Cortex - A Mind-Bending Detective TRPG

Cortex was heavily inspired by one of my favourite games - Disco Elysium. I loved the idea of a set of conflicting voices influencing your character's decisions, resolting in a comical but grounded character that encourages hilarious interactions without sacrificing a serious and grounded plot (unlike games my friends would often run in another system).

You can find the rulebook here and a cheatsheet here, but be warned that this system actively instructs the DM to run off and write an entire mystery while the players finish characater creation. As such, improvisational skills are essential. That said, the ~3 times I've run one shots in this system have all involved getting people to send their potential Skills to a group chat, giving me as the DM several days to write a compelling setting and mystery. So the whole 'write a mystery real quick' thing is hardly essential to the core of the game.

I might eventually write up the one shots I've run in this system (alongside their relevant Skills) in case you wanna use a pregenerated adventure to test the system out. Currently, each adventure has a messy spreadsheet and a bunch of details exclusively available in my mind, so I'll need to spend time properly writing them up.