For this second entry I'm going to be examining the character sheets from each of the various Cortex Plus games and giving a summary of the various types of traits that make up each one. I'm hoping this lays a good groundwork for letting you guys understand what I'm talking about when I get to putting together the setting-less character creation systems.
I think one of the coolest things about the Cortex Plus games is that each one has specific traits and abilities that make up their characters that really contribute to reinforcing the feel and theme of the given game; but at the same time these all work very similarly so knowledge of one gives you a big stepping stone for learning the next. So lets jump right in.
First off is Marvel, since I know that one the best. A character sheet in Marvel is composed of the following Traits: Affiliations, Distinctions, Power Sets, and Specialties. Note for those that know Marvel, yes there are also Milestones on the sheet; but since those aren't a Trait I won't be dealing with them in this discussion. Wait till the discussion on Advancement. So what are each of those things?
Affiliations: The Affiliations trait deals with your hero's performance and preference in situations based on how many other heroes are helping him. There are three levels; Solo, Buddy, and Team; or by yourself, with one other hero, or with two or more other heroes respectively. Each hero has a d6, a d8, and a d10 in Affiliations; the lowest going into the one they are least comfortable in and the highest into the most comfortable one. For instance Wolverine gets a d10 Solo, Spiderman gets a d10 Buddy, and most of the Fantastic Four get a d10 Team. This trait fits in very thematically with the superhero genre. It, like many other traits, provides good cues for RP. Also, it gives a little bit of a boost to the Solo guys, who can't give or accept helping dice while Solo, but hey at least they get to use that d10.
Distinctions: The Distinctions trait is very similar to Aspects from FATE for anyone who has experience with that system. For those that don't, Distinctions are short sentences or phrases or even just a few words that articulate and encapsulate something essential about the person and character of your hero. They might be catchphrases or personality descriptions or backgrounds, but what they do is capture the essence of who *insert superhero name here* is. For example, Spiderman has Wisecracker, Iron Man has Billionaire Playboy, and Captain America has Sentinel of Liberty. The best Distinctions (just like the best Aspects) can be taken both negatively and positively depending on the situation, and there are mechanical benefits to using them either way.
Power Sets: These make up the mechanical and physical bulk of the character sheets in Marvel. Each is grouped by a common theme or source of the powers, and is composed of three elements: Powers, SFX, and Limits. The Powers are basically a list of various super-powers that a character has, like Invisibility, Superhuman Strength, Enhanced Senses, Telepathy, Web-Slinging, etc. Each one is assigned a die based on the strength of the power. Its a simple enough way of handling this that you can represent a large amount of different abilities, without a mountain of rules for how each specific one works differently. I like it quite a bit. I have heard some arguments that it doesn't have enough granularity to really represent the differences in powers between different heroes (i.e. one heroes Superhuman Strength d8 functions mechanically exactly like another Telepathy d8) but hey I think it works just fine. I'm totally okay with losing elements of simulation in order to make a smoother running game.
Power Sets also have SFX (Special Effects) and Limits. These have proven to be very thematic and really help to customize the power sets to each of the heroes and make the similar collections of dice feel distinct to each one. A SFX is basically a narrowly focused special circumstance where you can do something extra and cool with a power. Like doing and Area Attack, going Berserk, or Unleashing a big power. Limits are ways for both the GM and the Player to shut down various powers either when its dramatically interesting to do so, or when a player wants to sacrifice one power to help them with another. As I said before, these both really do a great job of playing up the theme of a given hero, but bringing out their signature tricks and their personal flaws.
Specialties: The last Trait type in Marvel is Specialties. These are basically skill sets that are broad in scope and application. They are things like Combat Mastery or Science Expert; which basically denote knowledge, skill, training, and resources in any and all areas of Combat and Science respectively. They fill the same role as the various big skill lists in other RPGs, but do so in a less specific manner that allows them to be more free-form; which I kinda like. I do still love big lone skill lists, and spending mountains of skill points like in D&D; but this captures the essence of that in an easier manner and fits much better into the feel of the Cortex Plus system.
So that finishes up the various Traits in Marvel Heroic RPG, and brings me up to around 900 words. I think I'll cut this post here and I'll tackle the other games in another post or two. I'm less familiar with the other games, by not having played them, so descriptions of the various traits in them will probably be a little less wordy. I don't really want to expound too much on the mechanics behind the Traits in these particular posts; more just the theme and feel of them.
Also, for those folks that I think are reading these, what do you think on the length of the posts so far? Am I rambling to long, should I edit a bit more? Are they good so far? Please let me know if you have feedback on it, I'd love to know so I can improve.
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