I've been playing Osmond Ward for around 5 months now. It's a very fun and exciting game that can go in several directions! This book is the most essential tool when playing, I have to check it at least 4 times a month. It's very eloquently and yet simplisticly written. Now, I must be honest, there is one downside to this: since Osmond is constantly evolving, the book is too. I don't know what version will be the true final, but in the meantime, going ahead and getting the pdf is 100% worth it. While a continuously evolving system can be a bit complex, it does mean it will constantly improve. I can attest, that this book is worth it's weight in gold. I hope this review is helpful to anyone considering buying and playing Osmond Ward.

*i personally love this book. its very informative on the world of Osmond, its well put together and very creative. the ins and outs of each type of player and what they can do, its easy to figure out whats going on and easy to follow along. i 100% rate it 10/10

First thing's first: I like this TTRPG, and I think if you like magitech you will too, although it definitely needs some deep proofing. If a lack of polish to good ideas will bother you, I do not recommend this book to you. But I have a lot of feelings and thoughts about this SRD, and I have recorded them largely in the order that I read them.

1. I like the idea of taking disadvantages to skills in addition to advantages, it makes for a more rounded and believable character whose flaws have a mechanical consequence.

2. There are a lot of skills, and with the ability to stack advantages on skills, it means you will likely be rolling unskilled rather often.

3. The grit system is interesting in that it allows players to take greater control of their rolls. At first glance, it might be a little convoluted to remember how much each grit action costs, but that is something I would have to play to test.

4. The three action system seems versatile, and is an interesting take on a multi-action economy.

5. Perhaps I am simply coming at this from a Savage Worlds perspective, as that is my preferred system, but Osmond Ward has a lot of positive similarities to SWADE. Disadvantages are like Hindrances, Grit is similar to bennies, the potential for three actions to be taken per round of combat, and Abilities which are similar to Edges. I feel as though someone familiar with Savage Worlds would find a lot to work with in Osmond Ward, and that is a good thing.

6. I know this book hasn't gone through complete copy editing yet, but I would like it if lists of things, such as the Abilities, were ordered alphabetically.

7. A nitpick thing: I would like it if the map (which is very cool!) had a scale on it.

8. I was surprised to realize that the planet where the game takes place is in a solar system with other inhabitable planets. It could make for a nice addition to the game if players were ever interested in taking their quests and adventures to the stars.

9. I appreciate the blurb at the beginning of character creation indicating that races are not innately hostile to each other, and peoples of varying cultures, genders and sexualities, and disabilities could find representation and safety in this world.

10. The shining heart of this book is its section on playable races, where beautiful art and vivid description lend a lot of life to the other text. I would recommend moving this section closer to the front so that readers see it sooner and spark their imaginations.

11. The section on spells is very fun and feels fresh, with each school of magic being reasonably represented in its number and power of spells. Although I believe the section on high magic could be expanded to include spells from the Utilia and Terra schools as well.

12. I think this book could benefit from being divided into a player's section and a game master's section.

Overall, I think this ttrpg shows a lot of promise, and could even be used as a setting document for other systems if one so wished to use it. Its strengths are in its creativity and inventiveness with abilities, races, spells, and items. The book could use a bit more fleshing out in terms of worldbuilding for its game masters, and a sample or initial storyline for GMs to follow would not go amiss. In total though, I would definitely play this game, and could easily see myself porting it as a setting for Savage Worlds.

The system of Osmond Ward is well fleshed out. Version 1.3 addressed a lot of the issues that would hinder the onboarding of a new WorldWeaver or New Player. I appreciate the concept of hyper-lethal combat, as it creates scenarios where your group has to potentially figure out a smarter solution than just go in ‘guns blazing’, but still allows for combat to be tense. This system not having a ‘choose your class’ system and rather allowing the player to have a multitude of strengths/weaknesses is a plus, in my opinion. There is a lot of depth in this world/setting, which lends itself to creating all kinds of adventures for your group. Each Ward feels unique in their own way, the world itself feels unique (all the different planets/places), and each playable race/species is equally as unique. The inclusiveness of the system for all the many different types of players is a welcome change to most rigid systems. The Grit system is a special and interesting mechanic that seems to have a lot of usefulness and would well assist in creating unique situations. Magic/Mana system is well thought out, and well organized now after the revision that was v1.3. Understanding that this project is being updated and improved upon on a regular basis, I can’t wait to try this system out with my players at my home table.

Short version: I absolutely cannot recommend this product in its current form to anyone. While it is marked as "Version 1.1," this game is very clearly in very early development.At least, I sincerely hope that this is not a finished product, but there is nothing to warn any prospective buyers of this. If this is supposed to be a finished product as the price tag and "Version 1.1" suggests, then I would warn any prospective buyers to spend their money elsewhere.

For those who like a little more meat in their reviews, here are my full thoughts: The document is written in a massive font that is extremely difficult to read, while it is more than 100 pages, there seems to be only around 50 pages of actual material, with the rest the result of this unusual choice. If the problems with this game were the only issue, then I would be able to forgive that, but it gets worse.

The the book does a very poor job of explaining any of its mechanics. In some places it seems to assume you are familiar with mechanics from other systems, or simply references things that are never explained. Even worse, in some places it contradicts itself.

A good example of these problems is the skills section: At first it tells you to select six skills, three at advantage, and three at disadvantage. This is fine, if you're already familiar with those concepts from Dungeons and Dragons, but the author doesn't explain this concept until much later in the book, so any new players are going to be left to figure that out on their own. When you look at the skills listed, there are some very odd choices, like listing "Airship gunnery" as a strength skill, or having two separate skills for Airship Carpentry, and regular Carpentry. To top it off, the skills entry then contradicts the earlier description of hte attributes. In the pages prior, it lists "[using] a melee weapon" as something you can use strength for, however when you look at the skill lists, close combat is the only melee skill, and is listed under dexterity. If this is meant to imply that skills can use different attributes, it is never explained. And finally, at the very end of the skills list is this gem:

"A minor note is that Skills are Capped at the players level +1, so at level 5, the player can have a maximum of +6 to any skills. This only counts once the bonuses get beyond initial increases. (+1, +2, +3)"

This is great, except that at no point in the book was I able to find any other reference to skills having bonuses of any kind beyond the "advantage/disadvantage" mentioned earlier. Now, full disclosure, maybe it does explain this later in the book, but as I wasn't even able to finish creating a character before the mechanics fell apart, I gave up. Issues like the ones I listed in my example above can be found in almost every section of the book that I read, and the awful formatting made the book too frustrating to go through completely.

To close, I have a message for the author of this product directly: This product is absolutely not ready to be posted for sale, and definitely not at the price listed. I am giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming that your listing of "Version 1.1" which would imply that this is a version that is functionally complete, fully tested, and ready for market, is a mistake, and not an intentional move to trick people into buying this product. At best what you have here is, in software terms, something I would consider to be in late Alpha phase. you have an interesting idea, and I can see potential for a fun system in that mess, but right now all you have for a product is a bunch of mechanics thrown together. You have a very long way to go before I would recommend this product for sale.