OMEN Introduction
My go-to TTRPG to introduce people to the hobby is End of the World. In it, you play as yourself, during, you guessed it, the end of the world. It is incredibly easy for someone to understand the space of “make believe with rules” when they just have to answer what they would do, as opposed to what Gildain the elf would do. Hey, the ground is ripping up around you, on this street we are all very familiar with, what would you do? Boom, the game just flows.
I mention this because the game I’m going to describe below, OMEN, is my attempt at making a super simple and engaging game to pull people into the hobby. You aren’t playing yourselves (unless you really want). But, it captures that easy-to-learn, perfect for a oneshot type game that I think End of the World does really well.
So, what’s OMEN?
It all started with a premise I had a while back. What if you rolled all your dice at the start of the session, and they had to make due with what you rolled? That’s what OMEN is all about.
You are Fatebreakers (or Fated, don’t know, still workshopping the name). Your world is Doomed, it is fate. But you are here to defy that outcome, or die trying.
At the start of the game, each player will roll their Fate, a large pool of six-sided dice (d6). Whatever the outcomes they have are what they work with for the session (for the most part). It is up to them to decide when to spend those dice to succeed, or fail, actions they take as they attempt to defy the fated end of their world.
OMEN uses a Difficulty Value (DV) system as its core mechanic for resolving actions. Whenever characters attempt things with risk to them, the GM assesses the difficulty and gives it a value between 2-6. The Fatebreaker then looks at their remaining Fate dice, and picks one to apply to the action.
They could apply a die that is equal to or greater than the DV, and succeed!
Or, they could apply a die that is less than the DV, and fail!
Either way, the die is spent, and removed from their Fate. That’s right, there will be times when players will voluntarily fail actions. Maybe the action is just too difficult, and they just don’t have a die that can get them there. Or, maybe they have a 6, and really want to save that for a more difficult challenge, and so get rid of that 2 to fail now, and succeed later on.
Failing and succeeding matter, not only in determining the actions of the Fatebreakers, but in determining the outcome of the session. More on that later.
Breaking Fate with Omens
Fatebreakers will choose some Omens at the start of the session, and this represents the only bit of character creation in the game. Characters don’t have stats, health, or anything like that. They can’t die unless the Doom clock fills.
Omens allow the Fatebreakers to do what their name implies, break fate. These are abilities that the players can call on to change their Fate throughout play.
Omens are usually triggered when a particular thing happens in the game, either in the fiction or mechanically. Omens provide your characters with opportunities to change their existing dice in their Fate or even add to it.
Here are just a few examples of what Omens could look like:
When the Doom clock is marked, rerolling any die in your Fate
When you overcome a DV 6 challenge, add a die to your Fate
When you fail a challenge of DV 2 or 3, change any 1 in your Fate to a 6
The DV of challenges related to athletics are reduced -1
Once per session you may reroll all the remaining dice in your Fate
The game doesn’t have classes, so this would be a big list of Omens that you would choose from, a la carte, during the start of the game.
I’ll probably put together some “archetype” Omen packages, so that people who really just want to pick up the game, grab a character, and get going, and do so.
Doom & Defy
There are two clocks that get this game running. Remember, this is designed for one shots, so these things will be filling up quickly, to keep things moving. When appropriate, the outcomes of Fatebreaker actions will mark one of these clocks.
The Doom clock spells doom for the world of the Fatebreakers. When this clock fills up, game over man.
The Defy clock says no to doom, and brings about a new fate for this world. When this clock fills up, the fate of this world has been fundamentally altered.
When one fills up, we cut to epilogue. Talk about how it all ends, and wrap up the session.
But that’s not all. Each clock has something special when they are halfway filled, called an Inflection Point. Inflection Points mark key points of change in the story. They also are a moment of character progression!
Whenever an Inflection Point is reached (with either clock), the Fatebreakers have a moment of reflection, and do a few things:
Reroll any single remaining die in their Fate
Roll and add a new die to their Fate
Choose a new Omen
In addition, depending on if the Inflection Point happened with the Doom or Defy clock, the GM has some tools of where to take things next.
Setting
There is no setting for OMEN! It could take place in any world or setting, with any kind of characters. There will be tables in the zine to help set up all that stuff, and procedures at the start of your session to help iron out some of those details.
Release Plan
The plan is to develop this and release it as part of Zine Quest 2025! This is a nice and focused game, that’s light enough on rules that it should all fit neatly in a zine.
And that’s OMEN! I’ll have more to share soon, but I hope you dig what you’ve seen so far.
-Spencer
Oooh the dice rolled at the start of the day reminds me of how Citizen Sleeper does that! Im so down
I love how players will eventually choose to succeed or fail, and they get to define the reasoning.
I wonder if the GM shouldn’t roll dice at the start (like players) to determine the session’s difficulty levels… they have to choose, too!
If you were to make this an SRD or run a jam, I’d enjoy making a version/hack.
I bet other designers would, too.
Good post!