Review of Oroborus

Well, I got a request to review this. To tell the truth, i tend to shy away from generic games. In the future I'll stay away from this one as well. It's not as bad as HERO (I'd rather play Seznar than HERO any day), but it still irks me.

First the attributes are divided into physical, social and mental. This is okay, but I felt that making privilege and virtue into attributes was necessary only to have three in each category. As it stands, no starting character may be a charming and noble member of the aristocracy due to restrictions on spending points. Later virtue is described as being used as a measure of belief, which strikes me as odd for followers of a corrupt faith or in a scifi setting where religion is deemphisized.

Likewise the privilege ranks are connected with how someone stands in terms of nobility, not appropriate for scifi or more egalitarian settings.

The other attributes were stunning howver and care was given to make sure that exactly what the difference between an 11 and a 12 meant in practical terms. Encumberance is handled well as is equipment.

Combat uses an Action Point system which I loathe, but thankfully a sensible alternative is offered for people like me. Hit location is handled better than in any other system I've played in that it never offers up illogical results such as punching someone's knees when you are toe to toe.

I didn't pay much attention to the paranormal powers section as my game didn't feature any of that sort of thing being a James Bond style adventure (Oroborus handles it rather well, though most players cringed at having to spend so many points on privilege to be part of her Majesty's Secret Service). They seem to be good for use in a Cthulhiod style game or a fairly low fantasy setting. I don't know how they'd handle B5's psicops.

All in all it was sort of enjoyable, but I never really got into it for some reason. All things being equal I'd rather be playing Paranoia.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)