots, this is subject to GM ap-
proval.
Players can even choose to create a
dependent, such as a spouse or child, who
is frequently drawn into their adventures.
When they player chooses to activate their
“bonus” Personal Stake subplot, this de-
pendent is the character who has become
embroiled in the plot.
Wo r l d L aw s o f E a rt h
 Jasyn Jones’ STORM KNIGHTS

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Copyright
This electronic document (and all other contents of the STORM KNIGHTS website) is copy-
right © 2001-2007 by Jasyn Jones. All Rights Reserved (except as noted below).

This electronic document is released under a Creative Commons

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license. The terms of this
license can be found at:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

West End Games and Purgatory Publishing are hereby granted a license
to this electronic document under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution license. The terms of this license can be found at:
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In all cases, full attribution must be included in any derivative works, the text of which
must read:
Based on “World Laws of Earth” by Jasyn Jones, copyright © 2001-2007. Original ar-
ticle can be found at:
http://darleyconsulting.com/games/stormknights/cosmverse/earthwls.html

These rules are based (in part) on material published in the following TORG rulebook(s):

TORG Boxed Set

Original Mythos and Game Design: Greg Gorden
Mythos/System Development: Douglas Kaufman, Bill Slavicek
Additional Mythos/System Work: Christopher Kubasik, Ray Winninger, Paul Murphy

The Revised and Expanded TORG Rulebook, v. 1.5

Rule Book Design: Jim Ogle
Editing: Gareth Michael Skarka and Steven Marsh
 Cloud tile, eternium pattern, and stone tablet background produced by Garrett Taylor:
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TORG is ®, TM, & © 2007 by Purgatory Publishing, Inc.

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