Red Ash is a generic rules set for an role playing game "RPG" and strategy game (in the future) that I have been working on for some time. My goals for this system is to design a complete rules set that can be used in any genre, but for now will focus on a fantasy setting. It is designed to be open, expandable, flexible and is still a work in progress.
A photochrom print of the front of Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria, Germany taken as few as ten years after the completion of the castle's construction. ca. 1890-1905, photo was digitally modified for this site
Original Source http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Press_releases/1000FP
What makes Red Ash different from other game systems is it is made from the ground up with a way to create custom species, creatures and classes. Tired of the same old Human, Elf, Dwarf selection of playable races? Make your own!
Levels progress from 1 to 100. At each step along the way character classes can spend skill points on a wide array of skills (Spells are skills!), unless they are restricted from the root skill of a particular branch. I did this to make it possible for a group of clerics, fighters or even wizards to have as much of an opportunity to adventure as a group as the "balanced" party (fighter, cleric, rogue, wizard).
You will find weapons and armor work differently in Red Ash as well. Plate mail does NOT make you harder to hit as in most game systems. Armor is designed to protect you when you get hit and it will absorb some if not all of the damage. Certain armors protect better against certain types of damage than others.
Weapons are not designed to do only one type of damage. This system does not limit a long sword to only doing slashing damage. It can also do piercing, bludgeoning and chopping damage. The damage you deal is based on how your character uses it during combat.
Red Ash is now at a beta stage, I do believe that the rules are far enough along to allow an experienced DM/GM (Dungeon Master/Game Master) to design a campaign and have fun with their group.
