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Message: <blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1238557" data-attributes="member: 10201">Mostly thought exercise, made manifest.  I sincerely believe i can do a better job than WotC did in balancing the conflicting goals of a "modern" system and remaining true to the spirit of D&D, so i want to see if i really can--and see if anyone agrees with me.  Also, i'm in incurable game designer, so designing a system is fun, not work.  Finally, i'm in need of a non-setting-specific RPG engine for some fantasy settings that i formerly played with AD&D2.  Now, in some cases, a completely different system is the best solution (thus Ars Fantasia-- <a href="http://www.tiltingatwindmills.net/old/ars/" target="_blank">http://www.tiltingatwindmills.net/old/ars/</a> ).  But some of these settings were very much built around D&D, with a lot of the tropes built into the setting in one way or another.  The largest part being how spells and psionics work (the latter of which makes D&d3E, as is, incompatible, to boot).  I don't *have* to use D20 System for this, but it's the easiest solution, and makes it possible to give the result away without any legal questions (i.e., how much of the AD&D2 spells i can reuse without infringing copyright).  And, it so happens that i don't think that D&D3E is a particularly good "generic" fantasy RPG, WoT D20 and Everquest D20 are only slightly better, and only Arcana Unearthed is really good--but it isn't plug-n-play compatible with the typical D&D-built setting, because it's got the wrong elements (races and spells), and it's going just the opposite direction i want to take: more specific, rather than more generic.  So, in my mind, there's a missing niche: while D&D is far and away the most popular system, we all know that lots of people use homebrew worlds and, as you say yourself, that often necessitates significant alterations to make them fit.  I think a less-specific D&D could either require less alteration, or have more of those alterations built in as options to lessen the GM's work.  Ideally, what you're talking about would, if you were using my system, amount to no more than crossing some feats off of lists (how spells are cast will be strongly controlled by taking feats, rather than built in to the magic system).  Of course, it's not likely i'll achieve that goal, but it's still the goal.  Don't get me wrong--i know i can't compete with WotC, not really.  But i think i *can* do a better job, even if it gets ignored.  ;-)</blockquote>

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