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It's been... oh, about 10 years since I've played AD&D. I never picked up the second edition, let alone 3.0. Of course, I've played many, many other games in that time. And although most of the rules systems that came later made AD&D seem hopelessly outdated and obeselete, there was still something special about those old hardcover books. They inspired you to create.

Think about it. These days, most RPG's are tied to a particular setting. Vampire, Shadowrun, Cthulhu, Star Wars... either they present a set world of their own creation, or are licensed propeties attempting to simulate an established fictional universe. The thing that was so great about AD&D, in retrospect, was that it was assumed you would be creating your own fantasy world, and the rules were generic enough to apply to just about anything you could think up.

I've been looking for a set of simple, flexible rules lately that can do the same thing. Now, before everyone screams "Fantasy Hero", let me just say that I've played the Hero System, I respect the Hero System, but frankly, I just can't run it. For me, it's WAY too complicated. Plus, it seems to lack internal consistency. There's always 100 different ways to do someting, so it's difficult for players to get a handle on how your world works. And combat? Forget it. Maybe I'm just too old for these games now, but I just can't hack Hero System combat. Fights that take an hour? No thanks.

I havn't tried GURPS, but I'm afraid I'd find it more of the same. Plus, I don't feel like shelling out the cash for GURPS Fantasy, GURPS magic, GURPS Monsters, GURPS Rabid Squirrels, etc.

I think I've found my solution in Dominin Games' free download "Dominion Rules Digest 2.0". That's right, I said free. And no, it doesn't suck.

The dominion rules digest is about 100 or so pages of simple, easy to use fantasy rules that are generic enough to apply to any campaign world, but still tailored for fantasy adventure. You don't need to reinvent the wheel by gathering special effects into spell templates, or anything like that.

The system uses a pretty unique mechanic that is based completely on the 12 sided die. Character generation is quick and easy, and is a point based system. Basicly, you have 6 attributes (VIGOR, AGILITY, INTELECT, etc.) Skills are based off these attributes. The attribure values never raise, but Skill levels can be raised by earning advancement points.

The Skill system works a lot like the old Star Wars game from West End Games. Basicly, anyone can do anything. If you don't have a skill, you default to the skill's attribute. But since attributes can't raise, and skills can, the skilled person will usually have a higher chance of success. To perform a skill, or any other task, you roll a 12 sided die, and try to roll under your Skill or sttribute level, plus or minus any modifiers(difficulty raitings, weapon bonus, etc.) A roll of 12 always fails.

Combat is similar.You have a base combat attribute (derived from your VIGOR and AGILITY stats), but raise your level with specific manauvers, ie: strike, parry, dodge, as if they were skills. This leads to a great amount of variety between fighters. One warrior might be a sophisticated fencer, with high levels of parry, feint, and disarm, whereas a barbarian might just buy up his strike and block skills, to do maximum damage.

All the systems in Dominion are very open ended. The rules encourage you to come up with new skills, and send them to Dominion Games, who will in turn add them to future editions of the digest. The same goes for Monsters, weapons, etc.

I have to admit, I really like this grass roots approach. It gets my creative juices flowing, and just seems very inspiring in this over marketed, over hyped age of gaming.

The Dominion Rules Digest 2.0 is available for free download at www.dominiongames.com. Check it out if you're looking for a simple, rules light, generic fantasy system.