I'd been tossing around ideas here and there for years, thinking "You know, it would be cool if a game did/had ___________." on dozens of different topics. And then one day I realized that I had so many of those floating around that I could probably create my own RPG system out of them. So I did.
Or am, more specifically. The game is currently nameless except for the world it focuses on, called Raleyn. It's set on a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, where the tone is a bit on the dark and gritty side of the spectrum. Religion is founded on lies, magic demonizes people, the environment is inhospitable, and so forth.
Now that I've gotten a start on the game, though, I'm having some difficulty deciding on how to handle certain aspects, like how quickly characters should gain hit points or save bonuses, or how to handle skill checks.
If anyone might be interested, I would really appreciate some help with this. Someone to just talk concepts over with, input some ideas, point out when I've done something broken, help create skills and spells and so forth.
If this sounds interesting to you, these are some of the things I've done to try to make this system different from the norm:
[spoiler]Hit Points[spoiler]Hit points are not 'linear'. A character has 4 different kinds of hp: mortal, injury, stun and bruise. Characters start with 1d4+2 mortal points, 1d4+3 injury points, 1d6+3 stun points, and 0 bruises. Except for the bruises, that might all be subject to change as I figure out a good balance for the game. Sources deal damage to one or more these types of hit points. A longsword deals 1d3 injuries, a mace deals 1 injury and 1d2 stuns, and a sap deals 1d3 stuns and 1d3 bruises. Spells could do all sorts of things.
When a character is dealt damage, they make a vitality save against the damage dealt. If the save is successful, they accrue a number of bruises equal to the damage dealt. Each bruise penalizes future saves against damage by 1. When a character reaches 0 or fewer stun points, they're unconscious. At 0 or fewer injury points, they're staggered (which limits how many and what types of actions they can take in a round). At 0 or fewer mortal points, a character is dead. A character that isn't dead recovers a number of hit points each day, and more with rest.[/spoiler]
Classes
[spoiler]There are 10 classes in the game. At levels 1, 21 and 41, a character chooses one of the 10 classes, which is theirs for the next 20 levels. Each 20 levels of a class is called a block (for now). The level cap is 60. The classes are as follows: Fighter, Thief, Ranger, Engineer, Priest, Channeler, Healer, Magus, Seer and Witch. I'm not very good at explaining the next part...
Each class block has a number of class skills and features associated with it, which a character with that class gains as they progress through the block. When the character gains their next block, they gain the skills and feature of that block in order. To learn the skills and features of a 2nd or 3rd block, a character must have the block of that class that precedes it.
For example, if Bob chooses Fighter as his first class, then he'll have 20 levels of Fighter, over which he'll learn the Fighter skills up to level 20. Then, if he chooses Fighter again, he'll learn the Fighter skills up to level 40. If he chooses Healer, instead, then he'll learn the Healer skill up to level 20, even though his character level will progress up to 40.
Each unique combination of classes comes with 1 or 2 skills or features that are not native to either of the two classes in the combination. A Fighter/Healer will learn 1 or 2 skills that only a character of that combination can learn, and which will reflect the combination and synergy of the classes taken. A Healer/Fighter will not learn a different skill than the Fighter/Healer.[/spoiler]
Magic
[spoiler]Magic is fueled by mana. Names tentative, a priest has 2 kinds of mana: minor drain and major (not major drain). Any of the wizard classes (Healer, Magus, Seer, Witch) have 3 kinds of mana: minor drain, major and wellspring.
When a character casts a spell, it makes a check against their skill in the that particular spell. If the check is a failure, the spell is lost but no mana is spent.
If the check is successful, they cast the spell and make a spirit save against the spell's cost. If the save is successful, they accrue 1 minor drain, which penalizes future saves against magic costs. If the save fails, they spend 1 major mana. When a character has 0 or fewer major mana, they can no longer cast spells unless they choose (and have the ability) to use a wellspring mana.
A wellspring mana can be used for a spell at any time. When one is spent, the caster bypasses the skill check (and cost save, since they're choosing to pay the mana) to cast the spell, the spell's power gains a boost, and the character must make a spirit save against Descent. If the save is successful, the character gains 1 point of corruption. If the save fails, the character gains either 1 point of insanity or 1 point of transformation, determined randomly.
Corruption increases the power of every spell the character casts, but also penalizes the save against Descent by 1 for each point owned. Transformation makes changes to the character's body, giving them bestial or demonic features which become more pronounced as the character's transformation score grows. Transformations can sometimes provide the character with a bonus, but it usually comes at the cost of a penalty. Insanity makes changes to the character's mind in the same way as transformation affects the body.
When a character accrues a certain amount of total insanity and transformation, it transforms completely into an insane, murderous spellbeast, and the character is all but lost, as the player loses control of their character. The only way that a character can be recovered at this point is to bring a powerful channeler into contact with the rampaging spellbeast and to siphon out all of the character's descent, which can take up to several minutes. Since spellbeasts absorb magic and are physically extremely hardy, this would require a dangerous effort from several different characters.[/spoiler][/spoiler]
There's more, naturally, but if no one is interested, I'd rather stop now.