The basic idea:

• The best of system 7:
  • opposed skill checks
  • classless
  • power sources? (tbd)
• The best of 5eA:
  • Simple numbers
  • New initiative
  • Inspiration?
• The best of PtbA:
  • Mixed success
  • 2d6 roll
  • Every roll has stakes
• And other ideas:
  • spell = upgrade = binding
  • action or reaction > passive or always-on

Build

• At character creation, everyone has 10 BP, plus 0-10 more depending on race.
• Each level, gain 2 BP.
• Each 1 BP can buy:
  • Skill upgrade
    • Unproficient -> Proficient -> Expertise -> Mastery
  • Power knowledge
    • Learn a new power
    • Learn an upgrade
    • Learn a binding
  • Ability score upgrade (+1)
  • New races or power sources (name TBD, cost multiple BP)
  • Resources (BP cost 1+)

Ability Scores

tbd

Skills

Instead of skills being a system on top of ability checks, merely gating basic abilities and providing little else, let's do the following:

• Everything that should use ability checks (i.e. combat rolls) continues doing that. No need for expertise or anything like that--if you want advantage, get Inspiration.
• Everything else uses PtbA rules.

Thus, no more Melee, Ranged, Spellcraft, etc. Powers, Maneuvers, Big Magic, and Stunts handle all that without needing skill mechanics of any kind.

Also, no more "I invested BP in the Investigate skill, but I suck at it because I didn't spend 10 BP on Int". If you spend 1 BP on Investigate, you have Investigate +1. Bump it up to +2 for 2 more BP (expertise) or even to +3 for 3 more BP (mastery). In addition to the numeric benefit, new moves become available at higher tiers (for example, Investigation might grant greater leaps of logic at higher level, or Perception gives you radar against stealthed NPCs).

Each skill should be analagous to one Move from PtbA (e.g. Manipulate Someone, Act Under Pressure), but only the generally non-combat moves.

Powers

Magic

Think 5eA's power list, without skill or class prereqs. There is no skill called Thaumaturgy, nor Fire, nor Mentalism, nor Infernal. Those are just ways to categorize powers.

Powers all do one simple thing, by default. Example:

• Flames: creates a cone of fire inflicting medium damage.
• Immolate: subject burst into flames for instant and ongoing damage.
• Wall of Fire: curtain of flame harms those who pass through it, hinders vision.

They can be upgraded (using the same currency as buying new ones). Examples:

• Flame Jet: modifies Flames into a long, thin line that can be focused on one target or spread across several.
• Conflagration: causes Immolate's flames to leap to other targets or burn hotter on main target.
• Mana Burn: causes Wall of Fire to dispel magic that crosses its boundary (and also blocks summoned creatures).

Mana

There is no Mana.

But how does Metamagic work?

If you want to use a power in any way not explicitly outlined in its description, you need to make an ability check, and you need to take on some sort of risk.

The ability check depends on the aspect that's being stretched most:

• If the power is being stretched beyond its normal limitations (think using Wall of Ice to create a sculpture of a gargoyle instead of a craggy wall), it's an Intelligence check
• If the power is being used in a mostly normal way, but would require excessive focus (think chain, extend, shaping), it's a Wisdom check.
• If it's just really big or does a lot of damage (think widen, enlarge, empower), it's a Charisma check.

Obviously, there is some room for debate between the PC and DM about which check it should be.

Most of the time, the risk is that you will Strain the ability in question. When an ability is Strained, you suffer disadvantage to checks with it, and if you do anything else to strain it, you fall unconscious.

For larger spells, rituals, etc, the risk has to be more substantial, and there's a process of negotiation.

Can casters cast 14,400 spells per day?

No. The biggest and most intractible problem with D&D is that it's balanced on the assumption that you will fight a baker's dozen encounters per day, and anything less means that casters reign supreme as gods. And either way, monsters are useless trash until the 6th or 7th fight that day. That mentality can die in a fire.

Although Big Magic always imposes risk of Strain, a DM might rule that a feat of endurance such as casting Fireball every 6 seconds for 10 minutes is itself an act of Big Magic and can force the roll.

Can casters still join together to cast rituals?

Absolutely. The larger Big Magic effects may even require it. As a guideline, you can only use one Power at a time, so if you wanted to combine Immolate and Cyclone into a fire whirlwind on your own, you're out of luck--unless you have a friend with the right powers, then you can combine your Powers into a combo attack! In these cases, you're both rolling checks and taking risks, but the effect should be larger than the sum of its parts if it succeeds.

Non-Magic

Same philosophy as Magic, really. Maneuvers do what Feats have always done, but with an important difference: they should almost always be actions or reactions, not passive modifiers.

Examples:

• Cleave: melee attacks chain 1/1.
  • Great Cleave: melee attacks chain 1/unlimited.
    • Whirlwind Attack: melee attack is an AoE.
• Parry: reaction, roll Melee vs incoming attack to negate it.
  • Protector: you can Parry attacks against adjacent allies.
• Dodge: reaction, roll Dex vs incoming attack to negate it.
  • Tuck and Roll: when you Dodge, you can move 1 square for free (no AOO) regardless of success.
• Slam: melee attack, damage upgrade, but it provokes an AoO.
• Aim: swift, gain advantage to next attack against target within certain duration.
  • Called Shot: use Aimed attack to shoot weapon out of enemy's hand, or apply a movement debuff, or inflict extra damage, etc. (harder and more powerful uses negate your advantage, hardest actually impose disadvantage)
• Sneak Attack: melee attack, attacker must be unaware, you inflict critical damage.

Basically, give fighters some moves and countermoves, but keep it simple, and don't incentivize or require fighters to take dozens of them to feel competent.

Wet Stunts

Similar to Big Magic, you can perform feats outside the normal bounds of Maneuvers. This is known as a Wet Stunt. It requires an ability check and some sort of risk, as you might expect. Fun and Cool > Physics. (in other words, Magnus stunts are allowed and encouraged)

Powers that aren't powers

If you want to be strong, take lots of points in Strength. If you want to be able to channel void energy into your sword, take the Voidblade power (or whatever). Powers should be the first place you look if you want to gain actions (or reactions) of a magical nature.

But what if you specifically want to avoid feeling like a "spellcaster", but still be able to keep up with them?

Generally speaking, the only way to do that is to "be" something powerful that isn't a "spellcaster", such as a werewolf, or a Moonblade Wielder, or an Armor Jockey.

Other systems have tried to implement this using Powers, or Feats, or whatnot. But there's a fairly obvious thing they are analagous to: Races. After all, a dragon is a dragon, and a vampire is a vampire.

Not sure what to name these yet, but the mechanics are thus:

• They cost multiple BP:
  • Probably no more than 10 so you can start as one
  • More than 1 would be ideal, otherwise isn't it just a Power?
• They grant rewards commensurate with the BP cost
• You can (optionally) invest more BP in them over time, by purchasing:
  • Powers unique to the race (or whatever)
  • Skills unique to the race (perhaps)
  • Baseline upgrades to get a big chunk of power (e.g. 5 BP to change your dragon form from Medium to Large)0
• You can take them at any time, not just character creation
• You can take zero, one, or many. You paid your BP, you get your rewards.
• None of them are required to use Powers.
  • i.e. none of them are "Wizard" or "Warlock"

Mechanics

The big question: D&D 5e style ability scores and skill checks? Or PtbA style?

With the former, you're incentivized to dump BP into your primary combat stat to keep up with (or oppress) the curve, unless some lame-ass gating mechanic is used (dulling the effect of being Vi the super-strong vampire).

The latter might work thus:

• New ability scores (hooray for slaughtering sacred cows) like Fighting, Marksmanship, Fortitude, Intellect, Willpower, etc (TBD)
• Modifier costs go up real fast:
  • 1 BP for +1
  • 3 BP for +2
  • 10 BP for +3
  • 30 BP for +4
  • 100 BP for +5 (lol)

PtbA Style, sort of

Dump the Gygax stats. Start over.

The System 7 skills are still there, skills like Melee, Ranged, Dodge, Willpower, Fortitude, etc.

• Combat Skills
  • Agility
  • Concentration
  • Fortitude
  • Initiative
  • Melee
  • Ranged
  • Spellcraft
  • Willpower
• Utility Skills
  • Archaeoloy
  • Investigation
  • Hacking
  • High Society
  • Linguistics
  • Mechanic
  • Medicine
  • Mercantilism
  • Perception
  • Persuasion
  • Research
  • Security
  • Stealth
  • Survival
  • Underworld

Spending BP on these skills increases their modifier.

• +1 costs 1 BP
• +2 costs 3 BP total
• +3 costs 6 BP total

You can also spend BP to unlock "moves", at least for the combat skills. For example:

• Melee
  • Cleave: you can chain as many times as your Melee modifier
  • Parry: you gain a reaction where you roll Melee vs incoming Melee attack, and if you win, it's negated (once/rd/mod)
• Fortitude
  • Block: gain a reaction where you roll Fortitude to block, etc etc
  • Tough: gain 1 hit
• Agility
  • Dodge: duh
  • Catfall
  • Lunge
  • etc

As mentioned before, these should be powerful, punchy, simple, and not too deep a tree so as not to incentivize you to spend 50 BP on them.

Combat

Attacks and Damage

It goes like this:

• You attack with a weapon, let's say a longsword.
• Roll Melee.
  • 2-6: fail
  • 7-9: mixed success
  • 10-12: perfect success
• In this case, perfect success means you do damage without any side effects. Mixed usually means you'll do your damage and take some too, but it might involve doing less damage, or settling for a debuff or something.
• When you do damage, it works thus:
  • Weapons only have a few damage values: grazing, lethal, overpowering, or subdual. Most inflict lethal damage--the rest are for special cases.
  • When you deal damage with a lethal weapon, the enemy takes 1 hit.
    • They might have a move to try to reduce the damage somehow. Whatever.
  • By default, 3 hits means you're out. And every hit debuffs you by -1.
  • Big bosses might have more hits, as might powerful PC fighters who've taken certain moves.
  • "Grazing" damage debuffs you, but only counts as a "partial" hit. If you take no more hits, you can treat grazing damage quickly and it goes away. Another grazing hit will combine with the first to become a "true" hit. Most weapons don't inflict grazing damage, except perhaps as a side effect.
  • "Overpowering" damage is usually coming from a boss, the environment (hit by truck), or perhaps some really powerful, rare PC abilities. An overpowering hit sets you to the maximum hits before death, unless you were already there, then it just kills you. These hits are quite powerful indeed, so it's usually worth saving a reaction or to to prevent them.
• Certain abilities allow you upgrade damage in some cases.
  • For example, there is a Stealth move that lets you use a grazing weapon to inflict lethal damage when you have the element of surprise.

Armor and Shields

Armor can be worn, natural, granted by a power, or whatever. It grants a chance to absorb hits, and can take a certain number of hits before being rendered useless and requiring repair.

• Light Armor (1 BP): 50% chance, 2 hits
• Medium Armor (2 BP): 100% chance, 2 hits
• Heavy Armor (3 BP): 100% chance, 3 hits

Combat Alternative

In this version, we use d20s and ability scores.

Ability scores:

• NOT PURCHASABLE WITH BP
• You assign them at level 1, maybe modify them with race. No BP.
• Every few levels, they all go up by 1.
• Definitely worth considering replacing the Gygaxian ones. Perhaps:
  • Str -> Combat (basis for Melee, Ranged, Parry, etc)
  • Dex -> Agility (no real change there tbh)
  • Con -> Fortitude (basis for Block among other things)
  • Cha -> Willpower
  • etc...I dunno
• Balance roughly on par with 5e (higher ability scores to balance lack of proficiency bonus)

Skills: d20 + ability score check

• Expertise: roll with advantage
• Mastery: tbd

Damage: as 5eA / System7, i.e.:

• Light: 1d4 per rank + half mod
• Medium: 1d8 per rank + mod
• Heavy: 1d12 per rank + 2x mod

Hit Points: here's where things change.

• Damage Threshold
  • By default, it's level + Con score.
  • Armor and abilities can increase it.
• Any attack that does damage below your DT has no permanent effect. Instead, it causes a one-use -1 to a single roll, called in by your enemies. Once called in, the debuff is gone.
• Any attack that does more damage than your DT does a "hit", of which you have 3. (rarely more)
• Each Hit causes a global -1 debuff.
• At 3 hits, you can't act anymore and start dying.
• Nothing ever hits for more than 1 hit, unless Scale is involved (i.e. special overpowered attacks, like getting hit by a train or blasted by a tank cannon)
• Normal enemies go down after 1 hit. Elites have 3. Bosses also have 3, but they have dastardly ways of evading hits.
• PCs can trade away hits by exchanging them for Injuries.
• Possible rule: every 10 grazing hits can apply a Hit debuff, without counting as an actual Hit, simulating the exhausting effect of tanking dozens of lesser hits.

Powers

Powers aren't skills. They're more like Moves, with some 5eA spell logic mixed in.

• Spend 1 BP, get a Power.
• Powers are specific (i.e. not "Air", more "Gust of Wind") but broadly useful (think Ideation, Polymorph, or...Gust of Wind)
• You can also spend 1 BP to buy an Upgrade (improves an existing Power)
• You can spend X BP to buy permanent powers that aren't "spells" (Spider Climb, Flight, etc)

Buying Powers means you have supernatural power. Always. If it's from a power suit or a magic sword or whatever, buy Resources with BP instead.

However, Powers != spellcasting. If you just buy Powers, you could be casting spells, or manifesting your racial abilities, or a psionic wild talent, or whatever.

If you take the Spellcraft skill, you can "cast spells", including:

• Rituals (unlockable as Moves, i.e. Witchcraft, Planar Invocation, Wizardry, etc)
• Ad-hoc casting (build any effect in line with the powers you know, risk of failure)
• Big Magic (ad hoc but bigger, slower, and has permanent cost in addition to risk)

Resources

Not all power comes from training or innate magical ability. Sometimes its about what you have, and what you can call upon.

Powerful Items

Should be roughly in line with Powers. Could probably just directly access the Powers list, but it's an item instead.

Vehicles

1 BP = cool vehicle

more = cooler

Social Resources

• Group Affiliation (at 1 BP, can get a Help Out check from them, or a useful tip; at 3 BP, they can loan you resources or a temporary minion, etc)
• Minion (1 BP / 3 BP / 6 BP roughly equal to rank 1/2/3 warlock)

Rewards

You should gain 1 BP per session (assuming they're of reasonable length), and maybe some bonus BP for completing major objectives.

You can bank you BP as long as you want, cashing it in when you're ready, within reason (you generally can't stop combat to invent some amazing 10 BP resource or whatever).