It’s taken me a long time to review this product, because it’s so obviously a labor of love. It takes dedication to write tens of thousands of words about your game setting and your system, then put it all together into not one but two books, and amazing amount of courage to put it out there in the world and hope that people will like it and play it. I commend and support that kind of initiative. Roleplaying has always been a creative, Do-It-Yourself kind of hobby and it’s one of the things I love most about it.
That’s what makes this hard for me to review. Because when someone like Matt West, the creator of Omnifray, has made this kind of commitment and clearly has such a strong belief about his baby, it’s hard to say anything negative without feeling like a jerk.
The Omnifray Basic Handbook weighs in at 310 pages and contains everything needed to play and run the game. The Omnifray Expert Manual is nearly 500 pages of additional material that goes even further in depth with both the rules and the setting. Both are available via Lulu.com. The Enshrouded Lands, the game’s setting, is a fantasy world surrounded by mysterious magical mists. Anyone who goes into the mists never comes out, and no one knows what exists beyond. Sure, this is kind of Ravenloft-ish, but there’s potential. What kind of stir-crazy cultures would develop with limited land mass? What kind of mythology would develop about the places beyond the mist? What kind of adventure hooks could you come up with to tease at the truth of the mists? Unfortunately, Omnifray doesn’t really get into that. It’s just sort of a generic fantasy world, but surrounded by mist.
The system has 15 attributes, 13 full stats and 2 figured stats. It’s a point/buy system, so you start with a base number in everything and buy your way up. You also buy skills, etc. When performing a task, you add your attribute modifier to your skill modifier and compare those to the difficulty modifier, and that gives you the percentage you need to roll under on percentile dice. It’s not intuitive and requires a table. I mean, I’ve got a 6 modifier and the task is a 4 difficulty modifier for a total of 2 so I roll 67% or less to success. I have no idea how I got from A to B. I get the Ability minus Target = Roll Modifier, I just don’t know whether my 6 is good or 2 is hard and how we got to 67%. The percentages aren’t linear, or any kind of progression I can recognize. They just seem like random choices. If my Attribute was 50, my skill 40, my total 90, and the difficulty 23, I would get 67%. I don’t understand why we’re taking the extra step to translate from one scale to the other.
One thing that I really like, aside from the artwork (most of which is outstanding) is that all of the monsters and foes presented in the book are single-page character sheets. If I were planning and adventure, I could copy (or print, using the PDF version) the pages for the monsters I was using and have them handy, rather than fumbling through the whole book. As monsters and animals are presented on the same character sheet as player characters, it’s extra-easy reference.
Here are the nits that I have to pick with Omnifray: first, it tells me repeatedly that it’s innovative and original. I’ve been roleplaying since 1978. I’ve seen a lot of games. Whatever you think is original, I can probably find somewhere that it’s been done already. Don’t brag on original. Shoot for better execution. Tell me what the game does, and how it does it. Don’t make me wade through hundreds of pages looking for your innovation.
Second, I’m amazed that folks savvy enough to self-publish via Lulu haven’t found the Creative Commons license. There’s a full page early on in the Basic book that outlines how you can use the material and create your own Omnifray material with the author’s permission. It’s kind of confrontational in its wording, which is very off-putting to me. If I wanted to write material for this game, I wouldn’t after reading this un-friendly warning. It’s also the sort of thing that should have been placed in the back. I’m being chastised about ripping off someone’s intellectual property before I’ve even had a chance to see what the game’s about.
No, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the finished product that is Omnifray. But I’m impressed that Matt West put it together. There’s a lot of unfulfilled potential here, and he just needs to keep at it until he gets it right. I think it could happen. It just didn’t come together this time around.
With all due respect, this isn’t much of a review. It appears as if you got into character creation, looked at some form of task resolution and skimmed through the monsters section.
You indicate the system has 30 attributes and stats, but what are they and how do they work? Why so many? Beyond a point buy system, what are characters? Are there classes? Levels? Do characters improve? How does the game handle combat? Magic? Skills and special abilities? Does it have a framework for social conflicts?
Again, no disrespect intended and I appreciate the fact you’ve brought something new to the metaphoric table. I just think more information should be included if you really want to label this blog a review.
Michael: It was my decision as editor to label this a review, and I don’t believe going into all those things that you list is necessary to call something a review. I believe enough is hit upon here to qualify.
Also keep in mind that these books are monstrously huge, so to provide all that information would be quite a lot- and not necessary to tell readers to steer clear.
I’m always curious about how different systems handle attributes or abilities, but I’m also a big fan of brevity. I loathe long reviews that read like a middle school book report. “Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc.” Ugh. I don’t need all the facts, just the reviewers impression and whether or not they might recommend the item reviewed or not.
Genuinely thanks for the review! It’s always nice to have publicity, especially on Critical-Hits.com. I appreciate that the review is, shall we say, lukewarm, but Omnifray isn’t for everyone. It’s for people who really, really want ultra-flexible crunchy CharGen, balance (in the sense that every advantage has its price or trade-off) and a high degree of internal coherence and believability, as well as masses of three-pronged canon in the setting allowing for mystery and intrigue. You have to want those things enough to take it on the chin that my system is very complex, very crunchy and very challenging to run. More than a few people have described it as the most complex RPG they’ve ever played. I don’t find it unduly complicated myself, but it seems to be a fairly common opinion! There must be a reasonable audience out there who are begging for this stuff but frankly I think they’re hard to find and target…
I’m really pleased that the reviewer praises the artwork (none of which is mine, by the way – I can’t draw for toffee). The artists were Jon Hodgson (Basic Handbook cover), Genzo (Expert Manual cover and the anime-style interior artwork), Chrissy Delk (interior) and Athene Nocturna (interior). There isn’t really enough artwork in the books (that’s down to me, not the artists) but when it’s costing you several thousands of pounds of your own money to put books on shelves on the never never – you’ve got to know when to call it quits.
I appreciate the call for me to keep on trying and improve on my work. The trouble is perhaps that I could not be much more satisfied with the way Omnifray works for me in practice, and any changes that I might want to introduce — certainly wouldn’t be the simplifications or polishing that a mass audience seems to demand. A task so demanding as producing these books is something I only undertook because I wanted to play it myself and get it out there for others like me – not, primarily, to make money or appeal to a mass audience (although it would be nice). So it’s unlikely, given the mammoth task that this was, that I’ll be producing a new fantasy game of this scope or depth any time soon, although there is a somewhat simplified version of Omnifray-in-space on the way (currently out in playtest under the temporary name of Sundered Space, free to download on Lulu, link via my site).
A few minor things from the review:-
There are 15 ability scores (not counting Size and Target), not 30 – with respect I think Michael misunderstood what the reviewer meant. Even I think 30 ability scores would be a bit over the top!
The Simple Action Resolution Table is based on a strict mathematical progression – YOU ABSOLUTELY NEVER NEED THIS INFORMATION TO PLAY THE GAME BUT HERE GOES – the formula is:-
Success Chance = 1/(1+2^(0-Advantage/2)) x 100%
where ^ is “to the power of” and / is the divisor sign
(Advantage is your ability score minus your opponent’s or a difficulty score)
YOU DON’T EVER ACTUALLY USE THAT SUCCESS CHANCE FORMULA WHEN YOU PLAY OR PREP THE GAME! It’s just game-design info for those who may be interested.
The maths is sort-of encapsulated in a sentence or two hidden away deep inside the Basic Handbook which basically explains that for every 2 points of difference in ability score between you and your opponent, you are twice (or half) as likely to succeed as he is at an (opposed) task.
I am thinking of writing code in BASIC so that people can just enter the opposing characters’ ability scores / difficulty score (or the overall Advantage score) at the prompt and it will randomise action resolution of any of the various kinds. I can’t see myself using a computer to assist play, but for those who would, I wonder if they might find it easier that way. Any thoughts welcome – feedback via the website please.
There is currently no downloadable PDF but I’m thinking of releasing both books as pay-to-download PDFs on the 1st anniversary of publication.
If you want to know more about the game, please check out the website, and you can post queries to me via there.
I hope I’m not out of order posting a detailed response.
Dave: I was really just pointing out that, from my perspective, I’d like to know more about the game from someone who has it.
And thanks to Matt, I have some of it!
I probably shouldn’t have posted the formula. People looking to find out about my game are going to find… a formula which they will never need and which doesn’t appear in any rulebook…
NVM — people who aren’t put off by Success Chance = 1/(1+2^(0-Advantage/2))x100% are probably the people I should be targeting anyway… (even if the superfluous “x100%” might annoy them).
> Why so many?
Partly to get rid of unnecessary skill lists by having enough ability scores to cover most areas. There are still skills (which come under “traits”), but they are very much secondary and you don’t need them so much. Partly to avoid derived stats for combat etc. so as to speed up CharGen for NPCs, which can be as simple as jotting down the few numbers you think you’re going to use. Partly to allow greater variety for your characters.
> Beyond a point buy system, what are characters?
Anything compatible with the Enshrouded Lands (fantasy setting). Usually of human appearance, but that’s not strictly necessary.
My favourite are humans possessed by supernatural creatures – demons, the undead, the fey, etc. These I call Otherworldly spirits, as opposed to the Manifested (ones which are walking around in their own bodies).
> Are there classes?
No. Absolutely not. No skill trees, no lifepaths, nothing like that. There are many, many character backgrounds, which are optional and can be used in part or in whole, but all they do is provide a list of recommended pointers for ability scores, traits, feats etc. – you can mix and match as desired, and they have no real inherent impact on what your character can actually do. The whole substance of CharGen is versatile, flexible points-buy.
> Levels?
Yes. They determine how many points you get of 3 different kinds – CGPs for your traits and ability scores, Versatility Points to select your feats (powers for occasional use) and Energy Points to power your feats when you use them.
> How does the game handle combat?
In a variety of ways with a distinctive rolling speed of action system. Basically each action takes a random amount of time, added to when you last went. Yes, the game uses tables, but I can run combat basically without reference to the tables as they have relatively few entries and are easy (for me) to remember.
> Magic? Skills and special abilities?
There are “traits” and “feats”. Traits are features of your character’s abilities and restrictions which apply continuously. Feats are powers you can use which burn energy points (or activity points for downtime feats). Magic works via this system; non-magical characters have parallel powers of non-magical varieties. You can mix up your energy points between spiritual (magical/mystical), fate, physical and concentration however you choose.
> Does it have a framework for social conflicts?
You can have opposed tests based on social stats, and they can be influenced via your roleplay, situational factors etc.