I just discovered this system and read the intro on their website, and it sounds like a near perfect fit for my tastes.  However, I'd like to test it out first before I spend the money.  Anyone here up for running a game?

Since it's flexible, my genre preferences are fantasy (any time period) or horror, but I'm happy to step outside of that if you want to run something different.

I picked up Cortex Prime a while ago because I was looking for an extremely customizable and robust system for a very unconventional game setting. I ultimately decided not to run that game (for now...) but became quite familiar with the system in the process. Cortex Prime is a bit odd because it's not a complete system out of the box; it's a set of components and a framework for attaching them, which means any GM who wants to use it has to basically build their own game system. From what I've seen, most GMs are really bad at that.

Cortex Prime is actually just the "hacker's guide" for Cortex Plus bundled into a separate product, so if you want to learn how Cortex++ plays you could check out other Cortex++ games like Marvel Heroic or Firefly; they're all the same system with bookkeeping differences.

Tales Of Xadia has a primer that you can download for free to get an idea of how the Cortex rules work. There are also pre-generated characters and two adventures that were developed for the game's playtest. It's a fairly straightforward fantasy setting based on the The Dragon Prince animated series.

 ~ https://www.talesofxadia.com/c...dia_Rules-Primer.pdf
 ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dragon_Prince

Cool, thanks, I'll check that out!

In reply to Dr. Mindermast (msg # 1):

I would be down for some Cortex related games. I am currently soloing a Secret Wars campaign using Marvel Heroic

In reply to Mr7oClock (msg # 5):

Marvel Heroic is such a cool build of Cortex, even cooler when you compare it to Smallville. Both are games about superheroes, but each approach the subject from its own unique angle (traditional comics vs. dramatic television). Cortex is sooooo powerful, but it does have a learning curve.

In reply to Alyse (msg # 6):

I agree that it has a learning curve, but I have ran offline sessions in the past. So, I came up with a simple version of Cortex Prime. I only use three D8's and set the difficulty for my newer players. Then they role the D8's, and keep the highest two. Since you can customize Cortex, I customized it to be as simple as I could. That way, my players and I could just focus in the story rather than get bugged down with rules

When I hear Cortex, I think Serenity and Battlestar Galactica. Am I thinking the same book / rules?

In reply to Tom_Clancy's_Ghost_Recon (msg # 8):

Those use Cortex Classic. The later games using Cortex Plus... Smallville, Firefly, Marvel Heroic... are closer to Cortex Prime which is the current iteration.

Ah. So what is the difference? I found the systems I have to be pretty KISS, which I appreciated.