We’re designing it as an ecosystem by which you add back to it when you make more stuff for it, so long as we’re talking rules and mods and hacks for the rules we’re providing as the basis of the license. In a tweet, the designer highlights the role of the ecosystem. Free Cortex content seems to be banned from being listed on DriveThruRPG or Itch.io.ĭicebreaker has an excellent article on dissent about the license.Ĭortex’s creator, Cam Banks has been busy trying to explain that it all sounds worse than intended.One ruling prohibits content inappropriate for minors which might rule out grimdark games, murderhobo sword-and-sorcery worlds where all goblins are racially evil but is more often used as code for anti-LGBTQ content.Fandom seems to exert ownership of any system, mods and other rules that third parties create and which Fandom later adopt for the Cortex System.Comments on the Kickstarter update that made the announcement are harsh, but seem valid.

In practice, though, creators have found reason to distrust it, and there’s been a large amount of dissent. In theory, the license, which you can find here should enable third-party creators to build and sell games that use Cortex Prime. The Cortex RPG’s creator license launch hasn’t gone well either.

The company, which makes most of its money through fan wikis, and which recently launched a self-service ad network for creators for it, has the technical skills to make the Cortex Creator Studio marketplace happen. Fandom, the company that owns D&D Beyond, and owns Cortex hopes one day to operate the Cortex Creator Studio as a competitor to DriveThruRPG, Itch.io and perhaps also digital toolkits like Demiplane and virtual tabletops.

Cortex prime handbook