As befits a game built on the foundations of D&D from the 3.5e and 5e System Reference Documents, CORE20 plays an awful lot like D&D. When I’m talking to people who ask, “Well, how does X work in the game?,” the answer is very often, “Just like you’d expect it to.” That’s why I try as much as possible to not talk about the stuff you already know the game can do (let you be heroic, use magic, fight monsters, et al.), so as to focus on what’s new and different and interesting. And at the very top of the new/different/interesting flow chart for the game — alongside freeform character building with no classes and no levels — is CORE20’s narrative-focused setup of achieving successes with complications.
.jpg)
Success with complications is written up three times in the CORE20 Playtest Player’s Guide, describing the slightly different approaches taken on the topic for skill checks (“Measuring Skill Success” on page 104 of chapter 6), saving throws (“Measuring Saving Throw Success” on page 246 of chapter 9), and attack rolls (“Measuring Attack Success” a bit later in chapter 9 on page 265). One thing to acknowledge for when you play your first CORE20 sessions is that thinking about success with complications will take a bit of time. It did so for me when I first formalized those systems, even after thinking about them for quite a while. It did so for the CORE20 alpha playtest players in my home games. When I’m running intro games, it takes a bit of back and forth to initially explain to players how the system is meant to work.
Decisions, Decisions
Deciding what a specific complication on a skill check, saving throw, or attack roll might look like requires some thought, and it’s okay if this process feels a bit strange to you — because thinking this way is something you’ve likely never done before in a d20-based game. However, once you get into the flow of how the sliding scale of success in CORE20 is meant to feel, it takes very little time for it to start to feel natural. And if you’re anything like me, going back to the standard pass/fail state of stock D&D and other d20-based games can quickly start to feel a fair bit… well, not natural.
(An aside: In a 5e campaign I was playing in earlier this year, with a great GM and a fabulous group of players, my character got stunned and had to make a DC 12 Wisdom save at the end of each turn to shake it off. I had a +6 Wisdom save mod! And I still rolled an 11 three rounds in a row. In CORE20, the first of those rolls would have ended the effect, with the added bonus of something else interesting happening. In D&D, not so much.)
One of the things that can make players wary of mechanics that involve coming up with complications on the fly is that it can feel like it’s going to be difficult to come up with things that are different every time. I’ve heard more than a few players new to CORE20 say that not yet knowing the mechanics of the game well enough makes it difficult to come up with different mechanical options for complications whenever an attack roll gets almost close enough. So it’s important to understand that you absolutely don’t need to come up with novel options for every single complication, nor do you need perfect mastery of the rules of the game to make complications work.
But What Does That Look Like?
Combat is the area where success with a complication can feel most alien to first-time CORE20 players. And the best way to work around this is to not worry in the slightest about the mechanics of what a hit with a complication might look like. Rather, focus on the story, describing how your near-miss turns into a hit narratively, and only then working with the GM to figure out the mechanical impact.
“I make contact, but my blade can’t all the way through their armor.” If I’m your GM, I’ll probably suggest that the complication on your attack is that you’re going to deal half damage.
“I hit so hard that I end up slipping.” Even as you deal full damage, that bit of narrative can cover lots of options, from being slowed until the end of your next turn to falling prone from the follow-through of your own attack.
“I end up getting way closer than I wanted to.” That could be a hit that deals full damage to the foe and 1d4 bludgeoning to you as you take an armored shoulder to the face. Or it could be a hit that deals no damage but leaves the foe scrambling to get away from you, imposing disadvantage on their next defense roll.
“I come in hard. They scramble to get out of my way, and just barely make it.” That might be an attack that deals a measly 1 point of damage, but which leaves the target dazed until the end of their next turn, or slowed, or weakened. Any minor detriment that you suggest as a player and that the GM signs off on makes a perfectly acceptable lesser substitute for a full wallop of weapon damage.
Then, after you’ve worked through the narrative of a few different ways to hit with a complication, you’ll inevitably discover that some of those ways become your favorites. And when they do, just use them each and every time if that’s what you want to do. I’ve seen players whose combat-focused characters always hit hard go with half-damage for every hit with a complication — especially when those players are looking down at high rolls on the damage dice for sneak attack or ruthless attack. I’ve seen other players whose damage output isn’t great make consistent use of dealing no damage on a hit with a complication, in exchange for throwing a foe off balance to impose disadvantage on their next attack roll. That way, the damage the character missed out on has a solid chance of being more than made up for by the next hard-hitting ally who steps up.
Getting Up to Speed
When D&D 3e first dropped, one of the biggest challenges for me as a former AD&D 1e player was dealing with skill checks, because the skill system as 3e codified it had never been a part of the game as I had played it. Remembering that all characters could make skill checks, trying to decide which skill check was the best one to cover a specific activity, trying to remember DCs and adjustments — all of it took time at the table. But even by the end of my first session of 3e, thinking about and making skill checks felt natural. CORE20 treats the success of the d20 roll quite a bit differently than D&D does. But it won’t take long for the sliding scale of CORE20 success in combat to feel natural, especially if the story of your character’s complications is your focus.
•
Questions about success with complications or anything else in CORE20? Email CORE20@insaneangel.com or join us on the CORE20 Discord server and ask away!
Art by Dean Spencer
.jpg)