Cortex Prime: A Multi-Genre Modular Roleplaying Game

September Update Week 2
over 5 years ago – Tue, Sep 11, 2018 at 12:18:03 AM

Ahoy ahoy, Cortex-Philes!

I'm writing this from lofty Evergreen, Colorado, just outside of Denver. I'm in town with my family for a big wedding and we've been sight-seeing and otherwise taking a break. However, it's Monday, and that's update time.

There's no new file to share this week, but I've been digesting even more feedback from folks who've been reading the last chapter preview. I'm pleased to see that the response has been mostly positive! A couple of things to add for the next file, other than Prime Sessions, are some clarification on SFX and plot points and power sets, some discussion on how area attacks are supposed to work (hint: there are a few different options), and I think a little more coverage on contests and tests and how to apply them to popular types of challenge: environmental, combat, emotional stakes, and chases.

I wanted to direct you this week to the awesome GeneX show on Happy Jacks RPG. This is a game Primed by Cortex that's all about mutants and a world that hates and fears them. You can get started at the first episode here; the latest episode just dropped today. If you hear about other streaming shows featuring Cortex Prime, let me know! I'll share them in the next update.

Peace,
Cam

September Update Week 1
over 5 years ago – Tue, Sep 04, 2018 at 01:58:31 AM

Ahoy Cortex-Philes!

So, I just uploaded a new version of chapters 1 to 4: Intro, Core, Characters, and Scenes. There's something new in all of these chapters, though the most that's new is in Scenes, which includes a lot of advice and guidance about scene framing and different sorts of scenes in Cortex Prime.

This is going out via BackerKit, so it should also be going to everyone who pre-ordered, even those who jumped in this week. You should have an email giving you the link to your digital downloads folder. If you don't get it, I'm told you should check your spam folders and double-check that the email you're using for BackerKit is correct.

I had a great meeting with Josh Roby this weekend, going over the schedule ahead for spotlights and for managing the roll-out of those. Josh will do some development passes on the spotlights to ensure that they're all up to date with the Prime rules and for consistency, which is likely to start near the end of the month. As we get each of the five volumes cleaned up and ready for edits, I'm going to share those drafts with you via BackerKit so you can give them a shot.

Some of you have asked about the pledge levels with included characters and so forth - I haven't forgotten, but I need to collect those once I've got the Game Handbook manuscript wrapped up. Those are handled via a Kickstarter survey, NOT a BackerKit survey. You can, as always, reach out to me via my MVDS email: seth AT magic-vacuum DOT com. (Note: "seth" is me, it's an in-joke between me and my wife, same in-joke that provides the name "magic vacuum." I'm sure I told you this before, but I still get people addressing me as Seth on those emails, so...)

Not hit by a truck yet. This coming weekend I'm going to be in Colorado for a big wedding for an old friend of mine, but I'll still make sure to post an update next Monday.

Cheers,
Cam

August Update and Spotlight Progress
over 5 years ago – Mon, Aug 27, 2018 at 10:56:27 PM

Ahoy Cortex-Philes,

Well, I said I was going to post more frequent updates, but I fell once again into the trap of not posting anything until I had everything done. Obviously based on the discussions in the Kickstarter comments this has been of tremendous frustration to many of you, and I'm sorry to have dropped the ball on communication. Here's where I am at on Cortex Prime's Game Handbook and the Spotlights.

Since the posting of the Intro, Prime Core, Prime Characters, and Prime Scenes, I had a great deal of feedback from some of the hardcore play tester backers about those chapters. This lead me to going back through and adding in some more examples, taking another look at how SFX were presented, and reviewing things like the Pathways section to further explain that process. I have also doubled the Prime Scenes chapter in size and I'm adding more to that since it wasn't actually doing what it needed to do.

I wasn't happy with how the Prime Sessions chapter in progress was going, either, so that's been undergoing an extensive rewrite and more content added. Prime Settings was  in good shape but I've been talking with the Spotlight writers about how we're presenting settings to GMs and players and how the three settings in the Game Handbook need to serve as models for folks creating their own, which is especially true for TRACE 2.0 as it's the only modern-day non-super/non-magical setting.

I met with MWP's Christi Cardenas at Gen Con to brainstorm a few things and discuss the progress of the Kickstarter, and I'm meeting this week with my long-time collaborator and friend Josh Roby who's visiting the Twin Cities with his family. The goal is to bring everything back on track and ensure that the Game Handbook is complete before I move to New Zealand in December and get the Spotlight release schedule finalized, also. 

My new commitment is to post an update like this every Monday from now on, whether or not there's a new file or production preview or anything. Next week's update will, assuming I don't get hit by a truck, include the updated chapters from the last round, including the much bigger Prime Scenes chapter, as well as at least the Prime Sessions chapter and some Prime Settings material that covers creating new settings and world building.

I'm never sure if the folks who came on after the Kickstarter via BackerKit are actually able to see these updates, either, so I'm going to set them all to "Anyone" so that they're visible. If you happen to be a BackerKit post-KS backer, let me know in the comments if you're able to read this! (Although if you can't, I suppose you won't be able to let me know, either.)

Once again, my apologies for being a terrible communicator. I know perfect is the enemy of good, and I know it's much better to get something—anything—from project creators in cases like this. I am grateful to everyone who continues to send supportive messages, encouragement, content feedback, and game play reports. You continue to give me confidence that Cortex has an enthusiastic fanbase, and I know I can clear these hurdles on the strength of that support.

Cheers,
Cam

June Update and Game Handbook preview
almost 6 years ago – Fri, Jun 29, 2018 at 02:30:34 AM

Attention Cortex-Philes!

After another month of slipping milestones, conventions, and other obstacles, I've put together a pre-edit, pre-layout preview of the bulk of the Game Handbook for you and everyone who has pre-ordered the Game Handbook through BackerKit. In fact, BackerKit is the means of distributing this file which should mean you've already got an email from them with a link to your Digital Downloads page.

This file includes all of the text for the Game Handbook with the exception of the Prime Sessions and Prime Settings chapters, which are still in a total shambles within Scrivener right now. You can run the game with these four chapters, actually, with all of the updated rules and fixes for tests, contests, traits, scenes, and a lot of familiar content from the SRD draft that's already gone through the wringer a few times playtest-wise.

Once I bring together the remaining chapters I'll send those out, too. I'm not going to give any dates for right now, but as I have all of the content and it just needs to be assembled, I want to say it'll be soon. These chapters I'm sending out tonight are already in editing, but if you happen to see something glaringly obvious please feel free to shoot me an email at seth AT magic-vacuum DOT com and let me know.

I hope to show off some art in the next update, and those of you who're involved in choosing art for me and including characters in the book should get that Kickstarter Survey no later than this weekend. It's a rapid race downhill toward pulling that final trigger, but it's bumpy.

I want to apologize yet again for not posting updates as often and giving you all reason to wonder if I'm paying attention. The short answer is: yes, absolutely. Thanks to those who have been supportive as my life is turned upside down right now with our plans to move to New Zealand at the end of the year (yes, we have our plane tickets for December 4th and everything) and summer craziness, thank you. To those of you who I've caused no end of frustration with for not being as swift on responding: I'm sorry, I aim to do better.

Cheers,
Cam

One Year Later
almost 6 years ago – Wed, May 30, 2018 at 01:43:03 AM

Cortex-Philes,

It's been exactly one year since this project funded. Obviously by this point I was hoping to be wrapping up the work on the Prime Spotlights and sending them out, but unfortunately the hurdles of the past couple of months — including our decision to begin the processing of relocating our family to New Zealand this coming December — have stretched the production schedule out beyond the original delivery date, and for that I'm very sorry to those of you eager to crack open your copies of the Game Handbook and get into Prime.

Here's a current status update. I promise that I'll post more often even if I don't have something new and exciting to give you, because I've been assured by some of you that it matters more that I stay in communication than hunker down and leave you wondering what's going on.

The Game Handbook is in its last stages of development before I hand it over to my wife for her copy edits. I've got artists lined up to provide the illustrations but held off on actually pulling the trigger on that until I had a clearer understanding of the book's new outline. Graphic designer Jeremy Keller and his partner had a baby and that's occupied a lot of his time, but he's already put together a great layout design template which means flowing the text and getting the book ready for press shouldn't take long.

Here's a look at the Game Handbook structure:

• Prime Intro: What Cortex Prime is and what to expect from the Game Handbook.
• Prime Core: The basic rules of any Cortex Prime game and how they work, including dice, traits, and plot points.
• Prime Characters: Defining, describing, and creating characters for Cortex Prime.
• Prime Scenes: Framing, moderating, and resolving scenes.
• Prime Sessions: How to plan for and manage Cortex Prime sessions, including GM advice.
• Prime Settings: How to build and use your own settings. Features three pre-made settings for use as-is or as inspiration.
• Prime Lists: An appendix of lists.
  

The biggest changes to the rules from the last version of the SRD is that actions and contested actions have been replaced with tests and contests. Traits are grouped into trait sets, and some trait sets are considered prime sets. There's a mention of a trait standard for the purposes of illustrating rules, but they're not so much a default as they are an easy to access assortment of trait sets for folks coming from other games (attributes, skills, etc).

Variant rules are now called mods, and the Game Handbook should include every kind of mod from all previous Cortex Plus and Classic Cortex games in one form or another, making compatibility with previous games dead simple.

So what's my new timeline looking like? I'll make an effort here to be conservative and not wildly optimistic.

Completed Edits: June 18
Completed Layout: July 9
Completed Proofed and PDFs delivered: July 16
Printed Books Delivered: July 30 - Aug 6

Thanks once again for all of your patience. In about a week or two I'm going to send out, via BackerKit, a text-only pre-edit version of the Game Handbook in PDF format so you can get started working on your campaigns or planning any Cortex Creator Studio projects. Those folks who've pre-ordered the game via BackerKit will also get this version of the book, since they haven't had the benefit of being backers and getting previews of the SRD.

Note: Several of you backed at pledge levels that give you art direction and other input into the game's illustrations. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you! I'll be sending you a survey later this week and working with you to finalize what art you'd like to have featured. The same goes for those of you wanting your own characters included in the books.