Looking at the 5th Edition SRD - part 1 - Races

    With all these OGL games to draw from, let's take a look at one of them.  The 5th Edition SRD, based on the latest version of Dungeons and Dragons, is a fairly simple set of rules - so let's peek at how it's constructed.  I'm going to go along with the PDF, which does not have the greatest layout.

Races
    So let's look at the provided races:

Dwarf 
+2 Con
Medium, 25' speed (not reduced by heavy armor)
Exploring- Darkvision
Investigating- Stonecunning
Manipulation- Tool Proficiency
Talking-
Fighting- Dwarven Resilience, Dwarven Combat Training

    Hill Dwarf (sub-race)
    +1 Wis
    Fighting- Dwarven Toughness


Elf
+2 Dex
Medium, 30' speed
Exploring- Darkvision, Keen Senses
Investigating-
Manipulation- Trance
Talking- Fey Ancestry
Fighting-

    High Elf (sub-race)
    +1 Int   
    Manipulating- Cantrip
    Talking- Extra Language
    Fighting- Elf Weapon Training


 Halfling
 +2 Dex
Small, 25' speed
Exploring- Halfling Nimbleness
Investigating-
Manipulation- Lucky
Talking- Brave
Fighting-

    Lightfoot (sub-race)
    +1 Cha
    Exploring- Naturally Stealthy


 Human
 +1 to all Attributes
Medium, 30' speed
Exploring-
Investigating-
Manipulation-
Talking-
Fighting-


 Dragonborn
 +2 Str, +1 Cha
 Medium, 30' speed
Exploring-
Investigating-
Manipulation-
Talking-
Fighting- Breath Weapon, Damage Resistance


 Gnome
 +2 Int
 Small, 25' speed
Exploring- Darkvision
Investigating-
Manipulation- Gnome Cunning
Talking-
Fighting-

    Rock Gnome (sub-race)
    +1 Con
    Investigating- Artificer's Lore
    Manipulating- Tinkering


 Half-Elf
 +2 Cha; +1 to two other scores of choice
 Medium, 30' speed
Exploring- Darkvision
Investigating-
Manipulation- Skill Versatility
Talking- Fey Ancestery
Fighting-


 Half-Orc
 +2 Str, +1 Con
 Medium, 30' speed
Exploring- Darkvision
Investigating-
Manipulation-
Talking- Menacing
Fighting- Relentless Endurance, Savage Attacks


 Tiefling
 +2 Cha, +1 Int
 Medium, 30' speed
Exploring- Darkvision
Investigating-
Manipulation- Infernal Legacy
Talking-
Fighting- Hellish Resistance


 Some other random notes:

• Everyone is literate (usually speaking multiple languages), which does feel kind of odd for a quasi-medieval setting.
• I hate how they count movement by the foot- it's so unreal that you might as well just admit it's for a battle-map and say 5 or 6 squares.
• There is no background or setting information whatsoever in the PDF, which was meant to encourage people to create their own setting, but still makes it weird to read.
• Is there any way at all that Age really matters?
• Alignment is pretty useless, in general and in this specific edition - and applying it to a whole race is questionable (granted, it gives a "stereotype" to play off of, but I question the real usefulness of that).

    So, looking over everything we have a few conventions, and a few things strike me:

+3 to attributes - with 2 from the race and 1 from the sub-race (or all from race if it doesn't have any subs); except for Half-Elves who get an extra attribute point, and Humans who get 3 extra points.  This is weird, since humans get a +1 to every attribute, that means Dwarves are only 1 point tougher, Elves 1 point faster, and so on.  That just seems off somehow.  Not that it's a huge mechanical issue, while Humans get twice as many attribute points they have no other abilities at all compared to the other races (which, honestly, also feels kind of weird).

Darkvision is fairly common - 6 races have Darkvision while 3 don't.  I'm not really fond of this.  The trade-off of carrying a torch in a cave (let's you see but makes you easier to be seen) is a tactical problem (or really just a headache, until you can magick darkvision for everybody), but making Darkvision so common almost seems like it's punishing those without it.  It seems like Elves, Half-Elves and Half-Orcs (maybe) should have the older editions' "Low-Light Vision" instead of full-blown Darkvision.

Why not make Half-Elves and Half-Orcs sub-races of Humans? - yeah, the mechanics is a bit weird, you have to over-write the Human's default abilities, but it would just make more sense if these were somehow sub-races (and it would be great if you could keep the same pattern for all the races - I don't know, I just hate when a game establishes a pattern and then starts throwing around exceptions - it's an issue of mine ;).

Number of abilities:
Dwarf- 7 (I'm counting the speed thing as an ability),
Elf- 7,
Halfling- 4,
Human- 1 (the extra attribute points are an ability),
Dragonborn- 2,
Gnome- 4,
Half-Elf- 4 (the extra attribute is an ability),
Half-Orc- 4,
Tiefling- 3
    Comparing abilities in absolute terms is tricky, just because Dwarves have 7 abilities to Humans' 1 doesn't take into account how generally useful those abilities will be.  Still, by the quantity (regardless of quality) it seems like Dwarves and Elves are a little high and Humans and the Dragonborn a bit on the low side.

Ability Spread:
    Okay, I've been using a system first created by a friend of mine, The Homeless Nerd (rest in peace buddy), that divides all actions into 5 general categories: Exploring is everything dealing with the environment (movement/navigation, perception/stealth, bypassing locks and traps); Investigating covers the ability to gain extra information or deal with missing information; Manipulating covers interacting with objects (and people as objects, like healing); Talking deals with interpersonal issues (not being seen is Exploring, wearing a disguise is Talking); and Fighting covers hurting other people (demolitions or sabotage is Manipulating).  While this is a bit simplistic, it actually covers a pretty good amount of options and groups some things logically together.
    So, looked at from the perspective I just outlined, how many of the 5 categories get covered by each race?
Dwarf- 4,
Elf- 4,
Halfling- 3,
Human- 5 (since attributes are tied to skills, in essence all skills/action types are also raised),
Dragonborn- 1,
Gnome- 3,
Half-Elf- 3,
Half-Orc- 3,
Tiefling-3
    In all there's a nice spread, except for the Dragonborn (which, combined with their lower number of absolute abilities makes me think they're a little under-powered; their breath weapon is not that damaging and is only usable once between rests, the resistance is the only really all-around good ability; and I'm surprised they didn't get darkvision too (not that I think that would be a good thing :))


     Overall, I think it's a pretty solid system.  I like the conventions, and dislike the races that don't conform to them.  I am reminded of something by The Angry GM about separating Race and Culture - which I think would be a fantastic addition to this system (modified for the different game rules of course).  I do want to tweak the Humans and Dragonborn: though I'm not entirely sure how at the moment.  I'm also weighing the specifics of the different abilities, so while I like these rules overall I'm sure that I'm going to change them to at least some degree.
     Which is one of the things I've been turning over in my mind.  At first I was just going to copy-and-paste the SRD and start implementing in via JavaScript, but on reflection I don't think I want to go that route.  I'm going to actually make a setting and tweak the rules to my own desires.  While this makes my end product a little less useful to other people who want to use the RAW (Rules As Written), well, that's too bad (and it shouldn't be impossible to fork the code to make a more standards-compliant version, I think).