HC SVNT DRACONES (1st & 2nd Ed.)

From publisher blurb:

HC SVNT DRACONES is an exciting new post-humanity tabletop role playing game. Players take the personage of a Vector, a new species created near the end of human civilization that witnessed the demise of their fore-bearers and has struggled through 700 years of slow growth devoid of personal history to etch out a new existence for themselves in the galaxy. Ships, gene-splicing, implants and esoteric horror mix with environments ranging from urban cities a mile high to twisted forests grown from terraforming mishaps in this wholly new and original system.

The 8-10-12 system addressees an issue I always felt constricting about many check systems: a limitation in avenues of approach. Too often I found myself in situations that required a specific check that I simply couldn't make for lack of points, despite my character possessing alternate means of approaching the task. There was also the opposite problem: having to dump all you starting points into certain must-have areas, because without them survival wasn't going to be possible. This made it difficult to flesh out the areas of my characters that were more flavorful. It's particularly frustrating when the opportunity arises to make a roleplay check related to your character's background or field of interests, something they should be good at, and you fail utterly because you had to put those points into whatever it was that would keep you alive in the next inevitable fightscene.

HSD's system changes the DM question from "Do you pass?" to "How do you pass?" You can still fail, of course, but by using the system you can approach roleplay situations from a myriad of different angles, affording you the greatest probability of success by playing to the strengths of the character rather than the limitations of they system. Because the checks are narrative in their own way, the act of maneuvering yourself to take advantage of your build becomes part of the narrative.