Inspirations and Principles

This is an unorganized list of things and ideas I think are important to what I'm trying to do, along with sources in some cases (where I think a good idea or implementation exists).

First, let's get some rough required elements for a "D&D".  This is my (initial, first, rough, undeveloped) list; yours might be different (and if it is, I'd love to hear about it).

Attributes

I don't like "Ability Scores", because I want to use "Ability" as a specific thing a character can do, or a modifier to a thing any character can do.  So Attributes tell you what a character is made of.  Abilities tell you what he can do.

I'm going with STR / DEX / CON / INT / WIS / CHA.  I don't necessarily love them, but they're definitely not bad when interpreted in the "modern" sense, meaning WIS has picked up a lot of Perception, CHA is useful to summoners, etc.

I'm also implementing Armor Class and Hit Points.  By which I mean, I'm going to call them that, and they will be used in the same way.  But they will almost certainly be calculated differently.  I'm saying I'm going with the D&D base set of physical combat abstractions: 1) how hard is it to incapacitate or inconvenience you, and 2) how much of it you can take.  If you are reduced to 0 HP, you are not necessarily dead, but most likely will be unless someone helps.

Race

Gotta go AD&D here.  I won't do it the same way, but Race-as-Class has never worked for me.

Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Human.

Class

Let me say up front that I don't like Classes as they have been implemented in the games I know about.  There are two schools of thought: 1) Old School (pronounced "better"), which says you roll attributes and HOPE you play a class you dig.  The friction between what you wanted and what you got is half the fun of the games of my childhood ("Dude, I can't wear armor?"); and 2) the Pansies, who say, "Decide what you want.  During character generation you're going to get so many dice rolls and points to buy things with nothing is impossible."

1) isn't perfectly correct either; especially as a fan of mechanics, if I want to see how spell duels work, I'm making two mages.  The dice are relevant, but I'm deciding the final scores.  Right?

But the point is that I think Class is a requirement if I'm going to call the game a D&D, so I'm doing it, but hopefully (I have a concept) in a way that does what is needed better.

Skills

I'm not doing Skills.  I understand why they can be good, and relevant, and blah blah blah.  But I think the MASSIVE amount of bloat is not worth it.  One of the reasons people love Moldvay so much is that it's small.  1e, too.  In 2e they had the right idea--let's incorporate 10+ years of playtest data and fix some things and add what people are house-ruling--but it was the beginning of the end for many D&D fans.  That's why BECMI, Moldvay, 1e, OD&D, etc. have a following, imo.  They're just massively smaller, tighter games.  So, my D&D will be too.

Critical Hits

I'm going to include Critical results, but in a different way, including specific effects.

Magic

I don't know yet.  Systemically, this is probably my least favorite system in canonical D&D.  I am inclined to go Power Words, and I need to pull Ars Magica off the shelf.

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Within those things, here's some stuff I dig:

13th Age has some kickass mechanics for combat.  The fighter's choice moves especially.  I also really like the Icon idea--not gods, but people you need to know about.

Pathfinder kinda cracks me up.  The discussions I see on Reddit just baffle me--it's so blatantly a contest to see who can come up with a way to theoretically do a lot of damage.  That's cool, I actually like that, and hope I can satisfy Munchkin types with my ruleset.  But isn't there anything else in the fifty seven million pages of books worth talking about?  I like Pathfinder; it does what it sets out to do well.  And I think about the top 20% or so of rules is really good stuff.

From Warhammer (I only have 1e), I like the idea of "careers", meaning a way to develop a character with transient focuses.  So you can start as a Dwarf Cobbler, but work your way up realistically into a Soldier or Mercenary gig and retire middle-class, fat, and happy.  Your buddy who started as a Human Noble is going places you are not.  But so what?  Are you telling me the Dwarf Cobbler story isn't a good one?  The point is that you can move a character through phases where your development focus changes.  I dig that.

From Dungeon World, some of the class moves are really great.  And the idea of building a Steading by descriptors is right up my alley.

From Rolemaster, those beautiful, beautiful crit tables.  If you don't want to use them, don't.  But I'm telling you, when you tell the Rogue he's lost an arm at 1:45a when he has a mouthful of pizza, you'll be glad they're in there.