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In Short

In using the OMNI system this product provides mechanics that are likely to appeal to both fantasy roleplayers who enjoy randomness in character creation and mechanics and folk who only want a moderate amount of rules to worry about. In addition to the easy to use core system, the magic system for Atlantis allows for a large variety of inventive player created spells.

The big downsides here are really in presentation and content. The presentation of the world could use a better introduction, and perhaps different formatting, to make it more accessible to the reader. The book, while a complete game, has few monsters and at times feels quite vague. Several errors were noticeable during my example character creation as well. Despite this, Atlantis is an excellent choice for folk interested in the OMNI system or those who want to explore a high fantasy setting.

The Physical Thing

Atlantis boasts a serviceable table of contents and an index, both of which make using the book quite easy.

The Ideas

This is definitely a high fantasy product that tends to assume adventuring, questing, and other elements common to fantasy roleplay generally. The main idea you need to take away is that the Antediluvian world is huge. All of the nifty old pantheons – such as the Norse and Greek gods – are here. Additionally, a lot of the human inhabitants are played to ancient stereotypes. Humans that occupy North America are, well, Native Americans and use shamanistic magic. Picts, Celts, Mayans, and others can be found here as well – making even the average human fantastic. Just imagine our Earth, with more water, and that all the legends of the ancient past are true and you’ve got a good feel for the Antediluvian world.

Under the Cover

At 194 pages, the Antediluvian world is clearly the focus of this product. It’s huge, with entries ranging from half a page to several pages in length. The real focus here is on Atlantis, an island nation of considerable power, and the surrounding Triton controlled undersea lands. However, the entire planet (basically old Earth) gets written up and no part is left undescribed. While at times this leads to a given area being somewhat vague, the variety is impressive. I think the current level of description would be ideal for an exploration focused game. There’s plenty of information here for a GM to work with, but it’s tenuous enough that a GM wont feel constrained by the setting. There’s plenty of room to add in your own content, or to use what’s provided, and it’s a nice mix.

The world is divided up into a variety of regions, which range from small to large in size and scope. Often they cover entire continents or ocean areas, such as the Tamoanchan region which covers the continent we would consider Africa. Each of these regions is then broken down into specific areas which receive a good bit of discussion, often with moderate detail about the peoples, places of interest, cultures, and geography of the area. I really like that there are no hard borders on the maps – that makes good sense given the level of technology and general knowledge of the world.

There is a general lack of discussion on the political interrelationships between many of the powers, but travel in Atlantis is slow and limited. While there is magic, powerful magic, it doesn’t perform the function of any sort of modern technology. Enchanted ships might not have to rely on the wind for power, but they’re still not particularly fast. Fans of fantasy roleplay that lacks technology more advanced than an ocean going ship will find a lot to love in this setting.

Chapter Two Rules 12 pages.

At its core the Omni System is pretty simple: 1d20 + (ability x2) OR (ability + skill) + Degree of Difficulty + check chart = result.

Example: A Dwarven warrior has Combat Rating 4 (an attribute), Axes 10, is swinging at an unaware opponent who is performing no special action at night (say, -5 for lighting). 13 rolled (1d20) + 14 (4 + 10) – 5 = 22. According to the Omni Chart, a 20+ is a Critical Success so our Dwarven warrior really cleaved into this poor fellow.

The Omni Chart looks like this: Total < 0 = Mishap Total < 6 = Failure Total < 11 = Partial Success Total < 19 = Full Success Total > 19 = Critical Success

The system rewards practical choices. The way Degree of Difficulty modifiers are written up, descriptive actions are going to suffer a greater penalty than less descriptive actions in many situations because they’re less likely to succeed. Fans of more cinematic and flavorful stunts could always ignore this, but the system imposes penalties on characters who perform actions less likely to succeed even where it’s mostly a flavor matter. This adds to a certain degree of the logic of the game – this isn’t a game about leaping about and fighting gods, it’s about realistic fantasy roleplaying in a world similar to our own. Being stabbed hurts, a lot, and armor is very important (see the Combat chapter below).

Multiple actions suffer cumulative -5 penalties. If a character took three actions in their round (standard turn based system), for example, they would suffer no penalty, then a -5, then a -10. Dodging/parrying/blocking an attack counts as an action, so many characters will want to just make one attack to increase their chances of avoiding a return swing.

The seven core attributes are Intelligence, Perception, Will, Charisma, Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. The secondary attributes are Speed, Combat Rating, Magic Rating, Renown, and Hit Points. Combat and Magic Rating are both derived from the core seven attributes, being (Str + Con) / 2 and (Int + Wil) / 2 respectively. Those last two factor strongly into combat, while the core attributes tend to be more useful for skills.

Attribute modifiers range from -5 to +5 as a base at character creation, though they could go higher or lower depending on racial stats and other factors. Skills are always positive and really have no limit, though most will be between 1 and 12 or so by the end of character creation. Hit Points begin the game at 20 + Con and are an abstract measurement of health and don’t increase after character creation.

Combat is also introduced at this stage. First, initiative is determined by rolling 1d20 and adding Speedx2. Then Intent is stated, bonuses/penalties are applied, and the character probably makes an attack (1d20 + Combat Rating + Weapon Skill +/- Modifiers). In combat where the action is opposed (as they almost always will be) the total Weapon/Evade/Parry/etc. skill of the opponent is used as the Degree of Difficulty modifier.

Example: Our Dwarf warrior is swinging at a goblin who is trying to not get killed by Evading. We know the Combat Rating + Weapon Skill for our Dwarf is a 14. The goblin has a Dexterity of 3 and an Evade of 6 for a total Evade of 9. The attack will be resolved like this: 1d20 + CR(4) + Weapon Skill(10) – Degree of Difficulty (Evade, 9). If the Dwarf’s player rolls a 10, that gives a total of 15 – a full success according to the Omni Chart.

Chapter Three Character Creation 6 pages.

Character creation begins by randomly determining attributes. The default method is to roll 1d20, consult a chart, and assign that value to the first attribute, then again for the second, etc. Optional methods include randomly rolling and then assigning the values to the attributes of your choice, or randomly rolling 9 dice and dropping the two lowest results. I would have preferred it if a simple point buy system had been included as well, but the developers chose not to do so.

The attribute determination chart: Roll 1d20 and consult the chart. A 1 is a -5, a 20 is a +5, and every two point increment on the d20 is a value. An 18 or 19 is a +4, a 16 or 17 is a +3, all the way down from +5 to -5.

Example: I’m building a character and have a general desire to play a High Elf of some sort. For reviews I use default everything in a product, so I’m going straight down the line on stats to see what I get. I roll 15, 1, 9, 7, 4, 9, 10. This gives me Int +2, Per -5, Wil -1, Cha -2, Str -3, Con -1, and Dex +0. It’s a pretty bad roll, but it could have gone the other way and been a very powerful character.

Next, the player selects a race from the list in Chapter Four. Races come with a variety of free skills at various levels, to reflect their upbringing, race specific Talents (special abilities), and attribute modifiers.

Example: I choose to make my character a High Elf, since their bonuses will play to his strength (smarts). The character gets +1 Int, +1 Dex, -1 Str, Night Vision, +2 to Balance and Diplomacy skills, and free starting ranks in Knowledge(Local), Knowledge(Region), Literacy, Speak(Atlantean), and Speak(Sidhe).

The third step in character creation is to select one of the example Callings from Chapter 6, basically a profession package of skills and talents. Alternative, a player may build their own package from existing skills and talents. They have 50 character points to spend, plus (2 x Int) extra character points.

Example: My character’s stats are too low to qualify for most of the packages, including being a spellcaster. The Alchemist package, however, has little to no prerequisites and is kinda like a spellcaster so I go with it. I decide the character has low Perception and Charisma due to acid burns her suffered from an alchemical explosion, just to add in a touch of flavor. The package grants the following: Skills: Alchemy 10, Appraise 2, Etiquette 2, Handicraft(Fine Arts: Perfume) 7, Lore(Arcane Arts) 4, Literacy 3, Theology 1. Talents: Brew Elixir, Concoct Power, Chemical Resistance.

This leaves me with 6 extra CP because of my character’s high Intelligence. Talents cost 5 for access to a new talent tree (buying the first talent in a tree) or 3 for a talent in a tree the character already has access to. Skills cost 2 for the first rank, and then 1 for every rank after. I decide I want him to be able to make better potions, so I check to buy Brew Potion. Brew Potion requires Brew Elixir (ok, I have that) and Infuse Potion. I check Infuse Potion. Infuse Potion requires Brew Potion. While I doubt the book is full of mistakes like that, it was frustrating to encounter one in a test run. I settle on buying Precognition for 5 points instead, since it alerts the character to danger (he would never know it otherwise with a -5 Per). I spend my last point on increasing my Appraise skill.

After this step equipment is purchased and the character is personalized. Characters begin with 100gp, which in my character’s case is plenty for him to go ahead and buy a variety of alchemical tools, a dagger, and other useful equipment for his adventures.

Here’s the final character:

Shroud, Journeyman Alchemist. Int +3, Per -5, Wil -1, Cha -2, Str -4, Con -1, Dex +1. Secondary: Spd 0, CR -1, MR +1, Ren 0, HP 19. Talents: Nightvision, Brew Elixir, Concoct Power, Chemical Resistance. Skills: Alchemy +10, Appraise +3, Etiquette +2, Handicraft(Fine Arts: Perfume) +7, Lore(Arcane Arts) +4, Literacy +3, Theology +1, Knowledge(local) +6, Knowledge(region) +2, Literacy +6, Speak Language(Atlantean) +4, Speak Language(Sidhe) +10.

Chapter Four Races 19 pages.

This product provides 12 different races for players to choose from, not counting dozens of subraces. The Elves, for instance, include High Elves, Wood Elves, and Mountain Elves. There are four pages of different Human variants, each granting slightly different skills. All in all there’s a lot to choose from here, though I do wish the races were in alphabetical order so they would be easier to find without using the index. They seem to be in order based on population or popularity.

Every race gives bonus Talents, Skills, and Attribute Adjustments. Additionally, they grant Preferred Skills which are Skills that are easier to buy at character creation and raise in play by spending XP. I didn’t include them in the example character creation above, but my High Elf’s Appraise should be slightly higher since buying it as a Preferred Skill made it cheaper.

The racial options available here are: Aesir (winged humans similar to angels), Ahl-At-Rab (nomadic sand dwelling reptile people), Andaman (human/animal hybrids such as the Tauren bull-people and Garou wolf-people), Centaurs, Druas (forest dwelling humanoids), Dwarf, Elf, Goblin, Human, Netherman (similar to orcs, bestial humanoids), Satyr (music loving human/goat hybrids), and Triton (undersea dwelling humanoids). Once subraces are included, there are a whole lot of options and all of them present a strong classic high fantasy feel.

Chapter Five Skills & Talents 29 pages.

There are a lot of Skills and Talents present here. All Skills have training times listed with their description to encourage more realistic skill advancement. The Skills tend to be moderately specific – there are a lot of skills, and some of them are pretty specific (Heal is only for common remedies, Medicine is for serious injuries). Many skills, such as Lore and Handicraft, have many sub-choices and require specialization. Weapon Skills tend to be very specific as well.

It seems that where it says Knowledge(local) and (region) for High Elf that was a mistake and it’s actually supposed to say Lore(local) and (region). In any event, it’s easy enough to figure out, though once again a little frustrating.

Talents are grouped into Talent Trees, and the first time a character buys a Talent in that Tree they pay more to gain access to the Tree. Trees include Dirty Fighting (Cheap Shot, Low Blow, Improvised Weapons), Sell Sword, Arcane Training, etc. The Talents are listed in alphabetical order, making them very easy to work with.

Most Talents grant access to special abilities (such as spellcasting) or provide modifiers to rolls. The downside is that a lot of the skill modifiers are inconsistent and there doesn’t seem to be a reason for one Talent to grant a +2 bonus to one skill when the player could have just bought more skill ranks for less. They do offer a good variety of capabilities, however.

Chapter Six Callings 13 pages.

These are flavorful packages of Talents and Skills that players may choose from if they don’t want to get into detailed character customization. Some attention will still need to be paid to Preferred Skills, however, and a little bit of recalculation will be necessary to make the character just right.

The downside to the Callings is that the flavor text often makes them seem less general than they really are, and some players might not buy the High Wizard package because it has a funny name and region specific flavor text.

Chapter Seven Combat 12 pages.

This chapter discusses a variety of combat maneuvers, such as grappling, disengagement, subdual, parry, aimed shots, and other similar modifiers. For the most part these maneuvers either impose some sort of penalty on the attempt or they require an opposed check (using the adversaries total modifier as the Difficulty) in order to be successful. Several pages of general combat description are also provided, discussing the importance of making combat fun and exciting through description.

Damage in the game works like this: Weapons have Damage Ratings (DR). A character’s Strength is added (where appropriate) to the Damage Rating of a weapon and that’s its final DR (though magic and special weapons may have an even higher DR). A Strength 3 character fighting with a Dagger (DR 3) would attack with a DR of 6. Partial success deals half damage, full success deals full damage. So a hit against an unarmored foe with that dagger would deal 6 damage on a full success, or 3 damage on a partial success. The Armor Rating (AR) of Armor reduces this damage, so a heavy armor wearing foe doesn’t worry much about daggers.

Weapons deal Thrust, Slash, or Blunt damage and armor absorbs different amounts of each type of damage. A Chain Shirt, for instance, is better at absorbing slashing damage (AR 5) than Blunt damage (AR 4).

Chapter Eight Magic 57 pages.

Magic is split up into a variety of Orders. These are whole magic using traditions and include: Astrology, Dark Arts, Elementalism, High Sorcery, Invocation, Mysticism, Rune Magic, Shamanism, and Witchcraft. Every Order provides benefits and penalties of some sort. Pyromancers (Fire Elementalists), for example, get a notable bonus while using the Attack Mode. Some Modes are unavailable to certain orders. Astrologists, for example, have no Summoning Mode as they don’t Summon creatures or objects with their magic.

Modes are Skills that are used for spellcasting. Throwing a fireball, for example, would be a use of the Attack Mode and would be resolved this way: 1d20 + Attribute + Mode +/- Degree of Difficulty – number of spells cast previously that day = result, compare to Omni Table. The big difference here is that spells are fatiguing and spellcasting ability diminishes throughout the day due to use. Major penalties can also be acquired for casting spells without a spellbook. Spellbooks are used to study, and while players can create their own spells they have to spend XP to purchase specific spells – the magic system is not freeform.

The Modes are: Attack, Influence, Illusion, Kinetic, Manifest, Manipulate, Sensory, Summoning, and Ward. Any spell effect you can dream up is going to be covered by one of these Skills, from foretelling the future (Sensory) to Charm Monster (Influence) to creating a wall of earth (Ward).

The intensity of a spell is determined by a player when they create the spell, and serves as a Difficulty penalty in order to invoke the spell’s effect. This means there’s good reason to have both really powerful spells and more moderate spells for varying situations, especially considering that a low roll can cause unpredictable magical backlash. The actual flavor of spellcasting, like combat, is completely up to player description and players and encouraged to be imaginative with their effects.

Various magical artifacts found throughout the world, specifically strange magical crystals are also presented. The chapter wraps up with a list of various potions and elixirs characters can make or buy, each of which has a very flavorful write up. Enchanting information and example spells are also presented, providing a wealth of options for any magic using character.

Chapter Nine Equipment 16 pages.

After a brief discussion of the state of metallurgy in the Antediluvian world (mostly bronze working) the chapter moves on to present a lengthy list of weapons and armors that covers all the basics and quite a few uncommon armaments as well. Trade goods, vehicles, food and lodging costs, and other more mundane options are included as well. The world uses a gold, silver, and copper standard for the most part so it’s easy for players to understand the simple economy. Characters begin play with 100 gp, which is an enormous amount of money in the setting.

Chapter Ten Religion 12 pages.

In the Antediluvian world a person can find Odin, Hera, Anubis, Asclepius, and all manner of other gods and goddesses we’re familiar with from myth and legend. Each Pantheon tends to be geographically focused, and that often aligns with the races living in the area. Dwarves may be more likely to worship the Norse gods, for example, since that’s the region where worship of the Norse pantheon tends to be based.

There are no giant churches or widely spread faiths in the Antediluvian world. Small cults worshipping a single god or, at most, a pantheon generally are as organized as worship tends to be. In my view this helps preserve the mystery of the world and makes traveling to a new place all the more exotic.

Chapter Eleven GMs Only 32 pages.

This section is fairly intuitive. It includes a lot of general GM advice – how to interpret die rolls, run NPCs, and structure a game – as well as additional mechanics such as disease and poison mechanics. The diseases are quite flavorful and well written. In addition to all of this a short but comprehensive monster section is included. Giants, trolls, demons, sea monsters, and similar creatures are presented here for the characters to do battle against. The monsters are illustrated, each comes with a flavorful description, and their natures help to reinforce the unique feel of the Antediluvian world.

My Take

For folk who aren’t familiar with or interested in d20, I would describe the Omni system and its various mechanics as rules medium. Several steps of addition and/or subtraction ending with a chart consultation could be a little involved for some folk at first, but after a few sessions I suspect most players will have the Omni chart memorized. The real draw here, however, is the fantastic setting. I really like the Antediluvian world, and think it’s an excellent choice for high fantasy roleplay. While Atlantis does have some typos and errors, I don’t foresee any problems using the product in play and find it to be up to the task of handling my fantasy roleplay needs.

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