Most Cortex games include Distinctions as one of the trait sets, which describe what makes the character distinctive on a personal level. Prominent among these is to roll more than one die from a single trait set, or to add additional die results to the total. Players also have access to a limited pool of plot points, which can be spent in a number of ways. Another die not used in the total may be selected as the effect die, the size of which determines the magnitude of the die roll's impact. The highest two die results are added together for the player character's effective total. Dice that roll 1 represent something going wrong in the attempt. When rolling dice, players select one trait from each set and roll their dice together as a dice pool.

For example, a strong but unintelligent character might have Brawn d10 and Brains d4. Each trait within a set is a statistic rated with a die size (usually from d4 to d12). Characters are described with a number of trait sets, such as attributes, skills, relationships, or powers. Cortex is an extensible and modifiable game system, but a few elements are common to all games.

Cortex prime game handbook