Gears: The only constant is change!

Ghost in the Shell I finally made up my mind about Gears, my roleplaying game in development. Thanks to the comments I got during the last weeks I was finally able to decide what I should focus on next. Creating a game system that works in every genre is no easy feat, so I will probably focus on getting to work Gears in one genre and then move on to the next. Each game will contain all rules needed to play and a complete mini-setting.

The first game will probably be a Cyberpunk game that I intend to create as entry into the 1KM1KT.net Cyberpunk Revival Project.

I’ve also decided to make some changes to how Gears will work in general:

  • Basic task resolution
    The core mechanic will stay pretty much the same, but I am considering using some of the ideas, John Powell posted recently as a comment on one of my Gears-related posts.
  • No classes and levels
    Although there are no classes per se, character creation will make use of character packages which speed up the character creation process. Players and GMs may come up with their own character packages.
  • Skill ranks
    I will probably change the skill ladder from four to six levels

So basically Gears will stay the same (with some tweaks) and instead of focusing on multi-genre I will try to get games for specific genres done first. So, what are your thoughts on these changes? Please let your voices be heard in the comments below!