Leverage RPG - two quick questions

SammyF

Hey y'all.

So the board game store down the proverbial street from me is having a couple of game designers in to run a session for Leverage: The Roleplaying Game this weekend. The lady who runs the store asked if I'd like one of the seats, and I agreed pretty much entirely on the premise of the show -- I haven't actually sat down and played a roleplaying game in 10 years, but whatev's, it's free, it's something different to do on a Sunday afternoon, and I've always been at least a little bit of a grifter at heart.

So I went to look up a little more background information on it just now, and I notice that it's based on the "Cortex" system, which I gather is substantially different from the traditional D20 systems I've played in the past. So question one: anyone have any experience with Cortex, and how does it play differently from D20?

Additionally, last night my wife asked if she could come play, too. I'm all, like, "gasp!" Her RPG experience consists almost entirely of playing the Fable series on our 360, and her tabletop game experience is limited exclusively to Shadows over Camelot, Trivial Pursuit and Five Card Draw. So I'm trying to think of a good way to help her conceptualize in advance just what she's volunteered herself for so that she's not completely surprised by the amount of nerdiness she may encounter. Question two, therefore, is: if you had a significant other who had never played a tabletop RPG before, what would you want them to know before they sat down for their first session?

OptimusZed

It looks like the Cortex system is the varying die size system that was used for the Serenity RPG. In play, you roll dice of varying size, typically in two-die pools, and compare the result to a set difficulty number. That's the basic gist of the system.

d2 is below average, d12 is crazy high. Attributes and skills get their own dice, and when you make a roll you take the die from the specific attribute that applies, and the skill that applies, and roll them together. Then you add them up and compare to the difficulty.

I've never played it, but it seems like a fairly simple system.

As to your wife; if she's played Fable, she knows at least somewhat what to expect. I would reinforce the idea that tabletop games are much less limiting than videogames in terms of options, but she'll also have less control of the action since there will be several other people there at the same time.

Cam Banks

Hey Sammy,

If it's the event I'm thinking of (Labyrinth Game Shop in DC) at least one of those tables is going to have Rob Donoghue running the game, and he co-wrote the game with Clark Valentine and myself, along with our talented colleagues Ryan Macklin, Fred Hicks, and Matt Forbeck. Leverage uses the Cortex Plus rules, which I based largely on the Classic Cortex rules as seen in Supernatural and Serenity. Cortex Plus is also the underlying rules engine for the Smallville RPG, though our design principles are to make the rules bend toward the license and not the other way around.

So, for Leverage, the rules are designed to let you play a Crew of bad-asses who take on bad guys using criminal methods. You have stats like Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief, and Mastermind, which are like classes and skills rolled into one. The game uses flashbacks, twists, and ever-growing complications that get in your way. It's all about how you react when your plan goes out the window.

Shoot me an email at cam AT margaretweis DOT com and I might be able to hook you up with more info.

Cheers,
Cam
MWP Line Developer

SammyF

Okay, well this thread suddenly got a lot more useful than I was expecting. Sending you an email, Cam.