Flat Math, Deep Characters

I have played and built primarily class based systems. I grew up playing various incarnations of d20, most notably Dungeons and Dragons, always eager to try out some different class that I hadn’t played before, some occupation or career or appellation that bestowed new mechanical advantages. I reveled in it and I didn’t think that RPGs had any other option. Yet, as I grew older and my exposure to various systems increased, I discovered that a large number of classless systems were in print and in play, even amongst some of my friend’s tables. The enormous advantage of a class-based system, or one that categorizes characters into easy to describe chunks and skillsets, is that it is very easy to organize and to delineate roles. Having roles in a party is a relatively old concept, one which...

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Dice Light, Fun Heavy

One of the greatest advantages of playing a video game over a tabletop game is that all of the complicated formulae are calculated instantly. I’ve known many gamers over the years, who are otherwise entirely intelligent individuals, that have had an almost unbreakable detestation of numbers. One of my colleagues has suggested that small number addition is as difficult to some as reading is as difficult to those with dyslexia, and I’ve seen enough hesitation and trouble with adding up the different dice and their modifiers amongst my tables for years to believe this is probably correct. While numberless systems are typically elegant and provide for excellent storytelling, they tend to lack the amount of control that most of the players I’ve come across enjoy. There is that certain competitive...

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The Creation of a Universe

My main purpose as a publisher and member of the esteemed creative community is to illicit creative reactions from my material. In other words, I hope to inspire people to discover and create their own stories, some of which may go on to impact society as a whole. This impact might even engender an invention or provide insight into a potential future avenue that humanity may traverse. To this aim, I don’t desire any credit, I merely wish to progress society in a way I feel is fun and harmless. If my motive is to create inspiration and incite others to experience or create something new, the “universe” of OMEN should be indelibly recognizable; easy to visualize and empathize with; even easier to imagine that it could in fact one day become reality. Therefore, I decided to use Earth, Sol,...

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A Vibrant and Harsh Omen

The OMEN RPG is set roughly six hundred years into the future, at a time when the destiny and survival of humanity is unclear. We have become a part of a galactic community with six other intelligent species, all of whom inhabit different stellar systems surrounding Sol. The ever accelerating consumption of resources, and the catastrophic effect of inter-stellar warfare, has caused Earth and humanity to suffer tremendously. The other intelligent species were not more sophisticated, or had a broader empire than that of the humans, yet all seven of the species has evolved somewhat parallel to one another. As they each reached the apex of their civilizations, their native homeworlds were not enough to sustain the dozens of billions of individuals that lived upon their taxed surfaces. Thus,...

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The History of OMEN

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...

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