Nothing wring with making a new particle, but the can duplicate, it's a common glitch we live with.
So you'd have to make the material (like you do with a preset) but if the particle is fire or lightening related, use "scene-blend add" in the pass before texture unit.
Then comes the challenging bit, Making the particle file itself and have it behave in a manner similar to how you want.
What i did, when i used to make those, was to find one that behaved in a similar manner to how you'd like it to (the default ones are a good starting point, but re-name everything on the ones you make) That's how i learned.
If you have doubts about your skill at making the game not crash, try a second installation of FH along side your first one & do the experiments in that.
