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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 8782587" data-attributes="member: 5142">Going back to the original point:IMHO, where Cortex shines as a system lies in how the character's action in the fiction is reinforced by the player assembling the dice pool through their traits and how different hacks of Cortex assemble these traits.I ran a game of Fate Core set in a fantasy quasi-Italian Renaissance Venice. The players made great Aspects. The characters were in the service a noble house, with one of the characters being a non-inheriting son. Their noble family had acquired a small island that once belonged to monks before they were killed in a siege by a rival city-state decades prior. The family wanted to use the island for their spice smuggling operations, but it was haunted by wrath spirits attracted to the traumatic deaths of the monks. Thankfully one of the noble family's daughters was an exorcist with the church so she would perform a ritual for her family to seal the tear to the Spirit World, but she needed exotic items for the ritual. So the players went on a scavenger hunt through the city. It was a load of fun.I wanted to try "grokking" Cortex. When I began converting this campaign setting to Cortex, I actually found myself more engaged with the game's themes. For example, the Seven Virtues that I had imagined for the setting's Church were turned into a Trait set, with players ranking how they relate to or value the Virtues. Players can go against one of their Virtues and embrace the corresponding Vice to get their die boosted for a roll but they have to step the die down afterwards. This is something I can do with Cortex that is not really a mod in Fate but it leans heavily into the themes of the setting.So when players assemble a dice pool, they will be doing so in relation to three primary trait sets and a couple of secondary ones:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Distinctions: Identity, Background, Ambition</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Means: Cunning, Force, Grace, Panache, Reason</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Virtues: Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance, Justice, Mercy, Hope, Love</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Relationships</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Resources/Assets</li> </ul>I have not finished the conversion. It has been an off and on project for several years: <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nn20FHo9Xx44yxnKQTrvdgT7lLMbTc7VWV8AkpVs2v4/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Virtues of Valizia</a>.I still have the magic system to deal with, among other things, though I think that Magic will be a Resource. Resources will require making deals to replenish them, which can create further complications: i.e., "I Owe You for X, You Owe Me for Y." In the case of Magic, as magic is done via Spirits/Demons/Angels, that will mean making Faustian pacts and bargains with supernatural agents.I could definitely do some of this with Fate, but I think that the results have been more thematically satisfying with Cortex.</blockquote>

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