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Dusk City Outlaws Core Game

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Dusk City Outlaws is a tabletop roleplaying game for 3-6 players, set in the sprawling city of New Dunhaven. In this game, the players take on the roles of criminals on the wrong side of the law, collectively known as the Right Kind of People to those who run in outlaw circles. These criminals come together to form a crew, and take on a Job, a criminal enterprise brokered to them by a third party.

Each member of the crew is a member of one of the eight cartels that rule over the city’s criminal underworld. These cartels each have their own turf, their own specialties, their own motives, and their own methods, but they are all bound together by the Arrangement, an agreement that the cartels entered into to preserve themselves against too much infighting. In short, the cartels agree that they have enough enemies without warring with one another, and that they all want the same thing: to get rich. The cartels agree to respect each others' turf, and while some bickering and fighting is allowed, large-scale conflict is forbidden, and revenge is frowned upon.

To maintain this peace, when someone from the cartels has a Job they want done, they call upon the crew, which has members from several cartels, to pull off the Job. Each cartel gets a cut of the take from that Job, and the crew gains some wealth, prestige, and influence, plus the promise of future Jobs from those brokers.

Once the Job has been assigned, the crew must come up with a plan, do the legwork to set it into motion, pull off the plan, and then survive long enough to get paid.

An Off-The-Shelf Game

Lacking a quorum from your usual game group and don't want to play a session of your usual campaign? Having an impromptu game night and wanting to play a roleplaying game? At a convention and looking to fill an evening with friends? Dusk City Outlaws is designed to be played with minimal preparation. Once all of the players know the rules of the game, you can start playing a scenario with brand-new characters in a matter of minutes. Character creation is fast and easy, and the game comes with ten fully designed scenarios and rules for introducing challenges and antagonists on the fly to eliminate the need for lots of before-the-session prep work.

Urban Sandbox on a Massive Scale

In Dusk City Outlaws, there is no "right" way to handle the Job. The members of the crew formulate their own plan and put it into motion however they like; the Judge does not need to plan out plot twists and a complete narrative arc, only react to the actions of the players. New Dunhaven itself is a massive urban environment on the scale of modern-day New York City, giving the players nearly limitless freedom for the scope and details of their plan. Dusk City Outlaws uses sandbox play, accompanied by robust systems to help the Judge improvise, to give players ultimate freedom and eliminate the need for lengthy scenarios.

This Title Includes:

  • The 28-page Player Rulebook
  • The 48-page Judge Rulebook
  • The 240-page Traveler’s Guide to New Dunhaven setting book
  • 19 cartel sheets
  • 26 specialty sheets
  • A character sheet
  • Diagrams for making your own advantage and challenge dice
  • 60-card Deck of Quirks
  • 40-card Deck of Enemies
  • 20-card Deck of Time
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Reviews (4)
Discussions (9)
Customer avatar
Gareth L June 16, 2018 6:02 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Is there any chance of seeing the cards on drivethrucards?
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Customer avatar
Gareth L June 16, 2018 6:48 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Incidentally, the decks of quirks and time seem to be missing the backs?
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Customer avatar
Rodney T July 05, 2018 4:56 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I don't think so; physical copies of the game are available from http://scratchpadpublishing.com right now.
Customer avatar
Rodney T March 20, 2018 7:56 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Sorry about the delay in doing so, but I've updated the files to include both a diagram of the dice, and printer-friendly cartel sheets and specialty sheets.
Customer avatar
Stuart B March 14, 2018 5:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Uses custom dice for challenge and advantage, but I have no idea what those custom dice actually look like. Anyone have any information? I only have the PDF and I cannot as yet find a description of the sides on those dice... Any help much appreciated :-)
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Customer avatar
Rodney T March 20, 2018 4:07 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Advantage dice are d8s with boon symbols on 4 sides. Challenge dice are d10s with drawback symbols on 6 sides.
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Customer avatar
Stuart B April 19, 2018 7:15 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Many thanks!
Customer avatar
Antonio Miguel M March 06, 2018 9:07 am UTC
PURCHASER
and any chance of a Bundle for all that arrived later for the physical?
Thanks
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Customer avatar
Antonio Miguel M March 06, 2018 5:26 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Ups...there's one for all the scenarios..will take a look first to rules...
Customer avatar
Alan B November 28, 2017 8:07 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Any chance of PoD?
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Customer avatar
Rodney T December 21, 2017 5:08 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the components, it's not going to be available as a PoD. However, you can still preorder the physical game through the Pledge Manager: https://scratchpad-publishing.pledgemanager.com/projects/dusk-city-outlaws/
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Customer avatar
Gareth L June 06, 2018 6:29 am UTC
PURCHASER
Is this still possible? The pledge manager seems to be closed to people not on the kickstarter?
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Customer avatar
Rodney T July 05, 2018 4:54 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Sorry for the slow reply; you can actually just buy the physical game from http://scratchpadpublishing.com
Customer avatar
Adam R August 13, 2017 2:40 pm UTC
PURCHASER
The preview version had an easy print me document. This new core version is not very print friendly, is there going to be a print and play of the updated core documents anytime soon?
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Customer avatar
Rodney T March 20, 2018 7:56 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
In case you didn't see, I added printer-friendly versions of the Specialty and Cartel sheets to the title.
Customer avatar
Dan H May 28, 2017 9:57 am UTC
Preordered a few days ago; was supposed to have this delivered by now (was really looking forward to playing on Monday). Any ideas?
Customer avatar
Eric W May 21, 2017 1:34 am UTC
PURCHASER
Played the "Canal Job" last night for the first time. My group had a really run time. It took them a while to warm up to the open ended nature of the game and didn't really understand what they had access to. As the judge I felt the scenario had the bare minimum needed to run the game, I could have used just a little more direction. I am really excited to learn the system better and my players are looking forward to seeing some of the NPCs make a showing in out later games.

My players commented on how streamlined the rules were and how much they liked sharing the story telling duties. The unique timer aspect was very compelling and something we may incorporate in other games.
Customer avatar
Chaotic G April 13, 2017 8:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Sounds cool. How is this not exactly like Blades in the Dark?
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Customer avatar
Colin B April 14, 2017 9:47 am UTC
PURCHASER
I will confess, I wondered that myself.
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Customer avatar
Craig H September 28, 2017 10:44 am UTC
PURCHASER
I own Dusk City Outlaws and have read about Blades in the Dark. I think the main differential is that Dusk City Outlaws gives more direction to the GM than Blades. By this I mean that each scenario in DCO is a distinct mission with information about possible obstacles/complications for the GM, whereas Blades seems to be more about simulating an ongoing crime story which you make up on the fly.

I think DCO has a lighter aesthetic and is probably better for one-shots, whereas Blades is probably the better campaign game.
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Customer avatar
Joaquin S October 02, 2017 5:30 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I was wondering the same thing myself...
So I decided I'm going to test both systems and be back with feedback about this...
Reply
Customer avatar
Jason K November 13, 2017 11:43 am UTC
PURCHASER
I asked that before I backed the KS. Here's what I came up with - mechanics aside, it's almost entirely an aesthetic difference. DCO is much lighter in tone. I describe it as "Saturday Morning Blades in the Dark". My crew in BitD has done things in the normal course of getting by as a scoundrel in Duskvol that I think would curl the toenails of crimelords in DCO.
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Customer avatar
Eli M June 05, 2018 4:37 am UTC
PURCHASER
In my experience, the world described in Blades in the Dark is so much weirder, edgier, and more specific that it isn't entertaining for people who aren't well-versed in the lore. Dusk City Outlaws is broadly close to reality, and there are fewer details (like the wall, and the ghosts, and the intricacies of the organization who investigates ghosts) players need to be made aware of in order to roleplay citizens of New Dunhaven than Doskvol, so I'd say the barrier to entry is lower for DCO.
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File Last Updated:
May 29, 2020
This title was added to our catalog on April 13, 2017.