Content Warning: Elder gods, evil cults, and all that entails!

In this post I’ll briefly outline a hack for Cortex Prime. This one’s best described as:

Cthulhu-style Mythos horror meets relationship drama…to preserve your sanity!

These hacks are prone to change, so you’ll want to check out the Google Doc for the latest version. That said, it’s kind of neat to see how these hacks develop, so what you’ll get here is a very brief overview; only the bits needed to play, and none of the commentary. Compare and see what changed!

Without further ado, let’s check out Dramatic Investigative Mythos Horror.

Characters

Characters are built with a form of Pathways. Nothing to see here, yet, as it hasn’t been developed, but the key things to consider are that Pathways will build out the following for the player characters:

1. Important locations, mainly to be used as headquarters, hideouts, and places to gain knowledge.
2. Personal relationships that are unconnected to the supernatural world, and thus are the primary people PCs can go to for recovery (see below).
3. Mythos-related relationships, for contacts and sources of knowledge on terrifying information.

Advancement is handled through milestones and XP. Each character gets a personal one and a scenario-based one. The scenario-based milestone determines how they grow in experience as they come to understand the deeper mysteries of the world. (Growth-based advancement presupposes that most relationships the characters will have get challenged or questioned and revised. That’s not happening here.)

Traits

Characters have the following traits.

Distinctions with SFX. Every character has three Distinctions, each with the Hinder SFX unlocked, as normal. Each Distinction will also have two other SFX that are locked by default. Starting characters can unlock two SFX, and advancement allows you to unlock more.

Affiliations, reskinned as Pillars. These are your pillars of sanity, the things that keep you from going insane after seeing terrifying things. Each is tied to a type of Trauma (see below). The Pillars are:

• Confidence: Your sense of self-worth; boldness, bravery. Trauma = Afraid
• Discipline: Your ability to manage your emotions; focus, dedication. Trauma = Exhausted
• Empathy: How well you connect with others; compassion, nurturing. Trauma = Angry
• Insight: Your awareness and ability to read situations and motives; understanding, intuition. Trauma = Insecure
• Resilience: How stalwart you are in both determination and toughness; steadfastness, resolve. Trauma = Harmed

Relationships with Statements. You’ll have a few of these that are personal and go on your character sheet. These are with GMCs that are not connected to the Mythos and supernatural stuff, and are more likely to help you recover from trauma. Then, the party as a whole will have relationships with statements to one another, as well as to shared contacts aware of the Mythos and supernatural goings on.

Specialties. A character will generally have between one and three specialties rated d6 to d12. They are often very focused abilities like Forensic Science, Pistols, Stunt Driver, Monster Lore, Cult Lore, Magical Tomes, Mythos History, etc.

Resources (some may have SFX). These are entirely on the Mythos side of things, and represent finite resources that can directly aid you. This might include things like a Bruiser D6 can help you in a fight, a Mythos Artifact D8 that can be drained of magical energy to power a spell, a Heavy Machinegun D8 with a single belt of ammunition, and so on. These may optionally have SFX unlocked via advancement.

Complications & Trauma. This hack uses Complications (not stress) and Trauma. When a character is taken out, or a complication is stepped up past D12, the character returns in a later scene with the complication cleared and D6 trauma of the GM’s choice.

Doom Pool & Mythos Sheet

This hack uses the Doom Pool mod for ambient difficulty and challenges, and typical GMC rules for everything else. Doom has some unique interactions in this hack, however. First, let’s define what the Mythos Sheet is.

The Mythos Sheet holds the PC relationships, Mythos-connected GMC relationships, and Resources. Scenario Milestones could even go here. It acts as a central reference for all things Mythos-related that the characters have access to. And it also illustrates all the cool stuff that will inherently bring them some trouble, too!

Accessing a trait on the Mythos Sheet is usually done for one of three things:

1. You want to call in help from a Resource or utilize an SFX on a die roll immediately. (Automatically adds a D6 to Doom.)
2. You want to create an Asset for an upcoming scene. (Roll +Resource die against Doom Pool; GM can activate hitches to increase Doom.)
3. You want to try to recover from Trauma using a Mythos-related Relationship. (Automatically adds a D6 to Doom.)

Whenever you want to immediately access Mythos Resources in a scene, add a D6 to the Doom Pool and you may utilize a die or SFX from the Resource.

Whenever you want to create (‘bank’) an Asset for an upcoming scene — read up on a ritual so you can perform it or stop it; have a temporary contact in a new location thanks to one of your Mythos buddies; keep a vial of blessed holy water on hand for the inevitable fight against a vampire — frame a transition scene with the Resource in question, roll an appropriate dice pool using the Resource die, and the GM will oppose this with the Doom Pool. If you succeed, your Effect Die establishes the Asset size. Any hitches you roll might end up in the Doom Pool if the GM wants to hand over a Plot Point, though!

Whenever you want to recover from Trauma, your best bet is to go to a non-Mythos Relationship. But if you can’t or won’t reach out to those folks, you can rely on your Mythos Relationships. Add a D6 to the Doom Pool, and then you can roll a recovery test with one of your Mythos Relationship dice as normal.

What Do You Think?

Let me know in the comments below if you’d like to use this hack, or if you’d like to see more about it! If you’ve used it, how did it go? What worked and what didn’t?