Cortex Plus Creator Studio Announced By Margaret Weis Productions

Margaret Weis Productions is joining WotC (Dungeon Master's Guild) and Monte Cook Games (Cypher System Creator Program) and lunching a DriveThruRPG-powered third party product distribution platform called the Cortex Plus Creator Studio. This will replace their existing Cortex Plus Fan Product and Cortex Plus Official Licensed Product licenses. It, like the McG one, is launching this Spring, with commission details and term to be revealed later.

​

The full announcement reads as follows:

[h=4]Margaret Weis Productions Jumps into DriveThruRPG’s Community Content Program with the announcement of the Cortex Plus Creator Studio™[/h]
Margaret Weis Productions (MWP) and DriveThruRPG are thrilled to announce a partnership that will offer third party game designers the opportunity to publish Cortex Plus RPG supplements through the Cortex Plus Creator Studio.

This program will take the place of MWP’s existing Cortex Plus Fan Product and Cortex Plus Official Licensed Product once it launches. The Cortex Plus Creator Studio, which is planned for this Spring, will give creators a chance to share their hacks, settings, and vision using the system outlined in the Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide, as well as the upcoming Cortex Plus Heroic and Cortex Plus Action core rulebooks.

Standing alongside Wizards of the Coast’s DMsGuild (which is run by DriveThruRPG) and Monte Cook Games’ just announced Cypher System Creator program, Margaret Weis Productions will allow publishers of any size to offer Cortex Plus RPG supplements for sale on DriveThruRPG.com. Creators will set the price for their work, or may offer their release for free. Individual, small, or large publishers are all welcome under the Cortex Plus Creator Studio parameters. Details of the terms and conditions including royalties, commissions, and revenue shares will be released prior to the formal launch of the program.

Margaret Weis has this to say - “I believe role-playing game companies are stronger when standing together. We’re thrilled to be joining DriveThruRPG in this program that’s all about those who play our games. We have always listened to our fans, and their feedback and ideas have been incorporated into what we produce. We can’t wait to see what the community creates and how they expand on the characters, adventures, settings and rules through the Cortex Plus Creator Studio.”

Matt McElroy, Director of Publishing for DriveThruRPG, stated,”The Cortex Plus fanbase have created their own worlds and system hacks for years. This new program will offer opportunities for creators to share their work with other Cortex Plus fans around the world, and help support this beloved system.”

 

[Kramodlog]

Seems Paizo's is going to be at a cross-road. Be the alternative to DTRPG or be "one of us, one of us, one of us..."

 

[Dahak]

I'm really happy to see more options for micro-publishers to get their work out there. As with Cypher Creator, I see this as a win for the reader/gamers, micro-pubs, and the system owners. OBS has to be loving all this, too, of course. It doesn't really hurt brick and morters either, as they can still sell the core systems and stay clear of a glut of third party physical books.

 

[PeelSeel2]

Awesome!! And like that, a new paradigm has arrived!!

 

[Jester David]

Seems Paizo's is going to be at a cross-road. Be the alternative to DTRPG or be "one of us, one of us, one of us..."

Yeah...
I mean, six months ago they were ahead of the pack, with both sharing their content via the PRD and the Community Use Policy that lets its fans use their world and make non-commercial products for Golarion. Then WotC threw everyone a curve-ball by allowing anyone to make D&D products, without knowledge of the OGL, and the ability to write Realms (and then Ravenloft) content for money. That's a game changer.

You can still do all that on the Paizo site, but making a product under the OGL is tricky. There's some legal catches that can snag an unware micro-publisher.
And Paizo has no automated process: they individually approval all products to see if they meet quality standards. Even becoming a publisher means sending an email and contacting an individual (the very cool Liz Courts at: consignments @ paizo.com). It's not quite the same thing as the DMs Guild or Drive Thur RPG where you can go from having a PDF to being a publisher selling a PDF in 15 minutes; with Paizo you send a request, they reply (within a day or so) with the forms, which you fill out and send back, and then they reply with an approval or not. Then someone manually sets-up a publisher account, and you send them the PDFs that they upload. Several days at least, and likely during business hours only.

As an actual example, I finished a DMsGuild product mid-Saturday. Since then I've sold 44 copies. And during that period I realized I'd forgotten something and had to make a correction/update, which occurred on Sunday.
Even if I'd finished setting up my account with Paizo and had content posted there, finishing a product means waiting until a day or more for them to approve and put the content on the site, which is time sales could be had.
Now, this is a totally unfair scenario, as the PDF in question would never be sold on paizo.com - being a D&D/Ravenloft product - and stands out on the DMsGuild given the relatively fewer products on sale there. But any delay in selling might mean lost sales depending on attention at releases and competition, plus any delay in updates.

 

[Kramodlog]

Yeah...
I mean, six months ago they were ahead of the pack, with both sharing their content via the PRD and the Community Use Policy that lets its fans use their world and make non-commercial products for Golarion. Then WotC threw everyone a curve-ball by allowing anyone to make D&D products, without knowledge of the OGL, and the ability to write Realms (and then Ravenloft) content for money. That's a game changer.

You can still do all that on the Paizo site, but making a product under the OGL is tricky. There's some legal catches that can snag an unware micro-publisher.
And Paizo has no automated process: they individually approval all products to see if they meet quality standards. Even becoming a publisher means sending an email and contacting an individual (the very cool Liz Courts at: consignments @ paizo.com). It's not quite the same thing as the DMs Guild or Drive Thur RPG where you can go from having a PDF to being a publisher selling a PDF in 15 minutes; with Paizo you send a request, they reply (within a day or so) with the forms, which you fill out and send back, and then they reply with an approval or not. Then someone manually sets-up a publisher account, and you send them the PDFs that they upload. Several days at least, and likely during business hours only.

As an actual example, I finished a DMsGuild product mid-Saturday. Since then I've sold 44 copies. And during that period I realized I'd forgotten something and had to make a correction/update, which occurred on Sunday.
Even if I'd finished setting up my account with Paizo and had content posted there, finishing a product means waiting until a day or more for them to approve and put the content on the site, which is time sales could be had.
Now, this is a totally unfair scenario, as the PDF in question would never be sold on paizo.com - being a D&D/Ravenloft product - and stands out on the DMsGuild given the relatively fewer products on sale there. But any delay in selling might mean lost sales depending on attention at releases and competition, plus any delay in updates.

That is from a publisher's perspective. Customers might look at it differently.

What could really hurt DMsG is quality. If people buy too many crappy products on DMsG, it could give it a bad name. So far it doesn't seem to be the case, but the lack of filther could mean DMsG gets clugged with bad products down the road.

Quality is the only way I see Paizo staying competitive when it comes to accomodating the 3PP market if they do not change their model.

 

[delericho]

Then WotC threw everyone a curve-ball by allowing anyone to make D&D products, without knowledge of the OGL, and the ability to write Realms (and then Ravenloft) content for money. That's a game changer.

You can still do all that on the Paizo site, but making a product under the OGL is tricky.

Of course, Paizo can't let people produce commercial 3pp material without the use of the OGL. They can possibly do more to streamline or automate the approvals process, and of course they could open up Golarion if they wanted, but the OGL will remain a hurdle.

 

[Jester David]

That is from a publisher's perspective. Customers might look at it differently.

What could really hurt DMsG is quality. If people buy too many crappy products on DMsG, it could give it a bad name. So far it doesn't seem to be the case, but the lack of filther could mean DMsG gets clugged with bad products down the road.

That's a "maybe" problem. And since we're a wary bunch that has been burned by poor quality products in the past, I don't think it's a "real" issue. Reviews and word of mouth should keep that from happening, as will all the people too paranoid about bad content who are staying away from the DMGuild.

Quality is the only way I see Paizo staying competitive when it comes to accommodating the 3PP market if they do not change their model.

They have quality, but at the cost that it's hard for fans to break in without going through a formal pitching process with an established 3PP, working through stiff competition at RPG Superstar & Wayfinder, or starting their own publishing venture. The "easiest" way to get published with a Pathfinder compatible product is likely Wayfinder, since they advertise that they're taking pitches.

Of course, Paizo can't let people produce commercial 3pp material without the use of the OGL. They can possibly do more to streamline or automate the approvals process, and of course they could open up Golarion if they wanted, but the OGL will remain a hurdle.

I imagine if they wanted to open up the community or it became a focus, they could do an FAQ or layman's guide to the OGL.

 

[Jester David]

On topic, I really dug Cortex as a system for a while.
I had some fun with the original version of Firefly, and liked having dice for attributes. But my players ruined it for me: because damage is tied to accuracy it's easy to optimize by stacking attack bonuses. They ran around one-shotting everything. I haven't seen much Cortex Plus at work, so I can't say if the problems persist.

The Marvel Heroic system looked good though, but was hampered by the lack of easy character/power creation. A generic version with lots of powers might make for a good superhero game, an alternative to Icons.

 

[Matt-M-McElroy]

On topic, I really dug Cortex as a system for a while.
I had some fun with the original version of Firefly, and liked having dice for attributes.

That was likely the Serenity RPG (2006), which used the classic version of Cortex, which is different from the Firefly RPG (2014) which uses Cortex Plus Action.

The Marvel Heroic system looked good though, but was hampered by the lack of easy character/power creation. A generic version with lots of powers might make for a good superhero game, an alternative to Icons.

It is mentioned in the above release a bit, but more specifically, we're releasing two new Cortex Plus core rulebooks this year.

Details: Coming Soon! A Cortex Plus Kickstarter for Two Corebooks!

Creators will be able to release supplements to those books, or the Hacker's Guide, in the new program.

-MMM

 

[Kramodlog]

That's a "maybe" problem. And since we're a wary bunch that has been burned by poor quality products in the past, I don't think it's a "real" issue. Reviews and word of mouth should keep that from happening, as will all the people too paranoid about bad content who are staying away from the DMGuild.


They have quality, but at the cost that it's hard for fans to break in without going through a formal pitching process with an established 3PP, working through stiff competition at RPG Superstar & Wayfinder, or starting their own publishing venture. The "easiest" way to get published with a Pathfinder compatible product is likely Wayfinder, since they advertise that they're taking pitches.

DMsG has potential in inbecoming a sort of Dragon mag. WotC could highlight some products or even buy the right and put them in Dragon+. To me it would resolve some questions about quality knowing a product was vetted.The biggest problem here is no one at WotC has the time to go through products, test them and recommand them.

 

[Jester David]

DMsG has potential in inbecoming a sort of Dragon mag. WotC could highlight some products or even buy the right and put them in Dragon+. To me it would resolve some questions about quality knowing a product was vetted.The biggest problem here is no one at WotC has the time to go through products, test them and recommand them.

You mean like this:
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/march-2016-review

 

[delericho]

I imagine if they wanted to open up the community or it became a focus, they could do an FAQ or layman's guide to the OGL.

We've got a few of those. The problem is that eventually they all reach a point where they basically have to say "you need to speak to a lawyer". Because the OGL is a legal document with all that that entails, and you can't be seen to be giving legal advice without qualifications.

On topic, I really dug Cortex as a system for a while.
I had some fun with the original version of Firefly, and liked having dice for attributes. But my players ruined it for me: because damage is tied to accuracy it's easy to optimize by stacking attack bonuses. They ran around one-shotting everything. I haven't seen much Cortex Plus at work, so I can't say if the problems persist.

Cortex Plus is completely different, to the extent that any comparison is essentially meaningless - they're no more similar than D&D 5e and Mutants & Masterminds.

 

[Kannik]

On topic, I really dug Cortex as a system for a while.
I had some fun with the original version of Firefly, and liked having dice for attributes. But my players ruined it for me: because damage is tied to accuracy it's easy to optimize by stacking attack bonuses. They ran around one-shotting everything. I haven't seen much Cortex Plus at work, so I can't say if the problems persist.

Cortex Plus is so different, it may be hampered by keeping the "cortex" part of its name. Cortex Plus is much more in the vein of FATE and its ilk. I was not a fan of Cortex (and this was before I became a fan of FATE-type games), but Cortex Plus has me quite excited to give it a try.

peace,

Kannik

 

[Kramodlog]

You mean like this:
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/march-2016-review

That is just publicity or reviews. This is not buying a product to put it in Dragon+. And so far we haven't seen more publicity like that. Is it because they do not have the time to review products or there aren't any good products out there?

 

[Jester David]

That is just publicity or reviews. This is not buying a product to put it in Dragon+.

Dragon+ was only part of your comment. You did say that:

WotC could highlight some products

And posting links to 2-3 quality products on the official site is certainly that.

Also, Dragon+ isn't the same thing as Dragon Magazine. Dragon+ is not a source of game content: it's a marketing tool and news aggregate, albeit one with a familiar name.
There's no revenue for Dragon+, no subscription process or way for people to pay money for it, and its budget is likely tiny.
It's a newsletter.

There's also no advantage in taking content off the DMs Guild and giving it away for free on Dragon+. It's not like there's a wider audience. It'd be just as easy to highlight/advertise products on Dragon+ with links.
Selling the rights doesn't seem very advantageous for the author either. A long-term best seller might conceivably generate more money than a one-time payment from WotC, even at old Dragon rates.

That said, looking for cool ideas and content and buying that individual content from creators for inclusion in physical books is very different.

And so far we haven't seen more publicity like that. Is it because they do not have the time to review products or there aren't any good products out there?

Neither.
If you read the article, you'll see that it's planned to release every other month. Given it was released *just* over a month ago, we still have a month before we get more publicity like that.

Oh, and there are LOTS of good products out there. You just need to look. There was even a forum post kicking around here with a list of "5-star freebies" that listed well-rated products that were PWYW (aka free).