Line #18 TabletopGame/VORTheMaelstrom


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4	[[quoteright:270:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vor_the_maelstrom_cover.jpg]]
5	[[caption-width-right:270:Just another day in the Maelstrom: a bad one.]]
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7	''VOR The Maelstrom'' is a miniatures {{Wargam\|ing}}e by Mike Nielsen, published in 2000 by Creator/{{FASA}}, months before it collapsed. A subscription was launched in 2010 for a new edition, but it failed, probably due to Mike Nielsen setting his goal too high.
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9	VOR was conceived as the ultimate create-your-own-army game. Although several official armies exist and were released with many models, what made its success was the possibility to design forces with almost any model. A "scratchforce sourcebook" was expected - some beta version of it came out as PDF.
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11	The setting of VOR is the Maelstrom, which looks like a miniature galaxy orbiting a gigantic black hole, called the Maw or Vorack. Planets that cross the dimensional threshold around the Maelstrom are doomed to end in the Maw, so everybody tries to leave their homeworld, found colonies and, maybe, someday escape the Maelstrom. Earth is trapped in 2102.
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13	See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VOR:_The_Maelstrom this other wiki]] for complete overlook.
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15	[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be mistaken for]] the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', which has a book called ''The Vor Game''.
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17	!!This tabletop war-game provides examples of:
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19	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Pharons, the real bad guys of the setting, are space-age mummies. They feast on living creatures' blood and other fluids, turn the corpses into undead slaves, and feed the living with the remains of their meals.
20	* AmericaSavesTheDay: WordOfGod says the North American union is the only barrier to the global rampage of [[DirtyCommunists the Neo-Soviets]]. Nothing is said about Europe, save that Poland called in the G.I.'s for protection. The UN self-dissolved, it's not quite clear why. India fought a major war in the 2080s, but nothing is said afterwards. China was the first serious bulwark against Communist hordes, but it seems it has been conquered. Oh, and it is even said that America is building an escape fleet, so they will end up saving humanity.
21	* AncientAstronauts: The Pharons, when they were alive and civilized ancient Egypt.
22	* ANuclearError: The Chinese did that. To prevent the Neo-Soviet invasion, they bombed themselves with nukes. All that did was make a lot of mutants and wasteland, the Neo-Soviets still conquered and enslaved China.
23	* ArchEnemy: The real war in the Maelstrom is between the Pharon and the Shard, every other player is just a side-story. Besides both races being the mightiest in the Maelstrom, there's other points of contention. The Pharon had turned from the path of being BenevolentPrecursors to being a race of SorcerousOverlord with a ReligionOfEvil, they're the ones that caused the Maw. The Maw threatens to suck the souls of the Shard into oblivion, so that's why they had to create crystal bodies for themselves. On the other the Shard blew up the Pharon's God-king and while the God-king can recreate himself, he can only do short stays in this existence because of that - the Shard are also conducting commando raids on Pharon harvest worlds to starve them. So both sides have the biggest beef, while everyone else is just trying to survive and escape the Maw.
24	* ColonelBadass: Union commanders and even a general who killed a bear with a knife when he was seventeen.
25	* ComboPlatterPowers: What the Pyron can achieve with sorcery or ultra-tech, the Shard can pull off similar abilities with their innate energy powers albeit at lower ability. While low-end Shard are just batteries for crystalline laser guns, members of the highest tier of Shard (the Axiom)are considered PhysicalGod that are only somewhat less powerful than the Pyron's Godking. These Axiom can do things like stop time, devolve enemies, control light and generate gravity wells, etc.
26	* DarkIsNotEvil: The Zykhees are actually the nicest guys in the Maelstrom, but they are nocturnals and see darkness as a soothing, curing force.
27	* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Earth in the Maelstrom is slowly cooling. Global climate has changed. Multiple hazards have sprouted everywhere. Growlers, fungi and Shards probes have landed to colonize some regions. [[FromBadToWorse And even if that were taken care of, it's doomed to fall into the Maw anyway.]]
28	* EnergyBeing: The Shard were originally energy beings of great power, but with their world transported to the Maelstrom - the Maw was directly sucking them into oblivion (Shard souls and bodies are one). So the Shard created [[PowerArmour armour made of]] organic PowerCrystal to [[SoulJar contain themselves]].
29	* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Primordia, homeworld of the Growlers; the Growlers themselves. And the Maw. And the Pharons. And many, many other things in the Maelstrom.
30	* ExpandedStatesOfAmerica: The Union is a fusion of the USA, Canada and Mexico.
31	* EvilVersusEvil: The war between the Pharon and the Shard is what's keeping the Pharon from killing and sacrificing everything in the system. That said, the Shard are just as bad as the evil Pharon. The Shard hate all carbon-based life and are instinctually oriented towards killing and torture, so they're omnicidal to the enemies that they didn't capture for torture.
32	* FuturisticPyramid: Pharon buildings. Some of them incorporate energy-harvesting devices.
33	* GloriousMotherRussia: General Vanivar said Russia had been flouted of its rights, and that they will obliterate everyone else to get them back.
34	* HitPoints: Bizarrely, Growler chieftains and most other large creatures (3 [[CallAHitPointASmeerp Life-Force Points]] or more) can take a missile (Damage 2) and almost ignore it; whereas vehicles often take nasty collateral damage, up to and including instant explosion. There is a system of [[CriticalHit critical hits and misses]], partly compensating for this flaw, but it still makes that [[RockBeatsLaser a bow is just as suspectible of killing as a missile]].
35	* HorrorHunger: To keep their undead bodies from hardening, the Pharon need to capture animal life and render them into a lubricant to stay mobile. With no power capable of matching the Pharon in might, the next most powerful group - the Shard, do lightning raids on the lightly guarded Pharon harvest worlds to starve the Pharon.
36	%%* InASingleBound: Some Growlers can do this.%%Do what?
37	* InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien: The Mashers, space-travelling cavemen who can "mash" technology into their bodies.
38	* KryptoniteFactor: The Shard are quite powerful and have actually been a roadbump for the Pharon onslaught. The Shard's bio-crystal armour gives them extra protection against light, radiation and heat-based attacks. However because of the living nature of the armor, the Shard are extremely vulnerable to the Neo-Soviet toxic spray. Shard don't get any armor rolls and take more damage.
39	* LostTechnology: Many planets feature long-dead or long-departed civilizations, with according treasures. Also, the Mashers are heirs to an ancient culture that left lots of machines.
40	* MadeOfIron: Some Growler Razorback Chieftains, whose bones are coated in ore.
41	* MagicVersusScience: Completely averted. The Pharons are far and away the most advanced species in science and technology, being eons ahead of everyone else. They are also easily the best sorcerers/wizards too and can call upon their dark god and the power of the Maw itself. So developed is their magic and superscience that the Pharons are both MagicFromTechnology and MagiTek, with everyone else getting curbstomped by them in story-line and in-game. The Zhykees also use potent magic and have better than human technology developed thru science, though in both fields they don't hold a candle to what the Pharons have.
42	* MiniMecha: The American Ares and Neo-Sov Ursa walkers. The Ares while significantly weaker than the Ursa, only needs one pilot and has a OneHitKill [[ThisIsADrill drill weapon]] in melee. The Ursa is bigger and tougher and generally carries more guns, but requires two pilots and lacks the Ares's melee power.
43	* MuggingTheMonster: When the Neo-Sovs brought Growlers back on Earth for study.
44	* MutagenicFood: This is the Growlers hat, they get powers based on what they eat. The Firegut Growlers can spit out fire because they eat magma, while the Razorbacks eat almost indestructible minerals near their planet's sun so they develop a near-indestructible hide that resists armor-piercing effects.
45	* NegativeSpaceWedgie: The Maw is a supernatural black hole that was created by the Pharon. It randomly teleports planets into the outer regions of the system and slowly sucks them inward to oblivion. The Maw was created when the last Pharon ruler attempted a dark ritual. It was a little more powerful than expected - killing many on the homeworld, turned the ruler into the Godking and created the Maw.
46	* PhysicalGod: The [[GodKing Pharon's Godking]] was the accidental byproduct of the Pharon ruler's ritual gone wrong. It created not only the Maw, but also a HumanoidAbomination that has many supernatural powers and [[ResurrectiveImmortality cannot be permanently killed]]. The Shard's Axiom are a handful of the highest tier Shard and are justifiably treated as gods, as their energy manipulation powers make them only somewhat less powerful individually than the Godking.
47	* ThePoliticalOfficer: Neo-Sov kommanders are that, and they have the right to shoot their subordinates if they are too slow.
48	* PowerArmor: The Union is striving to make it standard, while the Neo-Sovs keep it for their elite squads. Both increase the wearer's strength and armor rating.
49	* PowerCrystal: Shard advanced technology is based on organic PowerCrystal and NanoMachines. They grow crystals that act as various foci for the Shards's innate [[PureEnergy energy powers]].
50	* RayGun: The Pharons have energy weapons that can fire hundreds of times, at least, without ammo; Union testers gave up after one week.
51	* SiliconBasedLife: The Shards appear to be this, although they're technically disincarnate spirits that create silicon ''armor'', without which they would be sucked in by the Maw.
52	* SovietSuperscience: The Neo-Sovs get their kick out of creating new combat mutants/cyborgs.
53	%%* SpaceElves: Averted. The Pharons were that once, but no more.%%ZCE -- how did they fit this trope?
54	* VillainousGlutton: The Bluefang Alpha Chieftain is this, and a cannibal to boot. The Whitetusk Alpha Chieftain had to beat him into submission before he stopped hunting other Growlers.
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Context TabletopGame / VORTheMaelstrom