Cosmic Cutthroats RPG
A downloadable game
Cosmic Cutthroats is an RPG of adventure and exploration through endless worlds. Your scavengers, exiles, and freeloaders can come from any place, any time, fighting tyranny and seeking new highs through unimaginable realms!
About Cosmic Cutthroats
- Traditional RPG with some narrative touches. With the flexible point-based character creation system, you can be anything you can imagine! Everyone is welcome.
- Task resolution is 2d12 + mods, roll high. Matches are Triumphs (crits), or Mishaps (fumbles).
- Supports any level of play from bumbling goons to cosmic paragons. NPC creation is nice and quick, and random tables help you design a new dimension quickly.
- Point costs ramp up slowly but definitely to reduce power bloat. It's much harder to be God of Everything by dumping all your points into one thing! It's okay to play a bit of a generalist!
- Includes an optional setting: the ancient interdimensional metropolis of Uru Ulan, ruled by an immortal Sumerian sorcerer. The city is strewn throughout the rocks of the rings of Saturn, with districts of starships, magic, elves, superhuman mutants, and many different cultures from Earth history.
- Cover art by Juan Ochoa, with interior art by Gennifer Bone, Khairul Hisham, Bradley K. McDevitt, James V. West, Emily Vitori.
- Hardback copies available on Lulu: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/joshua-kubli/cosmic-cutthroats-rpg/hardcover/pro...
Caveat
- While not really an 'adult' title, Cosmic Cutthroats is not really recommended for the kiddos, either. Contains some mild adult content, mostly offhand references to sex and casual drug use. This is a game, folks. We urge all hard-partying adventurers to booze it up throughout spacetime responsibly.
License
- Game system released under the Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
- Resources and updates at the Cosmic Cutthroats Blog: https://blog.cosmiccutthroats.com/
- Links and Errata: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZSzC_G9yDFR4Iv79PE5P-EUf3MqZ2jmO8hbF9wLffOw/...
- The Cutthroat Codex, a LOT of supplementary rules and material! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xj21xq3vKvkBl_UhZ8eCy71TmIeGmwBT/view?usp=share...
Preview
- See the first 20 pages here!
- https://drive.google.com/file/d/13HTRU9SFYVdJffZ-Om8kufzQ0DXpZ2Al/view
Contact
- Feel free to email me with any questions at jkubli@imperfekt-industrees.com, and thanks so much!
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $9.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- [21sep21] General UpdateSep 22, 2021
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Doing some re-reading and I'm not quite sure what the following means:
"Scale Dice add to Effect Rolls, but not to Attempt or Contest rolls." Do they add to Assets?
No, Scale Dice do not add to Assets.
Assets are a single, flat calculated value; you don't roll any dice to determine Assets. Please see the formulas on the Asset Master Table on page 185; there are no die rolls listed.
The main thing Scale Dice would add to is HTH Damage from BOD (pg 91), and Standard Damage from Powers (pg 138). Damage is the most common and important Effect Roll.
Hope that helps!
With Attributes over 12 then, are they treated as 12 for purposes of rolling? Does it work the same way for Assets?
I assume you're asking about Attempt and Contest rolls? If so, no, you use the actual Level.
Most of the time you'll be making Skill rolls, not raw Attribute rolls, but in either case, Attempt and Contest rolls are both 2d12 + Level + modifiers. This is what it says on pg 17, under the section 'Attempt Rolls' (or rather, it doesn't say anything special about Levels over 12).
You also use the actual Level for all Asset calculations. Again, see the formulas on pg 185; nothing special there about Abilities over 12.
If the calculations are confusing you, feel free to check out this autocalc Google Notes sheet I put together: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1emMUr5PFAq0sYScTIkTdbet_k75n3YAN021RafEI...
Again, hope this helps, thanks!
Do you have a discord or someplace to talk about Cosmic Cutthroats? Particularly about character/power design and mechanics?
Feel free to mail any questions to me at jkubli@imperfekt-industrees.com .
A Discord does sound like a good idea, though! I'll look into that; if I get one set up, I'll let you know here. Thanks!
Thank YOU, because I still have some questions.
Just curious--would you try to do a version of this game with something like the Invulnerable RPG engine?
Hi! I have no plans to release an Uru Ulan book for Invulnerable. My game designs have improved over time I think, so I'd be more likely to someday release a dedicated Earth-Omega sourcebook to Cosmic Cutthroats. Until I do, the Invulnerable core book is still useful, for all the setting and timeline info.
Cutthroats does mentions Earth-Omega as a possible setting (pg 342) and has stats for Unstoppable Girl (pg 376).
If you want more supers options for Cutthroats, the Cutthroat Codex has stats for more characters (A.P.E.X. Field Agents, Unstoppable Man, Dr. DNApe, Trance), additional LSRM Packages (Atlanteans, Avatars, Vunorians). and additional Power Packages (Battle-Suited, Bio-Engineered). The Codex is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xj21xq3vKvkBl_UhZ8eCy71TmIeGmwBT/view?usp=shari.... I hope this helps!
Yes, it's quite useful and inspiring. Thank you!
New query: are you planning to release the Cutthroat codex as its own supplement, maybe with more stuff anytime soon?
Hey Joshua and co - this isn't my kind of TTRPG, but I wanted to say you did a fantastic job setting expectations for what the system and it's documents are all about. If this is how you write an itch page, I bet that rulebook is real nice.
Best of luck with the release!
Thank you! I've written other stuff, but this one is particularly near and dear. Cheers!