Tag: cortex rpg

Marvel Heroic Datafiles for Karma and Negasonic Teenage Warhead

I recently started a Marvel Heroic Roleplaying campaign that’s basically a Civil War What If…? where the House of M stuff didn’t drastically sideline the mutants, since my players wanted to play X-Men and X-related characters. Plus we’re from the era of the 1990s X-Men The Animated Series cartoon, so being able to rely on some continuity elements of that wouldn’t be so bad.

One of the things we’re doing is having the X-Men PCs take on New Mutants as apprentices. Since one of the PCs is Colossus, we decided to take a page from the Deadpool movies and place Negasonic Teenage Warhead on the New Mutants roster and become his protégé. It’s a nice call back to Kitty Pryde getting demoted from the X-Men to the New Mutants circa New Mutants Vol. 1 #3 or 4. Meanwhile, the other PC is an original character based on one of our previous non-Marvel superhero campaigns written up on this very site, Monochrome. He’ll be taking Karma under his wing.

You’ll see that I’m not really following canon timelines, because we don’t really care about that sort of thing! Negasonic is basically immediately post-Deadpool & the Mercs for Money, and Karma is more or less at the start of New Mutants Vol. 1.

So without further ado, here are the datafiles for Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Karma.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead datafile front

Negasonic Teenage Warhead datafile front

Negasonic Teenage Warhead datafile back

Negasonic Teenage Warhead datafile back

Negasonic Teenage Warhead – as a PDF

Karma datafile front

Karma datafile front

Karma datafile back

Karma datafile back

Karma – as a PDF

Thoughts? Feedback? Comment below!

Forget D&D – Curse of Strahd is Better with Tales of Xadia

Tales of Xadia: The Dragon Prince Roleplaying Game (TOX) is a hidden gem that deserves more attention. This tabletop game comes with a robust digital toolkit, similar to D&D Beyond, and it’s built on the Cortex system found in Cortex Prime Game Handbook. Despite being tied to a popular TV show, TOX offers a lot to players who aren’t fans. In fact, I believe it’s the perfect system for running Curse of Strahd (COS), even better than D&D itself. Let’s dive in and see why.

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The Future of Cortex RPG: Marketplaces and Licensing

Updated 7/30/2024: Dire Wolf has released the Tales of Xadia Premium Dice Sets, announcing them just ahead of GEN CON 2024. I ordered all three sets on that Saturday and received shipping info first thing Monday!

The Cortex system has had a complex journey, passing through several owners. Originally developed by Margaret Weis Publishing, the game mechanics were licensed to lead designer Cam Banks, then sold to Fandom, and finally to Dire Wolf Digital (DWD) after Fandom exited the tabletop roleplaying industry. This tumultuous history has created challenges and opportunities for DWD, particularly in the areas of community marketplaces and licensing for content creators.

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.

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How to Revive Cortex Prime – An Open Letter to Dire Wolf Digital

Updated 7/30/2024: Dire Wolf has released the Tales of Xadia Premium Dice Sets, announcing them just ahead of GEN CON 2024. I ordered all three sets on that Saturday and received shipping info first thing Monday!

In August 2022, Dire Wolf Digital (DWD) acquired the Cortex RPG from Fandom, including the Cortex Prime Game Handbook and Tales of Xadia: The Dragon Prince Roleplaying Game. Despite this transition, the game remains alive, but in need of revitalization. A dedicated and vocal fanbase remains active on the Cortex RPG official Discord, and meanwhile, the larger tabletop industry hasn’t moved on either, despite some fans’ fears. In fact, Cortex is still widely discussed and recommended across forums and social media. It has garnered hours of content and hundreds of thousands of views in the past few years, even as DWD has remained silent on its future. New products are still being launched as recently as last week (June 2024).

A deep dive into the current state of Cortex RPG, conducted with the help of dedicated fans, revealed several strategies to change the perception of Cortex as an under-supported game. These ideas can help Cortex achieve the potential Fandom saw when they purchased it in 2019.

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