C.O.R.E.

Cinematic Roleplaying

Welcome to C.O.R.E., the Chupa Open Roleplaying Engine. Developed by the listeners of the Dragon’s Landing Podcast, C.O.R.E. is the perfect introduction for new roleplayers, and is designed for speed and story.

C.O.R.E. focuses on drama and speed of play. Your character’s skills and abilities, and your vivid imagination, rather than his equipment, determine his capabilities. Instead of focusing on providing rules to cover every aspect of a character’s life, these rules are meant as guidelines, and are an aid to multi-player story construction.

Instead of refereeing every little detail, players are encouraged to take an active part in the story and, hopefully, enjoy a richer story because of it.

Before you get started with the rules, this introduction gives you an overview of what to expect from this system.

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What is this book?

C.O.R.E. is a set of rules intended to be used as the foundation for other settings and systems to be built on. While games can be easily played without any modifications, the system is only a basic guide, and lacks rules for many things, like magic, that would be specific to a certain setting or genre. Additional modules can be easily plugged into the core system. You will find all of the information you need to create a character, fight foes, and play through exciting adventures.

The rules found in this book are very basic, and are perfect for one-shot games, new roleplayers, and convention games. Groups that prefer extremely simple and stream-lined systems that do not get in the way will also find this system a good match. Expanded rules can be found at the same place you found these rules. They provide more detailed rules, but without sacrificing the speed and simplicity of the system.

Here’s what you will find in each Act of the C.O.R.E. rules:

Act 0: Quick Start Narrative. The Quick Start gives you an example of how the rules would work during actual play. Brief overviews are given for new rules as they come into play, and are described right alongside the story.

Act 1: Character Creation & Growth. Act 1 shows you the seven simple steps needed to create a complete character that is ready for play. You also learn how characters grow throughout their lives.

Act 2: Backstory. Characters are the cornerstone of any roleplaying game. And it is their background that makes a character into something worth telling a story about. What makes them unique? What past history led them to be who they are today?

Act 3: Attributes. The cornerstone of any character is their ability to act quick, bash down doors, or think on their feet. Attributes represent the strength of body, mind, social ability, and spirit.

Act 4: Skills. Not everything comes naturally. PCs can train in many directions, picking up new abilities in many areas. This separates the street thugs from the martial artists, the smart-aleck from the linguist, and the dancer from the Olympian.

Act 5: Secrets. Every character is blessed with special powers or tricks that also separate them from the mass of common men and women. Secrets can give characters knacks, or unlock their psychic powers, and more.

Act 6: Equipment & Wealth. While attributes and skills are more important in this system than equipment, there are still times when the story requires an artifact, or other treasures, to hand out.

Act 7: Conflicts. Drama is conflict. And conflict is not just about bashing someone over the head with a heavy sword. Arguments, magical challenges, cutting the right wire in a ticking bomb, and prying a grate loose from the wall are all conflicts. They are all treated the same, and can be handled with as much—or little—detail as is necessary to tell the story you want to tell.

Act 8: Director’s Notes. Preparing for a game of C.O.R.E. is—in many ways—easier than most other systems. But it requires a different way of thinking than you might be used to. The Director’s Notes include advice on customizing the game to fit your world, and running a game.

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Getting Started

If you have never played in a C.O.R.E. game before, we recommend reading through the Quick Start Narrative to get a feel for how the game works. Then you should browse through Acts 2-5 to get an idea of the possibilities available to you. When you are ready to create a character, come back to Act 1: Character Creation & Growth.

Even though there are not a lot of rules, experienced roleplayers may have a hard time getting accustomed to the types of rules within this system. It is not that they are difficult, but they are vastly different from what the seasoned roleplayer might be familiar with, and it will take some time to get used to it. So don’t worry about learning all of the rules right away. Once you have created a couple of characters, and maybe even run through some mock conflicts, you should have a pretty good grasp on how things work.

The Basics

Whether you are new to roleplaying, or a veteran of another system, you should keep the following concepts in mind while reading through the C.O.R.E. rule system.

Dice Notation

All rolls will be made using one or more ten-sided dice. When more than one die is used, only the highest value is kept. To notate a roll of the dice the following convention is used:

Example: 2d10 + 4 means “Roll 2 ten-sided dice. Keep the single highest value. Then add 4.”

Basic Task Resolution System

All rolls use the same system to determine success or failure. That system is as follows:

The modifiers and the target number are determined by the type of task. If the roll plus all modifiers is equal to, or higher than, the target number then the roll is a success. Otherwise, it is a failure.

If the highest roll on the dice is a 10, it is not an automatic success. If the highest roll on the dice was a 1, it is not an automatic failure. However, it does indicate that a story-based difficulty happens as a direct result.

A Few Terms You Need to Know

Since C.O.R.E. is designed with a cinematic feel in mind, several terms were ripped straight from the movie set and put to use here. Knowing these terms will make sure you don’t get lost while reading the rules.

Actor. These are the characters the players play during the game. The players get to create their backgrounds and personalities and steer them through the mayhem that is sure to follow.

Director. This is the person that runs the game. They describe the world to the Actors, play all of the Extras (see below,) and make sure things run smoothly. When disagreements happen while playing the game, they are the ones responsible for settling them. In other words, their word is law. Be nice to them.

Extras. These are all of the characters in the game that are not played by the players. These are usually played by the Director, though occasionally they might be played by other players who are there only for one game session, and are helping the Director out.