cortex

(12:24:35) kongurous: The fate fractal lends a ton of simplicity to the design but it also means everything starts looking a bit samey at any particular resolution. Cortex has... crazy-ass bell curves because in a pool you may be rolling anything from a d4 to a d12 (or just d6s or whatever - it depends on the system) but it has other mechanics that mesh well enough with this. Running the game is the same as...
(12:24:36) kongurous: ...playing it, most notably, which excites me as a GM like you wouldn't believe
(12:25:26) Jm2c: huh
(12:25:43) Jm2c: https://www.dropbox.com/s/04o3wy2u07suqc3/%5BVivid-Taku%5D%20Gochuumon%20wa%20Usagi%20Desu%20ka%20-%2008%20%5B66F9F271%5D.mkv_snapshot_07.25_%5B2014.05.31_12.25.00%5D.jpg
(12:25:59) kongurous: Note my experiences with Cortex are just with Marvel so it may be different with Leverage or Smallville or Firefly
(12:26:07) kongurous: chess
(12:26:16) Jm2c: with an angora rabbit
(12:26:18) Jm2c: in the pool
(12:26:29) kongurous: yes
(12:27:04) Jm2c: GURPS is the kind of system that I'd probably really dig my fingers into mechanically, but from what I've seen of it it's... 2simulationist4me, to use an annoying 4chan phrase
(12:27:36) kongurous: GURPS pleases me as a mathematician far beyond anything else, but it is... very much not a light system
(12:27:45) kongurous: I liked making vehicles
(12:29:30) Jm2c: I like heavy mechanics, but excessive amounts of rules that seem to exist purely to simulate some aspect of reality annoy me
(12:34:34) Jm2c: I just heard a Conchita Duck is supposed to appear in a Donald Duck comic
(12:36:28) kongurous: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NxTxpc49Yu25MjKJ5LzNAjV8smp1VP8WXiwSUmNciNo/edit?pli=1 As an example of a Cortex type dice pool, here's GSD's character from my first (and only) Marvel game, the Greek god Erebos. A dice pool in Cortex is composed of dice from one or more box on your character sheet. In Marvel, you have an Affiliation, Distinctions, Power Sets, Specialties, and transient...
(12:36:30) kongurous: ...traits like Assets, Push, Stunts, or Resources. You also add any Complications, Stress, or Trauma dice from your opponent, if applicable, but let's assume they're not applicable for now. So here, if Erebos is alone, he adds his d10 for being Solo. He's in a situation where being a Primeval God aids him, so he adds a d8 from that (or a d4, if it somehow harmed him here). He wants to use...
(12:36:31) kongurous: ...Dark Blasts, so he adds a d10 from that power. Sorcery Mastery here applies since this is pretty obviously a magical attack, too, so he adds a d10 from there. Finally, since this is all an extension of his mystic powers, he throws in Mystic Master for d10. So in all, he's rolling 4d10, 1d8. Pools can be bigger (for example, he could use more than one power and he could use one of his SFX...
(12:36:34) kongurous: ...here - there's no rule limiting how many powers or SFX you can use, as long as the GM's cool with it and it makes sense.) but this is a fair sized pool right here.
(12:37:55) Jm2c: huh
(12:38:36) Jm2c: And how's the result of the pool calculated? Dice pool implies it's not just all added together to me, or is it
(12:38:47) kongurous: Powers, specialties, or SFX add a minimum of d6 to your pool. d4s are there but they're not favorable circumstances. You don't want d4s in your pool. Why? Because 1s are bad. I'll get to that in a sec but for now just imagine 1s being set aside from the pool and not being counted. Let's say he rolls a 9, a 1, a 2, and 7 on the d10s, and 5 on the d8.
(12:40:27) kongurous: Because that 2 came from his God of Darkness power set, it is also set aside along with the 1, leaving us with a 9 and 7 on d10s and a 5 on the d8. The player picks one of these dice to be the Effect Die, and this is what decides the magnitude of your action. A d12 effect is bigger than a d6 effect, but the result of the die doesn't matter, so whatever it rolled doesn't count for your final tally.
(12:42:52) kongurous: After you've set aside your effect die and any 1s (or 2s, here, because of Erebos' limit), you combine the results of the remaining dice and this is how well you did (or didn't do, as the case may be). So here, Erebos weighs his options and figures he can get either a 16 on a d8, or a 13 on a d10. He wants to go hard or go home because he's the creator of the universe, so he picks the 7 and...
(12:42:53) kongurous: ...sets it aside, and his final result is 13.
(12:44:40) Jm2c: I assume we're not done with the effect die yet
(12:45:04) kongurous: Nope. It matters soon but first we need to understand how difficulties work
(12:47:10) kongurous: How are difficulties set? The GM has his own pool called the Doom Pool. The Doom Pool is made up of a certain amount of dice at the beginning of each session (by default it's 2d6 but can be up to 4d10), and it grows over the length of the session. Whenever you roll a 1, the GM can offer you an Opportunity. Basically he takes the die you rolled and adds a d6 to the Doom Pool. In return, he...
(12:47:11) kongurous: ...gives you a Power Point, which is this game's version of hero points/fate points/insert currency here. You can decline the opportunity if you'd like, in which case the dice are just lost to no effect, but there's really no reason not to take them because Power Points are cool.
(12:48:28) Jm2c: I see
(12:48:54) kongurous: The GM rolls the Doom Pool and he picks an effect die, sets aside 1s, and so on, just like the player does. The players can also activate opportunities on the Doom Pool's 1s, which they can use to improve their own pushes, stunts, assets, or create a resource with it. So after all that's done, the player and the GM compare results.
(12:49:39) kongurous: Let's say the GM got a 9 with a d12 effect. He rolled really shittily this time. Because his result is lower than the 13 Erebos got, he lost, even though the effect die is higher.
(12:51:39) kongurous: If the player is rolling against the scenery, the effect die doesn't matter, but usually the player is trying to establish an asset or create a resource or whatever (the definitions of these terms don't really matter for this example, but they're an example of a thing you try to do when you roll dice), then the effect die becomes the strength of the trait created, so an asset made with a d8...
(12:51:40) kongurous: ...effect now adds a d8 asset die to your pool
(12:52:01) kongurous: If you're rolling against an enemy character, the effect die is how much damage you did.
(12:54:28) kongurous: You can have one die of stress for each die size, from d4 up to d12, so here a bad guy would fill in his d10 space. If he takes d10 stress again, it can't fill the d10 spot, so it's bumped up to d12, like a stress box in Fate
(12:55:04) Jm2c: huh
(12:55:32) kongurous: When stress exceeds d12, the character is stressed out, and cannot act until they recover. The attacker can also choose whether he wishes to inflict Trauma as well
(12:56:14) kongurous: Trauma starts at d6 and goes up to d12. When you step up (that is, increase the die face up to the next platonic solid, such as d6 to d8) beyond d12, the target is dead
(12:57:07) kongurous: So beating people is relatively simple. If you're stressed out you can leave the scene, no problem. Killing someone is never an accident, either
(12:57:54) Jm2c: I see
(12:59:14) kongurous: So in short: combat resolution and task resolution use the same mechanic, the GM's opposition pools are built like player pools are, the GM and player get to play off of each others' 1s in the same way, it's a blast.
(13:00:30) kongurous: The GM can do things with his doom pool dice that players can't do with their power points but this is in the name of helping the scene move along in an interesting fashion. Like the GM can spend... I think a d12 to end the scene immediately, regardless of what's happening. If you're about to beat the bad guy, he beats a hasty and convenient retreat and something stops you from chasing him....
(13:00:31) kongurous: ...A d10 lets the GM separate one party member from the others. Etc.
(13:02:01) kongurous: In my second session, the players were deep in the bowels of a prison full of supervillains after the power had gone out and there was a prison riot. They were fighting Carnage, who, if you're not familiar with him, is basically evil super saiyan Spider-Man, and by the time they'd actually reached him, I'd spent my doom pool dry fucking with them
(13:02:21) kongurous: They were so amazingly angry at Carnage by then
(13:03:47) Jm2c: heh
(13:04:26) kongurous: Oh, and when an enemy character is the opposition, you build your pool out of his traits instead of out of the doom pool, for clarification
(13:04:54) kongurous: I imagine it's obvious but... you know.
(13:05:34) Jm2c: I was wondering because there's some systems where the opposition always uses the same roll
(13:06:05) kongurous: Yeah. Doom Pool is scenery/general opposition, fighting Magneto means I need to make a character sheet for Magneto
(13:06:14) kongurous: (or just wing it because why would I prepare)
(13:06:34) Jm2c: ikr