Core Elements Toolbox Edition

[jdrakeh]

Wow. I feel kind of weird. I stopped by Butch Curry's Zombie Nirvana early this morning, and found that he'd finished up his Toolbox Edition of Core Elements (my light d20 OGC rule-set that I signed over to him near the end of September). So I downloaded it... and was absolutely blown away!

So why do I feel weird? Well, it's always a little odd for me to see somebody else work with IP that I originated, but this is the first time that I've felt the need to absolutely gush over it. I'm in the weird position of being a fanboy of a fan, and that's just weird - but with all of the goodness that Butch has added to Core Elelments, I really can't help myself.

With some really cool ideas ported in from True 20 and d20 Modern, as well as some original innovations of his own, Butch has transformed Core Elements from a sawed-off d20 into a full-blown tool-kit system that's complete in less than 20 pages! And he's kept it 100% OGC except for the title! I'm officially a Butch Curry Fanboy!

 

[Bretbo]

Add me to the list of fans also, good sir! You guys came up with a really good, rules-lite d20 game. Core Elements inspired me to think how to model the rules to do super-powers, as that genre can get "rules-heavy" real easy and the challenge of rules-lite would be fun. Anyway, keep up the great work!

 

[jdrakeh]

Add me to the list of fans also, good sir!

Well, direct your praise to Butch - while I may have originated Core Elements, it's his baby now. As his introduction to the Toolbox Edition intimates, I've officially retired from design for a while

Core Elements inspired me to think how to model the rules to do super-powers

You should definitely download Butch's Toolbox Edition then, as it has a much more flexible and better explained power creation system in it than my original Core Elements and Core Elements revised did.

Anyway, keep up the great work!

Thanks! Be sure to pass some of that love on to Butch!

 

[ZombieButch]

Aw, shucks! Thanks guys... James is the one who did the body work. I just added some chrome. (Although I am pretty proud of the whole thing, I'm particularly happy with the wound track, which is something I've never seen in a d20 game before.)

I've actually got an idea on modelling superpowers that didn't make it into the Toolbox. (I wanted to test it out a bit first, but tearing my gaming group away from Mutants and Masterminds is not something easily done!) But in a nutshell, there's no powers list. You define a group of powers in a nutshell, and buy up to three skills for it: Offense, Defense, and [Other] (I can't think of a good name for the 'Other' skill yet). All attacks are handled with Offense, all defensive moves are handled with Defense. And anything else you do with it uses Other; that covers a lot of the crazy stunts supers can perform that don't cleanly fit into other categories. (A possible fourth category that might be needed would be "Movement".) If a power isn't useful for a particular category, then you don't need to buy any skill ranks in it.

So looking at the Fantastic Four as an example, Reed Richards would have Stretching Powers, with a low Offense, high Defense, and high Other. The Human Torch would buy a high Offense, low-to-medium defense, and a decent Other for flying and the like. Sue's invisibility would be almost pure Defense; her force fields would have a fair Offense, loads of Defense, and a good Other, since she uses them for all sorts of odd things. Ben would be pure Offense and Defense, with just a couple of points in Other.

But like I said, it's completely untested so far, but it seems like it could work. I came up with originally when I was trying to retool supers for Fudge, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't port over to other systems.

 

[MusedFable]

I've been stuck on part of my homebrew for a long time now, and CEToolbox fixed it by introducing me to the Wound system. It's so simple, but I just didn't think of it. It's like it was right in front of me the whole time.

Thanks

 

[Angel Tarragon]

It is excellent material. I intend to get it printed and spiral bound. Then I'll have it ready for easy access next to my spiral bound copies of Core Elements Revised and Strange Aeons.