Thought I'd tinker with rules again. Not ambitious, mind you -- our in-house rules, affectionately called 'stabmaster', aren't meant to re-invent the wheel. A happy blend of old-school nostalgia and story-focused simplicity.
v7 was a cobbled re-imagining of the old broken house rules, band-aided and patched more than anything. It did manage to simplify a little, which was a good start. But it's time to re-work it all into something more congruous. Well, as congruous as an AD&D inspired set of house rules can be.
I'm going with the idea of "action rolls": four categories of actions with a set modifier for each. These are used for skills and checks outside of fighting (which has its own "fighting roll"). I'm also adding a willpower check in the form of a saving throw.
One thing I want to focus on more this time is the notion of character class as "story": when you pick your class, it gives you an idea of what and who you are, and what you will become. All of the level based abilities and gained powers are a roadmap of your character's story. This is the appeal of classes after all. It's why pure skill-based systems can feel bland and generic to people. There's an appeal to looking over your class and its story arc, looking ahead to what will be. Race is like this: being a dwarf defines your character. But races don't usually "progress", so you look to the class for that part of the story. Even the misguided level titles of old AD&D were about this: flavor and identity for each level!
We'll see how it goes.