I will give everyone a brief primer on how the rules work, and to start we will be using the " moderate complexity" character generation module.
In short, OMEN is more free form in style than 4e but more tactical than 2e. Due to it being primarily science fiction, guns are definitely common and therefore range, cover, and flanking is very important.
Characters are built using a simple combination of species, four attributes, eight skills, and 24 sub skills known as specialties. It is a classless system with relatively flat math and a 10 level cap. For this game we will start at level one.
If you haven't already you can check out some info at omenrpg.com, especially the species and setting tabs.
All rolls are made using 3d6, and everything including attacks are based off of one of the 24 specialties. It is a cascading system, so attributes apply to rolls, skills apply, and specialties apply. So for example a character with high strength and agility would naturally be better at shooting a gun than somebody who has lower scores in those two attributes.
The four attributes are Strength, Agility, Resilience, and Mind. All rolls use the complete attribute modifier of the specialty's primary attribute and one half ( rounded up) of the secondary attribute. For example a character has a 4 agility and a 3 strength. He wishes to fire an assault rifle, which has Agility as primary and Strength as secondary. Therefore his modifier would be 4(agi) + 2(3 str/2 rounded up) = +6.
He would roll an attack at 3d6 + 6 + the weapon modifier, which in this case is +5. Therefore his total attack roll would be 3d6 + 11.
Now if he has put 2 of his Skill points into the Ranged Combat skill, he would add another 2 points to his total. Bringing it to 3d6 + 13.
If he specialized even further and put 2 of his specialty points into the Agility Based Weapon specialty, (a sub skill of Ranged Combat) then he would add those points into the total
After everything is added in, his total attack with an assault rifle would be 3d6 + 15.
Damage is calculated on the difference between the attack and defense roll. So if the character above rolled a 25 attack, and the defender's dodge was 20, then 25 - 20 = 5 damage applied to the defender.
All other rolls are calculated the same way: 3d6 + Primary attribute + 1/2 secondary attribute + Skill mod + Specialty mod + circumstantial. To climb a wall would be an Athletics roll, which is a sub skill of Movement, and uses STR:RES for attributes. It becomes pretty intuitive pretty quickly.
Attributes
-Strength: physical strength, melee prowess, assists in recoil reduction
-Agility: dexterity, alacrity, ranged skill, assists in weapon accuracy
-Resilience: toughness, endurance, willpower, absorbing damage
-Mind: intelligence, wisdom, charisma, logic, influence, knowledge
Skills
-Influence: charming, persuading, intimidating others
-Knowledge: technology, engineering, anatomy, some piloting, demolitions
-Melee Combat: armed or unarmed melee ability
-Movement: balance, coordination, athleticism, some piloting, tactics
-Perception: physical senses, insight, and natural intuition/"gut"
-Ranged Combat: shooting any ranged weapons such as guns/bows
-Resistance: directly correlates to Vitality (HP), resisting disease, willpower
-Stealth: sneaking, sleight of hand, being forgettable, disguises, deception
Specialties
The GM ultimately decides which Specialty applies in a given situation, although players should attempt to be creative when approaching problems. Rolling multiple Specialties to accomplish one task is completely within the rules. Specialties are formatted like: -Name (Skill, Primary | Secondary): rough description.
-Charm (Influence, Mind | Agility): flattery, charisma, eloquence, and positive persuasion.
-Convince (Influence, Mind | Resilience): convincing another with sound logic and good reasoning.
-Intimidate (Influence, Mind | Strength): coercion, bullying, threats, scaring, and negative persuasion.
-Engineering (Knowledge, Mind | Strength): physics, load-bearing, mechanics, crafting and demolitions.
-Nature (Knowledge, Mind | Resilience): natural occurrences, organisms, and healing.
-Technology (Knowledge, Mind | Agility): circuitry, computers, technological apparati, some piloting.
-Blades (Melee Combat, Strength | Agility): edged weapons such as swords and daggers
-Bludgeoning (Melee Combat, Strength | Resilience): blunt and chopping weapons such as clubs and axes.
-Poles (Melee Combat, Strength | Mind): long weapons such as spears, polearms, and staffs.
-Acrobatics (Movement, Agility | Strength): balance, coordination, dodging attacks, and flexibility.
-Athletics (Movement, Strength | Resilience): strength, lifting, jumping, dodging attacks, and climbing.
-Tactical (Movement, Agility | Mind): formations, tactics, dodging attacks, piloting, and efficient processes.
-Insight (Perception, Mind | Strength): understand, infer, counter lies, and judge relative skill.
-Intuit (Perception, Mind | Resilience): instinct, sense danger, sense of direction, and implications.
-Perceive (Perception, Mind | Agility): see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.
-Agility-Based (Ranged Combat, Agility | Strength): light ranged weapons, pistols, ARs, snipers, shotguns.
-Mind-Based (Ranged Combat, Mind | Agility): recoilless weapons, PLUG, KEM, ship weapons, missiles.
-Strength-Based (Ranged Combat, Strength | Agility): heavy recoil ranged weapons, LMG
-Endurance (Resistance, Resilience | Mind): constitution, resist pain, hunger, temperature, and fatigue.
-Health (Resistance, Resilience | Strength): toughness, vitality, resist poison and illness.
-Willpower (Resistance, Mind | Resilience): determination, perseverance, stubbornness and mental strength.
-Inconspicuous (Stealth, Mind | Agility): go unnoticed, be forgotten, act natural, and blend in.
-Sneak (Stealth, Agility | Strength): hide, move silently, concealment, and lose pursuers.
-Subterfuge (Stealth, Agility | Mind): lies, deceit, feints, disguises, sleight of hand, and maintain secrets.
Species
-Awowlee (+1 Agi, +1 Mind, -1 Str): small, dexterous, intelligent, very accurate and highly perceptive
-Burshdett (+1 Res, +1 Str, -1 Agi): big, covered in chitinous bone-like plates, tough, strong
-Chuklakquiss (+1 Str, +1 Mind, -1 Res): insectoid, very strong, good in melee, predatory, intelligent
-Grae'ahtannen (+1 Agi, +1 Mind, -1 Res): insightful, emotional, agile, charismatic, paternal
-Human (+1 Any): creative, mentally flexible, resilient
-Kraezoch (+2 Mind, -1 Agi): highly intelligent, logical, disciplined
-Turtik (+1 Mind, +1 Resilience, -1 Agi): wise, fast, athletic, good in melee
Actions
- Acrobatics: Dodging, evading, tumbling, etc. Escape from grapples, bonds, squeeze into spaces
- Assist: +4 to ally’s action. Must be explained and incorporated, GM discretion
- Athletics: Climb, jump, slide, hang, etc. Can sometimes get an advantage escape grapple/bonds
- Attack: 3d6 + Mod vs 3d6 + Mod
- Be Creative: Describe what your character would do, the GM will figure it out.
- Charm: Charm vs Willpower. GM discretion
- Counter: Prepare a defensive action with +1 bonus. If the defense is successful attack at a -4 penalty
- Defend: +2 to next defensive action (including Dodge, Block, etc)
- Disarm: Attack at -2 penalty. Success disarms target’s weapon which drops to the ground. A Success greater than 5 the weapon can be thrown or held
- Equip: Switch, equip, pick up item/weapon
- Feint: Some form of deception, either gain +2 or +1 for every 5 beating opponent Roll (GM fiat)
- Focus: +2 bonus to roll
- Full Auto: full auto gun attack which sustains a -7 penalty but affects a 10’x20’ area. Second full auto sustains a -10 penalty
- Grapple: Attack vs Dodge. Once grappled target receives -2 def and is unable to move or attack
- Group Attack: A swinging melee attack against all enemies adjacent to one another and you. The attack sustains -7 penalty. Must have a larger or more momentous weapon
- Heal: Knowledge Nature, Roll/5=Vitality restored, Can only restore full Vitality per day
- Improvised Use: Guns/improvised weapons are treated as Melee Bludgeoning weapons
- Intimidate: Intimidate vs Willpower. GM determines effect from penalty to surrender
- KEM: Bursts of momentum can affect up to Roll x 10kg (or 20 lbs). Roll = human-sized target moved in feet
- Knowledge: Roll to assist a secondary roll such as Attacks or Skills. The Roll/5 = bonus to secondary Roll
- Move: Move 30’ (25’ for an awowlee)
- Perceive: Perceive, Insight, or Intuit. These can be used to assist with other Rolls
- PLUG: Wide range of chemical or energy effects on organic material. GM discretion
- Posture Change: Switching from standing to kneeling to prone or tucking into cover. Kneeling grants +1 to Dodge vs Ranged, Prone grants +2 to Dodge vs Ranged.
- Reload: Reload a gun or weapon of similar complexity. Bows require no reload.
- Sacrifice: Take damage for ally, must be adjacent or in line of effect
- Sneak: Roll Sneak vs enemy’s Percept. Success makes target unaware. Attacks receive +4 vs unaware targets. Moving at full speed sustains a -5 Sneak penalty, Sprint is -10
- Sprint: Move double speed but suffer -2 to next 2 actions (including attacks/defenses), penalty reduced via Athletics upon GM discretion
- Target: Can target different body parts with other effects. Attacker takes -4 when targeting but a -5 when targeting the eyes and ears
o Head: add +2 to damage and target is dizzy
o Eyes: blinded. Target sustains -3 to Percept -4 to Attacks
o Ears: deaf. Target sustains -2 to Dodge against out of sight attackers
o Hands: target takes half damage, but takes -4 to all actions with hands (even attacks)
o Feet: target takes half damage but sustains -4 to dodge
o Groin: stunned with pain, temporarily unable to act
o Legs: unable to sprint. Speed reduced to half, No movement Rolls
o Arms: Target can only make one attack per round, including counters. Attacks take -2
- Trip: Melee or Movement vs Defense. A successful Trip makes the target prone. Prone causes a -4 penalty to any Rolls