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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steenan" data-source="post: 5179425" data-attributes="member: 23240">- Focus on one consistent genre, with rules to support it. I'd go for either high fantasy (strong divide between good and evil, characters as heroes, epic conflict), action fantasy (focus on cinematic feel, stunts, fast and furious gameplay) or pulp (bizarre places and creatures, scifi elements in fantasy, exploration with a lot of surprises and twists), but definitely wouldn't mix them.- Harder combat, low lethality. Rules shouldn't be biased in favor of players, but they should not include a possibility of a character being killed by dice rolls. Defeat should create complications, prevent characters from achieving some of their goals, force to seek another path and another means.- Simple character creation. A few (no more than 8) classes, all representing strong genre archetypes. No multiclassing. No feats that give numeric bonuses. All stats useful for every character, in different ways (exact opposite of 4e "you may dump half of your stats without worry"). In general, "character optimization" should be minimized.- Much weaker strategic element. No magic items that may be traded and represent a big fraction of characters' power. Treasure as means of fame, not efficiency. No strategic-scale spells (teleportation, most of divinations, long-term summons). No need for long-term planning, which does not fit any of the genres I listed.- Fast combat, with less focus on tactics (no grid, flexible powers, less statuses and modifiers to track) and more on creativity (even more use of terrain than in 4e, rewarding genre-appropriate stunts is a part of mechanics). I'd gladly get rid of "to hit" rolls, putting all dodges and parries in abstract HP, with the added benefits of no "healing by shouting at someone" and big groups of weak monsters usable at all levels.- Unified conflict resolution. Social and exploration conflicts using similar system to combat ones. I prefer resolution in which player states both intent and general means ("I want to get to the other side as fast as possible. I'll shoot down the lamp by the gate and run close to the wall - if guards pursue, the cart will be in their way.") and the roll decides how well it is done, taking what player said into account. This lets, in social conflicts, uncharismatic players play charismatic characters, as long as they think out arguments they use (because what is said by the player matters, but how well it is said does not and is decided by a roll).- Character advancement that is more about development than about increasing numbers. During the campaign characters should gain new maneuvers/powers/spells, not get much better with the previous ones (and if so, rather in a "it used a standard action, now it is a minor one" way than in "it was d20+8, now it is d20+15").- Focus on story arcs, adventures (including "dungeons") instead of "encounters". There should be no mechanical incentive for sleeping in a dungeon full of monsters (who would ever think about something like that?!) or moving to another subplot in the middle of investigation/negotiation/war in hope that it will wait for you to return.</blockquote>

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