terrierlee

I picked up both of these from DriveThruRPG. I have yet to play either of them, I'm just looking at their systems.

Cozy MMUGS is $5 USD and Idlewater is Pay-What-You-Want (default $2 USD). They're both variants on the same idea of a life of farming, mining, foraging, and other things you'd expect from their video game equivalents. They're what are considered "solo journaling TTRPGs" (though the author says the journaling is optional), where you write out what you did each day. If you've never heard of journaling RPGs, it's where you have a slightly guided adventure with the dice working more or less as your gamemaster/guide, and you're expected to log/journal in a story format what you did each day as your character.

Of the two, Idlewater is definitely the simpler of the two systems. It's vaguely d20 System based, though it doesn't use the OGL because it doesn't need to. You roll for six stats which very much resemble D&D ones but have different names (for the most part); you also have one skill related to each stat. It comes with its own setting (which is actually based off a related RPG) which seems to be magic-based even though there is no magic in the game, and includes an entire town full of locals. You do the same things that you'd expect in a farming-type cozy video game, such as farming, mining, dungeon delving, blacksmithing, hunting, and selling - oh, and of course, relationships. You are limited by a stamina type system where you have a limit as to how much you can do each day. There's also a weather system, and if you're really unlucky, there will be some days where you feed your animals and then go back to bed.

(This is likely the earlier of the two works and could have used a couple more editing passthroughs; for example, the setting has 12 30-day months split into 4 seasons, but the villagers have the typical "Summer 4" type birthdays; for some reason, the more Constitution stat equivalent you have, the easier it is for you to get hit... and so on. Also, the PDF contains several pages of descriptions about the various ancestries in the setting, some of which supposedly have magic, but there is no magic use in this game....)

Cozy MMUGS is kind of a more detailed version of Idlewater. It uses the author's own dice system (instead of Idlewater's vague d20 System), has a generic setting, and no set village - though you could easily lift Idlewater's characters for it sans that game's setting info regarding their ancestries (or including their ancestries, if you want). It has similar 6 stats (with the same 3-18 number spread as Idlewater), but has more skills, and an xp system so you can go up in level and increase your skills. It also has magic and a related MP system, but no concrete magic powers - very much write your own.

ETA: So there are 3 possible types of rolls: the Oracle Check, which is a simple yes/no question, the rare stat last resort stat check, which is a pretty standard roll at or below stat check, and the regular skill check. The regular skill check goes something like this: roll 2 d12s, and then a die according to how many skill points you have (you can have 0-3) in the related skill. The higher your skill, the bigger your die. If you match or beat at least one of the d12s, you have a success; if you match or are higher than both, it's a great success. If you have a modifier based on the related stat, you add or subtract it from your skill roll before comparing.

Personally, I'd blend the two. Use Cozy MMUGS' system, but include Idlewater's alchemy and plants, along with its calendar system. I'd import Idlewater's village full of folks, use Idlewater's calendar (and set the villagers' birthdays to be spread throughout those months).

( My notes on how I'd merge Idlewater's stuff with Cozy MMUGS )