After applying myself to the task, I was able to make sense of Ghost/Echo after all and quickly put myself to the task of seeing what other people have done with it.

After applying myself to the task, I was able to make sense of Ghost/Echo after all and quickly put myself to the task of seeing what other people have done with it.
Some people made reskins.
Perhaps that's what I want to do.
First, loosely define the world with evocative places and characters.
Then anticipate what manner if trouble you'll get into and assign the flavors of trouble a die or pool of dice and write yourself a table for it.
Add more tables to taste. That's wildly minimalist.
Have you experimented with this method?