Atlantis: The Second Age

Reviews
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/16/16104.phtml
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/16/16229.phtml
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/16/16112.phtml
 
Atlantis: The Second Age is the be all and end of all of Sword and Sorcery RPGs.
It has a great balance between setting and rules, both being flavoursome and detailed, whilst not being overbearing or cumbersome. The presentation is absolutely superb portraying the vibe of the RPG with clarity and focus.

PCs created with the system through the life path system feel a part of the setting with their own stories filled with hooks for the GM to write compelling stories for with ease. The magic and religion is flexible yet intriguing; powerful yet dangerous.


GAME SYSTEM INFORMATION
Atlantis: The Second Age is a rich setting that uses the Omega System but can easily be adapted to most popular fantasy role-playing games. In this game, players and gamemasters will find everything they need to run a campaign in the legendary antediluvian age, including the magic of Atlantis, an atlas of Antediluvian Earth, regional guidebooks, a compendium of creatures, unique playable races, and pantheons.

What is the Omega System? The game uses a straightforward rule set that utilizes a single D20 roll to resolve actions. The following section explains how to apply the rules to combat and non-combat situations.

THE RESULTS TABLE All actions in the game are resolved by the following procedure:
1. Determine the Degree of Difficulty (DoD). The DoD represents the relative ease or difficulty of an action. A positive DoD represents an easy action while a negative DoD represents a difficult action. 2. Add the character’s Skill or Attribute Rating to the DoD.
3. Take the result (a positive number, a negative number, or zero) and add it to a D20 roll.
4. Consult the Results Table for the result.

That’s all you really need to know. All the rules in this book are just variations of the above procedure. Players contribute by describing the Intent of their characters’ actions to the GM. Then it is the GM’s job to interpret the outcome of the Results Table and how it affects the particular scene the player characters are involved in. Guidelines and tips for interpreting these rolls are covered later.

 

As you can see Atlantis The Second Age uses a single d20 resolution system, but as you can also see it is much different from the classic d20 (D&D style) system. Now I am usually not keen of a single d20 system (as you will see from my comments on "The Shadow of the Demon Lord") but I think the Omega system works quite well as is. It could be converted to using 3d6 with some minor tweaking of the results table, but I'm don't think it is really necessary ?

Character creation is fun and interesting and the world is highly detailed. The rulebook, supplements and maps are works of art. As always the reviews above give you a more detailed breakdown of the game.

A most complete and awesome package :)