This forum is for discussion of any of the material that is currently up on the Truly Rural website. Currently there are two different ezines hosted, a small selection of gaming articles and downloads, misc fiction, a little humor and whatever else comes to mind.
This forum used to be the Prison of Flesh Kult forum. But with the establishment of The Last Cycle it is no longer needed for that. All the old posts were kept in case anybody feels like digging through them.
Man, that's a game title that sounds pretty Kultalike... I'm going to download the demo tonight and test it to see if there is some more Kult-relations in the game - otherwise you can check it out yourselves at:
Well,there certaintly is something most kultesque going on here....there seeems to be a sense of dark aesthetic in this game...shame that it doesnt seem so well perpetuated through the writings and the artwork..
I personally don't play video games (waste of time,i have many better things to do)as i don't even enter a room with the television on..so excuse me should i sound a tad "snobby".The point is that i can see kultesque influences in this game but at the same time the artistic design as a whole gives me absolutely no dark inspiration at all
...it came out when i still would play "something"...very kuktesque its true...best ending was the one where the whole story is revealed to be the dream of a dead man....
As for SH 2,well,it came out after my abandoning never played it,probably never will....now back to that Eisensteijn movie.....
I've tried it out now - and can only say this - WTF??!!! I mean, WTF!!?!? that's one hour of my life wasted on one of the poorest games I've ever tried...
...I just got sick of the nick name...it was fun for a while but its time to shed skin.Two new nominatives to choose from:
ANAMNESIA (nicely platonic and kultesque)
MOLTEN PLASTIC (nicely aesthetic..i like the way it sounds and the image it perpetuates)
...mostly used for elencating plato's doctrine of "reminiscince".
AN is the greek negation to AMNESIA...therefore it mesns "not-forgetfulness..."
Anamnesis is the process with which the "fallen angels" of humanity remember the past and the ideals...
Basically its what happens when we travel to the forgotten ages with our memories...and awaken
Thanks for the attention!...the names are at par for the moment even though i myself prefer Molten Plastic..But the games are not yet set
By the way...last night i had a dream...
Usually my dreams are more original but this was funny..
I was playing the latest White Wolf World of Darkness game:
ELVIS:THE RESURRECTION
Sounds like a possible future release, it's completely in line with the White Wolf rip-off philosophy. Elvis is hot right now. Then there will be thousands of sourcebooks like "Clanbook The Fans", "Clanbook Southerners", "Hits: unreleased" and the "Southern Cookbook"
I'm waiting expectantly for the future releases of "Politician-the Corruption", "Roleplayer-the Dementation" and "White Wolf-the Greed"
Demon:the fallen....or something like that
I cant believe that WW is coming out with a new game!
In the last month ive seen appear:Dark ages:vampire,Dark Ages:Mage,Vampire:Victorian age and who knows what else...and now this!!!
Do they truly think that every role player will be GMing 4 games at the same time??
Never mind....but lets not forget the greediest fuckers of all:Wizards of the coast.
I'm truly disgusted with "call of Cthulhu D20"
Can somebody convince these guys that the D&D rules are complete crap???
There are a few old classics that just doesn't seem to come back. Could anyone give me a hint as to where these old games could be obtained: Chill, (Chock rather, the swedish version) and Drakar o Demoner Samuraj? Nostalgy beckons...
Yes and the title of this post had nothing to do with the rest of the mail...confusion is my middle name...muahahaha.
Anyway, This is for those who think that Kult\WoD crossover games are doable. (And !mpact this is not for you...)
What would be a good dice system to use? The traditional Kult dice, or maybe the 10-sided WoD version?
My main thought is to keep the system simple, so opt for one of those two? Or maybe create an entire new system? A person who has played neither games should be able to figure it out without having to struggle through a system that is comparable to Einstein's theory of relativity. Which is, to my great shame, where I was heading. I tend to overcomplicate a wee bit.
Easy and simple are the key words here. Any suggestions?
The basics of Special Relativity is quite simple. I think that a 7 year old kid could be made to understand it. But the General relativity... HOOOA! Here we are talking Greek!
Personally I don't like the WoD/Shadowrun style to determine successes. "Let's see now... you have to roll fifty-eleven D10. You fail unless you have XXX successess."
OK, it is very easy to understand the systems, but I don't think that it is very smooth when you have to roll some ten dice to determine how well a character succeeds with something.
Basically, what I mean is that I opt for the D20 as in Kult or in the same way as it is done in DnD, Spacemaster and some other games. You roll a DX and add your skillbonus. The higher the effect the better it is.
Kult all the way. It's fast and simple to understand.
Or the system from Unknown Armies, too, is good. And the sanity system is far more better than Kult one.
The two system are the best in modern rpgs, the WOD one is too clunky with lotsa dices...
Its simple to just integrate the two...i personally believe that WW games can be easily played with just one die:
When it comes to rolling simply add ability and attribute together and roll one D10..
In order to have a success you must simply roll under the sum of the two. The "scart" rappresents the amount of successes plus 1(example..if my sum is 7 and i roll 4 i get 3 successes.If i roll 7 i get only one.If i roll 8 i get none...in the original system i would have rolled 7 dice,here i roll only one but nothing really changes)
Instead of difficulty levels use bonuses and maluses:
DL 3=+3 bonus
DL 4=+2 bonus
DL 5=+1 bonus
DL 6=+/- 0
DL 7=-1 malus
DL 8=-2 malus
DL 9=-3 malus
Everything else remains the same as in the normal WW rulings...
Willpower points can be used for one automatic success
Quintessence gives +1 bonus for each point spent when using magic
Obviously when using magic you only roll under your Arete
As for cyberpunk...i love that game!Believe it or not its actually the first game i ever game mastered.It shall remain in my heart..forever (Especially the adventure where the PG's had to run out of town because they couldn't afford the Trauma Team medical bill..)
...but it is an excellent movie..the plays with lights are superbly conducted and simply loved the "gothic" feeling the whole movie emanated (strange thing,since Amenabar wanted a meditteranean touch to his film)Actually it is kultesque in parts..especially the scene of the dead photo's and the way the sister tortures psycologicaly her brother..
I loved the movie as a whole..and did not find it at all boring (but then again i am your typical "serious movie goer" that passes through films caressing his goatee..).
Note:Now that we're coniating terminology..who gets the paternity for "Kultesque"?Was i he who first pronounced it?Mostly everyone say "kultish" which i personally find much more brutal and not aesthetic in the least manner
I am thinking of doing a Dream World bit...
but find myself stuck for good ideas... the
ideas I have lend themselves more towards
Purgatories... I feel Kult is a bit lacking
in the rules when it comes to the Dream Worlds
I'm not sure what I expect or want to do
really...
It be interesting to hear a few ideas or stories
others here may have used or developed.
Been a while since I read through this section...
If you die in a dream do you really die... I
recall a bit in the rules saying someone can
be injured physically through a dream... What
happens if your Physical body is injured or
dispatched while you are in a dream world...
I know Dreamers can be captured or caged and
then possessed... I don't want to really involve
a Dream Prince at this point... open to all ideas.
I did a piece once based on the world of a syphilitc dream mage. It really unsettled the players who didn't wuite enjoy the rotten 19th century bordellos and dirty Paris backstreets that filled this dreamworld. i've also done stuff with dream wars being fought over the dreamscape of New York with a mixture of Jacob's ladder, Apocalypse Now and beatpoetry as well as asian thought as main influences.
I don't recall where you're from Mr. Raven / Laughing Chance, but if you're from scandinavia you should try to get your hands on the GM screen that came out in the early nineties. It had a pretty cool bundled campaign (well, more an adventure) about dreams and dreaming within dreams.
The Father, The Son and the Unclean Spirit
c.1999 Metropolis Ltd.
I have the adventure and the screen ...
I'm interested to know how others here
if having explored this avenue of Dream
Worlds handled it... I feel Kult Rules
are a bit vague... nothing solid to my
recollection.
I had this really weird dream a while ago:
I awoke to a pounding noise from outside. As I moved to the window I almost fell over from being tired and I had to fight to remain awake all the time. As I reached the window, I looked back at my bed and saw myself still lying there.
Then I awoke again. This time I saw a two metre shadowfigure standing in the doorway looking at me. As I tried to sit up, I realised I couldn't move. It was as if someone was holding me down. The figure then said "This time I'm comming over to you."
Suddenly I could move again. As I sat up, the figur vanished. My whole body shaking and bathing in swet. First I was really scared, but as I remembered the adventure from the GM screen, I thought that it was really cool instead
I've thought of using the first part of the dream as a first step for someone becoming a dreamer. The seeing my own body thingy would be the dreamself leaving the body...
Me and the other coglione named Macchina del Mistero are from Italy. About 6 hours before NYC (here 1200 AM, NYC 0600 AM), +1 on greenwich.
Let us know
I caught an old re-run of this show this afternoon
and it had a really good Kult-like storyline idea.
The show centers around a Vampire who works
nights as a Detective trying to make up for
his mis deeds and become human again. A coroner
friendly to him helps him out with blood and
injections to help him be more normal.
In the episode... I caught the end of...
Some Scientists tring to cure AIDS/HIV
comes up with a possible cure... I guess
for whatever reason the lab wants to close
him down... and stop the research. He has
a friend steal the samples or drugs and
they bypass all medical testing in order to
try and save people then waiting 8 years or
10 before it can be approved...
I guess at some point a victim of the Vampire
community who was injected gets attacked... the
Drugs effect the Nosferatu like a disease that
starts killing them... and spreads quickly
among the blood suckers. The Sire of the community
decides to get revenge on the Scientist... who
I believe has AIDS/HIV... and kills him.
What was cool was he gave the guy hell about
where do the damned go for a cure... who will
help them recover from his drug induced disease
killing the damned.
Turns out the drugs are a failure and the HIV/
AIDS virus overwhelms the medication destroying
it. The Sire is cured of the illness and saves
his community. (Did not cure Vamperism only the
illness) The AIDS/HIV doesn't effect the Nosferatu.
The Vampire cop I assume was investigating the
break in or a murder that occured getting the
drugs from the company... I missed that part.
With a little tweaking it could be a good Kult
story or one shot.
It makes for some interesting moral decisions on the part of the PC's. Such as wether or not it's actually a good thing that vampires die from the cure. Maybe they could actually enter the story line as government agents dispatched to stop the research on the grounds that the nation's secret arsenal of biological HIV-carrying weapons would go obsolete if the existence of the cure was made public. Naturally, the true objectives and reasons for the mission won't be relayed to the PC's. Instead they may be told that the scientists are terrorists working on an aggresive biological agent designed to be released on the unsuspecting population killing thousands of innocents. Makes for another moral issue; will the PC's carry out their mission, even after they've been told that it's actually a cure for HIV? Will they "accidentally" fail to obtain some of the substance, allowing the scientists to get away with it? How will they respond to the fact that the cure kills vampires? Will they accept that as evidence suggesting that the cure was indeed as bio-weapon?
I just love a good, classic, twisted conspiracy with noone to trust, like 24 with Kiefer Sutherland. Good luck. Keep the plot-suggesting business up. I always have such a hard time coming up with good ones, thanks(Think I'll use this one)
Why don't we send a christian group information on the kult role playing game!!
That would be quite fun,might even bring up some new attacks on role playing games!I must say that they have calmed down a little to much lately..shame,i'm getting a little bored
... it seems that you want to behave just like Jeohva's witnesses, going to bother about other people credo trying to change them.
By me we just should ignore them, just like other fanatics, until they break our balls..
Can it be done in a constructive way? Then again, it's always interesting to see the reactions of narrowminded people when you throw something alien in their lap. When people get too narrowminded though, it seems their minds can only be widened using the brute force of a sledgehammer.
Ever tried chatting at churchusa.com? There are some people who would fit into any kult episode. Shortsighted, narrowminded, full of hate and resentment, personifying the very evil they claim to fight. It's otherwise a good place to debate premarital sex, roleplaying games, freedom of the individual, gay-rights, scientific advances and other things considered matters of course by any illuminated, modern specimen of the human species.
I disagree with the post above, fascism and fanaticism must always be fought or at least, one should always remain aware of the fascist/fanatic movement in and aournd one's society.
Isn't your a fanatism as well?
I haven's said that fanatism and fascism shouldn't be fought. I just said that we shouldn't fall in the opposite fanatism. Until they break our balls we should ignore their poor flat minds.. or should we get into a religion war? Kultists against Christians?
I'm not Christian, I must specify.
Bye
...my post had no polemical intention at all,i was just curious on the reaction that a game like kult would have on a narrow minded american christian..
I don't propose war. I propose understanding. I don't propose attacks, I propose enlightenment. Groups who believe themselves to have all the right answers, and that anyone else should pretty much burn at the stakes annoy me however. I'm not a christian either. But since I've seen no proof, I can't say that christians are wrong. I keep all doors open so to speak. There is a risk however small that I'll burn in hell. I don't find it likely though. Respect and open debate would have been a way for people to gain some degree of understanding of eachother. All this is hampered by people who stubbornly refuse to respect points made by people with beliefs different from theirs.
Sometimes suppressing groups like the american christian right need to face the fact that there are other points of views out there. Maybe that would help them to some degree of understanding. I have my doubts, but still...
And I, too! According to them the only fact that we are posting in a forum devoted to horror rpgs is sufficient to condemn us.
So I definitely agree with you, it's just that I missunderstood the post of MMachine.
Bye
Thanks MM, grazie per il bel commento!
Prossimamente, se torno in possesso di Kult, ci metterò anche cosette varie per il gdr in oggetto.
Già ho una bella scheda del PG in italiano...
Cià!
... in my eyes it would only be bad. D&D combat is to me even worse than the DEF-system.
What caught my attention is what I've hear several times before, was that he bought the book wrecked. I mean, no binding should fall apart from July and to now, should it?
I was wondering about that myself...
the book just came out, already masacred.
Maybe the Lictors did it.
Oh, personally I don't really get the
cover either... unless she is like a
dark angel type super agent thingy...
Hmmm, is it a trick to fool the players...
well maybe it is just the art they had...
which is my final conclusion...
Could always fool the PC's and tell them
Metropolis skill on the sheet is understanding
of city gov'ts... or something...
Ultimately, in this age of tech... the PC's
pop on the internet and look up Kult it is all
over anyhow... but I like the idea of separate
books.
I don't get the D&D reference myself... every
system has it's precedures especially for combat.
Half the time they go out the window for common
sense hits & misses.
"The problem with the system is that if you have a skill it defaults to the skill as opposed to it's tied stat. You can not raise a skill above it's tied stat either. What this tells me is if I have an Agility of a 17 and an Acrobatics of a 12, then I have to roll less than a 12 when an untrained person with a 15 in AGility has a better chance at success than I would."
Don't know about any editions apart from 1st ed Swedish. But there you could at least raise above your stat, though it becomes more expensive. And you don't roll roll stats where there are skills. So if you have Acrobatics 3 and Agility 15, you roll against 3. Dunno if this is changed or if he just read it wrong.
Well, I guess what he means is the untrained person doesn't have any acrobatic skill so he'd take his agility instead. Then the completely untrained person would have advances. But IMHO it's a thing of the RM to allow this or make it more difficult then.
I suppose the "AGility" should've been "Acrobatics" and then his complaint makes sense. Still, It makes perfect sense that a person can have AGL 17 and acrobatics 12 while a person with AGL 12 could have a reasonably high Acrobatics rating. Even though the AGL 17 character has a better basis for learning acrobatics, he (/she) may opt not to learn any cartwheeling, while the AGL 12 character may spend a lot of time in training, not enough to warrant a higher AGl-rating, but enough to cartwheel very well indeed.
On the subject of technical rule-blunders in KULT, I found some better stuff on the web a while back. Don't know if this holds true for editions other than the 2nd (swe) or 1st (eng) eds though
1. According to the rules and values a character could take a grenade (of either kind), jump into a trash barrel and detonate it - and come out with a scratch! -I'm allright!, now, don't do this at home kids, I'm a PC.
2. Again, according to the rules and values (poisoning) a character may drink four beers and pass out from the intoxication. :D
Even more weird when the same character who laughed off a close-range grenade detonation goes in to the bar and falls over after a couple of beers...
So beware of the RPG rules GM's. I agree with Mystery machine to some extent. Dice rolls are mainly for show. Atmosphere is everything.
I dunno...I'd just like a set of rules that work well as written, if they cant be bothered to write a set of rules then they should just stick to background material...
Yes it is a very great part of an adventure, but I like to have a set of rules to fall back upon from time to time. Combat is one example. If there are no rules then the players (mine at least) feel like they didn't do anything, they become puppets of the show with no free will and the GM becomes the PM - Puppetmaster . When I am a player I'd like to know that my characters skills and decisions got him out of that zombie infested graveyard, not the GM's arbitariness.
I just wanted to point out a few blunders in the rules that I find highly entertaining (mood of entire previous post was supposed to be humorous). My purpose was not to argue against the implementation of rules in RPG's. Of course the rules need to be there as a means of simulating reality. If rules were unnecessary, then so would the rest of any core book. Mistakes in print however are great sources of fun. Think it was on "rävsvans" (swedish rpg homepage for those of you who live elsewhere) that I found those particular KULT blunders, among several other notes on other games. Laughed my ass off.
Sometimes rules do not cover reality in a very realistic way. The best game I've ever played concerning realism was "Western", the old Lancelot games ed. (Then again, combat could take forever). The best overall set of trules though is found in KULT. No other game (that I've played) makes the action run so smoothly.
Western sure is a wonderful game. The system, as I mentioned, is (was) unsurpassed in the terms of translating reality meticulously. And it wasn't as slow as one might expect once one got used to it. Jotting down the proper situational modifiers and following the time chart went real smooth after some time, when ,odifiers were memorized and so on. I even got hold of the GM screen in a toy store where they supposedly didn't carry RPG's anymore, and then I ordered all the adventures from SF in a bundle by the handsome price of 179 SEK (or something close to it).
"Herren ger och Herren tar" was great. Played that one? In order to survive (having only 70 bucks and our underwear when we came into town) we robbed the nice old german lady in the General Store on clothes and equipment (I was a player at that time), camped in the mountains, failed to prove the guilt of the bad guys and finally escaped the area with two nuns as hostages having killed the "priests" in the monastery. The price on our heads went from 0 to 400$ faster than anyone could say -I'll beei dayimned!
Yeah you're right.
But rules should be very light and realistic, just like Kult 1st edition or Unknown Armies.
I found out that Kult rules are great in combat, if you let go that combat phase crap and apply just a simple penality to the multiple actions.
Fast and lethal. And for the other rules just like electicity, etc... never used!
Ego throw is good but should be used with care not to break the fear or tension...
Agreed! There are combat rules that are used very seldom. But suddenly you find yourself in a situation where you think: "Man! I haven't even used that rule before!" Happened last saturday when we were playing the black madonna. One of the PCs alomst got strangled in the middle of a gunfight. It was seriously funny!
One of the PCs alomst got strangled in the middle of a gunfight. It was seriously funny! hehe...
BTW, I had this scene where the characters were all locked up on the sixth floor of a building, they tied sheets together and started climbing out the window... Cool bit: they failed their roll when tying the stuff up, so at fourth floor they fell down, breaking legs and ribs and whatnot. Just had me grinning when they were wondering why I was looking up the damage for falling while they were climbing the sheets
Without going into the deeper chemistry of the brain, I could say that your neurons will develop receptors for tetrahydrocannabinol (or rather what THC is broken down to), causing a very real and physic dependance to the drug. So technically you are a junkie ;P
Interesting concept...actually i believe that being marijuana an allucinogenic (That the english word?)and not working at all on sensation centers of the brain (like nicotine does)it should not create any form of physical dependance...psycological is another manner and is up for debate...as its effects on the brain (Though i personally always study better under its effects...and am much more eloquent in speach...i also fall over people but lets not consider that...)
...as you can see! Sometimes the lictors slip. The cracks in the illusion appear more and more often, and at an increasing number of places. The lictors are just too busy. Besides, censorship wouldn't expect people to interpret it as the true glimpse of the Machine city it seems to be. Rather, like the game itself, it's expected to be perceived as a work of fiction. I suspect that Lictors may be responsible for disclaimers....
I quote:"rather,like the game itself,its perceived as a work of fiction...."
By dionisus!You don't think that the role playing game "kult" exists in the illusion as well!!!???
I just got an idea for a truly "weird" sort of adventure...i think you know what i'm thinking....
Truly contorted...
I think it may exist in the illusion. It's a tough question though. I want to give the playing experience a sense of plausibility (is that a word?) so I want to include anything that exists in our reality (ie illusion) in the illusion. Some problems occur though. It would be really nagging with a pplayer whose character is, say, a student who loves horror RPG's and keep saying: -Oh, KULT is real! Wait... that thing must be a nepharite! It will take two fatal wounds to kill it...
It's even a bigger problem in a game like Vtm, where the PC's might go:
-Hey, that game is a breach against the masquerade! We must stop it! Wait... I didn't know THAT about Giovanni...
But the idea of letting the PC's obtain an example of the KULT core book would be interesting... I actually played a one-shot adventure with myself as an NPC and the players playing themselves. It was exciting to use environments out of the ordinary everyday life. Had to use very subtle evil and effects to give it a feel of reality though. Basically, the adventure started as an ordinary KULT session with the players using their PC's, and then the adventure spilled over into real life so to speak. Don't think I'll ever do that again though. It was too scary, too tangible, too real. Took months before I could take the train without wondering...
I did an "all flesh must be eaten" one shot where italy was invaded by zombies and the players actually played themselves..i actually did it with an ironic intent..for example:I was the first to die,being ripped up and devoured by a dozen of the bastards..i quite enjoyed playing out my death and screaming to hell..
We also made fun of different characters that we knew in the little city of Novara:Like the "comic book store guy",a fat metalhed that never paid attention to any clients requests and just played video games all day...what a shock to find him on top of his shop with beer cans and a sniper rifle!And what a shock when he started sniping the players as well!!
Then there was the scene with the "Ex class mates zombies" the "ex girlfriend zombies" the "girlfriend zombie"Poor guy couldnt bring himelf to shoot her...
Everybody died at the end obviously...i must admit that we had a fun night
I can see the potential for comic experiences, especially when familiar characters are used. We had a lot more serious approach to our "Real Life" session, a little too serious perhaps. But I used familiar NPC's as well of course. Only they did just what they would be expected to. Almost. Don't think I'll do it again though.
It doesn't seem like something that would turn out rather scary, probably more like comic, but when we played it, it felt very real, probably because we use the train lines where a major event of the adventure took place pretty often, and because every NPC and every location were taken out of a very probable, very daily environment. It was all too easy to see everything that transpired happen in your head.
Hello there.
Black Madonna is a Kult campaign set in the soviet Russia (mainly in Leningrad), with timespan stretching from the 2nd World War up to the present times. It is about the struggle between the Death Angel Chagidiel and the Archon Binah (the Black Madonna), fighting for the control of Leningrad and its young inhabitants. Of course the PCs are to play a vital role in the action. Some of the strong points of this book are use of the real wartime horrors (and 2nd WW in Russia was far more violent than in the western Europe), as well as the intriguing bits of Russian culture and religion (orthodox christianity, icon painting etc.).
The campaign was published in Sweden only, as far as I know. I doubt you'll find an on-line translation of Black Madonna, as well as of any other Kult book. We, followers of this game, are basically respecting copyright.
It's perfectly allright, assuming nobody's making money out of it? Hmm, not quite I believe.
If you make all books/RPGs/comics/music/whatever "open source", publishing it freely on the Internet, free of charge - that's probably a perfect deal for the readers, listeners etc. Not so perfect for the authors though. If their work is available for free, then it's absolutely non-profit, right? How can they make a living out of it, if nobody's ever going to pay them? Soon there would be no "professional" (doing it for a living) writers, musicians, game designers etc. All that'll be left would be some amateurs, doing it as a hobby...
And there is always the question of scale. If you photocopy "Judas Grail", "Black Madonna" or some other hard-to-find book and hand it to your friend (for free ) - I'll say that's quite OK. But if you scan it and publish on the Internet, I don't think so.
Actually if people published works
just for the sake of artistry there
would be a hell of a lot more reading
material worth reading... instead of
some faceless corporate executive
deciding what we get to read, what
movie is made and what songs we can hear
instead of the stick with the formula
crap we get these days... IMHO
Hello Raven.
Your view seems to be a bit too idealistic for me. One shall be creating and publishing "just for the sake of artistry"? Fine, but how can he afford the living then? Get a job as a janitor, street cleaner, taxi driver... and then write/compose/draw things at night or in a free time, just to make others happy? Not too realistic imho. The fact is that most of the successful artists had to give up every other job at some point and devote themselves solely to the creative work.
And here's another point: what you have written was probably true about 30 years ago. But now? Actually everybody can publish his work. If you have some money, go and buy yourself a printing. You can print anything you want, publish a book, record a CD - unless you have some cash for it. Actually many independent artists do so. If you don't have money, publish your work on the Internet, it's free! And still you may reach thousands or even millions of readers/listeners/etc. It is possible, no problem. So where is this "hell of a lot more material _worth_reading_"?
Didn't mean to rant, just exchanging ideas again...
That precedent theory is not at all idealistic:True art is a creation that exists solely for its own purpose.If freed how the claws of business only then can it truly express it's total potentiality.Much literature and art that we posess from past ages is cporrupt,as being produced by artists that were trying to mantain a certain status with the political and economical powers...
True art,literature,poetry..whatever should exist without boundaries...economics is a worst boundary even than censorship.
Think of the music industry and all the crap that comes out thought only for making a profit,who knows how many great artists have never made themselves known and forced to obscurity because drowned by the pop music industry...
How many great writers,never to be known simply because they don't have the right contacts..
I unfortunately find you as the idealist Marcin,you idealize a capitalistic structure that suffocates true creation as being positive and for the good of humanity.The so-called "producers" of this art are actually all ignorant money-grubbers,completely uninspired...they are the devastators of pure art.
You say that without profit nobody would create art?I laugh...i laugh because every day you and i see a pure example of art existing not for profit but "per se":Grafitti.
Probably the only art form that exists only for itself...those that create it gain no profit and acyually risk fines everytime they create...why would they do it?The businessman that rants against piracy and lies about democracy would say:"for the taste of vandalism"....i say:"for art itself"
I truly believe that as a natural process the art industry is going to crash...as you yourself said,everyone can publish a book today,anyone can make a CD (i know many people who do)and as a result anyone can beat the industry.(of course publishing a book is one thing...circulating it an entire different matter).
I am an idealist yes,but of a more realistic manner:Games for one should onely exist on the web the way i see it...after all roleplaying games are so easy to produce and so many good ideas exist that are surpassed by the "usual" DnD...having them only exist on the web would mean renouncing to hardcovers and coloured drawings but it would not kill this passion...if anything it would exhalt it:After all roleplaying is strongly radicated in a forgotten oral tradition that no longer exists in this age "of to many writings"...it therefore should be free..
Think of Kult:We all waited anxiously for its third edition and now we find our fandom being used to sell us expensive modules one after the other...my money could be used in better ways...if on the other hand kult had been put on the web after it's demise all the fans could get together and put down not only ideas but even entire expansions for anyone to use..without anyone having to pay penny.
I could go on forever on this poetic vision of free art but,partly disturbed by someones possible boredom i shall conclude saying this:
Any artist that abandons his passion for lack of profit,is an artist this world can do without.
...with some points that you've made. Yes, the art industry is a bitch. Yes, it's promoting what's most likely going to sell best. That is: crap, from yours and mine point of view. But hey, they're not forcing you to do, buy or watch anything. You're free to choose. I don't buy records of Britney Spears or Enrique Iglesias, even if they're most popular, bestselling or whatever.
Why there are so many great artists who never draw much attention, and you (and I) think they desired it? Do you really believe it's solely the matter of industry moves, of advertisement, right contacts and so on? Do you really think that people who listen to Britney Spears would switch to Front 242, Joy Division or Dead Can Dance, if "the industry" would promote the latter good enough? Well, I believe it's not that easy. The sad truth is that the vast majority simply wants Britney Spears. That's just their level. That's exactly what they expect and that's exactly what they're receiving. Some fair percentage of Europeans doesn't really understand the news on TV. Even greater number did not read any book last year. So, are they simply not given anything "ambitious"? Yes, they are. But they don't want it.
The more ambitious "pieces of art" are condemned... not to oblivion, not at all - but to a niche kind of living, I'm afraid. Not only because of the industry shakers and movers, but because of the overall society standards, likings and tastes. Staying in the so-called "popular culture" areas: there still is a dedicated and devoted group of fans admiring Dead Can Dance music, Enki Bilal graphic novels, and Kult RPG. But none of them could be ever as numerous as the followers of Britney Spears, Superman comic and D&D RPG. We're minority, you and I as well, and we have to admit it.
Concluding about your conclusion Yeah, I'll agree - up to some point. A real artist would not abandon his talent entirely just for lack of profit. He'll go on creating whenever he can. But just think of how many more could he do, not forced to work some silly job just to make a living, and instead gaining some cash from what he's created.
And one more thing. I'm not idealizing capitalism. I'm not at all saying it's the best system one could ever think up. But as a Pole I've lived most of my life under the communist rule and I just see the difference.
regards,
Marcin
--
P.S. You seem to miss two main points I made in my previous post... And I still think they're quite essential.
I guess we all have our opinions.
I recall a major issue with closing
down NAPSTER was it was hurting the
music industry sales when polls showes
the exact opposite... People will always
want a real copy or collectable...
or official wahtever... some people
will never have bought a CD if they
didn't hear a song for free... and want
to find out more...
I respect copyrights in general and I
really enjoyed this debate... once you
put forth an idea or melody... there is
really no way to contain it... it becomes
something, incorporated into and belonging
to the world... otherwise keep it to your
self... and be satisfied you did it.
...good ol' Mystery Machine has just fallen in love with a girl...and she looks quite a bit like the "new age pagan" in the first edition book..She even dresses the same way..
Something strange is going on here...
I have recently acquired a copy of kult and find it a truly fresh and fascinating setting. I hope to run a game in this world and was wondering if you guys could recommend any decent KULT sites, which might supply some inspiration?
Also, I have purchased the new players guide (Rumours), do they intend to /have they yet released the new GM’s guide?
Kult players are far and divided...we have to stick together as close as possible!!
Were not playing some mass produced DnD here!Were playing the best RPG ever...and as a result one of the most neatly hidden..
Welcome amongst us NewB,and remember:
"Madness is probable,
Damnation assured"
...well, not really, just wanted to say that I am watching you...from a very dark corner of the (under)world...
About the topics that has been listed in my abscence (whatever spelling):
Mage/Kult : Interesting ideas, I have thought about introducing my friends into Mage because it is so similar to Kult, but about merging it with Kult...hmmm... you have to drop quite alot from one, the other or both to make it possible...unless you have several years to figure it out proper.
My experience is that if you make up a world of your own out of several RPG's then you get fourteen shelfs of rules and info... might be intriguing, but a bitch to keep in mind...for the GM... even worse for the players who havent (and shouldnt) read it.
Little Fears: checked it out from affar.... seems interesting... (I like tormenting kids [] ) but for now I have not tryed it out.
Movies: Arlington road is interesting from a Kultesque point of view, so is Ninth Gate, Dark City, MothMan, Sixth Sense (watch it and think about the main character and his position in "life" ), All the Hellraiser movies of course, even though I find them more Call o Chtullu or Chill then Kult, but thats due to the fact that they are more gross(e?) then horrific in my opinion.
Otherwise I would reccomend some books aswell:
StarDust (Neil Gaiman), Good Omens(comes as a movie next year directed by Terry Gilliam) by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, ANY Horror RPG books (for instance the WoD books or Call of Chtullu).
hmmm... I havent tormented anything yet....bah...next time....next time....
For those who like Gaiman, check out American Gods. I believe it's his latest. Kinda Mage-y.
As for the Mage / Kult thing, I think that the whole thing would be more Kult than the other (if I did it, anyway). It would just have characters that were capable of causing a little more chaos. The thing about it that I realized in trying to think up a cross over is that White Wolf and Kult are inherently different in one very important way...
White Wolf excuses the actions of people because of Supernatural influences, whereas Kult is the struggle of people against those supernatural forces, but what you do is all on you own accord. If that makes any sense.
welcome back, man... It's been quite a while. Only thing I've heard from you in a long while were some rumours through Semivivus & K6. Hope you've been doing something sensible lately (ie. plotting to take over the world, working your butt off working in bars & memorizing kult rules)
BTW: The Good Omens movie sounds just perfect with Gilliam directing it, since Terry Pratchett's humor is so obviously Pythonesque...
Actually i've known about this production for about a year and have anxiously been waiting since then.Gilliam is one of my favourite directors and extremely baroque.
I'd prefer not to remember how many times i've watched Brazil
I was just wondering on gamemastering techiniques...how do you run a game?What are your little tricks?I have mine
I'm pretty much sure nobody here uses a game screen..i personally find them useless and cumbersome,actually i believe that using one creates a barrier between players and masters,no barrier should actually exist..players and game masters are friends and work together for the sake of the game..
I myself am very theatrical..i cant sit down during a game,as the excitment rises my voice get frantic and loud,my eyes flare up..i grab players from their seats and enact energetically the action..when scenes are creepy my voice gets moaning i curl over the table sputtering sentences inspired by the feeling of the moment..i look the players directly in the eye and unnerve them in anyway possible.Png's are all acted out..in every gesture..i encourage players to do the same with their characters.Physical contact is the norm.
One thing i love is throwing myself on the ground when enacting the death of a png..in kult i make deaths as gruesome as possible:"bang!the shot!your eyes are closed but you hear an unnerving sucking sound in front of you..you open your eyes...through the dancing smoke of your pistol you see the gangsters distorted face:his eyes crooked in a smirk of suprise..red spattered around his mouth..mouth that continues to rigurgitate large quantities of dark blood..his gruesomely painted hand holding his neck...shakingly..his lips uselessly trying to speak...<b..trd..fkn..spu..g..n..m..bch>"
All this while holding my neck and showing suprise..
Even in normal situations i tend to gesticulate a lot both physically and mimically.
I know from experience that few people game master like i do..and it is tireing.But at the end,when you fall back in the chair exhausted with a sigarette in your hand and the players around are all applauding..well its worth it
I've banged on the table, kissed a player,
face to face yell at them... point and do
accents... Years ago I was much more into it,
I used to roll dice or act like I was looking
things up to unnerve PC's...
In a different game system I acted out and created
this aged Elf who had a son missing... the players
loved the old man so much when they finally came
across his sons dead body and found out what happened
they couldn't bring themselves to tell him er... me.
I like to actually craft documents, maps and things they find... burn half a page or ink it, soak it and such and let them work on it from there... less time, less mind these days to do so. I started on RPG's when I was about 12yrs old... seems so old to me sometimes as now I am 32... 20 years of gaming under my belt.
Or rather, our style is completely free of any kind of acting. You could tie us down and blindfold us and it wouldn't make much of a difference. It's all narrative with us.
So my techniques therefore are narrative in nature. My players have to listen very carefully to what I describe and how. There might be hints included. If I mention a desk, it's a good idea to search it - if I mention the wastepaper basket, maybe there's something in there... That's not always the case, but it makes people pay attention.
I also like to split the group and build the storyline for one or one part up to a cliffhanger and then go on with the other group for a time, leaving the first stranded.
I use the screen mainly to cover up my "covert ops" (notes, plot, rolling dice etc.). Our gaming style is highly centered around performance and "acting out". Rules are very secondary, many of the dice rolls I make behind my screen are just made to create an effect. In order to instill a horror mood I have found that subtlety goes a long way. The blatant description of bloodcovered walls, torn off limbs laying around etc. worked some years back when we were new to horror rpgs, now the players are so used to this (jaded) that they hardly flinch, not matter how it affects their character. I want to instill the sense of fear not only in the characters but , more importantly, the players (don't we all?) and so I've found that subtle "scary effects", weird noises, the sense of lurking danger but no actual threat to be seen etc works hell of a lot better.
You can never really know what the PC's
will do or how they will react... I try
to lightly guide them... I've had it happen
they go off on a tangent... some minor
detail... someone in the group convinces
the others is all inportant... so my style
developed to have a multi-branched flow
chart outline... with background on the
principal characters in the story. Ultimately
that is what we do... allow the story to slip
out little by little to string them along...
and wanting more... This can be self defeating
if you linger too long... like the way the
X-Files went down hill last few seasons. I
have used screens... mostly to hide my notes
and figures from the players... but I have
been known to wing it here and there. You have
to be adaptable or it's no fun for them and
you are just wasting your time.
If players are jaded about finding limbs it's always a good idea in a reality-defying game such as Kult in which time and space are not immutable to have them notice the limbs are theirs.
The Kult Klan are very narrative, although we act out all dialogues - and we have many of them too, because we play out every little detail ("I get up, brush my teeth, start brewing coffee: black with a little sugar - no! wait! I make cornflakes instead, THEN I make the coffe!" -sigh-) that has no relation to the campaign/adventure. This builds strong bonds with the characters they are playing, but it can also be a pain in the butt...
GM SCREEN is something I have to use, because players are SNEAKY BASTARDS who will cheat if you give them the chance (reading the headers of a campaign can reveal a lot) so I have to be a kindergarden GM as well and watch their dice while they are rolling. One of 'em has figured out the perfect way to cheat the dice, though: yellow transparent d20 with white print - he knows damn well I can't see that particular dice across the table.
Hand-outs is something I use all the time, so the players actually have some physical evidence of whats goin on. Props is something i use for the same purpose (bloody surgical gloves, gardening stuff modified to look like physical transformations etc.) often with quite dramatic effect Taking the time to make a bit of paper look really old (put some hot water and tea in a pan an put a cheap sheet of paper in it, good trick) is always worth it because it adds to the overall effect.
Explain...your players enact EVERYTHING that their characters do?That reminds me of my first days in GMing,i used to do cyberpunk and would try to makeout every detail of the players day in order to get them into the feeling of the game world..
Personally i'd find it boring and ineffective,when it comes to timing and scenes i use cinematic and narrative techinques.Many of my stories begin "In media res" that pushes the players to get into the characters and the story right away.I've also used flashback techinques to great effect.(I remember one adventure where a character was awoken in a slimy and damp pit..with a cancer rapidly growing under his armpit...devouring his flesh and mutating his body...the adventure then began a week before...The poor player was terrorized for the whole game because he new how it was all going to end up.Of course a thing like this is very tough on the players and you have to be sure of the maturity your players possess)
In my adventures you may see short scenes with characters at work or with the family,but they have the purpose of getting players into better fleshing out their characters,and they are never frequent.
I find it useless to describe everything the characters do and see...i do work on atmosphere alot so i might lose myself in describing the wet,slushy streets of New York in winter,but if characters have to "Meet the chief" i wont have them describe "Going down the stairs...opening car...where'd i put the keys.."I'd probably just throw the characters in front of "The chiefs" ugly face,with him chewing on his cigar and spitting with every sentence
There are useless scenes in my game though..some are simply comical (Of course in kult humour is always as bleak as possible) or involve interesting characters...a bit like in "The big Lebowski",where half of the scenes have nothing to do with the narrative structure but are just genius (NOBODY FUCKS WITH THE JESUS)
But thats the way I play,its not at all the way EVERYONE should play..what i've learnt from this discussion is that there seems to be two different types of GM's,the NARRATOR and THE ACTOR.Narrators seem to use game screens and sit down..Actors are always moving and throw away both rules and game screens...It all depends on game style and what one is used to.Of course if this was,say a D&D forum,well in that case we'd find a lot of other types of GM (Of course on D&D forums you're forced to say "Game moderator" instead of "Master" in order to avoid getting kicked out for sexism)especially APATHOI..which are those game masters that sit down with dice,chips and piles of books and just play (some would say "read")a published adventure without any feeling whatsoever...they hardly ever seem to move...and their players just conversate out of character on Buffy's tits between one badly simulated combat and another.
I see a lot of these at conventions.
Luckily on this forum we're all Kultists (and perverts).
Anyway,using props is great.I use them quite a lot as well..saturday i found a wrecked car radio in the street ,put it in my bag and went around town all night with it..its sure to become a prop i'm just not sure how to use it yet...any suggestions?
Well they don't act EVERYTHING but damn near. I like acting out scenes with family involved the most, because then I can make the family more voulnerable afterwards...
But we play near every scene, the characters (I only have two-three players, that's why this works) 'act out' all calls, visits, most airport scenes, all shopping scenes and most of their rituals (going to bed & getting up). They act pretty well at times and instead of interrogating people for information, they have actually fallen more into character and sit down and take a coffee with the person and chitchatting along until they must interrogate him...
hi,
actually, after giving the books (the french ones) more reads, I can't find anything new from the previous editions!? And judging from the releases planed, there is not going to be anything new (Book of Magic, Black Madona, Clavis Inferna Part One). From these only Black Madona wasn't actualy available, unless you were/knew swedish.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm happy that Kult is again in print, but i expected some original material, if no better reason because the game is now in the hands of players.
This also brings me to another question, why Neko doesn't anymore bother with this forum? She/He also doesn't even bother with the french mailing list!
Hi,
well, for me "Black Madonna" and "Clavis Inferna" would be certainly a new material. Yes, they were both released, but never in English (the former was published in Swedish, the latter in Spanish only, AFAIK). I do see the point that 7th Circle makes putting these particular books into print: they most probably lack some really new material; and they most probably want to throw something fresh on the market nevertheless. "Madonna" and "Clavis" are quite a good choice here, as they're still relatively unknown to all the English-speaking readers. And personally I'd love to see these ones translated...
"Book of Magic" will be most probably something like two Conjurer's guides combined and re-edited.
Seven years ago... that puts us in 1995... OK so most likely for you it has changed. Kult 2nd edition (US) & 3rd edition both use a new combat system known as the DEF-system. I don't like it, but...
The US second edition came in 1997 (not to be mistaken with SWE second edition from 93/94) and had these changes from earlier editions (most likely most of these changes will even be present in the publishings of 7th Circle):
* Some of the artwork are from the Kult Collecting Card Game
* Hit Location has been replaced by the DEF-system in combat. In other words, staking a nosferatu through the heart is (according to the rules) impossible (still some of the creatures have the old damage system in their tables, not the DEF system).
*Demiurge is implied to be alive (more so than in the 1st US edition
*Demiurge's palace is gone
*The Cube has been left out
*An introductory adventure has been added
*The Dark Art is introduced as a sort of replacement for common powers of creatures in Kult (such as their ability to manipulate the Illusion) as well as the Magical Lores
*The Magical Lores have been dumped, the players now need to buy two extra sourcebooks...
*There are some new incarnates in the GM's section of the book
*There are fewer incarnates, Dream Princes etc.
*The book seems to be printed on more expensive paper, and with silver and white cover it seems classier than it's predecessor.
*... and there's possibly lots more
i been hovering around for ages waiting for a new edition of Kult, no after reading yur posts it looks like i'll be searching for a copy of the second edition now. Any chance of anyone knowing where to find a nice PDF version of Kult GM book edition 2?
because if they are gonna fuck it up commercially i wonna version that can be spread through the fans, how else are new people gonna pick it up and expand.... :p
... some at this forum have worked very hard to keep Kult OFF the net. This because this might be the only way to get it back to print and get all nice supplements that may be the result of a new release.
If you look hard enough I you will find a mint copy of the second edition of Kult.
Great looking site... I clicked
on a few things and I came to a
sad conclusion that kind of ruined
the experience for me... I don't
speak Italian! Nice job though
I've been working on this idea for a long time, being a dedicated Kult StoryTeller with a sad lack of interested players.
Having MU*'d for a long time, I'm currently looking for a server to host a game on. I've got a few coders willing to help, but so far no place to put it up.
If anyone has any tips or advice, please e-mail me at mjeff20@email.msn.com. I'd appreciate even constructive flaming.
Sorry,but i really never figured MUD's out,i eben tried to play them but could really undertand what i was supposed to do,besides chatting in character...
How would a Kult version work?Explain...if its sounds intriguing i'd be on your side completely
Slowly the door creaks open... from the darkness
the mist seems to pour in to the room... silently
a beautiful woman clothed in a silken nightgown
seems to float in to the room... she becons to you
to join her. The room is chilly though the fireplace
is lit and burning.
There is a door exiting north and a
door south from which she came.
If you want to join her go to page 122 read B
If you want to rush past her go to page 8 read C
If you want to exit north go to page 34 read A
If you want to wait turn to page 17 read B
It might be fun to do a website like that... for
old times sake.
MUDs are a bit different. A MUD is focused on automatic code to determine fights and using skills.
A MUSH is basically a text-based environment you walk around and interact with other players IN Character through poses. An example:
'Rasheem steps into the dusty alleyway bar, adjusting the buttons on his jacket. Noting the cold air of the winter's night and the lack of proper heating in the establishment, he keeps the jacket on, making his way idly to the bar.'
Wheras a bartender would respond with something like:
'Elias the barkeep studies the new arrival through the plume of smoke wafting from the smoldering cigarette between his lips. A discontented grunt and he begins to wipe a glass, his rough voice asking, "What'll it be?"'
Dice rolls are handled with code, like '+roll 1d20'. And Character Generation is mostly automated. It is, in essence, like writing an interactive multi-person story.
It may be two years old but i just saw it saturday....masterpiece may i say
Its obvious why so much discussion has arised from this film..its a direct attack on the japanese system.
Students forced to kill each other,spit on friendship and love,students brought to realize how in reality they should have interest in noeone but themselves.
Law is Competivity
Success and to remain the last man standing.
I find this gory movie as a ferocious metaphour on the cruelness of capitalistic systems..
And of course a great bloodfest as well.
As for the atmosphere,that balance between anguish and subtle irony (The instruction video "How to kill friends"...the gym teacher teaching to an empty class..the school bitch who takes care of her makeup even during "the game")a great lesson for anyone looking for a dark streak of humour for their kult sessions.Modestly i've always been somewhat of a master in dark humour..should it come to kult especially and i find that ironizing on the most horrid of situations is excellent in augmenting feelings of despair..
As for other japanese films with "kult" streaks i'm sure that you've all seen "ring"...i myself only enjoyed this heavily publisized film in parts and as a result have not seen yet Ring 2 nor Ring 0.But i must say that the whole atmosphere is in effect quite gratifying and of inspiration.
As for DONNIE DARKO i'm afraid that nobody here in Italy has ever heard of it...i even asked my friend from the "Bloodbuster" video store and he neither knew anything about it.The movie came out a year ago and it seems to have been released only in the US and in England...ordering the tape is expensive so i'm afraid quite some time will pass before i manage to get my hands on a copy.
It's a pity you can't get your hands on that one. I think it's a life changing movie, as I said before, but I also wonder what people from other countries think about the film. It's not your typical American film by any means (way too artistic, visionary even), but it is very rooted in white fences suburban America. Kind of portrays the inherent irony in the upper middle classes attempts to shun the rest of the world. Ironic because they open up an entirely new pandora's box right in their own backyards.
So what exactly does Kult : Rumours have in it? i hear it's mostly a reprint of the old info, but that's okay w/me as long as somebody is publishing the game, but what info exactly is in it? It sounds like they might have left a lot of the background info out and this is mostly for players?
Yes, this book is destined to be accessible to the players. This is some kind of "player's book". So they left out all that concern the cosmology, the dark secrets, the differant reallities (inferno, metropolis, dreamlands) and the creatures.
So it looks like even kult is falling into the abyss of "player-GM guides"
This disgusts me strongly
So i'd now have to buy two expensive hardcover books just to be able to play one game?
How much do these books cost?
I guess i'll miss out on the third edition,i have the first two anyway and the third probably just reprints the same stuff.
Publishers like 7th circle should realize that only big roleplaying editors can actually afford to force economical stress on players in order to play their game.
Kult isn't exactly the most popular game around,and if someone wants to push it out of the "nicchia" then they would have to work on a different strategy.
Don't think that i'm not happy that kult is once again in print,actually i'm over the bloody moon..but in order to keep it alive new players will have to be attracted..if 7th isn't able to do this than it looks like the best horror role playing game ever conceived will just drown into darkness once again
Rumors cost almost 30 euros, and beyound the veil about 35 (?).
Yep, this edition is really frustrating for the long time players (or owners)of Kult.
But, they had to make the rulebooks available again before publishing supplements.
Rumours costs 21$ at Nobleknight, about 23 euros. Compared to the 39$ of UA2 and the 36 of Nobilis2 is not so much. Then there are the posting fees, that suck...
Beyond the veil dunno.
With the demand and sold out notices
I have seen for Rumours you'd think
they'd get the French kissed asses in
gear and start pumping out material while
interest is high...
...but on a more positive note, maybe it's just because demand is so high that they're having a hard time keeping up?? Maybe that's wishful thinking, but who knows!
I have to say that for the most part I STRONGLY agree w/you Mystery. Games like D&D are overpriced and need to cut a lot of fat in their printings. Kult is different though.
I've always felt that Kult was the first and only game that needed to separate the two. Why? Simple. The few people that have played Kult w/me have really liked it, but to this day, NONE of them know anything about the cosmology of Kult. Even the guy that had played the game for something like 40 sessions never knew anything except that there was something called a Nepharite and something called a Razide, but he knew that by accident! However, almost EVERYONE has liked the game and wanted to take the book home just for character creation. They don't want their fun ruined, though. Therefor they wouldn't want the background and cosmology. That's why it would be good to have two separate guides. One could sell a Player's Guide pretty well.
I dont know the Kult game that much. Do I need the two books to play the game (and wait until the next comes out. Anyone knows when this book comes out?) Or is the game full playable with onely the first (onely released).
Hello.
It certainly depends... If you're a GM (willing to run Kult) and you're new to this game then yes, you have to wait for the GM's Guide to see what's it all about. Or you must seek the old editions, because with the Player's Guide only you won't do much. The new GM's Guide is announced for December 2002, but I'd add a few months extra.
But if you're a player willing to enter the Kult universe under a guidance of some enlightened (awakened? ) GM, then I assure you the Player's Guide ("Rumours", that is) will be more than enough. It's even better for the player not to know too much of the Kult world...
I noticed that somebody (was it Robin?) was talking about Mulholand Dr. and this reminded me of another kinda Lynch-ish movie that was also VERY Kult-ish (to me). Anybody seen Donnie Darko? It's awesome!! (Of course, I also LOVE David Lynch... downright fanatic).
Donnie Darko is a great representation of a boy put through so much trauma (just iby being a teen) that he sees through the illusions of time and space. Another cool thing: it's right there in middle class America in the 80's right before the first coming of Bush. (Hehehe).
And COMPLETELY off topic, is anybody as big a fan of the band Sigur Ros as me? (Somehow this topic made me think of that, too)
Donnie Darko is one of, if not the, best 'teen' film to come out in at least 5 years. A testament to its genius- here in Chicago, a local arthouse multiplex (yet! it exists!) runs it for a single day, usually two showings, about every 3 months. Sells out almost every time. The ending of the film is particularly Kultesque, I think.
Loved Donnie Darko right up until the ending. It's like with Kult - too many twists and jumps and it just gets annoying... although as a whole I reccommend Donnie Darko as a Kultesque movie with the added bonus of getting to see that bastard Patric Swayze rubbed in the dirt...
I see the film as an example of a kid awakening - even in dreams as well as time + space.
Well, to me the end of the movie is great, and kind of "logical" in a symbolic way. In my former interpretation of the movie, it was a price he had to pay for 1) his power and 2) saving the girl.(his powers saved him as he wasn't where he should have been when the accident happened and then he can sacrifice himself using his powers to save a life - that nicely suit the cosmical equilibrium
Then you have the "official" explanation that is quite nice too. It stipulate that the unviverse has bumped into an alternate one and that the vortex (donnie darko)has to die in order to save the primary universe.
Everytime I see Mulholand Drive I think of
Arlington Rd. (I love the story but the movie
could have been better... they feel they have
to spell it out to you... even though there
isn't anything supernatural going on the film
to me has a Kult like feel to it near the end...
the rush, the panic the twist... Anyhow... over
all it was a good film but could have been
better...
It was kind of a six-chapter story with not much of a goal. AFAIK there have been plans to make a movie of it, but the story needs a bit of an update to be interesting enough - all SFX and not much of a plot.
I don't know of any other (legal) way to get the story than buying the figures, and without the figures the story itself will not make too much sense. It's really just a promo gag for the figures.
I bought two of the series...their actually quite beautiful,and the rubber gives off an inebriating smell..
As for the stories,they are written by clive barker and are intriguing-ish...in truth its all a series of "hellraiser" backrounds (i think the cenobites are mentioned...)without a true end,but written well enough.
They are kultish as well,but then again Barker IS Kult.
And it is worth the read, although it's not much more than a short story. It differs from the movie.
Although the Tortured Souls look a lot like Cenobites, they're not, and there's no mention of Cenobites in the story as I recall. It's more or less a fantasy story set before written history. As an abstract, Agonistes is a creature created by god to transform the utterly wretched if they so wish. He does so by operating on them. He created both the Scythe-Meister who as an assassin was sent to kill the crime lord of a certain city, and later Lucidique, daughter of the same. Other crime lords ask a certain doctor / magician to create a creature to fight the two who run rampant among them, and they get Venal Anatomica. The doctor himself operates on himself (Talisac) in order to give birth to the perfect creation (Mongroid) who then eats him. Scythe-Meister and Lucidique, now lovers, fight Venal Anatomica and Lucidique succeeds in blinding him - but only after he kills Scythe-Meister. Lucidique gathers what's left of her lover to find Agonistes who might be able to save him, while the blinded Venal and Mongroid haunt the city. End of story.
What an awesome book. It got me into horror. It was eveb kind of sad. Actually... Kult got me into horror, but actually getting to read the guy that was probably the ultimate influence on the game was really something else, even coming in through the back door.
Man, I really missed out on the first run of the Tortured Souls. (DAMN those uptown kids and their spending power at Hot Topic!) I just pre-ordered the 2nd Series set at my fav comic/toys shop, but I saw something funny on-line. I was looking to see if any of the 1st Series was still available, and it looks like they might be re-releasing some of the 1st run. Gotta get that Talisac. Has anyone heard anything like that???
Talisac is advertised on the spawn.com site as a re-release, but only that one. All the other figures are still available here and there, too, at least here in Germany.
Beware the dangers of collecting...think twice before donating your sweated money to greedy comic shop owners...McFarlane Toys wants you as a slave!!!
(Now that i've finished i shall go and once again caress my "Ash" action figure
I just like the idea of a line of toys that you play with by putting in the coolest grotesque position! Long Live Clive!! Yet another eay to shock your friends and family from McFarlane toys!
Having been inspired by various posts on this forum, I sat down with a friend and had a short brainstorming session. The idea was for the two of us two gm one group together. This way we there would never be any breaks if the group split up, since the “reserve” gm would just go out with one of the groups. Also, if the pc:s encountered several npc:s at once, we could actually make the npc:s have a conversation with each other.
We quickly decided that Kult would be the ideal game, since time is rather fleeting in Kult. This meant we could easily ignore problems like “Wait a minute, it took us half an hour to walk through the library, how could you get here before us?” We’d simply reply “Time flies when you have fun,” or something like that. Now, all we needed was a plot…
After some talk we came on the idea of having two small groups at first. Both groups will be very similar to each other (in fact, they will be from parallel universes). At the end of session one, their universes will “collide,” and they will meet each other. So the first plot will be the players discovering that they are the same persons, but from parallel timelines. Then came the idea to use a huge Rubic’s cube. It will be made of stainless steel and have about 64 squares on each side, but instead of colours, strange symbols will be carved on it. If someone manages to complete on side (you can only complete one side at a time) a pentagram will be formed and strange things will start to happen. I have thought something along the line of:
Side 1: Time stops for ten minutes
Side 2: Time slows to half speed/accelerates to double speed depending on if the pentagram is inverted or not. Lasts ten minutes
Side 3: Time jumps forward/ backward one hour depending on if the pentagram is inverted or not. This effect is instant.
Side 4: Teleports the user one kilometre in the facing of the pentagram. This effect is instant.
Side 5: Every step moves the person 100 metres for the duration of one minute.
Side 6: Help
I don’t know how to get the cube working yet. With 8x8 squares on each side and strange pentagrams instead of colours, it should be very difficult to complete one side. Perhaps something like five successive Ego-rolls with at least 50 effects (or whatever it’s called in the English rules). After the duration of the above effect has ended, the cube returns to its default setting.
If someone starts messing with the cube for a long period of time, it will start affecting the surrounding area’s time and space in random ways. Our idea was that the cube is kept somewhere in Metropolis. Someone steals it, but instead of selling it to his employer, he hides somewhere and starts trying to figure it out. That’s the reason why the parallel timelines where drawn together.
We’ll have our next brainstorming session next week, but I thought I’d hear your opinions first, so I’d be able to out-storm my friend…
I'd like to see some source material
and discussion of Inferno here or else
where. I feel kind of in a fog over the
whole thing. I don't have anything beyond
the core rules & Legions... about it...
I'd like it to be an option for my future
campaigns but lack a good enough under-
standing of it and it's notable notables!
I would recommend the second Hellraiser movie. That is more or less exactly what I envisioned the Inferno to be when I read the desription (and it probably was on the mind of the designers as well, as the first two Hellraiser movies are a blatantly obvious influence on the game).
I hope you enjoy it. It's very different to the other inferno thing (I think it is called 'maps of heel') but they could if you wanted to. play them together.
There are some good Books available to get very good inspirations for the RPG Kult.
You should get the Nightmare Factory written by Thomas Ligotti. He's the most thrilling and intelligent horror - writer I know.
He plays with the border of nightmares and the Reality and creates something new....
Just look for his books at Amazon's web Page :www.amazon.com
Another weird author is Borges. He creates in his books really insane Labyrinths....
Especially the 'Bibliothek von Babylon' is a very good scenario piece for Kult !
His books are also available at Amazon.
The original Authors of Kult (Gunilla Jonsson & Michael Petersson) have written a quite good scenario which they've presented in the www. But I must take a look for the exact adress....
Try the 'Nightmare Factory written by Thomas Ligotti.
It's a masterpiece of intelligent horror-writing !
If you start reading his Books, you'll never again touch any C.Barker Stuff !
Now go away or i shall say "testa di minchia" to you a second time!!
by The truly perplexed Mystery Machine
Sono orrendevolmente disgustato
Just saw "holy grail" in its italian dubbing....AAAaaarrrgghh!!
Disgusting..horrible..words cannot describe how i feel!!
I understand that the monty python are difficult to dub well,what with the "accent games" they play and all..but why did they change the dialogues as well??
The French speak in sicilian...Tim the enchanter became "a finance student" (not kidding!Truly trash!!)
The knights of NI say TIE!!And send arthur to find "A bit of green"..."the holy hand grenade of antioch" became "The holy hand grenade of Anarchia" and the monks invoke Bakunin in their chant (not that i have anything against Bakunin,but still..)
This dubbing is so horrible that i love it!!
Its so badly done that halfway through the movie (Castle anthrax scene)the dubbed dialogue disappears and gives way to the original..and then switches back again!
I'm partially disgusted partially enchanted by the Trashness of this work...if anyone here is interested in bizarre cinema..this "blasfemous" work shouldn't lack in the collection.
I still hate it though...Lucifuge you understand..humour me...
My brother recently bought "The Holy Grail" on dvd. One of the bonus materials where a few clips from the version dubbed to Japanese with. It was the presented with Dnglish text so we could see how they had dubbed it...
It was on the same level as the Italian version, if not worse. Quite funny to watch, aspecially the taunting, it was really stupid. Maybe the Japanese cant insult each other properly:)
and we Germans do that as a rule. It's nigh impossible to see a movie in the original unless you live in a big city with a large metroplex cinema which might show an original movie every now and then. Subtitling doesn't exist. The only practical way to see a movie in the original is to hope for the DVD, but license rights do not always include original versions.
And humour is doubly difficult to translate. For instance the Discworld novels lose about 50% of their humour in the process. And the translator of those is actually very good at it.
Overall quality of translations has become so poor that I've decided to sell of my German language SF books I've collected over the years but for the most part haven't read yet as it's practically impossible to read them in German with a straight face.
Here in sweden we atleast get subtitles, and on dvd you can always choose to remoce those as well. The reason why that is so great will becom obvious of you watch my copy of Angleheart. The translator must've hated his job:
"I saw him conjure up Lucifuge in the living room, it was magnificent."
This was subtitled:
I saw him dance, naked in the living room, it was magnificent."
Then there's another "favorite":
"Would you like some tea mr Angel?"
"Yeas please."
"Jasmine or Oolong?"
"Oolong."
"Oh, not very many people like Oolong"
Subtitle:
"Would you like some tea mr Angel?"
"Yeas please."
"How long have you waited to have your palm read."
"To long."
After this, there's no subtitles for three lines, as the translator realizes something is wrong...
This continues throughout the entire movie. The translator even makes up his own words at some time. Really ruins the movie.
On DVDs I usually choose the English version (provided it's an English movie) with English subtitles in order to make sure I catch everything. Sadly sometimes English versions come with mandatory German subtitles which you can't switch off or replace (legally that makes it a German version, and is an option for DVD labels to include the original language version without specifically licensing it).
For other languages I usually choose the German dubbed version, with the exception of Chinese / Japanese movies which usually come in the subtitled original.
Here in sweden we atleast get subtitles, and on dvd you can always choose to remoce those as well. The reason why that is so great will becom obvious of you watch my copy of Angleheart. The translator must've hated his job:
"I saw him conjure up Lucifuge in the living room, it was magnificent."
This was subtitled:
I saw him dance, naked in the living room, it was magnificent."
Then there's another "favorite":
"Would you like some tea mr Angel?"
"Yeas please."
"Jasmine or Oolong?"
"Oolong."
"Oh, not very many people like Oolong"
Subtitle:
"Would you like some tea mr Angel?"
"Yeas please."
"How long have you waited to have your palm read."
"To long."
After this, there's no subtitles for three lines, as the translator realizes something is wrong...
This continues throughout the entire movie. The translator even makes up his own words at some time. Really ruins the movie.
Funny..i didn't really think anyone would answer that post...
by The Mystery Machine
Well, since Lucifuge is lost in the evil alternate dimension where spock wears a beard...i guess i'm the one who will have to talk for italy..
It is IMPOSSIBLE here to find anything that isn't dubbed...EVERYTHING is dubbed..including Troma movies (Well,just a few of these) and porn..
I have no real idea of how big the industry is but it must be enormous..
In reality Italy's alergy to subtitles come from our past and the high rate of analphabetism this country used to posess...those days have gone,but dubbings have not..
I'm a cinephile and as such always watch movies in the original language..at least when i can...
Mostly though i'm forced to watch dubbed versions.Sometimes this isn't that bad,since dubbings are usually done well..but noeone can watch "a clockwork orange" in italian,no matter how good the translation is (and the translation of that movie is actually well done)
So i say,no i yell,as a purist of arts:DOWN WITH DUBBINGS,LET THE VILE POPULANCE OF IGNORANCIA DROWN IN THEIR LACK OF KOWLEDGE!!!
You know, I work for a German DVD label and I have made the packaging and menu design for the German editions of the Troma Collector's edition, and all those movies contain the original soundtrack, too, so if you're interested...
Speaking of Kult 2nd... where the heck can I find an English copy for sale?!? I've found tons of the first (I own 2 copies of that one), but I still can't find the second!
Has Metropolis ever publihed any special rules about how the lore of reality should work??? I guess it is a matter that they leave up to the GM but I would be curious about hearing of any "official" ruling
Correct me if I am wrong but isn't the dark art simply power over the illussion so you can alter it??? Doesn't the lore of reality extend much further than that?
Depends on what they meant by 'power over reality'; AFAIK reality as such hasn't ever been defined, and it would only make sense to have power over it if one has ascended because only that brings you in contact with reality. Beings from Metropolis are already under control in other lores, so Metropolis (or Gaia, Purgatory, Inferno) can't be the target of the Lore of Reality.
Seen from that angle the Lore of Reality doesn't seem to have any practical value, not even for NPCs.
If you master all the other lores, you become awakened, you learn all the lores, and don't have to use rituals or lose any health(whatever the term is in english). Also, after awakening you can start to LEARN the reality lore. As I understand it, you can do just about anything with the reality lore, no limits what so ever.
