We recently talked about the Kickstarter campaign for Omega Horizon, but having some doubts about it, we decided to make an interview with the author. Here you can read what they added about their work:
Why have you chosen the name Omega Horizon?
I knew I wanted the word “Horizon” in the title from the beginning because its one of my favorite words! It evokes a sense of adventure, exploration, and the unknown. We went througu a few variations of the title (Infinity Horizon, Ultimate Horizon, etc.) but ultimately settled with the greek “Omega” to mean “Last Horizon” or “Ultimate Horizon”. Part of the discourse we hope players will have is “What exactly is the final horizon for humanity?” Is it the nature of humanity? Is it the conflict between the natural world and the artificial? Or is it simply the physical horizon of space exploration? You decide!
What are your sources of literary and cinematographic inspiration?
Honestly, there are too many to count, but there are three that come to mind which served as the initial inspiration for the three major factions: Starship Troopers (the Sentenium Empire), Bladerunner (the Yamato Empire) and Firefly (the Free Colonies). Regarding literary inspiration, the Foundation trilogy by Asimov is a big one for me.
What role-playing games inspired you to create Omega Horizon?
I’ve been playing ttrpgs since I was a kid, and have played so many different games, so I’m not sure which one(s) directly inspired me to become a publisher, but the mechanical inspirations for the game can be traced to a few in particular. Character development is somewhat inspired by the World of Darkness system. The roll and keep dice mechanic was inspired by the Legend of the 5 Rings system. Everything else is sort of an amalgamation of all my ttrpg experiences.
In such a massively explored universe why there are only five playable races offered initially?
That’s a great question. I debated adding many more to the core rulebook, but I was concerned that I was adding species for the sake of adding species. The 5 playable species in the core rulebook are all given proper attention and detail, and I felt the book would become too unwieldy if I was designing around too many more. That’s why I decided to publish the Expanded Horizons supplement right away, which will add even more species, and give them proper detail and attention.
How many pages will the manual consist of?
We are hoping to keep the core rulebook to 200-250 pages. Expanded Horizons we are shooting for about 150 pages. Having said that, the real deciding factor will be based around content. I know what I want to include in each book, and if I can do that in the aforementioned amount of pages, great. If it causes the books to run over a bit, I would rather do it right and include what I feel the books need to make the game great.
Generic sci-fi games always need many variables to consider in order to be plausible. New races, futuristic weapons, genetic and cybernetics improvements. It is not always easy to balance everything. How was the process of creating and balancing these elements for Omegha Horizon?
Balancing is always tough, especially when designing a new system from the ground up. Our general philosophy was to create fun choices, and to make choices meaningful. How that translated for the game was that every weapon or piece of tech needed at least one meaningul advantage, and at least one meaningful disadvantage or weakness. As a result, at face value some things apear unbalanced (androids are way more resistant to physical damage than humans, for example) but with the proper tools or items, balance is restored (androids are incredibly vulnerable to electric-based weapons, for instance). In other words, use the right tool for the right job!
Will you provide support material such as adventures, cards or tables?
Yes, we are planning to release adventure modules alongside the base game, and will continue to support the game with additional material after release.
Speaking of the pools and mentioning the Mind Pool, you mentioned psionic powers. Is there therefore also room for the supernatural?
That is something we’ve discussed as a team, but we haven’t reached a consensus yet. Our general feeling is that we want to keep this game more rooted in science (even if we take certain liberties with that science). What I will say is “any form of science that is sufficiently advanced will seem like magic to a less advanced species”.
You wrote that Expanded Horizon is the first of several supplements. Do you still have a lot of material to disclose?
I am also torn on this topic because on the one hand I respect games that try to be all inclusive in a single book, but on the other hand I also love games that produce many supplements and keep supporting the game and adding to their universe. Realistically, I would like to do a standalone supplement for each of the major factions that explores them in their minutia. Beyond that, I’m not sure how many additional setting books we would do, or if we will keep it to publishing adventure modules, but we do plan on supporting Omega Horizon for a long time.
Still speaking of supplements, Expanded Horizon seems to have additions on all fronts. Races, weapons, careers, spaceships, rules. So do you plan to publish supplements always aimed at adding few details to many topics or even focusing on a specific field?
As I mentioned previously, I would like to focus additional supplements on the major factions, but even so the plan is currently to have each supplement book enhance every facet of the game. For instance, if we do a Sentenium Empire supplement, it would include more info on their society (culture, fashion, entertainment, etc.) but it would also focus on their technology which would add more weapons, equipment and starships/vehicles to the game, would likely add some faction specific species and careers, etc.
Let us know if this interview with the author of Omega Horizon solved your doubts about it!