A simple RPG system - Another Sketch: Roll Right Under System

I was thinking about using a simple RPG system for a potential game of Nightspawn/Nightbane. Generally you could use it for everything anyways.

So the game would be based on 1st edition The Dark Eye/DSA (a simple d20 roll under system with 5 stats), but there would be one big difference:

Instead of an active parry or modifiers to make ability rolls harder, difficulty would be expressed, by a a value that you are not allowed to roll under.

So if an opponent has a Parry of 4 in this system, you only hit him if you roll above 4, but below your attack value (e.g. 10).

But to make things more interesting, the higher you roll (but not above your value!), the better the result is. Therefore someone with a really high ability can get special successes. (This aspect could be similar to the the Dragon Age system, but I did not read this one yet.)

If you know Unkown Armies, you will notice certain similarities.

The system would also include Tricks (based on any stat/ability), like Savage World does. This could also be influenced by page 42 of the D&D4 DM Guide.

(Something else I like a lot are aspects from FATE, but I am not sure, if they fit this system or make it too complex.)

Talislanta is free! What could we play?

I was looking for an old fashioned and simple system recently and stumbled upon Talislanta.
I own the 2nd Edition of thie classic non-EDO fantasy setting, but my books are a few 1000 kilometres away.

So I was happy to be able to download most of the pdfs for the system.

Here you find the free RPG books for Talislanta.

What means "non-EDO"? EDO=Elves,Dwarves,Orcs? Talislanta breaks out of the Lord of the Rings mold and is not influenced by old nothern European myths, but much more by Jack Vance and H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands.

But what adventure should you play in such a huge setting?

I would let the players only chose between archetypes from the Seven Kingdoms and maybe the Wilderlands. That is enough choices. And I would set the adventures as well in this region.

Probably I would start in the near the realm of the Gnomekin, as some of the Seven Kingdoms are a little bit too cute. And for exactly that reason I would create an adventure where someone wants to create a Civil War in this nice union of races. An intrique that should split this bright corner of Talislanta apart.

Some interesting seeds:

• The Muses don't have a real ruler, but one is assigned randomly every month. What if a player character Muse becomes ruler, or if an "evil" (or blackmailed) Muse takes reign.

• The bird people (blue and green) seem to be quite split, it is a good point to start a war.

• The Cymril people seem to quite arrogant. It would also be easy to seed suspicion among the other races.

Now combine this 3 ideas through one villain and let the players run wild and create even more of a mess. Then villain should even empower the PCs to behave like PCs do. What a fun mess.