Hello! This one is for all the tabletop (non-digital) roleplayers out there.
People act like Dungeons & Dragons is some kind of all-purpose fantasy roleplaying engine, when really it's a niche game that focuses HEAVILY on the combat and resource management aspects of fantasy adventure. The only reason people treat it like anything else is because it's the biggest (i.e., most well-funded) tabletop RPG on the market.
In other words, the sheer mass of D&D's presence warps perception around it so that tons of fans mistakenly think it's some kind of flexible, style-neutral fantasy baseline instead of the hyper-specific niche game it is. Meanwhile, those of us who see it for what it is are left wondering what an ACTUAL flexible fantasy engine could be like.
That's what I'm creating with Aether of Adhara's rules. Later there will be a whole stand-alone game with its own setting and themes and such, but for now, the mechanics—which are easier to learn, easier to play, and less focused on combat than D&D's mechanics—are ready for playtesting.
This short document isn't fancy, but it contains everything you need to try out a different ruleset for your fantasy roleplaying. Don't worry about a huge commitment to learning a new system; the entirety of the mechanics are presented in just under 7 pages, or if you're good at extrapolating you could get by with just the 1-page intro. That's how different from D&D this is—you can learn the system, make characters, and do some actual gameplay all in a single session.
So if you're a tabletop roleplayer who wants your fantasy stories to be about something other than hours of murder-math, give this playtest packet a try, and let me know how things went at your table!