Osmond Ward v1.5

The Concept

Osmond Ward is a build-your-own-class Steam/Teslapunk TTRPG inspired heavily by Jules Verne, Call of Cthulhu, and games and systems like Savage Worlds.

Its setting takes and pulls from Horror, Eldritch fiction, Wild and Weird West, classical science fiction, and several dozen other places, all of which come together to form a coherent universe plagued by the aftermath of Human Interstellar inhabitance, the fallout of a Post Magitech WMD Detonation, undead armies, and beings of immense power, trapped within a newborn sun...

Written with the help of an active discord server of close friends and testers, we have done everything in our power to make an inclusive, open, easy to understand and play tabletop rpg with everything a player needs to jump in and start play immediately included within the project files.

Osmond Ward v1.5 is a complete system overhaul of Osmond Ward.

We have included within its pages:

» A World Guide, containing a 70+ page description on the main three western continents of Noctis, its factions, and its peoples.

» The Player Creation, Alchemy, and Magician Documents, containing details on a great number of ability trees and mechanics that can be used to build a character of any number of styles and eldritch powers

» The Merchants Guide, containing details on trade pricing, alcohols, guilds, and companies of Noctis.

» A comprehensive Inventory and Armoury, containing 58 pages of items, weapons, tags, and vehicles.

And finally, a quickplay guide, containing every helpful table a player may need to run Osmond Ward.

If you haven't tried Osmond Ward or seen it before, here is the general gist...

Design

The design philosophy for Osmond Ward is different from many other systems in the field in that it is built with the player's story in mind, much more so than tales of their battles or valor.

Osmond Ward is differentiated from other traditional sword and sorcery systems in that Osmond ward puts a focus on long range combat through gunslinging and other such more modern weaponry. Players can craft, repair, modify, enchant, disenchant and scrap the items and equipment they acquire, allowing for an extremely diverse range of custom weapons and items. Players have access to abilities and systems that allow them to become full fledged merchants using a economy tree that changes based on cities and countries, and other such abilities exist for the uses of mechanics, engineers, performers, and other general noncombat skills and jobs. A player can level up with just as much speed as a mercenary entirely through noncombat play if they wish, and the game has just as much available for those individuals as it does in its traditional combat oriented TTRPG systems.

A Classless System

As mentioned earlier, Osmond Ward is classless, meaning that the player does not gain their abilities and benefits from classes, but rather from selected benefits chosen by the player. This allows players to play the system similarly to a video game such as final fantasy - picking and choosing the abilities that fit them rather than being dictated by a strict, funneled system that forces them into abilities and roles they might not particularly want to run with.

Hyper Lethal Combat

Combat in Osmond Ward is dangerous, rapid, and extremely versatile. Players will go down in three or four hits if an opponent is lucky, but the same can be said about bosses. Everything in the system is built around taking cover, making smart plays with what's at ones disposal, and doing everything in ones power to survive. Potions are the only things really capable of healing in system besides two or three spells, and the few other methodologies are unreliable. As a result, the players will need to play combat tactically, relying on each other and things such as shared initiative and coordinated attacks to get by. Overkill is always the answer, and a sure kill is often far more useful than conserving bullets.

A Broken World

Osmond Ward isn't unique in how it is a war torn land, built off of many generations of combat and bloodshed. What makes it unique is just how terribly it has come out of these wars. Magic itself, the very thing that sustains much life in the setting, is heavily unstable and broken. The people who died in the previous wars have come back as intelligent undead, and the scars of the old wars have left the land decimated, with mountains and ravines so scattered around the land that the few decent methods of travel are already taken up by clustered rail lines and bandit infested trails. The few good methods of travel left that don't risk problems is through the air, and in the air lurks sky pirates. As a result of the difficulty of navigation, players will largely spend their time tracking the days and hours left of sunlight, navigating by day and hiding by night, and spending what time they can in the safety of the megacities known as wards.

Supporting Small Creators

A major policy for work through Osmond Ward is that for all of our projects, we try to bring in small creators, artists, and voiceover artists. We value our artists and creators and do everything we can to make the creators have all the time they need, giving them space to work and room to breathe. We rarely impose art restrictions on the work unless asked, and a lot of the time what the players see in the guide is work done with the creator's full creative force come to bare.  We try to hire from highly diverse backgrounds and always look for creators in the space to work with. If you or someone you know does good quality art and you think you can be of help to the project, please feel free to contact us via our email.

Finally, all proceeds from Osmond Ward go back into the project, and are used to make the system better. Typically, we'll use profits from this SRD to go into art, design, and type-proofing for the system in an attempt to improve what's already here for everyone.

http://discord.gg/HT2v2cf - You can join us here to discuss the system and project! We also recruit here for a private testing bed server, wherein the live game version is played, tested, and worked on by our staff and players! If you want to join the ongoing game, this is the place to check out! The live game has been running for 5 years, and we are always happy to bring in those wishing to try before they buy, spectate a live game to see systems and the world come to life, or those who want to help refine the next version update!

Osmond in other media:

Beholder to No One: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/osmond-ward-ttrpg-one-shot/id1497243706?i=...

Pod of Blunders: https://podofblunders.com/2022/05/12/hearthside-chat-with-connor-heighton-author...