The CORE20 public playtest is now live! Everything you need to explore this new approach to d20 fantasy gaming can be found in the following extradimensional space on Google Drive:
http://tinyurl.com/CORE20Playtest
(If the short URL doesn’t work for you, you can click or copy the full link here.)
The playtest consists of everything you need to play CORE20. It’s not a partial set of rules, or a subset of the game. It’s the game in its entirety, absolutely free, featuring the following downloads:
- The full version of the CORE20 Player’s Guide, featuring all the rules of the game for players and GMs.
- The full version of the CORE20 Magic Grimoire, collecting the many spells and magic items of the game.
- The CORE20 Creature Playtest Package, featuring more than 180 foes, allies, and folk of the world from the eventual CORE20 Creature Compendium.
- A short set of Playtest GM Guidelines, providing a brief overview of what a GM needs to run the game, and explaining why those guidelines aren’t the full CORE20 Campaign Guide.
- A form-fillable character sheet.
- Free starter adventures.
- An About the Game document that talks about the state of the system and the process that led to this playtest.
As you’re digging into the rules, you can join other players on the CORE20 Discord to to ask questions, get updates, and talk about the game:
CORE20 is built around the framework of d20 fantasy, so it’ll feel familiar to anyone who’s ever played d20-era D&D, from 3rd Edition through 5th Edition. But it’s different. CORE20’s narrative-focused mechanics turning d20 rolls from a state of static pass/fail ennui into something more dynamic are meant to shoot shared-story fuel straight into the heart of the game. A foundation of freeform character building lets you do things as a player that class-based games sometimes struggle with. It lets you do things that class-based games simply can’t do. It lends itself to a wide range of play styles, including the option of running low-combat campaigns where you aren’t forced to just ignore your character’s default battle prowess. Rather, you get to swap the battle prowess you don’t need for things that are more important to who your character is and what you want them to do.
I’ve been working on Dungeons & Dragons for almost twenty years. Everything I’ve ever worked on has taught me something about the game that I didn’t know before. Every person I’ve been fortunate enough to work with has shown me new things about how this amazing hobby and its amazing design space have evolved. I know that fantasy RPGs are different for everyone. I don’t presume to know how you play, or the things that make the game the most fun for you.
But after forty years of playing and after twenty years of working on the game, every single thing that’s ever made the game the most fun for me is in CORE20 somewhere. And I’m very, very proud and happy to share it.
The CORE20 RPG System 