Back in the Smallville days, I made a handful of con-ready campaign scenarios for Cortex Plus. These were my go-to scenarios that I could break out with zero prep, and I used them as a system introduction for folks who wanted to see what Cortex Plus could do.
The one that got the most play was The Treasure of Hoth, a Star Wars themed adventure. It’s a tight little bottle scenario designed to put a lot of pressure on values and relationships: you know, Smallville fare. Different players went very different directions with these characters, and I got to watch this scenario play out to so many different conclusions that I lost count. It found a special place in my heart, long after I was no longer on the rah-rah cheer squad for the game.
As it is a truism that the first thing any tabletop community will do with a new game system is ask how it can do Star Wars, I found myself referencing the old Plus-era document a lot. “Here’s how I did it back in the day, it’s a little different but you can get the gist.” And eventually I hit the critical threshold where I figured I’d open it back up, dust it off, and update it to Prime.
This is the result. It’s the same tight little bottle scenario, with six pregen characters: Abel the abandoned Jedi Padawan, Balar Kenobi the scoundrel pilot, Crodarra the wookie gangster, Deela Tarkin the untrained force-sensitive, EX-47 the assassin droid, and Falla Vao the Republic diplomat. They’ve all stepped into a Sith trap in the subterranean tunnels of the Hoth colony; they just don’t know it yet.
It’s certainly playable, but it’s also just a nice little package of “how you can do Star Wars” and even “how you can do a one-shot scenario.” Once gaming conventions kick up again, I’m sure to have this ready to go if anybody wants to see how Cortex works.
Let me know what you think!
—Miriam
