Outgunned: World of Killers is a lore-centric expansion to Outgunned, the hit TTRPG from developer Two Little Mice. World of Killers takes Outgunned’s rules-light, vibes-heavy setup and dials up the intrigue, plunging players into a world of professional assassins, secret societies and John Wick-style ultraviolence.
Outgunned: World of Killers is more campaign setting than traditional expansion, but it adds some much-needed narrative structure to Outgunned’s fast-paced, blockbuster-inspired action. Most importantly, it adds animal sidekicks. If you thought car chases were fun before, just wait until there’s an attack hawk riding shotgun.
For anyone unfamiliar with Outgunned, my condolences. It’s one of the most exciting, beginner-friendly TTRPGs around. The game is easy to learn, quick to set up, and best suited for short campaigns or one-shot adventures. That makes it perfect for groups with busy schedules or fleeting attention spans.
Using simple character sheets and a lean ruleset, it manages to capture the high-octane, over-the-top energy of movies like True Lies, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. With enough time and the right group, a game master could feasibly recreate the entire Fast & Furious franchise using just the car chase mechanics. I’m not saying that’s a good idea—but it is possible.
“Outgunned’s fail-forward design and gambling-esque mechanics give each session a machine-gun-like intensity.”
Okay, I lied. I do think it’s a good idea, and I desperately want to make it happen.
Outgunned games run on the Director’s Cut engine. It’s a player-facing, fail-forward, push-your-luck-style ruleset. That sounds like a lot, but all it means is that the Director (game master) doesn’t make any rolls, and failed rolls won’t lead to catastrophic outcomes—just less spectacular ones.
It’s a straightforward system to learn. Skill checks and challenges are resolved by rolling handfuls of six-sided dice and checking for matching results. The more matching dice, the greater the success. Few outcomes are set in stone. If a player rolls two matching dice but needs three, they can reroll the mismatched dice. However, if no new matches appear, they lose the success they had.
Outgunned’s fail-forward design and gambling-esque mechanics give each session a machine-gun-like intensity. Like a machine gun, the game is a lot of fun—but it can be hard to control.
World of Killers, on the other hand, feels more like a sniper rifle. The expansion narrows the scope of the action by building constraints into the world without changing the rules. Enemies are more challenging, dynamic and tied to larger organizations. There are also boundaries to how players can and can’t behave—and consequences for stepping out of line.
World of Killers is a John Wick game. The official John Wick serial numbers may have been filed down, but you can still read them without squinting. In this setting, players become part of a clandestine society of assassins—an underground world with hierarchy, laws, currency and a history that traces back to the Crusades.
Currently, a mysterious authority known as the Stone oversees the world of killers. Its will is enforced by six of the world’s most powerful crime families. As professional assassins, players can choose to align with one of these families or operate as freelancers. The former offers protection, the latter offers freedom—but both paths require getting your hands dirty.
Regardless of which path players choose, they gain access to the Belmont Hotel, Outgunned’s version of the Continental. The hotel serves as a home base and offers a full suite of services for professional killers. From the Belmont, players can pick up contracts, meet contacts, gear up, hire assassins of their own or simply unwind between jobs.
“In this setting, players become part of a clandestine society of assassins—an underground world with hierarchy, laws, currency and a history that traces back to the Crusades.”
But if the campaign goes off the rails and the party starts acting like murder hobos, they’ll be declared excommunicado—and quickly become high-value targets for every other killer in the hotel.
The new book is almost entirely dedicated to the setting and premade adventure. About half the page count goes to the five-chapter adventure, with most of the rest used to flesh out the world. That said, there are a few notable additions: new feats, character tropes, and skills, all fully compatible with the core rulebook.
There are also new rules for creating animal sidekicks. The sidekick system is explicitly built for attack dogs, but for flair, can be applied to any animal a player fancies. Ninja Turtle, anyone?
The most expansive new rules are the Hunts and Getaway mechanics, each playing out as a turn-based game of cat and mouse. In Hunts, players take the role of the cat, working to back their target into a corner and make a silent kill. In Getaways, they’re the mouse, and the goal is simple: escape.
In both iterations, players take role-playing actions to increase a score counter. At the end of each turn, the director tallies the score, and once the players’ score equals or exceeds the enemy’s, they win. But failed actions can reduce the score and end up turning the tables.
Hunts and Getaways are perfectly balanced additions to the core rules and are a great example of how to expand a game. They repurpose existing mechanics in a fresh context, adding depth without needless complexity. Each Hunt unfolds with the intensity of combat but demands more teamwork and a strong sense of humour. It encourages creative weirdness and rewards clever, malicious compliance. These mechanics are a cathartic embrace of the kind of player shenanigans that usually derail a session.
Outgunned and its expansion may share a heart, but World of Killers has a rhythm all its own. The pace is slower, the tension higher, but the stories it produces are just as memorable. Outgunned has never been a challenging game to pick up, but this expansion makes the rules even easier to learn and game nights quicker to set up. For both new and returning fans, Outgunned: World of Killers is essential.
