Mastodawn

System Hack: Colony Sim Cortex Tech Tree

In RimWorld, the tech tree is the conceit which allows the game to work with its ‘societal drift’ conceit. Tribes of nearly cavemen, “modern” colonies, and ultra-tech feudal lords all coexist thanks to a set of technological ‘research projects’ which separate each colony by level of development. In our System Hack, we’re going to need the same tech tree conceit, but the underlying mechanics are going to be quite a bit different. Before we go any further, I want to make sure you know that Cortex Prime is now available on DriveThruRPG. While digital versions of the game have been available before, you can now finally own a PDF version unfettered by a walled garden app which made the game significantly less accessible. With Cortex Prime finally available in the broader ecosystem, my hope is that there’s much more interest in this and a whole host of other projects using the system. […]

https://cannibalhalflinggaming.com/2026/05/21/system-hack-colony-sim-cortex-tech-tree/

ScottMGS May 14

Woo hoo! Cortex Prime is now available on DriveThruRPG.

The first four spotlights from the Kickstarter are up, too, for less than $5. They show the flexibility of the Cortex Prime system to fit multiple genres.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/567041/cortex-prime-game-handbook-2nd-edition

#CortexPrime

Rascal News [Unofficial]May 4

Cortex Prime’s new stewardship opens up the system

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.rascal.news/cortex-primes-new-stewardship-opens-up-the-system/

Bryan Redeagle

May 2

I'm in the GM part of the Cortex Prime. The author leans in *real* hard into the cinematic metaphor. Every session is broken down into scenes and then beats. Cinema terminology is everywhere.

The suggestions for when to end scenes feels kind of awkward. One suggestion if characters are at a stalemate is to end the scene and start a new one with the same conflict. And that just, doesn't make sense. They even have weird shit like "very special episodes" and sessions that were all a dream.

The Pathways method of character creation seems like a neat idea.

#TTRPG #CortexPrime

Bryan Redeagle

May 1

Got myself a copy of Cortex Prime. I'm pretty excited about the modular system. I've heard good things, and I'm hoping it'll fit some ideas I have while still being approachable.

#TTRPG #CortexPrime #DicePool

Miriam's a Menace Apr 21

well okay, then!

https://news.direwolfdigital.com/cortex-prime-community-licensing/

now to not go absolutely overextended in prepping the dozen or so titles i could feasibly have ready for launch on day one...

#CortexPrime #CortexRPG #CortexPrimeRPG #KeystoneFantasyRoleplaying #TorchLite #RPGs #TTRPGs #RPG #TTRPG

Cortex Prime Community Licensing

Ted B. Falken, tu Asesor Extraño Clifford/🍩⇔☕️/🔻Apr 21

Hilo de análisis de la mecánica de dados del juego de #rol #FabulaUltima, que emplea parejas de dados mezclando distintos tamaños (como #CortexPrime, por ejemplo). // #probabilidad #estocástica #estadística

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:wge2pxx433rrmrhufniwht4i/post/3mjyl4hbioc2r

Rollenspiel Verein Freiburg Apr 17

New post: System: [Backup] Cortex Prime Shuffle [de/en] 115. Rollenspieltreff (18.04.2026)

Spielleitung: Markus https://rollenspiel-verein-freiburg.de/?p=3143 #CortexPrime #freiburg #pnpde #rpg

System: [Backup] Cortex Prime Shuffle [de/en] - Rollenspiel Verein Freiburg

115. Rollenspieltreff (18.04.2026) Spielleitung: Markus maximale Anzahl Spielende: 3 Einsteigendefreundlich? Ja Charaktere vorhanden? Ja Notizen: Cortex Prime Shuffle ist das Hosentaschenformat des Rollenspiels Cortex Prime, das unter anderem im Rollenspiel Der Prinz der Drachen – Tales of Xadia verwendet wird. Wir spielen die Fantasy Edition – Sowohl die Charaktere als auch die Geschichte werden durch das ziehen von Karten und unsere Vorstellungskraft erschaffen. Damit kann fast alles passieren und selbst ich weiß noch nicht was das Schicksal der Karten für...Weiterlesen Weiterlesen

Rollenspiel Verein Freiburg

Cannibal Halfling Gaming Mar 27

System Hack: Colony Sim Cortex Lists part 2

Welcome back to our System Hack! We’ve moved into the detail part of this hack, actually nailing down what everything in the game is and how it works. Now that we’ve nailed down what the skills are, it’s time to talk about Resources and Items, how they’re made, and what they do. Later on this leads us to part 3, where we lock down the tech tree and more specific base stations. After that's all situated, it might be time to prototype this thing as a game. RimWorld does give a guide in terms of what level of simplification we should go for. Resources like ‘compacted steel’ and ‘compacted machinery’ sidestep massive parts of the metal and machining supply chain, and also end up neatly creating resource constraints at different stages of the RimWorld gameplay loop. We’re not necessarily restricted by the same intent with our designs; this game is still an RPG at its heart and things like trading and finding more resources aren’t necessarily constrained to a single map and random events. With no (or at least much less) dead-ending, it’s okay to make the resources palette a bit broader and a bit more interesting. […]

https://cannibalhalflinggaming.com/2026/03/27/system-hack-colony-sim-cortex-lists-part-2/

Cannibal Halfling Gaming Jan 29

System Hack: Colony Sim Cortex Lists part 1

It’s time to move from theory to practice. As we move on to the next stage of this System Hack, I’m going to start taking the elements we discussed in the first set of articles and make them into actual game elements. For today, that means character creation. When we discussed characters for this System Hack, we landed on some pretty straightforward prime sets: Attributes, Skills, and Distinctions. As such, we’re going to lock in our Attributes and Skills. For Distinctions, the number I’d want to write is perhaps a bit high to cover comprehensively in one article, but I am going to lock in what the three Distinctions each character has are, what they do mechanically, and how they’ll be roughly categorized. […]

https://cannibalhalflinggaming.com/2026/01/29/system-hack-colony-sim-cortex-lists-part-1/