Omnificent Role-playing System ruleset free to download
dreamborn:
Just a note.
The Omnificent Role-playing System ™(ORS™) rule set is now available for download. Currently only the ORS Standard Rules™ is up on the site, but as my web designer gets around to it all the 4 core books was be available for free to download.
So join the ORS™ community and help create the next generation role-playing game. ORS™ will only happen if the community at large make it happen.
Kent Krumvieda
www.dreamborn.com
SteveCooper:
I'd had something of a look, and wondered if you had a particular topic of discussion in mind.
What I'm seeing in my brief scan is a fairy old-school set of rules for playing fantasy RPGs, with the nice addition of the ability to run on PC and phone. The rulebook reminded me an awful lot of AD&D 1st ed, with its equipment lists and race descriptions.
I quite liked the idea of the event-based progression of time, although I think there may be flaws with it. Also, the predefined action templates appealed, but mainly because I'm a programmer and I find myself wanting this if I play computer games.
You seem pretty geeared up to earning from this -- that's cool. Have you thought much about your competition? (eg Battlegrounds) Do you have a USP that'll differentiate you from these direct competitor, and from related competition like classic tabletop FRPGs, and from computer RPGs?
Quote
the underlying philosophy of ORS™ is a role-playing system that is unlimited in creative power. To accomplish this ORS™ was designed with realism and playability as the two main guiding principles. ORS™ breaks the mold in most role-playing systems in eliminating predefined classes/professions, and artificial level definitions. It introduces a level-less system that is skill based with character advancement based on skill usage.
I'm pretty sure 'breaking the mold' is a bit boastful. This approach has been fairly well established for about 30 years.
dreamborn:
Hello SteveCooper
My goal is to turn this into a community project. I can't do it all on my own. If this ever gets done it must be a community project. I personally don't care if I earn a dime. I would love to play ORS in it's full glory.
If you are a computer programmer, consider all the rules (4 books) as a requirments specification. Hopefully the rest will be up soon.
In my opinion it is not old-school. Read some more. The standard rules were written to be familar looking. The key strength are under the hood, but you will only see that after you read all the other books.
Kent Krumvieda
www.dreamborn.com
dreamborn:
Quote from: SteveCooper on February 18, 2011, 08:37:40 AM
What I'm seeing in my brief scan is a fairy old-school set of rules for playing fantasy RPGs, with the nice addition of the ability to run on PC and phone. The rulebook reminded me an awful lot of AD&D 1st ed, with its equipment lists and race descriptions.
Sorry I missed this comment in my post. Yes it 'looks' old school and hopefully familiar. One of the goals was to not bog the players and the GM in items and details that can destroy role-playing; let the computer do that. Play/GM as if it was a real world taking your own knowledge and experiences as a base. If it works in the real world it should work the same in the ORS world. That is the base, everyone can relate to that. Now add magic and mythical creatures you can extrapolate the impacts and incorporate that into your models.
The races in the rules, are the 'standard' races. They are the ones I use in my ORS campaign (Terra 1592). The nice thing about ORS is the GM is unlimited in this aspect. He can create any race he wants, see GM guide. In other words if you want your players to run ABC race then you can the rules were designed to allow that.
Much of my design (under the hood) is to model life, learning, and behavior. There was a considerable amount of R&D performed to mathematically model this. The underlying engine was the basis of a DoD SBIR proposal at my place of work.
Hope that helps
Kent Krumvieda
www.dreamborn.com
SteveCooper:
Quote from: dreamborn on February 18, 2011, 09:02:46 AM
In my opinion it is not old-school. Read some more.
What I'm calling old-school is the type of play you're outlining. There's some interesting stuff in the actual method of play -- z-scores and computerisation -- that look worth further discussion, but these aren't dealt with in enough detail in the book.
As I said, it's the type of play that bothers me. The rule book contains examples of play like this;
Quote
The party consists of archetypal Thief, Woodsman, Priest, Mage and Cavalier. The GM acting in his role as a storyteller describes what the characters are experiencing. [...] the party is exploring an old dungeon below a haunted castle. The party most recently traveled down a long 10-foot wide corridor and is now standing in and around a door. The Thief hands his lantern to the Priest and then selects Standard Door Procedure from his personalized action list. The Woodsman moves 20 feet back down the corridor and selects has guard template. The rest of the party selects their guard template and adjust their character‘s facing using their game map, while the thief does his thing.
It's been a while, but I can't think of any salient differences between this and the example of play from the AD&D1e GM's handbook. I've highlighted some of the phrases that for me trigger that sense of being old-school gaming. The kind of game you are asking people to have is the very first kind of role-playing there was.
Where you have tried to break away from D&D in the sense of rules -- for example, by removing fixed character classes -- you've fallen straight back in by talking about characters as thief, mage, priest, ranger, and cavalier. The big change from D&D - replacing levels with skills that advance by use -- is basically RuneQuest circa 1978.
What's not clear to me is who the target audience of this game is, or your larger design goals, or the problem you are trying to solve. Are you trying to convert D&D players to a slightly better form of dungeonbash? Do you want to make your fortune on the iTunes App Store? Are you trying to give computer RPG players a taste of tabletop? A clearer sense of what you're aiming for and what kind of feedback you are looking for would help greatly.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page