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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. That pool represents characteristics, that can be used to an advantage (or sometimes to a disadvantage) of a character, such as 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.
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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:
≫ Distinction (d8 or d4 + 1 PP)
≫ Fashion
≫ One power from each Power Set
≫ Specialty
≫ Either target's or your character's stress or trauma
≫ One of your Assets or Target's Disadvantage
≫ One die for Resources
That was convoluted, yeah? So, to simplify, let me show you the example.
Example
Aife is a cyborg teleporter and she wants to dropkick a child. Child doesn't want to be dropkicked, so Master asks Aife's player to roll. He assembles the pool with following traits:
d10 for her Fashion, which is Rational, as she isn't going to flex, she just wants to achieve the desired result.
d8 for her Distinction "Irish Bully", as she is used to fighting with children.
d8 for her Specialty "Expert in melee fighting"
d8 for her first Power "Flip: Symmetry" to Teleport behind the target.
d6 for her second Power "Halfmetal" to represent the fact that she is made of heavy metall.
So she rolls: d10 + 3d8 + d6
And gets: 7 + 1 + 6 + 3 + 2
First we remove opportunities: 7 + 1 + 6 + 3 + 2
Second: we choose two dice for total: 7 + 3... then think harder and spend PP to add 2 on top: 7 + 3 + 2 = 12. I never said that the played behind Aife is smart and can add 6 instead of 3. That was his mistake!
Third: we choose the last d8 as an effect dice, which concludes our actions and no we wait till Master responds with his Reaction, while we present him 12 + d8 as a result.
I definitely made it sound a lot harder than it should be.
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.
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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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The Doom Pool
The doom pool is the Master's resource for opposing heroes. It is used for creating threats and challenges. In this game we start with 3d8 in the doom pool and it can grow, when Master activates an Opportunity. Either he adds a new die and awards a player with 1 PP per new die, or steps up the die from the doom pool. The other way of increasing the doom pool is directly adding the effect die from villains' actions.
There is a variety of uses for the doom pool dice. Basically they are the master's opposition pool, so the dice can be added and thrown as usual. Additionally they are very similar to PP, so many actions are the same: activating SFX, adding dice to a pool, or to effect/total. But there are also unique ways to use them:
≫ Create a New Scene Distinction
≫ Interrupt the Action Order
≫ Activate Scene Effects
≫ End the Scene with 2d12
Although every usage of d12 rewards players with 1 XP, making it a little bit worth it for them (so the 2d12 End the Scene gives 2 XP).
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Push and Stunt
Push and Stunt are traits that appear on the spot. Push is a d6 die, that is added by spending a PP. It's the simplest and the least effective way of adding dice to the pool. Stunts are similar to Push dice, but they are somehow connected to the expertise or talents of the character. Stunts are basically thematic Push dice and they start at d8. The only difference is a requirement of cool description, based on the characters Specialty or Power Set. You can only add one of those.
Stunts and Pushes that are created on the Opportunities, are stepped up. By using a PP to activate an opportunity, you get a d10 stunt or a d8 push for your next pool.
Resources
On the other side of the spectrum additional traits are Resources. Resources are basically Stunts, but they remain for the whole Action Scene and can be added to a pool at any point after they were created in the Transition Scene. Resources are dependent on the level of the Specialty they were created with: d6 for Expert (d8) Specialties or d8 for Master or above Specialties. Resources represent different kinds of connections with useful people, contacts or just a simple preparation work like researching location or background of the enemy.
Resources can also be created on the spot with a PP, while activating an opportunity. they last till the end of the Scene they were created.
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Effects
As you should remember, every Action has an Effect die. And Effect is a trait, created on top of the effect die. Effects come in three forms: assets, stress, and complications.
Stress
Stress is an effect, that is also divided in three types: physical, mental and emotional. Every character has Stress, even if it starts from zero, it's there. Every type is represented by a die, and they all are traits, meaning they can be used in a pool. Stress is used against the character by his opponents, but only one of three (unless PP is used).
Stress is set after first instance of damage and is equal to the effect die. Then it either changes for a new effect die (if its bigger) or just steps up if the effect is less or equal.
The stress is limited by d12, when it is reached, the character is out of scene due to being stressed out until Transition scene or until he receives recovery from the teammate. He also picks up a d6 Trauma, also divided in the same three types, dependent of what type of stress caused it. Trauma also can be used as a Trait, but trauma and stress can't be added together and only the higher one is added. Trauma is increased if the character receives new Stress, while being stressed out. If it reaches d12, character is dead or out of the story in other way.
Stressed out character can be brought back on his feet by a recovery action, performed by his ally. If recovery is successful then character is back in the action still with d12, unless the effect die was also d12 or stepped up higher.
Characters can use their own stress as a trait and add it to the pool. The catch is that it steps up the stress by one. Trauma can't be used like that.
Every Transition Scene stress steps down by one, and goes away completely, if it is d4. But in case of being stressed out all stress is removed, but trauma remains. And if by a chance attacker who stressed you out, decided to not inflict Trauma, you start Transition Scene with d6 Stress instead. To start recovery in Transition, you need to roll against doom pool + stress die. On success, you either remove stress if the effect die is equal or larger, or just step it down. You can't do this all in the middle of Action Scene, but your teammate can try help you. Though, it's a risk, as his failure is going to step your stress up by one.
Trauma also can be recovered, but it takes a lor of time and it steps down by 1 at the start of every Act, and can be lowered further by taking an Action using the same rules as Stress, except failure once again steps Trauma up. The other way is a scenic one if your trauma is valid in action, making things worse for you, you can step it down by 1 at the start of the transition scene by rolling.
Asset
Effect die from the roll can be established as an Asset. Asset is a temporary and situational advantage, created help heroes by being added to their pools. Basically anything can be an Asset: NPCs, objects, weapons, state of mind, knowledge, etc. The minimum die for an asset is d6, so even if you used d4 to create it, you will get d6.
Complication
Complication is an asset in reverse. It is applied to your opponent and can be used in Actions against him, so... opponent's disadvantage. But unlike stress, complications don't lead to Trauma, while still being able to stress out your opponent. Anyone can use the complication, as it is essentially a trait of that opponent, same as stress. And same as stress, complication can be exploited and stepped up for that.
Both assets and complications can be prolonged till the next Action Scene by spending a PP.
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