Alright, so, something of a philosophical question here.
I'm currently pondering several different games, some of which might or might not be inspired by DBZ and/or Power Rangers. One of them, however, is essentially a fairly simple Dwarf Fortress: The RPG style game. That's actually all you know to answer the question, but here's more information anyway.
Most rolls would probably be a 1d10, compared to a chart and then adjusted for skill level. So a 4-7 might be a normal success whereas a 2-3 would be lower than average, for instance, but "average" or "below average" would have very different meanings coming from a master or an apprentice (the master's screwup might be better than the apprentice's masterpiece, for instance). These would likely have numerical values attached (specifically, "average" would probably mean "skill level +0," while "above average" would be "skill level +1" or similar), so for less measurable or skill-related tasks, like jumping across a pit, a standard d6 might be used instead.
Combat might also get simplified, both for simplicity's sake and to increase randomness.
Items would probably add to effective skill level, but I might do something a bit different (like, you can get a +1 bonus from up to 3 different items, but each item has to be as good as your skill level to count, and shoddy tools could decrease or cap your skill level somehow). Item quality would probably be determined additively by quality level and material, so a +Bronze Sword+ might get +2 damage from quality and +2 damage from material, whereas a xSteel Swordx might get -2 from quality and +3 from material, for instance.
I'm not entirely sure how the game would progress, but I'm strongly considering dividing it into simultaneous adventure and fortress modes, so players could queue glass production and trudge through a cave simultaneously. At the very least, I'd be highly likely to make adventures not grind fortress operations to a halt, and make sure the players were either all working together or acting as normal despite wildly different timeframes (ie someone wanders down a cavern and begins battling trogs, other players continue making chairs or whatever as though nothing is happening/happened/going to happen).
I'm also considering making some godsforsaken embark site mandatory, ie you want the poisonous swamp or the dire gorilla-filled jungle? Not positive that's a good idea, but whatever.
There will be no map. Rooms will be tracked as something like "3x5 room, -Pine Chair-, +Chert Table+"
So. That's all very well and good and all, but the real thing I'm wondering (aside from what kind of games everyone would be interested in), is this:
Dwarves, or anything? I like the thematic unity of a dwarf fortress, and it's nice and normal (as dwarves go, I mean). On the other hand, it'd be pretty neat to let everyone join and play as whatever they like, within reason.
So... what do you think?