Omnifray RPG Basic Handbook
Omnifray RPG Basic Handbook
From: Matthew James A. West
Reviewed by: Ron McClung
Omnifray RPG Basic Handbook is a new Independent (Indie) Role Playing Game from Matthew James A. West.
Immediately upon receiving the tome that is Omnifray, I knew it was an indie game. It is spiral bound like you would get a local Kinkos or something. It is actually published through lulu.com. But I did not let that bother me or skew my review. It is an impressive book, with over 300 pages. It should also be noted that the game is meant for mature audiences because at times it deals with subject matter not suitable for children. It is also not a role playing game for inexperienced RPG players, although novice players are encouraged delve into it with help from other experienced role players.
This book is the Basic Handbook, which implies there are other less “basic” handbooks. In fact, the Expert Manual expands on the concepts presented in this book, as you will see below. However, this is strictly a review of the Basic Handbook. I never received a copy of the Expert Manual.
From the back cover:
“The Enshrouded Lands – an earth-like world where magic bubbles away beneath the surface, beyond the ken of the common folk – may take so many forms that they really are a thousand worlds in one.”
Contents: Chapter 1: The Enshrouded Landsintroduces the player to the game setting of the Enshrouded Lands, so called because everything is surrounded by a thick and mysterious mist, called the Eternal Mist. There is much mystery and legends surrounding this Mist. Few venture into them and even fewer return. Seemingly connected to this is something called the Shrouding and it refers to a strange force that keeps supernatural things and magical events hidden from the common folk. To the common man, he only sees humans and animals, trees and mountains and all things natural. He has only heard through legends and myths of fey, the undead, angels and demons. The Shrouding keeps the truth from the commoners. The end result of this is commoners fear the supernatural and anyone touched by it.
Of course, as one would imagine, there are a few select individuals that see beyond the Shrouding. These are the player characters. They can be human, fey, half-fey, demon-spawn or devil-spawn, part-animal, sorcerer, mystics, wizards, warlocks, witches, priest and more. All those anointed to see and delve into the supernatural abide by the code that says commoners do not need to see that which is supernatural. To those that violate that creed, punishment is swift.
The Enshrouded Lands are a mixture of island nations and fragmented or fallen empires. Central to the region is the archipelago of four islands among which is considered the center of civilization – Talea. The book goes is into good detail describing each nation, island and kingdom. The most powerful influence in the region is the Holy Faith, but there are a variety kings, emperors, and queens as well as barbarians and nomadic tribes.
The general description is then followed by a series of detailed description of each land along with a large table listing rumors and current happenings in that region. This takes up a bulk of the chapter. There is considerable detail in this section. This is followed by sections on the religious factions and spiritual alignment in the game. The game uses similar terms as D&D however, it puts a different spin on them, and connects them to more historical based themes. As mentioned, there are four spiritual alignments – good, evil, chaos and law – and each can be associated to specific guiding ideologies. For example, good corresponds to the Holy Faith, and evil to the Unholy Powers. The Elder Faiths, corresponding to chaos, are consider the pagan faiths and the mystical religions, usually associated to law, is a broad range of different less defined faiths. All are subdivided into various denominations and sub-faiths.
The Chapter ends with a segment on the metaphysics of the game setting. Describing the various realms and dimensions of the game, it describes things like the Astral and Ethereal Realm, the Celestial Realm, the Elder Spiritual Realm and the various elemental Realms. This is pitted again in historical and folkloric basis, perhaps more so than other fantasy games.
Chapter 2: Characters in Omnifraytakes the reader into the first steps of creating a character in Omnifray. I get into more of this later.
Chapter 3:Basic Combat System and Chapter 4:Miscellaneous Action Resolution covers the core system of Omnifrey. These chapters introduce the SART (see below) and the basics in task resolution.
Chapter 5: Basic Traits
Chapter 6: Minions of Malice
Chapter 7: The Beast Corrupt
Chapter 8: Advanced Rules
Chapter 9: Physical and Concentration Feats (an introduction)
Chapter 10: Elder and Unholy Magical Feats (an introduction)
Chapter 11: Malady and Madness
Chapter 12: Vigilante Heroes of Izlavia
System: Character generation for this system, like many others, starts at the concept. One that has been decided, along with the background, the player must think about his spiritual alignment. This is not representative of the characters morality as much as spiritual inclination. Once all that is compiled, the player gets into the meat of the character generation.
There are fifteen (15) Principal Ability Scores of a character. Yes, I said fifteen! There are Alacrity, Melee Prowess, Marksmanship, Strength, Toughness, Agility, Stealth, Manipulation, Intimidation, Willpower, Perception, Understanding, Looks, Craft and Luck. These are followed up by two secondary stats- Size and target. All start out at a value of seven (7) and the player can move points around to customize his character. Taking points away from one stat produces Character Generation Points (CGPs) and it cost CGPs to raise ability scores. However, some Ability Scores produce more CGPs than others if it reduced. For instance, one point Alacrity is worth 9 CGPs but one point of Looks is worth 1 CGP. In addition to these Ability Scores, there are two separately determined scores – Size and Target. These values are assigned by the player, and both should total up 16.
Traits are the skills as well as the advantage and disadvantage system of the game. Players can spend CGPs on advantages and gain CGPs back with disadvantages. This introductory book only includes a few pages worth of Traits but more are included Expert Manual. In the Basic Handbook, there are 5 pages of Traits to choose from. These include Climbing, Cowardice, Hardened Drinker, Holy Faith, Lock Picking, Singing, and Weapons Specialization. Most Traits gives bonuses to Principal Ability Scores.
The “hallmark” of the Omnifray game system is theFeat. Nothing like the d20 feat, this is a special power or ability that the character spends energy or activity points to fire off. It is also the magic system and the Feats are the Magic Spells. Although the Basic Manual leaves this system as an option as players may want to get used to the core system first before tackling Feats, the basics are explained in Chapter 8. Feats and the restrictions around feats are primarily for player characters but some non-player characters have limited access to them. There bring in a tactical aspect to the game, forcing the players to manage their energy point allocation as time goes on.
There are a variety of Feat types – physical, concentration, spiritual, combined feats of physical and concentration, feats of destiny and downtime feats. In this volume, the Basic Handbook, only the basic feats are presented. The Expert Handbook expands on the Feat concept, according to the text. The basic feats have a two characteristics – Versatility Cost and Energy Cost . Versatility points are he points from specific Versatility point pools the character must spend to acquire the Feat. Energy Costs are the points from a specific Energy pool that a character must spend to use the Feat in play.
Once you have your character done, you are ready to play.
The task resolution and combat system revolves around the SART – Simple Action Resolution Table. Because there are no real skills in this game, this system is primarily applied to combat. The core concept of this system is fairly simple. You subtract the defensive player’s value (in the case of combat) from the offensive player’s value to get a Advantage or Disadvantage level. That is referred to on the table to get a Percent Chance to Hit or succeed. If the values are equal, the system assumes there is a 50-50 chance the attacker is going to hit the defender and it goes from there. At Advantage level of 16, there is a 100% of hitting and at a Disadvantage level of 16, there is a 0% chance of hitting. When used outside of combat, an abstract difficulty number is applied as the “defender”.
Combat itself starts out fairly complex but grows more complex as you get into more details. For example, Armor has four values of protection. Also, Grapple takes nearly a whole page to describe. Bows and Crossbows have a varying degree of range based on the strength of the player. There are two approaches to damage – percentage damage and percentage injury. The combat time is divided into segments which are 1/10 of a second long. A combat round is typically 3 seconds. Each combat, players must calculate their Speed in Action (how many segments it takes them to take an action) for each attack. This creates a considerable level of book keeping for the referee but creates a varied level of action in combat. Combat in Omnifrey is involved and can be detailed.
From the back cover:
“ Omnifray is a game of your choice…”
A key aspect of the system is Energy Points. Feats are powered by these pool of points. Starting characters are allocated a certain amount of Energy points. These are distributed among Short Term Physical Energy, Concentration Points, Fate Points, and Spiritual Power. These are distributed according to the player’s character concept. Along with Short Term Energy, characters may have Medium or Long term energy as well, based on allocations to things like Concentration or Spiritual energy.
Layout: There is not a whole lot to the layout. It looks like something someone printed out through a word processor. The art is actually fairly good, but black and white only, although the PDF version might be color. But it is sparse. Although it gives you quite a few monster stats, very few are illustrated. Navigation throughout the book is difficult as there is not headers to tell you where you are at as you flip through the pages. There is a decent index, so it gains some kudo points for that, as well as a good table of contents.
In conclusion, Omnifray is an intimidating tome that might turn off inexperienced players or game masters. This is compounded with the fact that there is an Expert Manual also (which was not included in my review copy). The game system is innovative but complex and involved. I think they try to achieve a balance between realism and easy to use game mechanics and ended up leaning to far to the realism side. It also have a slight “video game” feel to it, as if inspired by other video games. Although that alone is not a bad thing, systems like that in my opinion tend to focus more on the action and less on the role play and story.
Overall, I was not overly impressed with the game but I can see it appealing to a certain segment of gaming.
For more details on Matthew James A. West and his new Independent (Indie) Role Playing Game “ Omnifray RPG Basic Handbook ” check them out at their website http://www.omnifray.com
Omnifray RPG Basic Handbook
From:Matthew James A. West
Type of Game:Independent (Indie) Role Playing Game
Written by:Matthew James A. West
Game Design by:Matthew James A. West
Developed by:Matthew James A. West
Cover Art by:Jon Hodgson
Additional Art by:Athene Nocturna, Genzo, Chris Delk.
Number of Pages:304
Game Components Included:One Core Rule book
Game Components Not Included:Standard RPG supplies
Retail Price:$ 34.40 (US)
Website:www.omnifray.com
Reviewed by: Ron McClung