One of the things in Torg (Eternity or Original flavor), is that there's an awful lot of information about the High Lords of each Cosm, and their respective relationships with the Darkness Devices that allow them to invade other realities and steal their Possibilities. Who these guys used to be, how they came to power, whether the Devices control them or even like them, or whether they are subjugated or what. What the High Lords' agendas are, and their Devices' too, and how they go from alliance to probably fighting one another in the long run. It makes for interesting reading for the GM, and it DOES motivate the evolving meta-arc, but it's a bit of a waste when it comes to wringing all that flavor out FOR THE PLAYERS.
By extension, we'll be talking about ANY RPG's high-level meta-story, right?
I mean, whether we're talking about the Edeinos warrior Baruk Kaah, the necromancer Uthorion, the supervillain Dr. Möbius, the Cyberpope Jean Malreaux, whoever's running the Kanawa Corporation, or the Gaunt Man who masterminded the invasion, etc., it's not like the players are rubbing elbows with them, have any chance of seeing the power dynamic between them and their Devices (or each other), or even know anyone who does, at least not until they are extremely powerful themselves. So what does a GM do to make that come alive? Exposition? Yuck! One wonders who these gossips are and how reliable their information ever could be.
Well, first off, you might just say, hey, this is cool and I'll just tell you what's happening in the upper strata of the game world. The characters don't exactly know this, but the players do, and it doesn't change anything because their Storm Knights don't really interact at that level. It's just context for the power moves occurring at a global scale. I admit I do SOME of this, just delivering some of this information in casual conversation, but I don't go very deep and have recently stopped myself because my players have their OWN ideas about what's happening (like the Cyberpope not existing at all, hm) and I don't want to break up their theories in case I could make use of them later.
As the title of this article suggests, one idea I've been thinking about - and this puts a LOT of power in the players' hands, but Torg already has that tradition - is to allow the players to play the High Lords for a special session (the GM of course plays his namesake, the Gaunt Man) - perhaps at some kind of G7 summit or moving pieces about like they're playing Risk. The relationship with the Darkness Device and with high-level lieutenants can be explored this way. On a smaller scale, such sessions might focus on a single High Lord's retinue, the players taking on the roles of those lieutenants and interacting personally with their High Lord.
Last Christmas, we played a special session where a PC Santa Claus (and his elves) embarrassed the Gaunt Man and had to fight him a bit (well, run away from him, really), and perhaps that's a potable avenue. Santa's a bit... festive, for why not have players take the roles of the Lady Arsinay who expelled Uthorion from her part of Aysle, Möbius' nemesis among the superheroes, and so on. An Omega-clearance adventure like this would let the players be HEROIC and ACHIEVE something BIG, while also being in earshot and stones' throws from the High Lords.
Now replace the Torg-specific names with those of the Nations in your D&D game, or space-faring empires in your sci-fi RPG, or whatever makes sense, and you've got the makings of using role-playing (rather than linear narration) as a way to move the meta-arc. If you dare...
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