Since it works so well that even WotC adopted it, I think some ironclads should be:
Stats run from -5 to +5. The exact number and names of stats is variable.
Skills run from 0 to as high as you can get experience for.
Decisions are made on a dX + stat + skill roll vs. a target number/ease factor/level/whatever. The precise die could change, up to d20, or down to d6, or you could change it to d7. Whatever. Again. Dice can botch. They can also score higher than their top face. (Rerolling on a '1' in the current system, but that could change.) I could digress on d20 at this point, but that's another thread. Some other things seem core: Spells and Lab Totals are Technique + Form + Stat vs. a target (either spell level as it is now, or an ease factor to steal Michael's Artistic Abilities, but those are just labels). Which implies that magic is divided into techniques and forms. The exact list of arts *could* be changed, but it'd have to be planned very, very, very carefully, the return on investment would really need to be outrageously high, and something would have to be done with any arts that suddenly disappear. (Case in point: If you lose Imaginem -- just a random example, really -- then there should be a rule to convert a 4th ed magus' Imaginem score into something 5th ed useful -- an Affinity with Illusions, a Glamour Virtue, whatever.) While I like Lab Totals' margin of success accumulating from season to season, it could change if someone offered something better. (Something that mimicked the training/study rules would be cool, just to reduce the total number of mechanics. IE: A project accumulates XP until it has a "Completion" skill of its magnitude. I may think it would be cool, but it may not be better, in which case...stick with what we got.) Season by season education. Characters grow even when they aren't actively adventuring. *Some* form of training and study rules are needed. Combat's fair game, no one's really attached to the combat system. You could start a CCG with *really* clever deck construction rules for all I care. On a related note, feel free to completely rewrite the skill list again. Strange...I never mentioned pyramid points. Maybe they aren't important. Okay, I've pulled all the low-hanging fruit on mechanics. Now to turn on the stream of consciousness for Setting: Europe. Of course. Order of Hermes, no getting around it. Church, Faeries, Nobility, the whole bit. Magi form covenants, are members of houses, and live in tribunals. There are 13 houses, no more, no less; I could list them by name and personality, since that seems fixed, but we know who they are. One house is probably dead, but you *might* be able to get away with moving the entire setting to before (or during!) the Schism. Play with the Tribunals if you want. Praeco. Primus. Archmage. They stay. (I could also digress on why the dual hierarchy -- Tribunal/House -- is a good thing, but some other day. OTOH, Archmages are just cool.) Apprentices. Gauntlet. Familiars. The Code. After that, most of the flavor is predicated on individual House personalities, so maybe it *should* be looked into more closely. But not by me. Maybe I went into too much detail. Maybe I answered the wrong question. But it was fun.
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