Larcenous Designs

This series of articles, the first of which is here, covers unofficial or personally-owned (maybe, if I get around to buying a license) material I'm writing for Cortex RPG games, including new sub-systems, optional rules, and similar.

Disclaimer and notice: If I ever get around to writing my own Cortex sourcebook, I might include some of these ideas, but I put them up here for free in the hopes that they'll see use by other folk, too. Please feel free to link to them or use them yourself. If you want to repost them elsewhere, or you draw heavily on them for your own freely available work, I would both love to hear about your project and would also appreciate being given credit for whatever inspiration I provided, but don't worry about it too much. My only restriction is that you do not publish my writing for profit, or put it into something which requires a subscription or purchase to view, such as a commercial e-zine or similar. SPECIAL NOTE: This particular post also contains material I intend to use in a work of fiction, which is separate from the Cortex-specific rules. The same disclaimer applies, but there's a higher chance that this will wind up being somehow related to a published product. If you don't want to risk 'giving' me an idea that I might profit from, please don't comment, modify and repost, or otherwise communicate your ideas to me. I put this up here so it can help inspire other people, but that doesn't mean I'm not also seeking inspiration and, someday, some monetary appreciation :-)

This article consists of a very, very rough first-draft (partial first draft, even) of an alchemy system for the Cortex RPG. While I hope the system might be usable in most fantasy settings, I'm designing it for the world of a novel I'm working on. The genre is closer to 'steampunk' than it is to traditional 'sword & sworcery' fantasy. It's grittier, the technological level is closer to 1875 than 1600, and it's darker. In this case, the term 'deathpunk' might be appropriate....



Now, that's all a first draft, as I said. Not all the potions and elixers are fully described, the system could do with some playtesting, and it's generally up in the air at the moment. I hope to post a polished version someday (or publish one), but we'll see. Other possible topics for future articles along this line include the other Lesser Necromantic Art, that of Mesmerism, and Necromancy itself, both of which are involved in the novel I'm working on (well, when I'm not goofing off doing game design).

This is pretty specific stuff, but I hope someone finds a use for it, or can adapt it to their game in the meantime. I appreciate any comments, questions, or criticisms you might have, since I'm sure this is far from perfect! Thanks for reading.

Blessed be,
~Nathan

This is the fourth in a series of fairly lengthy articles, the first of which can be found here.

This article will deal with some of the differences in the combat systems of the Serenity RPG and the Cortex engine; specifically, the rules regarding multiple actions.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not the owner of Serenity, the Serenity RPG, or the Cortex System. While I wrote a good portion of the later Cortex books (BSG, Demon Hunters, and the generic Core Book included), I'm just a freelancer. The opinions expressed in these articles are my own. When it comes to the design philosophy I discuss, I try to present what I understand to be the 'general consensus' of the Cortex developers and the design goals of the owners, Margaret Weis Productions.

If you want to learn more, read on!



That's one of my favorite rule-system changes to the Cortex engine, so I'm especially looking forward to any feedback or criticism on this one. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them! Also, I'm running out of ideas for subjects to address in this series of articles, so suggestions are welcome on that front as well.

Blessed be,
~Nathan

This is the third in a series of fairly lengthy articles, the first of which can be found here.

This article will deal with the differences in the way Plot Points and Advancement Points are handled between the Serenity RPG and the Cortex engine as it appears in later games.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not the owner of Serenity, the Serenity RPG, or the Cortex System. While I wrote a good portion of the later Cortex books (BSG, Demon Hunters, and the generic Core Book included), I'm just a freelancer. The opinions expressed in these articles are my own. When it comes to the design philosophy I discuss, I try to present what I understand to be the 'general consensus' of the Cortex developers and the design goals of the owners, Margaret Weis Productions.

If you're interested, read on!



Well, I hope that answers some questions or provokes some thoughts! Next time I'll look at combat (finally moving away from character creation!).

Looking forward to any comments, criticisms, or questions.

Blessed be,
~Nathan

This is the second part of a series of fairly lengthy posts, the first of which can be found here.

This article will deal with the changes made to the Trait system between the Serenity RPG and the Cortex engine as it appears in later games.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not the owner of Serenity, the Serenity RPG, or the Cortex System. While I wrote a good portion of the later Cortex books (BSG, Demon Hunters, and the generic Core Book included), I'm just a freelancer. The opinions expressed in these articles are my own. When it comes to the design philosophy I discuss, I try to present what I understand to be the 'general consensus' of the Cortex developers and the design goals of the owners, Margaret Weis Productions.

I hope this proves useful to someone! Enjoy.



I hope my writing isn't so rambling as to lose your interest. If anyone is still paying attention, the next article will be on Plot Points and Advancement Points---the last article on character creation and advancement. After that, I'll look at combat and rule systems.

As before, comments, questions, and criticism is welcome---both regarding the game design, and the writing of the post. Thanks for reading!

Blessed be,
~Nathan

One thing that I always get asked is how, exactly,  the Serenity RPG differs from the later editions of the Cortex system. So I thought I'd start off my jabbering here on LJ with a more in-depth discussion of those differences than I usually give.

In this series of articles, I'll cover not just the changes implemented between Serenity and the Cortex revisions, but also some of the motivations and the design philosophy that led to those changes. I'll also be happy to take questions on such things, but...

DISCLAIMER: I'm not the owner of Serenity, the Serenity RPG, or the Cortex System. While I wrote a good portion of the later Cortex books (BSG, Demon Hunters, and the generic Core Book included), I'm just a freelancer. The opinions expressed in these articles are my own. When it comes to the design philosophy I discuss, I try to present what I understand to be the 'general consensus' of the Cortex developers and the design goals of the owners, Margaret Weis Productions.

Warning, this is a long and detailed article. Hope you enjoy it!


Now, all that said, those aren't the only changes made to the way character generation and advancement work between Serenity and the later Cortex revisions. Next time (tomorrow, hopefully), I'll go over the changes to the Trait system. After that we'll look at Plot Points and Advancement Points, and then we'll be on to other aspects of the games.

Hope this little series of articles will prove helpful to some folk. Questions? Comments? Criticisms?

Blessed be,
~Nathan