RULES
battlefield role (including an applicable specialty),
INTRODUCTION
This is an idea that originated from a random
comment on Reddit – that folks were playing a mecha
game using Fate Accelerated for social interactions, but
D&D 4e for tactical combat. This was nothing short of
brilliant, but I realized something similar could be
done, using a unified system.
If you are familiar with the earlier Cortex Plus
games, you’ll see and appreciate the similarity this
game has with both Smallville and Marvel Heroic
Roleplay. coreTEK combines two explicitly different
styles of play into a single game. These stark scene
shifts between dramatic personal interaction and epic
fight sequences are played out consistently in the
inspiration material (Gundam, Voltron, Pacific Rim,
Evangelion, Escaflowne, Bubblegum Crisis, etc).
To play coreTEK, you’ll need the Cortex Prime
Game Handbook by Fandom Tabletop.
Blank Character Sheet • Discord Server
TRAIT SETS
coreTEK uses a different group of prime sets for
each play mode. No matter what, your character will
be able to include a distinction, at d8 or d4 + pp.
While interacting in story mode, using their force
of personality, conviction, and connections, your
character will also use a value and a relationship.
Prime sets during battle mode include a
and up to one power trait from each equipped TEK
component.
Optional trait sets in both modes include (when
applicable) signature assets, scene assets, and your
opponent’s stress and complications.
DISTINCTIONS
Each of your three distinctions has a specific
focus. One leans positive, one leans negative, and you
can make what you want of the third.
⬢ What sets you apart as a TEK pilot?
⬢ What kind of trouble always finds you?
⬢ What made you who you are?
VALUES
There are six values that guide your character’s
path. Each has a trait statement, which can in the
course of play be challenged.
⬢ Ambition
Where do you see yourself in five years?
General? Top gun? Retired on a farm?
⬢ Duty
Who holds your reins?
What does it take to maintain your loyalty?
⬢ Hope
What keeps you coming back day after day?
What makes everything worth it?
⬢ Individuality
When jacked into your TEK, are you still you?
How tightly-knit is your team?
⬢ Peace
Do you fight so others don’t have to?
What will you do when and if the fighting ends?
⬢ Sacrifice
What are you giving up to do this?
What is worth risking your life for?
RELATIONSHIPS
In pathways, you’ll build relationships with your
team members, GMCs important to you, and factions
in your game world. While factions are a general
catch-all for interacting with folks you don’t already
have a trait for, if you do you’ll use their trait rating
instead of any faction they belong to.
Relationships also have trait statements, and
these can also be challenged.
BATTLEFIELD ROLES
There are five roles which define your
performance in the field, no matter the capabilities of
your equipped mech frame or specialty modules.
Each can also have d6 specialties attached.
⬢ Assist
How well do you support and help others?
ex: Repair, Distraction, Augment
⬢ Blitz
How much damage and destruction do you reap?
ex: Melee, Surface-to-Air, Environmental
⬢ Command
Can you lead? Make snap decisions in the field?
ex: Speeches, Intimidation, Subterfuge
⬢ Guard
How’s your defense? Can you handle your armor?
ex: Rescue, Deflect, Dodge
⬢ Hustle
Do you have fast reactions? See the best paths?
ex: Pilot, Urban, Interstellar
TEK COMPONENTS
Outside of your actual character (so these are not
influenced by pathways), these are power sets, each
with a number of power traits, at least one SFX, and
at least one Limit.
Your TEK components are interchangeable – they
can be chosen in preparation for a battle mode scene,
but also if your mech frame gets stressed out a field
replacement isn’t out of the question.
Players and the GM will work together to build
these, and their general power level and capabilities
will depend on the scope of the campaign, the needs
of each mission, and the results of roleplaying out
faction responsibilities and rewards.
SIGNATURE ASSETS
These are actually a superset of signature assets
and resources. When acquiring the trait, you choose
to give it one die as an asset, or two as a resource. If
another character adds a resource you already have, it
adds a die, and you both pull from the same pool.
These can represent anything signature assets
and resources can represent, with the addition of
skills and training that might be useful in story mode.
They can also carry SFX – up to one for a rating of d6
and up to two for a rating of d8 or d10.
STRESS
Your character has five types of stress, which are
mostly gained in story mode, but might still hinder a
TEK pilot in battle. Being stressed out by any of these
traits puts you out of the scene.
⬢ Afraid
Stressing out looks like fleeing the situation or
completely freezing in fear.
⬢ Angry
Your capability for rational thought and action
leaves, and if you’re smart you do too.
⬢ Exhausted
Maybe you pass out, start making too many
mistakes, or excuse yourself for sleep.
⬢ Insecure
Thinking yourself to be useless, or second
guessing every choice leads to inaction.
⬢ Injured
You’re hurt – unable to move or function beyond
the pain, until you can be treated.
 In addition to your character’s stress traits, TEK
frames have three types of their own, which are
targeted during battle mode. You won’t be out of a
scene if a frame is stressed out, but you’ll certainly
lose access to your frame’s power traits and SFX.
⬢ Coolant
The mech cannot keep from overheating, putting
you and any modules in danger.
⬢ Structure
It’s broken. Armor plates split off, limbs
detached, locomotive devices shattered.
⬢ Systems
Your control and sensory core shut down, leaving
you without eyes, ears, and manipulation.
THE SCALE DIE
What happens when someone in a mech frame is
interacting with someone outside of one? Well, if
you’re talking or otherwise sharing a dramatic
moment, it’s handled as a story mode interaction.
This is the kind of scene where you might see a single
person talk down the rampaging TEK pilot, by
targeting one of their character stress traits.
If it’s a battle mode interaction however, the TEK
pilot gets to use a scale die, keeping a third die in
their total. The scale die might be fixed for the
campaign (in the case of all TEKs being of similar
power level), or it might be a scalable trait possessed
by mech frames.
The regular person is already at a disadvantage,
only able to use distinction + role (without power
sets), so this just highlights the discrepancy.
THE DOOM POOL
The doom pool is used by the GM as both an
unopposed pool and as their plot point analog. Use
the same doom pool for both story and battle mode.
GROWTH AND TAG SCENES
Any time you challenge a trait statement, you add
its pre-challenge rating to your growth pool. Also, at
the end of a session, the highest rating any of your
story mode stress tracks reached is added to your
growth pool. The growth pool is persistent from
session to session.
Once growth is calculated, and before a session
ends, you may spend dice from your growth pool to
advance your character traits. (this need expansion and
playtesting – afaik it hasn’t been done this way yet at all.
but honestly, rolling the growth dice strikes me as… utterly
minimizing a character’s effort and change on a failure)
You then play out short tag scenes explaining or
exemplifying your advanced traits.
HERO DICE
Standard hero dice are in play here. They can be
collected, such that you could have several of them,
with more than one of the same die rating. At the end
of the session, you move your largest remaining hero
die into your growth pool and discard the rest.
THREATS
Needs development. Obviously need different types of
threats for different modes.
PATHWAYS ORIGIN
Add your lead ☐
TOOLS Add an NPC ○
Each element you add to the board has a shape to Connect your lead to the NPC ☐→○
help distinguish it. Your lead characters are squares ⬢ Family
(☐). Circles are other characters and organizations ↥ Assist or Guard
(○). Diamonds are signature assets (🝔). Arrows (→ and ↥ Hope or Peace
←) create connections. Sometimes trait ratings are ⊕ location resource (☐→🝔)
stepped up (↥) or back (↧), or added entirely (⊕). ↥ a relationship with another lead
Start your lead character with a d4 rating in every ⬢ Phenom
role and value. Give them a d4 rating in relationships ↥ Blitz or Command
with each other lead character. If the GM has specific ↥ Ambition or Individuality
organizations in mind that will be important to ⊕ ability resource (☐→🝔)
everyone, add those as d4 relationships as well, and ↥ a relationship with another lead
place them on the board as double circles (⌾). Any ⬢ Privileged
time you connect your lead character to an NPC or ↥ Command or Guard
organization, you gain a d4 relationship with them. ↥ Ambition or Peace
Creating a new asset means it’s either a d6 ⊕ prop resource (☐→🝔)
personal asset, or a 2d6 personal resource. Any time ↥ a relationship with another lead
you are directed to step up an asset, you may add an ⬢ Rescue
SFX to one instead. When creating a new asset, you ↥ Assist or Hustle
may instead choose to connect to another player’s ↥ Duty or Sacrifice
resource: you add a die (so 2d8 becomes 3d8 for ⊕ location resource (☐→🝔)
example) and those dice are shared between the ↥ a relationship with another lead
characters. Any SFX added to that resource is ⬢ Trauma
accessible by both characters. Location and ↥ Blitz or Hustle
prop-based resources make good choices for sharing ↥ Hope or Sacrifice
(ability or personality assets and resources are very ⊕ personality resource (☐→🝔)
personal). ↥ a relationship with another lead
No trait may be rated above d10 during these
seven stages. If you’re told to make a choice between
stepping up two traits you already have at d10, choose
any other trait in the same set to step up instead.
FOCUS PATH
Connect any ○ or 🝔 to any other ○ or 🝔 Connect any ○ or 🝔 to another player’s lead →☐
Connect your lead to any NPC ☐→○ (they define the connection)
⬢ Life ⬢ Disastrous
↥ Assist or Guard ↥ Blitz or Hustle
↥ Peace or Sacrifice ↥ Hope or Sacrifice
↥ personal relationship (do this twice) ↥ personal relationship
⬢ Money ↥ any relationship
↥ Command or Hustle ⬢ Glorious
↥ Ambition or Individuality ↥ Blitz or Command
⊕ or ↥ any resource (do this twice) ↥ Ambition or Individuality
⬢ Status ⊕ or ↥ any resource
↥ Assist or Command ↥ any relationship
↥ Ambition or Duty ⬢ Hidden
↥ organization relationship ↥ Guard or Hustle
⊕ or ↥ any resource ↥ Hope or Peace
⬢ Technology ⊕ or ↥ location resource
↥ Blitz or Hustle ↥ any relationship
↥ Hope or Individuality ⬢ Just
⊕ or ↥ ability or prop resource (do this twice) ↥ Assist or Command
⬢ The Enemy ↥ Duty or Individuality
↥ Blitz or Guard ↥ organization relationship
↥ Duty or Sacrifice ↥ any relationship
↥ relationship ⬢ Safe
⊕ or ↥ ability or location resource ↥ Assist or Guard
↥ Duty or Peace
⊕ or ↥ personality resource
↥ any relationship
MOTIVATION ⬢ Outsider
Add an NPC ○ ↥ Assist or Blitz
Connect your lead to the NPC ☐→○ ↥ any role
⬢ Nihilism ⊕ specialty for a role you just stepped up
↥ Individuality or Sacrifice ↥ Hope or Individuality
↥ any value ⊕ location resource (☐→🝔)
↧ any relationship ↥ ability or location resource
⊕ or ↥ personality resource ↥ relationship that’s not a lead or the parent
⬢ Others organization (do this twice)
↥ Hope or Peace ⬢ Scion
↥ any value ↥ Command or Guard
↧ any resource ↥ any role
↥ personal relationship ⊕ specialty for the very first role you stepped up
⬢ Self ↥ Duty or Individuality
↥ Ambition or Individuality ⊕ ability or prop resource (☐→🝔)
↥ any value ↥ any resource
↧ personal relationship ↥ parent organization relationship
⊕ or ↥ ability resource ↥ personal relationship
⬢ The Cause ⬢ Shot-caller
↥ Ambition or Duty ↥ Assist or Command
↥ any value ↥ any role
↧ personal relationship ⊕ specialty for Assist or Command
↥ organization relationship ↥ Duty or Sacrifice
⬢ The World ⊕ personality resource (☐→🝔)
↥ Peace or Sacrifice ↥ location or personality resource
↥ any value ↥ any relationship (do this twice)
↧ personal relationship ⬢ Slacker
⊕ or ↥ location resource ↥ Guard or Hustle
↥ any role
⊕ specialty for a role at d6
coreTEK ↥ Hope or Peace
Connect your lead to their parent organization ☐→⌾ ↥ location or personality resource (do this twice)
(or another organization if this is already done) ↥ personal relationship (do this twice)
⬢ Head of the Class ⬢ Specialist
↥ Blitz or Hustle ↥ Blitz or Guard
↥ any role ↥ any role
⊕ specialty for highest-rated role ⊕ specialty for highest-rated role
↥ Ambition or Sacrifice ⊕ specialty for any role at d6 or higher
⊕ ability resource (☐→🝔) ↥ Ambition or Peace
↥ any resource (do this twice) ⊕ any resource (☐→🝔)
↥ organization relationship ↥ any resource (do this twice)
PRIORITY IDENTITY
Double back a connection ⇄ (do this twice) Connect any non-lead element to any element
⬢ Family & Friends (○/🝔)→(○/🝔/☐)
↥ Assist or Guard Swap the ratings of two relationships (optional)
↥ Hope or Sacrifice Remove a d4 relationship to:
↥ personal relationship (do this twice) ↥ any relationship or ↥ any resource (optional)
⬢ Looking Back Change the name of an asset/resource (optional)
↥ Assist or Hustle ⬢ The Rebel
↥ Duty or Peace ↥ Blitz or Hustle
⊕ or ↥ location or personality resource ↥ Hope or Individuality
↥ any relationship ↥ any value
⬢ Moving Forward ⊕ or ↥ personality or prop resource
↥ Command or Hustle ↥ any resource
↥ Ambition or Hope ↥ personal relationship (do this twice)
⊕ or ↥ ability or personality resource ⬢ The Romantic
↥ any relationship ↥ Command or Guard
⬢ Performance ↥ Hope or Peace
↥ Blitz or Guard ↥ any value
⊕ specialty for any role at d6 or higher ⊕ or ↥ location or personality resource
↥ Ambition or Individuality ↥ personal relationship (do this twice)
⊕ or ↥ ability or prop resource ↥ any relationship
⬢ Work ⬢ The Steadfast
↥ Blitz or Command ↥ Assist or Guard
↥ Duty or Sacrifice ↥ Duty or Sacrifice
⊕ or ↥ ability or location resource ↥ any value
↥ organization relationship ↥ any resource
↥ personal relationship
↥ any relationship (do this twice)
⬢ The Sycophant
↥ Assist or Hustle
↥ Individuality or Peace
↥ any value
⊕ or ↥ ability or location resource
↥ any resource
↥ organization relationship (do this twice)
⬢ The Vanguard
↥ Blitz or Command
⊕ specialty for any role at d6 or higher
↥ Ambition or Duty
↥ any value
⊕ or ↥ ability or prop resource (do this twice)
↥ any relationship
EXAMPLES
TRAIT STATEMENTS
These don’t always have to include the actual trait
name, but it sometimes helps to focus that theme.
⬢ Ambition got me where I am today.
⬢ I don’t work well with those who have too much
Ambition.
⬢ It is my solemn Duty to protect the enclave.
⬢ There is no Duty greater than to improve oneself.
⬢ Hope is what keeps me both alive, and sane.
⬢ You can’t rely on Hope to actually win the war.
⬢ Don’t lose your Individuality in the drift.
⬢ Individuality is a lethal liability in our
organization’s chain of command.
⬢ Peace is just a lie to get chumps like me enlisted
to the cause.
⬢ I strive for Peace, even as I fight.
⬢ Sacrifice is the core of salvation.
⬢ I don’t Sacrifice my time for anything.
⬢ Senpai may never notice me.
⬢ The Commander taught me everything I know.
⬢ My Mother has always been my anchor.
⬢ I could never forget My First Love.
⬢ My Frenemy should be listening to my advice.
⬢ The Police couldn’t care less about us.
⬢ Our last best hope for humanity is the
Pan-Pacific Defense Corp.
SIGNATURE ASSETS
⬢ Ancestral Daisho d8 (prop)
Court Appearance: sfx text here
Final Cut: sfx text here
⬢ Training Room 3d6 (location)
Push For Excellence: sfx text here
Bonding Moment: sfx text here
⬢ Winning Smile d6 (personality)
Not To Worry: sfx text here
Flash Those Pearly Whites: sfx text here
⬢ Psychic Premonitions 2d10 (ability)
Prepare Yourself: sfx text here
I Know What You’re Thinking: sfx text here
TEK COMPONENTS
If you’ve built power sets for Marvel Heroic
Roleplay, you know what you’re doing here. In
general, your mech frame will have at least three
power traits – reflecting its movement, attack, and
defense. Anything else is gravy, or part of a specialty
module (like a mobile repair station, for instance).
S7R “Sprinter”
Hypermotive Turbine d10
Rocket Punch d6 • Basic Plating d6
SFX: First On Scene • Spend a plot point to act first in
a conflict. Reroll spoilers during your first action.
Limit: Glass Rocket • Each time you take stress, step
back Hypermotive Turbine to gain 1pp. Activate an
opportunity or recover the stress to recover
Hypermotive Turbine.
8R-1CK “Brick”
Nucleon Ablative Armor d10
SAMs d8 • All-Terrain Treads d6
SFX: Reactive Shielding • sfx text here
SFX: Missile Barrage • sfx text here
Limit: Sitting Duck • sfx text here
Missile Platform
Heat-seeking Missiles d10
LADAR d8
SFX: Targeting Algorithms • sfx text here
Limit: Auxiliary Module • sfx text here
Service Module
Nanotech Repair Swarm d8
SFX: Field Repairs • sfx text here
Limit: Auxiliary Module • sfx text here
THREATS
Thi