Session Zero (OOC)

No worries :)

Jan 27, 2025 10:05 am

Not sure where to ask this:

In the kettle thread, there was a moment where Zix proposed weaving a spell together through joint effort. How is that handled mechanically?

Jan 27, 2025 11:06 am

There are 2 ways to handle aid:
1. Single roll. If it's a scene where the GM or the players wanna move faster, the simplified way to do so is the person receiving aid as an extra dice. The skill die of the PC that's helping is added to the poll.
2. Two rolls. If its a high stakes scene (ex: combat), the PC that is aiding creates an asset / temporary bonus and gives it to the other PC instead of receiving it themselves. To do so, they roll a skill test vs 2DX, where X is the same die size as the bonus they wanna give. (ex: 2d8 if they wanna give 1d8 as the aid bonus)

Jan 27, 2025 12:26 pm

Well, it seemed to be the case where two people were already trying to create a Temporary Asset, but by joint effort instead of solo effort. That's the context I was primarily thinking of, what with having two Amplifico users.

Jan 27, 2025 2:34 pm

It is not possible to help someone that's trying to help. If the spell is an end in itself, ok, we follow the rules above. If not, if it just something to help another roll, it gets very convoluted.

Jan 28, 2025 12:22 pm

htech says:

It is not possible to help someone that's trying to help. If the spell is an end in itself, ok, we follow the rules above. If not, if it just something to help another roll, it gets very convoluted.

To clarify, if the spell an Amplifico one (which almost always manifest as Assets even if they are the end-goal of a specific casting), and the casters are largely cooperating as equals (and not as the convoluted helper-of-a-helper chains), do they use the 'combine Skills of multiple PCs' principle, or is Amplifico cooperation strictly impossible ('not possible to help')?

Jan 28, 2025 3:03 pm

They use the 'combine Skills of multiple PCs' principle =) Amplifico cooperation is possible. Multiple Amplifico spells granting 2 dice to someone else is also a possibility.

It's just the helper-of-a-helper-of-a-helper-of-a-helper chain that I wanna avoid =)

Jan 28, 2025 3:14 pm

Ah, cool. I saw a CaA-to-CaA chain in FATE Core in the past and agree that they don't look nice, at least unless the links are sufficiently distant out in time.

I'm not sure I understand how granting two dice works - is that just two actions each creating a separate Asset, or something else?

Jan 28, 2025 3:26 pm

Two actions, each creating a separate asset =)

Feb 1, 2025 10:34 am

Unfortunately, seems like Xanda left Gamersplane. I am withdrawing her invitation to the game and we will continue with 4 players.

Feb 3, 2025 9:51 am

Since we now all have some XP, I started looking into advancement. I'm completely new to Cortex, so would like to request a few clarifications:
- Are all traits equal (e.g. attributes, skills, special capabilities, magic, relationships)? (I'm used to this not being the case [edit]in other systems[/edit], but I'd rather ask than jump to assumptions.)
- You mentioned a new trait starting at 1d6. What about traits we already have at 1d4 - is upgrading them to a 1d6 also worth 1 XP (this seems awkward for colleges/schools if so)?

Quote:

After Session Zero and at some specific moments in the campaign called milestones, the DM will grant all the PCs 1 experience point (XP). With that, comes the opportunity to either step up one of their traits (ex. From D8 to D10) or create a new trait, at 1D6, as shown in the table below.

Change XP COST
New trait (D6) 1
From D6 to D8 1
From D4 to D6 2
From D8 to D10 2
From D10 to D12 4

Improving a trait sometimes also implies in rewriting them. You are not an "Apprentice Illusionist D6" anymore, you're now an "Illusionist D8" or even a "Master Illusionist D12".

There is only one restriction: new traits and improvements should be natural consequences of what happened in the chapter. Before advancement, you first will need to supply some fictional details on why your PC have this new gear/ability/skill/rank/specialization or how they improved what they had.

Usually this advancement will happen during downtime and the milestone will correspond to the beginning of a new thread in the game forums.

[edit]Ah, now I see the d4 to d6 upgrade, I did not expect it to be tucked in there in that order.[/edit]

Last edited February 3, 2025 4:02 pm

Feb 3, 2025 3:52 pm

Just to be clear, I am not using Cortex Prime advancement rules as I feel they're made for RL sessions.

1. In our game, skills, special capabilities and magic skills are all improved the same. I will clarify the rules to let it explicit that attributes, magical rank and relationships are not improved with XP.

2. 2 XP are needed to upgrade from D4 to D6. Notice that you didn’t start with all schools of magic, some are ranked at "D0". You will learn the remaining at D4 with some classes.

Feb 5, 2025 8:34 am

@htech, based on the Silver Kettle prologue, what do you think are good picks for trait improvements for Zix? I'm not saying I necessarily will use the opportunities, but what areas of competence, based on how it was played, do you think have been used enough to make upgrades plausible, and which ones were used but not enough? (I think understanding the expectations will help be on the same page about what to do and how to do it when it comes to study.)

Feb 5, 2025 10:08 pm

Sorry, I'm expecting to be busier than previously expected in the next couple of days, so I'm not sure whether I'll be able to catch up and post.

Feb 5, 2025 10:33 pm

vicky_molokh says:

@htech, based on the Silver Kettle prologue, what do you think are good picks for trait improvements for Zix? I'm not saying I necessarily will use the opportunities, but what areas of competence, based on how it was played, do you think have been used enough to make upgrades plausible, and which ones were used but not enough? (I think understanding the expectations will help be on the same page about what to do and how to do it when it comes to study.)

Any skill that was used in a relevant test (dice roll) or that was trained during downtime can be increased. Session zero is unusual in the sense that many days were skipped, so almost any skills could be improved in the background. In Misthaven, it will be more obvious, as we won't have as many trips. Extracurricular activities, jobs, and classes will be more relevant for that.

Feb 5, 2025 10:34 pm

vicky_molokh says:

Sorry, I'm expecting to be busier than previously expected in the next couple of days, so I'm not sure whether I'll be able to catch up and post.

No worries. Thanks for the heads-up!

Feb 6, 2025 7:38 pm

htech says:

vicky_molokh says:

@htech, based on the Silver Kettle prologue, what do you think are good picks for trait improvements for Zix? I'm not saying I necessarily will use the opportunities, but what areas of competence, based on how it was played, do you think have been used enough to make upgrades plausible, and which ones were used but not enough? (I think understanding the expectations will help be on the same page about what to do and how to do it when it comes to study.)

Any skill that was used in a relevant test (dice roll) or that was trained during downtime can be increased. Session zero is unusual in the sense that many days were skipped, so almost any skills could be improved in the background. In Misthaven, it will be more obvious, as we won't have as many trips. Extracurricular activities, jobs, and classes will be more relevant for that.

In that case I'd like to put the 1 XP gained in the prologue into Amplifico (though the use of it was briefly narrated/alluded to, and not rolled IIRC, hopefully that makes sense as a use based on things done over the course of the travels).

(I also noticed that I wrote that I would put Observation at d8, but actually put the d8 into Deceive, but that's probably fine because now I'll just upgrade it later.)

Feb 6, 2025 9:17 pm