[Critique Request] www.Grayscaled20.com

After 32 years of hosting 1-2 tabletop games a week and getting cruelly jerked around by ever-changing game systems, I finally dredged up the spite to get "build your own d20 system that works" off my bucket list before I die.

My friends and family have been using this website for a while now, and they claim it's clean and works well....but this post is my first attempt to introduce it to strangers and ask them to critique it. I've also built an attached forum to enable feedback and discussion.

I don't get online much (I'm a bit older), so I'm vaguely aware there are already thousands of people out there trying to build and market their own systems. Cutting through that noise is hard, and I expect to encounter a healthy dose of cynicism, but I'm not looking to get rich here. I'll provide a quote from the landing page, and you can decide for yourselves:

The tabletop roleplaying genre is constantly evolving, and every ruleset carries its own strengths and flaws. In designing GSS, we examined prior systems to identify what works best—learning from past design challenges to address the balance issues that have historically plagued RPGs. While tables vary in their preferred power levels and complexity, GSS is built to be accessible. It does not require hundreds of hours of system mastery to enjoy a satisfying game.

To ensure consistency across the entire system, GSS is anchored by five core design principles:

• Alacrity. Game mechanics must be quick and efficient. Any resolution process taking longer than roughly ten seconds slows down the momentum of the table.
• Simplicity. Every process should be no more complicated than necessary. Rules provide a structural framework for the story, never the other way around.
• Teamwork. True engagement stems from cooperation. Every character must have a distinct role to play and feel like a vital contributor to the party; no role should ever feel redundant.
• Frugality. Numerical values must never inflate to the point where success is guaranteed or dice rolls become mere formalities. Characters should never become so powerful that they can afford to be reckless; experience confers capability, not invulnerability.
• Disparity. Classes are intentionally asymmetrical, and certain characters occupy specialized or limited roles. Asymmetry only becomes problematic when magic overshadows other classes or strips away vulnerability—which is why arcanists, for instance, remain fragile and subject to Arcane Rigor.

If this is enough to entice: www.grayscaled20.com

I'm continuing to develop this site on an ongoing basis, so things get massaged and refined in reponse to the playtesting people do. When designing a new game system, that's just how it goes. Everything on this site was hand-typed (over many hundreds of hours), but I'm using a website builder called Repaint to compensate for my lack of technical skills. I feed it all my tables and rules and such, it posts them, and then I make adjustments.

As mentioned, there's a forum for feedback. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but...do politely rip my work apart. And perhaps say something kind, if anything impresses you.