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Message: <blockquote data-quote="thullgrim" data-source="post: 8772986" data-attributes="member: 8103">There a couple of decent Cortex related game system podcasts, not actual plays.  The system is customizeable in a way that many tool kit systems aren't.  To the point where there isn't a even a default set of attributes.   The GM defines the traits and trait sets he wants to use for the given game/campaign.  They can be defined in a way that is similar to traditional games, Str, Dex, Con etc. or you could define the traits you wanted to use as something like affiliations or powers, or relationships or distinctions Your dice pool is based on the traits the fiction invokes.  The recommendation is to use three separate trait sets.  Everything in Cortex is defined by a die value (like Savage Worlds in that respect)You might define a D&D game with traits sets for Attributes, Class, Background, and Skills for instance.  So Attribute: str, dex, con, int, wis , cha.  Class: Fighter, Wizard, Rogue.  Background: Soldier, Blacksmith, Noble and so on.When you build a dice pool the relevant dice are placed into your pool and you roll against a DC the GM has rolled via his own assembled pool.An example, and I may mess this up.  Our fighter wants to kick down a door.  His Strength (d6) , and Athletics (d6) skill come into his pool.  Maybe Fighter (D8) does or doesn't you'd want to justify in the fiction, but if his background was as a carpenter (d4) sure you could add it. So our guy is rolling d6+d6+d4 in this case.  The Door is rated at a say a D6 by itself but it's swollen over time (d6) so the GM DC pool is d6+d6.  GM rolls a 7, fighter rolls a 6+5+2.  Fighter picks 2 of them and keeps the third for an FX die.FX die are used to proc other effects.  There's a hitch (complication) in the dice when a 1 is rolled in the pool.In any case I probably messed of that up from memory.   That said, the system is neat.  I like it more than Fate.  It's kind of a different animal though.  The game is very modular allowing you to define, through dice and descriptors just about anything you want, and resolve the situation using the mechanics presented.The book is very clear about using the fiction to justify the pool creation, and that the dice themselves are representative of the 'narrative force' of the thing in the scene.It's not a light game but it's also not a tactical crunchy game if that makes sense.  I grokked it better than something like Blades in the Dark on my first reading, and I think a Blades in the Cortex game would work really, really well.  There's a strong overlap in terms of narrative fiction first, but Cortex offers a bit more mechanically to support the fiction.  I also feel there's something to be said about clock size being used in the GM dice pool.  It's an idea at the front of my brain but I haven't worked it out yet.That went longer than I intended.  Sorry.</blockquote>

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