Exclusive Interview with Cam Banks on the New Cortex Community License

It was announced last week that Cortex Prime will have a Community License arriving this month. This is huge news for those of us who are big fans of the system Cam Banks has created.

What’s that? Did I say Cam Banks, award-winning RPG designer, developer, and producer? Writer on multiple Dragonlance titles, and lead designer of Marvel Heroic, Sentinels Comics, Firefly, Leverage, Cortex Plus, and most especially Cortex Prime? I did! And I have an exclusive interview with him today to talk about the Cortex Prime community license coming soon.

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What can creators actually do under this new license once it opens in May?

Once the license opens, creators who sign an agreement with Rusty Sellsword Design will be able to publish their own Cortex content—digitally or in print—including complete standalone games. Whether you’ve got a supplement, a hack, or a full game you’ve been sitting on, this license covers it.

The announcement mentions both community and commercial projects. How should creators understand the difference between those two paths?

Community projects are for creators who just want to make and share stuff without any commercial component—no money changes hands, no agreement required. We encourage those creators to use the Cortex Codex as a rules baseline, but that’s it. If you want to sell your work, that’s when you sign a licensing agreement with Rusty Sellsword Design, which comes with more structure around how Cortex is used and credited.

The release says only the largest and most successful commercial projects will have royalty obligations. Can you talk about the thinking behind keeping the license friendly to smaller independent creators?

Royalty tracking is a pain when you’re a small creator who isn’t expecting to make much. We didn’t want that administrative burden to be a reason someone doesn’t bother. So the thinking was: keep all of what you make until your operation grows to a point where a royalty arrangement makes sense. We want people making Cortex stuff, and nickel-and-diming small creators isn’t the way to make that happen.

Why DriveThruRPG as the digital distribution home for this initiative?

DriveThruRPG is the biggest platform for digital tabletop content, so it’s a natural fit. That said, selling there isn’t a requirement of the license—it’s more of a suggestion. It’s where Rusty Sellsword Design is selling its own Cortex material, so keeping the community close to that makes sense.

What does “primed by Cortex” mean in practical terms? Is it a branding mark, a design philosophy, a licensing category, or all of the above?

All of the above, honestly. It’s just our way of saying this product uses Cortex, and that it’s the genuine article. Branding, design signal, licensing category—it’s all of those things, but mostly it’s a mark that means something.

Will creators be able to publish complete standalone Cortex-powered games, or is the license more focused on supplements, hacks, and setting material?

Complete standalone games are absolutely on the table, and honestly that’s what I’m most looking forward to seeing. Supplements, hacks, and setting material are all great, but Cortex needs more full games in the world.

Are there content restrictions or quality standards creators should expect before they begin designing?

The agreement has a line about not publishing anything harmful or illegal—we’re talking about content that wouldn’t pass muster on DriveThruRPG anyway. Mature themes and content are fine. What we don’t want is Cortex branding attached to genuinely bad stuff. The other big one: if you don’t own the IP, don’t use it. That means no commercial publishing of your favorite TV show conversion or media adaptation. Those projects are fine for personal use, but you can’t sell them.

Will the licensing agreement include templates, logos, SRD-style text, or creator-facing guidance?

Logos and other useful elements are part of what you get when you sign on. The SRD equivalent here is the Cortex Codex—the encyclopedic rules collection that came out alongside the Cortex Prime Game Handbook. Creators can use and remix text from the Codex where they need to, though the expectation is that most of what you’re publishing is your own writing.

For someone who has been sitting on a Cortex hack for years, what should they be doing right now to get ready?

Figure out what you want to publish and put together a pitch or proposal so you’re ready to apply for a license. Know what your product is—who it’s for, what it does, what makes it yours. If it’s still a rough draft, don’t worry about signing anything yet. You don’t need to be in the system until you’re ready to start serious commercial development.

You’ve been tied to Cortex through multiple eras: Margaret Weis Productions, Magic Vacuum, Fandom, and now this partnership with Dire Wolf. What does it feel like to be in this position again?

It feels pretty good. There’s no shortage of projects I could get started on, which is a little overwhelming right now—but it’s the good kind.

The announcement says Rusty Sellsword will be making additional Cortex Prime content available on DriveThruRPG. Can you tease what kind of material that might include?

There’s material that’s never been available for sale that a lot of people have been asking about—that’s the first priority. After that, the goal is something new every month and a full product every quarter. We’ll see how that goes.

Do you see this as a continuation of the original Cortex Prime vision, or a new chapter for the game?

Both, really. This is a continuation of the original promise of Cortex Prime—what it was always supposed to be able to do for creators. I’m glad to see it finally taking shape.

Cortex has always attracted tinkerers. How do you support that creativity while still keeping the system recognizable as Cortex?

You can usually tell when it’s Cortex under the hood. There are things that ring true across the board—sometimes it’s a style or approach, sometimes it’s specific mechanics that most Cortex Prime games share. I don’t think tinkering threatens that. If anything, I want creators adding to the wider toolkit by coming up with new solves for design problems.

Cortex Prime is often described as a toolkit rather than a single fixed game. Does that make community licensing easier or harder?

I don’t think it affects the licensing side either way. It drives people toward creating settings, worlds, and characters—things the toolkit doesn’t provide. It also means that when someone makes a Cortex game, they’re not just remixing rules, they’re giving the system a context it didn’t have before.

What makes a game feel meaningfully “Cortex” to you?

Dice and labels, first of all. An emphasis on rolling out in the open, where everyone can see what’s happening. Player-facing drawbacks and flaws. Real player autonomy. Simple arithmetic—usually just addition. Trait sets that reflect what the game is about. And a plot point economy that keeps moving and stays fun. When those things are present, it feels like Cortex.

Are there parts of Cortex Prime that creators tend to understand immediately, and parts they tend to struggle with?

The struggle I see most is creators wanting to bolt on mechanics from other games before they’ve fully understood how Cortex already works. They want a d20, or Clocks, or inventory tracking. And those things aren’t necessarily wrong, but Cortex is a genre emulator, not a physics engine. When you try to force it to reflect real life rather than genre conventions, it pushes back pretty hard.

Cortex has powered everything from superhero drama to fantasy adventure to relationship-driven stories. What genres do you think are still underexplored with the system?

Generational play is something I keep coming back to—following the descendants of original characters, carrying on a legacy, skipping through time. That feels like a natural fit for Cortex that nobody’s really explored yet. I also want to push into genres people don’t automatically think of when they think tabletop RPGs. Games that feel like The Pitt, or Bridgerton, or Outlander. Less action-adventure, but just as good.

What advice would you give to a designer who wants to make their first Cortex game without overwhelming themselves with every option in the toolbox?

Go with what you know. If you’re comfortable with skills and attributes, use those. If you prefer archetype-style character creation, build that. Use distinctions, tests, contests. Don’t do anything too weird with plot points. Start with a fairly low-lift build and play it. You’ll figure out what’s missing once you’re at the table.

Do you think open and community licenses have become more important to the health of RPG ecosystems?

Vital. As long as people are playing, sharing, and talking about a game, it’s alive—even if it’s been out of print for decades.

For players who already own Cortex Prime, what should they be excited about?

More stuff to use with it. The Game Handbook has Spotlights to show you what the system can do, but Cortex Prime needs actual settings and worlds to really come alive.

For people who bounced off Cortex because it felt too modular or abstract, will this new wave of creator content help them find easier entry points?

Absolutely. This should give us a range of ready-to-go one-shot or limited series games that you can build on or swap out for something else. That’s what Spotlights are—think of them like Daggerheart’s campaign frames or the starter kits other games put out. You pick one up, you play, and if Cortex clicks for you, there’s a whole toolkit waiting underneath.

What do you want the Cortex community to know as this license rolls out?

I never lost faith in Cortex, and I never lost faith in this community. I want more people playing games, having a good time, and then turning around and making more games to share with others.

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Thanks again to Cam for his time and for clarifying so much about the upcoming license! I’ll upload an article once the community license is available, and update this post as well.