Aurea
This is the first English version of the Aurea role-playing system. The first¸ Dutch¸ edition appeared eight years ago. In the meantime a lot of play testing has gone on in a variety of groups and the system has stood the test of time relatively well. The primary author is Frank Rieter¸ but the English version has been done by Boudewijn Rempt¸ with some small additions by Irina Rempt.
Aurea is a generic system¸ which means that it should be applicable to every possible world-setting1. It has been used in a variety of medieval fantasy worlds¸ a realistic medieval world¸ in a cyberpunk setting¸ two classical era settings¸ in the China of Judge Dee¸ in a Cthulhu-like setting and a couple more.
Aurea is also quite free and depends to a certain extent on the judgement of both GM and players to work. Often¸ several rules coexist¸ and the GM is free to pick one to his liking. However¸ that means that in order to keep the game balanced¸ the GM must be fairly experienced and not afraid to fudge or to wing it. Anyway¸ this first English version is not meant for novice GM's¸ nor for novice players¸ unless they have a GM who can explain everything to them. It's just a statement of the system as it is used.
Aurea is not very innovative; it is squarely a diced attribute & skill based system. No real mathematician has ever looked at the probabilities used with the system¸ though Irina Rempt once published a short paper on the use of dice in Aurea¸ the results of which are repeated in an appendix to this paper. In our experience it works¸ however¸ and a large variety of characters can be generated or described using the system.