Omnifray RPG

Setting 

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.

Current happenings and occult secrets of the nations of the Enshrouded Lands are for the most part presented with three alternative versions of each, meaning that the referee can always surprise the players - even if they know the books inside out. Likewise, the secret cults of the Enshrouded Lands are typically presented in three alternative versions each.

Core Mechanic and Dice 

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.

Speed of Action System 

Combat is not divided into rounds or turns - instead, during combat time is tracked separately for each character (or for units of NPCs) as it continues from one action to the next, using a randomised speed of action system. How long you take for an action depends mainly on an ability score called Alacrity:- basically, the higher your Alacrity is, the lower the dice you roll (and modifier added) to see how long an action takes.

Feats 

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.

Points-Based CharGen 

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).

Flexible Classless CharGen 

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.

Choose Your Starting Wealth and Social Status 

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).

Alignment? 

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.

Character Levels? 

An Omnifray player character typically begins at the "1st level" of character power and progresses in level as the game continues. However his character level merely sets the number of character generation points, versatility points and energy points that he can have, and the recommended limits for advancing his ability scores as compared to the scores he had at 1st level or (for pre-2nd level characters) when he began play. (That is to say, the recommended limits are for advancement relative to your starting scores.)

Interventionist Refereeing 

A big feature of the system introduced by the Expert Manual 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 the referee 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, which basically gives you an after-the-event chance of avoiding harm caused by any particular attack or other occurrence), giving the referee 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.

Combat System 

The main variant of the combat system is:- (1) you match your attacking score against your foe's  defensive 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 attacking score against their defensive score 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.).

These variants of the combat system use one and the same table for the base percentage chance of a hit and for the base percentage injury inflicted.

A Deadly System

Omnifray is deliberately a bloody and deadly system. Severe injuries can seriously hinder you in combat and other testing situations. Natural healing is slow. Magical or mystical healing is limited in its availability and unreliable in its application, requires some time to take effect (often longer than the duration of a fight) and has considerable drawbacks, though when it does work, usually it effects complete healing of all injury. The effect of the deadliness of the system is softened by the use of temporary fate points and feats of destiny (especially Charmed Life) to protect new-ish player characters from serious harm, but Charmed Life and similar feats carry no guarantee of working:- you should always be wary of the risk that your character may be seriously injured, perhaps killed.

An In-Depth System

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