GM Notes: Omni Table to Difficulty Conversion

For decades, I have loved the simplicity of the Talislanta/Omni resolution system:  d20+skill+stat+/-modifiers check table.

After a couple decades of running SLA Industries and D6 almost exclusively it seems that while wonderfully simple, it underwhelms me as a GM.

With SLA Industries and WEG d6, and to an extent almost all the games produced after 1990, the common resolution method has been: roll dice, add/subtract stuff vs a difficulty number.

Difficulty numbers are a very fast and easy method of resolution, so easy in fact, that even with all the different task resolution systems in existence, they almost all follow the same basic setup.

5  Easy
10  Skilled
15  Moderate
20  Difficult
25  Very Difficult
30  Impossible

(for D20 difficulty, basically add 10, some numbers have been averaged/fudged for convenience of illustrating the point over exact definitions)

For Talislanta/Omni resolution, it would basically seem to follow the same difficulty as d20, but what about the Partial, Full and Critical Success, not to mention Mishap ratings of the Omni Table?  That is what really brings home variety in a game with static damage.

This is where things can get fun (and this would be easily portable to d20 also from what I have seen).

Raises, or Staging

One of the greatest things found in games like Shadowrun, World of Darkness, Deadlands, etc is the ability to do "extra" stuff depending on how well you roll, Talislanta/Omni reflect this with the Omni Table by having the above levels of success.

Sometimes this can be a bit tricky, or non-intuitive, to interpret.  I prefer things to be straight forward and fast, the less time I spend interpreting the rules, the more time we all get to enjoy the game.  But, I do love me some critical successes!

In keeping with the scaling above for difficulty, degrees of success would follow the same pattern.  For example, if the difficulty of the task is 15 (10+5 for 'easy') and you roll a total of 25, you can see easily that you have 2 'Raises' (25-15=10, 10/5=2).

After that, it is just a matter of telling the story:  "You pick the lock with blazing speed, not very many of the simple locks like that one around anymore."

For combat in the Omni system using this rule it still works.

Attacker Rating (skill+stat) = 6
Defender Rating (skill+stat) = 7
Attacker die roll = 15

Normal method:  15+(6-7)=14, a Success, normal damage is done
Difficulty method: 15+6 = 21 vs Defense of 17 (10+defenders rating), still a success, but more intuitively derived.

Okay, so what about higher levels?

Attacker Rating = 12
Defender Rating = 7
Attacker die roll = 20

Standard method, this would work out to a 25 (20+5), and be double damage.
Difficulty method:  20+12=32 vs Defense of 17, 15 higher than needed, so, 2 'Raises.'

Each 'Raise' could then be interpreted as:
a)  additional +1 damage per raise (eww...that kinda sucks comparatively)
b)  additional +DR of weapon (effectively double weapon damage before STR)
c)  -1 Defender Defense per raise
d)  a mixture of various effects

Let's look at d, because that sounds fun.  The defender would take 2x weapon damage for the first raise, then also be at -2 defense on the next turn as he recovers from the shock of the blow, or is trying to hold his guts in, possibly even from hesitation thinking "Do I really want to stay and fight this guy?"

The good thing is, rolling a total over 20 is now useful, the bad thing though is the inevitable 'Death Spiral' for the defender.

"But what about the ability to successfully Parry/Evade in Omni??" you ask?

Simply a matter of perception.

Normal method is the defender will focus his action on defense and roll d20+rating and if the result is a Full Success or better, the Attacker does not even roll, Partial Success indicates that IF the attacker hits he will only do half damage.

Standard parries (ie passive) are taken into account with Defense Rating (10+ applicable skill), an 'Active Parry/Evade' would work in the following manner:

d20+Defense = opponents difficulty to hit.

Using the above Ratings, if the defender decided to Parry as an action before hand and rolled a 15, the total would have been 32, still would have been a hit, but just barely.

This works great for melee, but what about Ranged attacks?

Remember the #1 rule of ranged combat: take cover!

As mentioned, melee Defense is 10+skill rating, this is fine for fighting face to face and you can (hopefully) semi-predict your attackers moves, but at a distance you cannot tell where your attacker is aiming.

So, my current thought is that Defense against ranged attacks would only be your Evade skill (passive) or d20+Evade Rating for an 'Active Defense.'

Yes, people with guns and bows are a bit more dangerous than people with knives with this setup, but you have nothing to defend yourself with at range, and the attacker still has range penalties.

Just some thoughts going through my head, until next time, enjoy your game!

Gearing Up to Game

I miss the weekly gaming session, but with an upcoming schedule change, I believe I can work one out.

In order to run a game, I like to "Gear Up."  Simple process really.

Skim the books of the game I am wanting to run, then grab some interesting thing I find and jam that square plot peg into the round setting hole.

This can be the hardest part for some, running the scenario you want to run in a setting that it does not 'fit' in at first glance.

In order to 'Gear Up,' I try and spend some time re-familiarizing myself with the setting, grabbing the books, skimming the system info, reading the important parts of the setting, etc.

The hardest part for me is always settling upon a system.  There are many that I just love: d6 from WEG, Omni/Talislanta from Morrigan Press, SLA Industries from Nightfall games...ok, there are really just a couple that I honestly like.

After that, it is just a matter of setting.  what do the PLAYERS want, fantasy?  Sci-Fi?  Pulp?  Modern?  This can be hard to sort through also, as until you know, you are kind of stuck in what you want to do, and there is a good chance that every player will have a different answer.

When this sort of challenge rears its sick-toothed grin, you have to get everyone to agree on the basics first, of which, I only consider there to be three:  Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Modern

My breakdown is fairly simple...powered body armor or space travel?  Sci-Fi.  Sword and sorcery?  Fantasy.  iPhone and Jaguar?  Modern.  Galleon and parrot?  Historical.

That is the basic breakdown you want from your players, after that, it starts to get a little convoluted as you start to leave the basic genre and start heading for the niche.

Subgenres.  I have talked to people in the past that basically stated I was wrong in this, that so matter what you do with a basic genre, it is always that particular style: fantasy is fantasy, sci-fi is sci-fi, etc.

Looking at the trash spilling from Hollywood, that is obviously wholly misguided.

Sci-Fi genre + gangster subgenre + fantasy races trope = a high powered setting with space travel and organized crime gangs run by malevolent beings (demons, orcs, devils, etc).  Wait...was that "The Fifth Element?"  I believe it was

Fantasy genre + gangster sub + fantasy races trope = as above, but no space travel, no powered armor or lasers.  Maybe one of the crime bosses is a sorcerer of some ability, or an Elf that has a very charming ring...magic is everywhere, and can be used as currency.

Modern genre + gangster sub + fantasy races = Shadowrun...without the magic.  Or add in the magic trope of fantasy and VOILA!  Full on Shadowrun campaign!

Basics

Sci-Fi

• Advanced science (weapons, vehicles, space travel, etc)
• Plots centered around daily life
• Usually some background of how we can overcome our differences and work together
• There is no Good or Evil, only shades of gray
• Usually skillset based: Pilot, Mercenary, Diplomat, Scientist, Military
• Examples:  Star Trek, Alien, Blade Runner

Fantasy

• Primitive items (torches, swords, metal armor)
• Plots usually involve some epic adventure (killing a dragon, routing an Orc horde)
• Magic, fantasy has some sort of magic, or religion
• Good vs Evil - black and white, orcs bad, elfs good
• Usually class-based: Fighter, Magic, Rogue, Healer types
• Examples:  Star Wars, Beastmaster, Dragonslayer

Modern

• Player gear can usually be purchased in the real world
• Real world companies exist
• Usually some sort of survival plot
• Characters can be anything found currently in the world
• Usually skill-based progression
• Examples:  Ghostbusters, CSI, Jericho

Historical

• Some point in our past history is the stage for the game:  Old West, Victorian Europe, Pirate-infested Caribbean, Cold War era, etc
• Historical figures are alive and well, familiarity is not exactly needed
• Loosely based off of history, normally, historical campaigns only present the Hollywood adaptation of the world at that time
• Usually skill or skillset based: Gunslinger, Gambler, Gladiator, Spy
• Examples:  James Bond, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Untouchables

Those are the basic Genres that I use.  After that, it becomes a matter of tropes, or dressing.  Some favorites used in many games include the following:

• Alien Races
• Monsters
• Horror
• Comedy
• Fantasy Races
• Large Empire vs Rebellion
• Romance
• Superheroes

Everything else is just a matter of mixing and matching until you get what you want, sometimes you do not even plan for something - Comedy and Romance can crop up anywhere without warning.

After getting the setting and dressings down, the stage is set.  Time for choosing a system.

More to come...

Morphing Mace

Spent the last two days working on this, would have only taken a few hours if I did not have to keep going back and redoing things, lol, live and learn!

Modeled the mace in Hexagon with the plan to make a set of them, after some thought I concluded that it may be best to just incorporate all the other options in morph-form.

Not the best model in the world, but it got the job done and in the process I learned some very handy things:

1.  Have a plan!  Because if you do not, then what should only take a couple hours will take you a few days
2.  Setup the runtime BEFORE texturing, lol
3.  Have all the morphs and textures done BEFORE exporting as prop file

Thats about it.  Here is the final product:

Have already uploaded it to ShareCG as a freebie: Morphing Mace