ENDERX'S PROFILE

@Feldschlacht:
I was already considering that. My hypothetical example would incorporate both that, and a %age increment or decrement - a 5% MaxHP/turn poison might do 3% or 2% under slow, 7% or 8% under haste, in addition to the native mechanics of the system.

At GameOverGames:
Nice point. I'll have to think a bit further on that side - it's an expansion of the negational sets, but one I can't recall seeing used before.

Status effect, no. Elements, on the other hand, yes. Tried a trick I learned from someone on WotM to set up a boss who could, as one of his action patterns, buff himself from normal damage, to resist, to immune, to absorb on the elements the player could throw at him. Problem was, half the time when he tried to use the skills that allowed him to buff that way, the engine crashed. Haven't figured out why, yet.

I'll grant you battles. It's a slight abstraction of the dealings of the world, in a somewhat easy to handle form. (Breath of Fire 2, for example, used battles at one point as the way of showing your team clearing weeds, rocks, and stumps from a field.)

I'll grant you the 'Civ/Dungeon' divide. Instory, the characters need a place to recuperate; out of the storyline, the players need somewhere they can treat as a central base, even if that base moves from time to time.

I specifically and explicitly do not grant you epicness.

I'll play a game with ye olde epic storyline #73, yes. And I may enjoy it if the other factors are good. But 'epic', in the traditional sense, is not something I require out of my game stories. The examples you gave above were hyper-simple tales, single events even. There's space between that and 'gots to saev teh wurld' on that scale. There's a fair amount of space.

Consider this: The Chosen(TM) Destined(TM) Hero, in his Epic Quest of Epicness, crashes through village #613 on his quest. He breezes in, solves their single problem, and breezes back out. As far as he's concerned, the village was just a place to rest, restock and possibly upgrade supplies, practice a little (the fight against the local threshold guardian plot-monster), and possibly get some kind of token reward. After that, he's off, and he's not likely to ever show up again. Total time? Maybe three days ingame, and that's assuming a full 'sleep-for-the-night' stop at the inn both before and after battling the plot-monster. The village, and its inhabitants, are nothing more than a pitstop and plotpoint, at least as far as the CDH is concerned.

Now, take that same village. Put it into a finer-grained detail resolution. Instead of simply being random generic villagers, assume the inhabitants are people - they have likes, dislikes, personal friendships and enmities, strengths, and weaknesses. Place them in the middle of a somewhat large challenge - instead of a single marauding plotmonster, have them face a curse on the harvest, for example. And let the storyline explore how these people react to this challenge. It's not an epic 'Saev Teh Wurld' plot, no. It's a more focused, more personal one - 'save OUR world'. As with any other storyline, it'll look bad if done poorly. And I'll admit the story (and thus the game) will be shorter than the traditional 'epic epic of epicness' story. But there's no reason to assume that it's any less worthy because of this.

Most of the basic ideas have already been mentioned, but my own two cents:

A previous poster mentioned 'photosynthesis' - light-based healing, presumably per round.

Why stop with that one? Why not have other forms of field-based healing?
Hydrosynthesis - water-healing. Active when raining, or on water-based fields. Presumably coupled with Absorb::Water.
Cryosynthesis - ice-healing. Active when snowing, or on cold-based fields. Absorb::Ice
Lomasythesis - fog-healing. Name derived from a term for certain types of plants which obtain a fair portion their water from the fog in the air, rather than through their roots.

Or how about scenarios where the conditions are -phobic or -aversive, rather than -sythetic? Where an enemy constantly heals, unless in the presence of such a substance? Modern-day folklore, for example, credits vampires with an excessive form of Photophobia - strong aversion to light. And aren't trolls supposed to regen from almost anything except for burns in some game systems?

Properly, these need the ability to change the field conditions, ala Pokemon's Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Hail, or Sandstorm skills - but it does add an extra bit of strategy into the equation.

Are you sure 'tradition' is the word you're looking for here? I'm having trouble picturing this one getting passed down from generation to generation...

Best of wishes on getting net access again.