The best part about TorchLite is that you can add to it, extend it, patch it, twist it, and mold it into whatever shape you and your table like most. Here’s a number of options for modifying TorchLite to suit your tastes.

The Bane Pool

The bane pool is an optional rule for the GM that replaces difficulty dice and the GM’s pool of Plot Points. Instead, the GM maintains a special, ongoing pool of dice that works a bit like a challenge pool, but representing the overall ebb and flow of trouble and danger across the entire adventure. Usually, when a player rolls a test, the GM rolls the bane pool to oppose. At the opening of a new adventure, the GM establishes the bane pool as a matched pair of two dice. It usually starts each session at d6 d6, but it can be d8 d8 or higher depending on the stakes of the story. Whenever a player roll a hitch, if the GM wants to take advantage of it, the GM gives that player a Ⓟ, then adds d6 to the bane pool. If the player rolled multiple hitches, the GM can step up the new d6 bane die once for each additional hitch beyond the first (d8 for two hitches, d10 for three hitches, or d12 for four). When the GM adds a bane die, they may also describe something that has happened in the scene to make life more complicated for one or more player characters. Whenever the GM would add a new die to the bane pool, they can instead choose to step up an existing bane die. In this variant rule, the GM doesn’t track their own pool of Plot Points. Rather, the GM can spend bane dice like plot points, obtaining the same benefits for their GMCs that a player gets for spending Ⓟ for their PC. Whenever the rules say the GM would gain a Ⓟ (such as by activating a limit for a GMC), they gain a d6 bane die instead. Also, when the GM buys a hitch, instead of adding a die to the bane pool, they can instead choose to give the PC a complication with a die rating equal to the die that rolled the hitch. There are other ways to spend bane dice, in addition to substituting them for Ⓟ. The following special GM options are available, with each usually requiring a bane die of a particular size: To introduce a new GMC to a scene mid-conflict: Spend a bane die equal to the new GMC’s highest trait To interrupt the action order: Spend a die equal to or larger than the Agility die or Scout die (whichever is higher) of the character you’re interrupting, or spend any bane die if the interrupting GMC has an equal or greater Agility die or Scout die. To split the PC group: Spend a d10 or larger bane die to announce a sudden event that divides the party (such as a sudden cave-in, a crack opening in the earth, the activation of a hidden rune that creates a wall of fire, etc.) To immediately end the current scene in a dramatic way: Spend d12 d12 bane dice.

Setting Definition

Whether you are gaming in your own original setting—which you might expand or refine over the course of the game—or using an existing fantasy backdrop such as Earthsea, Westeros, Middle Earth, the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, or the Forgotten Realms, you can use the Setting Definition system presented here to get the whole group engaged with the world. Across three phases, all players collaborate to define elements of the setting. For an original world, this is an exercise in creative world-building; for an existing one, you’re recalling favorite details and emphasizing the ones you liked most. The latter can be just as usefulas the form, allowing your group to rediscover, reinterpret, and even simplify a world you have experience with, making it your own. This system is best deployed before character creation. Whenever an element is defined, write its name down on a 3x5 card (or a virtual equivalent).

Phase One

All players (including the GM) collaborate to define two setting elements: one Age, and one event.

The First Age

An Age is one of a handful of eras into which sages have divided the world’s history. Collaborate to define the first Age, an Age of myth and legend, and name it (“The Age of Myth”, “The Dawn Age”, “The First Age”, etc.), then define a supernatural event that was part of the creation of the world. This Age is not the current Age— that is a period you will define later.

An Ill Omen

This element is an event, a significant occurrence in your setting’s history. In this case, it is a recent event, something that has happened within the PCs’ lifetimes. Some force of darkness, domination, or destruction—perhaps ancient but previously dormant or working in hiding—has recently manifested or escalated, positioning itself (at least to those in the know) as a threat to the entire world. In fact, it is the greatest danger the world has faced in the current age, and it is a source of fear to many. However, at this stage you don’t need to fully define the darkness itself. Just describe how this event raised the stakes, and then give the looming threat a name (even a vague one) used by those who know of it. You should also decide as a group how well-known the threat is, whether the general public believes in it, and how long ago the event happened. This Ill Omen event is an event that inspires fear. For every other event you create during this phase and the next one, specify whether that event is generally a source of fear or a source of hope. A compelling setting history will include both kinds of events. These are the only two setting elements you determine collaboratively as a group. After this, further elements are each defined by individual players.

Phase Two

The GM picks another player to go first. Once a player takes a turn, they choose who goes next. Each player can only take one turn per round, and the GM must go last. After the GM takes a turn, they choose which player goes first the following round. On your turn, you do two things: First, you define a connection between two existing elements. (So the first player will narrate how the recent Ill Omen event connects to the first Age.) Record this connection the same way you record elements. Second, you define your own new element. The type of element you define is determined using the element types list below. You can either choose the type of element you wish to define or roll a d12 to determine it randomly.

Element Types List

1. An Age that is not the current Age
2. A culture (human or otherwise)
3. An event that created great hope or fear
4. An important object
5. An influential organization or faction
6. A leader who changed history
7. A legendary dynasty or lineage
8. A motivating belief system or ideal
9. A noteworthy creature
10. A precious resource
11. A significant settlement
12. A unique landmark (or series of them)

New elements can redefine previous ones, but not in ways that erase them. For example, one player might define a culture as an empire which conquers and unites the world, and another player might define a later event wherein that empire has since broken up into several smaller states. The rule is, an element remains part of the setting’s story, even if it is no longer intact in the current era. Keep taking turns until all of the following are true: ▶ Every player (including the GM) has defined at least two elements
▶ At least one new Age (besides the first Age or the current Age) has been defined
▶ At least one new event (besides the Ill Omen) has been defined
▶ At least two new cultures have been defined
▶ Every player is comfortable having their character come from one or more of the defined cultures
▶ At least ten total elements have been defined (including the first Age and the Ill Omen event)

Phase Three

During this phase, the GM defines two final elements, and then each player guides how the setting will be featured in your game.

The Current Age

Similarly to how the group defined the first Age, the GM defines the most recent Age, the one in which the game takes place. They name this Age, and define one major difference that sets it apart from previous ones. The GM then names and describes a new character, an analog GMC who is important to the PCs’ activities in this age. Once this is done, the GM selects a player to take the first turn defining the featured elements.

Featured Elements

On each player’s turn, they choose one element to be featured, then choose another player besides the GM to go next. Featured elements are those elements that the players are most excited to interact with during play, and they should be included—or at least alluded to—in the first session. Once every other player has chosen a featured element, the GM chooses one as well. Mark each featured element with an asterisk or other symbol.

Completion

After all three phases, you have a new (or reborn) fantasy world for your game. You are ready to create characters and then begin play.

Player Character Drives

The drive traits described for GMCs also work well for player characters. Using them as a trait for PCs focuses the game more on who they are and what they are willing to sacrifice for, going beyond what they’re good at and how they handle danger. However, since the PCs are the center of the game, their drives need to be a bit deeper than the goals that make a monster interesting in a fight. When we give a player character drives, we define the major needs, desires, or social roles that motivate PCs to leave behind safety and comfort for the dangers and hardships of adventure. There are two ways to add drives to a TorchLite player character. The easiest way is to simply make them a pair of free extra signature assets for each character. However, for a game that seeks to emphasize these internal motivations even more, drives can also be their own separate trait set. Either way, when a drive fuels a character’s actions, the player can include it in their dice pool. Most drives are written as a phrase that states one of the character’s deepest motives, such as Drive: Avenge Our Family’s Downfall, Drive: Earn the Paladin’s Respect, Drive: Prove Mom was Wrong About Me, Drive: Never Let Anyone Manipulate Me Again, etc. A drive is an internal goal, more emotional than concrete, and they are always spurs to action, not mere opinions. "Good triumphs over evil" is a fine notion for a character to have, but it isn't a drive. To work for the game, it would need to be something like Drive: Align with the Forces of Good or Drive: Defeat Evil at All Costs. It must be something so large and personally meaningful that accomplishing it could require several sessions or even an entire campaign.

Drives in Conflict

When using drives, every character should have a pair that strongly contradict each other. Like the protagonists of popular dramatic stories throughout history—from Othello to Rhaenyra Targaryen—each PC is torn between two paths, and it seems impossible to follow both. For example, your character might have the following two drives: Drive: Show Everyone They Were Wrong About Me and Drive: Live Free from Others’ Expectations. Those drives present two needs that work against each other, but being torn between these two motivations will fuel great stories. In some ways, drives are potential identities for your character as well as goals. If your character were the main character of a TV series, the very last episode would show them finally choosing one of their two conflicting drives. Each of these different roads could lead to your character's destiny. With the help of your GM, make these two drives as clear, simple, and strongly opposed as you can. That makes it easier for you to evoke them during the game. Some players find it easier to make one drive a goal or identity that their character readily admits to themselves or others, while making the other an irresistible need that the character is less eager to dwell on. Others make the first drive more aspirational, whereas the second is grounded in the reality the character lives right now. If you want inspiration when choosing drives for a character, pop culture and literature offer endless examples you can emulate or modify for your own needs. Juliet in Romeo & Juliet has a dramatic conflict between her lifelong loyalty to her family and her sudden love for Romeo. Frodo in The Lord of the Rings is driven by the importance of his mission, but struggles against temptation. Luke Skywalker in Star Wars keeps having to choose between his fierce loyalty to the people he loves and his destiny as a Jedi. In Wakanda Forever, Shuri is torn between clinging to the past and becoming the champion her people need. However you determine these two paired drives, always resist the temptation to make one significantly more positive or attractive than the other; they work best when both are equally compelling, and each exerts a deep influence on your character's actions. Both drives begin play rated at d8.

New and Temporary Drives

In addition to the character’s two core drives, you can spend a Ⓟ at the start of a scene (or during a scene if everyone at the table agrees) to gain a temporary drive at d6. This temporary drive lasts until the end of the session rather than the end of the scene, so this works well for embodying shorter-term adventure goals, like Drive: Rescue the Captured Prince. In fact, the GM can even choose to let PCs gain a temporary drive for free if that drive is directly related to the central quest driving an adventure. Also, at the end of a session, a player can spend 5 XP to add a new permanent drive, rated at d6. This could be converting or rewriting a temporary drive, but it could also be adding an entirely new motivation to a character. Unlike other traits, however, drives cannot have their ratings improved with XP.

How Drives Change

At the end of a session, a player can choose one of their permanent drives and step it up, but when they do so, they must step another permanent drive down. Both drives keep their new rating until the next time the player chooses to adjust their drives in this way at the end of a session. Drives are intended to balance each other out, however, so having one drive that is too much higher than the others causes a serious drawback. While a PC has one drive rated at d12, but no other drives with the same rating, whenever they build a dice pool, the pool’s largest die steps down before they roll. This penalty lasts until the drive is stepped back down or until another drive is also somehow stepped up to d12. Another way a permanent drive can change is by being questioned during play. When this happens, the PC acts against the current drive, rewriting it to suit what they are doing. For example, they might go from Drive: Protect the Wizard at All Costs to Drive: Make the Wizard Pay for Betraying Me. Once a drive is questioned, the die for that drive is tripled the next time it is rolled. After that roll, the questioned drive remains rewritten, but until the end of the session, that drive’s die rating is stepped down, and another drive of the player’s choice is stepped up. At the end of the session, the player decides whether to keep the drive rewritten or return to what it was previously. They also decide whether to keep the stepped down and stepped up drives at their new ratings, or to restore the ratings to what they were. They might step up over time, but a PC’s two core, conflicting drives shouldn’t be permanently rewritten too often. Other drives should generally be more likely to change, while the core two continue to define ongoing story arcs, and if core drives are rewritten, it should be temporary unless there is a dramatic change in the character. If one or both of a PC’s core pair of drives do keep changing over the long-term, that player should have a discussion with the GM and maybe one or more of the other players, so that they can try to come up with a new core dramatic conflict— one that is interesting enough to be sustained for a while—and rewrite the two drives accordingly.

Troupe Characters

One option to vastly extend your TorchLite game is to have each player portray multiple characters in a sprawling cast of allied heroes. Each player controls a collection of characters called a troupe. It is easiest to start with a single character in your troupe, and there is no limit to the number of characters you may add to the troupe.

Playing with Troupe Characters

Each session, you play one of the characters in your troupe. Your other characters do not appear in the story. Sometimes this requires a little creative justification (they’re, uh, visiting their mother), but usually doesn’t even need explanation. Any XP you earn while playing any of your characters is added to all of your characters at the end of the session. A good way to think of this is that XP is earned by players, not by characters. At the end of each session, decide which character you are going to play in the next session. This allows the GM to tailor the upcoming adventure to your character’s abilities and backstory.

New Troupe Characters

Add new characters to your troupe between sessions. These can be entirely new people, relations of established characters, or even characters who you’ve encountered or rescued in play. You can even create as playable characters the antagonists that you’ve faced off with before—just check with your GM that you’re not derailing any of their carefully-laid plans. Create a character as normal. You may then spend XP to add traits, step up existing traits, or add SFX. Just like all your other characters, their spent XP cannot exceed your earned XP. It costs nothing to add a character to your troupe.

Retiring Characters

Sometimes a hero’s story comes to a conclusion and the character is just… done. Perhaps they defeated their nemesis, saved their village, or found the lost cure for their brother’s debilitating disease. You could keep playing them, but it would feel forced and weird and honestly it just doesn’t sound like much fun. It’s time to retire them. When you retire a character, take a few moments at the end of their final session to collaborate with the table on what happens to the retired character. Figure out what their post-adventuring life looks like. Perhaps they accept a noble title and start managing a fiefdom. Perhaps they establish a hospital to care for travelers and the sick. Perhaps they execute a bloody takeover of the local thieves’ guild. A retired character is taken out of your troupe and given to the GM to use as an occasional GMC. This move requires a lot of trust, and GMs should be very careful to portray the character as content and generally helpful, but no longer able or willing to adventure. Seeing an old PC turned into a villain or even an antagonistic ally can be disappointing or even upsetting. They are supposed to be enjoying a well-earned retirement, after all! The other characters in your troupe (or even the other players’ characters) might form relationships with the retired character as a mentor. New characters added to the game may start play as the retired character’s apprentices, disciples, former retainers, or even children.

Dynamic Initiative

In this variant rule, when a new action order begins, every player rolls a test to see who is able to act first. The player with the highest total becomes the first in the action order. However, everyone who rolled records their effect die, writing the total down as their "Interrupt" die and keeping it displayed for the rest of the scene. ("Interrupt d8", "Interrupt d10", etc.). At any time, when someone else is about to take a turn, you can expend your Interrupt to go before they do. However, if the player you are interrupting still has their own interrupt, they can expend it in response to take their turn normally, as long as their die rating equals or exceeds your own. Once a player expends their interrupt, it's gone. They don’t get a new one until a new action order begins. The GM doesn’t roll at the start of the action order unless they really want a particular GMC to act first. Instead, when the GM wants to interrupt a PC, they can give that PC a Ⓟ to immediately create a new interrupt die for themself and expend. This interrupt die is a d8, unless they give the PC extra Ⓟ to create a higher one: ⓅⓅ gets them a d10, and ⓅⓅⓅ gets a d12. Otherwise, the GM spends the interrupt die normally just as the other players would. The GM can have each GMC interrupt in this way once per scene.

Example

Jeremy, Lynn, and Miriam are starting a new round of action order against a mob and a boss, so they each roll a simple test. Jeremy scores a 14 total with d10 effect. Lynn scores a 13 total with d4 effect. Miriam scores a 9 total with d8 effect. The GM does not roll for either the mob or the boss. As Jeremy prepares to take his turn, Lynn declares he wants to interrupt. He only has a d4, but Jeremy doesn’t mind going second so he shrugs. Lynn takes his action. After Lynn’s turn, the GM is worried that their dastardly boss will get defeated before it even gets a good action, so she spends ⓅⓅ to interrupt Jeremy. The boss takes its turn, knocking a comely bystander GMC into the river. Miriam is eager to impress the drenched GMC, and spends her d8 interrupt die to go next and save her. This time, however, Jeremy spends his d10 interrupt to keep his place in the action order, so he can get credit for the save. Jeremy takes his turn. Before Miriam can go, the GM gives her a single Ⓟ for the mob’s interrupt. It would have cost two to beat Miriam’s d8, but she’s already spent it. The mob takes its turn. Finally, Miriam takes her turn.

Upsets

This moderately complex mod provides a means to make your action sequences more dynamic, allowing the players and the GM to shift the scene’s foundations and consequences through play. An upset is an attempt to change the details of a scene in ways that cannot be expressed through assets, complications, and stress. You might roll an upset to unmoor a ship and escape boarders on the pier, to calm down an escalating bar brawl, to magnetize the floor and fix metal-shod characters in place, or to put out a towering fire raging all around the characters. Upsets can constrain and compel the actions of other players, but in typical Cortex Lite style: with player buy in and always allowing everyone an out if they’re willing to pay for it with drama.

Rolling an Upset

Any player may roll an upset on their turn. To roll an upset, describe what you’re trying to accomplish, then assemble and roll a dice pool as normal. Select the dice you are using for your total and effect and set them in front of you at the table. (If you’re playing online, make a sticky note or similar.) That’s it! Your total and effect die constitute a looming upset. Your total becomes the difficulty for any other player to roll against to counter your upset to the situation. Your effect die stands as the consequence that any challengers will have to face. While your looming upset is in play, the change to the situation that your character is trying to enact is in progress. You’re turning the capstan wheel to raise the ship’s anchor, you’re making your heartfelt entreaty for combatants to stand down, you’re operating the magnet-floor console, you’re slinging water buckets all over the flaming scene. What you want hasn’t happened yet, but it’s about to. Your turn ends here.

Your Turn Under a Looming Upset

When you take your turn and there’s a looming upset in play, what you choose to do with your turn is also a decision about the looming upset in play. You might spend your turn opposing the looming upset. Or you might let it happen—because you’re more focused on doing something else, or you’re intimidated by that high difficulty number, or maybe you want the looming upset to happen.

Giving In to an Upset

While a looming upset is in play, players may give in to the upset, accepting constraints or compulsions on their actions. Giving in earns you a plot point. Importantly, choosing to do something else on your turn when that doesn’t constrain or compel your actions is not giving in. If someone is trying to de-escalate a rowdy bar and you’re in the corner quietly deciphering en encoded scroll, you’re not giving in. Giving in always involves accepting constraints or compulsions on your actions, which is why it earns you a plot point. Otherwise, you’re just taking your turn. You may give in to any looming upset at the start of your turn. Once you have given in, you may not roll to contest the upset. Not every character in a scene is necessarily eligible to give in. If the upset was to magnetize the floor and to fix in place everyone wearing metal boots, characters who aren’t wearing metal boots can’t give in. That upset isn’t aimed at them, and it makes no sense for them to buy into those constraints. If you give in, you may immediately spend the plot point you earn on whatever you are doing with your turn. The constraint or compulsion that you accept as a part of your give are applicable for the rest of the scene. These circumstances may continue or develop in later scenes: if you give in to being magnetized to the floor this scene, the Game Moderator might open the next scene with you still stuck. Depending on how things play out, the next scene might even start with you bound and gagged. Once you give in, you are not without options. You may start a new upset to undermine the constraints or compulsions you gave in to.

Contesting an Upset

While a looming upset is in play, players may use their turn to contest the upset, trying to stop the in-progress change from happening. You may only contest an upset if your character may plausibly take action to stop the impending change. You may try to stop the situation from changing entirely, or you may try to change the situation in a new direction (which is more fun, honestly). To contest an upset, describe what you’re doing, assemble a die pool, and roll it. If your total beats the looming upset’s difficulty, the looming upset is removed from play. Your total and effect become a new looming upset. While your looming upset is in play, you are engaged in stopping the prior upset from happening: struggling with the anchor capstan, shouting down the heartfelt entreaty, counterspelling the magnet-floor enchantment to prevent its activation, knocking over people in the fire bucket brigade. Your new looming upset works like any other looming upset. Other players may earn a plot point by giving in and accepting your upset’s constraints or compulsions. The player whose upset you beat may give in to accept that their change to the situation will not happen in the current scene. Players who gave in to the removed upset follow the fiction. If it makes sense in the scene, they continue to be constrained or compelled. If the new looming upset wins out, the players may choose how its resolution impacts them. If you contest an upset and fail to beat the difficulty, you take a complication equal to the looming effect die. If your effect die is larger than the looming effect die, step down the effect die before taking the complication. The looming upset’s player decides the nature of the complication, but may take suggestions. You may contest multiple upsets at the same time, if this makes sense in the scene. Describe how you make that happen, and be sure to say which upsets you are contesting. You must beat the highest difficulty and assign a different effect die to each upset. If you succeed, all the upsets are removed from play, replaced with your total and the smallest effect die you assigned. If you fail, you suffer a complication from each looming upset.

Upsetting the Situation

If you start your turn and your upset is still looming, its resolution is imminent. Any player who hasn’t yet taken a turn under your looming upset may take their turn before yours to contest your upset or give in. If your looming upset still stands, whatever you’re trying to do comes to pass at the top of your turn. A resolved looming upset changes the circumstances in the scene—the ship comes unmoored and cuts off your pursuers, the combatants stand down, the floors are magnetized, everybody and everything in the scene is now wet (but not on fire). An upset never inflicts complications on characters, but it can remove characters from the scene. Any players who contested the upset, failed, and scored a complication for their trouble may describe where they end up in the aftermath. They might be on the pier or on the unmoored ship, they might be the only combatant still fighting, they might lift their boots off the grating just in time, they might be the only dry person in the room. The resolution of a looming upset does not take up your turn. You get to take some other action as your turn, or start another upset.

Upsetting Interactions

Upsets are a powerful and flexible tool, and they work with most other TorchLite rules. Spend plot points to add additional dice to your total as contests boost the difficulty ever higher. Additional effect dice can create assets, inflict complications, or recover complications. Heroic successes step up an upset’s effect die. Upsets can be used to disable scene distinctions like Towering Inferno.

Modifying TorchLite

TorchLite is designed to be modified, even beyond the extra options provided in this section. Its components are loosely integrated and can be removed, replaced, and extended with relative ease. The Cortex Prime Game Handbook provides a wealth of options. Don’t like attributes? Really want values to be involved? Have you never quite gotten over FASERIP? Just swap out trait sets or add new ones to your sheets. If you’re really ambitious you can build out whole power sets for esoteric training, magical items, or strange heritages. The only wrinkle here is making sure that SFX do not refer to traits that have been swapped out.When an SFX references such a trait, just replace it with an appropriate trait in the new set. Milestones and XP advancement can be replaced with any other advancement mechanic. Want to add a sense of momentum to your adventures? Want a little more back-and-forth in your duels or debates? Additional mods from the Handbook can be added directly to TorchLite. Rules like Hero Dice, and Contests require no tweaking to make fit. SFX can be rewritten to take added mechanics into account, but it’s not a prerequisite. With enough mods, you might ask if you’re really playing TorchLite any longer, but it’s not a terribly important question. What matters is if you and your friends are having fun. There are even other games out there that you can… uh… borrow? Import? Or heck, just plain steal some or all of their mechanics for your own game.

The Arcanist’s Toolkit

TorchLite has a tremendously robust magic system. The SFX available within the various professions of this book will get you far – but where do you turn if you want to go further? The Arcanist’s Toolkit offers seven different magic systems, each of which evokes a different tone or play style. There’s the studious creativity of spells alongside the grim horror of dolormancy, the magic of pain. The grounding mod allows you to balance risk and reward, and could be perfect for a chaos mage. A hexknight would delight at the possibilities of augmentation, while any character of any kind can get involved with the fun of rituals. You can even create brand new peoples or professions with exclusive access to some of these mods – a Dolormancer profession, perhaps, or an Elementalist using the spheres mod. The Arcanist’s Toolkit isn’t intended to be used all at the same time – all seven mods in one game would be absolute chaos! But by using the existing framework provided to you by TorchLite, you can personalize evocative systems of magic that your players will love. Find The Arcanist’s Toolkit on itch.io

Keystone Fantasy’s Bestiary and Emporium

These supplements provide plug-and-play rules for fantastic animals and fantastic props. While they were developed for the larger Keystone Fantasy Roleplaying system (also compatible with Cortex Lite and Cortex Prime), they can be used with TorchLite with little to no modification. The Bestiary of the Speaking Lands details a simple method of combining a library of animalistic distinctions and SFX to create animals both mundane and mythical. These beasts can be dropped directly into TorchLite adventure prep with no modification. The library of distinctions and SFX can also be modified to use with player characters, especially the feral ones. The Emporium of the Speaking Lands offers elaborate rules support for “cool stuff” that one might find in epic fantasy adventures. The rules cover everything from specialty weaponry to magical devices to singing swords. Most of this is performed by an eminently stealable library of more than 100 SFX, but the book also includes extended rules for crafts, loot, and wealth. Visit Keystone for more.

Manual of Monsters, Minions & Mountebanks

This compendium was designed directly for use with TorchLite. It takes the over 300 monsters from Dungeons & Dragons 5e SRD and presents them as driven challenges, complete with signature assets and SFX. While the templates can be used right off the page, they can also be whittled down, substituted, or added to as befits your needs. They serve as direct conversion examples for taking 5e content and liting it up with your torch. Available on itch.io

Drintera

This ambitious worldbuilding project has brought together a diverse team of writers, artists, and editors. Together they are creating a unique fantasy world built on the design principles of multicultural roots, heroic mythology, and deep lore. Drintera is a canvas for creativity for young and mature players alike. As a system-agnostic setting, Drintera has no rules to weave into TorchLite. Instead it offers a fresh and vibrant world full of exciting possibilities. Your game can visit the stolid feudal peoples of Neire,the sophisticated cultures to Mor Thia, and indulge in exciting swashbuckling through the Sundered Isles, or go even further afield. Find more details, including back issues of the magazine, at Drinterra or check out their patreon

Transferring Characters to Another Game

Wanting to see what else Cortex has to offer but not wanting to build out the pieces yourself? Looking for other examples to draw inspiration from? Explore more in two other published Cortex fantasy settings, Tales of Xadia and Keystone Fantasy.

Converting your Characters

It is a simple process to convert TorchLite characters to other games that are also compatible with Cortex Prime. You will almost always keep your distinctions, specialties, and signature assets intact and unchanged. Other trait sets are exercises in mapping. Connect each remaining TorchLite trait to another in the corresponding game. Your Brawn d8 might become Strength d8, for instance. If the new game uses a trait that doesn’t have a similar TorchLite trait, start it at d6. If the new game doesn’t have any trait that maps to a TorchLite trait, the TorchLite trait can become a specialty or signature asset, or can be worked into the name of an existing distinction. SFX can sometimes be transferred with no changes, while some may require editing. Traits referenced within SFX can be remapped in the same way as trait sets: “step up Brawn” just becomes “step up Strength.” If no amount of remapping works, you can simply replace the SFX with a more appropriate one from the new game. ...or Start Fresh! If this process sounds cumbersome, you can always start fresh. You can recreate the same character using the new game’s character creation rules, or you can step into the new world with a new character.

Tales of Xadia

Set in the world of Netflix’s The Dragon Prince, Tales of Xadia (ToX) offers an excellent take on modern fantasy gaming. The game focuses on plucky protagonists confronting large-scale themes through small-scale situations. And don’t let the source material being a kid’s show fool you: it’s perfectly capable of supporting serious, dramatic, and adult play, as well. ToX leaves behind roles in place of values with statements. This shifts the game’s focus from what the characters are doing to why they are doing it. Characters will question their values, pushing themselves to find what they truly stand for. Woven in with values are goals which earn you growth dice replacing milestones and XP. For the GM, ToX introduces catalysts. These provocative GMCs wedge themselves into the PCs world, promising to become hardened allies or treacherous villains. PCs can influence catalyst development through interaction and Cortex’s other central resolution method - contests. Whole party conflict resolution remains familiar utilizing challenges as a consolidation of crises, mobs, and bosses rolled into one. These elements come together to foster a more roleplay forward table experience than TorchLite’s more adventure centric design. Visit Tales of Xadia for more.

Keystone Fantasy

Colorful, rangy fantasy epics that inexorably descend into labyrinthine character and setting backstory is the goal of Keystone Fantasy Roleplaying. Depending on table preferences, Keystone can produce play ranging from the best long-running TTRPG streamer sagas to the kind of beloved, fantasy schlock that Hollywood churned out in the 80s. Keystone uses half as many attributes than TorchLite, but you can combine pairs of TorchLite attributes to map them to Keystone. Agility and Brawn make Physical; Alertness and Brains make Mental. Use the higher of each pair for the new attribute. Or ditch attributes entirely and create Values. Instead of TorchLite’s five roles, Keystone uses 19 skills. Map each role to two skills. TorchLite specialties may map directly to skills or become new signature assets. Visit Keystone for more.

Random Characters

You can quickly generate one or more character elements, or even the entire character, by using the directions in this section. The GM can use this for GMCs, either during prep or to roll up quick incidental characters. Even players can use this, combined with Quick Character Creation, to create randomized characters: just do the steps and name the resulting adventurer, ready for play.

People

First roll a d12 and find the row for the resulting number. Then roll a d8 and find the column for that result. Your random people result is where the row meets the column. *On a roll of "Multiple", the character has significant ancestry from at least two peoples. Roll twice on this table (ignoring repeat results) to determine their two main ancestries, then consult Customizing Your People. ** For a cambion, determine their descent by consulting the Cambion Ancestry Table below. First roll a d8 and find the row for the resulting number. Then roll a d8 and find the column for that result. Your random ancestry result is where the row meets the column.

Profession

First roll a d8 and find the row for the resulting number. Then roll a d6 and find the column for that result. Your random profession result is where the row meets the column. *On a roll of “Dual,” the character has practiced some combination of two professions, so roll twice on this table (ignoring repeat results) to determine two professions, then consult Multi-Profession Characters on page 30.

Persona

First roll a d8 and find the row for the resulting number. Then roll a d6 and find the column for that result. Your random persona result is where the row meets the column. You could call the d6 the law-abiding die and the d8 the evil die, but that’s sort of judgemental, don’t you think?

About the Designers

Jeremy Forbing is a neurodivergent writer and former Shakespearean actor who lives in L.A. with his wife Celine and their sons, Isaac and Owen. He’s a Mithral-bestselling author of D&D stuff on DMsGuild.com, where his creations range from the Masque of the Red Death Player's Guide and The Blackstaff's Book of 1000 Spells to the Ravenloft Archetypes series of player options (which Critical Role creator Matt Mercer praised as “Well thought out, well presented, and a fantastic supplement to any campaign”). Find him on your favorite struggling social media platform @JeremyForbing. Lynn Jones pens collaborative world games and related content in the stolen hours when he isn't raising his two sons, day jobbing in corporate software, or spending time with his wife. He cut teeth on White Wolf games and enjoyed a 4th edition D&D stint before a decade of fantasy LARPing took him away from the table and into the woods. He's returning to his roots and exploring new and old indie games. His website is ljrstudiosouth.itch.io Miriam Robern has been designing games for entirely too long and really should give it a rest. She enjoys games that tell stories, grapple with complex social conflicts, and prominently feature girls kissing. Miriam lives in Winnipeg with her wife and two kids and her wife and two kids’ two ridiculous dogs. Her website is miriamrobern.com.