I have not given up thinking about a new d20 game, called Scurry, fixing what I think are the problems in 3.5E Dungeons and Dragons. In Scurry, the characters are pests, that is, pesky nuisances, hated parsites, rodents and vermin. But these pests have gained souls, and now they struggle to survive in a world of giants who hate them.
After thinking over my original ideas, I decided that I needed a bit of a revamp. I decided that six races and six classes would be much more elegant, especially with six primary ability scores.
Races
This table needs some explaining. Each race has an inherent manipulation ability, which describes how easily it can carry and use things. I may reduce the racial abilities to simply Poor and Medium, with Good as a level one can achieve with the right feat.
I want to shift the first level bump from classes to races. That means each race gets bonus hit points and bonus skill ranks (max 3 in any one skill). Each race has certain skills to spend these ranks on ... you can buy other skills at double cost (just like "class skills and cross-class skills")
Classes
You'll note that the hit dice are small, and I am toying with the idea of making them smaller still (d2, d2, d3, d3, d4, d4). One of the guiding ideas of Scurry is that the PCs are weak, that they may well scurry off in the face of danger. Giving players very low hit points is one way to foster that attitude. It also helps realism. A party of mice and cockroaches, for example, should have a hard time killing a pack of orcs, even if the mice and cockroaches are 10th level!
Also note that all classes have a caster level progression. That follows some thoughts on caster level I had last year.
I also have an idea for an NPC-oriented (but PC-playable) Expert-style class. But before I go there, I have to write up each of the six primary classes. That's for screeds to come.
