Convention Oriented Roleplaying Engine
Introduction: The Convention Oriented Roleplaying Engine (CORE) is a no-contact live-action roleplaying system designed specifically for one-shot convention games. Many LARP systems are designed with ongoing campaigns in mind, and as such, do not adapt well to convention games with a set duration. If a player pays to play in a convention game, and dies in the first five minutes, that's not fun. If a player pays to play in a convention game, and then gets bogged down in a protracted combat for three hours out of the four hour timeslot, that is also not fun.
CORE was designed with this understanding in mind. It is intended to be fast to learn, fast to play, and minimally intrusive. While it is possible for a character to die, it's difficult for a character to die accidentally--someone has to really go out of the way to kill them.
CORE is primarily used for simulating heroic fantasy or swashbuckler games. However, with some modifications, it could also be used for other genres.
The First Rule: CORE is a non-contact LARP system. It is the responsibility of every participant to ensure the safety of every other participant. Under no circumstances should any actual physical contact take place. For this reason, weapons are represented by cards rather than props; while roleplaying is strongly encouraged, this roleplaying must stop short of actually coming in contact with other players.
Conflict Resolution: Conflict resolution in CORE is accomplished through the use of a deck of ordinary playing cards. Players attempting any sort of challenging activity (combat, picking a lock, swinging from a chandelier, and so forth,) draw a card from the deck. The number on the card (and sometimes the suit) determine success or failure, and often the degree of success.
Using the Deck: When using the deck of cards, an ace is considered to have a value of one, while a face card is considered to have a value of 10.
Simple Tasks: Any task that does not involve another character in any way is considered a “simple task.” Picking a lock, climbing a tree, or breaking down a door would all be considered examples of “simple tasks.”
When attempting to complete a simple task, the player draws a card from the deck, then adds the number on the card to his applicable stat. If he or she has a skill applicable to the task, the skill’s value is added to this total. If the total equals or exceeds the difficulty rating of the task, the player succeeds. Difficulty ratings for tasks are as follows:
Easy: 5
Average: 10
Difficult: 15
The default difficulty rating for tasks is “Average.” This represents a task at which a normal person would be successful roughly half the time.
Example: Bloody Lee Sharpe wishes to wriggle out of the ropes binding her before the guards come back. This is clearly a Dexterity-related task, and the GM rules that it’s a Difficult task. Bloody Lee’s Dexterity is a 4. However, she has Acrobatics as a skill at level 2, and the GM agrees that it’s an applicable skill to the task at hand. Since Bloody Lee’s Dexterity plus skill equal a 6, she’ll need to draw a 9, a 10, or a face card in order to escape.
Opposed Tasks: When a player attempts an action against another player, both players draw cards and add their applicable stat (plus skill, if any.) If the attacker’s total is higher, the action succeeds; if the defender’s total is higher, it fails. Ties always go to the defender.
Critical Success/Critical Failure: When a player draws a King as his or her challenge card, it represents a critical success. The player automatically wins the challenge, unless the other participant has also drawn a King—in which case the outcome is resolved as normal. A critical success in combat will have further effects (see below.)
When a player draws an Ace in a challenge, it represents a critical failure. The player automatically loses the challenge...again, unless the opponent has also drawn an Ace, in which case the outcome is resolved as normal.
Combat
Initiative: Combat is resolved in order of Initiative. A character’s Initiative is equal to his or her Agility plus Wits. The character with the highest initiative acts first, or may choose to wait and act later in the round. Characters with the same initiative score act simultaneously.
Attacking: Attacking a character is resolved in the same fashion as other challenges. The attacker adds a draw from the deck to his stat and skill (usually Physique plus Brawling or Swordsmanship for melee, or Agility plus Guns for ranged.) The defender matches this total with Agility plus Dodge plus a draw from the deck. If the attacker’s total is higher than the defender’s total, he or she hits and inflicts damage based on the weapon used.
Hit Location: The suit of the attacker’s card determines the location of the hit. A spade represents a blow to the head; a heart represents a blow to the torso; a club represents a blow to the arm, and a diamond represents a blow to the leg. This has no in-game effect unless the attack is a critical hit (see below,) but the injured character may wish to roleplay appropriately.
Damage: Each weapon inflicts a certain number of damage, usually one, two, or three Wound Points. These are subtracted from the defender’s total. A character who falls to zero or fewer Wound Points is Incapacitated.
Incapacitated: An Incapacitated character is out of the fight—stunned, unconscious, or too badly hurt to defend him or herself. An incapacitated character is unable to take any action; any opponent may kill an incapacitated character. After five non-combat minutes of being incapacitated, a character will recover a single Wound Point; first aid may be used to restore additional Wound Points.
Critical Hits: As always, a King represents a critical success. If the attacker draws a King, this is a critical hit. Unless the defender also draws a King, the attack will have additional effects, based on the suit drawn:
King of Spades: Head shot. The character immediately loses all remaining Wound Points and becomes Incapacitated.
King of Hearts: Heart shot. The character immediately loses all remaining Wound Points and becomes Incapacitated.
King of Clubs: Crippled arm. The character may not use his or her arm until it is mended through use of the First Aid skill. The attacker may specify which arm is affected.
King of Diamonds: Crippled leg. The character may not use his or her leg until it is mended through use of the First Aid skill. Typically, this means the player will be unable to stand; hopping around on one leg when the other is badly injured is both unrealistic and potentially dangerous. A character with a crippled leg suffers a -1 accuracy penalty on all attacks, to represent the difficulty of attacking from a prone position. The attacker may specify which leg is affected.
Weapons and Armor
Melee Weapons: Adventurers are ingenious when it comes to finding sharp, pointy, heavy, or otherwise generally nasty objects with which to hit each other. Rather than attempt to list every possible weapon a character might use, hand weapons are broken down into four categories: improvised, light, medium, and heavy. A weapon’s accuracy is the bonus or penalty added to the total when attacking with that weapon. Damage is the number of Wound Points the weapon inflicts. Hands is the number of hands required to use the weapon.
Melee Weapon Type Accuracy Damage Hands
Improvised Weapon 0 1 1
Light Weapon +1 1 1
(includes rapier, dagger, belaying pin, blackjack, shortsword, hook, hatchet, etc.)
Medium Weapon +0 2 1
(includes longsword, cutlass, battle axe, etc.)
Heavy Weapon -1 3 2
(includes two-handed sword, greataxe, boarding pike, gaff, etc.)
Ranged Weapons of the period are inaccurate and prone to misfires. Therefore, a ranged weapon may only be used on someone close enough to both see and hear the character attacking them. Reload Time is the number of full rounds it takes to reload a firearm. For this reason, many characters carry more than one firearm.
Ranged Weapon Type Accuracy Damage Hands Reload Time
Flintlock Pistol 0 2 1 2 rounds
Flintlock Rifle +1 2 2 2 rounds
Flintlock Blunderbuss +1 3 2 4 rounds
Bow +1 1 2 1 round
Small Thrown Weapon +0 1 1 None
Large Thrown Weapon -1 2 1 None
(A player may throw a weapon each round, provided he has extra weapons to throw.)
Armor in CORE adds protection in the form of bonus Wound Points. These Wound Points are always the first ones lost. If possible, armor should be represented by actual props; for instance, if your character is wearing a breastplate, you should also wear one if possible. If such costuming is not an option, a button or tag indicating the armor you are wearing may be used instead.
Armor Type Bonus Wounds Dodge Penalty
Light Armor 1 0
(leather jerkin, ringmail, etc.)
Heavy Armor 2 -1
(breastplate, chainmail, etc.)
Characters
Statistics
Characters in CORE are defined by five basic statistics, each with a value from one (very poor) to five (exceptional). Beginning characters receive 15 points to divide up among these stats as they see fit; however, every stat must have a minimum value of 1.
Physique: Physique is a combination of physical strength and toughness. A character with a high Physique could be a heavily-muscled strongman, or a small, wiry scrapper whose toughness and tenacity make him hard to beat in a fight. At the start of each game session, characters receive a number of “Wound Points” equal to their physique; these represent the amount of physical punishment they can take prior to being incapacitated. When a character runs out of Wound Points, he or she is incapacitated and unable to take any action; any opponent may kill an incapacitated character. After five non-combat minutes of being incapacitated, a character will recover a single Wound Point; first aid may be used to restore additional Wound Points.
Agility: Agility is a combination of grace, eye-hand coordination, flexibility, and manual dexterity.
Wits: Wits is a general measure of how perceptive and mentally agile a character is. Someone with a high Wits score tends to notice small details and quickly come up with plans in a pinch. Someone with a low Wits score isn’t necessarily stupid, but tends to take more time to think about things—a disadvantage in a life-or-death situation.
Personality: Personality represents a character’s ability to get others to do what he or she wants them to do. A domineering and cruel captain who rules through terror, a glib snake-oil salesman who charms his way into riches, or a brave commander whose troops follow him out of loyalty—all of these have high Personality scores. Someone with low Personality isn’t necessarily unlikable, but tends to have a more subdued personality—the sort of person who makes a better follower than a leader.
Luck: Luck functions differently from other stats. Instead of being used to resolve challenges directly, it is instead used to change the outcomes of challenges based on other stats. At the start of each game session, characters receive a number of Luck Points equal to their luck; these may be spent to influence the result of challenges by re-drawing a card.
Example: Bloody Lee Sharpe is badly hurt, and the Duke’s Guards have her cornered on a rooftop. She seeks to jump to another rooftop to escape, and draws a “2.” Not good! Fortunately, Lee has a Luck Point left; she spends it, and redraws, getting a “9” and making good her escape!
Skills
Each CORE character has a number of skills. These are used to aid in the outcome of tasks. If a character has an applicable skill, his or her challenge total is raised by 1. Characters may take the same skill more than once, to represent greater degrees of expertise. A character with two levels of Swordsmanship would add 2 to his or her total in a duel. A character with three levels of a skill is an expert, while a character with five levels is a master. No character may take more than five levels in a single skill.
CORE characters receive 15 points to divide among skills as they see fit. No character may begin with more than one “5” in a skill. (Your character might be a master swordsman to start, but he’s not a master swordsman, crack marksman, and Olympic-caliber athlete all at once!)
Brawling (PHY): It’s seldom a good idea to bring your fists to a swordfight, but a skilled brawler can hold his own. A character with brawling may use it while fighting with fists or improvised weapons. Additionally, a skilled brawler knows how to use these weapons effectively; a fist or improvised weapon is treated as a light weapon (accuracy 1, damage 1) when used by the brawler.
Swordsmanship (PHY): Swordsmanship doesn’t apply only to swords; it’s general skill with melee weapons. A character skilled in Swordsmanship can use a sword, an axe, or any other melee weapon.
Athletics (PHY): Characters aboard a ship are frequently called on to climb, swim, or perform other feats of general athleticism. Athletics skill represents a character’s ability in such things. Typically, athletics checks are static checks of Normal difficulty. Certain tasks, however, may be of High difficulty (swimming in armor, for example, is a High difficulty check.)
Guns (AGI): A character with Guns skill knows the proper care and feeding of firearms. He knows how to keep power dry, how to load and clean weapons, and (of course) how to fire them.
Stealth (AGI): Stealth is a character’s ability to avoid detection. This can take many forms, depending on the circumstances; it might mean tiptoeing past the sleeping guard, finding a good hiding spot in the forest, or simply acting inconspicuous so as to blend into a crowd. When a character is being stealthy, he or she will generally escape detection unless someone is actively looking for enemies. If this is the case, an opposed check (Perception versus Stealth) must be made. Characters in combat are always assumed to be looking for enemies.
Dodge (AGI): Dodge represents the general ability to avoid getting hurt, be it by dodging out of the way, parrying a blow, or diving for cover to avoid being crushed by that falling stack of cannonballs. A character with high Swordsmanship and low Dodge is likely a berserker-type who charges in without fear of bodily harm.
Perception (WIT): Perception is a character’s ability to notice things that aren’t immediately obvious—hidden characters, small clues, subtle behavioral cues, and so forth.
Medicine (WIT): A character with Medicine skill can tend the wounds and illnesses of others. It is most often used to help injured or Incapacitated characters. With a Normal difficulty check and a full minute of roleplaying, a character with Medicine can restore one Wound Point to an injured or Incapacitated character. Multiple Wound Points may be restored, but each requires another minute of roleplaying and another skill check.
Thievery (WIT): Shocking as it may be to realize, not all swashbucklers are strictly honest folks. Thievery represents the skills of the larcenous—the ability to pick pockets, jimmy locks, spot security, or bypass traps and alarms. Thievery can also be used to find information on potential marks, make contact with a fence or black market source...in general, to do what it takes to get around the law.
Scholarship (WIT): Scholarship represents a character’s command of higher learning. Deciphering a coded message, interpreting a map, or knowing something about the Lost City of the Incas would all require Scholarship. Scholarship is also the skill used for navigation, making it extremely important to a ship’s crew. When a character purchases Scholarship, he or she also selects a specialty. When dealing with a task within this specialty, the character’s skill is considered one higher than normal. Possible specialties include Religion, Navigation, Herbalism, Mathematics, Engineering, History, or anything else the GM is willing to approve.
Charm (PER): A character with Charm has the gift of the gab. He or she is good at wrapping others around his or her little finger. Charm is useful when trying to convince someone to do something for you, when mingling at parties, when attempting to woo the barmaid, or in any other circumstance where a glib tongue and a dazzling smile might be helpful.
Leadership (PER): Leadership is an extremely useful skill, particularly for a pirate captain or other commander of men and women. A skilled leader can spur his or her forces to action with a terse command or a gesture. To simulate this, at the start of any encounter, a character with Leadership may make a static skill check (Normal difficulty.) If this check is successful, he or she may take 2 minutes of out-of-game time to discuss tactics with allies.
Deception (PER): You can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest—honestly! Deception is the art not only of lying, but also of imposture. A character with deception is skilled in lying, disguises, impersonation, and similarly dishonest pastimes. A deception check is normally opposed by Perception.
Creating a Character: A starting CORE character receives 15 points to spend on statistics and 15 points to spend on skills. No stat may be below 1 or above 5; no skill may be above 5, and no character may start with more than one “5” in a skill.
