How do you Prime your Cortex?

Following the discussion from a game, I'm curious about how many other Cortex GMs and players are there in GP and their experiences.

I'll begin by saying that I only GM'd Cortex and only a few times. I moderated a couple Dragon Prince and Eidolon Alpha oneshots quite successfully, I also reskinned a Hammered scenario into a Trauma Team rescue that worked pretty well, too.

Then I tried something a bit bigger in scope, first a mythic China setting based on virtues and affiliations, but too few players showed lasting interest in the setting.

My last stint was a cyberpunk setting, I tried a couple approaches mixing different sets, but the one that felt right used attributes (Body, Reflexes, Smarts, Tech and Cool), specializations and expanded signature assets, because putting gear, including cyberware, front and center really gave the right feel. It required a little contextualization from the players, but using your stylish outfit instead of a skill to fast-talk someone did really a number on the general mood. Sadly, it only lasted a few sessions, and it still needed a little tuning, but it felt like the right path for me.

What are your experiences and thoughts about this system?

I played and GMed a Smallville game a while ago on here (and that one is still my favorite RPG). I'm also playing in a Cortex game here run by @Falconloft (originally Marvel Heroic, but it was shifted to a Prime thingy)

That list made me think of Cyberblues City, though, that is Fudge, not Cortex Prime (but then, you know I know nothing about Cortex Prime:). Not the same list either, but similar enough I had to check.

It is a cute game, worth the read.

I had a weekly group for several months (right when Cortex Prime was released) where I hosted several settings:

Supernatural Cats who investigated a cosmic horror under their New England town, with Cat values like Companionship, Alone Time, Comfort. We also did Cat specialties like Astral Projection, Stalking, Leaping

Human Investigative Horror set in San Fran where we used Horror themed "Aspects" as Motivations with trait statements--e.g., My character will use Pain in their pool as they have a d6 and "I always avoid physical injury." We also did Roles for that one like Occultist, Researcher, Investigator. I think signature assets like, "Cop buddy" or "Trusty Revolver", were the last set. We also used The Shaken stress mod which was pretty cool--stress applied directly to the Aspects.

We did a Red Wall inspired setting that used Values and Roles like Peace and Protector. We didn't use stress for that one, and also used a doom pool.

Cyberpunk bounty hunters used skill w/ specialties and attributes and signature assets and gear. I think this was too much for the quick pace we ended up having. This one was unique in that we did most any type of conflict as Challenges which was introduced in Tales of Xadia. Our Air Pirate game used similar.

We also did Sword and Sorcery that used Mettle (themed Values) like glory, riches beyond your wildest dreams, earthly power, etc. Other than that we just did signature assets which included gear and spells--I think this one played the most fun for me.

I agree with lots of folks who say roleplay or story mechanics don't need to be built into a system, but I also saw my regular at table (vtt) group really engage in narrative mechanics with Cortex in ways I'd not seen happen in most of the other systems we play.

I love Cortex Prime :D, but, as the_cava noted, I always felt like my sheets needed a little tuning. Although that was also kinda the fun for me!

Finally, I'm working on a Twin Peaks style mystery setting for Cortex right now with approaches like snooping, analyzing, confronting and comforting.

I want to love Cortex Prime. But I do think that book is pretty darned obtuse unless you already know Cortex. I'd love to see like a 24 page quick start...

That is very true. The book is not easy, even as someone who has played Cortex games before

Yeah, the book really wants to be a computer aid. If you could just check off boxes and have it generate the text you want, it'd be great. Who knows maybe that's the plan at some point.

I couldn't really give you a list of what we use for the superhero game from the book, but I can drop this to give you an idea...

The book frustrated my players to no end--and it ended up with me having to make 1 pagers for them., Each time, the explaining why-- so absolutely agree 😄
This is a good way of putting! And I believe that is the plan--creating web app, from the folk who made DnD Beyond.

When we were playing we were using community made tools to select the mods we'd use.

OOo, I love this...and now I'm going to approach my table with this 😬

I thought there was a reason I had not managed to read Cortex Prime. This is all starting to sound familiar.

I've never played cortex, but I was looking into it the other week to learn about it and came across this compendium. I thought it was pretty straight forward and easy to follow with good examples, but because I haven't actually played, I don't know if it's missing a ton of stuff. Is it a good summary or do you really need to understand more before playing?

@Chalrytharendir this is absolutely all you need to play (and the example situations are perfect representation of the base system)!

But the handbook itself is a toolkit that takes that base system from the example and gives completely optional mods, pulled from older "cortex" systems, to layer on top--which results in different experiences table to table. So you get a section that's like, "this is Meta-currency, and this is how some systems might use it. Pick how you want to from these mods."

My first sessions essentially used what's in that compendium (it's pulled from the handbook) and yeah, it was really easy to digest and play on the fly. When I tinkered with mods (fun for me as GM!) We started feeling the lack of "direction😊

I've played quite a bit of Cortex over the years. Mostly of the Marvel Heroic variety, but also a few Cortex Plus "Hackers Guide" mix n match stuff (including a homebrew cyberpunk setting, a "Wizarding World" hack, and a Star Wars hack bowl and I brain stormed one time when we were bored).

The first game I played here at GP was a Marvel Heroic game (that didn't get past character creation), and then played in a great street-level heroes thing under Falconloft.

Haven't done anything officially under Prime - still waiting on my hardcopy System Reference Doc in fact from the KS ...

Interesting, so the full system gives you optional mechanics to choose to customize your particular game. That sounds cool, but I can see how that might make things more confusing or complicated. If you play again would you stick to just the core mechanics or do you think trying a different set of mods might work better next time?

If I play again (probably when!) I will stick as close to the core mechanic as it's presented. The most fun we had with it was when I kept the character sheets small, simple, and evocative. If you're the type of GM who likes to tinker, it's so tempting , and fun, to build really complicated sheets. I think I found my perfect set in our last game, so I'll stick with that template.