Re: 80's inspired Cyberpunk Super Hero Game (Cortex Prime)
@LoonyLadle
I pretty much cloned and customized the D&D character sheet, and modified some of of the skills. D&D is the most familiar to my players. So, I used it in order to help them learn Cortex.
For Distinctions, I used things like Classes, Races, and maybe a personality quirk or background.
Then I used the same 6 Stats from D&D. Since the rules of Cortex Prime focus on having 3 "stats," I just used those rules twice. Like being able to select all 6 stats as a D8 or stepping Two D8's to a D6 or D10. I would allow that twice for 6 stats. I know that sounds confusing, but it works.
Last, for the skills, I used the Pyramid assign rules. One D10, Two D8's, 4 D6's, and the rest as D4.
One thing I noticed about Cortex Prime vs D&D is Specialty skills. D&D doesn't really cover this, but Cortex does it pretty well. I also added a little home brew. For example, In order to have a specialty skill, like trapping, I had my players have at least a D8 in it's parent skill, like Survival. Then they could have a D6 in trapping, and they could add it to their dice pool when making a trap.
For my mage, I utilized the assets rule in Cortex Prime. I had the mage spent two asset points to have a D8 spell book, that they could add to their dice pool on mage roles.
My players enjoyed it, because the character creation was a breeze, compared to the D20 system. Combat was also quite a bit faster, and the characters weren't restricted on rules that a level 1 character in D&D would be. For instance, my mage character wanted to roleplay a Wizard, was was injured and had to do a soul transfer onto his Rat familiar. So, that was as easy to make as just stating that on his character sheet, rather than surf through rules and deal with getting a rat's stat block. I made some modifications, on the fly, to his stats, so that he only had a D4 in Strength, but allowed him to step up one more stat.
Then I gave him an amnesia distinction. So, from time to time he can role to see what he remembers. He can spend a plot point to step that D8 up to a D10, or roll a D4 for amnesia and gain a plot point. This also gave him options in gameplay that a level 1 Mage in D&D would not have. For example, the rat wanted to search, what he remembered as his former body, and he found a spell book. This book was much to big to carry, and he wanted to shrink it. So, instead of just telling him "No, you're at level one," I just sat the difficulty, and had him role it.
I am still active in a traditional D&D group, and that should tell you that I still enjoy the game. On the other hand, Cortex Prime gives the players and Gamemaster more freedom in order to tell the story they want to in gameplay. I Game Master for veteran D&D players, and the system was easy enough to teach them the basics, while helping them with their sheets, in appx 15-20 minutes per player. Keep in mind, I spent a good month reading and re reading the rulebook before I was able to do this.
One time a D&D session, a DM told me I could join in a session at level 7 if I made a character sheet. It took me about an hour to do this, while the session was going on, and I was doing my best to roleplay and keep up while making my sheet, and I am familiar with D&D. With that in mind, running and Playing Cortex Prime was easier for me. It was kind of a steep learning curve at first, but now I would say it's much easier and much more customisable.