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PULP HORROR MADE WITH CURSED!
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What is Cultbusters?
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Cultbusters! takes the Cursed! rules on the pulp side of horror.
If you need a pitch to sell the game to your players you might go
for The Shadow vs Cthulhu. Characters are competent, two-fisted
adventurers that fight cults dedicated to sinister gods. Some cults
can only rely on their members' fanaticism and a few scatterguns,
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while others are vast operations with unlimited funds.
By default, the characters are not part of any official or
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secret organization. They can't rely on the authorities to help
them. Fortunately, unlike the regular characters of a Cursed!
game, Cultbusters have access to pulp edges and Grit points to
help them in their fight. This being a horror game, our heroes are
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afflicted by flaws that should make their lives more... Interesting?
The GM will also find advice and tools to create cults, run
action-packed fights, rules for vehicle combat and chases, creating
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gadgets, raiding cult bases... Everything you need any pulp horror
adventure you can lay your hands on!
Many thanks to Yuri Perkowski Domingos for his art! Used with permission. You can
find his art here: [Link]
Also art by Davis Lewis Johns, Luigi Catellani and Joyce Maureira thanks to Kevin
Crawford.
Cultbusters! except for the art is © Les Livres de 'l'Ours
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CHARACTER CREATION
Character creation follows the steps described in the Cursed! core
rules with a few modifications. A Cultbusters! character starts
with a score of +5 in one of their abilities. The rest is rolled as
usual. First of all use the list of professions given below instead of
the one found in Cursed! Cultbusters! characters are also defined
by their motivation (why are you hunting the cults?), a pulp edge
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and a pulp flaw.
Pulp professions
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Strength Dexterity Constitution
1. Boxer 1. Burglar 1. Docker
2. Gravedigger 2. Hitman 2. Firefighter
3. Lumberjack
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3. Escape artist 3. Legionnaire
4. Strongman 4. Mechanic 4. Football player
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5. Fencer 5. Pilot 5. Miner
6. Wrestler 6. Surgeon 6. Roughneck
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Intelligence Nerve Charisma
1. Archaeologist 1. Alpinist 1. Bartender
2. Librarian 2. Detective 2. Comedian
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3. Occultist 3. Explorer 3. Journalist
4. Ex-cultist 4. Nurse 4. Lawyer
5. Writer 5. Smuggler 5. Politician
6. Scientist 6. Spy 6. Psychologist
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Motivation
Let each player roll a d10 to learn what pushes their character to hunt
down cultists.
Roll a d10
1. Take revenge on a cult leader.
2. Trying to save a cult member.
3. Money.
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4. Agent for another cult.
5. Foreign spy.
6. Searching for a relic.
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7. Trying to lift a curse.
8. Trying to find a cure for a terminal illness.
9. Protect another PC.
10. Retrieve your memory.
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Pulp edges
Many pulp archetypes are based on a profession (magician,
aviator, mechanic...) and those give you an advantage when
they're relevant to an ability roll. The following edges reflect more
specific powers that make the characters a bit more unique.
1. Beastmaster: animals never attack you. A successful Charisma
roll allows you to give them simple orders (no longer than three
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words long).
2. Chameleon: given half-an-hour you can impersonate (voice
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included) anyone you observed for that amount of time. You
probably need a disguise kit to use this edge. unless it has
supernatural origins.
3. Confident: once per session you can choose to automatically
succeed at one ability roll.
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4. Dark arts: the hero knows one randomly selected spell.
5. Hard-boiled: get advantage on your death rolls and add 3 to
your maximum HP.
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6. Healer: your patients regain d6 HP (on top of their
Constitution).
7. Intimidating: enemies get disadvantage on their first ability
roll against you.
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8. Man-at-arms: Re-roll 1s on your damage die for melee attacks.
9. Marksman: if aiming for one round, inflict maximum damage
with a successful attack.
10. Martial artist: you inflict d6 damage with your bare hands.
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11. Mastermind: once per combat, you can replace any ability roll
by an Intelligence roll.
12. Meditation: four hours of uninterrupted meditation allow you
to recover all your HP. You can do this only once per day.
13. Mentalist: the character has a psi power. Roll a d4:
[Link]. [Link]. 3. Psychometry 4. Telepathy (see
Cursed! p.20).
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14. Obscure: make a Charisma roll at the beginning of your turn,
on a success NPCs have a disadvantage on their ranged attacks
against you.
15. Rationalist: NPCs (and PCs) with supernatural powers get
disadvantage on their rolls when using these powers against you.
16. Resourceful: you don't roll with disadvantage when using
improvised weapons.
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17. Silver-tongued: you get advantage on your Charisma rolls
when trying to be persuasive (doesn't work if you want to
intimidate people).
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18. Thick skin: or maybe these are scales or robotic parts. Reduce
damage you receive by 1 (this can reduce damage to 0).
19. Two-fisted: you can attack twice with your bare hands.
20. Weird scientist: you know how to build strange gadgets with
the help of weird science. You start your adventures with three
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materials so you can create your first gadget (see p.12).
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