When you first try to understand the rules of the cortex, it can seem like a lot to learn or take in. This is especially true if you are more familiar with a system like D&D that primarily use a D20 and then a set of numerical modifiers that you add to a roll of dice on a character sheet. The first difference you'll notice in Cortex is that there is no traditional "character sheet" and thus no modifiers. Of course, I (Aki) have added additional helpful guides and sheets to help you organize and remember the core aspects of your characters.... But there is no standard "character sheet." You as players will be responsible for designing your own character sheets to help you play the game and remember the rules. Meanwhile, all of the data will be available on your character profile here, on the world's Kanka.io database.
So then, if there are no set character sheets or dice modifiers, how the heck do we play this game?!
Honestly, the best place to start is to think of characters and entities in the world as sets of dice known as Dice Pools. A dice pool for instance, could be 2d6, or 3d8, or even 1d4 + 2d8 + 1d10. The first thing that determines something's influence and/or strength in a story is the size and number of dice. This is typically correlated with its narrative importance: Zhongli's legendary sword of smiting could be a 1d4 asset at most if it doesn't matter to the story, yet the random crowbar we found in Albedo's workshop that gives us a clue as to his whereabouts could be a 1d10 asset!
What determines what goes in your "Dice pool" are known as "Traits." Every trait has a type and a one of 6 dice numerical values from this set:{d2,d4,d6,d8,d10,d12}. These traits give narrative importance or weight to characters to make them relevant in any given scene or interaction.For example, an average hilichurl might have the trait: "Spooky Mask" Which has a value rating of d8. This means if the hilichurl needs to roll its dice pool for something, it probably will use this d8 somewhere in that dice pool. Some special traits even have Elemental Types or SFX (Special Effects). This is a bit of a more complicated topic covered in a different entry, basically, elemental-type dice can cause reactions when used in a certain way and SFX are additional rules that break the typical flow of a game.
When you roll a Dice pool, typically you'll have at least three dice. From there, regardless of dice pool size, you select up to two dice to be your Value Dice and one dice to be your Effect Dice. These two dice are summed to produce a total value against whatever you are contesting. Your Effect dice is used to determine how strong your effect will be if you succeed or the consequences if you fail. These dice have to be selected before you compare dice with another player, NPC, or contest value. An important thing to note is that the VALUE of your effect dice. does not matter, ONLY THE SIZE of the dice matters. So if you rolled a d12 and got a value of "3," you should consider choosing your d12 as the effect dice. This is because if you "win" the roll, your effect dice will be a Massive D12 effect regardless of what it rolled since it only depends on size. If you roll a "1" on any dice, this is called a hitch and that dice cannot be used as an effect dice nor one of the two selected value dice.
The common types of traits you will see in Major NPCs & PCs are Distinctions, Attributes, Talents, Weapons, Artifacts, Assets, and Temporary Assets.
Your "Prime Set" are Traits that you will usually always roll one dice from. These are the Prime Set traits in this game:
1. Distinctions are what make your characters unique and help explain your backstory. These are all typically D8 values. Think like constellation, element, affiliations, etc.
2. Attributes include ATK, DEF, HP, and EM. These are core stats that will be used depending on the type of roll you need to make with your dice pool.
3. Talents: these are things like elemental skills or unique passive abilities that help you solve puzzles in the open world or apply elemental effect damage.
The rest of your traits can be situational. If you are not sure if you are allowed to roll something in your dice pool or how something applies please make sure to ask the GM first!