''Aysle'' is a supplement published by

West End Games West End Games (WEG) was a company that made board, role-playing, and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York City, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Its product lines included ''Star Wars'', ''Paranoia'', ...

in 1990 for the near-future alternate reality role-playing game ''

Torg ''Torg'' is a cinematic cross-genre tabletop role-playing game created by Greg Gorden and Bill Slavicsek, with art by Daniel Horne. It was first published by West End Games (WEG) in 1990. Game resolution uses a single twenty-sided die, ''d ...

''.

''Torg'' is a multi-dimensional role-playing game in which trans-dimensional aliens have invaded Earth, and have divided it up into various alternate realities called "cosms". In essence, this means that the referee can set adventures in almost any genre and time by switching from cosm to cosm. ''Aysle'' is a 144-page sourcebook that defines a heroic fantasy world setting for ''Torg'', a cosm that has been laid over the United Kingdom and Scandinavia by the alien House Daleron.

Geography

The world of Aysle has the shape of a

torus In geometry, a torus (plural tori, colloquially donut or doughnut) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space about an axis that is coplanar with the circle. If the axis of revolution does not ...

(a doughnut). The sun rises up and down through the central hole of the torus, meaning that the seas closest to the hole are boiling, while those at the edge of the torus are frozen. Both sides of the torus have continents and populations. Below the surface is where dwarves dwell.

Magic

The basic magic system of the game was described in ''Torg.'' This book delves into the magic system in much more detail and also lists a large number of spells for advanced characters. In Aylse, all people have magical abilities, which are determined by the stars at their birth. Magic is at the heart of the economy, with the standard "coin" being a 1-hour conjuration spell.

Missions

Several short adventures or missions are outlined for the referee to use.

Reception

In the May 1991 edition of ''Dragon'' (Issue 169),

Ken Rolston Ken Rolston is an American computer game and role-playing game designer best known for his work with West End Games and on the computer game series ''The Elder Scrolls''. In February 2007, he elected to join the staff of computer games company B ...

questioned whether the magic system would work well, saying, "The presentation is so abstract and wordy that I have a hard time figuring out what part is rules and what part is just gas... The only folks who’ll ever find out whether the system works will have put a lot more work into the process than most of us are willing to expend." Rolston also found the adventures published for the ''Aysle'' setting to be "dull and uninspiring... These anthologies of two- or three-page adventure outlines don't bring much drama or tone to a setting." Overall, despite its problems, Rolston concluded that "This campaign is satisfactory, perhaps even superior, as a heroic fantasy setting."

Reviews

* ''

Casus Belli A (; ) is an act or an event that either provokes or is used to justify a war. A ''casus belli'' involves direct offenses or threats against the nation declaring the war, whereas a ' involves offenses or threats against its ally—usually one ...

'' #71 (Sep 1992)

References