From: [d f n] at [ccwf.cc.utexas.edu] (David F. Nalle)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.announce
Subject: [CORE] CORE Rules - Free Roleplaying System
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: 21 Sep 1995 15:02:41 GMT
CORE
Character Oriented Roleplaying Engine
Version 1.2, Copyright 1995, David F. Nalle
BECOMING THE CHARACTER
The character is the heart of roleplaying. Your job as a player is to
make your character a complete and believable person, as real in the game
world as you are in this one. You create his personality, develop his
background and make him everything that he is. When you play the game you
become the character, so he should be someone you want to be for a while.
Think about your character in the abstract before you start to put
anything on paper. The mechanics of character creation exist so that you
can describe your character in game terms to make it more practical to
determine the outcome of the things he does. They are there to help you
define the character, not to tell you who he should be.
Consider such things as where he was born, his early experiences,
appearance, his family life, education, hopes, dreams, fears and vices.
Every person has both strengths and weaknesses. Only the most obvious of
these will be expressed mechanically in the game so you should flesh the
rest out in your mind and in a short written character history and
description. Once you have that done your next job is to define a few of
those characteristics in terms specific to the game.
DESCRIBING THE CHARACTER
For game purposes each character is described by five basic
characteristics and a selection of skills. You choose how good he is in
each of these areas by spending points. You have 20 points for basic
characteristics and 20 points for skills.
Basic Characteristics
When creating your character you allocate 20 points to these five
characteristics. No single characteristic may be less than 1 or more than
6.
Strength: Ability to exert force and endure hardship. Particularly
important for hand to hand combat.
Speed: Movement and manipulative ability. Important for most physical
skills.
Will: Mental toughness, stamina and the ability to overcome natural
limitations.
Reason: Analytical and decision making ability. Important for most
technical and knowledge oriented skills.
Creativity: Inventiveness and expressive ability. Important in
artistic and design oriented skills.
Learning Skills
Once you have determined your basic characteristics, you assign 20
additional points to skills. Each skill is associated with a
characteristic on which it is based. Your chance of success with a skill -
called a Skill Rating - is equal to your value for the appropriate
characteristic plus any points you assign to that skill. When first
starting out you may not assign more skill points to any one skill than
the value of the characteristic associated with that skill.
To find your skills look at the skill list provided here. Under each
basic skill you will see a listing of secondary skills. Once you have
assigned points to a basic skill you may divide those points up among the
secondary skills listed under it. So if you had assigned 4 points to
Agriculture you might divide it up with 3 in Horticulture and 1 in Animal
Husbandry. In some cases you may be required to use the secondary skill
instead of the parent skill for a more specific application of that
general type of knowledge.
Skill Characteristic
Agriculture REA
Aiming Skills SPD
Applied Science REA
Arcane Science REA
Archery SPD
Axe Weapons STR
Blade Weapons SPD
Business REA
Club Weapons STR
Crafts CRE
Culinary Arts CRE
Gaming CRE
Government REA
Languages CRE
Literary CRE
Manual Skills SPD
Mathematics REA
Medicine REA
Mental Conditioning WIL
Military REA
Movement SPD
Music CRE
Natural Science REA
Nautical REA
Perception WIL
Performing Arts CRE
Persuasion CRE
Physical Conditioning WIL
Physical Science REA
Rustic REA
Shield SPD
Social Science REA
Sports SPD
Stealth SPD
Survival WIL
Thrown Weapons SPD
Thrusting Weapons SPD
Unarmed Combat SPD
Visual Arts CRE
USING SKILLS
From time to time during the game you may be called on to use one of
your skills. Success with a skill is determined by rolling 2D6 and
comparing the result with your Skill Rating (the total of the
characteristic the skill is based on and any points you spent on the
skill). Depending on how well you roll relative to you Skill Rating
several results are possible.
Roll Result
Over Skill Rating Failure
Under Skill Rating Success
Under 1/2 Skill Rating Superior Success
Under 1/4 Skill Rating Critical Success
When determining half and quarter values of Skill Rating you always round
up. Failure means the skill just didn't work at all. A Success result
indicates that the skill performed basically as expected, but with nothing
more than the most basic results. When rolling agaisnt a primary skill
for success with a secondary skill to which you have assigned no points
this is considered a Failure. A Superior Success means that the skill
worked the way you would want it to, producing an ideal result, with all
the qualities you aimed for. A Critical Success means that the skill
exceeded your expectations and produced additional results beyond what you
anticipated.
In situations where your use of a skill is opposed by another person
you both roll to determine a comparative result. After you make your roll
your opponent rolls against his opposing skill and your results are
adjusted based on how he does. If he gets a Failure there is no effect.
A basic Success reduces your result by 1 level of quality. A Superior
reduces your result by 2 levels. A Critical reduces your result by 3
levels of quality. So, if you were hiding and someone was trying to find
you, and you had rolled a Superior success with the Concealment skill, he
would need to roll a Superior or better with his Search skill to find you.
COMBAT
One of the ways in which characters may use their skills is in combat.
There are skills for the use of weapons and for different methods of
defending yourself. Combat is generally determined through the use of
comparative skills as described earlier.
Making an Attack
When an attack is made in combat you roll against your skill with the
weapon you are using. Your opponent then rolls against any defensive
skill he is using against your attack. As described above, combat is a
comparative use of skills. Your opponent's degree of success may effect
yours. The possible results of an attack are:
Skill Result Combat Effect
Failure Your blow misses
Success 1/2 Damage to defender's STR or
SPD distributed by defender.
Superior Defender chooses 1 of 2 options:
1/2 Damage to defender's STR or
SPD distributed by attacker
or Full damage to defender's STR or
SPD distributed by defender.
Critical Full damage to defender's STR or
SPD distributed by attacker.
Weapon damage is generally in a range from 0 to 7 points. Damage done
to Speed or Strength effects any future uses of skills based on those
characteristics until the damage is eliminated. A character receiving
damage may choose to take any or all of that damage to his Will instead of
to the characteristic effected. When Strength and Speed have both reached
0 any future damage is given directly to Will. If Will is reduced to 0 or
less you are dead.
Defending Yourself
There are two key skills for self defense, Parry and Dodge. Parry is
listed under each weapon skill and Dodge is listed under the Unarmed
Combat skill. The key difference between the two skills is that once you
pay for Dodge it allows you to roll against any attacks made against you
during a round of combat, while Parry only allows you to roll against a
single attack. However, Parry takes less Speed and does not require the
learning of an additional skill, and is therefore more versatile than
Dodge.
Multiple Actions
Your Speed determines how much you can do in a round of combat. Each
action, including weapon attacks, parrying and dodging attacks has a Speed
cost. The total cost of the actions you take in one round of combat may
not exceed your Speed. If you find you have extra points of Speed after
taking your actions for a round, but not enough to pay for a complete
additional action, you may pay for part of it and pay the remainder in the
next round so that the action takes place in the round it is completed.
No more than half your Speed may be carried over from one round to the
next and it cannot be carried over for more than one round.
For example, if you had a Speed of 5 you might want to make 1 attack
with a Speed cost of 2 and also Dodge with a Speed cost of 3. Or
alternatively you might make 2 attacks and not bother to dodge, leaving
you with 1 extra point to apply to an action for the next round.
Action Damage Speed
Dodge -- 3
Kick Attack STR 3
Hand Attack STR-1 2
Club Attack/Parry STR 3/2
Dagger Attack/Parry STR-1 2/2
Sword Attack/Parry STR 3/2
Axe Attack/Parry STR+1 3/3
Bow Attack STR 4
Pistol Attack 3 2
Rifle Attack 4 3