Tabula rasa, a blank slate. CORPS (Complete Omniversal Role Playing System) is the
role-playing system that looks at what you want. Rules you can remember. Dice you don't
have to use. Guidelines for both new and experienced players. Everything you need in one
volume that's half the thickness you would normally expect from something this complete
(it's 144 pages). From swords to psionics, magic to machine-guns, past, present or future,
this game has what you need.
The only thing it can't supply is what you have to bring to the game...imagination!!!!
What you get
CORPS is a six attribute, 1d10-based system for any sort of campaign based on human
norms or alternate worlds. So, while it can handle mages, psychics and mercenaries, it
doesn't handle giant robots, powerful superheroes and city-stomping monsters. Actually, it
does handle them, but with a level of realism that removes the fun from the genre. After all,
if a supervillain can stop cannon shells with his skin, your superhuman martial arts will just
give you the amazing ability to break your knuckles faster than the eye can follow.
Anyway, CORPS will work for science fiction, modern thrillers, horror, and fantasy equally
well. The character generation system gives the players a lot of flexibility to make
interesting characters, and it gives the GM important tools to shape the way the characters
and the game world interact, through things like cultural norms, skill limits, legal systems
and region-specific technology.
Mechanics
CORPS is a semi-diceless system. Tasks are rated by Difficulty, and your appropriate skill
or attribute is compared to the Difficulty. If your adjusted skill is equal or higher, you
succeed. That's all there is to it. If your skill is lower than the Difficulty, you roll 1d10, and
the success chance is a function of the difference. High skills allow you to complete tasks in
less time, or absorb modifiers for more difficult tasks, like called shots, or working in
adverse conditions.
Combat is fast and deadly to the unprepared. Characters act in order of skill level each turn,
with more skilled characters getting more actions. Damage from weapons directly affects
the part of the body hit, with location-specific effects like knockouts, blood loss and broken
bones. Armor protects you from lethal damage, but you can still take non-lethal hits through
blunt trauma and other effects.
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webmaster@paizo.com.