tylermalan
First Post
Anyone know anything about it?
Does anyone play Kult?
- Thread starter tylermalan
- Start date
tylermalan
First Post
Haha... well, I've just read about the setting I guess, and it seems like an awesome backstory. I don't know anything about the system or really much else to be honest, so anything you want to tell me about would be great! I also hear its really mature?
I promise I'll get back to this...it's not often I get a chance to preach Kult to someone.
Unfortunately, right now I have a stack of Bible tests that I need to correct first (yeah, savor the irony of this utterly true statement).
I'll respond a little later this evening (i.e., in a few hours).
C
Unfortunately, right now I have a stack of Bible tests that I need to correct first (yeah, savor the irony of this utterly true statement).
I'll respond a little later this evening (i.e., in a few hours).
C
kigmatzomat
Legend
I've never played Kult but I've got a lot of the material for ideas. Horrible, terrible, brutal ideas. I love the setting in a "cutting myself is fun!" kind of way but have never had the urge to run it. Much like I wouldn't want to run an RPG based on Stephen King's Misery.
The premise is rather good: everyone is a god but God managed to trick everyone into thinking otherwise. Death is a way to keep the immortal soul ignorant by wiping their memory between incarnations. God is utterly bipolar, with a Good and Evil component that are mirror images of eachother (though Good is so warped and "enlightened" as to be evil-ish as well so let's stay with Light and Dark). The Light God in Heaven vanished, Heaven is empty, the Angels are all amnesiacs, and the Dark God has left to find the Light God, leaving the fiends of Hell in charge of running the world.
It's been quite a while now and the fiends have developed their own agendas and are fighting over the earth. The lack of the Light God or the Dark God's presence has resulted in Metropolis bleeding into the mortal realm. Metropolis is basically the personal office of God and is chock full of his side projects and staff, so anyone who can visit Metropolis can run across some of God's notes to himself. Or God's secretary, which is really bad. Due to maneuverings between the fiends both for and against humanity, a small number of beings have found ways to retain at least part of their memories between deaths and have a slim chance of actually reaching their full godhood.
Since the mages know that people will reincarnate, you really don't have any reason not to kill people left and right. Heck, if this incarnation is totally opposed to the Truth of the world, killing them will give them a chance to actually get on board the divinity train. You're doing them a favor, really.
The magic tends to be organic, messy, and distressing. Rituals often take days, require ascetic lifestyles, unsettling components and blood sacrifices. Spells exist for a caster to swap souls with an unborne child to avoid the mindwipe of death or craft your own personal Hell in an attempt to keep some memories. Some of the really ugly stuff will open up gateways to Metropolis or unleash the Dark soul in nearby people.
It is a wonderful read and the game system is what I would now call d20-lite (though it predates the current d20 system). Since, IIRC, you don't gain lots of HD over time, people can die left and right. Really, it's a great way to run a Cthulu-esque game without everyone knowing the Cthulu mythos. Very Hellraiser-y.
The premise is rather good: everyone is a god but God managed to trick everyone into thinking otherwise. Death is a way to keep the immortal soul ignorant by wiping their memory between incarnations. God is utterly bipolar, with a Good and Evil component that are mirror images of eachother (though Good is so warped and "enlightened" as to be evil-ish as well so let's stay with Light and Dark). The Light God in Heaven vanished, Heaven is empty, the Angels are all amnesiacs, and the Dark God has left to find the Light God, leaving the fiends of Hell in charge of running the world.
It's been quite a while now and the fiends have developed their own agendas and are fighting over the earth. The lack of the Light God or the Dark God's presence has resulted in Metropolis bleeding into the mortal realm. Metropolis is basically the personal office of God and is chock full of his side projects and staff, so anyone who can visit Metropolis can run across some of God's notes to himself. Or God's secretary, which is really bad. Due to maneuverings between the fiends both for and against humanity, a small number of beings have found ways to retain at least part of their memories between deaths and have a slim chance of actually reaching their full godhood.
Since the mages know that people will reincarnate, you really don't have any reason not to kill people left and right. Heck, if this incarnation is totally opposed to the Truth of the world, killing them will give them a chance to actually get on board the divinity train. You're doing them a favor, really.
The magic tends to be organic, messy, and distressing. Rituals often take days, require ascetic lifestyles, unsettling components and blood sacrifices. Spells exist for a caster to swap souls with an unborne child to avoid the mindwipe of death or craft your own personal Hell in an attempt to keep some memories. Some of the really ugly stuff will open up gateways to Metropolis or unleash the Dark soul in nearby people.
It is a wonderful read and the game system is what I would now call d20-lite (though it predates the current d20 system). Since, IIRC, you don't gain lots of HD over time, people can die left and right. Really, it's a great way to run a Cthulu-esque game without everyone knowing the Cthulu mythos. Very Hellraiser-y.
Last edited:
Kid Socrates
First Post
I played in a Kult game in high school, and up until recently owned a sourcebook. It's a remarkably vivid game, but very unsettling and disturbing at the same time. Every game has a dark side that you can promote; the Nephandic rituals in Mage or the deepest illithid cults in D&D can be twisted into a very dark, disturbing game.
If you took every game's dark side and settled it into one game, that game would be Kult.
That said, I really enjoyed the game I played in, and our GM did a great job keeping it creepy and dark but also not shutting off our fun and letting us crack wise about everything (mostly out of character).
The GM told us one week that he was part of a Kult mailing list, and was sharing tidbits about the game. A few people jumped on his case about allowing his PCs to have guns, because they (allegedly) take a lot of the fear out of the campaign setting. He responded by telling them that despite the fact that four of his six PCs had sidearms of some kind, we were still all too willing to leap off of staircases and flee screaming into the night with a moment's notice.
If you took every game's dark side and settled it into one game, that game would be Kult.
That said, I really enjoyed the game I played in, and our GM did a great job keeping it creepy and dark but also not shutting off our fun and letting us crack wise about everything (mostly out of character).
The GM told us one week that he was part of a Kult mailing list, and was sharing tidbits about the game. A few people jumped on his case about allowing his PCs to have guns, because they (allegedly) take a lot of the fear out of the campaign setting. He responded by telling them that despite the fact that four of his six PCs had sidearms of some kind, we were still all too willing to leap off of staircases and flee screaming into the night with a moment's notice.
OK. I'm back.
So in the meanwhile, a lot of people have conveyed the game's darkness. It is true: played straight according to the rulebook, no game approaches this one for bleak. For that reason, it can excel as a one-shot, where you are willing to pull out all the stops and have fun being miserable before you're eviscerated.
For a campaign, the advent of the supernatural and the dawning of "the Truth" has to be much more subtle and slow-burn. In this way, it can/should be played much like Call of Cthulu or perhaps an X-Files-esque investigation game. (I personally draw most of my inspiration from the TV show Millennium).
The rules vary slightly in the 3 editions of the game. I personally recommend Target Games' 2nd edition rules, not the overpriced 3rd editions that are out now. While out of print, the 2nd edition isn't too hard to find used. In all cases, the RAW are a little blah. They do feel a little "d20 lite." I've toyed with modifying the rules or even using another system altogether, but aside from my own laziness, I gave up on that because I realized that the "blah-ness" of the rules actually allows one to focus on the story, which this game really requires.
Combat is extremely deadly. Most characters, regardless of combat skill, will not likely survive two or three fights without healing (i.e., days to recover) against competent opponents. Even crazy street people with dirty knives (a fave violent encounter in my games) can kill a PC. Once bonafide "monsters" appear, the PCs better be in the mood to run (if they can, that is).
To be honest, the game was definitely too dark for my players. They embraced a series of one-shots over the years for my sake, but when I proposed it as campaign material, they told me that I had to lighten it up.
Without getting into too many details, my cosmology re-write offends the hardcore Kult players (many of whom dwell on rpg.net and on the kult boards). Basically, God (who in my game is fundamentally a benevolent God, not a selfish detached being) has disappeared, but for good reason: the modern world's crisis of faith and belief has driven him to exile (in other words, God essentially says, "If you don't need me, then I'll go"). As a result, the world gets increasingly horrific as humankind tries to live without God (oh, I did mention I was correcting Bible tests earlier, right? My gaming group is entirely made up of religious people, so I can get away with storylines like this). This re-write provides hope for the world, as a good God is out there. He's just WAY out there!
As for your other questions, tylermalan, yes, the story is great. Yes, the themes in the game are very mature and mechanically built into the system (it's not out of the question that your PC is a drug addict, a pedophile, or a schizophrenic). It tends to vacilate wildly between subtle, weird psychological horror and totally in-your-face splatterpunk (I personally like the dichotomy). The Clive Barker comparison is totally apt. The Silent Hill games and movie also fire me up for Kult.
That should get you started. Any other concrete details I can provide?
C
So in the meanwhile, a lot of people have conveyed the game's darkness. It is true: played straight according to the rulebook, no game approaches this one for bleak. For that reason, it can excel as a one-shot, where you are willing to pull out all the stops and have fun being miserable before you're eviscerated.
For a campaign, the advent of the supernatural and the dawning of "the Truth" has to be much more subtle and slow-burn. In this way, it can/should be played much like Call of Cthulu or perhaps an X-Files-esque investigation game. (I personally draw most of my inspiration from the TV show Millennium).
The rules vary slightly in the 3 editions of the game. I personally recommend Target Games' 2nd edition rules, not the overpriced 3rd editions that are out now. While out of print, the 2nd edition isn't too hard to find used. In all cases, the RAW are a little blah. They do feel a little "d20 lite." I've toyed with modifying the rules or even using another system altogether, but aside from my own laziness, I gave up on that because I realized that the "blah-ness" of the rules actually allows one to focus on the story, which this game really requires.
Combat is extremely deadly. Most characters, regardless of combat skill, will not likely survive two or three fights without healing (i.e., days to recover) against competent opponents. Even crazy street people with dirty knives (a fave violent encounter in my games) can kill a PC. Once bonafide "monsters" appear, the PCs better be in the mood to run (if they can, that is).
To be honest, the game was definitely too dark for my players. They embraced a series of one-shots over the years for my sake, but when I proposed it as campaign material, they told me that I had to lighten it up.
Without getting into too many details, my cosmology re-write offends the hardcore Kult players (many of whom dwell on rpg.net and on the kult boards). Basically, God (who in my game is fundamentally a benevolent God, not a selfish detached being) has disappeared, but for good reason: the modern world's crisis of faith and belief has driven him to exile (in other words, God essentially says, "If you don't need me, then I'll go"). As a result, the world gets increasingly horrific as humankind tries to live without God (oh, I did mention I was correcting Bible tests earlier, right? My gaming group is entirely made up of religious people, so I can get away with storylines like this). This re-write provides hope for the world, as a good God is out there. He's just WAY out there!
As for your other questions, tylermalan, yes, the story is great. Yes, the themes in the game are very mature and mechanically built into the system (it's not out of the question that your PC is a drug addict, a pedophile, or a schizophrenic). It tends to vacilate wildly between subtle, weird psychological horror and totally in-your-face splatterpunk (I personally like the dichotomy). The Clive Barker comparison is totally apt. The Silent Hill games and movie also fire me up for Kult.
That should get you started. Any other concrete details I can provide?
C
