Does anyone have any experience with this setting/ruleset? I have the opportunity to buy bunch of rulebooks of a guy I know, and know next to nothing about this one.
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The setting is (still) cool. It's a gnostic Hellraiser meets The Matrix with the grimdarkness turned up to eleven. You could call it super edgy, but I think the edginess fits well with the overall themes and the whole horror element it goes for. It's one of my all-time favorite horror settings, even if I can't really come up with interesting adventures to run with it.
The system (for the 1st edition) is a product of its time. A more of a slapped together thing to provide a framework for the setting with little regard to suitability, good game design, or really any balance. I mean, the book is full of creature stats which are effectively pointless because they're so overpowered. It feels like someone's homebrew system (which it sort of is) who built it up as he went.
Still love the books, warts and all. There's nothing else quite like it out there.
The setting is insane nihilistic crack that makes C/WoD look like Bryant Gumble.
>the book is full of creature stats which are effectively pointless because they're so overpowered.
PCs shouldn't be able to stomp Pinface Angels, but that doesn't mean they can't try. Kult if fundamentally a game about the futility of humans in a esoterically complex crapsack world.
>The system (for the 1st edition) is a product of its time. A more of a slapped together thing to provide a framework for the setting with little regard to suitability, good game design, or really any balance. I mean, the book is full of creature stats which are effectively pointless because they're so overpowered. It feels like someone's homebrew system (which it sort of is) who built it up as he went.
The recent Divinity Lost edition (inb4 PbtA reeeeeeeeeee) has fixed some of these issues
Played in a campaign around 8 years ago
About to run soon
Shit is pretty dope. Had fun. Got jumped by a pack of Jackals in the subway of Manhatten. homie came at me with a bandsaw, making that weird "twang" sound in the dark. Was subtle and creepy.
until I lucked out and shot him in the face. Rest of the pack wasn't eager then and we were able to escape
I'm about the run a game with a lot of Togarini influence, crazy art fricking up the Illusion and shit. I hope it goes well.
An addendum to
Just know that the Original KULT is a much more "traditional" RPG in system, much like you'd find with DnD or OWoD.
"Divinity Lost" (inb4 reeeeeing fgts) isn't.
I like both. Original KULT is really 90s and that can be entertaining. I'd snatch that shit up, OP
>The recent Divinity Lost edition (inb4 PbtA reeeeeeeeeee) has fixed some of these issues
It didn't fix any issues, it traded them for a new set. If you buy a new car, that doesn't equal fixing the issues your old one has.
Pretty much exactly this.
It's bad and you should feel bad for recomending it. 1e is also bad but not PBtA bad at least.
suk pp
Even neater: KULT was before The Matrix.
I like looking at 1990 kino, there's Nightbreed, The Exorcist III and Jacob's Ladder all out that year and really dips into the feel of the game.
It's the best supplement Mage the Awakening never had.
Pretty much this.
There's a kind of trifecta of games out there about "humans break reality to become gods" that all act as sourcebooks for one another.
Mage the Ascension makes it all out like a super hero game dressed up as a Social Justice Warrior manifesto.
Kult is the nihilistic splatterpunk horror take on it (just play the more comedic parts straight faced).
Unknown Armies is the low-budget indy movie that would be pretentious if it ever tried to actually and honestly make A Statement.
They're all great sourcebooks for each other though.
There was also a Kult heartbreaker game that got a small release (Noctum as I recall). It wasn't very good.
>a super hero game dressed up as a Social Justice Warrior manifesto.
Superhero yes but the SJW shit only got hip-deep in Mage the Awakening, which is a vastly inferior game.
It's also in M20, though that's as they gave Satyros no editorial oversight and he uses sidebars and chunks of the books as soapboxes now, it's a massive clusterfrick of rules too compared to the more straightforward Ascension Revised, which brings things in to a more street level play.
Though back to Kult, yeah whilst it's certainly possible (I guess) to step towards trading your sanity for godhood, it's tough in practice as reality won't let a ravening madman who is a clear danger to themselves and others simply wander free to do their esoteric chase to godhood.
My own PI dude had a mental balance of -30 starting off before, only just able to get magical intuition, he was also a depressed alcoholic who had nightmares that acted as a gateway for 'spirits' to cross into reality & are actually repressed memories of that time when he clipped out of reality.
He wasn't good at very much, though playing the neo noir tropes in the early 90s was fun at least. I think part of fun you can have with Kult was it was a product of the time, campaigns should be set in the early 90s (like how in the Matrix, it was set at 1999 inside there).
Have a game set where computers are barely net connected, a time of 9.6kb/sec modems, of early AOL, ansnet, usenet groups, Gopher, Fidonets, BBS servers, DOS, EFNet & Windows 3.0a etc...
Kult has potential to go deeper into the Matrix premise of layers, upon layers, upon layers of the entire conspiracy of keeping Humans asleep angle and you unraveling to break free if you go the "trying to achieve godhood" angle. It wouldn't even be that different from the initial game since the difference now is the sheer existential paranoia the PCs have to deal with as every single horror out there is scared of any human being making progress to Godhood by even a single hair.
The issue is the rules for it in Divinity Lost aren't there, as the devs didn't think anyone would do it and it muddied the focus.
Yes, the other denizens are going to nip it in the bud fairly quickly if a dude makes it known he's getting a clue of the Truth, though I dislike now the only way anything like that may happen is via GM fiat and narrative only.
Old Kult has actual crunch in place to reach Apotheosis and break out of the Prison for real. Very unlikely to manage it, though at least it's there for those who want to go for it.
If you aren't aware Divinity Lost was nothing more than a cashgrab, the 'creators' have nothing to do with previous editions and had no experience with or understanding of PbtA.
What about Nobilis?
Nobilis is a bit different. PCs start as actual gods, with the setting wide open to them. There might be challenges or horror elements, but it's bigger in scope.
Less, "Trying to survive and thrive togain the power to assert your will over the unjust world." and "Okay, you have that power now. The universe is more complicated now that you stand among peers. What do you do when power isn't enough anymore?"
>humans break reality to become gods
ehh i don't think the campaigns are really geared toward that. like even dungeons and dragons lets you ascend to godhood but you're not supposed to
ideally you would make people desperate to have any decent combat ability at all. like having a gun is the equivalent of Wish. that's how the official books are written
If you don't buy them I will. I've been wanting to pick up a lot like that.
Not many people can properly appreciate what they're doing, alternative rock behind iron curtain is something else
I only GMd few oneshots with divinity lost edition, i think its fine, but one of my players loved it, But it definietly was thanks to the setting and tone, not rules
Based taste
Recommending Kult, the new one is fine enough though for the true feel, tone and aesthetic, the old ones are top.
Imagine CoC with the merit/flaw system of world of darkness, where having more merit pts ups your San (though you lose skill points), whilst having more flaw pts lowers it (though you gain skill points).
It was a d20 system, rolling equal or under your stat or skill level to pass the roll, the lower you roll, the better your effect number is - which represents how well your character did the action (having a stat of 15 and rolling an 11 gives you a pass with an effect of 4).
I think in a way it's comparable to Symbaroum in that manner of dice roll resolution, though stats and skills are pure CoC and the game is intended to be played in that way, doing games inspired by Hellraiser, Jacob's Ladder and a lil Twin Peaks/X-Files atop of other similar things.
The setting is awesome, very Gnostic based, though also assigns the Sepirot and Qlippoth spheres archon-entities who have entrapped humanity in the illusionary prison of our reality.
I'll talk on combat if the thread/this post keeps chugging along and more interest pops in.
It’s awesome. I don’t know what else to say really the rules are definitely of the time but they work and support the tone. And you can just scrap the rules and use the setting for Mage or Unknown armies or a similar urban fantasy setting and it’s great.
Is this like a better version of In Nomine?
No
Or maybe Yes
E Nomine is very Catholic last time I checked, with the PCs being Angels and Demons (though I may be misremembering hardcore here)
KULT is very Gnostic and PCs are trapped in an Illusion made to keep mankind from remembering its divine power (think of it as a reverse Call of Cthulhu: most of the nasty critters are there to keep eldritch horrors at bay and asleep, except the eldritch horror is YOU)
It's nothing alike except some of the themes.
Also: better
In Nomine is more about the Demons and Angels then Humans though.
And this is why KULT is better
Why be the agent of some high power that doesn't care about you, when you are a sleeping eldritch creature?
The setting is great.
The rules are shit, just use any urban fantasy rules that suit you.
You take that back
I just wanted a reason to post this art lol
Nah, he's on point. The setting is amazing, but you're better off running it with CoC + some tweaks or maybe GURPS.
NO
NO NO NO NO NO
Which is to say I am in disagreement as I kind of like the PbtA rules for it. Just FFS not GURPS
> Not Gurps
Are you memeing, or do you have an actual reason?
Too much "playing with your character sheet" for a game about going insane.
Wrote a campaign for it two years ago and had a two player group who had their first intertaction with it and had them go through a spiritual journey to enlightenment. Was some of the best gaming I've had in many, many years. System is fine, we played mostly narrativly, and the system felt like it did what it went out to do. We didn't have a lot of combat so I think that helped.
PbtA? For all the shit that people gives to this system, they are using it wrong. It's fail-forward centric and therefor tests should strictly be required for key moments and knowing it can turn the situation into a bigger mess, even if your player's character is specially tailored to face this very situation. A brawler in Divinity Lost has no guarantee to win a fight against a street thug. Narration wise, this is desirable as it lets the story unfold for you and keeps the pressure on.
PbtA is meh but it works for game like Kult. It's all about the setting anyway.
I'm glad we are in agreement
>Does anyone have any experience with this setting?
Not really. i've read a bit of the background text from the core rules and it's all too edgy for my taste, though there are a lot of good ideas in there. basically hellraiser meets gnosticism and mage the awakening
>Does anyone have any experience with this ruleset?
nope, but with the divinity lost set. it's a simple enough system that allows to run a game smoothly and without having to bother much with checking the rules, at least at a basic level. im playing a campaign set in silent hill using kult for the first time and i it's pretty straightforward and fun so far.
This is the best game that nobody has ever played.
What happens if your PC ascends and lifts the veil, assuming that's even considered by the authors? Are there concrete rules for it or is it comparable to the abstractness of golconda in oWod?
Yes, there's rules for going full sainthood and max sanity, or falling fully insane and going edgelord godhood, they're just not in the Divinity Lost version.
It is super hard to do, though if you manage it then you see through the veil and can percieve every reality (like in owod think Umbral vision), you are free of death's cycle and will no longer lose your memory upon it. You also regenerate, if your body is totally destroyed somehow you will get reborn as an infant with all your memories intact, this remade body will grow into the same one as your current one.
You can also do all magic lore spells without need for ritual, all 'casting' is instant, needs no appliances and does not drain endurance - you just will it and it happens instantly.
All your stats multiply by 10 (essentially making you auto-pass any stat checks with frickhueg Effects of success), all advantages and disadvantages vanish - you no longer have a mental balance score and will never be shocked at anything ever again. Essentially you auto-pass any sanity check, to use CoC parlance.
So you become a monster?
Just to let you know
is old rules
In the first line I put this
> they're just not in the Divinity Lost version.
No, not really - you just gain reality warping power and immortality.
There are some Awakened walking around in the setting and they're still human in appearance with varying personalities, likely depending on whether they took the Light or Dark path to Awakening.
You turn into a Holy Saint or Antichrist figure, though you are still 'Human', mainly as the whole setting is that Humans are OP eldritch gods and the real world we see around us is a Prison (there's a few prisons set to keep us trapped in the setting, not just our base reality) set up by the Demiurge, who may or may not have been a Human himself who if so sold the rest of us out to be the singular figure of power.
A conceit of the game is the Demiurge is now 'gone', what happened is different in each edition, though without him his Archons running the prisons are in-fighting to be next in line on the throne, the servitors in charge of keeping things running are stuck fighting the entropy setting in, whilst others are planning rebellion Agent Smith style.
Meanwhile downstairs in the prison of Inferno (Hell) the Shadow of the Demiurge, Astaroth and his Death Angels make out to repopulate their emptying realm, dragging humans to Hell and often getting the not!Cenobites, the Nepharites, to tempt humanity into damning themselves willingly.
These are just the broader beats of what is happening across reality also.
divinity lost doesn't change them that much
i know it says "not suitable to play" but you still can. the character sheet literally has a section for awakening.
True, they just excised the entire chapter of rules for attaining it, which you could in the old game.
I'd have thought there would have been a supplement that gives those rules, though the devs flat out said they didn't want people doing it.
Anon, whilst Divinity Lost is the version available now, outside of the art direction it is a shadow of the old versions and also this anon mentions here
As such, I don't give a frick what the 'new version' retcons into being and I assume this is you also
- you a shill for Divinity Lost?
Getting pointed out more than once now when I post something that was asked on that it's old now as the new devs decided to change/remove it as they didn't know how to make it work with their PbtA hackjob cashgrab has rustled my jimmies a little.
It's also reductive to just shut others down and say 'you can't do that' or 'not anymore you can't'.
I for one like "alien psychopathic degenerate" human far more than "human + magic". Makes sense that godlike shapeshifters that are incarnated nothingness are alien to us.
That's not very 90s of you.
>Getting pointed out more than once now when I post something that was asked on that it's old now as the new devs decided to change/remove it as they didn't know how to make it work with their PbtA hackjob cashgrab has rustled my jimmies a little.
It's also reductive to just shut others down and say 'you can't do that' or 'not anymore you can't'.
Sorry, my dude. It was more me pointing out that the whole mental balance isn't a thing in the new version, just incase you liked that.
(I own the Divinity Lost, but I rather like mental balance from the old game)
Also, why is Divinity Lost a cashgrab? I just thought it was trying to put new life into a game that was dead for a while
>Also, why is Divinity Lost a cashgrab?
Because it's a new thing, and he doesn't like it.
Take meds.
>There are some Awakened walking around in the setting and they're still human in appearance with varying personalities, likely depending on whether they took the Light or Dark path to Awakening.
>There are some Awakened walking around in the setting
In the old versions yes. In the new version we have one newly born awakened, so we have no idea how it acts and nothing else. The awakened arent just humans with superpowers anymore like the described old awakened humans. The description now is "an awakened human would be completely alien to us" + they get ALL their memories back. In the old version the awakened kinda just got more stats and lost that mental balance but at the end of the day still were acting pretty human after they awakened (the Jake or smt dude from the 2nd edition). If you awaken in divinity lost you as a human person are gone. Something like family and submission or authority is completely alien to awakened humans, they would act like completely different beings to us (At the very best massively psychopathic). Buddha, jesus and Jake were all pretty lame and "human-like", divinity lost humanity is literally batshit insane and get the memories of 1000s of lives + the memoris of the long life before imprisonment. They're 100% gonna go full murder hobo torture rapist mode. Awakened humans skinned each other for fun
>become
Always have been.
Sauce my good man, I need to know
Nope.jesuspg
Enjoy, moron.
you gain infinite instant spellcasting on whatever you want including time and space aka reality warping
but you're supposed to end the campaign way before this could ever happen
I found something weird with the Glossary.
There are 3 different entities in Kult with"suspicious" names.
Nepharite, Razide and Azghoul.
In the (completely unrelated by tone and scope) Mutant Chronicles setting, there is a faction of Alien/Demons/Cyborgs/Dark Magic users/Undead/Parallel Reality Intruders called the Dark Legion.
Well, there is a sort of boss monster there called Nepharite. There is an ugly motherfricker that is a mass of muscle and metal and uses heavy automatic weapons called Razide (pic related, posted because Paul Bonner), and another alien monster called Ezoghoul - which is really similar to Azghoul.
Is there any relation? Is "Razide" a word in english or other languages? I am confus.
They where both made by Target Games who where the biggest producer of role-playing games in Sweden back in the 80s and 90s. Mutant Chronicles was a reboot of the Mutant franchise but instead of being post-apocalyptic in the style of Gamma World it was more of a Warhammer mixed with Cyberpunk thing. The creatures having the same name is just a cute cross-game reference and nothing more. Speaking of which, Mutant: Year Zero by Free League is also technically part of the Mutant franchise but goes back to the tone of the classic 1984 game. For some reason Chronicles is still ongoing due to weird rights reasons so i don't think they're technically part of the same franchise anymore.
>The creatures having the same name is just a cute cross-game reference and nothing more
Thank you anon, it makes sense.
Running a game of Kult called Domains In Chains:
https://discord.gg/fHD7TUyN
>Domains In Chains
They were my favorite grunge band.
I have had a lot of fun collecting the books tbh.
The 1e books are 90s as frick.
There's a funny side of the coin between Kult and Unknown Armies. They are on the surface very similar, but they couldn't be bigger opposites when you get into their cosmology and objective.
KULT is far more pessimistic and Gnostic whereas Unknown Armies is bleak, but posits that we can change the world.
In both you can become god, and both have a submerged occult underground.
I don't want to get into arguments about which is better, but it is fun to think on.
It is very cool but good luck finding the right people to play it with and figuring out how to even have "adventures" in such a world.
Its basically mixing up creepy pastas.
If I had to go on an island and I could take only three role-playing games with me, Kult would be one of them. The system is kind of mediocre, but I really like the dark and edgy setting that allows you to play all kinds of scenarios. Being it occult investigations, military action, zombie slasher, mystique quest, horror-survival, etc. Kult does it all out of the box. I also like the fact that most people don't know anything about its setting, which allows you to surprise the players - which is difficult to do with CoC as everyone knows Cthulhu and the Mythos.
I ran the Taroticum campaign, back during the 1990s, and my players liked it alot. The group consisted of an ex-Hell's Angel tattoo artist, an alcoholic taxi driver, a burnt-out bodyguard and a comic book artist. Later, I ran a crappy little campaign that kind of sucked. This time, the group consisted of a drug-addicted Pakistani night club owner, a drug addicted failed actor (who bought his drug from the Pakistani), and a sadistic Japanese bondage master. Somehow everything was too exaggerated and it turned into parody. Which makes me think that it's best when the PCs aren't too weird.