Review: World of Onn Core Rules...

Good Morning, All:

Back in December, I wrote a review of the World of Onn: Supplement I, by James E. Bobb of Fantasy Adventures Studios. Since then, Fantasy Adventure Studios has released an updated version entitled World of Onn: Core Rules, which contains additional campaign setting material as well as a complete rules system based on Swords & Wizardry for running games in the World of Onn. This is a review of the World of Onn: Core Rules. In the interests of full disclosure, I received a free copy of the PDF for review purposes. As this product shares a lot in common with the original Supplement One, I am going to mostly report on the differences, in terms of content.

Appearance
The PDF itself is 230 pages long, which is 84 pages more than the original supplement. The World of Onn Core Rules has a black front cover with white lettering and line art by Kimberly Nicholson that beautifully captures the fantasy flavor of the game. Once again, Kimberly Nicholson did the cover art and all of the interior black-and-white line art, keeping a consistent "old school" flavor to the artwork throughout the book. Her work has improved from the first supplement, with a slight change in style that translates into a stronger "Old School" appearance. Some of the images are recycled from the original supplement, so you can see the improvements between the older images and newer ones. I would like to give props to Kimberly for her ever-improving skills.

Although the PDF has 230 pages, nine are basically the front cover, back cover, title page, table of contents, legal text and one blank page. The rest is released as Open Game Content, and once again, there's a lot of great content there. The text is easy to read, and well presented. I had no problems reading it, at all.

Content
The author begins this book with a foreword, an explanation that, in his exuberance to get the original Supplement One out, he felt that he left some elements out that he later wished he could include. This product is an effort to create a more rounded introduction to the World of Onn, and also integrate his rules modifications with the existing Swords & Wizardy rules so that Referees would only need the one book to run games in this setting. Let's see how his book measures up to his purpose here.

After a brief introduction to roleplaying in general and dice, then dove into ability scores. Nothing new beyond what was covered in Supplement One here, but then we dive into races. Character races have been separated from class, and includes the common races of men, dwarves, elves, and halflings, as well as the Supplement One races of forged ones, giantkin, tigrans and trollkin. Also, this book introduces the endu (minotaurs), gnomes and gnolls, further expanding on options for character development.

The character classes of this book re-writes and reorganizes the nine classes/subclasses presented in Supplement One, and introduces a new character class as well, the Spellblade (a magic-user/fighting-man combination class that's very well executed, in my opinion). Bards are in a class by themselves instead of being a sub-class of Magic-User as per Supplement One, and the Spellblade falls under Warriors. I've noticed that the number of Fighting-Man Combat Options has increased, with some nice additions. In addition, the many options of Supplement One are repeated here. As I've said before, I like many of the options presented in this section, and feel that it creates a good flavor for gaming.

The section on equipment has been greatly expanded from Supplement One, with plent of detail on the items listed.

After that, we enter the section entitled "Playing the Game." Here, we find the rules on experience points and levels, hirelings, time and the adventurer, encounters, reactions, fleeing and escape.

Combat is next, and this section does a great job of integrating Swords & Wizardry with the material from Supplement One. The intiative system I had problems with in Supplement One, the Continuous Initiative System, has been moved to an optional rule in the appendices, giving way to a more traditionally inspired initiative system based on a blend of 3E and 1E rules. The combat options have been expanded, keeping the flavor of a rules-light game but covering elements that sometimes come up with people having previous exposure to more complex rules systems.

The Magic section is next, and it covers all the bases very well. I have noticed that there are a handful of new spells, even beyond those introduced in Supplement One. All are well written and do not appear to duplicate existing spell functionality. In addition, some spells have gained new functionality. For example, the curative spells now cover some of the conditions that systems like 3E address with restoration spells, keeping the number of spells low while improving the usability of existing spells. I think that some of these changes are quite innovative, and wish I'd thought of them myself before releasing the MyD20 Lite Player's Guide. The addition of a 4th level Magic-User spell Turn Undead was sheer genius.

That ends the Player's Section. The Referee's Section is next, and starts with some basic advice in a chapter entitled "Referee Information A to Z." Here, we find general information on designing an adventure, creating a campaign, extended ability scores, anti-clerics, bonus spells optional rules, conditional states, a simple task/skill resolution system, traps and hazards, damage reduction, more on awarding experience points, more information on hit dice and hit points, illusions, natural healing, raising the dead, summoning spells, weapon and armor proficiency, and adjudicating wishes.

Monsters is our next stop. There are 48 pages of monsters (about 206 of them, all told) in this tome, including the monsters from Supplement One and Swords & Wizardry. In addition, I saw a few more, including the Doom Orb (a replacement for the Beholder, I'm sure) and a few others that looked new to me. Following the monster descriptions themselves, there are rules for creating your own monsters, as well as world-specific encounter tables that take advantage of all the monsters described in World of Onn Core Rules (except for dragons, which are noted as needing to be placed by the Referee at their whim, not that of a random table).

Twenty-two pages of treasure really help to integrate the new spells, classes and races into a World of Onn game. I honestly couldn't tell you if anything new was added here, beyond items that built on the newly added elements to World of Onn Core Rules that were not found in Supplement One. However, I still like this section as much as I did in Supplement One.

From there, we dive directly into the World of Onn. The history section and maps for Ossus do not appear to have changed much from Supplement One, but after that, we get into the more specific campaign setting information. The lands of Ossus represent much of the same material we saw in Supplement One. However, that is followed by a section on the lands of Var-Ultar, including a new map and four more pages of kingdoms and locales. Like the rest of the book, this section is short and succinct but very well written, with lots of adventure ideas packed in the pages.

The Appendices of World of Onn Core Rules are interesting and varied. There's a one-page synopsis of the deities of the World of Onn, followed by three pages of optional character creation rules, including such concepts as multiclassing, race as class, and an extended skill system. After that, we spend two pages on golemcraft, two pages on rules for enchanting magic items, and two pages on familiars. There's one page on strongholds and followers, two pages on the continuous initiative system, one page on special materials, two great pages on random dungeons and finally a page on random wilderness generation.

As you can see, there's a lot to this book.

My Thoughts
All in all, I really like the flavor of the World of Onn Core Rules. Like Supplement One, there's a lot of good stuff in here, that's well integrated throughout and looks like a lot of fun to run and play. The World of Onn Core Rules definitely steps up here, with improved art and better organization than Supplement One. I really believe the author delivers on his intent here, presenting a well-rounded world setting and rules system that could easily support gaming just using the one book itself.

If you already have Supplement One, you can get by with the original supplement and Swords & Wizardry itself. However, if you haven't picked up Supplement One, or if you're just a collector like I am, I'd strongly urge you to consider World of Onn Core Rules over the original Supplement.

That all being said, I'd have to rate this product as an 8.5 out of 10.

So, for those of you who have picked up this book yourselves, what do you think of the book? As always, please feel free to leave a comment, and if you liked the review, I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts on that, too.

With Warm Regards,
Flynn

Review: World of Onn, Supplement I

Good Evening, All:

This is a quick review of the World of Onn: Supplement I, by Jim Bobb of Fantasy Adventures Studio. This review is based on the Print-On-Demand version of the product. The World of Onn: Supplement I book, which I will abbreviate for the rest of this review as WO:Sup1, is compatible with the Swords & Wizardry Core Rules.

Appearance
In Print-On-Demand format, WO:Sup1 is a standard-sized softcover RPG text. Its black cover and white lettering are very simple and understated. The line art used for the front cover image is a bit pixelated, but captures the flavor of the early editions of "the World's Most Popular Roleplaying Game" that Swords & Wizardry was created to emulate. The text on the back cover is large and easy to read, offering a description of the contents of the book: expanded character abilities, new sub-classes, new items, new spells, new monsters, some combat variations, and a World of Onn gazetteer. That's a lot to pack in 146 pages, but I think it does a pretty good job of it.

Kimberly Nicholson did the cover art and all of the interior black-and-white line art, keeping a consistent "old school" flavor to the artwork throughout the book. Her work comes across as a talented amateur, but she's got a lot more talent than I could hope to show. The art fits the flavor of the book very well, and like many of the older edition books, there are numerous pictures of busty women scantily clad, so I have to give the book props for that.

Although the book has 146 pages, four are basically the title page and table of contents, two contain the legal text and the last page is blank. The rest is all Open Game Content, and there's a lot of great content there. The text is easy to read, and well presented. I had no problems reading it, at all.

Content
After the obligatory introduction page, the author wastes no time in jumping into the rules he wants to present. We start off with the Characters chapter and ability scores. Ability scores are further defined than in Swords & Wizardry (S&W), offering additional modifiers and clarifications that lend themselves to a simplified AD&D 1st Edition feel in some ways. Although the stat breakdown is based on four-point spreads instead of the bell curve of the S&W optional rules, I did like the effort put in here. I may borrow some of this for my own S&W variant, but really, it's for those that want a simple 1E flavor to their characters. System shock is back, and the number of languages you can speak are defined now.

Character races have been separated from class, and a new consistent rule for level limits for non-humans based on your class's prime requisite stats is introduced that I really like. The races of WO:Sup1 include the common races of men, dwarves, elves, and halflings, as well as new races (inspired by newer editions, it would appear) such as the forged ones, giantkin, tigrans and trollkin. I like the flavor of the newer races, and in general, their abilities seem somewhat reasonable when compared to the original races. (They may be a little more powerful than the average, but not nearly as bad as other examples of these concepts that I've seen.)

The character classes of this book include re-writes of the three primary classes of S&W (Fighting-Man, Cleric and Magic-User), as well as six new sub-classes, two for each of the main classes. These are Druids and Shao Disciples (for Cleric), Divine Champions and Rangers (for Fighting-Man) and Illusionists and Bard (for Magic-Users). In each case, the classes typically have a nubmer of new abilities they can gain over the course of their adventuring career. For example, Fighting-Men now start with Weapon Mastery, and gain Combat Options (much like MyD20 Lite's Talents in concept and execution). The Magic-User gains spell research and item creation abilities. The Bard has bardic lore, bardic luck (an inspirational ability), spells, the ability to decipher script and a stronghold at higher levels. The list goes on. I like many of the options presented here, and I will likely integrate some of them into my own growing Player's Guide.

In addition to new special abilities, each class is defined with three new saving throw types based on 3E's save categories: Ego (Will), Dodge (Reflex) and Toughness (Fortitude). This is a bit confusing at first, as these columns aren't explained until you get to the saving throws section under Combat, but those who have read MyD20 already know that's a direction I went as well, so I like it.

The Equipment chapter is short, but contains a large variety of weapons and armor types, as well as more items available for purchase. I particularly liked the three adventurer's pack options.

After that, we come to the Magic section. Here, we are treated to some clarification on spellcasting that brings magic closer to that simplified 1E feel, and then cover spelllists and spells for each of the spellcasting classes. Within each class, spells are listed alphabetically, without regard for level.

A two page section introduces the continuous initiative system, which pretty much starts you out on a particular number and then you simply add your next initiative roll to your current score to get the next place on the initiative ladder you go. There are no circular rounds. Taking faster actions means you get to do more in a combat than taking slower actions.

The Combat chapter offers a good number of clarifications that bring the game closer to that simplified 1E feel I'd noticed before. All in all, I like the clarifications. The concept that a critical fumble gives all enemies within melee attack range a free attack against you is cool, and one that I will probably introduce into my games. Another interesting twist I noticed was that, with no Rogue class in the game, there's a rule that basically gives everyone the ability to backstab. As I said, there's some neat stuff there.

A two page section on Playing the Game introduces rules to let characters make listening checks to hear noises, detect traps and secret doors, and heal others a little (1d3) after combat by bandaging them up, as well as clarifying the power of wishes.

Monsters is our next stop. At nine pages and over twenty monsters, there's some neat new stuff in here, included a lower HD minotaur species that could have been a character race, dragons of Onn, some new elemental types, forged ones and mek stats, and even a Shifter Cat that resembles a certain miniature I have of a panther-like creature with tentacles popping out of its shoulders. I definitely liked seeing that in the list.

Twenty-two pages of treasure really help to integrate the new spells, classes and races into a World of Onn game. I liked flipping through this part and reading some of the new things I found within this section. The Elemental Armor is pretty cool, as are the Elemental Weapons, and some of the new miscellaneous items. I'm going to have a lot of fun raiding this section.

After magic, we finally get to see a two-page hex map of the World of Onn on pp. 120-121, and we're off into the world of Onn. The history section is a page and a half, and then there's half a page on altering Onn to make it your own game. There are both steampunk meks and black powder weapons by default in the Onn setting, but the Referee is encouraged to make changes if they feel the need. Six pages cover the list of lands, which are short and succinct but very well written, with lots of adventure ideas in them. (Of course, there's the ubiquitous Great Kingdom among the entries, probably a tribute to the old kingdom of the same name shared by both Greyhawk and Blackmoor back in the day.)

The Appendices of WO:Sup1 are interesting and varied. There's a one-page synopsis of the deities of the World of Onn, followed by a one-page appendix on golemcraft. After that, we spend two pages on rules for enchanting magic items, and three pages on familiars. Finally, there are three pages on strongholds and followers, including a table for each major class in regards to the type of followers a character of that class might attract, at least in terms of numbers and levels.

Whew, that's a lot to pack into one book!

My Thoughts
All in all, I really like the flavor of this book. If I weren't writing my own S&W variant, I'd be using this book for my next D&D-based game. There's a lot of good meat in there, and it's very well integrated with itself. I definitely consider it a quality effort. As it is, I know I'm going to be raiding it for a few things here and there.

It does have a few downfalls, but these are minor. The art, as I've mentioned, does have an amateurish quality to it. I like it, but there are some that might not. While I like a lot of what's in the supplement, I don't like some of the things: I think the Continuous Initiative Cycle is an interesting idea, but I don't want to use it in my game. It just doesn't appeal to me. Also, I don't like mechs and such in my fantasy. That's one of the reasons I didn't get into Eberron back in the day. I don't mind black powder weapons, though.

There may be those that may feel that twenty pages or so out of 146 is too little for a world setting. I like the way it was handled, but I think I would have enjoyed more information regarding the setting. I thought I was getting a bit more of that when I picked out the book. Still, that being said, I really like what I got, so I'm still glad I picked this one up.

All in all, I'd have to rate this product as an 8 out of 10.

Now that you've heard what I have to say, what do you think of the book? Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know, and if you liked the review, I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts on that, too.

With Regards,
Flynn