Core Rules: what is under the hood

After some days spent on DriveThru in order to understand how tricky is the preparation of a title over there, I am back to the real matter, the game. Let me only say: yes, I will likely put on DriveThru my stuff and as soon as the Core Rules will be ready, I will start a communication campaign.

Now, what is in the rulebook: this book has 9 chapters, I will provide you with a summary of each of them here below.

  • Ch.I - Introduction to the VI·VIII·X KUP RPG game; here you will read what is the KUP concept, what is the underlying rationale and how the rulebook is built. Let me add a detail: for this book I decided to write the rules in a (hopefully) easy to read way; short explanations, some examples and many many links to other related or recalled rules; in order to help the reader I outlined keyword or concepts in bold (now, with the formatting, I lost this feature but I will insert it in the printed version). 
  • Ch.II - Character's definition: in this chapter all the main stats of the characters are explained; there are 3 levels of stats, they are branched and all of them defines a character. The first level are the stats that are used in every RPG, these are called KS (Known Stats); the second level of stats are the ones known to the GM only and are called US (Unknown Stats); the third level are called ES (Exclusive skills) and are similar to the skills of any other "traditional" RPG. The 3rd level is tied to the 2nd level which in turn is tied to the 1st one. ...it seems complex but it isn't... In addition to the stats, there are other features detailed in this chapter: the character background, which is extremely important in the game (not only for some game mechanics), the Morality, the State of Mind and the careers of the characters. On background, Morality and State of Mind I will write more on an ad hoc post! 
  • Ch.III - A mere list of the ES with a detail on how do these work.
  • Ch.IV - Character's creation and progression: here we have the rules to create a character and those to advance in terms of improvement. In this game there are two different ways to improve: one is by leveling up (very similar to any other RPG by level), the other one is by increasing the score in a specific skill (which can happen without leveling up). An interesting detail is the way I made up the rule for leveling up: it is not a matter of XP or similar linked to the actions of the character... It is a challenge against the player in order to confirm that the player knows his character enough to make the PC to advance by a level.
  • Ch.V - Game mechanics: in here we find all the rules related to time, movement, sequence (or initiative), load capacity, reaction and the most important one, the action resolution check (called ARC in the game). It could be nice to detail in a separate post also some rules which are not the usual ones, like the sequence, the timing and, looking to the previous chapter, also the experience system. 
  • Ch.VI - Combat rules: this chapter covers both melee and ranged attacks; these are explained as specific applications of the general rule of the action resolution check (ARC). A remarkable aspect of the game is that I wanted a fast-paced action resolution and I hope I did it: with one die roll, it is possible to determine both the hit and the damage.
  • Ch.VII - Magic and spellcasting: this is maybe the most difficult part I wrote for the game; despite the fact that I had everything clear in my mind and/or written on my notepad, it took me ages to complete this chapter. Here is detailed both arcane and divine magic: I called them eldritch magic and channeling magic. The spells are called SS (Secret Sorcery) and CC (Clerical Canons) and work in different ways... even on this aspect it'd be worth to open a new post, there are too many differences with the "traditional" RPGs that it makes really sense.
  • Other rules: injuries, death, recovery, special actions, states of the character are explained in this chapter.
  • Ch. IX - Equipment: in this chapter I detail only weapons, armors and shields in order to complete the set of rules and make this game playable as a stand-alone book. In the setting I plan to complete this part with everything useful for the adventure which is not present here. With this equipment the rules for combat are completed with weapons and armors stats.
  • Appendices: one for the ES coming from the PC background (which should be a part of the setting but a "standard" background is necessary also here to make the rulebook complete); one with a table of acronyms (which is essential as the game is based on new acronyms) and a bibliography (this is also a way to credit my sources of inspiration).
I really hope you will be able to read it in the next future!

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