Is trying to recreate the feeling of a videogame, a recipe for disaster?

I've been playing Sword of Xolan on my phone a lot, lately. It is a simple 2d dungeon crawler where you can either jump, hit things with your sword and throw fireballs. You have three hearts and once you're hit three times you die.While the game itself is not prone to being the base for a rpg, since it's completely deprived of story and interactions, I find the feeling truly appealing: the minimalistic approach allows for easy access to the game, and the limited resources force you to think about every move (you can get hit 3 times, you can throw 3 fireballs before having to find a potion, there's a slight delay in the time it takes for you to swing your sword a second time, so you cannot spam attacks).And, the final thing I really like about the game is the fact that I am a fighter that can throw fireballs. I do not have a spell list to manage, I can simply cast fireballs.So, I've been thinking about whether I should attempt to recreate this feeling in the form of a trpg or not. It would be a design exercise, since I highly doubt the final product will be interesting enough for people to play (I mean, it would be the most basic version of a fantasy heartbreaker).The idea is to create a basic system that focuses on dungeon crawling. At the beginning of the game, you get a weapon and you can choose one of three abilities (which will essentially make you a fighter, a rogue or a mage).Then, every time you gain 1000 gold coins, you can buy a spellstone. A spellstone can be used to upgrade an existing ability or to get a new one. For the second option, you get a random ability, pretty much like a lockbox in a videogame. I really like the idea of not knowing where your character will end up, although it is easily avoidable by those who don't by simply allowing players to choose the ability.You'll eventually gain a pool of four or five abilities which will shape your character: perhaps you can cast fireballs, turn invisible, stop time and reanimate the dead.The point of this is to ensure longevity, while at the same time allowing for a large variety of playstyles. For this to work, the meat of the game is going to be the ability list. The objective is to make abilities straight forward, and they should never feel like a detailed spell list.I would ditch mind attributes, because I want the game to be less about roleplaying and more about playing with your friends. I like the approach OSR has to this, where your character's reasoning skills do not matter and the player can choose to do whatever he wants.Strength would dictate the number of hearts you get, from 1 to 5. Agility is used to avoid physical damage. Courage is used to avoid non-physical damage and magic.How does this sound? via /r/RPGdesign https://ift.tt/2DLXBFl