I'm thinking about doing a free-form Monster Hunter RPG,
Focused more on character development and long, flashy detailed fight scenes.

What do you think?

I'm... honestly surprised anyone else has even heard of Monster Hunter. I always say that, but that's because I always am.

Color me interested, though I may need to discuss things with you first. ;)

If you have questions,
Please shoot.

So, I guess a few things come to mind.

When you say 3U, are we limiting the playing field to only those monsters, weapons, etc.? I ask because 4U is the more recent game, and Generations is coming out next month (Hunting Styles, woo!), both of which have a lot more to offer in terms of flashy fight scenes.

When you say free-form... just how free are we talking here? Monster Hunter runs on the thrill of death during combat, and without a formal system for fighting it really relies heavily on players being willing to either give up freedom, or to put themselves in peril. If you have some sort of system for conflict resolution, I'd like to know about it. If it's going to be pure free-form, then I'd still like to know how you plan on introducing that tension into the combat (i.e. whether you're going to let players do it to themselves, or if you're going to make it happen yourself).

And then... I could go on for hours about MH Theory (and have many, many times) but the big question revolves around armor skills: How are we working those? I've got my own ideas about how they work in the universe, but having your thoughts would sort of solidify my interest one way or another.

I have more, but I think this is all I'd need to know to really say whether or not I'd like to play. ^_^

The only things I want to keep from 3U is the Monsters. I am most familiar with them, 600hrs over the 200 in 4U,
The underwater system, and the setting.
Arts are super cool, and mounting, IG and CB are cool as well.
In free form, I will create tension, with players describing their attacks, team movement while I handle the monster.
Weapons won't be clean cut from the game, hell, you can make a sword out of mushrooms for all I care (It wouldn't be very effective) but some balance would be implemented. A G rank Brach will not be taken down by a kid in Rhenopolos armor and iron hammer as easily as a hero in Zin X armor with the strongest weapon out of us.

Please forgive me on my interpretation of armor skills.

I think armor skills are really just a placebo.
Wear X armor. Boy, that looks strong, I feel really good now! Attack up M!
I know it sounds dumb, but other than "Magic" I have no other way to explain it
Even monsters.
Wow, Brach Armor, the Brach is extremely explosive. Owch! A barrel bomb, from someone wearing Brach armor, that means it hurtsa lot!

With the exception of a few, like Ranger, this is pretty much what I think
Once again, other than Magic, I cannot find another solution.

Hmm... alright. Having logged a combined total of... I can't even remember now. I'm somewhere around 4000+ for the series (since the original) I just wanted to check on how limited we were going to be. 3U was a lot better than Tri, but it still had some limits to it I wasn't fond of.

As far as armor skills go, I have my own theories about them (which I can share as you like), but I guess a question still nags at me: Will they be in this game?
They're part of the game and a major difference between hunters of various ranks and skill levels. After all, the hunter who doesn't need Mind's Eye is often more prepared than the hunter who relies on it too much (a.k.a. Me, because not having Mind's Eye is the worst. T.T).

Other than that, it sounds like a plan to me.

Armor skills are for sure a go, as it isn't monster hunter unless you have armor skills.

I never hit G rank in any of the games (I mess around too much, lol), but I would definitely be interested. I've played since the original MHF on PSP.

Alright, I'll get the game going, and we will be good to go soon.