**This is an old revision of the document!**
Hello and welcome to my exploration into the creation of a new way to create, manage, curate, and play RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons.
This is where I will be documenting my vision. I've had the general idea for several years now, but it is finally becoming clear enough to be worth writing down and refining. Eventually this site should become able to be turned into a specification document for the creation of the system.
I will be adding inline explanations using the 'hidden' plugin. It uses syntax similar to an HTML element “hidden” whose content is hidden by default. Example:
Rules - the rules of the system I'm designing. Basically the Player's Handbook etc.
System Technical Vision - reserved sub-pages for how the digital curation system works.
====== Why? ====== Dungeons and Dragons has always had a base rule that it is intended to be home-brewed. That is, individual Dungeon Masters are encouraged to make the game their own by creating or modifying not only the lore and story, but even the rules.
The original rules had a class & level system, where a player could select one of a limited number of archetypes to base their character on. Over time, as players wanted to play archetypes (and races) that weren't in the official rules created their own. Many of these eventually got integrated into the official rules. But players are never satisfied and the most creative push the boundaries past even the most expansive set of choices.
A great example of this is the Ranger. It is one of the most loved archetypes while being one of the least satisfying to actually play. The official rules never quite got the feel of a ranger that players wanted, so homebrewing the class is very common.
So too with races. There are now dozens of races available, but there can always be more. Some of the races are tied into the lore and worlds, making them unsuitable for many worlds simply due to their being tied to lore that many Dungeon Masters don't include.
Not long after GURPS came around I got excited. I checked it out and while I loved the basic idea the implementation was pretty bad. What we now call D20 Checks is a way better system, and one that almost all RPGers are familiar with. Any new system that wants to catch on needs to either use that or fight an uphill battle to prove their new system is vastly superior. For example, the Daggerheart dual-D12 system is pretty cool and worth checking out but it will never become a mass-market success.
So after several years of thinking about all this I have come around to the idea that classes are the wrong approach. Simply using something like a skill tree would allow players to create whatever archetype they have in mind. Similarly with races, and especially since the rules on race creation in Tasha's were published, there should be no “official” races. Dungeon Masters, in concert with their players and the design of their world, should be able to create whatever races their imaginations can come up with.
And with the elimination of classes it also makes sense to get rid of class levels. Does the elimination of class levels mean getting rid of proficiency bonuses? Perhaps they can be separated for each skill/weapon/spell, and have upgradeable tiers (such as Trained, Proficient, Expert, Master) with either +2 per tier or +1d4/tier. And as we have already mentioned, lore and other campaign specific information should be totally separate from the rules. That last part also means that languages should not be part of the core rules.
But all this seems like it would place a ton of work onto a DM's shoulders. That is inherently unworkable - without modern digital tools that is.
====== Overall Vision ====== lots more to write… Principles
I envision a system that has curation as a major part of its mission. That is, Game Masters should be able to freely pick and choose what parts of the game to include. They should be easily able to add their own creations, and share them easily. That should also include basic rules like what happens during short or long rests. Of course there should be a base set of core rules, but it should be as minimized as possible. Other rules should be default, but override-able by the Game Master.
I am imagining it working similarly to how modern source control systems like GitHub work, only a lot more user-friendly. The Game Master should be able to view the rules they have selected in a skill tree format, and prune the branches as they desire. If they add something into the tree, they should be able to publish it so that other Game Masters can add it.
Then, when a Game Master has refined the rules for their campaign, they can publish it, making it freely available for their players. It should be available online as regular web pages, and it could also be available to download as a printable PDF or whatever other formats people find useful.
The system should also include a character generation tool that players can use to build their character online, which respects the GM's curated ruleset. There should also eventually be a tool for playing the character that works similarly to D&D Beyond. At the same time, those who want to play with paper characters should also feel welcome.
If people use paper character sheets, I am currently envisioning the default format to be something where the main character sheet is an A5 size (210mm × 148mm - landscape) piece of paper or cardstock, and the features and spells are printed on A6 sized (148mm × 105mm - portrait) cardstock. I think the main character sheet should have everything you need for roleplay, and everything you need for combat should be on feature cards - that is, you should only need the A6 sized cards during combat.