Omnifray RPG - indie roleplaying
NEWSFLASH:- OMNIFRAY LITE NOW FREE TO DOWNLOAD,
ALSO IN SOFTBACK FROM LULU.COM FOR £9.95+P&P,
following its public playtest debut at Indiecon 2009, 12-16 November 2009
STICKY:- Matt West officially apologises to all denizens of the omniverse for the rubbish appearance of this website; however, all are assured that this website contains a load of useful info and links (in this universe, at least)
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This page is dedicated to the original "full fat" Omnifray RPG, a complex roleplaying game of mystery, intrigue and suspense. If you are looking for the new and simple-to-play Omnifray Lite RPG please click the Omnifray Lite RPG link on the left-hand side of the page.
The Omnifray RPG is intended for a mature audience.
Links to Full-Fat Omnifray products (not for Omnifray Lite):-
Preview Guide (free download)
free game-aid (basic) - 2nd revision
free BASIC code for Omnifray Randomiser
Links to Omnifray reviews, third party summaries etc.:-
on rpg.net here (this review followed 8 playtest sessions with 5 players)
on ukroleplayers.com here (the reviewer played Omnifray with the author and 5 others at Indiecon 2008)
on legrog.org (in French) here and here and here
a biting review by RPGPundit here
a dismissive review by Uncle Bear on critical-hits.com here
people who played Omnifray at Indiecon 2008 have written about it on this thread, for instance here, and someone called Tom who played Omnifray at the Student Nationals 2009 wrote about it here
Follow this link for the hosted Omnifray forum on the UK Roleplayers site.
Friendly stores:-
Travelling Man, Newcastle upon Tyne - http://www.travellingman.com
Spirit Games, Burton on Trent - http://www.spiritgames.co.uk
Leisure Games, London - http://www.leisuregames.com
Support your FLGS!
No responsibility is accepted for the content of external websites.
The original full-fat fantasy version of Matt West's very special suspensist indy tabletop roleplaying game Omnifray came out on July 1st, 2008. It is set in an earth-like world where magic bubbles away beneath the surface, beyond the ken of the common folk. Otherworldly spirits such as demons and angels possess human hosts to maintain their disguise. Vampires and some fey creatures may appear human in their natural form. Magicians fear the Shrouding and must hide their art. Secret societies strive to avoid discovery.
The point of both full fat Omnifray and (more explicitly) Omnifray Lite is to foster an atmosphere among the players at the table (and the referee) of mystery, intrigue and suspense. The enormous flexibility afforded by the system gives you just the right level of uncertainty as to what you are facing, who your fellow player characters are and what they are capable of.
Both full-fat Omnifray and Omnifray Lite use unique system engines - they are not based on any other RPG (Omnifray Lite draws some features from full-fat Omnifray).
Omnifray is enormously flexible for character creation. The Omnifray paradigm is a party of player characters who are all human or of perfectly human appearance, but the rules will let you play more or less anything that fits the game-world, if your referee allows.
To achieve an authentic feel and allow enormous flexibility within a credibly crunchy system, the full fat Omnifray RPG had to sacrifice an element of simplicity. It is, bluntly, one of the more complex RPGs available. Omnifray Lite in contrast is relatively easy to pick up and play.
The two core volumes of the original full-fat Omnifray RPG are available now:-
- the Basic Handbook gives you everything you need to play:- the background to the Enshrouded Lands, basic rules, plenty of legendary creatures and archetypal NPCs and a taster of the advanced rules;
- the Expert Manual lets you delve deeper into the mysterious fabric of the game-world, with detailed information on possible backgrounds for your player characters and masses of material on an array of secretive cults; the Expert Manual presents the advanced rules for fantasy Omnifray in full.
UK prices are £19.95 for the Basic Handbook (320ish pages) and £29.95 for the Expert Manual (500ish pages). Both are softback with black and white interiors and text is mostly in 9-point Times New Roman font (10-point for creature descriptions for ease of reference during play), so these books are absolutely packed with detail.
Author Matt West's favourite parts of the books are Chapter 11 of the Basic Handbook (Malady and Madness) and Chapter 4 of the Expert Manual (Pacta Sunt Servanda). Malady and Madness lends grit to your campaigns, with infected wounds, plagues, waterborne disease, food poisoning and lunacy presented as occasional hazards of adventuring life. Pacta Sunt Servanda presents a dazzling array of secret societies and pacts as world background information and for character generation options, and also details oaths, vows, flaws and devotions. With a little modification, Pacta Sunt Servanda will enrich any fantasy roleplaying setting, whether you use Omnifray mechanics or a different system.
Omnifray creator Matt West had this to say:-
"Jon, Heli, Chrissy and Genzo have produced impressive artwork to inspire your roleplaying experiences. I'm very grateful for their hard work."
