Here is an explanation as to where my issues with the original rules are, following the alternate ideas.
The Attributes use ratings ranging from 1 to 20 and above while the skills have ratings from 1 to 98. Skill checks are done with a d100 (also known as d%) while there are no real attribute tests but tests regarding saving throws that either have a base value or a value depending on attribute ratings.
I always had the urge to incorporate attribute tests for example as untrained skill substitute. But that is quite problematic with attributes and skills having totally different ranges. For some untrained skill tests this might sometimes be totally sufficient but if you'd like to have a roll for something where there is no skill at all this might be not enough. So I wanted to have a similar range with attributes as with skills. To stick to the used rules this could mean something like raising attributes to 1 - 98 stats or decreasing skill to 1 - 20 stats.
The next issue is the way skills increase with levels of experience. Sometimes it is 2 points, sometimes it is 6 points (I'd rather not use 2% or 6% because 6% increment to 20% is totally different to a 6% increment of a 50% skill). Another thing is, that you start with one skill at a rating of 20 and another with 40. And so forth.
Right now it feels right not to use the 1 - 98 range but the smaller one. And it wouldn't make much of a difference if you increase a skill by 4, 5, or 6 percentage points but by 1 in a 1 - 20 range.
The current core rulebook introduces about 200 skills. That is a lot and in other publications are new skill to new character classes. And these skills do in general what other rpgs achieve with a lesser broad skill set. The skills are pooled in groups with a single topic, like computers or cowboys and in that group are all skills regarding these branches. And some skills appear in different branches (like pick locks which is a rogue and an espionage skill). Sometimes two skills are very close to each other and only players coming from a profession using these skills can differentiate between these (like the skills chemistry and chemistry: analytical). So do I need to have a degree in chemistry to play a character proficient in chemistry? What most other games do here is, they abstract things to make it more easy for players to find their way with these sets of skills - the characters are the pros in what they do, not the players.
So this is what I did as well. I melted the 200 skills down to merely 12 skills. I took the groups of skills and made them the general skills with the necessity to specialize with each skill in certain aspects (like sub-skills).
I do like leveling characters as a whole but then again as my level of experience (in life) grew, I asked the natural question as to why the possibilities of a person increases all at once in phases? A lot of the classic level-games have lost that aspects during their "growth" through the years. And I think Rifts® can do so, too. So I made up a system to increase single stats independently to one another and to a general experience level. So naturally there was a lot of redesigning where the level of experience had an influence to a certain stat not tied to a skill or attribute or similar (like effects of spells or psionic powers).
The character classes are divided by occupations and races. But it is also encouraged that you mix those. Sometimes there is a separate character class doing so but sometimes there isn't. I always liked to not link a race to character class - as long as there is not just one character class possible for a race. So there ought to be rules to do so in a simple fashion and I still work on those.
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