OMEN has seen multiple evolutions since its first inception. The original concept was a universal system which would allow players to play within their favorite science fiction universes. It was to be based upon the Open Gaming License and utilize a d20 core mechanic, and introduce OMEN’s interpretation of Powers and Talents, somewhere between Pathfinder, Star Wars Saga Edition, d20 Modern, and D&D 4e.
Yet as the system grew in complexity, the zone between tedium and fun began to shrink and collapse; too many things were added to encourage play within multiple universes and multiple styles of play. While this strategy had been successful with other games, it lacked the aspect of “cool” that we at the Sigil Stone labs were really trying to find. We felt that there were enough generic systems that could effectively mimic popular settings, why waste our time and money attempting to cater to an already satisfied market?
Therefore we decided to integrate OMEN with its own setting, its own universe. Certain principles were established right from the beginning, much of them as nearly idle ponderings during our spare time. But soon the fledgling setting began to evolve at an exponential rate, as most truly inspired projects do. Within less than a month, the OMEN universe was making strides and progressing quickly. Work on the project was fun and exhilarating again, and that aspect of creative rapture that artists and writers sometimes experience enveloped OMEN’s creative producers.
Things in the system had to be tweaked, the explanation behind technology altered and then solidified, the purpose behind the entire game became revealed within the next weeks as we continued to separate the boring from the fun, the good from the bad. Everything seemed relevant again.
As the game began to become tailored to specifically fit the universe, and the universe had been built upon the foundations of the system that we were attached to, we truly believed that we had a contender for one of the best and most in-depth science fiction RPGs on the market. Established design concepts such as Skills and Feats and Talents and Powers all made appearances (read: entire Chapters) while there were over three hundred attachments for weapons, armor, and other utility gear.
The playtesting began again, with renewed vigor and purpose. We were excited and eager to put our creation into the hands of the players, and hear their glorious praise and promise to purchase multiple copies for all of their friends and family. Yet, the game was still slow and clumsy. Creating a character could be in excess of an hour (sometimes far more), combats were dozens of rounds long, and long standoffs interrupted by intensely violent and far too brief firefights were the norm. Multiple dice were rolled for everything, d20’s to attack, two to six dice for damage, damage was compared to Shields, specific Resistances or Vulnerabilities, Regeneration, Squad Healing, and other weapon effects. It became an exercise in mental endurance and multi-tasking mastery for a GM to run a simple encounter.
This is not what we wanted. We beheld our creation with revulsion; as Frankenstein looked down upon his greatest and most terrible experiment; built for beauty and elegance, gargantuan in size, yet in reality, horrible to experience, horrible to witness. And we knew that if it was not destroyed, that it would ultimately ruin the reputation of our staff and of our business. We had to do something.
And so the system was scrapped. The universe remained intact, and did well to rid itself of the cancer of its most damaging component. We settled on the basic foundations of what we wanted to accomplish, and designed the game from the ground up. Not even from the ground; we dug several stories down, built a deep foundation, and then built the system from there. Once we had removed our loyalty to the OGL, we knew that the marketability of our system would decline, although to rely on someone else’s creation in so fastidious a manner is nothing short of creativity for capitalism’s sake. It felt good and righteous to be creating something from scratch, to be experimenting like young innovators with nothing to lose and no goal in mind other than to create exactly what we wanted.
It became obvious within a few short days that our decision was the best since the creation of the company. We thought of all of the things that we hated about our old system, and all of the concepts that we loved, and we merged them together. Not in a hectic hack and slash, not in a copy paste merger of the digital ink, but with the intention of creating something new that elicited creative play, unique characters, and a fast and challenging game. We hit what many game designers call the “flow” of a game; it wasn’t too intricate, it wasn’t too simple, it didn’t take too long to get started, and the rules were easy to understand and follow. But the key element of acquiring enough “flow” to engender a game where time seems to melt away and all of the player’s focus is squarely within the game world, we had to create a breadth of tactical in-game decisions.
The most modern iteration of Dungeons and Dragons attempted something similar, but with creating “clickable” powers that do stuff to other stuff exactly as it says. In our opinion, they failed. They failed to acquire the desire for creativity that a tabletop role-playing game is supposed to incite. The majority of players involved with systems that utilize hundreds if not thousands of clickable powers, such as D&D4e, not only get bogged down in the choices, but once the choices are made, lose interest after one or two uses of said power. Because the effect is primarily the same, every time. There are certain combinations for certain builds, when combined with other combinations from other builds create a no-loss scenario, and the party can simply run up, clickity click their individual powers, and kill whatever is in the way.
In OMEN, we wanted the answer to be “Yes, you can do that.” We wanted the players to scrunch up their faces in consternated thought, chewing their fingernails to the nubs in concern and anxiety, and shout out with cries of jubilation at success. We wanted to enable the Game Masters and the Players of our system to be able to do anything that they can imagine within the context of the game and the OMEN universe.
In short, we are pretty sure we accomplished our lofty goal. We didn’t do it by adding five hundred pages of powers, we didn’t think of every exception to every rule or possible scenario, we thought of a core system based on simple, logical principles and applied them to everything in the game.
One dice mechanic with degrees of success and failure, and infinite combinations and applications. No classes, no huge leveling system, no need for a calculator. Characters are created simply and possess dynamic options, combat is fluid and intuitive (and most importantly: fun), and a unique gameplay experience with interesting playable species, abilities, and setting came to fruition.
