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CORE Command (CC) is an epic-style, space-opera, science-fiction setting sourcebook usable with either DP9’s house system (SilCORE) or with an OGL (d20) rulebook. There is a hardback edition as well (DP9-909) that adds material contained in the Armory supplement (DP9-903) and purportedly corrects some of the typos (more on that later).
The book has six main sections that cover the setting, character creation, weapons & equipment, spacecraft, threats (read: bad guys), and gamemastering.
Generally speaking, the layout is well done and the internal art is both consistent and of good quality, though noticeably different from DP9’s other lines. The binding is solid, and the paper quality is good. The stock for the cover seemed a bit substandard, however. My copy evidenced pronounced curling after only light reading, and I treat my books well. I can only imagine what some moderate abuse would produce. The editing throughout the book, however, is atrocious, with many typos that should have been easily caught by even a brief editor read-through.
The first chapter, The CORE Command Universe, is really the gem of the entire product. They lay out a setting that allows for an amazing amount of creativity from the GM. While excellent for GMs who enjoy that sort of latitude, it may not be the right choice for those looking for a more “plug and play” approach. It is essentially a 20-page brief introduction to what has the potential to be a very rich background if you like high-powered space opera.
The second chapter details Character Design. This is where the differences between the SilCORE material and the OGL information begin to stand out. The SilCORE system is much more like GURPS in that it is a point-based character generation system with no classes. They make an attempt to shoehorn certain concepts into the OGL system with questionable results, likening Bards to Diplomats and so on. However, good effort was made in this section to ensure the d20 translations were clear and visible, even if you might not always agree with their conclusions. The race descriptions are good and include more background for the setting, 8 races in all for PCs. At the end of the second chapter is a section on artificial beings, with the implication that they can be used as PCs, but the statistics for the various “shells,” for use by AIs or “recorded heroes,” are in “creature” format. While it’s easier to adapt those statistics into the SilCORE, point-based system, it would take some serious work to adapt these into OGL.
Chapter 3, Tools of the Trade, provides a very brief sampling of equipment, both at the technology level of the PCs and at lower levels that they might encounter in their travels. It is too brief, covering very little of the toys that make science-fiction settings shine if done correctly. As DP9 has produced a separate equipment guide (DP9-903) and has included it in the hardbacked edition (DP9-909), I didn’t see this as too large a problem. However, OGL statistics are lacking for many of the items.
The fourth chapter, Spacecraft, is the weakest of the book. SilCORE allows scaling, which allows you to have the statistics for a character next to those of a starship and having them interact in a meaningful way by multiplying one or the other by some factor of 10. OGL does not, though they treat it as if it does. This will cause serious confusion for OGL referees looking to use this section. Even with SilCORE, it would have been easier to keep all the statistics for the starships in one scale for easy comparison. For both, it’s not completely clear which statistics need scaling and which do not. However, the statistics for both systems are easily found in sidebar boxes, even if not necessarily easily understandable.
The fifth chapter is Threats and is a mixed bag. The bad-guy starships and vehicles suffer from the same difficulties as Chapter Four, but the three bad-guy races are just as well done as those for the good-guys. In fact, the entries are identical to those for PC races, allowing you to play an evil race quite easily. I suspect, since they are also wearing the same clothing as the good-guys, 11 total races were generated, and only after artwork had been done did they decide to shuffle some into the bad-guy deck. It could have also been rushed art direction.
Chapter Six, Gamemastering CORE Command, is actually an excellent resource for a novice referee, regardless of what system one uses. However, a GM with even moderate experience will most likely find little of interest beyond the first couple pages of the section. The Adventure Generator may give you fond memories of the old Flying Buffalo Central Casting books, but in practice it will only give worthwhile ideas to new GMs.
Overall, the setting and background elements held my attention, but were continually denigrated by distracting editing errors. I would only recommend the book to an experienced GM who was interested in a space-opera setting AND who could pick the gems from the chaff, and even then, I’d suggest skipping this edition and going with the hardback.
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