Conflict
Omega Earth Conflict

Conflict is frequent on the Omega Earth: the inscrutable agendas of the powerful put all sorts of pressures on the various communities, and on top of that human egoism and the will to survive provide reasons to fight as well. The core of the ruleset is a fairly complex way to model those conflicts – be it actual fights or attempts to get the better of the enemies by stealth or deception – in a way that is both roughly realistic and fun to play as a game.

The ‘realistic’ aspect is supposed to provide a way to solve conflicts that is to some extent objective – as Players can use their common sense to figure out what might work and what might not – to keep too much ad-hoc rulings from the Storyteller from spoiling the immersion.

The ‘fun to play’ aspect means that conflicts are not only narratively guided but include tactical gameplay, too. It also acknowledges that too much simulation only ends up being tedious and not fun; hence, the rules respect quality-of-life: it does not take too long to resolve a conflict, injuries heal fast enough to prevent Characters being effectively knocked out for half the adventure, various Character builds are well-balanced with respect to power etc.

Omega Earth Psoglav (C) Andi Weixler

The ruleset itself is inspired by everything old-school and by many new things, too. There are, for example:

  • Fairly deadly combat rules like in Call of Cthulhu
  • Equipment stats for all sorts of Tech-Levels like in TORG or GURPS
  • Critical Injury tables like in Rolemaster
  • Special abilities every Character can learn (‘Perfect Doge’, ‘Bullshit Artist’, etc.) like in Exalted
  • Downtime rules like in Blades in the Dark
  • Status Effects (‘Stunned’, ‘Confused’, etc.) like in D&D
  • A secret, corrupting attribute like in Warhammer
  • Base-building rules like Mutant – Year Zero

 There even are various kinds of supernatural abilities, a bit like in Shadowrun: Gifted use various telekinetic abilities, eventually becoming as powerful as Tetsuo from “Akira”; but it taints their souls when they do. Rune-Mages freely combine magical symbols to produce many different effects; but they need to keep their writings intact to maintain their powers. And Summoners strike deals with entities from the various supernatural dimensions that swirl around reality, learning powers from anything between Angels to Goblins, and even transporting these entities across the Maelstrom to Earth; but they must respect the wishes and designs of these entities and help them in return.
Share by: