Primus: Homebrewers I think you'll like this. Everyone else take a look

[Shallown]

I say go classless but I just prefer that freedom to develop a character. I also find it useful to increase only skills used. Several systems exist to do this.

Have you considered hosting other game systems as well and seeing which ends up being more popular or cross compatible. When I was looking into self publishing my system I decided I didn't have the drive/passion to go through the headache, though worth it to some, to produce my system. I discovered there are a number of decent systems out there that only needed a wider fan/support base to work from, that after some playtesting and editing would have been good to excellent systems. Perhaps you can provide that oppurtunity.

Just apassing thought.

Later

 

[Skade]

Zappo:
My position in this discussion is somewhat uncertan. The whole concept, though interesting, may eventually lead nowhere. It may go in a direction that I do not enjoy, or it could be the next great thing. That is the case with any endeavor though. I have seen some terrible professional products, and some wonderful player made products. Being a professional is matter of getting paid, in the most literal sense. How does one become a proffessional gamer, anyway? I don't know that the guys making the money in this business are a cut above the majority of us, possessing skill and drive that we often lack. On the other hand, it is always possible that these proffessional gamers came into it as a hobby, got lucky enough to get paid a couple of times and managed to make a career of having fun. I do not intend to imply that this inkiling of a project would have that effect. What I instead propose is that it is worth the thought.

All:
I think what I would be interested in seeing at first would be an OGL alternate game. Similar to Monte's idea, or Everquest. That is a lot of work though. A campaign setting is an extensive piece of work, and probably requires more attention than many of us can spare. Another possiblity is a set of OGL comlient tools, classes, rule sets, and procedures for making a game run more smootly.

 

[Neo]

I like to make new systems, and often test out others new systems as a playtester for various companies.

 

[damieus]

Based on the SRD??

This isnt a half-bad idea either. Currently, as I pointed out earlier, I am leaning towards a d20 for task resolution anyway, so it wouldn't be a big stretch. The outline I currently have is pretty much just a heavy modification of the d20 system. A lot of aspects are still similar.

As for class-less systems, I was kind of trying to go with the whole class path thing with the idea I outlined above. Several of the people who responded expressed an interest in a class-less system so I have no trouble with working that in. But I'd also like to hear what people think of my idea? If it's not really what we are looking for as a group then I'd be glad to trash it.

Someone made a good point about how the maintainers of Linux are computer professionals. This is true, but the creators of Unix were just prodigies. And it is definately true that not every gamer is a good creator, but we know what we want out of a game system, or at the very least, we know what we *don't* want. So what I am proposing is (once I get my file server running) to have the system I've created up for grabs. But as people look at the stuff and decide what they like and don't like about it, I can write modifications of it, or people can write their own replacement systems to work with it instead. For instance, lets say I write a magic system that has spellpoints. But someone else comes up with an initiative-based spell system. My system has no good feedback and theirs does. I will just stick theirs in the main system document and put mine in the optional house rules section.

 

[Jeph]

I'd say go classless, but not levelless. It eliminates the hastle of keeping track of character points or whatever, and makes balancing encounters sooo much easier.

 

[maddman75]

Taking the Linux analogy furthur may be the way to go. There are a couple other strengths of the open model that need to be applied

- Recognition. THis is the real reason that many Linux hackers work. They want to be the next Alan Cox or Linus Torvalds. We must make certain that proper accreditation is given to various contributions.

- Playtesting. Development doesn't really scale. It takes more time to add more people to a project. But troubleshooting does. Release early, release often, and incorporate that feedback into the game system.

- Flexibility. The reason Linux is moving into so many areas is that it is so adaptable. From a command line driven mainframe, to a fully functional modern desktop, to embedded consumer electronics, to homemade routers and server, Linux can do it all.

Adapting this idea means keeping the system open to all sorts of different play styles.

- Commerciability. Allow by the license for people to come up with 'distributions' of Primus. One person could use the info to publish a skill based game using dice pools, another could make a class based game using d20s. But all this information even if published is still Free so that others could build upon it.

- Benevolent Dictatorship. Damieus keeps the copyright on the name 'Primus', the sole use for this is if something deviates too far from one of the paths of the system he can declare that it is 'not primus' and cannot be marketed under that name. He would be in charge of the general direction of the system and appoint 'trusted lieutenants' to oversee various parts of the game's development.