Interest Check - Drama focused RPG

Question: How much interest would there be in a game focusing on the dramatic interplay between a group of player characters rather than another dungeon delve, battle vs. ultimate evil, or quest to save the princess/world/etc.? This is based on the observation and notes below:


Observation: Although there are exceptions, most TTRPGs focus on procedural scenes over dramatic ones.
Setting and premise: TBD by group consensus.

System: possibly Cortex Dramatic (as seen in Cortex Plus Smallville), DramaSystem (as seen in Hillfolk), or something else focused on character interaction vs. physics.

I would be very interested in something like that. Though purchasing a new rpg system is kind of a non-option for me right now. Maybe some FKR approach could work? Or maybe use Ironsworn? It would have the advantage of providing a setting.

I wouldn't expect anyone to purchase a new game to play; I don't even think the Smallville game is available anywhere. I can explain and share enough of the rules of a system to play. Cortex is very simple to learn and use.

For similar games we've used various, very minimal systems, sometimes as simple as 3 stats, one roll vs a target difficulty when a test is required. My goal for something like this is to promote character-driven drama over tactical or crunchy simulation.

That being said, if I were to run a game, I would want to use a rule framework that I've run before, one that promotes narrative gameplay.

Sounds good to me.

Do you have any ideas regarding the setting? I am pretty much up for anything besides contemporary soap-opera. Though I would probably prefer some sort of aristocratic intrigue kind of setting.

I have a million ideas for settings, but I was hoping to wait for a group and get consensus. Ultimately, it would have to be a setting I feel comfortable running. I'm not very interested in a contemporary setting unless there was a fantastical element involved. We wouldn't have to use any of them, but some of my previous (unused) ideas include:

- Members of a recovering supervillain support group try to avoid relapse, which is only an evil cackle away.
- Uploaded human minds, androids, AIs, and other variations of transhuman tropes must survive in a world that doesn't recognize their rights.
- Players are the disparate members of a distant human colony who make apparent first contact with an alien intelligence.
- The King has died, and sibling rivalries, hidden alliances, and old betrayals come to the surface as the players vie for power or try to prevent a civil war.
- Old grudges, romantic entanglements, and differing philosophies on survival clash as survivors on an isolated space station are forced to work together to repair the station.
- Lost in the universal unconsciousness, the crew of an experimental dreamship search for reality.
- A group of time travelers returns to their original timeline only to discover that their relationships have been altered by their journeys. Friends may have become enemies, lovers may have never met, and personal bonds are threatened as they try to unravel the timeline without erasing each other.
- Players are part of or drawn into the drama of a crime family and their web of money, power, and blood.
- At the court of a pantheon of gods, lesser gods and demigods and must deal with the politics of immortality, personal grudges, forbidden romances, and the dangerous intrigue of divine power struggles.

Me. I am interested and believe me when I say that my chacters' inner voices can be very chatty.

Liking the concept a lot, if you decide to go for any of the settings quoted, I would be interested to play!

As for myself, I find the second option (dreamship) to be the most attractive.

Absolutely love that one.

This sounds like it could be interesting. Love the Cortex system in the Firefly and Superhero genre. I haven't played Smallville specifically, but I feel like Firefly isn't far off.

As for story ideas...the court of gods to be interesting, but would probably be happy with anything that's not too mundane, as I come her to get away from the mundane and explore certain levels of fantasy.

Most of those prompts sound interesting to explore.

I might be interested, depending on the setting ultimately decided. I'm most drawn to:

- Old grudges, romantic entanglements, and differing philosophies on survival clash as survivors on an isolated space station are forced to work together to repair the station.

or perhaps...

- Uploaded human minds, androids, AIs, and other variations of transhuman tropes must survive in a world that doesn't recognize their rights.

Love all this high concept stuff! Great to see games like this on GP!

I'm a sucker for transhumanist stories. Some of my favorite things to explore in fiction and games is what defines a person, what makes an intelligence "alive", etc. I'd love to play something set in an Alex + Ada type setting (one of my favorite comics from a few years back)

Sounds interesting, the setting that king is dead, the the crime family drama or the pantheon of gods, are the ones more appealing to me. But i never played cortex system, i read the core of cortex on their site, doesn't sound to difficult, but i guess there are more mechanics involved

Base Cortex is really just dice pool vs. target number. The part that feels weird to newcomers is not having Ability Scores or Skills in the Dramatic version. Replacing your Str, Dex, Cha and Skill Lists with Values, Relationships, and Distinctions can be a bit weird at first.

I'm leaning toward DramaSystem because I've never run it before and I'd like to stretch my GM range into something new. But also, maybe a system I use often for a group of new players would be better.


As a warning to those with low tolerance for those things:

There's also the fact that the best way to get players really invested in the setting in both game systems is a lengthy, pre-game setup that can lose players fast in a forum-based game. Around a table it's usually the entire first session. If you ask anyone who's toughed it out through setup and actually got into one of the games, it's absolutely worth it, but I've also seen a few attempts wither and die during the character/setting creation phase...

Just wanted to throw my interest in. I love cortex as a system, it's one of my favorites. I've also been eyeing Hillfolk and it's system as one I'd like to learn.

I like the concepts. Aside from the pantheon one, I'd love to join into any of them because they rock.

Since I responded on discord I think I've got enough information to respond here, I'd be interested depending on the setting but looking at them I think there's only one or two I'm not interested in.

As I said on discord I'm not particularly Interested in a relationship map, but I Imagine that in addition to the relationship map I can still format things in a way that I'll be more easily able to follow.

In Cortex the map is just for the initial setup, then you translate what's on there to your character sheet, or really any format that works for you.

The beauty of the pathways map in Cortex is that every player adds elements, then other players can link those elements together. It creates a shared world that feels like the people and places there have realistic connections, and often connections you wouldn't think of on your own, but it makes it feel realistic, and it gives everyone creative input.

I haven't used DramaSystem, but it seems very similar.

Oh wow… so I’m in a Starfinder PbP that’s been active since 2019. My Solarian is technically three-quarters goddess.

If you do the Pantheon of lesser/demigods, I would love to play as this character. I’ve got five years of material (and counting) to work with, and I’ve often contemplated what her future would be like. This game (if I’m so fortunate) could offer an opportunity to play that out!


EDIT - and it occurs to me that Pantheon is on someone else’s top-three list and another potential player’s top-one list!

Both of these systems really shine with characters custom made for the game/setting. I'm not saying that you can't port characters in from other games, but the way the Pathways steps work in Cortex and character creation/relationship mapping work in DramaSystem, you sort of create your character, the NPCs and locations, and the world they live in together with all the other players. They have a shared history and shared backstories, so it's hard to bring in a character with their own backstory. It works best when you're all collaborating and you're open to letting your character idea be modified by the ideas of the group when creating the setting.

I've seen people try to shoehorn in character ideas ported directly from other media and other games and have them simply not fit with the rest of the characters/setting. The last two I saw like that ended up 1. leaving because they weren't having fun and 2. being removed from the game for constantly trying to impose a storyline that did not fit the concept everyone had agreed upon at the start.

I'm not saying it's not possible, but it's not recommended.

Probably a based-on at-most would make sense, then. Yeah, I’m still open to Pantheon with a fresh lesser goddess.

If you’ve seen something not work, I don’t want to come in like "I can make it work," then end up proving history right (as history tends to be).

Cool cool. Adapted from or based on would probably work. Everyone comes with ideas; no reason your ideas can't be from a previous character. :)

The more I think of it, she’ll be *loosely* based, if that. I have a fun idea for a lesser goddess.

My Top-Three List:
🥇 Pantheon
🥈 Uploaded
🥉 Dream Ship

I'll have to go back through that list and see which ones sound fun for me to run, and which have more detail behind them. I think some of them are older and I don't have much more than an elevator pitch written down, so I'm not sure what I was thinking for a few.

I'm interested in dramatic interplay. I took the liberty of making a ranked choice voting ballot for the concepts, for those interested.
Link to voting ballot.

Anyways, my top 3:
Time Travel: Probably a bit harder to run than the other premises, but it clicks with me. I'm imagining a guy who finds that everything (especially the people he knows) are better in the alternate timeline than the original timeline.
Transhumanist: I love pondering our nature. Inject it into my veins.
Supervillains: I enjoy the idea of deconstructing why these supervillains became villains, especially if those reasons still exist.

Bottom 3:
Alien Contact: For some reason, doesn't click with me.
Pantheon: A classic drama, for sure, but I'm wary of keeping the gods' drama relatable when operating at a scale beyond the human.
Dreamship: I'm not clear what the stakes are here at all.

Thank you for setting up the poll, that website is super handy. I like your idea for Time Travel, it reminds of me It's A Wonderful Life. I think it'll definitely be hard to implement, but with the right combination of players and the right amount of communication, I think it'll be the most fulfilly.

My other personal top 2 consists of the crime family and kingdom power struggle scenarios. I think they lend well to the proposed game systems, and I think they're probably the easiest to slot people into.

Well, it looks like there's plenty of interest.

Just a quick +/- system ended up with:

4 Transhumanist++++
3 Pantheon ++++-+-
3 The King Has Died+++
2 Criminal Empire++
2 Time Travel++
1 Dreamship++-
1 Isolated Space Station+
1 Supervillain Support Group+
-1 Alien Contact-

5 people interested in the Pantheon, 4 in the Transhuman.

Weighted Voting has the Time Travelers coming out on top, but boy, that one's going to be hard to run. I feel like I'd need a custom mechanic of some sort to alter the characters as they alter their own histories. I love the idea, I'm just not sure how to handle it mechanically and keep it fair for everyone.

So it's going to be one of those three. I'll kick around some Cortex trait sets and see if I can get something together as a pitch for one of them.

Thanks, everyone, for your interest!

Is the divine court already filled up (and if not, is it worthwhile for someone unfamiliar with Cortex except by skimming to try joining)?

More interest for Pantheon?—nice!

That one has the most +s but also the most -s, and has been expressed as the best and worst by more than one person… which at the very least makes it the most interesting/controversial!

Though a quick opinion on the minuses… I don’t know about others, but I have a tendency to focus on the positive. Even though there are some scenarios that I would not want to play, I wouldn’t "downvote" them.

I did the minuses based on "I'm not interested" comments and the pluses based on "this sounds cool" comments.

@vicky_molokh - It's not open for applications yet, but there's been a lot more interest than I expected. I'm working on creating a custom Pathways chart as well as custom Distinctions, Abilities, and a new set of Values and Stress tracks. I'll have a summary of the rules available, and details for all the custom stuff I create. It's not hard to pick up, the system is pretty simple.

The game is posted, but I'm still developing the custom content. If you're curious about what the content might look like, I posted the first step of character creation on the game page.

https://gamersplane.com/games/4617/

Loving what I see so far!

Oh this looks super exciting. I am trying to read up on the Cortex System, but there seem to be a lot of different variations out there. Is this the correct one?

Yes, that is the base system ThatTaoGuy is referring too. At least, the description of it.

The first Cortex Plus game and the only game to use the CortexPlus Dramatic system was the Smallville roleplaying game, which I believe is out of print. But the basic rules of Cortex apply across the board, and all the moving parts are described pretty much the same in Cortex Prime.

There's not a SRD anywhere, but there is a Cortex Lite document available as Pay What You Want over on itch.io. I'm hesitant to link it because I'm not sure if it will help or confuse, as many of the rules used in the Dramatic version of Cortex are different from the Lite version. But it does have the basics of dice rolling, building your dice pool, the effect die, and how stress works. Other than those things, this game won't look a lot like Cortex Lite, so if you do decide to go find it, be forewarned: different builds of Cortex can look like entirely different games.

The questions are fun! …though I’m "trying" not to get too into it since I don’t know if I’ll get in the game, nor could I know who else besides me has a fun celestial creation idea.

But, @ThatTaoGuy, about the Celestial Creation’s questions… would you *want* the creation to be created by another player’s god(dess), or would we collaborate on a Pantheon of NPC elders and the creation would be of an elder (or two)?

EDIT - I realize there are options for the creation, so I guess what I’m really asking is if PCs being involved in other PCs’ creation stories is a desirable option/possibility (assuming more than one player would want that)… or if your preference is that the PC-PC relationships are entirely post-creation. (That way we have pretty solid characters, presumably to be tweaked as needed.)

Okay, yeah, gonna admit this is looking even cooler than I had anticipated!

I personally wouldn't care if the Celestial Creation was created by another player's character, an NPC, or spontaneously created. I have no preconceived notions about this game. I just tossed out some questions to try to get people to think about their character, the backstory, etc. You don't have to answer all of them; the goal is to make the players think about who they are, where they come from, and how they fit into the greater pantheon.

The way the Pathways system works is that you go through steps of character creation together. The first step, you choose your origin, and you add to the relationship map.

The map starts with all the PCs, all connected to each other. In step one, you add one NPC who you have a relationship with and define that relationship. Later, someone else can link that NPC to their own PC, or to another PC, or to another NPC. It gets a bit convoluted, but it builds a web of interconnected characters and locations based on everyone's creative input. So I don't usually worry too much about defining characters and their relationships early on. It tends to change and grow during the creation process.

Well I for one have a very solid idea for an Elderborn, in case that helps.

Just so everyone is aware - there are no limitations or restrictions - everyone can start with the same origin and it wouldn't hurt the game at all.

I'm not sure how appropriate commentary is before I know whether there's enough slots to join, but a thought caused by those questions (particularly in the Outsider and Celestial Creation context) is what is the world like? A lot of that will influence what sorts of pantheons are available, and what sort of forces are at play.

E.g. the possible pantheons and the context of relations between cultures and deities would probably look very very different in a futuristic Battlestar Galactica setting where gods rarely interact with creation directly, an ancient-classical Hellenic setting where Olympians are displacing the Titans and/or Cthonics, in America where the local pantheons are being driven underground by the Abrahamic one, in old Japan when the government is trying hard to prevent Shinto and Buddhism from mixing, and so on.

Oh—that takes the pressure off! Thanks for mentioning that.

Yeah, if I’m so fortunate to get in, I would much rather be in a game with two Celestial Creations than one of us having to change or pitch back/up plans.
I like the questions. Answering just the first set gave me a fresh, solid character to pitch and a voice. (And most importantly to me, I *think* she’ll be easy to draw.)

If she gets in the actual game, I expect some answers will be tweaked/changed to make her more part of the group.

For the sake of simplicity, I'm assuming a generic "fantasy" world with a run of the mill, Olympian-style pantheon. There are many gods and goddesses with various domains, some larger and more powerful than others. This game would focus on the small gods, not the major players. Things like the God/Goddess of brewing, twins, travel, laughter, flowers, etc.

I'm building the Pathway Steps, Distinctions, Abilities, Stress tracks, and whatnot with that in mind, but the players can define aspects of the world during character creation. I like to keep things open.

The Step-by-step character creation in Cortex definitely will help a lot in building a cohesive set of characters and setting. CORTEX was definitely the right choice for a collaborative game like this.

One thing that I think would help, right off the bat, would be to declare the Domains of each minor god...even before character creation truly starts. That way there's no toe-stepping going on.

Hmm, well, provisionally (if I get to join), based on the domain examples, I would think I'd be interested in the domain of secrets. Lies would be a second pick I'd find interesting (but probably more difficult to play). But neither of those is a suitable domain, then travel is a safe fall-back pick from the listed examples.

My Celestial Creation is
Poi, the Pigment of Imagination

There’s a lot of detail that just all popped into my head at once (name/title included) which I won’t get into now. In the interest of what WitchDoctor said, her domain is…

…huh…

…my original plan was "Imagination," but I think "Goddess of Colors" is hilariously small-godly.

So yeah: Colors is the domain.

I was building an option into the Pathways setup to select your godly domain. I have a list of some small-god domains, but it would be open for players to create their own as well. And honestly, I don't think there would be a problem with a little overlap - it would be an excellent source of dramatic tension between two characters, as they compete to be the most relevant.

The initial list I had separated the domains into groupings. I had 10 domains per group, 5 groups. I wasn't planning on outlining all of them, just a couple per group to give everyone and idea of how the domains would be mapped out (I'm modeling them after the Heritage Distinctions in Smallville, so they have a description, 3 SFX, connected Abilities, and at least 1 Limit. The list I started with is pasted below, but it's by no means exhaustive. It's mostly if you like one or to help you generate your own idea.

Right, I was very much thinking along the lines of Rivers. Maybe with Lakes and Ponds as well, unless that would be too much/powerful.

"Dreams" could work for the Pigment of Imagination. I was thinking of Poi as a sort of muse who uses visions to inspire.

That’s the closest on my list to the original thought of "Imagination" as the domain and "Pigment" as how she manifests herself… though I suppose that’s an Abilities or "SFX" thing.

But my point is that with a list of 50 domains, I’m happy to pick from the list.

All of those are interesting Domains! Full of fun things to play with! There's about a dozen that I would find fun and interesting to explore.

It's just a list meant to inspire. If you want a God/dess of Imagination or one of Fresh Waters/ Rivers, Lakes and Ponds, we can make that work. The powers and domains will sort of self balance. The system is designed to have characters from Clark Kent/Superman to his plucky high school newspaper reporter friend carry the same narrative weight, so the strength of the domains shouldn't be as big of a deal. Mostly the goal is to make sure the PCs are minor gods with only minor (if any) influence in the pantheon.

If I have the opportunity to play i would like my lesser god to be based on Charon the ferryman of the Greek underworld, but instead of a boat would be a black warhorse. For He/She origins i was thinking of Outsiders or Acended Mortal but with a twist, instead he got the "job" not as a reward for his deeds but as punishment for his deeds. But this is just high concept i dont have any details, that is better in character creation with the rest of the players.

Oh—I would love to have my character history tied to an ascended mortal! I don’t know what our limits are regarding manifestation, but I was thinking one of Poi’s forms would be a tattoo on a mortal.If the Ascended Mortal were punished, I suppose the tattoo would have appeared as a warning.

Just curious as to when this game might be on..!

Sory, I got sucked into the "big project" at work I thought I had avoided and have been putting in extra hours. My part should be done by late next week, so I should be able to get back to completing the Cortex hack then. I expect it to take me 5-9 days to get everything ready. I'm usually done within 2 weeks if I custom create new distinctions, abilities, and pathway steps. Trying to make them decent takes a lot of brain power and energy I just won't have til then.

Good luck with the project, then! I’m definitely super interested, so I’m glad to know it’s just an IRL thing and this game will eventually be on!

Quick update - real life has conspired to steal my time and inspiration. I'm barely keeping up with my existing games. When things settle back down, which honestly may not be until after the holidays, I'll ping anyone who showed interest once I have this game together and ready to go. Hopefully the excitement won't have faded too much by then.

Thanks for everyone's interest! I still plan to run this, just not within the next month or so.