i find myself daydreaming about realistic encumberance of all things,
not just that - an actual backpack that you can see, and that changes in appearance the more full it is,
and that has a button for quick-relsease if you get into a fight, and has the possibility of rolling off a cliff and being lost forever if you're not careful,
and not just that - all your gear would be visible, each potion hanging on your belt, each weapon, each scroll, this would limit the number of things you could have access to, it would be a lot less than what we're used to, so it would require a tidier system, but maybe that's not a bad thing.

anyone else got particular things they'd like to see? directions they'd like the rpg to take? weird or otherwise?

Except better NPC reactions to the PC actions, I want exactly what Bethesda give us. It's all there.

Nothing new that I can really think of. Just about everything I want now has been deemed too archaic by most for modern gaming.

Turn-based combat: I don't really care for a lot of games' chaotic real-time combat. I like being able to take a breather, plan my characters' actions and counter the enemy. It's never been all that deep, but it's a system that often rewarded good strategy and foresight, rather than twitch gameplay.

Random encounters: It's usually considered annoying when you're getting into random encounters all the time, but it annoys me less than seeing unavoidable enemies on the field. Or when enemies are faster than you so you have to fight 'em anyway.

World maps: Just a preference. I'm not a huge fan of open ended games, but world maps have generally given the right amount of freedom for me. When areas are connected directly it makes the world seem much smaller, more confined.

Basically, I want the late 80s to mid 90s back, give or take. When story and characters were becoming more complex and they had the perfect gameplay formula.

loot, customization, good graphics and hand tailored content (quests, dialog, etc..)

Dynamic player character voice-overs. As in you could tune the character's voice the way you wanted and it wouldn't sound crappy.

Wingus

Exactly what I want from JRPG. To bad it's a thing of the past. FFXIII ughh...

A more dynamic story. Something that goes way beyond the limited branching stories we get now. This would require devs to go back to the drawing board on how their games are designed. They would have to develop a story generation engine that can account for a greater variety of actions the player can perform. Is it possible? Maybe. As far as I know, no developer has ever tried. At the very least I'd like to see devs make the attempt. Even if they can't reach my preferred level of complexity, the end product would be better than what we have now.

? Really good prose
Most that I've encountered is poor to average; I realise how subjective this is, though.

? Less originality
You heard me. We've got millennia of mythology, literature and experiences to draw from; I don't want to fight your totally original Andalugeopian Donkeybird, give me some nice dragon and goblin designs instead.

? Steam trains
I don't care how dark and unique and low-tech your setting is, add some damn steam trains.

? More sixuality, smut, romance
Not to be confused with six. Whatever you do, please don't try to include actual six scenes in your RPG.

? Open worlds;
? beautiful landscapes;
? fantastical environments;
? blank slate protagonists
Oh wait...

Create you own party.

Turn based combat. I'm talking about tactical or somewhat tactical TB combat, not FF style.

Distinct art style rather than realistic/gritty/grimdark graphics stuff.

Focus on explaining game mechanics better rather than simplifying them.

Focus on making a game rather than a movie.

There's not enough of any of these things these days, and it's a damn shame.

Roleplaying.

When i make a decision, I want that decision to matter. Otherwise why even give me a choice at all? The essence of roleplaying is making choices that affect your characters personality and the world around him/her in some way, big or small, cause and effect needs to be there. Putting points into strength or intelligence is not enough to say "This is a roleplaying game", if your character has no personality and does not evolve through the course of the game in any way then everything else becomes completely pointless.

A stealth system that works, I would love a good stealth option, but in rpgs its just "makes enemies less likely to turn around".

It should have skills like I dont know, break in(silently through windows when you get 50 stealth, or give more options, so far stealth is just weak you crouch/sneak and hapo the stats are high enough they dont notice you.

Shouldn't the character's personality affect the choice she makes rather than the choice she makes affecting her personality? I mean, if I kill the poor tavern wench for spilling ale on me, I don't become evil by killing the tavern wench. Rather, I kill the tavern wench because I am evil. The outcome of my choice, however, would be that the people who know what I did would see me as an evil person. It doesn't actually change my character, but changes other people's opinions of me.

tl;dr: C&C affecting the world is good. C&C affecting the character makes no sense.

I'd like to jump into another world and actually be in it.

I would like to see Turn Based Combat in RPGs again too.

Something I haven't seen though is owning your own house in a RPG but something similar to Sierra Army Depot in Fallout 2.... you know the one with a defense system and lots of dead bodies laying around.
I know Morrowind sort of had one with the Telvanni Stronghold but those guards were just for show no damned invasions or dead wannabee thieves.