Game designer Cam Banks has acquired a license for the Cortex Plus and Cortex Classic roleplaying game rule systems from Margaret Weis Productions, and will take over the “design, development, and publishing” of games using those rules.  Banks has formed a new studio, Magic Vacuum, to develop, crowdfund, and publish games with the Cortex system.  Magic Vacuum will develop foundation rulebooks for the Cortex Plus Creator Studio and new RPGs based on the system.

“I spent the formative period of my game design career working for Margaret, and nobody knows Cortex Plus like I do,” Banks said.  “I know I can deliver the kind of worlds, stories, and core rules the fans have been asking for since we first published Cortex Plus games at MWP."

Margaret Weis and Margaret Weis Productions will retire from RPG development, with Weis turning her focus to novel and film projects, including a film adaptation of Star of the Guardians and Spymaster, a new series in the Dragon Brigade world co-authored with Robert Krammes.

Banks worked on developing the Cortex Plus system for MWP, first for the company’s Smallville and Leverage RPGs, and then as the stand-alone Cortex Plus RPG, first announced in 2010 (see “’Cortex Plus’ RPG”).  The MWP licenses, which at one time also included rights to produce Marvel roleplaying games, appear to have all expired, as the company is currently offering only Cortex Classic and Cortex Plus-branded RPG products.