the basic game

 

Credits Written and designed by: Ben Dutter

Inspirations: Freeform Universal, OneDice Universal, Fate,

Wushu, Apocalypse World, and many others

Playtesters: Guillaume St-Pierre, Rick Cope, Karl Larsson, Brandon

Franklin, Jessica Dutter, and many others

Artwork: Alex Boca, Lee Che, Winston Lew, Robert Treherne III,

Emily Renner

Special thanks: The game design communities of rpg.net,

Story Games, Google+, and reddit

Published by Sigil Stone Publishing 2015 Copyright Sigil Stone and Ben Dutter 2015. All rights reserved.

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Contents

Getting Started 4 Gameplay 16

○ What is this? 5 ○ Doing stuff 17

○ What you need 6 ○ Describe the action 17

○ A universal toolbox 7 ○ Roll 1d6 17

○ As a group 8 ○ And or But 18

○ Pick the GM 8 ○ Traits 19

○ Game Concept 8 ○ Is it relevant? 19

○ Add two Skills 9 ○ Abilities 20

○ As a player 10 ○ Unique talents 20

○ Character concept 10 ○ Don’t roll when 20

○ Three Core Traits 10 ○ Advantage when 20

○ Ability 11 ○ Permission when 20

○ Rank Skills 11 ○ Advantage 23

○ Vitality 12 ○ Adv: best of 2d6 23

○ As the GM 13 ○ Dis: worst of 2d6 23

○ Character creation 13 ○ Cancel, don’t stack 24

○ Inciting incident 13 ○ Difficulty 25

○ Starting Play 14 ○ GM Gauges 25

○ Set the Scene 14 ○ Assign a modifier 25

○ Hammers and nails 14 ○ Cancel, don’t stack 25

○ What do you do? 15 ○ Stack with Traits 25

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○ Advancement 27 ○ Equipment 35

○ Source 27 ○ Item’s Purpose 35

○ Frequency 27 ○ Item’s Traits 35

○ Gain with Advance 28 ○ Item’s Abilities 35

○ New Abilities 29 ○ Mechanical impact 36

○ Conflict 30 ○ Weapon damage 37

○ Most are Tasks 30 ○ NPC damage 38

○ The outcome 31 ○ Damage reduction 38

○ Defeating NPCs 31 ○ Effect of hits 39

○ Detailed conflict 32 ○ Suffering wounds 40

○ Damage 34 ○ Healing 41

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GETTING STARTED

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One of your regular group members couldn’t make it, or you want an impromptu session, or you want to try some zany mashup of ideas. What do you do? Play Cornerstone! Here’s how to get a game going.

What is this? Cornerstone is a tabletop roleplaying game. You and at least one other friend take on the role of characters in the in-game universe, essentially cooperating to create a story. Get a group of 2-6 people together with some dice, paper, and pencils. One player is the Game Master (GM), who runs all of the non-player characters (NPCs), describes the environment, and determines what happens when your character fails. The rest of the players make one character.

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Agree upon a Game Concept (adventurers exploring dungeons, an elite sci-fi military unit, the crew of a 15th Century merchant vessel), then each player will come up with a character concept that fits. Most of the game itself is played through a dialogue. You and the other players say what you want your characters to do, and the GM will take care of the rest. The group of characters the players control is sometimes called a party or a group. Your party will interact with one another, the NPCs, and the world, all under the guidance of the GM, the dice, and the rules.

What you need

Playing a game of Cornerstone is extremely easy. All you really need is at least one other person, one of you will be the GM and the other will play as a character (or two.) The only other tools that you need to play are these rules, some regular six sided dice (abbreviated as D), and something to take notes on. If you don’t have any physical dice, paper, or pencils, there’s plenty of digital resources that can roll dice and store game notes. Once the group of players is corralled, each of you should read these rules. The GM should be familiar enough with how to make characters and how the game works. I’ll get to that in a bit.

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You’ll need to collaborate on what your particular version of a Cornerstone game looks like, where it's set, what’s the tone, what type of issues you’re interested in exploring, etc.

A universal toolbox

Cornerstone is built to be a universal, generic toolkit designed to get you and your friends quickly and easily into your preferred setting. It does fantasy, modern, action, sci fi, supers, or just about any other common genre. That means that Cornerstone can be your group’s foundation to cover a variety of different game types. If you’re anything like me, you constantly get inspiration to run a new game in the setting of your favorite universe, or want to create some kind of mashup that is too obscure to warrant its own book, or play in a new setting. That’s what Cornerstone is for.

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As a Group Agree on who is going to GM

Decide on the Game Concept

○ Heroic fantasy, space opera, sci fi, supers, horror, or your favorite book or movie or video game setting

○ Pick the party’s Purpose (heroes, mercs, cops)

○ Decide the party’s Place (Space, England, NYC)

○ Agree on the Color (gritty, silly, gonzo, epic)

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Add two Skills to the Standard Eight

Awareness Coordination Influence Knowledge

Logic Might Resistance Stealth These two Skills should fit with the Game Concept. Example Additional Skills Magic, Psychic, Computers, Melee, Ranged, Guns, Vehicles, Demolitions, Wilderness, or anything that makes sense for your agreed upon Game Concept. Talk it through as a group!

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As a Player Come up with your Character Concept Think of your Background (distant history) and Foreground (recent history). Stick to the Game Concept and openly collaborate with the other players about your character.

Define or pick your Three Core Traits

1. Ideals: your morality, motivation, or personality 2. Method: the way in which you approach obstacles 3. History: your training, proficiency, or past

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Example Ideals Honor, selfishness, might makes right, ambition, protect the innocent, justice, vengeance, duty, freedom, redemption. Example Method Direct, passionate, logical, careful, brutal, efficient, heroic, flamboyant, dishonest, selfish, cowardly, valorous, patient. Example History Barbarian, second son of the King, served hard time, escaped from a slave camp, life among the stars, hullborn, outcast. Share, collaborate with, and get approval from the rest of the players - especially the GM.

Define your Ability Create your character’s Ability - something they’re uniquely skilled at. Your Ability allows you to never fail certain actions, do better than others with certain actions, and some actions that you can do but others can’t. This must be approved by the GM. Read more on Abilities (pg 20).

Rank your ten Skills

○ Two Skills are Bad (success on 5-6) ○ Four Skills are Average (success on 4-6) ○ Two Skills are Capable (success on 3-6) ○ Two Skills are Great (success on 2-6)

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Calculate your Vitality Every character starts out with 5 Vitality, but adds 1 Vitality for each Skill Rank their Resistance is above Bad.

○ Resistance is Bad: +0 Vitality ○ Resistance is Average: +1 Vitality ○ Resistance is Capable: +2 Vitality ○ Resistance is Great: +3 Vitality

If one of the two Skills you added to the Standard Eight is more appropriate for a character’s toughness, willpower, and overall ability to survive in the game, use that instead of Resistance.

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As the GM Guide the group’s character creation Curate and collaborate with the group on their characters. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, add complications, or veto.

Create an inciting incident Cornerstone games should start with a bang. There’s nothing worse than an awkward, slow-moving first session. Heroic fantasy Fight a dragon. Delve a dungeon. Prepare for and defend a city from a horde of orcs. Stop a dark ritual.

Space opera Rescue captured royalty from a space station. Discover a new planet. Use a time machine. Crash land your ship.

Sci fi Wake up early from cryosleep, only to find 90% of the ship’s crew is dead or missing. Stop an asteroid impact.

Supers Assemble the super team to stop the super villain. Save a city from an alien invasion. Try to end World War III.

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Starting Play

The GM sets the scene Throw the characters into the determined inciting incident right away. Give a succinct and intense description of the relevant variables.

Give their hammers nails In order to proactively engage with the scene, the players need some nails to hammer. What are the immediate and pressing issues, obstacles, or enemies that are threatening the characters? What are some obvious options?

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“What do you do?” After the inciting incident has been revealed, the GM should ask the players “What do you do?” Initially focus on their character’s thoughts and conversation, then dive straight into the action. Ask them specific questions about their actions and intentions. Establish connections to the Game Concept. Bring up a Trait for each player if necessary. Most importantly: get them talking, asking questions, and doing stuff.

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GAMEPLAY

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Doing Stuff Describe what you’re trying to do Players describe their characters’ actions, intended outcome, and approach.

Player: Ishkhan tries to efficiently chop the bandit’s arm off with his axe so that she can’t attack Barina.

Roll 1d6 Only roll when an action:

○ is possible ○ has a chance of failure ○ has an interesting consequence or outcome

The player rolls 1d6. Compare the face-value (1-6) to the most appropriate Skill’s Rank to determine success or failure. Success What the player wants to happen, happens. Failure The GM narrates what actually happens, usually not what the character wanted to happen.

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Player: My Might is Capable (3+), and I rolled a 4. That’s a success, so off goes the bandit’s arm!

Determine And or But If the roll is Even (2, 4, 6), modify the outcome with an And. If the roll is Odd (1, 3, 5), modify it with a But. Players can suggest Ands and Buts, but the GM has the final say.

Failure And The action fails and you suffer a setback.

Failure But The action fails but you gain a benefit.

Success But The action succeeds but you suffer a setback.

Success And The action succeeds and you gain a benefit.

Player: And since I rolled a 4, I got a Success And! GM: Ishkhan’s axe lops off the bandit’s arm, And he’s able to knock her down prone. If the Player had rolled a 5 (Success But) instead: GM: Ishkhan’s axe lodges in the bandit’s arm, mangling it severely, But it gets stuck and pulled down with the limb.

Note: always read the adjusted value of the dice after applying any modifiers (such as from Traits).

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Traits

Is a Trait relevant to your action? If one of your Three Core Traits is beneficial and relevant to your attempted action, you can trigger before the roll and:

○ Add +1 to your roll ○ Add an extra And or But ○ Cancel out an And or But

Only one Trait can be used per action. GMs can trigger a character’s Trait if it is detrimental and relevant to their action, applying the reverse of the options above.

Player: I want to use Ishkhan’s Battlefield Commander Trait to add another And to my success. GM: Okay, what do you want that to be? Player: Ishkhan would give an intimidating battlecry, making the other bandits possibly freeze, surrender, or flee. GM: Sure that works. After they see Ishkhan chop off one of their members’ arms and hear his ferocious battlecry, the ragtag group of bandits hesitates in springing their ambush. Barina gets to act before them now.

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Abilities

Define your unique suite of talents Each character starts out with one Ability - something that sets them apart from the rest of their group and helps to define their connection to the Game Concept. Think about a word or phrase that really encapsulates what your character is capable of - their role in the team, their profession, the name of their ancient Order, whatever.

You don’t have to roll Define a specific type of Task that never requires a roll from your character. It can’t be an attack or defend, but some simple action you’re expected to accomplish routinely.

You roll with Advantage Define a few specific types of Task or one broad type of Task in which you excel. Roll with Advantage for these Tasks.

Only you have permission to roll Figure out a specific type of Task that others would find impossible - only you can roll for this type of Task. Remember, it should still be somewhat conceivable.

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Example: Elite Legionnaire You don’t need to roll when marching long distances. Roll with Advantage when building fortifications. You can attempt impossible defends when surrounded by enemies. Example: Honorbound Arbiter You don’t need to roll when gaining others’ trust. Roll with Advantage when demonstrating the Tenets of Honor. You can attempt impossible Influence Tasks to pacify others.

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Example: Grizzled Galactic Bounty Hunter You don’t need to roll to learn your quarry’s rough location. Roll with Advantage when attempting to detain your quarry. You can attempt impossible quarry-tracking Tasks. Example: Master Arcane Controller You don’t need to roll when executing simple and minor feats of magic. Roll with Advantage when using Control to sculpt physical material. You can attempt impossible Control Tasks related to sculpting material. Example: Strongest Woman in the Galaxy You don’t need to roll to lift or move anything that weighs less than a 1000kg. Roll with Advantage when leveraging your extreme Might. You can attempt impossible Might Tasks related to your incredible, godlike, brute strength.

Player: I want Ishkhan to forge a new suit of armor while we’re at the castle for the next few weeks. GM: Okay, you have access to the proper materials and resources. You’ll need to roll a Knowledge to not mess up. Player: Actually, since I have the Razmehk Battle Smith Ability, can I just do it without rolling? I trained in forges and armorsmithing most of my youth. GM: Yeah sure, that makes sense. It’ll take you two weeks, working eight hours a day.

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Advantage

Advantage: roll twice, pick the best If you have an advantage toward completing an action (good position, helpful item, etc) roll two dice and pick the best.

Murasada chops at the prone marauder, and has advantage due to him being tripped the previous round. She rolls twice and gets a 4 and 5 (her Might is Capable.) She picks the 4, since it delivers a Success And.

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Disadvantage: roll twice, take the worst If you’re at a disadvantage, roll twice and take the worst.

Kettefiss tries to hotwire an airlock, but has disadvantage from improper tools. She rolls Knowledge twice and gets 2 and 5. Since she has disadvantage she has to pick the 2, a Fail And.

Cancel, but don’t stack Multiple sources of advantage and disadvantage cancel each other out, but don’t stack. A character with three advantages and two disadvantages rolls as if they had one advantage. Example Sources of Advantage Outnumber the enemy, superior tactical position, ideal tools for the job, prior knowledge of the obstacle, a map of the area, the machine’s schematics, a successful feint prior to an attack, a well crafted disguise, a shot of magical potion, extremely high morale, favorable environmental conditions. The inverse of the above serve as excellent sources of Disadvantage.

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Difficulty

The GM gauges the Task’s Difficulty The vast majority of Tasks fall within an action’s normal range, but at times the GM might judge whether a particular warrants a Difficulty modifier or not.

Assign a modifier

○ Easy: +1 bonus to roll ○ Possible: requires a roll ○ Difficult: -1 penalty to roll

GMs, make sure you alert the player whether their intended action has earned a Difficulty modifier.

Cancel, but don’t stack Just like Advantage and Disadvantage, multiple sources of a Difficulty Modifier can cancel each other out, but don’t stack. Players never apply more than a +1 or -1 to their roll from Difficulty Modifier.

Stack with Traits Difficulty modifiers stack with Trait modifiers up to a maximum bonus or penalty of +2 or -2.

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Player: I want Ishkhan to melt through the stone wall with his Sculpting Magic. GM: This flagstone is massive and dense, so that’ll be Difficult with a -1 modifier to the roll. Player: Okay, can I use my Tenacious Trait to cancel that penalty out? GM: Yep, but I just realized you’re also shackled and in a lot of pain, so that’s another source of Difficulty. Go ahead and roll with a total -1 modifier.

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Advancement

Most stories told with Cornerstone involve the characters changing and growing over time - this growth is called Advancement.

Discuss the source of Advancement As a group, talk about what type of actions and factors contribute to a character’s Advancement, and how those factors originate from and align with the Game Concept. The source drives and motivates character action - so it should be something defining of the genre and the type of stories your game focuses on. Example sources of Advancement Completing sessions, completing scenes, completing major arcs, overcoming obstacles, winning fights, exploring new territories, learning ancient secrets, completing bounties, observing ideals, retrieving lost treasures.

Determine Advancement frequency How many sessions or scenes or obstacles need to be completed in order for characters to Advance? Is it a flat number each time? Does it increase each time the characters Advance? Keep it simple and easy to track.

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Each time you Advance, you gain When a character Advances, they gain a few improvements that they can apply immediately to their character:

○ Rank Up one Skill Rank (Good to Great) ○ Gain +1 Vitality ○ Gain one new descriptive Trait ○ The option of changing one Core Trait

Skills can’t be Ranked above Great. Descriptive Traits function just like Core Traits, but describe the character’s reputation, status (physical, mental, social, etc), addictions, or talents that they’ve picked up during play.

Kettefiss just collected her third bounty, earning herself an Advance. She improves her Awareness Skill Rank from Good to Great, and writes down Careful Technician as a new descriptive Trait. Finally, since she’s changed the primary way she handles conflict, she decides to swap out her Fearless Core Trait to Cautious. It fits her more methodical nature.

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Gaining new Abilities If the group agrees and the game concept allows, every few Advances characters can gain access to new Abilities. These need to make sense in the narrative, and should be on par with the rest of the characters’ Abilities. If allowed, it’s recommended that every three Advances grants a new Ability, or the option to change an existing one.

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Conflict

Most conflicts are Tasks Usually when a character’s action opposes an NPC - such as combat, an argument, a chase, a battle of wits, whatever - the GM can treat it as a normal Task. The player states their action and intent, rolls, and determines the outcome. Most NPCs won’t apply a modifier to the character’s roll, but especially weak or powerful enemies can add +1 or -1 just like an Easy or Difficult Task.

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The conflict’s outcome The point of most conflicts is to achieve some kind of mutually exclusive goal (get there first, exert more force). Strictly the player’s roll determines if their character - or their opponent - achieved the desired outcome. Players roll their characters’ attacks and defends - the GM never rolls.

Defeating NPCs NPCs have Vitality just like characters. Most NPCs are fodder, and only have 1 Vitality, while tougher opponents have 5 to 10 Vitality. An NPC is defeated when they reach 0 Vitality. The nature of their defeat depends on what manner of conflict is taking place - killed or knocked out in combat, captured, persuaded, outrun, or outmatched in some way.

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Actions during detailed conflict Sometimes a conflict requires a great amount of detail, zooming in to blow-by-blow combat or a tit-for-tat repartee. In these cases, those involved in the conflict take one action per turn, and one turn per round. An action consists of one roll - essentially a Task. Who goes when largely depends on what makes sense in the narrative, the aggressor goes first, their allies can jump in to protect them, their opponents respond when possible, quick actions take less time than long actions, etc. Whenever a character attacks or defends themselves, the player must roll. The GM, and by extension NPCs, never roll. Defending - or any reaction to an NPC’s action - doesn’t count as the character’s one allotted action per turn. If a character has to roll Might in order to catch themselves after the floor collapses - that’s a reaction and doesn’t count toward their limit. As the GM, make sure you highlight every player and combatant equally, prompting others to speak to their character’s actions if they haven’t already. If your group isn’t comfortable with this fluid method of taking turns, you can base the order of actions off of a Skill or a roll of said Skill (such as Awareness or Coordination.)

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GM: The Carhai Raiders grip their spears and draw their bows, preparing to strike out against the Arbiters and their caravan. Player: Can Murasada quickly step forward and speak before they attack? GM: Sure, talking is quicker than charging with a spear. What do you say or do in character? Player: Murasada wants to stop the Raiders in their tracks with the gravitas of her words and the potency of her presence. GM: Okay, go ahead and roll Influence. That’ll be your one action this turn, that’s all you can do for now. Player: Okay. I rolled and got a… 6! Success And! Not only do I want them to stop charging, I want my allies to have ample time to prepare for battle! GM: Your allies are ready, the enemy has stopped. Not waiting for the negotiations, one of the caravaneers looses a quarrel from their arbalest! A raider falls and dies off of his steed. Enraged, the raiders draw steel against the caravaneers and battle erupts. An arrow whooshes through the field toward your head, you’ll need to roll a Defend. Player: Ack, okay. I will roll Awareness so I can try to see the raider about to shoot and move out of his line of fire in time. Darn, a 2 - that’s a Fail And. GM: You get hit in the shoulder, and you drop your shield from the pain in your joint.

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Dealing and taking damage When an attacker succeeds in hitting their opponent, they deal damage according to their weapon. An attacking character’s Success And deals more damage than a Success But. A defending character’s Fail But takes less damage than a Fail And.

Kettefiss has a 3/7 damage SMG. She shoots - gets a Success And - and deals 7 damage to her target. She has 1/2 DR Armor. She dodges enemy fire - gets a Fail But - and only reduces the incoming damage by 1.

This is explained in more detail in the Equipment section.

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Equipment

What’s the equipment’s purpose? Is a piece of gear meant for combat? Is it meant to kill or to capture? Is it a helpful tool, or a defensive shield, or an ancient and puzzling artifact’s cipher?

Ishkhan’s Volcano Forged Poleaxe is a weapon of war and a symbol of Clan Razmehk’s power and authority.

Equipment can have Traits Just like a character, gear can have one or more Traits. These can simply describe the equipment, or it can be something more specific about the item. These Traits provide the same triggerable +1 or -1, or extra / one less And or But to a roll.

Ishkhan’s Poleaxe has the Versatile Weapon Trait, triggerable when fighting against different types of armor.

Equipment can have Abilities And again, just like a character, equipment can grant a character unique permissions and rules exceptions due to its unique Ability.

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The young warrior’s Poleaxe gives him Permission to attack and puncture through incredibly tough surfaces that others would find impossible - the benefit of the Poleaxe’s Ability.

Only some gear has mechanical impact Only when equipment is significant to the narrative and the current Tasks does it have some measure of mechanical impact - Traits, Abilities, that sort of thing.

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Character weapon damage Character weapons deal damage when they hit (the result of a successful attack) their target. Weapon damage is listed with two values - the amount of damage dealt with a Hit And and the amount dealt with a Hit But.

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Kettefiss’ SMG deals 3 / 7 Damage. If she gets a Hit But, she only deals 3 damage to her target; and a Hit And deals 7 damage to her target.

Weapon damage values range from 1 to 10, typically hovering between 2 and 5. As a typical rule of thumb, weapons’ Hit And value is around double its Hit But value. The bigger the difference between a Hit But and a Hit And, the more volatile and skill-based the weapon is.

NPCs deal flat damage The party’s opponents and allies simply deal a flat number of damage, as the And or But is related to the character’s defend roll and damage reduction. Most enemies deal around 2 damage, tough around 4, and deadly around 6.

Character damage reduction Characters can have damage reduction (DR), often granted by some form of ablative or defensive equipment - armor, shields, kinetic absorbers, etc. DR reduces the amount of damage a character takes when they fail a defend roll. Just like weapons, DR is usually listed with a Got Hit And (Fail And) value and a Got Hit But (Fail But) value. The Got Hit And DR value is less than the Got Hit But DR value.

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Ishkhan wears a Mastercraft Plate Harness, which grants him 2 / 4 DR. If he rolls a Fail And on a defend, he only reduces the incoming damage by 2, and a Fail But reduces it by 4.

The effects of getting hit The majority of combat and conflict will have semi-abstract, narrative effects based upon the character’s intended outcome and the status of their roll.

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When Ishkhan chops off the bandit’s arm - part of how he stated his attempted action prior to the roll - the bandit is less capable (she’s down an arm after all). This is the effect of the wound, regardless of the damage dealt from Ishkhan’s attack. The GM - and even the rest of the players around the table - can discuss what narrative impacts this has on the scene. Perhaps the characters have all gained Advantage against the one-armed bandit, or perhaps she’s unable to attack and only try to run away. When a character gets hit, they can have similar narrative effects placed upon them - loss of permission, disadvantages, roll modifiers, etc - as well as suffer Vitality loss. Of course, to speed up gameplay, characters can be largely immune to such effects.

Suffering wounds When a character reaches 0 or less Vitality and is defeated, they can choose to keep fighting and suffer a wound or succumb to defeat. A Got Hit But delivers a minor wound, while a Got Hit And delivers a major wound. Minor wounds serve as negative Traits - they are triggerable by the GM when appropriate and give a roll penalty. Major wounds serve as negative Abilities - blocking permissions, downgrading a Skill Rank, making certain actions with Disadvantage, etc.

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Healing Damage can be healed - wounds reversed, Vitality restored - as a Task. The amount that is healed depends on the equipment being used for healing (treated just like weapon damage, with an And and But value). Certain Abilities or other narrative effects might affect healing (such as Magic). The severity of the injury takes more time to heal, which largely depends on your Game Concept. Characters in a high power fantasy setting will heal and behave very differently than a gritty war simulation. Common healing speeds:

○ Immediate: the effects of healing are instant ○ Post-scene: healing applies after a scene ○ Post-session: healing applies after a session ○ Post-arc: healing applies after an arc

Magical and high-tech healing is usually immediate, narrative and hand-waved healing is post-scene, common pulp or high-action healing is post-session, and gritty and slow-paced healing is usually post-arc.

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