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Short introduction
Cortex Plus is not that hard. As soon as you make you first roll, you are basically intermediate, if we were to use linguistical terms. Cortex is narrative-focused system, where both Master (or Moderator, or Watcher) and players have their pools of dice ranging from d4 to d12. Those pools represents characteristics, that can be used to an advantage (or sometimes to a disadvantage) of a character: their powers, specializations, even personality or environmental hazards. Everything that can be used to form a pool is called a Trait.
Dice represent the effectiveness of the according Trait. As such, smaller dice are more risk-prone and represent something that character is good with, but still can make mistakes, while the higher level ones are his main caliber, ultimate ability or the BFG, if you want... which doesn't mean that they are not going to fail.
Everything uncertain a player or master does is called an Action. If a player wants to carry out an action and they need to roll for it, they declare it, gather up the pool and roll the dice. Actions are opposed by a Reaction, either the target's own actions or by Master setting up difficulty. If reaction exceeds an action, action fails.
It's important to know when to actually roll the dice, as sometimes you just don't need to do it:
Roll the dice when…
≫ You're not sure if your character succeed or fail.
≫ You want to try something bold, challenging or dangerous
≫ You want to oppose, challenge, or thwart another character.
≫ You want to show-off.
Don't roll the dice when…
≫ The outcome isn't an interesting part of the story.
≫ There is no risk, challenge or threat involved.
≫ Either success, or fail lead to nothing of value happening.
≫ There is no Reaction to stop character.
≫ The situation is outside of character's ability to change.
Used Rules
≫ Distinctions
≫ Action Based Resolution and Action Order
≫ Stress and Trauma
≫ Stunts, Resources, And Push Die
≫ Skills
≫ Doom Pool
≫ Allergy (Custom)
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Rolling the dice
Whenever outcome of an action desired by character is uncertain, you need to state what are you trying to do. Then you assemble the pool of dice, using different Traits, and roll them. Important thing is that in the pool it doesn't matter which Trait gave which dice, as what matters is success or failure. by which means and in what way it was achieved is open to your interpretation.
When you rolled the dice, remove all ones, they are called Opportunities, you can't use them, but more on that later.
Then you choose two dice and add their results together. That is Total. Total is a measure of how much effort was put towards succeeding. It is the value that will be opposed by Reaction. here you can add additional dice to your Total, by spending PP.
And finally you choose the die, that you will use as an Effect. The result on that die don't matter (if it wasn't 1), as you use the die itself. This is basically your pay off. You can choose any dice that you didn't choose before. If your pool is empty after previous steps, you use d4.
Traits you can add to your pool:
≫ One Distinction (d8 or d4 + 1 PP)
≫ One power from Gear Set
≫ One power from Allergy Set
≫ One Skill
≫ Either target's or your character's stress or trauma
≫ One Advantage or Target's Complication
≫ One die for Assets
That was convoluted, yeah? So, to simplify, let me show you the example.
Example
Will be here later
Extraordinary Success
If your action Total is 5 or more points higher than your opponent's, you've gained Extraordinary Success. This allows you to step up your Effect die by one and gives you the sense of pride and accomplishment. For every additional 5-point difference, die can be stepped up again. If the die goes past d12, the action can be either deemed an automatic success, or you can add another effect die to your roll.
But note that you can have Extraordinary Success in the Reaction Roll as well, because you can spend 1 Plot Point to choose an Effect die and then step it up using this rule... Nasty stuff.
Support Actions
Not every action should be an attack. If you want to assist another character, you can use your action for support. You assemble your pool normally and roll against Master's doom pool. If successful, you give the effect die to the character you assisted, so he can use it in his own pool. But if failed, Master can punish you by using one dice from the doom pool as the effect.
Additionally you can support action for recovery of the teammate. The rules are similar but effect die is used to reduce the stress and isn't affecting the pool. Still, a failure might see you punished.
Assets
The other way of using
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Plot Points
We talked about Plot Points a lot but what actually are they? Basically, they are a currency that allows you to buff yourself. Each player starts a game with 1 PP. They can be spent in different situations:
Before the roll you can:
≫ Add Push-die d6 to your pool.
≫ Add extra trait
≫ Add a Stunt-die for your power or specialty.
≫ Activate SFX
After your roll you can:
≫ Add an extra die from the roll to your Total (so you make Total from three dice or more)
≫ Choose an extra Effect die
≫ Activate an Opportunity rolled in a Reaction
≫ Activate SFX
≫ Use an Effect die, when you successfully reacted
≫ Change the type of Stress
And during Transition Scene:
≫ Add a resource linked by Specialty
And you can earn them by:
≫ Using Distinction as d4
≫ Activating a Limit
≫ Having Opportunity in your roll activated
Opportunities
Again, Opportunities are ones in the roll, which are excluded. When a Player has an Opportunity, Master can take the dice to his Doom Pool and in return give Player 1 Plot Point. Alternatively he can upgrade the dice from the doom pool by using opportunities, but that doesn't reward a player.
But if an Opportunity rises in roll of your opponent (be it another player, NPC or master) you can spend 1 PP to activate it and create a Push die or a Stunt die. That Opportunity Push is d8, while Stunt is d10 and it is added to your pool normally. Alternatively you can use an Opportunity to create a resource on the spot.
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