Pyramid Review
CORE Command Player's Handbook
Published by Dream Pod 9
Written by Marc A. Vezina with Paul Lippincott
Illustrated by Patrick Boutin-Gagne
160-page b&w softcover; $24.95
The Canadian publisher Dream Pod 9 has recently re-presented the Silhouette mechanics it uses for all of its games from Tribe 8 to Gear Krieg: The Roleplaying Game into a single CORE book. The aim with the Silhouette CORE Rules is to present them as a basic set of rules for any game (and not just those published by Dream Pod 9), but by also including a set of d20 System conversion rules, making them compatible with the terms of the Open Gaming License. Beyond the basic rules of the Silhouette CORE Rules, any of DP9's games can be played with the addition of a "Player's Handbook" for that setting, each of which will include rules adjustments and additions as well as setting material for that game. The first of these Player's Handbook turns out to be not for one DP9's previous lines, but for a whole new one, launched with the release of the CORE Command Player's Handbook.
CORE Command falls into the space opera genre, and as an RPG it is a space opera drawn on a grand scale, with a reach that spans five galaxies, where spaceships are big (a star fighter is the size of a 20th-century battleship), and the technological level is high, very high. For CORE Command takes to heart the Arthur C. Clarke adage: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." This is an adage that takes on a . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: July 4, 2003
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