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[ein]

Hey guys, I'm creating a roleplaying system That I'm hoping will be simple enough for my friends not to hate, but in depth enough to be easily usable.

It doesn't have any classes, rather, it revolves around nine spheres, divided into three groups. Each sphere represents one of nine attributes.

There are:
Mind - Intelligence, Awareness, and Charisma
Body - Strength, Agility, and Endurance
Spirit - Luck, Psyche, and Faith

Each sphere has three skill trees, one for each group. You learn faster in your chosen sphere, but can still learn skills from other trees. This effectively creates classes, but without the restriction that comes from being a select class.
For example, a Paladin would be a Faith/Body character and would have access to skills that a paladin might have, but could also learn, say, Agility/Mind skills such as lock picking.

This is just sort of a rough beginning without much fluff. I'm probably more likely going to use a futuristic/post-apocalyptic setting for the fluff, rather than fantasy.
More to come after I've fleshed out my txt file where I'm writing all this stuff down.

[SiN.Daeus]

Not much to comment on until you flesh it out...
But can you kinda explain Psyche and Awareness?

[ein]

Awareness is just perception.
I was coming up with simple three-letter abbreviations for the spheres and couldn't get a good one for perception, so I went with awareness (AWR) instead.
Psyche is your connection to the "magical" energies rampant in the galaxy.
So, your ability to cast "magic."

While I'm at it, might as well explain the other things too, even though most are obvious.

Intelligence is knowledge. While it will affect various knowledge checks, it does not have any impact on magic, other than your raw ability to learn magic.

Charisma is how well you deal with others. I plan on making it much more useful in this setting than, say, DnD if you aren't a sorcerer.

Strength is your ability to use your muscles. Huge biceps ≠ strong. Look at Bruce Lee, for example.

Agility is your ability to move. It's probably one of the more useful attributes, affecting things like thievery, dodging, running (with endurance), and piloting (with awareness).

Endurance is your ability to exert yourself in various ways. High endurance means longer sprinting, ability to take more hits, and general pain tolerance.
So not only can you take more punches than that other, but they also hurt less.

Luck is the tendency for chaos to work in your favor. Luck is the most universal attribute, affecting all the others and focusing more on passive feats rather than skills.

Faith is your belief and relationship with the gods, mostly those you follow. Due to a large amount of gods that preach and do various things, you will make enemies amongst the gods if you decide to make friends through faith.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As for fluff, the setting is going to be futuristic with lots of fantasy elements (but all explained by science, including the existence of gods) and mostly grimdark. As in, there's not a lot of good, but there is some, unlike 40k.
This decision was made when a friend decided he'd rather be a lock-picking wizard wielding a greatsword and driving a tank than something you might get from DnD.

[ein]

Fluff Post!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spoiler: Fluffy Wall of Text (click to show/hide)

Okay, you've got a few main forces in the galaxy.

First are the primitives. These are people who haven't accepted/don't know about the existence of life on other planets.
They have yet to travel the stars, but may have traveled in their own star system, even settled other planets.
We would count as primitives.

Next are the Forebearers (Ensek Eyni [lit. ancient men/fathers] in their language), an ancient race that tends to keep to itself, but also helps primitives develop. They have the best tech.
They live for an indefinite amount of time, but have lost the ability to reproduce, leading to them slowly dying off.
Worlds that have been abandoned by the Forebearers are called Forebearer Remnant worlds.
To counteract their decline, they created a near perfect race that replicates themselves.

These new creatures, known as Erkerri (Children), have nearly the same level of tech as the Forebearers, but lack the immense connection to the magical energy of the galaxy.
The Erkerri are adventurous, often becoming pirates, but still have the sort of "fatherly instinct" (Eynkis Kerik) shared by their creators.

Next is the Federation. These guys are very similar to the Imperium meets 1984. They have a very dystopian society with rigid rules and a religious hierarchy. They have spess mahreens and like to bomb other planets for the fun of it.
The ruling class is a bunch of sociopaths hooked up to machines that extend their lifespans indefinitely.
Next up are the Troopers. These are the spess mahreens. They have their own hierarchy and tend to ignore the rules that are followed by everyone else.
Then you've got the regular soldiers. They do follow the rules and have a tendency to get bullied by their older brothers and ridiculed by the lower class citizens.
Finally, you've got the citizens. They have no rights whatsoever. Nobody cares about them. Their punishment for any crime is death. There is never a trial.
Women are even lower than men. They are not allowed to escape their horrible lives by joining the army and are generally treated as possessions to be used for breeding only.

Next up is the Coalition. They're like the Federation if the Federation really didn't give a shit.
These guys have no real hierarchy. The hierarchy is more based on the fact that it's an immensely free-market capitalism.
You've got the robber barons who oppress the weak with the military forming the middle-class.
They have a ruleset similar to the Federation's, but including no interference with primitive worlds. Also, they actually have trials, even though there is about a 1% chance of being found innocent, even if you really are.
About 20% of convicts are put to death, and even then, these are usually only people who have committed rape or war crimes. The rest are sent to prison worlds, planets that have been bombed to hell and back, becoming a desert barely capable of supporting life.
Just for the fun of it, certain special interests, mainly the robber barons, will send camera drones down to the surface and supply the prisoners with weapons and reason to kill others.
The Coalition and Federation are considered enemies, but they rarely fight each other and will openly trade.

The last real faction is a bit of an unknown. They come without warning and will do one of two things to any planet:
•Bomb it to hell and back.
•Assimilate the inhabits as combat thralls.
These mysterious conquerors are known as Krii Teyrrki [lit. Horrible Conquerors/Emperors] by the Forebearers.

The last faction is less of a traditional faction and more of a bond formed out of necessity for survival. They are, of course, the pirates.
The code of pirates, established by the three great captains who first unified the pirates against the Federation, Coalition, and Krii Teyrrki goes something like this:
-Steal not from a fellow pirate unless you know them personally and have formed a grudge or rivalry or they have broken the code.
-Kill not a fellow pirate unless they have broken the code.
-Take not a fellow pirate's woman unless offered in friendship.
-Drink not a fellow pirates spirits unless offered in friendship.
-Befriend the primitives and they shall offer you safe harbour and supplies.
-Befriend the prisoners from Coalition prison worlds and they shall join your crew.
-Befriend the Erkerri and they shall offer you technology.
-The Combat Thralls of the Krii Teyrrki are beyond saving, kill them with utmost haste.
-The Federation is a bunch of oppressor scumbags, kill them with utmost haste.
-The Coalition will convict you if caught, but their people are friendly for the most part and will trade or join your crew.
-Death is inevitable, accept it and Death will aid you.
-The spirits are always stronger on the other end of the galaxy.
There are some freelance pirates who do not follow this code, but not only are they a vast minority, but they also rarely raid other pirates, sticking to other ships instead.

[SiN.Daeus]

Looks very promising.
Care to explain what kind of magic there will be?
And how it works into the setting?

[ein]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spoiler: more fluffy textwalling (click to show/hide)

Magic is the lifeforce of the galaxy.
It pervades your entire being and the world around you.
It is inescapable.

This lifeforce has many names.
Those who don't understand it call it magic.
Those who know it call it chaos.
Those who realize it call it spiral.

The natural spiral shape of the galaxy leads to certain energy fluctuations. This energy is what leads to all things; the creation of stars, the creation of planets, the creation of life.
All things follow the same path; this spiral force emanating outward from the center of our galaxy.
Without it, there would be nothing.
Chaos is not, inherently chaotic. It is simple misunderstood; it is fractal. Chaos is spiral; spirals are the simplest fractal.

Everybody has the capacity to manipulate this energy somewhat. Some more than others.
However, some people form links with the source of this power.
They draw in more energy than should be humanly possible from the spiral rotations of the galaxy.
This excess of energy has a tendency to change people.
In exchange for great power, they lose their sanity.
These people are known as "marked" because of the markings that appear on the body when one gains this power and uses it.
Everybody who is marked has a unique set of powers that affect them and the world around them differently.
Where one man creates an infinite bounty from the land, another comes and renders it to ash.
This power tends to gravitate outwards, towards the arms. Because of this, most markings tend to appear on the arms and hands and most powers come from the arms.

Those who use their powers strongly and frequently slip farther and farther into the void. The fact that they cannot die due to a massive amount of lifeforce does nothing to aid sanity either.
Thankfully, these people are very rare, with marks occurring in only 1 in about 4.5 million people and only 1 in 5 of those will realize their power and activate the mark.
Though marks are usually part of a person and only that person, some survive even after the bearer is killed.
They may exist in a stasis, maybe inside an artefact, until someone unlocks them.
Others may be passed on instantly or through offspring.

The Forebearers are true masters at utilizing this force. Their capacity for its use rivals those who are marked. A marked Forebearer is like unto a god.
They've mastered this force so completely that their technology runs on it.
A Forebearer ship will travel anywhere almost instantly, never needing to refuel. A Forebearer rifle will shoot a blast of energy without ever recharging a battery.
The computers constructed by the Forebearers to operate their ships are constructed out of the energy and are the most complex artificial intelligences ever created. The size of an orange and capable of more complex thought faster than any human.

The Erkerri have also learned how to utilize this power, though not by much more than a human.
The Federation outlaws all forms of "magic and sorcery," however, that doesn't prevent certain bands of Troopers from using it.

Basically, anybody can learn simple magic powers like magic missile or fireball, but if you want to seriously use magic, you need a mark.
Marks should be handed out at GM's discretion, unless it's agreed that everybody has one.
Don't want a level one razing the entire playing field because somebody let him get a mark during character creation.

Unfortunately, magic isn't a very crunchy part of the crunch, being more on-the-fly and fluffy, unlike, say, bashing someone's face in with a giant hammer, or even riding on top of a tank, shooting people with a rifle until you get close enough to leap onto some poor bastard's face and stab him with your knife.

[ein]

SPESS MAHREENS!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Federation's Troopers are the single most feared thing in the whole galaxy.
Taken from birth and put under rigorous genetic modification and conditioning, these men have become the ultimate fighting machine.
By the time they are fully-developed adults ready to go into battle, they have undergone training so intense it has a 40% death rate.
Their skeletons are replaced with a much stronger material and advanced myomers are laced into their muscles.

A Trooper's armour becomes a part of him entirely.
It is made of an incredibly durable alloy whose composition is kept secret.
Only the strongest projectiles can pierce them, but they are fairly weak to continuous stress, such as that from a chainsword.
The suit, aside from the helmet, plugs into special ports covering the skin of a Trooper. These ports take information directly from the nerves and react accordingly.
A Trooper sees a sword coming at him, and his suit will automatically dodge or parry. A Trooper decides to shoot and his arms will automatically line up with the target.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trooper armour looks sort of like the Enclave Hellfire Armour from Fallout 3, but with larger arms and pauldrons.
It also has some glowy parts, similar to this image:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The helmet more closely resembles a 40k spess mahreen helmet, but with canisters attached, similar to a gas mask or respirator and a single piece retractable visor, similar to the rogue helmet from Halo 3.

[ein]

Hey guys, what do you want to hear more about?
Fluffwise. Not posting any crunch until I work some more with a friend of mine.

[SiN.Daeus]

Very interesting. Looks promising...
What's the layout of the factions going to be like? As in, where they are located on a galactic map, who their enemies/allies and stuff. Things like that.

[ein]

Whole galaxy.
Closer to the middle of the galaxy, you've got mostly savage planets full of weird monsters.
Just outside of that is where the Forebearers first came about.
On the other side of the galaxy and further out are where the main factions formed.
Nobody knows where the Krii came from.
The Erkerri were created by the Forebearers on their homeworlds and then distributed throughout the galaxy on various Forebearer remnant worlds.

About the remnant worlds, there was a huge war, most likely between the Krii and Forebearers, that nearly wiped out the Forebearers.
This was long before the Federation and Coalition came about.
The Forebearers don't really like to talk about it, or the Krii, who they obviously know something about.

[ein]

Crunch-Time!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Combat

Combat is divided into two rounds: movement and action.
One team's movement takes place during the other team's action.
That means that as the PCs are moving, the enemies are shooting.
Instead of moving, you are allowed to shoot, but you can't take special actions.

I'm divided on one of three choices for special actions.
1: the skill tree idea mentioned earlier
2: cards for combat actions, skills (like DnD, not a tree, but a bunch of skills not necessarily related to each other, but drawing from specific attributes) for non-combat stuff (like lock-picking and diplomacy)
3: a more DnD like system with powers that you learn and can use once per battle or day or whatever.

I'm leaning towards 2, but I want to see what you think.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Expanding on the card idea, you would learn an action or two per level and could place the card for that action in your deck of 30 cards or something.
You would have five cards in your hand and you could play one action card, one, maybe two passive effect cards, and an instant effect card.
Cards cost power tokens in a specific attribute.
You get power tokens equal to half your attribute's level, rounded up.
So if you have 14 AWR, you would get 7 PT for awareness.
You want to play the card "Quick Aim."
This card lets you get off two extra shots with an automatic weapon, or +2 accuracy with a semi-auto weapon and it costs 3 AWR PT.
You play it and shoot a couple extra times with your assault rifle at this cost, and now have 4 AWR PT.
You regenerate at a rate of 1 PT per skill per action round.
Now lets say you want to play Quick Aim, but only have 2 AWR PT.
You have to wait one more round to play it.

[SIGVARDR]

In the future,there is only GRIMDARK. Like it so far,will keep myself posted on your progress.Not sure if i like the magic aspect,but i guess not everyone's cut out to be gun and axe toting psychos.

[ein]

It's more like a gun and axe toting psycho who can make people's heads asplode by glaring at them with enough intent on modifying the magical energy around them.

[SIGVARDR]

It's more like a gun and axe toting psycho who can make people's heads asplode by glaring at them with enough intent on modifying the magical energy around them.

That,sounds pretty good.

[ein]

Yeah, it's not much like regular fantasy magic.

Instead of:
"I cast fireball!"
"Roll for damage."

It's:
"I manipulate the air to combustion point and throw the fireball at my opponent!"
"Roll for damage! Don't forget that you burned your hands. Also, that dead tree right next to you, it's now a blazing inferno."
"Is it too late to just shoot the guy instead?"
"Sorry, too late."