Omnifray at Indiecon (LFG)

[Omnifray]

I believe I'm booked to be coming to Indiecon, and hopefully I'll be running some games of
my recently released RPG Omnifray, so I'm looking for players to get embroiled in a
dangerous quest in a medieval quasi-Russia with hidden fantasy elements and if possible
some devious plottitunities* and certainly some strong-arm heroics.

If anyone who's coming to Indiecon wants to join in the game I'm running, this is the mini-brief
for the main game:-

It will be set in Izlavia towards the end of the month of Yersdaw in the Year of the Fall 201. The majority
of player characters are likely to be Izlavian warriors who are members of the various knightly orders -
for instance, any of the 6 pregenned PCs at the back of the Basic Handbook (one blonde-haired brawny
hero, his skilful sword-sister, an axe-maniac, a warrior-poetess, a scout/archer and an archer/scout -
the difference between the scout/archer and archer/scout is quite pronounced as to their relative
skills in those two areas).

These PCs will have travelled to a small port on the west coast of Izlavia, a few days' travel from Bretnav by road.
Their purpose is to escort the passengers of a medium-sized merchant vessel to Bretnav for the great annual
market on the 4th day of Greening. Most of the passengers are likely to be reasonably well-to-do merchants
and their hangers-on. There is known to be a dreadful bandit problem and the PCs will anticipate
having their work cut out defending the merchants. They will be negotiating pay probably as a small
group to act primarily as bodyguards to a particular merchant, i.e. s/he will be their responsibility
if all Hell breaks lose (as it probably will...). Of course this is only a stepping-stone to the real plot,
which is a bit thicker, but that's your introduction.

If you have the core books, you can have a think about which of the characters in Chapter 12 you might
like to play, although I don't want to divvy up the roles beforehand. On the other hand you're more than
welcome to dream up your own characters, who might or might not be Izlavian vigilante warriors. I will
PROBABLY allow ANY character of human appearance created in line with the Expert Manual guidelines,
provided there is some semi-plausible reason for the character to be there, either as a passenger, or
as an Izlavian - e.g. a wagon-driver (though merchants may bring their own cargo of wagons and drivers)
or other hireling - except perhaps vampires, who are at risk of being sun-burnt to oblivion if they can't
protect themselves from the sun. You can send me anything from a character concept to a fully written up
character beforehand if you like, and I MAY have time to check it or flesh it out, but I can't promise that.

I would be hoping for a party of say 4-6 players at a time, probably with 7 PCs, one each, with any
spare ones being kept as NPCs in case a new player turns up or someone dies. However I will still
run a game with any number of willing player(s) up to the maximum I can handle of probably around
seven (seems unlikely that player overflow will be my problem, but you never know!).

I don't know atm what the exact format will be. [MickRed tells me the sessions are 4 hours each;
I guess I could link two sessions for a continuous campaign if there's sufficient demand, but 4
hours is quite sufficient for a basic intro and a few major fights.]

I'll probably be making half of it up on the fly anyway, though I have
already run basically this campaign (or at least part of it) for two groups of players. One group
are currently about 15 hours of play into the campaign and the other group have played for if memory
serves three sessions of 4+ hours so there's plenty of it, though at about the 10-hour stage what
happens starts to depend very much on choices that the players make, so depending on what they do,
the campaign could in theory be done and dusted in about 12 hours of play or it could last, well, virtually
forever... I don't know if you'll get fully to grips with the underlying plot by the 8-hour stage, let alone
the 4-hour stage, but I'll try to signpost it a bit more than I have for my regular groups.

Any thoughts?

Matt

[Omnifray]

PS I don't know if it's the done thing to do point-buy chargen at Indiecon itself,
but if there were demand I'd be happy to take a small number of interested
players through chargen then have a ten-minute thinking break and
do a custom adventure on the fly (wish me luck!) - I can write up a 1st
level character in 30 to 45 minutes but to take a newbie through the
main options and get the process rounded off takes a bit longer, so I
guess I could manage it in an hour and a half for 3 players which would
probably be the ideal size. But that's probably more for people with a
"special interest" in flexible chargen than for your casual sort of gamer,
so, only if there's demand!

[Leonidas300]

Hi Matt,

the premise of this sounds really very interesting and intriguing indeed. Did you do a fair amound of reasearch into the history of such elements of the setting you describe?

Please tell us more.

Chris

[Omnifray]

I guess all in all what I've aimed for with the Enshrouded Lands as a
loosely quasi-medieval fantasy setting is:-

--- just enough real-world parallels to provide a stepping-stone for
--- your imagination from the humdrum real world to the fantastical
--- Enshrouded Lands - borrowed real-world flavour, but not precise detail

--- enough detailed alternative versions of the major elements in
--- the setting that the players can never be complacent about their
--- knowledge of the setting, nor lose their sense of the unknown

--- a world which appears on the face of things to be devoid of the supernatural,
--- but where beneath the surface magic bubbles away, so the world remains
--- believable, but your characters can explore all manner of fantasy craziness

The game can perfectly well be run in the Enshrouded Lands without current discernible
supernatural elements if your referee prefers. In other words, it can be run
as a quasi-medieval world with legends of the supernatural playing a merely
game-historical role. The geography and history, however, are by no means
exact replicas of the real world. I have quite consciously distorted them for
a number of reasons.

Izlavia is a sort of quasi-Russia, but with the emphasis on quasi.
The real-world parallels are a springboard for your imagination, not an
attempt to chronicle real-world history, and a lot of the detail of the
game-world, the Enshrouded Lands, is patently entirely made-up.

The Enshrouded Lands are loosely based on the real world as it might
have been seen through the eyes of medieval European peasants, but I do mean
loosely - I've twisted them into a very different thing to historical
reality. For starters, only about thirteen countries made it through to the
final selection...

There are elements of real-world history paralleled in the history
of the Enshrouded Lands, but mainly in relation to the Central
Archipelago (quasi-Western Europe) - drawing on A-Level history
studied a good decade previously, so I'm not claiming that it's an
exact replica! And even where I've paralleled real-world events,
I haven't stuck to the real-world chronology.

What I'm aiming for is just enough real-world flavour, a bridge for the imagination
from the 21st century to pure fantasy, but not a strict, careful study of
actual historical events. It's a matter of preference, but I don't want to
tie people down to actual historical events as they actually happened,
because as a player or referee I would then feel uncomfortable with changing
major historical events, and because it would be difficult, if not impossible,
for the referee to guarante a consistently greater mastery of the historical events
than the players - and also because some of the sense of the mystery of the
unknown might be lost for players who really know their stuff!

The Enshrouded Lands are home to a very considerable number of
secret societies which are detailed, generally in three alternative
versions each, in the second rulebook, the Expert Manual. Country
histories and occult happenings also generally have three alternative
versions each (in the Basic Handbook). The point of all that is to give
the referee a menu of choices for the setting so that even if the players
know the Expert Manual inside out (at 500 pages, unlikely...), they
will never know what to expect.

It's probably fair to say that for most players the setting, rather than the
system, is the strongest feature of the game, whereas for me personally
it's the other way around.

So what do you make of that?

[Rich Stokes]

Any thoughts?

It sounds like you don't have any pre-prepared demo adventures? Is this the first con you'll have brought it to to promote?

Slots are 4 hours. So plan for a game to last that long. Although this is the first IndieCon, double slot games are generally not popular at cons. So get a 4 hour game ready, test it with your regular group and make sure it works. Bear in mind that the 4 hours includes people sitting down, at least one proper break (more, now that people have to go outside to smoke), dishing out characters and explaining the rules and background the players need to know. Once you've taken all that into account, you end up with about 3 hours of actual game. That leaves no time for sitting about, there needs to be stuff happening all the time.

Make sure you have pre-generated characters. Make sure that they reflect and show off the game's strong points. I've heard you say that you can use the rules to create anything, including a puddle of slime. So one of the characters needs to be a puddle of slime, if you want to show that off.

Decide what other things you want to show off. Make sure they're in the adventure. If you think the social conflict system is particularly juicy for example, make sure there are plenty of opportunities to use it.

Then there are the shorter, pure demo games. These ought to be 15 minutes and show off the coolest bits of the game. Indiecon's probably not the idea place for those, (given the length of the con and the way it's set up) but they're perfect for places like Dragonmeet, Games Expo or Gen Con Indy.

[Omnifray]

It sounds like you don't have any pre-prepared demo adventures? Is this the first con you'll have brought it to to promote? ... you end up with about 3 hours of actual game.

Useful advice, thank you! This is indeed the first con I'm bringing Omnifray to. I can whittle a 3-hour game out of my pre-written adventure - I'm always a little paranoid that the PCs might just stomp through the whole thing and ignore the roleplay / plot, so I'd like to have the follow-up section ready in any event, just in case.

Does the adventure really have to come to a definite end at the end of the 4-hour slot? Is there any reason why I shouldn't leave the players hanging on with, hopefully, an element of suspense in the air? I'll probably make my pre-written adventure into a short, freely downloadable pdf over the next few months, if I have time, so if anyone wants to follow up on the story, they'll be able to.

Make sure you have pre-generated characters. Make sure that they reflect and show off the game's strong points. I've heard you say that you can use the rules to create anything, including a puddle of slime. So one of the characters needs to be a puddle of slime, if you want to show that off.

I have 12 pre-generated characters in the published books, all human - by far the most likely PC race in Omnifray. I'll bring print-outs of their character sheets along. The 6 from the Basic Handbook are more suitable to the pre-written adventure. They're more combat-based, but they're also more basic. The characters from the Expert Manual are marginally more complicated - they might be too much for total newbies, I don't know.

I guess I can rustle up a few weirder characters, part-fey or spiritually possessed or something like that. I don't think it was ever my intention actually to run a game myself as referee, or play in one, where one of the players in fact chose to play a puddle of slime. Well maybe just for a laugh, but not for a serious game! I like the fact that the rules allow you to play a puddle of slime, in the sense that they allow you to play pretty much anything imaginable - it symbolises how flexible they are for chargen - but the puddle of slime is more likely to feature as an NPC, because frankly, it has roleplaying limitations...

Decide what other things you want to show off. Make sure they're in the adventure. If you think the social conflict system is particularly juicy for example, make sure there are plenty of opportunities to use it.

I'll give that some thought. Some of Omnifray's more unusual elements can be introduced immediately to a newbie group; others are probably more suitable for extended games only. There will certainly be some opportunity for social conflict resolution in the demo adventure. Even with the most basic characters, players will be able to try out feats of physical energy and concentration and to see temporary fate points in action (using rules from the Expert Manual). That should be plenty for them to get their heads round in the limited time available!

Cheers

Matt

[w00hoo]

I like the fact that the rules allow you to play a puddle of slime, in the sense that they allow you to play pretty much anything imaginable - it symbolises how flexible they are for chargen - but the puddle of slime is more likely to feature as an NPC, because frankly, it has roleplaying limitations...

Sounds like a challenge, assuming the puddle of slime can communicate in some way or another (form itself in to 'vocal chords' or spell words out by the way it flows (or by ejecting various magnetic letters it's got held within the goop) it'd be no worse then playing a half-orc really

[Omnifray]

Hmmm... I might let you play a puddle of slime with the ability to transform itself into a human shape -
use the Animal Form feat of unholy magic, non-standardly allowing human [edit] made of slime [/edit]
as your chosen animal, I wouldn't need to write any new rules for that, just allow [edit] slimey [/edit]
human as the chosen animal and Robert's your mother's brother...

humans probably count as "animals" and more particularly as "creatures associated with darkness
and evil" anyway, so it might not even be a non-standard... ?? [edit] apart from being made of
slime of course... [/edit]

A long robe with a hood [edit] to cover your face-made-of-slime [/edit]
might just get you past some encounters with the common folk,
if you're lucky... maybe some bandages around your face, pretend you got badly hurt by burning
oil in battle... remember to wear gloves! ... your words would sound kind of slurpy...

the transformation is standardly permanent until reversed, but be careful about dropping into
slime form for combat or negotiating obstacles, because you might not have the energy to
make the transformation very often... (something like 60 long-term energy points out of 800 per three
28-day months; you get some back on each night of the full moon)

suddenly doesn't sound so bad!!! not sure if it's viable as a 1st level character but probably...

[Max Bantleman]

Matt,

Reading this thread with great interest
One thing... I have seen at least three rpgs kill themselves at cons in the past 2 years, i.e. run demos that actually put out such a bad 'vibe' about them it negated the fact that they are actually quite good systems.

Cons are a definite 'experience', there are opportunties to 'sell' a game via the demo, miss these and you're missing a great chance to spread via the best medium role players use, word of mouth.

Biggest complaint of gamers playing in demos for new games that I've heard, is that the demo didn't feature anything that made the game stand out, i.e. there was no aspect of the demo game that made them go "oh yeah, game 'x', that was cool because of 'y' thing..."

I've got a niggling feeling that Omnifray will be a good game for me to dig deeper in to: I'm finding that quite hard due to time constraints and the fact that the rules need a lot of 'decoding' for me at the moment, so the chance to sit in with the designer, play a game and 'get it' would be very cool indeed. I suspect a few people will be thinking this

It'd be great if the demo game was really tight, featured a story / plot line that showed off some of the core rules, and had characters that were detailed enough to get in to their backgrounds and relationships with others, but not over the top requiring lots of referencing obscure rules and such.
(I'm doing that trying to get people to suck eggs thing again aren't I? )

I suppose ultimately what I'm trying to say is I've seen many people from 'Indie' games companies not take their demo games opportunities seriously, and suffer because of it, and I've seen some very good demo games really boost a game just through their presence at cons.

Looking forward to Omnifray at Indicon

[Omnifray]

I've submitted booking forms for 4 slots at Indiecon (hope it's worked):-

Slot 1 (adults)

Slot 4 (adults)

Slot 6 (teen+)

Slot 9 (teen+)

[Omnifray]

I've written up a more detailed description of the Omnifray game and wonder if this is helpful to potential Indiecon participants:-

Current Omnifray publications (the Basic Handbook and Expert Manual) are set in the Enshrouded Lands, a quasi-medieval fantasy world bordered at its edges by the impenetrable Eternal Mists. Outwardly, the world is populated by ordinary humans and animals, with only histories and legends of the supernatural; beneath that veneer of normality, the Enshrouded Lands teem with magical and mystical influences, and secret cults are a significant feature. The Enshrouded Lands also include vast unpopulated wilderness areas (the Winterlands and the Perished Sands), where supernatural happenings may be frequent.

The major nations of the Enshrouded Lands borrow the flavour of historical countries (though only a little of the actual history of some of them, and less if any of their geography). The pre-generated PCs in the Basic Handbook are from Izlavia (a nation with a mainly Russian flavour) and those in the Expert Manual are from Starizlavia (which has a Transylvanian flavour). In places the game has quite dark themes, making it more suitable for a mature audience.

Omnifray uses a unique system engine. The core mechanic (with several variants) is:- match opposing ability scores against each other, and find the corresponding percentage chance or degree of success on a table. Other aspects of the game use a full range of polyhedral dice.

Combat is not divided into rounds or turns - instead, time is tracked continually for each character, using a randomised speed of action system.

A big part of the system is the use of special powers called feats, which all player characters normally have. Mostly these burn energy points when used, and you may have several pools of energy points for a single character (e.g. physical energy, concentration energy, fate points, priestly unholy magical power etc.). "Downtime feats" use weekly activity points instead.

Character generation is points-based, with three pools of points:- CGPs (character generation points) for your general ability scores and "traits" (including ordinary skills and other abilities which do not burn energy points or activity points when used, but also flaws with CGP savings); energy points (to power your feats); versatility points (which you use to select your list of feats).

There are no rigid character classes or professions, nor even rigidly prescribed racial abilities for non-humans (though some abilities will be common to most or all fey, for instance), but the Expert Manual details optional starting backgrounds for player characters with guidelines as to possible ability scores, traits and feats. These do not prescribe your character's later progression.

More than one background may be combined for a single character (mostly recommended to be limited to one primary background, such as an overtly practised profession as a merchant or a social position as a squire or a beggar, and one special background, such as a secret occupation as a wizard, assassin or spy, or non-human heritage as an angelkin, demonspawn or halpfey, meaning half-fey, or a covenant such as a pact with a demon or membership of a secret cult).

Non-human characters are differentiated in essence by their funky traits (they may have funky feats too). In principle they can be anything, even a pool of slime; in practice they are likely to be of essentially human appearance (enough so to pass as human and avoid detection as supernatural creatures), or possibly to appear to be natural animals.

Up to a fairly high limit you can choose your starting wealth and social status (you could be an Ezreffiri sheikh with 40,000 silver coins of starting wealth), but lower starting wealth and social status have advantages in terms of "temporary fate points" (see below).

The system has four "spiritual alignments" (goodly, evil, chaotic and lawful), but these do not generally speaking affect how you are expected to roleplay your character - they are spiritual markers, not behavioural guidelines. Supernatural creatures and spellcasters (especially those with priestly or innate powers) may however be expected to behave according to alignment ideals. At this level the chaotic alignment can accommodate any set of ideals lived up to with panache and vigour (even honour, truthfulness etc.). Chaos refers to diversity across the world as a whole, not necessarily at the level of the individual.

A big feature of the system is the player characters' temporary fate points, which are given at the start of the game and are not replenished when used. Basically the better your starting wealth and social status, the fewer temporary fate points you get. It is the referee who uses them on the character's behalf, giving him the power to intervene in the storyline more easily, and possibly making it easier to help novice players without treating them in an essentially different way to experienced players.

Similarly the referee can have his NPCs use feats as he sees fit, including feats of destiny (such as Charmed Life - the perennial get-out clause), giving him a more interventionist role than in many RPGs. NPCs do not generally speaking use the energy points system devised for PCs:- their use of feats is a matter for the referee's common sense.

The main variant on the combat system is:- (1) you match your melee attack score against your foe's melee defence score to get a percentage chance of a hit, then roll percentile dice; if you roll under the percentage number, you get at least a clear hit; then reverse the dice, if that's under too, a miss becomes a modest hit, or a clear hit becomes a critical hit; (2) match your Damage score against your foe's Effective Toughness and the percentage degree of success that that gives you (on the table) is the percentage injury that a critical hit would inflict - you cause a third as much injury with a modest hit, two thirds with a clear hit.

Against mooks, you (1) match your melee attack score against their melee defence to get your percentage chance of an outright hit (from the table) and (2) if you hit, you match your Damage score against their Effective Toughness to get your percentage chance of an outright kill (from the table). Ref's discretion applies if you narrowly fail to kill (e.g. mook falls unconscious, etc.).

The Omnifray system is an in-depth system, though much of its complexity is strictly optional.

[Leonidas300]

I've submitted booking forms for 4 slots at Indiecon (hope it's worked):-

Slot 1 (adults)

Slot 4 (adults)

Slot 6 (teen+)

Slot 9 (teen+)

Good day,

yes these came through the online event submission form. The site will be updated this weekend.

Chris

[Omnifray]

Thanks Chris!

I also have another game in development, a much
simpler* RPG in a sci-fi setting. I might be able to
launch the alpha playtest version at or just before
Indiecon - probably freely distributable.

* i.e. probably similar in complexity to most games
you've played... finished playtest rules should be
under 100 pages

Matt

[Leonidas300]

Just for info, events have been posted.

Chris