The Cortex Prime Game Handbook is renowned for being a versatile “LEGO set” of rules that allows players to design their own game experiences. Award winning, even. This modularity makes it comparable to systems like GURPS and Fate, yet unique in its lack of a singular “core game.” Unlike Fate, which has a permissive license encouraging extensive modifications, Cortex currently lacks such a framework, limiting its appeal primarily to game designers, but not just them, specifically ones who aren’t looking to become content creators themselves—a potentially very small audience in the heavily DIY roleplaying game industry.

Let’s talk about the vision versus the state of the game, and then consider the future of Cortex, all in terms of marketplaces and licenses.

The Vision for Cortex RPG

Fandom had initially envisioned a community marketplace for Cortex, which would offer digital versions of rulebooks and tools for online play, including dice rollers and virtual game tables. This marketplace was intended to allow creators to publish and sell content, but only within the Cortex ecosystem. Despite the promise of a creator marketplace, Fandom did not deliver beyond initial tools for the Tales of Xadia RPG before their exit from the industry.

Dire Wolf Digital has not yet released any news about community or marketplace plans. Their current focus appears to be on the Tales of Xadia RPG, with upcoming releases including The Sunfire Chronicle adventure and themed dice sets . The lack of a clear strategy for a Cortex marketplace or license has left the community in a state of uncertainty, especially given the potential benefits of such initiatives. (7/30/24 – See the update at the beginning of this article.)

Graeme Barber’s history of Cortex provides insight into the game’s development and the challenges it has faced . Graeme highlights that while Fandom released a draft of a Cortex license, it was criticized for being too restrictive. A revised version was more acceptable but remained tied to the promised, yet undelivered, community marketplace. Social media being what it is, the revision didn’t make much of a splash, and the drama of the previous version stuck to Cortex’s name unfairly. Since DWD’s acquisition of Cortex, these licenses have gone dark, and no updates have been provided, which hasn’t helped matters.

Cortex on Other Platforms

Currently, Cortex is not available on popular virtual tabletops like Roll20, Foundry, or Fantasy Grounds, nor is it present on major RPG marketplaces like DriveThruRPG or as a “Nexus” on Demiplane. This absence restricts its reach and visibility, limiting its potential audience and growth by a significant amount. These aforementioned sales channels are the most popular places to purchase tabletop roleplaying games by a wide margin. Only The Arcane Library and specialty product sellers like Exalted Funeral avoid them, and even then many of Exalted Funeral’s non-exclusive products can be found on DriveThru and itch.io as well. Both those sites have been building up their catalogs and marketing for a handful of years or more to become the destinations they are; DWD’s store doesn’t have this cultural cache. Yet. More on that in moment.

Mellie Doucette from Fandom stated in December 2021 that the original plan was to offer the Cortex Creator Studio, a comprehensive distribution and design tool integrated with the license . Whether DWD will follow through with this plan remains uncertain, but their focus on digital games suggests they have the power to do it. Recent upgrades to TalesOfXadia.com’s Narrator Tools are an encouraging sign they might still be developing digital tools for Cortex. They are a tech-focused board game company, after all, with a significant investment in digital games and even a digital game room app. If anybody can follow Fandom’s promise to fruition, they may be able to do it, and by focusing on Tales of Xadia first, they have a focused testbed for their ideas, which necessarily would be much more broad and therefore challenging under the universal nature of the Cortex Prime Game Handbook.

Potential Paths Forward for DWD

The past two years of silence from DWD have left the Cortex community unsure of the game’s direction. However, they have several paths forward. The only question is how patient current diehard fans might be, and whether or not the larger RPG community sees any of these paths as a big enough “splash” to convince them to take a look at a property that has been defined by its difficulties for several years. It’s a tough battle, but it can be won.

Scenario 1: Launching a Community Marketplace

A community marketplace, launched alongside new releases like The Sunfire Chronicle for Tales of Xadia, would signal DWD’s commitment to supporting community creators, and can be marketed as a major “rising like a phoenix” moment. This move could reignite interest among diehard fans and attract new players, positioning DWD as champions of Cortex RPG.

Such a campaign seems somewhat out of character based on my experiences with their marketing, which usually consists of simple, splashy, but infrequent release announcements for their board and card games. On the roleplaying side we’ve only ever had this one for the Tales of Xadia campaign and dice sets still in the works: New Projects Announced from Dire Wolf. Outside of Cortex lead Cam Banks, Dire Wolf has no marketing or other community outreach on their official Discord, nor on the Cortex RPG subreddit, so a few more resources would need to be devoted to sustained marketing. But as my previous article notes, consistent messaging of really any kind pays dividends with roleplaying games, so there’s a lot of value there.

Scenario 2: Expanding to Multiple Channels

Alternatively, DWD could integrate Cortex into existing platforms. By partnering with virtual tabletops and selling Cortex products on DriveThruRPG and Demiplane, DWD can extend the game’s reach without relying solely on an in-house marketplace. This could undermine the possibilities of their own in-house marketplace for creators, but if partnerships are combined with a permissive license or community program like the old Cortex Plus Creator Studio on DriveThruRPG (circa 2017-2018), it would circumvent the need for internal development of a marketplace.

This license-only approach is a well documented success for games like Fate and Mork Borg (highly permissive license), Shadowdark (more restrictive license), and the many creator programs through DriveThruRPG like the Storyteller’s Vault, Miskatonic University, and so on (the most restrictive licenses where a cut of sales are given to the program creators). Getting eyeballs on the game and not spending on an internally developed marketplace is likely to be hugely successful, but it’s always important to know that an internally developed product, done right, is going to have the highest returns…but you have to pick your lane. Or work on both strategically, as D&D is currently doing with the rollout of all of its tools at the same time as extending official support to Roll20 et. al. Remember, though, that D&D is a massive operation, and they focused on gobbling up the biggest, most powerful development tools first, before putting official support behind third parties. DWD can do this in reverse, or it needs to choose a lane.

(Cortex has a perfect example of a strong litmus test with the the four Spotlight Setting volumes from Cortex’s Kickstarter getting premium-quality print-on-demand treatments through DriveThruRPG, Amazon, and Lulu’s print services. The same could be said for a compiled version of the Tales of Xadia adventure scenarios The Lost Oasis, The Gloaming Glade, and the bonus fables released to pre-order recipients.)

Scenario 3: Other Paths Without a License

If neither a marketplace nor a new license is feasible, DWD must leverage other channels to maintain Cortex’s presence in the RPG market. This would involve releasing Cortex on multiple platforms to ensure broad accessibility, capitalizing on all of the current sales channels and virtual tabletops. Not releasing a license would seem to be against the promise of the Cortex Prime Game Handbook, but at least the games would be discoverable by a wide audience, which it is not today.

In such a model, it would serve DWD well to lift up the creators and creations that already exist, since they prop up the Cortex system in ways the current products do not: Cortex Lite, for example, remains the absolute best path into understanding and playing the game quickly. Similarly, their official support, or even purchase of, products like the Xine series would allow them to capitalize on a more consistent release stream in a format that’s much cheaper to produce (zines). In lieu of regular articles on the Cortex RPG site or the like, this is one of the cheapest and best ways to keep a game in front of customers.

This is a very old-school, traditional way to run a game and keep a tight hold on where and how it shows up, and that’s an unlikely path of success…if it can even be successful in the current climate of the industry. In a world where famously insular Palladium Books has licensed out a Savage Worlds adaptation of Rifts, there are vanishingly few game systems that even register as a blip in the industry that don’t have some sort of arrangement with external partners. I cannot think of a single one that holds any sort of market share.

Conclusions

DWD’s ability to create a supportive environment for community content is crucial for Cortex’s future. A community marketplace and flexible licensing model could significantly enhance the game’s appeal and longevity. By leveraging their technical expertise and existing digital tools, DWD has the potential to position Cortex as the leading “creator’s RPG.”

Decisive action is needed to maintain and grow the Cortex community. The quality of the Cortex Prime Game Handbook and Tales of Xadia highlights the potential for high-caliber releases, which sets them apart from community-created content. However, without a license and marketplace, or leveraging additional channels, Cortex risks stagnation. Limiting distribution to DWD’s webstore alone isolates potential players and creators, negatively impacting the game’s growth and relevance, as there’s no program breathing new life into it. A broader strategy incorporating community involvement and wider distribution is essential to secure Cortex RPG’s place in the modern tabletop landscape.

Updates

7/5/24 11:29a PT: Correctly noted that MWP licensed the Cortex system to Cam Banks before it was sold to Fandom.