In one of my game groups we’ve been talking about game systems and our personal values; in particular free and open source games.
One person recommended that we take a look at Tod Foley’s Creactive Options Role-Playing Engine (CORE 📖) system. I am early in my exploration, but believe that the CORE system is extracted from Tod’s DayTrippers 📖.
And hot damn did the CORE rules impress me.
You throw a number of six-sided dice equal to your stat; pick the highest roll and add modifiers. Compare that against the stated difficulty, and consult the Table 237: CORE Action Resolution Table.
| Roll Result | Fictional Result |
|---|---|
| Miss by 2 or more | No and something negative |
| Miss by 1 | No but something positive |
| Hit exactly | Yes but something negative |
| Exceed by 1 | Yes |
| Exceed by 2 or more | Yes and something positive |
Pair that with the Character Development Scenes; which each player gets at most one per session, and you have fantastic opportunities to grow and develop your characters.
These are often “flashback” scenes, and there are four types.
- Bad Realization
- Introduce a new and problematic aspect to your character or group, and get XP.
- Flash of Insight
- Unlock a memory, training, bit of previously “off screen” planning, to get +1 to a roll.
- Inner Voices
- Tie life shaping events to the scene, and get an extra die on the roll.
- Revealed Experience
- Explain how your learning to place in the past to spend XP to advance a skill.
Those two bits of “tech” pair with some other narrative tech to create what appears to be a great foundation for emergent stories.
I’m looking forward to running this game and providing some feedback to support a game designer who’s releasing systems free and open. update: Tod has released the CORE Micro rules under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY 4.0.
Having this shared modular space excites the hacking sensibilities of my game group.