So back after a while, today I'm looking at Cosmic Patrol from Catalyst Games Lab. Check them out here http://www.cosmicpatrol.com/ It's been out for a while, but I came across it for the first time during free RPG day a couple months ago.
Premise
"Cosmic Patrol is a role-playing game (RPG) set in a retro future based on the Golden Age of science fiction. If you’ve ever seen a cover from a classic 1930s-1960s pulp science fiction magazine, you’ve got the idea."
Quoted directly from the basic player's guide this sums up the entire game. Cosmic Patrol has a its own in-game universe that is something like a combo of Star Trek, Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon. For the most part players will be playing Patrolmen (or Patrolwomen), working for a space police responding to various trouble throughout the cosmos. .
While their universe has some concise actors and background it acts as sandbox that encourages players to create their own stories and ideas that we'll explore below.
Rules
Rules are quite minimal and the system clearly states that its purpose it to build a storyline in which player character partake in, rather than a rules heavy environment.
Cues are one of the key parts of the system. Cues are descriptors that can help focus how or why a character acts as well as help drive a story line along. Cues can be positive or negative. So here's example from one of their pre-made characters YAWITZ/VENUSIAN SCIENTIST: "every man has a plan that will not work."
Unlike aspects in Fate, cues official have no mechanical alterations to any rolls.
Characters have the following stats Brawn, Brains, Charisma, Combat, and one special stat you can alter yourself. Characters also have a Luck value. These stats have dice rating ranging from 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, or 1d12.
Non-combat actions by characters are rolled with 1d12 + the appropriate stat roll vs. a roll of 1d20 rolled by the lead narrator (LN) as the difficultly. Combat rolls are just your combat die by itself vs. the combat die of an opponent. If a roll is equal to your luck stat, your action is a instant success. While modifiers can be added or subtracted from the rolls, there is no clear list of these except for ranges.
Like many story driven systems, player characters gain a hand full of plot points they can spend. Though the rules for their use is a bit vague, dropping a plot point will usually allow a character to act out of turn or provide a bonus (though how much is extremely vague).
There is also a system for Armor and Health points (pips), though health is a bit confusing as it requires you to look at the number pips on a character sheet rather than a clear number or mechanic.
One of the more interesting ideas is exchanging out the Game Master, or Lead Narrator as it is known. Thus allowing the virtual talking stick to be passed around the table to keep a game moving.
Adventures, known as mission dossiers, are simply set up and could easily be used to help flesh out ideas for roleplaying even in other system. They have simple building blocks of objectives, cues, and tags to help getting a story moving as well as Setting, Enemies/Obstacles split into scenes to help flesh things out.
Lastly, the folks at Catalyst Games Lab have made the product available under the creative commons, which means you can alter or fix any flaws or missing things you might come across in the system as well as adding anything you want to their universe.
Enjoyment: ^__^ This is great! I love it!
Value: $$$$$ While available under the creative commons, the product itself extremely affordable, costing me about $15 cnd for basically everything they have created so far, making it a steal to support the official release.
Investment: I totally will be building on this system. Hoping this google doc link works.
Cosmic Patrol Items
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