Tales of Gor: Gorean Roleplaying (PDF)

Tales of Gor: Gorean Roleplaying

Hidden on the far side of the Sun lies Gor, the Counter-Earth.

Its cities raise walls of stone beneath alien stars. Warriors carry shields and spears while silver ships cross the heavens. Gigantic beasts roam the wilderness, merchant princes bargain in human flesh and two ancient extraterrestrial powers quietly contest the fate of two worlds.

Gor is beautiful, brutal and contradictory: primitive violence beside impossible technology, fierce personal freedom beside institutional slavery, elaborate codes of honour beside treachery sufficient to keep several castes fully employed.

Tales of Gor: Gorean Roleplaying is the licensed tabletop roleplaying game based upon John Norman’s long-running Gorean Cycle.

Powered by Open D6, it contains the rules, character options, adversaries, equipment and Games Master material needed to create your own stories upon the Counter-Earth.

The Counter-Earth

Gor is a world of independent city-states, isolated cultures and dangerous frontiers.

Its people identify themselves through their Home Stone, caste, clan and family. Warriors, physicians, builders, scribes, merchants, initiates, slavers, assassins, outlaws, nomads and slaves all occupy recognised places within Gorean society—though individuals remain perfectly capable of defying those expectations and suffering the consequences.

Beyond the cities lie the Northern Forest, the Tahari, Torvaldsland, the Plains of Turia, the Voltai Mountains and countless territories claimed by tribal peoples, outlaw bands and creatures large enough to make ordinary wilderness travel feel unnecessarily ambitious.

Behind human affairs stands the greater Game of Worlds.

The insectoid Priest-Kings manipulate Gor from their hidden nest beneath the Sardar Mountains. Their enemies, the predatory Kurii, scheme from the Steel Worlds and employ human agents on both Gor and Earth.

Characters may become pieces in this secret war.

They may also decide they have quite enough problems already.

Open D6 Rules

The game uses the accessible and flexible Open D6 System, descended from the rules which powered one of the best-loved science-fiction roleplaying games of the 1980s and 1990s.

Characters are described through attributes, skills and traits, with abilities rated in six-sided dice. When attempting something difficult, roll the appropriate pool and compare the result with a target number.

A Wild Die introduces the possibility of extraordinary success or sudden complication, ensuring that even competent characters occasionally discover the gods—or at least the dice—have developed a sense of humour.

The system is quick to teach, easy to customise and well suited to both new roleplayers and experienced groups who prefer their rules to support the adventure rather than smother it.

Create a Gorean Character

Character creation uses customisable templates reflecting the occupations, peoples and social positions of Gor.

Choose a ready-made foundation, then adjust its attributes, skills and traits to create an individual character. Templates include warriors, physicians, merchants, scribes, slavers, tarnsmen, Panther Girls, tribal peoples, Earth-born outsiders and several of Gor’s non-human inhabitants.

Characters are shaped by more than combat ability.

Their caste, status, wealth, reputation, loyalties, honour and relationships all affect how they move through Gorean society. A skilled warrior may command respect but remain baffled by politics. A slave may possess little formal power while knowing secrets capable of bringing down a city. A merchant may achieve with coin what an army could not manage with steel.

Personal freedom is never guaranteed.

Personal agency remains essential.

Steel, Beasts and Blood

Combat is fast, dangerous and capable of producing lasting consequences.

The rules cover:

• Armed and unarmed attacks

• Parries, evasions and defensive actions

• Armour, shields and weapon damage

• Injury, unconsciousness and healing

• Honour and experience

• Special combat manoeuvres

• Fighting at different scales

• Mounts, vehicles and Gorean transport

• Tarns, kaiila, tharlarion and other riding beasts

Gor’s wildlife is not decorative.

The book includes statistics for sleen, larls, bosk, tharlarion, giant insects, sea creatures and numerous other hazards. It also provides rules for rational non-human beings, including Kurii, Priest-Kings, Spider People and the underground-dwelling Urt People.

The ecosystem appears to have been designed by somebody who considered wolves insufficiently discouraging.

Running Adventures on Gor

The Games Master section provides guidance for creating campaigns rooted in Gorean culture rather than transplanting generic dungeon adventurers and hoping nobody notices.

Stories might involve:

• Rival cities and contested Home Stones

• Caste politics and personal honour

• Merchant feuds and caravan journeys

• Slavery, escape and changes of status

• Outlaws, pirates and Panther Girls

• Tribal conflict and wilderness survival

• The schemes of Kurii agents

• Missions undertaken for the Priest-Kings

• Exploration of lost or forbidden technology

• Characters from Earth struggling to understand Gor

• The consequences of insulting somebody who owns a war tarn

Advice is included for constructing adventures, handling difficult players, portraying Gorean society and deciding how closely the campaign should follow the assumptions of the novels.

Gor is presented for play, not embalmed for reverent observation.

Inside

• An introduction to Gor and its science-fantasy premise

• Gorean places, cultures and social organisation

• The castes, Home Stones, slavery and codes of honour

• The Priest-Kings, Kurii and their hidden conflict

• Complete Open D6 rules

• Character creation using attributes, skills, traits and templates

• Combat, damage and healing

• Honour and experience

• Mounts, vehicles and transport

• Gorean weapons, armour, currency, equipment and services

• A substantial bestiary

• Rules for intelligent non-human characters

• Games Master guidance and campaign advice

• Numerous character templates

• Sample characters

• The Traitress, a complete introductory adventure

• Advice for playing online

• Guidance for handling sexual content in roleplaying

• Quick-reference rules

• Original artwork by Michael Manning

The Traitress

The corebook includes a complete introductory adventure designed to bring newly created characters together and introduce them to the dangers, customs and intrigues of Gor.

Games Masters can use it to begin a campaign immediately rather than spending the first evening explaining the social significance of every coloured garment in the room.

Though that discussion will probably happen eventually.

Companion Books

For a comprehensive alphabetical guide to the people, places, creatures, customs and terminology of the novels:

Buy World of Gor – Gorean Encyclopaedia

For Michael Manning’s Gorean illustrations presented as a dedicated collection:

Buy The Art of Gor

A growing range of Gorean Adventures provides ready-to-run scenarios, new rules and additional campaign material:

Browse the Gorean collection

Format

Digital PDF download.

• Complete standalone roleplaying game

• Approximately 170 pages

• English language

• Powered by Open D6

• Originally published in 2017

• Written and designed by James “Grim” Desborough

• Illustrated by Michael Manning

This listing is for the electronic edition. No physical book, slave caravan or silver spacecraft will be dispatched.

Printed Editions

Separate print-on-demand editions are available through Lulu:

Buy the 170-page black-and-white A4 paperback

Buy the 170-page black-and-white hardback

Licensed Edition

John Norman’s works are used with the permission of the author and his agents, Richard Curtis Associates, Inc.

John Norman’s works are published by Open Road Media.

Mature Content

This game is intended for adults.

It deals openly with slavery, coercion, dominance and submission, sexual customs, violence, inequality and sharply divided expectations of men and women. It also contains artistic nudity.

These are fundamental parts of the Gorean setting rather than apologetic footnotes. Individual groups can decide how prominently they feature, but the Counter-Earth has not been sanitised, modernised or placed behind a tasteful curtain.