My Tabletop RPG System (MVA)

[Guybrush]

So a while ago, I was reviving some of my websites that had died when the php they were running on got outdated. One of the sites I revived was this:

MVA RPG System

A tabletop RPG system I developed some years ago. This is my marketed list of features:

• Characters generally use a specific die type (d4, d6, d8 or d10) and checks are made using two die (one adds, the other subtracts)
• Less random. Checks that use use two or more die follow bell shaped (normal) probability curves
• Combat mechanisms that use grid (much like D&D) and strive for a good level of realism vs. streamlining
• Incremental progress, no levels
• Supports playing children, teenagers or adults
• Has optional fear and insanity rules suitable for horror themed games

The character sheet looks like this (pdf)

Some of my motivation was I wanted to create a game system that would handle the transition from child to adult well. One of the ways my system handles that is by assigning different die types to different age groups. Also, I wanted mechanics that would fit a horror theme well.

The system was actually pretty good, I think, and plays a bit like D20 mixed with the old World of Darkness games. You could use it for many things. F.ex. I do believe you could easily make it work also as a system for a PC / console game, perhaps a little similar to the Shadowrun RPGs. I developed it for a game inspired by Eerie Indiana, The Goonies and a lot of HP Lovecraft. Today people would probably think I'd watched too much Stranger Things, but my game predates that TV Show. I guess a lot of us like horror and monsters and are nostalgic about our childhoods

In my fictional setting, the universe's first living thing was a black hole that started devouring things. It formed a quazar around it shining a horrible light. Any place in the universe that gets touched by this light, awful things happen. There's a huge galaxy surrounding this black hole and it is populated with godlike abominations, many of which spread to other worlds.

There are alternate worlds / dimensions in this setting, one of which is the dream world. Many gods or monsters have a presence in this dream world and may take a different shape there. Some of them are even able to sleep and be awake at the same time and have a simultaneous presence in both worlds (f.ex. having a sleeping brain and an awake brain at the same time). Through dreams, they can communicate with eachother over vast distances and also invade the dreams of human beings. It's a world where the safest thing may be not to know about these awful things, lest you unintentionally draw their attention.

Humans are incapable of magic, but they may have a special connection with some god (alien abomination) that grants them some power. This typically comes at some great and awful cost.

I took all these things and more to create a horror backdrop to what's otherwise an RPG campaign where the players are kids / teenagers in a not so sleepy, small town on the Norwegian south coast Think of a somewhat less severe Innsmouth.

So any other tabletop RPG nerds out there? What system did you create?