Review of Oroborus Universal Roleplaying

Realizing that there have already been a number of reviews of Oroborus on RPGNET, I thought I would focus on some of the other things the game has to offer aside from excellent mechanics.

As previous reviewers have pointed out, Oroborus offers state-of-the-art, highly-adaptable RPG rules which are easy to learn and play with speed and style. The game emphasizes detailed characters and once you've created one you really get a feel for who he is in his world.

What I wanted to focus on was some of the other Oroborus material which is on the site and which is in many ways even better than the game itself. There are now six complete adventures featured plus several brief essays for adapting the rules to popular settings (Vampire, Superhero, Fantasy). The adaptations are straightforward and quite useful, but the adventures really stand out. They are designed for Oroborus, but presented in a way that really makes them generic enough to use with any system, and they are surprisingly clever and innovative.

The standouts for me were Fortunes Fools, A Night at Ashburn House, and Summer at Soundsend.

Fortunes Fools is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as a roleplaying adventure. It cleverly organizes the plot and characters of the play in such a way that player characters can be introduced and involved, either as main characters or secondary players, and there is plenty for them to do. As the tragic events take place around you, you can wander the streets of Verona as a member of a 15th century gang, interract with Tybalt and Mercutio, and even alter the outcome of the fate of the starcrossed lovers. It's a unique way to bring classic literature to life and it really works as a roleplaying setting. It makes me want to try out Ragnarok's Shakespearean Adventures RPG when it becomes available.

A Night at Ashburne house is also fascinating. It combines elements of 19th century pseudo-science, supernatural crime fighting, and holmesian mystery into a melange which gives a new perspective on horror roleplaying. In some ways it is like a Call of Cthulhu adventure, but it partakes much more of the spiritualist or ghost story tradition of the Victorian era, which gives it a more genuinely Victorian character. It evoked the writings of Arthur Machen or Sheriden Le Fanu for me quite strongly.

Summer at Soundsend is another horror type adventure, again a step beyond the limitations of Cthulhian roleplaying. This one has a more traditional Call of Cthulhu feel to it, but instead of using the Cthulhu Mythos it relies on genuine Babylonian mythology in a very creative way. It's also extraordinarily well developed, with enough material and sub-plots for a 4 or 5 session campaign, all presented very economically. It also provides a more genuine feeling of out-of-control horror than I've gotten from any adventure I've run in quite a while.

This is excellent source material. Even ignoring the rules of the game, these adventures are reason enough to check out Oroborus.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)