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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kannik" data-source="post: 9666490" data-attributes="member: 984">That Cortex Prime is a toolbox does, unfortunately, mean it has a high bar to entry.  Having to build  your RPG system from the kit of parts before you can start playing is not only a bunch of work, but a chicken and egg kind of situation:  if you've never played how are you supposed to know what would work best for your campaign?What's happened with the spotlight settings from the Kickstarter is really regrettable, as is the fact that only one full RPG using the rules has been released (Tales of Xadia).  Having the gaggle of spotlight settings from the KS would at least allow getting a sense of the game and able to start with something close and then reverse engineer what you want for your campaign.  At least there is the <a href="https://cortexhacks.timbannock.com/" target="_blank">Cortex Prime Hack Database</a>, though as it's all fan material there's a wide variance in both quality and completeness.  (Plus the term "hack" to some might imply tweaking or breaking or alternate rather than putting something together.)  And, in addition, there aren't any a "behind the scenes" explanation for why the various elements in a hack/campaign were chosen and what kind of tone/themes/gameplay loop/etc they enable and support.That I think is the big missing link (well, that and a company willing to advertise it).  Wouldn't need to be a book per se (though that would be great!), but a series of articles or podcasts that both went through each element and described what they bring to the table (ie, Values: how are they used? what do they highlight? what kind of campaigns do they work well for?), followed by a series of examples creating campaigns for many different genres beginning from the theme/tone/worldbuilding and then choosing the game elements to match those theme/tone/world.  And if a podcast or video series, it could finish off with 30+ minutes of gameplay to show it all off in action! Cortex is one of my three go-to systems when thinking up a new campaign (one of which <a href="https://lynxthoughts.com/aurora/" target="_blank">my own system</a>, that's how highly I think of Cortex).  I love it's narrative emphasis, focus on character, and what it creates at the table.  That it's languishing in obscurity due to things behind the scenes is, again, hyper unfortunate.</blockquote>

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