Hives and torches is a custom DnD ruleset made by a few mates.
It draws from a varity of inspriations, including:
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Combat should be fast, even when 6 or more players are present and there are several enemies. To this end, your attacks consist of a single roll against a flat defence value. Skill tests will be performed with only the instigator rolling hits stats, and the defender (if applicable) using his average roll.
Combat is cantered around a stacking advantage system, which grants additional 1d4
for gaining tactical advantages. Stacking these advantages grants very high chances for critical effects. This encourages tactical play - where making decisions to take advantage of your skills and the battlefield can turn a difficult fight into a reliable victory.
The power growth is significantly reduced from 5e. Multiple attacks are no longer granted at 5th level. This is intended to also represent a less heroic party - your characters may be toughened and experienced, but they are still humans - and should not be expected to fight a dragon single handed. This reduce in power creep is also intended to make fights easier to balance for DM's, and shorter in duration.
This ruleset is intended to invoke a more serious tone. Winning a fight is not the only goal - but winning it well, without taking on mortal wounds. This is intended to make the outcomes of combat more serious, and encourage more role playing about the aftermath of combat. Pushing into a dungeon should leave the characters fatigued, and turning back may be the only rational option.
In other systems, charisma is the primary attribute for diplomacy: leading to the party having a "face" character. Instead, the other attributes are now responsible for the different types of diplomacy. This leads to better variety in party interractions. A high strength fighter will be more suited to impressing a barbiarian, wheras a high intellegence character would be able to logically convince a scholar of the correct action.