KULT rpg

[dawnrazor]

Just curious - are there any other Kult afficionados here on the forums? I think that there's a lot of ideas and concepts that can be cross-breeded between the two games...

[ElijahWhateley]

I played in a Kult campaign once, and found the system a bit clunkier that CoC. If there wasn't already a great resource for 90s CoC (DG), the Kult corebook has a certain late 80s vibe to it that would be tempting for running not-quite-modern games. The system of manifesting physical changes as a result of altered mental stability was interesting, but I think would take some adoption for CoC, since it seems to be tied into a pretty simplistic view of the world as two opposing forces that aren't exactly good and evil but aren't too alien. I've thought about implementing it by keeping track of how much SAN players lose and causing physical changes to the world around them as their total sanity loss increases, but a similar system can already be found in the (spoilers) DG Carcosa material.

I think the thing I'll remember most is a misprinted hit location table that resulted in characters and NPCs frequently taking light wounds to the "women". I always imagined the bullets ricocheting off a wall and hitting a group of assorted aunts, nieces, grandmothers, wives, and daughters who for no particular reason followed the party around but never bothered to say or do anything.

[dawnrazor]

I played in a Kult campaign once, and found the system a bit clunkier that CoC. If there wasn't already a great resource for 90s CoC (DG), the Kult corebook has a certain late 80s vibe to it that would be tempting for running not-quite-modern games. The system of manifesting physical changes as a result of altered mental stability was interesting, but I think would take some adoption for CoC, since it seems to be tied into a pretty simplistic view of the world as two opposing forces that aren't exactly good and evil but aren't too alien. I've thought about implementing it by keeping track of how much SAN players lose and causing physical changes to the world around them as their total sanity loss increases, but a similar system can already be found in the (spoilers) DG Carcosa material.

I think the thing I'll remember most is a misprinted hit location table that resulted in characters and NPCs frequently taking light wounds to the "women". I always imagined the bullets ricocheting off a wall and hitting a group of assorted aunts, nieces, grandmothers, wives, and daughters who for no particular reason followed the party around but never bothered to say or do anything.

Haha, well I'm Swedish, so I use the original Swedish rules. No "women" there Kult came out in 1990, and I was immediately drawn into it. It was much better than CoC Modern (1st ed) and I really like the setting, as it's much moodier and has much more distinct dark feeling.

I guess DG has those qualities for CoC to a degree, but I haven't read the DG Carcosa stuff. A pointer to where to find it would be much appreciated

Also, the fact that all PC:s have "dark secrets" is kinda cool.

The world view takes inspiration from gnostic, cabalistic and mesopotamian theology and I must disagree when you say that it's more simplistic than CoC. It's certainly different, though...

I totally agree with the rules being a bit clunky. They were largely inspired by the Swedish fantasy rpg "Drakar och Demoner" (trans. "Dragons and Demons) which in turn were a BRP licensee from the beginning. This Swedish BRP clone then evolved along it's own track, so later versions of the game were only superficially recognizable as BRP. But "under the hood" it's really BRP...

I've been toying with the idea of porting the game to BRP/CoC as I know and like those rules more than Kult's rules. I was thinking a DG/Kult hybrid game...

[ElijahWhateley]

The Carcosa material is mostly in DG: Countdown if I remember correctly.

This free copy of one of the scenarios there, from the author's blog, should give you a good idea: http://detwillerdesign.tumblr.com/po...n-night-floors

[Laraqua]

I love the Mythos surrounding Kult and though I haven't used it for the few Call of Cthulhu games I've run, I certainly have ripped off elements of it to replace some of the meta-plot for WoD (both new and old). I think the major difference is how reality bending Kult is because Kult can't truly be said to have a stable reality while in Call of Cthulhu our world IS meant to have a stable reality, its just that some reality warps intrude on occasion.

[Lisa]

I have the three English editions of the game. I remember thinking that the first made White Wolf's Oh So Dark World of Darkness look like kids trying to scare each other with urban legends. I loved that both a high negative and a high positive mental balance indicated insanity. I loved that looking at a character's mental balance over time showed you a lot about the character's life.

I didn't so much love the reality behind the illusion. Dank, dripping, blood, scuttling insects? Give me my illusion back. But, as a source of ideas to use for Call of Cthulhu? Lovely. And, if more stuff were coming out for it in English, I'd likely be buying it all.

[dawnrazor]

I have the three English editions of the game. I remember thinking that the first made White Wolf's Oh So Dark World of Darkness look like kids trying to scare each other with urban legends. I loved that both a high negative and a high positive mental balance indicated insanity. I loved that looking at a character's mental balance over time showed you a lot about the character's life.

I didn't so much love the reality behind the illusion. Dank, dripping, blood, scuttling insects? Give me my illusion back. But, as a source of ideas to use for Call of Cthulhu? Lovely. And, if more stuff were coming out for it in English, I'd likely be buying it all.

I totally agree with you. Especially concerning the Swedish 1st ed, which was even more graphic and explicit than later versions. Target games got so much negative press (remember the "rpgs-are-evil" debate back then)? And, yes, some of the stuff behind the Illusion are a bit cheesy, but not more than Dreamland I think.

If you're into Kult - check in the forum (http://www.kult-rpg.com). Good, and there's a great deal of nice fan-produced material (Sourcebooks etc). Not as much activity as here, though...

[dawnrazor]

The Carcosa material is mostly in DG: Countdown if I remember correctly.

This free copy of one of the scenarios there, from the author's blog, should give you a good idea: http://detwillerdesign.tumblr.com/po...n-night-floors

Thanks EW! I actually have the Countdown book. Bought it for copious amounts of money a few months back, but I haven't had time to read it properly yet...

[dce]

I have the three English editions of the game. I remember thinking that the first made White Wolf's Oh So Dark World of Darkness look like kids trying to scare each other with urban legends. I loved that both a high negative and a high positive mental balance indicated insanity. I loved that looking at a character's mental balance over time showed you a lot about the character's life.

I didn't so much love the reality behind the illusion. Dank, dripping, blood, scuttling insects? Give me my illusion back. But, as a source of ideas to use for Call of Cthulhu? Lovely. And, if more stuff were coming out for it in English, I'd likely be buying it all.

I am a huge fan of the Kult RPG setting, less so the rules themselves. In particular, pretty much anything written by the original authors (Jonsson & Petersen) really nails an especially creepy and philosophically terrifying version of the world which very much appeals to my sense of pessimism. Later expansions to the setting (e.g., the Metropolis sourcebook) destroyed some of the mystery and strayed away from the clarity of that original vision IMHO and starting dragging the game more towards a "Hellraiser" splatterfest. That stuff I found less interesting

I would say, despite the fact that I love both Kult and CoC, I have never really seen the two settings as being even remotely compatible. I can see some scope for stealing some ideas or types of conspiracies to add to a certain type of CoC game (maybe something a bit more Ramsay Campbell than Lovecraftian), but apart from that I see the two as quite different, but equally horrible, beasts.


Dean (from Adelaide)

[Laraqua]

Yeah, Call of Cthulhu is quite cerebral in nature. A lot of the enemies are incomprehensible and trying to think your way around such issues are a key part of the game.

Kult is far more visceral - both the enemies, the vibes, and the experience. Even your own body can be your enemy there.

Essentially different themes. However, well worth taking a look at to change up the pace of your average Call of Cthulhu campaign.

[dawnrazor]

Bumping an old thread here. After finishing HotOE I'm currently taking a vacation from GM:ing. One of the players will run some Pathfinder game (The Carrion Crown I believe). As my D&D experiences are limited to the versions up to and including AD&D1e, it'll be interesting. Anyway, this gives me time to plan for my next game. I was thinking a DG game, maybe a trilogy in three timeframes (a la James Ellroy's LA Noir Trilogy). Tentatively, I imagine a WWII combat mission with the players as battle-hardened commandos, meeting the Mythos for the first time. Next, I plan a 1960s cold war scenario in Berlin - a co-operation of US, UK and USSR covert operatives cleaning up Karotechia stuff left behind after the war. I'll borrow inspiration from the RPG "Cold War" for this. OR I'll run a scenario in 'Nam. The Cthulhu by Arclight seems pretty cool. And my favourite bad guys, the Tcho-Tcho are there . The last part will be modern style, with some of the previous PCs as old veterans.

Anyway, I've been toying with the idea to incorporate some KULT stuff into the mix: for civilian characters, I plan to import the character archetypes from KULT, a la "CoC Player's Companion". Also, I'm toying with the idea of adding dark secrets and advantages/disadvantages from KULT. In a BRP and slimmed down version. These things are meant primarily to flesh out the character, and will not be as incorporated in the rules as in KULT. Also, I'll think of how to incorporate some of the KULT ideas in CoC/DG. I think that the Cthulhu Now book is kind of disappointing, and while DG is very cool, it's very law enforcement-government official-oriented.

Maybe, I'll post my document here, if anyone's interested. Many of the monsters/entities in KULT can be aspects of existing Mythos beasties. And the Illusion thin ties in nicely with Carcosa and the Dreamlands. Not the "Wizard of Oz"-Dreamlands from the book, but more like the personal nightmare Dreamlands of Dreamers and cultists. A CoC game of more personal horror I think.

[Laraqua]

Ooh, I like the idea of the dark secrets and advantages / disadvantages. Mr. Handy has done something somewhat similar in his Zombie Apocalypse play-by-post thread. I'll give him a tap on the shoulder so he can talk about it.

And yes, very interested.

[MrHandy]

Yes, I've assigned secret information and motivations and/or advantages/disadvantages to every playable character in Zombie Apocalypse. The vast majority of them are pregenerated, and characters have built-in interrelationships. Some characters are gifted trainers who can help other characters increase their skills, so it's important to long-term survival to keep those characters alive (though in nearly seven years of play, there hasn't been enough downtime in a "safe" area to train anyone yet). Other characters have built-in bonuses to skills or Sanity rolls, others have penalties. One character has a learning disability. His INT score is 8, and he also has a -15% penalty to his Idea roll. This is a disadvantage in some ways, but it can be a huge advantage too, as it's rare for him to go temporarily insane.

I did something similar in my Doctor Who/Call of Cthulhu scenario The Ninth Planet, where (aside from the TARDIS crew) all of the characters were pregenerated. They all had hidden agendas, though I didn't use advantages/disadvantages. There were actually two couples in secret relationships, and I don't think anyone outside of those relationships ever found out about it. There was one character who hero worshipped another to the point of obsession. There were a few characters with rebel sympathies to varying degrees, and another who was a dedicated supporter of the tyrannical regime that ruled mankind in the early 22nd century. One character was actually a willing Mi-Go agent, but nobody ever found out who it was.

[dawnrazor]

Thanks Laraqua and MrHandy! Encouraging to hear that others have thought upon these things. Being up to my neck in my PhD-thesis work, as well as family and everything else in RealLife™, it will take some time. But I'll post it here, for your enjoyment

[MrHandy]

You're welcome! Welsh, the creator of Zombie Apocalypse, originally thought of it, and I carried on doing it after I took over running the game (I started out as a player). Even when I started allowing players to create their own characters in Chapter 5, I came up with secret information and advantages/disadvantages for their characters. One other thing I do is to assign disadvantages to characters that have above average stats and advantages to characters with below average stats to help balance things out. Characters with stats that are about average would just get secret information and background.