This post should have been titled: “Cortex’s Contests as Sequential Bayesian Games with Behavioral Strategies.” It was a bit much, so I left the Bayesian part out.
Author: The Polverine
I'm a philosopher, logician, Sherlock Holmes buff, former amateur girevoy sport competitor and on-and-off role-player. I've helped people get stronger since 2011, and better at RPG prep since 2021. Also, I've beaten Acute Myeloid Leukemia twice, and I still look like I lift.
Bronze Rulz!–Create Advantages, Everywhere (Almost)
This post looks at Fate’s Create an Advantage through the lens of other rulesets, then loops back to Fate and the sad condition outnumbered Big-Bads.
Theory Thursday–Success or Failure? Yes
Cortex Prime changes the very concepts of success and failure, there’s a cognitive science theory that can prove it, and a few visuals are all that’s needed to show how.
Bronze Rulz!–Bronze-Plated Crafting, Cortex Style
After trying to hack Fate for crafting and nearly breaking it, I re-evaluated my expectations, and jumped off the Fate hacking ship onto the Cortex lifeboat, with a sketch of a crafting mod, that won’t break anything (hopefully).
Peter’s Principle*–Hum(e)an NPCs
Improvising NPCs with Apocalypse World’s motto—“Name everyone, make everyone human”—David Hume’s philosophy, and Cortex Prime’s ruleset. What could go wrong?
Monkeying Monday–Emergent Gameplay (NPC Edition)
A go-to game design move leverages PC-to-PC backstory for “emergent gameplay,” but there’s a possible alternative based on PC-to-NPC relations that may complement it or suit some players better.
Apocalypse/Cortex–A Conversation
This post explores how Apocalypse World and Cortex disrupt the old “let’s just role-play this!” attitude slightly differently, and how to use these differences to enrich roleplay.
Fate/Cortex–Relationships, Affiliations, and Narrative Support
A Skill-list option from Fate Condensed solves a minor Cortex issue and yields a solid let’s-try-Cortex-out build for Fate folks as a byproduct.
Theory Thursday–Game Theory Storytelling: The Stag Hunt
Game Theory is not really about games, but it’s about interactions and you can mine it for good drama—-here with a game-theory favorite, and it’s not the Prisoner’s Dilemma
Fiddling Friday–Fate Dice, Less (Often)
This post offers guidelines to to get a lot out of the Skill pyramid, the Adjective Ladder, and Fate points, without breaking too much the narrative flow with pesky dice rolls—and call them “Dice-less Rules” because why not. But it’s not a hack. Promise.
The Polverine 