This blogpost was first published in German on January 26th, one day before the 5e SRD was put into creative commons. It took me longer to translate this one. I’m still working on the CCRPG, but now with a 5e CC-System, the roadmap could change a little.
In this blog post, you will learn everything about the planned modular and CC-licensed Chaos Common RPG (ccRPG), including its structure, roadmap, and ways to customize it to your needs, as well as some examples.
In my last blog post, I talked about the design goals of the Chaos Common RPG (ccRPG). It is intended to be a modular RPG system under a CC license that anyone can easily use and customize to their own gaming needs and develop further.
In the following, I would like to introduce the structure of the ccRPG and the roadmap for how it will proceed.
The Structure
The core of the ccRPG will be the module library. Ideally, all modules ever developed for the ccRPG will land there.
A module is one or more rules and gameplay mechanics that regulate a part of the game. For example, there are different modules for resolving actions (using a 1w20, 3w6, playing cards, etc.), different modules for character classes, etc. Ideally, the modules will include attachments that explain the design decisions and their impact on specific gameplay dynamics. For example, modules for resolving actions should always include corresponding probabilities with information on what results can come out of it.
Then there are sub-modules. These are modules that are subordinate to other modules, which are intended to serve the purpose of clarity and editability. For example, there is a module for properties that defines that there are classes. The individual classes are then sub-modules of the properties. This division makes it easier to, for example, remove and insert new character classes. You would only have to change or remove a sub-module to make the desired adjustments.
Then there are the databases. Databases are part of modules and serve to collect and organize things such as spells, weapons, and equipment and their properties. The modules then access the properties of the objects in the lists, such as the value of items, the hit points of monsters, etc.
Compilations. A compilation is a collection of modules, sub-modules, and databases that result in a playable RPG.
A finished RPG product. In the end, a finished role-playing game product is produced that presents the rules from a pre-made or self-created compilation in a easily understandable rulebook and also offers a setting and adventure (which do not have to be under a CC license, but can be).
So, if you want to develop your own RPG from scratch, you go to the library and select the modules, sub-modules, and databases that fit your idea, and put them together in a compilation. Alternatively, you can also use an existing compilation and adapt it to your needs.
Example structure of the library:
- Category 1: General Action-Resolution Mechanisms:
- 3w6 with exploding dice + bonuses
- 1w6 + bonuses with optional exhaustion rule
- 1w20 + bonuses
- …
- Category 2: Character Traits:
- Simple Fantasy Characters
- Simple Character Creation
- Mage Archetype
- Database of Simple Spells
- Fighter Archetype
- Treasure Hunter Archetype
- Believer Archetype
- Characters for Urban Fantasy
- Character Creation
- Cop Profession
- Witch/Wizard Profession
- Database of Urban Fantasy Spells
- Nurse/Caregiver Profession
- Priest Profession
- …
- Simple Fantasy Characters
- Category 3: Actions:
- Simple Actions
- Simple Social Interactions
- Simple Recovery
- Actions
- Social Interactions
- Recovery
- …
- Category 4: Combat Systems:
- Simple Combat
- Initiative system with cards
- Database: Simple Weapons
- Combat
- Initiative system with xxx
- Database: Fantasy Weapons
- Database: Urban Fantasy Weapons
- …
- Simple Combat
- Category 5: Monsters, NPCs, and Creatures:
- Simple Monsters
- Database: Types and Properties of Monsters, NPCs, and Others
- Database: Simple Monsters
- Database: Simple NPCs
- …
- Simple Monsters
- Category 6: Economy:
- Simple Economy
- Database: Simple Price List
- …
- Simple Economy
- Category 7: Travel:
- …
- Category 8: …
- …
Compilation: Simple RPG
- Category 1: General Action-Resolution Mechanisms:
- 1w6 + bonuses with optional exhaustion rule
- Category 2: Character Traits:
- Simple Fantasy Characters
- Simple Character Creation
- Mage Archetype
- Database of Simple Spells
- Fighter Archetype
- Treasure Hunter Archetype
- Believer Archetype
- Simple Fantasy Characters
- Category 3: Actions:
- Simple Actions
- Simple Social Interactions
- Simple Recovery
- Category 4: Combat Systems:
- Simple Combat
- Initiative system with cards
- Database: Simple Weapons
- Simple Combat
- Category 5: Monsters, NPCs, and Creatures:
- Simple Monsters
- Database: Types and Properties of Monsters, NPCs, and Others
- Database: Simple Monsters
- Database: Simple NPCs
- Simple Monsters
- Category 6: Economy:
- Simple Economy
- Database: Simple Price List
- Simple Economy
- Annex:
- Game Examples
Roadmap
After a rather spontaneous announcement to develop the ccRPG, I had some time to think about the specific approach and came to the following plan:
- First, a prototype will be developed, a simple RPG system that extends over a few levels, is easy to play, and illustrates the modular principle. It will be playable but will not claim to be perfect. The prototype will then illustrate the modularity by creating more modules and showing how easily the system can be adapted to one’s own needs. The whole thing will then be published under CC, so that you can experiment with it yourself and create your own variations.
- Based on the prototype, I will then create more modules that are intended to form the basis for a more complex fantasy role-playing game. All of this will be published under CC licenses gradually, so that you can all use it yourself and develop it further. Ideally, there will be so much interest in the Chaos Common RPG System Creation Engine that more people than just me are willing to work on it and test and improve the system.
There is no fixed goal, as the number of modules in the library and the compilations will constantly grow and improve through the use of the CC license. But my hope is that in the end there will be various compilations for different genres, settings, and game modes, and that content creators and game masters will use the system and adapt it to their needs.
Example Module
The prototype is already under development and is half finished. The core piece of the prototype is the module for the action-resolution mechanics, which is the mechanics used to handle everything a character does in a TTRPG. In the larger, well-known TTRPGs, a 1d20 (20-sided die) + bonuses is used for this. You roll the 1d20, add the appropriate bonuses you receive from character traits, circumstances, or other mechanics, and if the rolled number including bonuses is greater than the target number, you have done something successfully. Other systems use 2d10, 3d6, drawn cards, Jenga towers, and many other variations. Some games even use more than one variant.
For the Chaos Common Simple RPG, whose design goal is to be simple, I use a simple variant: 1d6 + bonuses. Almost everyone has six-sided dice at home and the results are immediately apparent. 1 to 2 is bad, 3 to 4 is okay, and 5 to 6 is usually good. Additionally, there is an exhaustion mechanism that is used as a substitute for more complex systems such as mana points, spell slots, Ki/Psi/action points, and similar game resources to truly keep the basics of the Simple RPG as simple as possible.
Here is the module:
ARM-Module 2 – Simplified Action Roll (1d6 + Bonuses):
Action Roll: 1d6 + bonuses/-Penalties against a difficulty number that must be met or exceeded.
Exhaustion: Characters can be exhausted. When certain abilities that require action rolls result in a roll of 1 or 2, that ability can no longer be used until the character recovers. If an ability can be exhausted, it is explicitly stated (Exhaustion).
Annex ARM2sH-1 – Difficulty Levels
| Difficulty Distribution (without Bonus/Penalty) |
|---|
| Difficulty | Trivial | Easy | Average | Hard | Very Hard | Extreme |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Success Chance | 100% | 83.33% | 66.66% | 50% | 33.33% | 16.66% |
| 1d6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Difficulty Distribution with Different Bonuses / Penalties |
|---|
| Difficulty | Trivial | Easy | Average | Hard | Very Hard | Extreme |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Success Chance | 100% | 83.33% | 66.66% | 50% | 33.33% | 16.66% |
| 1d6 +1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 1d6 +2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 1d6 +3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 1d6 -1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Attack Bonus at Level 1: +2 to +3 (+1 with aid)
Attack Bonus at Level 3: +3 to 4.
Attack Bonus at Level 5: up to +5 to 6 (with aid)
Range of bonuses for action rolls at all levels: 0 to 6.
Difficulty
- Trivial: 1 to 2
- Easy: 3 to 4
- Average: 5-6
- Hard: 7-8
- Very Hard: 9-10
- Extreme: 11-12
- If the Bonus is equal to the Difficulty Number, rolling is not required.
Impact on Design:
With 1d6 + bonuses (0-6), bonuses have a significant impact. Characters who do not invest in certain skills or abilities can only safely handle easy tasks and have difficulties with average tasks, while characters who specialize do not even need to roll for average tasks. To decrease the influence of character attributes, the dice range can be increased (e.g. 1d12) or the range of bonuses can be decreased (e.g. from 0-3).
Explanations:
The rules are relatively simple and clear, and one could play a short RPG using them without needing anything else (then there would be no bonuses and it would be based on the difficulty distribution of 1d6 without bonuses). Player: „I want to jump over the abyss.“ Game Master: „Hmm, that’s difficult. Make an action roll, if you get a 4 or better you succeed, otherwise you fall.“
With this module, we now have a mechanism that allows us to determine the effects of character actions with uncertain outcomes. The bonuses that players receive in the ccSimple RPG can range from 0 to +6 (this is as far as I’ve gotten with the design). This results in the difficulty table in the appendix, which can be used as a guide for further design. But what does this design decision mean? We have bonuses that are as high as the maximum dice roll. This means that bonuses become more important in relation to the dice roll. Character development becomes more important. If this is translated to systems with a 1w20, it’s like the bonuses now go from 0 to 20. For the ccSimple RPG, this also means that characters in areas without bonuses will always fail at a certain difficulty and characters with bonuses will always be successful. This is a design decision for the ccSimple RPG and since it’s in the module appendix, anyone can understand it and decide whether to change it or keep it. For example, if we translate this to 1w12, we get the following module:
ARM Module 3 – Simplified Action Roll (1d12 + Bonuses):
Action Roll: 1d12 + bonuses/penalties against a difficulty number that must be met or exceeded.
Exhaustion: Characters can be exhausted. If certain abilities that require action rolls result in a roll in the range of 1 to 4, that ability cannot be used until the character recovers. If an ability can be exhausted, it is explicitly stated (exhaustion). The range at which exhaustion occurs can be modified by additional rules.
Annex ARM3sH-1 – Difficulty levels
Difficulty distribution (without bonus/penalty)
| Difficulty | Trivial | Easy | Average | Hard | Very Hard | Extreme |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Success Chance | 100%-91,66% | 83.33% | 75% – 58,33% | 50%-41,66% | 33,33%-25% | 16,66%-8,33% |
| 1d12 | 1-2 | 3 | 4-6 | 7-8 | 9-10 | 11-12 |
Difficulty distribution with different bonuses / mali
| Difficulty | Trivial | Easy | Average | Hard | Very Hard | Extreme |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Success Chance | 100%-91,66% | 83.33% | 75% – 58,33% | 50%-41,66% | 33,33%-25% | 16,66%-8,33% |
| 1d12 +1 | 2-3 | 4 | 5-7 | 8-9 | 10-11 | 12-13 |
| 1d12 +2 | 3-4 | 5 | 6-8 | 9-10 | 11-12 | 13-14 |
| 1d12 +3 | 4-5 | 6 | 7-9 | 10-11 | 12-13 | 14-15 |
| 1d12 -1 | 0-1 | 2 | 4-5 | 6-7 | 8-9 | 10-11 |
Attack bonus at level 1: +2 to +3 (+1 with help)
Attack bonus at level 3: +3 to 4.
Attack bonus at level 5: up to +5 to 6 (with help)
Range of bonuses for action rolls across all levels: 0 to 6.
Difficulty array:
- Trivial: 1-3
- Easy: 4-5
- Average: 6-8
- Hard: 9-11
- Very difficult: 12-14
- Extreme: 15-18
- If the bonus is equal to the difficulty number, there is no need to roll the dice.
Impact on Design:
With 1d12 + bonuses (0-6), bonuses take on medium importance. Characters who do not invest in certain skills or abilities can handle easy tasks relatively safely and have slight problems with average ones, while characters who specialize do not have to roll at all for easy tasks. If you want to reduce the influence of character traits even further, you have to increase the dice range (e.g. from 2d10 to 1d20) or decrease the bonus range (e.g. from 0 to 3).
What you see here now is that there are shifts in difficulty simply by the choice of die. In the last article, we talked about how often you need to succeed for it to be psychologically satisfying. And the range is between 60 and 75%. So I set the dice results of the 1w12 without bonuses for average difficulty to 4-6, because that covers that optimal range well.
That left only the three for „easy“. That’s fine. If you include the bonus range, the whole thing gets stretched out a bit again.
But you can also see that for both 1d6 and 1d12, the average difficulty range of the difficulty table is calibrated to a +2 bonus. This is the sweet spot.
In most roleplaying games, characters will have no bonus or even a negative bonus in some areas, while quickly reaching the maximum bonus in others. Keeping the sweet spot in the middle, i.e. calibrating the game to the +2 bonus in this case, gives you a good feel for the game in my opinion. Character development does affect the game, making certain actions easier and others harder. But we’ll look at that later when we develop what we want the characters to look like mechanically.
If you have any suggestions, ideas or questions, feel free to leave a comment.
All articles and the current development status of the Chaos Common RPG Creation Engine can be found here (at the moment only in German): https://wp.abfuning.de/chaos-common-rpg-system/.
If you have any questions, suggestions or would like to discuss the article, please leave a comment.
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Yours truly, A.B. Funing