Omnimask system's guide - DRAFT

Omnimask: accelerated role-playing rules

A game to play them all!

One sheet, one set of rules. All the rules values in sight all the time. Simple and balanced but not without amplitude. Useful to quickly set up a session and introduce new players to RPG gaming.

Our guiding concepts:

Game-sheet: it means the hole game rules are evoked and contained within the character sheet completely. The setting of course is not included but the line for "house rules" is good to jot down references about that too.

Balance: the rules create a unique scale useful to compare different circumstances in the game-world, their conditions, functioning and aftermath. The balance provides a rule for ordering the description of the game-world and the character’s actions.

Character focus: the characters' description outlined by the character's sheet is the foundation of the definition of your game world.

Disclaimer

This set of rules assume you have already played a RPG and are familiar with certain concepts, specifically attributes (or characteristics), skills (and or feats) and some of the reasons why the character sheet is important to create and play your character.

Game Setting

The setting you play is left to you, Omnimask will allow you to create the character for it, even if you have only a general idea of what you are Game-mastering at the beginning.

What this means is that Omni is specially suited for that interesting idea that you always wanted to try but didn't find the game or time to prepare and play.

In particular, a setting-situation for example with a strong turning point (Revolution, global catastrophe, Scientific shift, global pandemic, cosmic or metaphysical discovery) because that usually makes it easy for all the characters to start on the same page.

It could also be used as a starting phase to a new campaign, especially if it happens in a home-brew world that might profit from adjustments made in the world or the related rules.

In the same vein, if you found a game you like the setting very much but are not convinced about the rules, why not start simple and decide later what core rules to use?

Beyond this, maybe you can find your own usefulness for this generic and direct game: It's a particular idea that might be combined with others as it often happens.

Facts and skills:

The characters background is very present in the sheet since every skill is related to a life experience and event (Facts).
In a similar way, the attributes reflect a personal reputation (the general opinion from people who meet the character).

Facts reflects the circumstances under which the skills have been acquired and therefore the way they will better work. When the circumstances change too much the difficulty can be increased. In other words this is the answer to "Under which circumstances did the character acquire said skill?".

This is the cornerstone of the system, the character's sheet and the game world, players need to come up with background experiences for their characters that define the scope and latitude of their skills, allowing the GM to use them as references to make the rulings when time comes.

At the same time producing an important part of character's background like this can´t be unrelated to character´s motivation, personality, traits as well as the rest of aspects of the inner life of a character. The facts should help also imagine the character and establish a more stable form that can be truer to the gamer's playing by suggesting some of this aspects.

At the same time the players are defining their characters they will be defining some of the worlds aspects and tone bits. The context the facts convey can also be useful then.

Build

Assuming we build our characters based on, or with some of our real life experience as a source of verosimilitude, things like the physical build turn up to be very significant during a character's life picturing the image projected to others that shapes their personal experience and relationships.

Backdrop: These kinds of common references are very practical and that's why we use them in Omni. "Universal human constants are our tropes and basic genre" from which our new universe and its particularities might be developed in contrast.

Health

Health management is sometimes a delicate matter in games, we solved it by leaving it totally to the gamers' discretion (GM, players): within these blanks write down in the indicated box the injury or ailment the char suffers from, and then judge how long it might take to recover, under what conditions it's possible, and how it would affect the use of their abilities in general terms. Those details can be jotted for further reference. i.e. “drunk” -Can I drive? -Not for an hour. etc

Character concept: the spaces are not casual, they suggest to use a syntax in three levels: first line: main concept, second line: main generality or activity of the char, third line: main context or conflict related to previous two. for example: a smart tyrant, conquering a continent, and threatening to change the world (Napoleon).

The character concept should be consistent (non contradictory) with the skills appearing in the character’s sheet.

Attributes

Attributes can be expressed with adjectives or phrases. First decide if it will fall into physical, mental or social, then specify the context it would work in with an adjective: strong, huge, nimble, or phrase: iron grip, smashing behemoth, clever chess player or good with children.

Whenever the action is something possible to do for an average person, but the character doesn't have a special skill, use the most appropriate attribute. To define what is “possible” in these cases you can help yourself with the attribute’s description and secondarily the character concept.

Difficulty can vary in this case going from 3 to 5 depending on the description of the attribute, unless it's really simple (no special knowledge involved) in which case it can be an automatic success -no dice roll required-. Within these parameters, and in non-stressful situations, any action should be an automatic success.

Other attributes?

 If you think your world need more dimensions of personal experience you can add other attributes, for example, "Magic" for a fantasy world or "Cyber" for a cyberpunk setting.

Skills

The skills levels are: beginner, advanced and expert, in the simplest way but it also would imply that that's the ability maximum potential, and that skills below that won't reach that level of agency.

Usually skills in one level should have different names in another, if brain surgery is an expert skill, an advanced equivalent would be general surgery and beginners: surgeon student. In other words, you would make the skill more specific as it goes up. It doesn't mean it loses its basic potential but there’s no need to write the skill in every level of difficulty after all they all belong to the same “experience”.

"Inadequate" means something that the char is really handicapped for.

What if I find later on it's not specific enough? Change the name to reflect your new concept. Remember your character's recorded experience will also narrow what the context and applicability of the skill will be.

How to solve a situation? pick any value in the sheet that you think is crucial and either roll or the gm rules - i.e. you fit in the duct because you have Slim built , Medium height etc-

The better way to overcome this obstacle will be to plainly avoid it. Mind characters’ limitations provide relief and possible “drama creation” when moving forward towards their goals and drives.

The abilities framework shows this direct relations with concepts one would assume familiar to anybody suggesting the game is suited for a modern/present time campaign, nevertheless this is only partially a conditioning since we reckon everyone can use their own background experience to balance role-playing  related ruling decisions.

Evolution and power level

The sheet marking suggests to start with one skill in each skill level in order to complete a meaningful description of the character but it the campaign difficulty makes for more proficient characters they can start with more.

Similarly if the campaign advances the characters can pick up new skills or improve current ones at the game-group discretion (see the “House Rules” field).

Epilogue

We reckon a few important aspects of the rpg are missing from ours, particularly setting plots and setting description, but we believe these rules will provide hints about how to develop those, based on the information the players input in the sheet. To ensure this the GM must check each detail on each player's sheet and be sure to understand what they mean and to be on the same page with them. The rest should unfold naturally.

Given the simplicity of the bookkeeping in these rules we believe enough space is given to the GM for these aspects and at the same time, the descriptive power of the rules should be enough to lay a clear cut foundation upon which to build a far reaching campaign. The characters description through the sheet's information being that foundation.