Well... you probably know I'm a system buff and have been working on something for a while now, though what it is has gone through several iterations.

I kind of finally got something workable, but then realized "You know... this still isn't enough for a book... and now I'm balancing work, college, and an actual game group." So... yeah... I figure I ain't doing the publishing thing after all. But... doesn't mean I can't share what I got. So... yeah... the simplified version for your enjoyment.

It's pretty similar to SAGA, classlessfied, and with little bits lifted from UA and Alternity.

ABILITIES:
There are six abilities that range from five to ten. These abilities are...

Strength
Dexterity
Wisdom
Intelligence
Charisma
Will

SKILLS:
A character starts with a number of trained skills equal to his intelligence score. Each trained skill gets a +5 bonus. All skills advance at a rate of +1 every even numbered level.

PERKS:
Perks are the unique abilities and advantages your character has. Mutations or psychic powers or spells or even extra money. If it isn't a skill or ability score, it's a perk. Incidentally, you can also swap out a perk for an additional trained skill, or take skill focus for an additional +5. You start with three perks and gain one additional perk every odd numbered level.

HEALTH:
You have three kinds of health, each of which you can roll to resist different kinds of attack or risk.

Mind is your wisdom plus your intelligence.
Soul is your charisma plus your will.
Body is your strength plus your dexterity.

ROLLING:
The system is roll under. You roll a number of d10s based on the difficulty of the task. 1d10 if it's routine for a trained individual. 5d10 if it's freaking epic.

COMBAT:
Roll initiative, and attack each other in turn. There's an active defense mechanic and if you don't keep on your toes, you might get clusterfucked by hordes of enemies.

INITIATIVE:
Your initiative is equal to your wisdom plus your dexterity. Roll 2d10 (3d10 if they get the drop on you, 1d10 if you get the drop on them). If you fail, you don't get to act in the first round. If you succeed, you do get to act in the first round. Otherwise, people go in order of highest first.

ACTIONS:
There are two types of action: Primary and secondary.

PRIMARY:
You get one on your turn. You can attack, move, stunt, or refocus.

SECONDARY:
You can do these even if it isn't your turn, but you lose a tick. Dodge, parry, reload, duck, counter a stunt, etc.

TICKS:
You get three to start. You spend one to take an action out of turn. You can get them all back by spending your primary action to refocus. That is all.

ATTACKING:
You roll as many dice as you want. If you roll under your skill you succeed. If you don't you fail. You deal damage equal to your roll plus your weapon mod.

DEFENDING:
You roll as many dice as your attacker. If you roll under, you successfully defend.

NOTE: Just the most basic stuff really. There's more fleshing out, but this is the key stuff. Character creation, rolling for stuff, and combat.

Nothing in there that's tool horrid. Can you give us an idea of what your game is about. Try writing the bit the goes on the back of the book. Is it a sci fi/fantasy/modern setting? What will the players be doing? Where will there be conflict (inter player or against NPCs only)?

I worked this out originally with two settings in mind.

The first ended up being called Moons of Megillot. Based on old science fiction manga (plus a few American comics like Flash Gordon and the older Heavy Metal fare). Humanity migrates to a system of moons orbiting a gas giant. Tech is kind of near future, with advances being mostly of a transhuman or mecha variety. Also some level of cosmic horror... 'cause you can't have an RPG without dead gods lying around *somewhere.*

I had fewer thoughts about the fantasy setting, except that magic would work differently (being accessible to everyone, but only practical for mages), and that there would be a slightly advanced timeline as far as technology, with some scattered light steampunk elements.

Each had a different custom damage mechanic... one had a kind of armor/penetration system tacked on to handle the sort of massive damage mechs might dish out. The other had a hit location system. Plus custom rules in either case for magic/psionics.

The Moons of Megillot certainly sounds like it has more flavour. You describe it with  certain flair, rather than "The fantasy setting". Would be cool to read more about the main protagonists or what the players would be doing in it.

Yeah... Moons was definitely the setting I worked on longer. The players could be... from a story perspective (like as to why they adventured) more or less anything... ripoffs of an organization like Section 9 or Nerv or just some kind of sky pirates mugging travelers that orbit the second moon. From a game perspective, they could be a handful of things... robots, mutants, psychics, "goblins" (descendants of genetically engineered humans from before the migration), cyborgs, mech pilots, whatever.

I may post a thread with the basics of the setting as well.

As for "the fantasy setting" you're right... there's a great deal less there. I don't know as much about history/fantasy as I do about science fiction, and I hadn't been working on it nearly as long (a couple months as opposed to a couple years). I knew the very basics about what I wanted it to feel like though. Once I've DMed fantasy for a bit longer or read up a bit more I want to get back to this one.

For the first version, I'd keep the focus as tight as you can. Sky Pirates sounded pretty cool. From the point of view of someone who wants to run your game, you need a nice tight premise that they can get their minds around. Introduce too much and you'll confuse it.

Have you played the setting using another system? You can road-test a system by using something like GURPS or Fudge or something simple to iron out things that might not make sense to the players. Such as Sky Pirates without having thought about Sky Police.

Sounds fascinating, tho. Keep posting!