As I mentioned yesterday, the Gaunt Man is the central villain of Torg — he kicked off the invasion as just one part of a larger scheme for power over the multiverse. And he’s a fairly cool figure, sort of a mix of Randall Flagg, Gideon Winter and Mr. Boogedy. But he is largely absent from most of the metaplot because the trilogy of Torg tie-in novels eliminates him — he gets trapped in a pocket dimension with a doodad that tears him apart and rebuilds him over and over again. Until he escapes in The Gaunt Man Returns (1992).

First off, let us appreciate the dope Jennell Jaquays cover art. The Gaunt Man has never looked so, uh, great. Interiors are by Jaime Lombardo and Ron Hill; they’re adequate. The story here, unlike Central Valley Gate, is comprehensible. The Gaunt Man has come back to find one of his lieutenants has gone rogue. Not wanting to reveal his return yet, however, he lays breadcrumbs for the player characters to find him, and then he sends them to kill the traitor. It’s an opportunity for him to get rid of a problem, stay low profile and test his most unpredictable foes. Pretty typical Big Bad behavior. There’s a lot of monsters and fights and horrific moments and, if you’ve invested enough time in Torg to be the “veteran players” the cover says this adventure is for, I reckon you’ll have a blast.

West End thought this scenario was important, which is an opportunity to talk about the metaplot. Like Living Games that emerged out of the RPGA in the aughts, the status quo of Torg responded to the actions of players. There is a response form in the back of this book to log key results from your play-through. Responses were mailed, then tallied; whatever had the biggest count reflected the new status quo of the published game. This is extremely cool in concept. I do wonder how it worked in practice for Torg. It seemed to work pretty well for Living Greyhawk and the other Living games Wizards put on for a while?