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.
ROLL CALL RECAP :-)
by
It would be nice to have a roll call here
occassionally to see where folks are... may
help in communication and maybe getting things
together...
First Name: Steven
AKA: Raven / Laughing Chance
Age: 33
Home: Ridgewood, New York - USA
Started w/ Kult: Abt 10 years ago
when I met a salesman in a hobby
& rpg store in NYC
Current Status: No real group... just
writing and collecting odds & ends
Visit Forum: Frequently
Kult Dream: Black Madonna in English*
Job: Shipping & Receiving Mgr.
First Name: Iain
AKA: Er...Iain?
Age: 26
Home: Milton Keynes - UK
Started w/ Kult: Bought it when it first came out and played it at uni a few times.
Current Status: I've been sucked into White Wolf's games and presently run a Sabbat LARP (www.mksabbat.co.uk). However, I've recently come back to Kult and am looking forward to running a campaign soon as well as writing some fiction.
Visit Forum: Frequently
Kult Dream: Getting my hands on Legions of Darkness
Job: Business Consultant
Full Name: Torben Rygg
AKA / Handle: torb
Age: 25
Home: Lund, Sweden (but I consider myself a Norwegian)
Started w/ Kult: Hmm... In 8th grade, I think. That would be 1992. GM since 1997 or so.
Current Status: Kult Klan webmaster (http://kultklan.has.it). Seldom play.
Visit Forum: Daily
Kult Dream: Wiping the memories of the players in my group so we can play Black Madonna again Possibly also kidnap Gunilla and Michael and force them to write sourcebooks as slave-labour :p
Kult Wet Dream: Sex with an incarnate of Gamaliel?
Job: Student (Media and Communications Theory right now, I'm working towards a cool degree in Sociology of Law). I sometimes sub at kindergardens, teaching the kids about the Illusion.
-torb
First Name: Niclas
AKA: Old Nick
Age: 26
Home: Gävle - Swedem
Started w/ Kult: As a player, 1993. Bought it myself 1998 (and Fallen Angels, all for about 10$, or 100 SEK)
Current Status: Just ended a very nice campaign. Started a new one, mainly focused on the official adventures.
Visit Forum: Daily when I can manage it.
Kult Dream: Gunilla and Michael start writing Kult again.
Job: Bowling alley.
First Name: Marcin
AKA: deVolf
Age: 27
Home: Gdansk (AKA Danzig ), Poland
Started w/ Kult: About 1995
Current Status: No gaming group, just being a hardcore Kult reader and collector
Visit Forum: Daily
Kult Dream: To have/read all the published (and unpublished) Kult stuff, preferably in English
Job: Software engineer
regards,
Marcin
Name: Johan Westerlund
Title: Master of Science (M.Sc.)
AKA: -King Six- (-Archon- in online games)
Age: 26 (almost 27)
Home: Uppsala, Sweden
Started w/ Kult: Played one adventure as a player in 1991 when a friend of mine bought the 1st boxed Swedish edition. Bought my own copy of Kult as the 2nd Swedish edition.
Current Status: Have a group of 5 that play Kult and a few other fantasy games twice a month.
Visit Forum: Daily
Kult Dream: That Torb kidnapped Gunilla and Michael and have them write Kult supplements.
Job: Unemployed, looking for a job within the defence industry.
Haven't (yet) contributed much to this forum but hey...
Name: Marc Kaminski
AKA: jacobs_ladder
age: 33
Home: Houthalen, Belgium
Started w/Kult: when it first came out...I still only have the first edition.
Current status: have a group of friends who are rpg lovers...no Kult campaign as of yet but every now and then I GM a Kult one nighter.
visit forum: once a week
Kult Dream: to write a Kult campaign of my own and see it through to the bitter end...
Job: Bank clerk
First Name: John
AKA: PeterAmthor
Age: 27
Home: Potosi, Missouri- USA
Started w/ Kult: Upon its release in English I picked it up the day my local game shop got it in.
Current Status: Currently running other games at the moment. Still writing stuff for Kult and planning my next campaign.
Visit Forum: Usually once or twice a day at least. Every now and then I get busy and don't have time to drop in but those times are few and far between.
Kult Dream: Support from a company that will put out material for it, keep in good contact with the fans along with acknowledging their existance and opinions.
Job: Currently a temp working since the job market in this area really sucks.
First Name: Luca
AKA: Lucifuge, Zaffo
Age: 28
Home: Pesaro, Italy
Started w/ Kult: About 1995. Saw a review in a comic book and enthralled by it I ordered the rulebook in the local comic shop. I think I've been one of the first italians owning and GMstering Kult
Current Status: No gaming group, just being a hardcore Kult reader and collector (cut & paste from Marcin!)
Visit Forum: Almost daily
Kult Dream: Kult fourth edition published by White Wolf without editing or censoring and with lots of new supplements and great distribution
Job: actually work full time in the social (immigration) but looking for something better with my Ph.D. in Economy (such banking or finance)
First Name: Robin
AKA: Bitpicker
Age: 34 as of coming Friday
Home: Remscheid, Germany
Started w/ Kult: when it came out in a German edition ('94?)
Current Status: A group waiting to play on, but right now my family (and the family of my players, too) get in the way.
Visit Forum: Normally daily.
Kult Dream: Getting my end times scenario for KULT written.
Job: Graphics designer for a German DVD publisher (menu and print), also webmaster and resident computer geek.
First Name: you couldn't pronounce that
AKA: God, Zeus, JHVH, Jupiter, Brahma, Astaroth, Lucifer, Marduk, Qetzalcoatl... you never seem to be able to decide.
Age: As old as age itself.
Home: Currently homeless by choice
Started w/ Kult: actually KULT started with me. Without me there would be no KULT.
Current Status: missing.
Visit Forum: constantly
Kult Dream: People giving me better press. You imprisoned yourself.
Job: currently jobless. And see where it got you
First name: Etienne
AKA: Ignus / Tinou / Distorted Smile / ...
Age: 22
Home: Mulhouse, Alsace (east of France), France
Started w/ Kult: frequently heard of, bought it with the 7ème Cercle released.
Current Status: playing the Fallen Angels Campaign with 3/4 players.
Visit Forum: several time in a week.
Kult Dream: May the 7th Circle keep his promises
May my PCs all be free AT THE SAME TIME!!!
Job: still studying. 4th year of studying History.
First Name: Nebukadnezar
AKA: His Divine Grace, Der Dichterfürst
Age: 23
Home: Göttingen, Lower-Saxony, Germany
Started w/ Kult: I saw it at about seven years ago in an RPG-Game-Store while doing vacances in California. My Godfather was apalled g. I just loved to read it but never played unto 4 or 5 years ago but I didn't like the RM. Due to the lacking of a RM I did not play since.
Current Status: Now I decided to be RM myself, I have a group thirsting to play, but I am still in preparing myself - and a little bit nervous.
Visit Forum: Frequently
Kult Dream: starting my Kult-Group and seeing the dizzied and terrified faces of my players
Job: studying Arabic language (and a lot of other crap)
First Name: Eivind
AKA: Fallen Angel
Age: 22
Home: Oslo, NORWAY
Started w/ Kult: 1994
Current Status: Slumbering. Haven't played for about two years.
Visit Forum: At least once a week
Kult Dream: To get a new group together and start playing.
Job: Student at the University of Oslo
First Name: Sebastian
AKA: Tipareth
Age: 27
Home: Cologne, Germany
Started w/ Kult: with its first release in German in '93 or '94
Current Status: Stand-By until April; then starting with a small group of 3-4 PCs, not played since half a year
Visit Forum: Frequently
Kult Dream: that 7th circle will release the old and new stuff, or enough money to buy the rights and release them by myself
Started with Kult: Waaaay back... / One and a half year ago
Kult Dreams: That Kult will get back to its glory days...the dream must live on so I can get some more poor souls to my cells in hell....hey...that rhimes...
/ Corrupt people enough so that they will play Kult with me...
First Name: Richard
AKA: Netzach
Age: 24
Home: Malmö, Sweden
Started w/ Kult: In 1994, a friend of mine bought it when it got so much publicity in conjunction with the Bjuv-murder. See? All negative PR isn't really negative...
Current Status: Playing a lot of different games now, try to get to play at least once every weekend. Since there are so many games to play I don't get to play KULT all that often however. We are a group of six players (including me and my girlfriend)though we rarely play all at one time.
Visit Forum: Yes
Kult Dream: I want it all! In any language!
How I waste NPT (Non-Playing Time): Student (graphical tech, bachelor's)
First Name: Aris
AKA: Uriel
Age: 23
Home: Thessaloniki, Greece
Started w/ Kult: The first time I played was in '95
Last year I bought the 1st US and later the french rulebooks and some other, etc.
Current Status: Played Fallen Angels and several one-nighters. During November I begun a new campaign.
Visit Forum: Daily
Kult Dream: To own Black Madonna, Clavis Inferna and Judas Grail
ALIAS:Molten Plastic, Moltaemnesia, Anamnesia, The Mystery Machine
CITY:Milan
JOB: Student (not that it' getting me anywhere)
AGE:21 years of shit
STARTED KULT:With the italian translation of the second edition (when was that? 1999?)
CURRENT KULT STATUS:New chronicle in construction...unfortunately i'd been sucked up by WW for a few months...MAGE is an excellent game but the whole WoD concept is just so disgustingly....american
FAVOURITE RPG:Kult (!!!) TOON is a close runner up
KULT DREAM: A serious repubblication of Kult
VISITS FORUM: Uhhhm....sorry folks...i haven't been here much later....please excuse me...
I don't contribute that much neither, but I'm reading all of your sick babble ... ; )
Name: Fabrice
A.K.A.: Fab./Fabrice G./Caïphas
Age: 28
Home: Grenoble, France.
Entered Kultiverse: in 1992, when Kult came out. GMed one campain plus a couple of scenarii.
Current status: plan to play soon, playing Sorcerer now.
Visit Forum: dayly
Kult Dream: Black Madonna in french* or in english
Job: Still a student :p
* well, 7th circle annouced the release of BM in french for this summer ; so, as they have done what the annouced in french (even with the delays), I still hope ...
* well, 7th circle annouced the release of BM in french for this summer ; so, as they have done what the annouced in french (even with the delays), I still hope ...
Where did you get this information? It seems very unlikely where I'm sitting. I'd love a link or something!
there has been some publicity made by my FLGS relaying the announcement that 7 ème cercle would be releasing Black Madonna during the summer.
Well, knowing that you are translating the original swedish edition in english and that, I think, they will be translating it in french from your translation... that might just be some teasing/announcement effect.
If you wish, I'll ask the owner of the shop were he got the info... if its via 7e cercle themselves or via their distributor.
Anyway, keep in mind that even in France, the shedule was wayyy late. So, even if "they" say that BM will be out by this summer, it can be expected to have some delay. (And they have to put out Clavis Inferna before BM).
So, all in all, I might have caused unwanted and undeserved trouble...
So far it's the 2nd downtime - so it's much more stable than this forum. They are probably doing back-ups and upgrading hardware. It will probably be back on pretty soon.
Anyhow... when I had a site up
they at least would put up a
maint. notice... Imy first thought
was when you go over bandwidth
they sometimes just cut off service
like that but the core is down too.
So, I'm gonna go with the Lictors!
looking for a solid horror game online or in denver
by
I am interested in a specialized or mixed world of darkness game either face to face in denver, or online. I am also own a wide array of horror role playing systems. I prefer serial, and character driven games.
I am 33, have been in role playing on and off for 20 years, and have played many different systems.
I am available monday/wednesday evenings, saturdays, and sundays
I can play or be the gm/storyteller
please contact me if you would like more information, or have any available openings.
I would like to run or play an all abyssl exalted game, whispering vault or kult
please email poppocabba@mac.com
I GM kult, nephilim, and other horror games along with many other genres. Im in Littleton and have a group of 5-7 players that have been together for quite a while, but always looking for new players to liven things up. We are very adult and open minded, hope you are too. (one of the players is transexual) We play regularly on saturday & sunday. Not interested in
immature gamers or war gamers. Let me know JL
Since it is a real pain in the ass to go back through all of these posts. I was wondering if anyone had come up with a Kult to d20 conversion. Please, before dropping the d20 opinion bomb on this, at least let anyone help me first...hehe.
I have some CoC d20 players I am going to run for, who aren't sure about Kult yet. So, I am going to sneak something in on them. They are going to basically play the Judas Grail ala CoC...a little Narolethotep instead of Mulkuth, etc. It will be part of a larger campaign.
So, if anyone can help before the anti-d20 guys get to me, I would really appreciate it.
I think your on a loser essentially.
The system in Kult is tied in to the setting, so any alteration is going to have big repercussions, specifically for XP and mental balance.
On the other hand it might make the Grail Knights beatable...
I grew up on D20 systems and I know, a lot
of fellow RPG'ers look down upon it... and
time to time so have I but lets not forget...
it is a game... and games always have a element
of chance... how it is determined matters not...
it's the validity and consistency of the system.
The worth of the material to play... but as
for running Judas Grail that's another story :-P
I know the idea of the game is role, not roll playing but the kult system has not sat right with me for sometime. I have tried a number of other systems but still have not found one that suited me. If you strictly follow the rulebook players are not provided with enough CP's to make up decent characters. Using the effect table on an avg role of 10 a character would need a skill of 16 - 25 to make a normal effect result. If this is the case 150 CP's will not strech very far. I understand that torb provides his players with a more starting CP to allow them to make more well rounded characters. I would be interested to find out how many?
I like the variable effect table and so I am currently considering going to a system where PC's skill is added to the governing stat. Possibly allowing unskilled rolls if it is plausible. Before I go ahead and do this, do you think that I will be overpowering my PC's as a result?
I usually give my players 100+AGEx3, that will give a guy in his 50's 75 skill points more than a 25-year old. I think that gives a fair, pretty balanced advantage to characters that choose to play elderly characters. They should be more experienced. I don't give skill points for everyday skills such as cooking, but I assume that most people can cook his own dinner and most people can use the internet to pay their bills. However, most people don't have knowledge in how to correctly cook a blowfish or hack a program through assembler code. I think that most skills has to be an abstraction for "professional" skills. I never roll any dice in everyday situation, even though it could create some pretty interesting events.
In Judas Grail I would provide my players with 200+AGEx3 as the adventure is basically crawling with "super-anti-hero-bad-guys".
The 150 skill points are one of the best thing Kult has, because you can increase that number with a negative MB. All of my players see that 150 skill points are very few, so they corrupt themselves in order to get those precious skill points that will give them an edge. Right now I'm playing with 5 guys that have MBs between -15 and -25, and they kick every ass they see but fall down crying when something abnormal happens. And the GM can make a lot of abnormal encounters, mwahahahaha!!
I'm playing with the standard rules of Kult 2nd edition, except for the initiative system. I find the Deadland's initiative system much more attractive, and doing it with numbered tarot cards gives the combat a totally new dimension.
I use the standard points for the character creation system and I think it is quite sufficient if you focus on down-to-earth, average persons. Average in the sense that you have a few skills in which you are very good – profession related or favourite hobby –, some skills in which you are average and some skills in which you know the basics of the relevant activity.
Normally, about ten skills are enough to give a person a decent profile. Torb hands out more CP for everyday's life-related skills like cooking or trivia, as far as I know. That is different just from increasing CPs.
Kult allows a character to start with half of the attributes at 12 and the other half at 13. Hence, if you distribute 150 CP equally to ten skills, you have 15 CP per skill. (In the Player's Companion it is stated that one needs a skill rating of at least 13 to use a skill professionally.)
That might lead to the result that a character has five skills at 12 and five skills at 13 with 10 spare points which you can use to increase one skill by three.
Additionally, the learning system of KULT allows it to get extra points to increase skills and attributes.
In the end, it depends on the style of play enforced. If one's players are meant to be larger-than-life, fighting back the forces of hell with two guns blazing and risking their lives in open conflict every other day, 150 CP are surely not enough.
If the focus is on the quite average Joe who is suddenly exposed to horrors never dreamt of before which may cause him a messy demise, 150 CP are surely enough.
I run a campain with two stereotypical thugs (an ex-cop flat foot and a bounty hunter), a priest and a drug-addicted rock musician and so far everybody gets the results they need when rolling dice – at least mostly. However, no-one died during the course of the campain.
Hence, in my eyes 150 CPs are enough. Of course not for a heroic gameplay but for creating "normal" persons, yes.
Firstly, thanks for your feedback Mr Joe. I am still inclined to disagree however.
My goal is a non-heroic psychological horror game set in Sydney, Australia. When I first started most of the characters followed the guidelines you suggest. Taking into consideration all rules are going to be an abstraction of reality, I can almost get over the fact that these characters have a 25% chance of failure on a straight roll. The problem for me arises when you start trying to introduce the effect table to this the equation. On an average roll the character will achieve an effect roll of 5, a poor result at best. With this roll they can gather minor facts, overcome minor obstacles or make an amateur performance at best. This is with their primary skills, the basis of their profession. Using the effect rule you would want a skill of at least 20-25 to be considered skilled in the area IMO.
Are you using the effect table in your game, Joe? I can understand how the skill scores you have suggested could work if you were not.
...the effect table since most rolls in my group refer to terror or combat rolls, and in the letter case only damage is affected (I'm using 2nd edition combat rules). Most of information is gathered by roleplaying hence I do not demand a roll. On the other hand my players seem to be favoured by luck and almost always achieve an high effect – at least, when it is crucial.
Sorry, Bishop, but I have no idea about the D20 System.
However, I once bought the CoC "Nocturnum D20" campain with the intention to use it in KULT. Mostly, I found that I could convert the D20 attribute (strenght, agility, etc.) and skill ratings almost one-to-one. Perhaps it also works vice versa.
Perhaps the following ideas might help. Take them with a pinch of salt, as this is biased by my individual perspective of KULT.
In Kult, everything is rolled with a d20. Hence, a value of 10 means that a character has a 50% chance to succeed. A rating of 20 means that he will always succeed if he does not roll a critical failure.
Therefore you could describe the skill/attribute ratings that way:
5 - poor or just sufficient
10 - average
15 - above average
18 - exceptional
20 - world class
above 25 - legendary
If you now compare which stats the D20 system uses to describe that qualities you should be able to facilitate the conversion.
Weapons and damage:
a 9 mm bullet causes a light to heavy wound (depending on the effect), any larger bore a heavy to deadly wound.
Just take the equivalent D20 stats.
I'm an avid d20 player (not GM), and long ago I made an aberrational Kult d20 character sheet, with all the logics to convertion on it, if anyone is interested, or wants put it over a web site, mail me.
..don't give up on this forum completely, remember that this forum is (still) WAY easier to find then Torbs forum, so why not still do atleast some topics on this forum?
Now if Torb would get his site noted with google, altavista an a few other places, then this forum has way less !mpact then his, but I would still frequent this one... I mean...Torbs forum is excellent but this forum has a lot of sentimental value...atleast for me...
BTW - I will not register for google/yahoo!/altavista/excite/whatever until we've come up with a solid, good name for the forum (it won't look good in searcch engines with links to a site called "forum with no name yet" )
If the new forum is going to succeed in the long run
by Robin
...we'll have to move there more or less. I don't think copying material from here to there will do. And I don't want to discuss the same thing half here half there. Furthermore, there's a lot of forums I visit and I'm not too keen on having just another one. I've all but given up on bitterreign already with its constant changes, redesigns and starts from scratch because it is just too much effort.
So I'd suggest that in the long run the new forum (with its much more modern and well-known user handling) should fully replace this one. This forum here could remain open for as long as need be and maybe send everyone over to the new one.
Substantial discussions should probably move over instantly.
The charm of this forum is it's simplicity.
Maybe it doesn't have many bells & whistles
but it reminds you of the Kult Books in look
and feel... Look at all the users who still
find it for the first time... the word is out
there... The new site is good I am all for it
but not at the expense of chopping this one up.
The new site should be it's own entity and style.
Hey look we have the Demiurge and Astaroth right?
I'm one of the veterans, so I'm strongly attached to this place, where I met extraordinary people (I rememeber when I posted the first time I believed that all the guys here were psychos, then I found very nice people).
But for some of us the time and availability of internet connections are few, so a choice will be necessary sooner or later.
Robin is right when he says that he doesn't accept half and half discussion. Just now, that I follow this forum and the other at the same time, I have the feeling that I'm missing something from both.
So we must choose.
I think we will witness this first hand...
With the departure of Peter and Torbland
opening up the decision is made for the
most part. Been dead here now for days after
a previous huge flutter of activity... So
long old friend...
But there are also the downsides... I for one am sick and tired of useless pop-ups and stupid programs that want to be installed on my computer here all the time... And, for newbies, it would be a lot easier finding answers to their questions by having a Search-function.
But I agree with you - this was my first forum I started frequenting EVER (!) because I enjoyed the simplicity of it. The XMB-interface handles quite easily though: use it for 5 minutes and you will know everything you need. Later on you might stumble onto some cool functions you weren't excpecting, though...
Did anyone catch what the vote counts were for the final round of names? The voting was supposed to be cut off at 12-midnight (11:59?pm); however, with the site down most of today, I am not sure if there will be an extension.
Yesterday evening I went to see this movie, advertised as "the movie that shocked USA".
Well, it's not so bad. A bit '80ish, some good ideas and scenes.
The flaws: the two lead actors, bad acting and some unbelievable decisions in the story... and some clichè, too (what about cars that NEVER start when the bad guy is chasing the actors?).
If you want to spend a night with a innocent movie, quite funny if you don't expect so much, try it. You could steal some things for a Kult session.
I heard a lot of good and a lot of bad about this movie. So it was not high up on my to see list, but seeing as how a friend had rented it and I had nothing to do I gave it a viewing.
Damn am I glad I did. No digital effects, no spooky monsters, no blade weilding baddies. Just a well written, with some good actors on a cool set. Its not you typical haunted house story, they take a really great twist and make it work. Its just a must see in my book.
From Hell
Jack the Ripper. Gotta love him. This is one of the better JtR movies that I have seen in a while. Some decent acting and writing. Great looking sets for period. I learned a few things about mixing ludimum and absinthe (great for those gaslight games) and it kept me interested.
Not as good as The Others IMO but worth seeing.
As for Jeepers Creepers. I still haven't seen that one. Again I have heard good and bad about it. Its on my list to see its just a matter of when.
Thanks for the review, anybody else want to add in some microreviews? Give us something else to talk about.
... could also be 'time of the wolves', the German title translates like that, the French original title like the topic line. The movie about the French proto-scientist and his Indian blood brother trying to catch a beast loose in mid-18th century France.
I've seen the Director's Cut on the German DVD.
Here's a movie that's far too long. 2:50 the time code read, and the Director's Cut bits are easily recognizable as they're not dubbed but subtitled; maybe a quarter of an hour in all.
Whoever made this film had seen Sleepy Hollow first. Technically it's very well done, but I don't know what rode them to include martial arts in it. The actual explanation what's going on at all is rushed in in the last half hour or so, and it asks for the biggest load of forced suspension of disbelief ever. Someone tried to make five movies at once. It could have been a good fantasy movie without the historical real-world setting; it could have been a good historical movie without the silly plot elements and stupid gadgets like that bone-sword used during the showdown.
I'd give this movie five out of five for atmosphere and only two out of five for everything else.
I guess that's the original title, too, although again I've only seen a German DVD and in Germany we sometimes get the strangest English titles in place of the original ones (like calling 'Doppelganger' -which is a German word even- 'Mask of Murder 2' in Germany).
In any case, this is the vampire movie Carpenter should have made instead of the crap Vampire he made. I hated Vampire when I saw it in the cinema - no fun at all to watch, and the blatant sexism in the treatment of the not-yet-vampiress they lugged around with them made me want to puke. Forsaken has a very similar concept, and there's even another not-yet-vampiress they lug around, but there's no sexism involved (meaning that she is a woman doesn't add to her problems).
The movie tells the story of a vampire hunt although both sides do the hunting. It's got a not quite conventional approach to what vampires are but nothing too outlandish. The important bit is that killing the original vampire whose 'descendant' you are kills the vampiric infection you carry, too.
A movie I enjoyed to watch, even if it isn't From Dusk Till Dawn.
Robin-- have you ever heard of or seen a vampire movie from 1987 called "Near Dark"? This is one of my favorites ever (however, I'm not sure if it's available internationally-- it's in English)! Pack of vampires in Texas (I think, definitely southwestern US) on the hunt looking for food. Two grown men, a woman, a pretty 20 something, and a boy named Homer. I think Whitewolf's Vampire may have had a couple of NPCs based on them. Problems start when a nice young cowboy meets the pretty 20 girl (Mae, I think her name was) and she turns him. Now he's town between the family he used to know and his new one. The biggest stars in it are Bill Paxton as Seven (very tough & mean)& Lance Henriksen as Jesse, the patriarch of the pack. I don't really like how they deal with vampirism at the end of it all, but it has a lot of the psychological complexities that would go along with living that long and leaving your family behind. I highly recommend it if you can find a copy and have a fondness for vampire flicks. And the women definitely stand on equal ground with the men in this one.
I'll have to check out The Forsaken. I saw Vampires & wasn't too impressed, either. The characters were a big weak.
Its German title is "Near Dark - Die Nacht hat..."
by Mr. Joe
"...ihren Preis."
I saw this movie ten years ago and it impressed me very much. Basically, it is a vampire road movie and was party of a series of vampire films on TV, along with The Lost Boys, Fright Night, Sundown and others.
Conceptually, Near Dark offers some interesting ideas but cannot hide that it is a B-movie. However, it is much better than John Carpenter's Vampire.
Yes, I've always loved him as well. His face & voice have so much character. He was a great Torquemada in a film version of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Pit & the Pendulum", also about 10 or more years ago, and although the series didn't last, he was great as Frank Black in "Millenium", a brief spin-off of "X-files" a few years ago.
Ah, too bad they suspended the serial.
It was very very good, far better than X-files (that became a sort of "millennium" in the last series).
The character of Frank Black was very good, not the usual hero.
Anybody saw "The Hunger"?
They broadcast it here in Italy via satellite, but it isn't so good. Quite boring.
I wholeheartedly agree with you on "The Others". I wasn't sure what to expect, but as you said, the movie achieved a whole lot without the special effects. Closer to the Alfred Hitchcock style of creepy where you're more afraid of what's in your own head. I watched it by myself & was genuinely spooked a couple of times. Plus those kids were creepy just by themselves & Nicole Kidman can play a high-strung mom like nobody's business!!
From Hell
I loved the cinematography in that one. Beautiful dark images. I'm also starting to read the graphic novel, which a friend of mine lent me, written by Alan Moore, artist Eddie Campbell. Black & White pen & ink. Some of the shots in the movie were based on the frames, as I'm sure many of you know. The bonus about the graphic novel? The annotations at the back. Maps of London & lots of juicy details that they missed out on in the movie. Thought some of you guys might be interested in reading this.
To add to the list:
Pi. Came out a few years ago, but should be in most video stores. Black & white-- really gets into your head and messes with it. There's even a group of errant Kabbalists running amok, trying to figure out what this computer guy knows.
Can't think of anything else off of the top of my head, but maybe I'll add more later. Thanks!
Tyrant--
Thanks for reminding me about The Cube. One I keep meaning to see but forget every time I get to the video store. In the Mouth of Madness, also good-- lots of twists & interesting visuals.
One I like for the look of it and the dreamy quality that a lot of people disagree on: Dark City. More of an alternate reality feel than anything, but food for the Dreamlords? As a painter, I can't resist the colors (the look actually reminded me of Le Cite Des Enfants Perdus-- The City of Lost Children).
Ninth Gate really appealed to the Secret Society bookworm in me. Oh, if only I had access to those libraries!!
...you should read the novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte: El club Dumas, or "The club Dumas" as the English title is likely to be. You get an interesting plot twist and by far more insight that the film offers. The movie only dwells on superficial elements instead of getting the heart and soul of the book.
Skimming the surface often seems to happen when remaking such detailed books. That's what apparently happened with "From Hell" as well. Thank you so much! I didn't know Ninth Gate was actually based on a book. I'll have to try to find a copy in English.
Some time ago I saw this SF movie, Pitch Black, starring Vin Diesel.
It's a SF movie, but in my opinion is very good for us Kultists, 'cause the setting is a completely dark planet full of deadly monsters. It could remind of Achlys, or Inferno.
The movie is quite good. Only action, some things unbelievable scientifically, but a good movie.
Alien 1, 2 & 4 (3 wasn't really the shocker at all)
Ghosts of Mars - Is more a Zombie B-Movie set in space, but ... cooool.
The astronaut's wife - not quiet a Kult movie
Horror:
The Hellraiser movies, esp the last one: Inferno is defently directed by a Kult player.
Rosemaries Baby directed by Roman Polanskie who also directed The Ninth Gate
The Cell - not really a horror movie and j lopez is'nt a good actress (but famous), but it gives a good insight into the realm of a dream prince.
I have to say I thought that the cell is the only movie in which J Lopez actually seems to have some acting ability, although I think they could have picked better people to play it.
I liked the world though.
I thought the person who made it was a genius.
Pitch Black. Had a nice twist in that she dies, but really not my thing. Nobody else was there. It was deserted and full of glow worms.
But I suppose it could be used if you've got the imagination
Just saw Donnie Darko the other day. The title sounds stupid, but the movie is, on the whole, quite fresh in techniques and screenplay. Deals with Donnie Darko, a kid who - in my eyes - is awakening. He's really messed up. He has hallucinations/revelations that tell him when the world is coming to an end...
" *Wake up, Donnie* "
- Frank, 'The Imaginary Friend'
Donnie is experiencing what is commonly called a daylight halucination
- the shrink - we all know what this means, hallucinations are more real than the Illusion after all.
Thumbs Up: Great lead actors, new feel of directing, great music, Patruck Swayze plays a total idiot which fits him well Thumbs Down: Dissapointing end sequence, although it can be discussed at great lenght.
And I find it kind of funny I find it kind of sad The dreams in which im dying Are the best I ever had
- End title song, Donnie Darko
I think It's Done...
With "Peter" out of
action and Torbs kick
ass site in high geer
I think this will be
a ghost forum from now
on... maybe occasionally
someone may put up a
sign pointing to the
new hang out so new-
comers can find it.
It is understandable...
why have half a conversation
thread here and half there.
I may check in here and there
for old times sake but overall
this will likely be among my
last posts... Thanks Peter for
all you have done here over the
years for Kult and for us...
impuls question
do people at this forum think that kult will grow or shrink in the future??. to me it seems as if the whole world of entertainment is controlled by money hungry mind raping bastards bent on forcing every "real" bit into a plastic mould that will also consume the whole western civilisation. ummmmm
just had to get this out. seems as if everyone is feeding on the false plastic world of commercial mind rape.
this had othing to do with the topic really
cheers
came by a nice art book called "venice, city og haunting dreams". its a very beautiful book with teksts from various writers and artists with surreal and enchanting photographs.it would be a huge source of inspiration for any game master who would wish to set a campaign in the dreaming city. the man behind the book is Simon Marsden. the texts variate from descriptions and feelings in the city as well as dark legendes and (almost)forgotten secrets and sins of the city.
as venice is a portal to the maze in metropolis and has such dreamlike qualities about it, I would see it as a place with very high potential in a kult campaign.
check it out
and if you chose to set your campaign in the city of forgotten dreams play the albums : incunabula or Amber from the electronic group Autechre. should fit any mystical dream scenario perfectly.
I use the first edition SWE/GER/US combat rules with minor alterations. Most noticably is the fact that my players are allowed to spend a lot of extra points when creating their characters skills. This means that you get high skill scores in things like "handgun" and so on, which in turn means that the PC's can use more complex modified manouvers without messing up all the time
Example: Jumping down the stairs (-4) while shooting a moving person (-4) in the groin (-10).
My PC's would get a -18 modifier for that, and probably spend some hero points
I'm a big fan of the first edition US KULT system.
It's simple and realistic, with no unnecessary
modifyers, additions and subtractions and all that
shit - just roll your dice and get on with the game.
To that extent, I use effect in order to determine
target numbers and graduations of success. Say you
wanna hit the guy while flying down the stair and
shoot him in the groin, like Torb? I'd just raise the
effect needed to hit instead of putting a modifyer on
his diceroll. In the end is the same, but a
calculation is spared
Another little change i've made to the system is to
compensate for all those ridiculous botches people
make. Say I wanna shoot a guy at point blank range,
while he is sleeping, tied down, deaf and blind. How
can you miss? I do that buy saying that if the effect
needed to succeed is 1/10th or less than your
appropriate skill score, you automatically succeed.
Effect needed in this case would be 1 so if he has 10
or more in his skill, it's an automatic success... if
not he'd have to roll his dice and see if he forgot
to turn the safety off or something stupid like that.
Weapons miss fire... perhaps it can
be chalked up to mental hesitency in
doing the deed... air pressure... I
don't know... things happen and sure
shots can go wrong...
However I recall reading something...
Coupe de Grace is a given unless a
perfect failure is rolled up...
Hi,
there's a "fast combat system" for Kult somewhere in the net, there's the URL somewhere in this forum.
It has been written by RIckard Falkenang (?) and greatly improve the speed and the smoothness of the combat in Kult, removing all that "actions" crap that's a pain in the ass.
Try it 'cause it's really good.
Bye
In my opinion that system you name is pretty crappy. It has too little sense of realism and it is not that much faster than the original one.
Yes, actions is a pain if there are many combattants but this can be fixed in many ways. I will have a simplified version of the Kult system in my "Large Scale Combat" thingie that I will release with my version of the Combat system in Kult. (in a few weeks)
I look forward to seeing that...
I like reading what folks are
up to and working on in the forum.
Everyone is always so secretive...
This is the place to exchange ideas
and interests if ever there was one
for Kult anyhow... Look at how lively
this forum has been as interest in
the RPG grows and old friends are
reintroduced... speak up people...!
I was hoping you'd give me an honest
appraisal of my idea K6.
Sorry about that. I have read it, but I haven't had too much time on my hands, but I'll pass you mail, tonight or tomorrow night concerning this adventure idea and my reflections.
I appreciate feedback even when it is not
what I want to hear... I don't mind a challenge
or question to my work... 'sometimes you can
be too close to it and not see some thing that
is fundmentally wrong...
I have some more bits of action I am going
to toss in... a guy in a van to run PC's
off the road, police harassment and I want
to introduce a dealer NPC to help them acquire
things they may need or feel they do... right
or wrong... if there is such a thing...
One part where the PC's attempt via a hacker
to trace emails to the corporation a trace
back virus is set upon them... taking over
the PC they are using... which sends a signal
and modifies their unit to attract the attention
of some Techrones who come to retrieve it...
and drag the PC's off or kill them in the fight
sure to take place when they show up... I think
that is a Lictor level trap to be rid of meddling
PC's... just an idea not really plotted out fully.
I though that was a brilliant trap. Way to go! I don't mind more action as my PCs like it (and I do too). However, they have gotten into a period where they want less of this and more creepy scene descriptions. I guess you could work on detailing the scenes in this campaign a bit. But what you have sent me was quite simplified and it was obviously not complete. But I like the style and the way action escalates beyond the PCs control.
1. Concerning me. Okay folks I've had a really bad year and its taken my toll on me mentally, socially and financially. I need to step away from things for a while. As of now I will be cutting my time devoted to projects, forums, my various pages and everything else way down. I really need to refocus my life and I can't do that setting front of monitor as much as I have been.
Now the next few announcements are affected by this one.
2. Cenotaphium. It's still going to be put out. Yes it's been delayed all to hell and back but it is still going to be put out. Give me some more time and sorry for how long its taken.
3. This forum. Well I'm stepping away from it. Torb will be taking up moderation of it once I email him the password and login ID.
4. The new Kult forum. Torb has also set up a new forum. I believe it is time for one actually now that I stand back and look at everything. The growing interest in the game and the ever increasing amount of folks who have been showing up here. The URL is: http://forum.2sta.net/index.php?staid=113 its got a lot of nice features and sections divided up nicely. Give it a shot.
5. What I will be working on. The Cenotaphium will be one of the project I will continue on once I get settled into my new home. Also supporting PsychoThriller (www.maxhattuer.com) whenever I come up with new material that can be posted there. Other than that I won't be around much, burned out on a lot of things... including Kult (took a decade to manage that though).
I will drop in here every now and then though. Be kinda hard not to after so many years of doing it and getting to know people here.
Well, good luck for everything, friend.
Hope to see you soon back here with new energy and fresh thoughts, and a bright light on every aspect of your life.
Bye!
Good luck! I'd like to thank you for this forum as it has been the best meeting place for Kultists so far. I think that you deserver to sit back and enjoy that you have made quite an impression on your fellow Kultists in this world... and maybe beyond.
You will be missed, and we do hope that you will be back when the skies have cleared a bit for you!
You created this forum, you have been running this site for years... The best Kult Forum ever! Not to mention The Abyss, one of the best Kult sites ever created.
The info below is from my experiences
as a native New Yorker (Born in Brooklyn)
and may suit you as more backgrounfd info
for Fallen Angels expansion or any campaign
in NYC you may want a truer to life feel for.
I have said it before and I will say it again...
New York City is the Kult capital of inspiration.
Everyday I see things or have Kult like inspirations.
Under the Hotel I work in in Manhattan (NYC)
another manager and myself walked a tunnel
several floors below ground level... some of
which is still used by our Engineering Dept.
It was a twisting maze of pipes, wires, corridors,
large rooms, long dark passages, dripping water
and sizzling steam, lights blown out all over the
place, old ladders going up, stone staircases down,
large metal chained doors... various old furniture
and cabinets... It felt like your were exploring
a ship underwater or in a horror movie... and
there is an old tunnel that leads to the subway
from years ago... closed up now... that has
abandoned shops... there is a city under the
city here... forgotten train stations and
city works... vaults and tunnels... and above
it a "modern metropolis" hub of Humanity totally
oblivious to it...
I can't believe I am the only NY'er on these
boards and forums for Kult.
NY is a city I love, I always set my campaigns in NY even if I'm italian, even before I got "Fallen Angels".
I bought a CD-rom and several touristic guides of NY. I've always had the feeling that NY city hiddens something in its belly.
If I ever will come to the US I'll surely go to NY, and in that case I'll drop you a mail so we could visit that maze together!
I have set most of my campaigns in NY. Mainly because it is a city with great opportunities and many cultures and ideals mixed in a pretty small area. Also, from TV-series and movies you get a feeling that you know the place (even though it most likely isn't correct), but this is important as the PCs are likely to residents of the New York area if the campaign is set there.
I have Ideas to make a campaign that is set in Stockholm, which is a pretty dark place if you visit the wrong areas. (My cusin is a cop working in Stockholm...)
Another small reason in that it has the same kind of climate as we have in Sweden, which is convinient.
Well there are far to many places to visit in NYC
more interesting then our Hotels basement levels...
but it is interesting how close it resembles my
minds eye image of Metropolis... I have to take
photo's and post them one day.
Anyhow... I watched an old movie the other night
ALGIERS about a French master criminal who is
hiding in the Casbah... that would be a great
setting for an adventure.
One of the other spookiest/haunted like cities
here in the USA is New Orleans. Besides "Marde
Gras" swamps, voodoo, old plantations, drinking,
rogue cop image type place... with a long history
some bloody from back in the days of the Pirates/
Buckineers.
I'd say
House on Haunted Hill (setting rather that storry)
The Cell (for dreamworld inspiration)
Hellraiser I, II, III, IV, V (you didnt see that one coming did you...)
Videodrome
Tetsuo Ironman & Tetsuo II: Bodyhammer
Those of you with campaigns in NYC
here are some more details you can
toss in and or use...
Midtown Manhattan has a lot of old steam
pipes and 100 year old plus water mains
that bust a few times a year causing huge
back-ups and delays... sometimes flood the
subway stations near them... When the power
transformers go... choking smoke can fill
a whole city block, steam and gas build ups
can blow sewer caps/covers 15ft in the air...
There are always people handing out brochures
to events, businesses or causes and agencies.
Grand Central Station and Midtown Manhattan
has subway tunnels up to 6 or seven levels
deep... many still in use or old abandoned
stations and public works alongside them...
some have power still and filled with homeless
communities... area the Police will not go
willingly... this is true in various other
area's of Manhattan from Wall Street (Downtown),
to The Village (Greenwich Village) and Midtown
and Times Square.
Central Park has some stone bridge over passes
with a short tunnel through them used by thugs
who pop the lights to make it dark for an
ambush to rob/kill someone... women get rapped.
The park closes at Dusk and is lightly patrolled
but their are always joggers and gangs, youths,
fornicating people in it... it is dense and has
forest like hills, a resouvoir and a sm. castle
used as a weather center. It has band shells,
baseball fields and even a zoo. It is a very
large park capable of millions of people to
use at one time.
Hotels in "The City" (Manhattan or NY, NY)
range from $79 group discount to $299 a night
and well beyond that for anything luxurious.
You can find a bar, club or restaurant open
nearly around the clock. They don't call this
the city that never sleeps for nothing. Trans-
portation via Bus, Shuttles to the airports,
cabs, Subway Trains are located on nearly
every avenue and connect to every borough...
Staten Island via a Ferry and Roosevelt Island
via a Tram. (Suspended Cable Car like a ski resort)
Greenwich Village below Midtown and above Downtown
is an Artistic area. Almost every bar has bands
playing or performers of some kind, gay culture
thrives openly, rare book store, record stores,
and various counter-cultures all grouped together.
Retro fashion is very popular... 60's & 70's...
Many places to eat... and New York University
college & dorms in the middle of it. Just East
is more down and out areas... bums... shadier clubs
and rip off brand name merchandis... West is more
exclusive trendy places and shops... Homosexuals.
Very old Brownstone apartment houses worth Millions!
Police/Emergency Worker Terms:
Bus - Ambulance
EDP - Emotionally Disturbed Person
DOA - Dead On Arrival
Slang:
Bitch/Old Lady - Girlfriend, wife or nasty term female
Johnny Pump/Fire Plug - Fire (Water Hydrant)
5-O (Five-Oh) - Slang for Police are coming
Narc - Narcotics (Drugs) Officer
Chickas, Chickas - Prostitutes nearby
Piece/Gat/Rod/9 - Pistol, Hand Gun - 9mm
Buck/Smoke/Cap Your Ass - Shoot/Fire A Weapon
24-7 - Open All Hours (Anytime)
Hick or Hillbilly - Person from the Southern US
Redneck - Stupid or Ignorant person from S. US
Spic - Nasty term for a Latino Person
Nigger - Nasty term for a Black person
(used between 2 Blacks as my friend or that person
ex: What up Nigger? From a white it's a fight...)
Sticks/Stix - A Rural Area or Woodland Community
sometimes called the Boondocks or Boonies also
Also Note:
In NYC area folks often argue about the Yankees
and Mets (two NYC Baseball Teams) a lot of folks
sleep on the trains to and from work or read books
folks mostly keep to themselves if not with a
friend... Everyone seems to have a cell phone...
no matter where you go...
Airport security has gotten very strict thank
goodness... it was fairly relaxed years ago.
The Towers or WTC - World Trade Center
Cab/Gypsy Cab - Taxis and illegal car services
Coney Island, Brooklyn - Russians & Jews
Williamsburg, Brooklyn - Italian, Polish & Latino
Ridgewood, Queens - German, Polish, Russian & Italian
Forest Hills, Queens - Well to do Whites & others
Jackson Heights - Prostitutes, Drugs & Latino & Asians
Elmhurst, Queens - All Asian Races, West Indians
Jamaica, Queens - Black, Pakistani's, Guianese...
Harlem & The Bronx - Latino, Black & Others
(Some Bronx is Irish & Italian)
Staten Island - Mobsters, Some Upper Class (Swampy)
A "popular" gang in the City with Los Angeles
connections is the Bloods... they have their own signs
and way of dressing to identify each other...
Don't misunderstand that everything here in this
post happens all the time and everyone is foul
or politically incorrect constantly... just some
generalizations from my daily observances...
Some Neighborhoods not in Fallen Angels:
Sunnyside, Astoria, Long Island City, Woodside, Queens - Irish & Latino
Howard Beach, Queens - Mobsters, Italians (largely
White area with history of Racial Violence the
area is directly next to JFK Airport)
Richmond Hill, Queens & South Ozone Park, Queens -
Largely Arab, Pakistani, India, West Indian & Guianese
currently "pushing out Latinos"
Woodhaven, Queens - White, Latino, Some Black
East New York, "Bed Stuy" Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
- High Crime areas with massive drug infestation...
Largely Black & Latino with some West Indian influence
China Town - Obviously... Chinese (Sweatshops,
Herbal Teas & Shops, Electronics, Clothing...)
{Gangs cruely force illegals to work off their passage}
Glendale, Queens - White, German, Italians some Latino
recently Polish bits have been developing
Long Island (Nassau & Suffolk County)
Nassau County is more upper middle class with some
poorer areas has more development Malls and Highways
Suffolk is richer and far out on "The Island" with
some Labatories and Foundations more reclusive
whites and well to do people. Estates and Boating,
Country Clubs... The Police in Long Island are known
to be real hard asses... full of themselves.
Urban Legends: true or not???
Aligators in the sewers...
Germans came a shore in Long Island during WWII
and stayed (infiltrated "The Island" by Montauk Pt.
and or Jones Beach)from a Submarine.
Steam in the streets of "The City" (Manhattan) is
really radioactive. (Vent pipes around Midtown)
Everyone knows someone who knows a guy... so forth
who happens to be in the news or did something big.
Cops are nearly all crooked (on the take / dirty)
and hang out at donut shops instead of fighting crime
The Government let 9-11 happen and Pearl Harbor too.
Things people are always pissed off about: child care,
Taxes, Transit, Where the toll and Lottery money goes?
School System, Mayor is out of touch, loud music,
drugs, drinking and driving accidents, drug shoot outs
and who is cheating on who... (double standard too),
women getting paid less then men in the same job...
any War and Presidential Administration (Politics)...
Cars getting towed and ticket quotas for parking
violations, Police shooting suspects multiple times...
and aggressive driving to name a few... you will
over hear daily in the city and your life here.
In some neighborhoods... you will hear only
the language of the areas racial settlers...
Blocks of nothing but Polish, Spanish or Russian...
Statistically most black crime is against other blacks
Latino's are the largest growing immigrants
Brooklyn once the 4th largest city in the world
was known as the Borough Of Churches. Even today
their are many different Churches used and unused,
recycled and what-have-you every few blocks. Some
have catacombs underneath and or crypts. My Grand-
Father told me once when he was young... kids in
the neighboorhood would go down into them in the
middle of the night on a dare or some sort of
initiation rights... sometimes kids would bring
up the skulls and such... kids will be kids I guess
but he said some tunnels went on for a ways. They
are few if any on file with the city plans
being hundreds of years old and some covered up
and long since forgotten now.
Another thing about Brooklyn which is one
of any of the many bridges away from Manhattan
(NYC)... they built a highway called the "B.Q.E."
Brooklyn Queens Expressway which runs along
the coast and into Queens... always backed up
24 hours a day too... it is a nightmare... any
how the city in an effort to get this thing built
in the past tore up neighborhoods and tore down
churches as they went via Imminent Domain Laws
or whatever they call it... Many basements and
such were simply paved over... streets rearranged
I have seen fire hydrants (Johnny Pumps) in
peoples back yards as a result to this day...
might be of use to a Kult campaign in NYC. The
BQE runs past Brooklyn Prominade a terrace area
with a view of all Manhattan just over and aside
the Brooklyn Navy Yard (Disused now) that built
about half of the World War II fleet... the area
is heavily industrial now and has a small youth
prison too nearby I believe. You see it in movies
all the time about Turn Of The Century NYC/Brooklyn.
The area looks like time has forgotten it... and
if you saw a horse and carriage you'd think you
may have traversed time surely... The neighboor-
hood is mixed with many races and some small houses
(brick) still remain between industrial complexes.
These days it is an economicly depressed area.
It would make a great merging with Metropolis
especially at night when not a soul can be found
accept the occassional night watchman along the docks.
OT - Inquiry Shows British Scientists Took Brains Without Families' Consent
by Deformed Jackal
Inquiry Shows British Scientists Took Brains Without Families' Consent
By SARAH LYALL
LONDON, May 12 — Nothing about Cyril Isaacs's death was easy, from the way he carried it out — hanging himself with the cord from an electric kettle — to the distress his widow, Elaine, felt over the authorities' insistence on performing an autopsy.
But that was not the end of it. Thirteen years later, in 2000, Mrs. Isaacs's inadvertent discovery that her husband's brain had been removed and handed over to researchers touched off a grim and far-reaching investigation into the fate of the brains of the dead.
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Today, the government announced that as many as 22,000 brains had been removed in England, most without relatives' permission, from people who died from 1970 to 1999.
The rationale was research: research into sickness, research into the functions of the brain and research into depression and mental illness. So eager were officials to get hold of new brains for their studies that in one case, the report said, a hospital mortician was paid about $16 for each fresh brain he provided.
Removing organs and tissues from bodies without relatives' consent was explicitly outlawed in 1999, after an earlier scandal at the Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool. In that investigation, researchers were found to have removed and kept the organs of 3,500 children who had died at the hospital, returning the bodies to the families without revealing that they were incomplete.
The report on the brain investigation by Dr. Jeremy Metters, the country's inspector of anatomy, concluded that there was a possibility that a brain could have been taken from anyone on whom an autopsy was carried out by a hospital or coroner from 1961 to 1999. Dr. Metters made 32 recommendations, calling, among other things, for greater openness in planning and carrying out autopsies to ensure that relatives were told of the option of organ donation.
"There are a lot of people who would give their consent for research on the brains of their relatives," he said. "It would be a tragedy if my report was to undermine lawful post-mortem research that has the full consent of relatives."
Sir Liam Donaldson, the country's chief medical officer, emphasized that the policy in the National Health Service had been tightened considerably since the incidents described in the report.
"Removing organs or tissues at post-mortem examination without lawful authority is an affront to families who have lost a loved one," Sir Liam told reporters. "I can assure them and other families that, since the time of the activities described in this report, the practice of routine retention and use of organs and tissue without consent is no longer acceptable practice" in the National Health Service.
Dr. Metters's report chronicles the fights of a number of families to find out what happened to the brains of their deceased relatives.
In the case of David Webb, a depressive who said he was going for a walk and was found the next morning asphyxiated in his car, his widow emphasized to officials at the time that as a Jehovah's Witness, Mr. Webb would have objected to having his organs used for transplants or research.
Mr. Webb died in 1988. Thirteen years later, after reading about the Alder Hey scandal, his widow began making inquiries about his organs. She received a letter from her local hospital, in Cambridge, saying, "With the exception of the brain, all organs were returned to the body prior to the funeral."
She later learned that the brain, meant to be used for research into depression, was instead being stored in a deep freezer.
But it was the long campaign of Mrs. Isaacs, an Orthodox Jew incensed that the treatment of her husband's body had violated the family's religious beliefs, that prompted the government's investigation. She discovered in April 2000 what had happened as she read through correspondence about his medical care. It turned out that researchers had not even used her husband's brain but rather incinerated it in 1993.
A large section of the report focused on the behavior of medical officials in Manchester, where the Isaacs family lived, during the 1980's and early 1990's, when a great many brains were taken.
"The practice of the coroner, his officers, pathologists and researchers from Manchester University led to the unlawful and unethical removal of Cyril Isaacs's brain, and the brains of many others, including vulnerable mental health patients," Mrs. Isaacs said in a statement. "Action must be taken to ensure such events cannot happen again so that our suffering, and that of other families, is not in vain."
Advocates for the mentally ill said they were horrified at the disclosures. Cliff Prior, the chief executive of Rethink, a mental health charity, said the report was "a shocking indictment of the way people with severe mental illness and their families have been treated for decades."
He added, "It is no longer acceptable and never has been for people to be treated with such a total lack of dignity and respect."
At the same time, Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of Sane, another mental health charity, said that while it was essential to get permission from families before keeping brains for research, the work carried out using brains was vital to finding treatments for mental disorders.
"We would call for a revival of organized brain banks and systems such as donor cards," she said, "so that those who suffer now are encouraged to leave their brains to prevent suffering in the future."
... We have had a GREAT discussion about Lictors, now I think we should cover Razides, what are they and what are their motives?
How many are there? In my opinion it can't be too many. I base this on LoD in the chapter about Samael; here it says that he hasn't many Razides in his minions, this is however balanced by his 777 (now 773 as my players have killed four in an encounter ) If he can balance a lack of these creatures by only 777 other creatures that are less powerful than Razides it should be indicate that there are only "a few" of them. At least compared to the number of Lictors.
In my opinion Razides have about the same position as Lictors. They are some kind of Infernal variant of the lictors, that are supposed to supervise the hells in the same way Lictors are supervising the Illusion.
They have, however, found that the best way to torment mankind is to do it by putting people in their purgatories by force instead of waiting for them to come there.
The Lictor - Razide similarity, is based on the fact that some Deathangels have Razides as bosses in the Illusion (Examples: "Adnan Kazour" or whatever his name is, and the previously mentioned Razide in the GG house in the Black Madonna, he is called "Ernst Vogel".)
These things seem to have about the same status in their organizations even though their motives may differ.
-King Six-
(feels sorry for a Nazi guy called Leo Freude who has been the reluctant lover of Ernst Vogel for quite some time)
One: The worst thing written about the Razides
is in Metropolis (US ed.) that has a Nest with
Eggs... I am tempted to black it out with a
marker so that it can never again be read...
Two: The best thing written about those bastards
is that no matter what their mission or objective
they often fall back on their instincts to torture
and punish Humanity...
Three: I don't see them as Lictor-like at all...
They are more the Wolf guarding the Hen House...
Lictors are more like a Greedy Farmer... Lictors
were intended to administrate and keep Humanity
on track within the Illusion... Razides are Brutal
Henchman doing the dirty work of their master(s).
They are the Militery Commanders and Nepharite more
of the Secret Police... I believe I read that on
the forum once (Robin maybe?) It is important to
me they just not fall into mindless monsters to
fight and unload on for PC's that is not what Kult
is about... everything in the system has motivations
wether or not we mere weakened Humans understand it.
as far as I can remember I think I read somewhere that both Nepharites and Razides (and maybe even Desparytes?) offered their services to the Hellish creatures, aka: Astaroth and the DeathAngels, when humanity got incarcarated. If my memory is correct, Nepharites offered to aid in toruring inferno-lized humans and aid in making them forget. I don't remember what the Razides offered, but Im thinking that they, just as Nepharites, are creatures of an unknown origin that saw an oportunity to increase their (hithero unknown) agenda.
Then again... I have spent the last week being on hospital and hardly slept whatsoever... so I might be wrong...
I also couldn't get why they put in the incident with the eggs... It seemed pretty un-kultlike to me, but very Alienlike.
Then again, having eggs doesn't necessarily mean there is sex involved in the normal sense of the word, right?
Other Kult creatures reproduce as well (I don't remember what they are called right now, the ones who go into our reality, pinch our babies and replace with their own).
Agreeing on that part. The Razide eggs and Larvae or whatever they are called are not very good. I think that Razides should be more of a creative process, breeding them in some kind of machine. Not very much unlike Sauruman's breeding of Uruk'hai in LotR. Matbe more mechanized and incorporating parts of humans and other stuff :D
... so much as the fact that they are in Metropolis. Why would they be there and not in hell?
Furthermore the larvae and the Razides have nothing whatsoever in common. That's not really necessary (comparing for instance caterpillar and butterfly) but it feels wrong.
I am not averse to using the eggs and larvae in Metropolis, but they're not Razide but something else entirely.
I see Razides more like general torturers who work all throughout hell, often in the service of a Nepharite, while Nepharites are personal demons whose sole purpose is the torment of a specific individual.
I also find the idea of Razide eggs in Metropolis idiotic and ignore it.
It seems to me that Razides have ambitions
looking for desirable positions and choice
assignments for themselves. Like that one
in LoD who is in South America... I forget
the specifics but he is a Militery Commander
or something...
The servants of Juan Martinez, an incarnate of Hareb-Serap. His Razides are planning an uprising against their master. Acoording to the text they are fed up with being sacrificed on the altar of war to remain loyal.
That reminds me... gotta take time to finish the "blueprints" of his base. This part is one of my favorites in the whole LoD. I have since long had plans on letting my PCs enter this base for some reason and clean it out. My Idea is that the PCs are hunting some Nazi documents that are hidden within the "abandoned" compound. I thought of putting the documents they need on one of the waterfilled lower areas and have them swim down there.... After getting inside that is :D
...movies with kultesque inspiration material potency.
I would like to add two that I dont think most people have seen, but that are great for setting and mysterious purposes...
First one is : Le pact de Loups (Pact of the Wolves)
Excllent material for Kult, general horro but maybe mostly towards Werewolf games such as the White Wolf one, or any game with werewolfes (Children of the Night for instance).
Second one (and EXTREMELY recomended) is :
Vidocq
This movie has it big time... crowded streets, mysterious assasin with a mirror mask that "eats the souls of his victims", a murder mystery that needs to be solved, mysterious murders (how the hell do you get someone to auto combust in the victorian/edwardian era?), vicious locations such as the "redlight district" of Paris (same era as mentioned above) and the assasins flesh and gut-filled "lab".
Its in french, granted, but seriously, its one of the most inspiring moies I have seen in ages... and the end is quite surprising aswell.
Gerard Depardieu plays an actually excellent roll in this one, forget if you dislike him, he is good in this one.
The assasin is cool.
The era is interesting.
Lighting and coloring of the film is excellent.
The sounds are excellent.
the feel is excellent.
Cool and interesting ideas for Kultesque adventures come QUITE easily from it.
Finally...something REALLY important:
It's built upon an actuall case, and an actuall person in specific: Vidocq was the founder of a society of police/P.I. like people that exsist to this very day!
Im not saying it is completely accurate, or that the case was indeed so as it is portrayed, but Im willing to let that pass if it is so, actually.... (gods, Im reviewing it for ya).. Im not even going to bother with find out the facts about the specific case.. it is too damn good to spoil like that... Im just simply going to use it...
The pact (As it's called here) was an ok movie. I think it's a tad stylish to have french nobles fight martial arts against werewolves but other than that it wasn't too much of a movie.
Vidoq on the other hand was a nightmare, but not in the sense one might expect. The very things you commend, are the things that made me hate every second of it. The lighting, the textures, the general feel and atmosphere of the movie annoyed me - and the unnessecary use of CG everywhere was just embarrasing.
Gerard Depardieu is the only one of the entire cast who can be said to have done some real acting.
Vidoq I haven't seen yet but the Pact was too many movies at once. I liked it at first but it became sillier by the scene. Then it was wrapped up too quickly in the end when they found they had wasted too much time already, and they could have spared us the silly fantasy elements (like that idiotic bone / chain sword).
...fortunately for me, the colors (dark and brooding, with sometimes brighter colors splashing [done with a UV-filter for those who know camerawork]) and the general feel that around you is chaos at the same time as you try to solve something that in the end turns out to be more and more separated from what you thought was the truth...those things are what I look for when I construct Kult storylines... what REALLY makes it a good movie for me though is that there are no "superdilicious-extraordinairy-hollywood" effects... insted there s one effect made with cgi (mirror of the assasin) and loads of keeping one in the dark...which wroks way more effective then splattermovies ...I think anyway...
something that made me quite happy about the movie aswell, is the fact that Im the most difficult viewer to trick... Im the guy that sees ll the links and connect the dots after 15mins of plot... this one totally surprised me with the end...even though I figured it out something in the sense of 2-3 minutes before it got revealed.. only one movie has been able to confuse me and trick me like that before...and that was "the Game"... even though I know that for instance K6 did not really like it, he had a big downside to it that I didnt... I spoiled it somewhat for him by telling him that it went back and forth all the time...
...Vidocq doesnt really have that one... I was just completely surprised b its ending...
as far as Robins Pact review: well... most of those things are true, however, I found it a nice little movie anyway...besides... was actually meant just to give new suggestions for movies...got carried away with Vidocq... It's just that I have roughly seen the same movies pop up over and over again, apart from the last little line of those where someone mentioned movies such as Ghost ship and some others...
Twin Peaks
(both series and the movie I guess...Im one of few people who havent actually seen the movie...yet... sob)
Wasabi
(with Jean Reno, its action, nothing really horror-esque about it, however, there are some interesing villains and archetypes in it)
Monsters Inc.
(goddamnit, how kultish can you get? Monsters live in nother dimension and live off of childrens screams by going through portals that end up in closets!!! it ends lame from a Kultish point of view, but hey...it works)
Dinner Rush
( I just like it because it has some real life value, aswell as a very good ending that REALLY gves you an "everything _isn't_ what it seems like"-feeling ....or something like that..)
Event Horizon
(okay..so Murk allready mentioned it...it needs more mentioning... its all good )
Gods Army(The Profecy II), and The Profecy
( Guess why, in my book of Angelic hosts, Gabriel will be a human-hating bastard after seeing these.. I just thought it was such a good deal I used it, C. Walken rules...)
Apocalypse now
( okay, so its an oldie, but still...I love the smell of napalm burning in the morning! )
Beautiful Joe
( Dying man gets brave... its a drama/(sort of)Comedy, but watch it from the point of view of how people who have nothing to loose can shape their life.. )
Suicide Kings
( Interesting kidnaping movie, with C. Walken as the kidnaped one... )
Blade II
( okay, so the fighting scenes are a wee bit too much, and they kill an Irishman called "Priest" first... which I hate.... but the things lurk in the dark... loads of brooding places and some good ol' "zombie"-overwhelming monstrocities in the sewers... )
The Game
(Yeah I know...mentioned earlier...but its good)
Snatch
( Killer movie, gitz and Giza's all over the place, plus Pikey's (one played by an excellent Brad Pit of every possible combo thought of), bookies, mad russians, illegal boxing managers and a good ol' LARGE diamond from Antwerpen. Oh...and people who know EXACTLY how to get rid of bodies.. look out for pig-farmers...)
Boondock Saints
( luck can make anyone an assasin, but it's determination that makes heroes.. or anti heroes for that matter)
Eraser Head (1st and best David Lynch)
Mullholland Drive (last and 2nd best David Lynch)
The Cell (Mostly the Artistic Feel)
The Ring (Japanese version)
Se7eN
Night of the living Dead (A Must)
Blue Velvet
The Crow (Hell, I can't help but lovin' it)
The Shining
Silence of the Lambs (:
frighteners (okay, it is a humorous movie, but the caped reaper...mmmmmm)
fight club (it has some very noir moments....and seriously...who isnt scared by meatlaf with bobs? (who btw actually did a great job in the movie, didnt expect him to act that well) )
the Shining (yes I know, allready mentioned in an earlier post, but I didnt see this one until quite recently, and have to agree on it)
Jacobs Ladder (its weird, but...)
Thunderheart (for those who needs inspiration in how spirits[unbound creatures?] can work with people to get through messages.... maybe the native populations of different areas arebetter at this? but why? Native Americans, Aboriginals, African tribes, Amazon tribes etc etc...)
Right, first of all, I'm a UK poster so I'm not particularily au fait with US police work.
Right, in my campaign's backstory (circa 1980), a family's kids go missing early one sunday afternoon. Obviously the police are called and a APB is send out.
A couple of hours later the husband (a known alcoholic and wife beater) has a row and manages to get out of the house and take the family car (the officer who was meant to look after the famil was indisposed somehow)
Okay, so a continuing search for the kids and a new APB foir the husband is called.
Then for plot reasons that would take space, the wife leaves the house and finds her husbands and kids (and they all get 'absorbed' into Gaia, witnessed by two beat officers).
The sheriff, church leader and mayor conspire to maintain that the husband has murdered the kids and possibly kidnapped the wife. (Again the plot reasons are many).
This is where it starts to get tricky. Would the Sheriff have to inform the Federal authorities of the disappearnce?
As if the sheriff can palm the incident off as a disappearance, hide the cars (they were found) and claim it's now likely to be a missing persons case out of the area's borders, would that be acceptable procedure without too much suspicion being raised?
I mean the sheriff could falsify the circumstances etc and tell other local police forces to look out for either cars (obviously they won't show).
But how would they effectively cover up the incident if the federal agencies got involved?
Plus, if a similar incident happened 20 years later, could they not involve the federal agencies by simply not asking for federal assistance, or would that be highly suspicious?]
Considering that this is a small rural town where these kinds of crimes are highly highly rare, what would be best way to deal with the incident?
Don't sweat it... cases here in the US fall through
the cracks for years at a time unless some huge media
blitz is created for some reason. I can not tell you
how many times you see and hear these cases of
Domestic Violence, Kidnapping By A Parent or Other,
Child Abuse... withg plenty of warning signs and
history that should have alerted someone to be on
it watching out... In some areas they have a system
here now that when a child is kidnapped the highway
sign (Digital ones) put up info and descriptions of
the purpetrator, license plate, childs name and such
which has helped in a few cases.
Hmmm I am not a Lawyer/Solicitor or what have you
but if "The Fed's" got involved most likely these
days they are over worked with Homeland Security
and again the case unless media pressure is on
would likely fall through the cracks.
I would love to get a Kult campaign started, set in a real life US town, I've got Legions of Darkness and Kult:Rumours.
I'll be monitoring the mental balance of players secretly, a lot of the campaign setting will be based on ideas about Gaia I've read in several fine sourcebook I've read on the net.
I'll even be using a different system (not to diss' Kult's, just for GM comfort).
I've good a basic grasp of the Kult cosmology (through, again, sites on the net) and the campaign setting itself will be a gradual realising of the illusion and the players shared past.
In a nutshell the campaign is a cross between Jacobs Ladder and Twin Peaks (with a hint of Pi).
So, really, answer me this...
Do I really need the Kult GM book??
I'd be nice to have I guess, but the urge to get the campaign underway is very very strong!
... With what you have you should be able to make a campaign with most elements needed to make it a true Kult Campaign.
Most, if not all, information on Archons and Death Angels is available in LoD, and of course there is information on the Lictors in there to. So I guess you have the most important parts you need to run a campaign; especially if you plan to gradually break the illusion. As most Lictors work to maintain the Illusion, you got those bad guys right there
If you got any more questions, mail me or post them here
If you already have the cosmology in mind and the right "jist" for the game then don't worry about anything and just start playing!
What rules will you be using? remember that two elements of the kult rules system are fundamental:Mental balance and Dark secrets,don't ignore thaes and don't ignore the extremity of kult advantages and disadvantages
King Six:
Thanks for your reply, but I don't feel the Metropolis sourcebook will be neccessary, Gaia will be the focus of the campaign.
M.P.
To your points re: the rules and the Advantages/Disadvantages issue.
I'll be using the One Roll Engine system (Don't flame me! There will be no superheroic abilities for the PC's, I just like the system).
As for advantages/disadvantages, I would be cautious using the ones supplied with Kult and making my own.
As to Dark Secret. The players have a shared dark secret (being involved in one of Malkulths experiments in Gaia), and I'll be monitoring mental balance separately.
As the key to my campaign to to gradually bring the nightmarish truth regarding a murder which happens in the town where they live (out in the Dakotas somewhere) and the thin veil to Gaia.
Plus they will be playing 16 year old, giving the PC's the ability to have so many dark secrets and having "Mental Balance" printed clearly on the character sheet would destroy the atmosphere somewhat!
Basically the PC's 'accidently' (read gradually lured) into a patch where the illusion is deliberately thin to Gaia when they were 8.
Here, they survived an attempt to enlighten them, and 8 years later, things will happen to ease their beings towards the dark path to enlightenment, mostly strange and sutble stuff at first, then gradually bigger pushes towards the -500 MB mark (family deaths/suicides etc).
And the lure of patch of Gaia will become stronger and more persuasive
Combine this with local police suspicion about the PC's involvement a murder which will happen early on in the campaign, and a backstory to a family's disappearance, again because of the lure of this patch of Gaia.
You've got a campaign.
Besides, the moment you give any indication that this is a horror game too soon and it get rather boring.
Nobody flames here. By the gods were gentlemen after all!
Remember though that Kult is a game of extremity and these extremes are very well depicted by the advantages and disadvantages (examble: LUCKY doesnt just give you roll bonuses like in other RPG's but actually means that you miss the plane that crashes into the mountain!!)
As I understand it, I am probably the only person using Hero Points (HP) in my games quite actively. I let my players use their saved-up HP to do some quite magical feats - such as getting a double "Combined"-roll when using martial arts against their foes. Sometimes with interesting results, even... (broken skulls and so on) :D
Or, in the case of the plane crash-example you use, my PC's (not computers this time either ) would be able to run at a higher rate than usual to get away from the problem, at the expense of their HP.
They are a pretty nice way to save the PCs when they do stupid things. One of my players jumped into a room full of hostiles with AK47s and got shredded. After having used 9 or 10 HP he had recieved a couple of light wounds and "only" 3 serious ones. Now he began bleeding to death...
He got saved however as his friends pretty fast could start First aid and stop the most serious bleeding.
To me, luck is preventing a falling beam from hitting the character. Or in combat, when some effect hits the PCs randomly. If you have luck the possibility that you are hit is reduced to half, and if you have bad luck the possiblilty is doubled...
...i personally see luck in kult as a more narrative device...i use it to integrate on the horror and tragic element of the kultesque
A lucky character might start to curse his lucky star when he finds himself as the sole surviver of a gruesome car crash in which his children and wife die a most uncomely death...after all they WEREN'T lucky....
Or imagine the poor fellow leaving a bar with his girlfriend, while he's walking away: "BOOM!!!!" a bomb blows the place to rubble (no survivors need me specify?)....
And always remember how some may start to envy and even despise such a "lucky bastard"
As for HP's i only allow their usage in pivotal moments of a story..during the final showdown or when its absolutely NECESSARY to succeed
They should be used for those feats that for normal men are "impossible" they are hero points after all!!!
If a PC is acting stupidly then he dies..end.
(note:i actually tend to call them AHP...."anti-hero points")
Anyhow... my take on things since no one asked me:
Luck... Cops pull over a PC for a broken tail light
and ask him to step out of the vehicle... as he is getting checked out... an incinderary device hidden there by the Lictors agents whom the PC's have been making trouble for goes off... and the PC is unhurt.
Bad Luck... at a critical time when your buddy is
relying on you to bring that antidote to the poison
you match the description of a guy who just robbed
the gas station and killed a cop getting away...
Hero Points... I allow it as Dice Modifiers and
or sometimes to influence a NPC in to helping...
or talking their way out of a tough spot... avoiding
a final fatal wound if reflex would have helped...
but to change fate completely in the game is wrong
on many levels... destroys continuity in the story.
Ok his shot refected off your braclet hit the light
whose shattered glass went into his eye... sliced
the rope binding your hands to the pole just in
time for you to duck as he fired wildly killing
all the other Gang Members about to rape you...
I would say freak of nature. But not by low mental balance by necessity. It could be the effect of inheritage, from a parent with low mental balance, infections and other strange things.
are, IMO, people who have strayed from the 'correct path' (that of equilibrious Mental Balance) without intent.
In order to really awaken people have to follow the path of deviant MB at will and with intent. If they don't do that but stray from it by chance they have less control about their descent (or ascent) and gain the negative bits (unless you count the powers as good bits) but not actual enlightenment.
In the LoD (US) the Proto-Lictor spell
clearly says that the receiving individual
loses the ability to see True Reality...
Does this not mean that Lictors can not
see True Reality... so their skill at
manipulating the Illusion and disguise
will fool another Lictor...
The Telepathy then is another question...
Can they defend against another Lictors
probing? Is it just what ever they send
out that is heard by another?
In the part about the Lictors it says
the rebellion uses complex picture images
to relate info to each other members
via the telepathy.
"Does this not mean that Lictors can not
see True Reality... so their skill at
manipulating the Illusion and disguise
will fool another Lictor...?"
Yes and yes.
"The Telepathy then is another question...
Can they defend against another Lictors
probing? Is it just what ever they send
out that is heard by another?"
They can communicate via telepathy. Not read minds. Which means they can transmit and recieve.
..with what they mean by "true reality". I take it as that the humans who recieve this spell can never more recieve their godlike state, hence they cannot see "true reality" and as such they cannot reshape it in the godlike mannerism they would be able to do as awakened. Lictors have, after all, a limited power in comparison to awakened beings...
I've never used the Nephilim myself - but I see them as some divine creature rather than a product of Mental Balance, much in the same way as you see the Seraphim and Azghouls.
They are covered well in the Players Companion (US)
in that it is a kind of Family Curse or they are
throw backs to an earlier race of man somehow...
I am currently composing an adventure where-in
Malkuths agents are accidentally creating
Nephilim during experiments on unwilling subjects
a medical corporation is using to try and
awaken mankind...
I really think they have been/are under used
their is a lot of potential there.
(No not Eric Burdon singing House Of The Rising Sun)
I recall reading a bit on the true animals...
and how only Dogs are on our side but are tricked
by Lictors anyhow if skillful enough... good puppy!
The other animals are generally bigger and
more hideous or what have you and not what they
seem to be in the Illusion. And assumingly can
be set upon us as needed
Here is the problem... if Horses are really
12ft tall and have gaping jaws and tenticles
about their eyes for example would a person
seeing through the Illusion have to Roll from
the Terror? How would he know what the Animal is?
"Hey Bob see that bluebird over there..." Reply:
"Which one is that the three headed lizardy one
or the puss spewing horned spidery one?"
Not too menton we eat these things? I think I'm
heading over to the new Salad Bar... Gaiarama!!!
:-P
What is your favorite Kult tid-bit
or happening in an official Kult
release?
One of my favorite parts is in (GM Screen - US)
"The Father, The Son & The Unclean Spirit"
I loved how the demon forms out of blood
"Skinflick" and is invulnerable while
forming... the shock to PC's is great!
The entire idea of an inferno in the theatre, the way the pc's get mixed into the plot, the jackals, the sepiroth, Elizabeths curse, Joshua Jordan, the amnesia episode... everything really.
A few of the film-plot ideas in Metropolis are also nice!
The players introduction to The Black Madonna (TBM) is also great! How they by the curse/disease that falls upon them are forced to sort it all out.
I am soon (after finishing my examsat the end of May) going to start GM'ing TBM again. What a joy it will be! The cast of PC's will be more integrated than ever too!
Isn't that pretty much an anti-climax! Hehe... You should have seen my players faces when they realized what they had done didn't work out all too well :D
(Funny thing is that they started killing the wrong people in Purgatov's house. They killed the cheif of police of the Berlin Police Department. A bullet in the back of the head, execution style! Now that was a bad move!)
One of the PC's lost his gun and started stabbing the VIP's with his pocket knife at random - incidentally, he also got the chief of one of Berlin's police-departments
My players did everything they could to hide away. When they left Germany to go to Russia, their only option was to go by car, sliding out at an unguarded border crossing to Poland.
Killing the Cheif of Police was a bad move as Counter Terrorist groups such as the GSG 9, were looking fir for them when they tried to escape Berlin. This was a very nice part of the adventure. They were quite jumpy when they were going to Frankfurt an der Oder. MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!
The "GG" *knodge (aint giving anything away)* episode in TBM is a great classic too. My PC's bolted through a door (behind witch a razide was preparing for combat) simoultaneysly with blazing guns and both scored perfect hits in the head. Sort of an anticlimax for me, but the players were really satisfied, hehe.
Has anybody ever had players who would try to negotiate their way through this episode??
You know, the part where the PC's play the guards in Sandburn Prison. One of the PC's betrayed the rebellious guards (the PC's and a few NPC's ) and revealed their plans to Barkley. Then he regained his senses and saw his friends being tortured. He freed the inmates and then committed suicide by blowing his head off... The inmates started a riot and it turned into a massacre.
As the prison was already transported to inferno...the suicidal guard woke up with a terrible headache (and only) half a head. The player mumbled: my god "Can't I even redeem myself by dying right?"
... must be from the nepharite sourcebook, the shortstory about the girl who paints a hole in reality only to have a nasty encounter with gamaliel, my favourite angel of death :D
Lictors have acute senses and sees ultraviolet and infrared light, But they haven't got the ability to see through the Illusion and are "locked in the illusion with us"; so can a lictor spot another lictor on sight? If so, can a lictor HIDE his nature from other Lictors? This might be important in my upcoming adventure (Even though I am GM and after all I can do whatever I wan't but I prefer to alter as little as possible in the game; it keeps the mechanical things consistent.)
I don't think lictors can see through illusionary disguises... They are well versed in the magic arts, however. If they'd suspect someone not being what he/she appears to be then they could try some magic (takes a quite a bit of time, no "hey, presto" magic) and the culprit's true nature has been discovered!!!
you mean when he draws the PCs into Metropolis to fight them there the first time they meet him? That's pretty interesting. What is this ability then? I have always thought that Lictors can't collapse the illusion at will, but this is an exception that clearly is interesting.
I guess that you could say that the Chezenko-model is a 'deviant' of some sort, but then again he was created by Gunilla & Michael in 1991 - and that has got to count for something in terms of being true to the original concept of Kult.
The 1st US edition states that Malkuth spawened these bastards to be our jailors and that they have been imprisoned with us... NOW HERE IS WHAT I THINK IS THE IMPORTANT BIT - our prison is crumbling! The jail is falling apart because of the dissapearance of the DU.
A thing mentioned in the 1st US rules that supports this, is the following excerpt: "Many took the opportunity to avange themselves on humans for their frustration over thousands of years in captivity. Others joined Astaroth or became the personal servants of an Archon." (page 180: Kult 1993) This gives me the impression that they are no longer bound to our prison (or what remains of it), how else can they get in touch with Archons and Astaroth?
Hope this adds to your confusion
PS - Another cosmology note "Holy crap" must refer to the sh*t of the demiurge, right? :P
Such frustration can only build up when they knew all along that they were imprisoned I guess. You can be imprisoned in varying degree - as full inmates they would have been totally useless. They were probably more imprisoned by their function than by the walls of the illusion.
The frustration is not only on the lictors behalf --- i'm getting pretty confused here myself
A few brief quotes from the Swedish Legions of Darkness about lictors
"I årtusenden har de hoppats och planerat för den dag då de kan bryta sig loss från arkonterna och själva ta makten över illusionen. Då tänker de hämnas på oss för alla årtusenden av slaveri."(Book 2, Page 4)
='For millenia they have been hoping and planning for the day when they would break free from the archons and take control over the illusion themselves. They then plan to get back on us for millenia of slavery'
"De planerar att störta sina herrar och själva ta makten över vår verklighet. De skyller alla år av slaveri på människan och tänker plåga oss i evigheter som hämnd. De tänker förändra och förvrida vår verklighet tills den passar dem bättre, till en värld där människan är slav och offer under liktorerna"(Book 2, Page 4)
='They plan to bring down their masters and take control over our reality themselves. They blame all the years of slavery on mankind and plan to torment us in eternity as revenge. They plan to change and distort our reality until it suits them better, to a world where the human is a slave and victim (can in extreme cases be interpreted as "sacrifice") for the lictors'
I think this implies that the Lictors must have some sort of autonomy that goes beyond just being jailors. If they just were jailors by nature, which they well may be, I don't see the reason for them too change the nature of the prison. All the archonts, death angels and awakened people see them as such backstabbing threats - that must mean that they have more power than most people here give them credit for.
"Such frustration can only build up when they knew all along that they were imprisoned I guess"
Well, I guess they know...
I am reminded of the part on Lictors
in the US first edition... said that
Lictors are our Jailors.. created by
Malkuth (certain number) for the Archons
to use, whos orders they will obey blindly!
So I would think that maybe the Archons
just aren't giving us all that much attention
since the DU is gone... not issuing out
so many orders now wrapped up in their own
stuggles... all an Archon would need do is
tell a Lictor never oppose me in any way...
and put an end to it.
Their blind obedience to an Archon's will
should not be effected by the Illusion
crumbling... some Lictors after the DU/Archons
disappeared went to serve other Archons, Death
Angels or Astaroth. Essentially they became
free agents... or had to obey a superior being.
So in my opinion with just General directives
and a desire to punish mankind for being stuck
with us the bend the rules and twist things to
acheive their greedy little dark desires. Of
course like a slave who must listen and submit
they hope for the downfall of their masters and
want to be the ones holding the whip...
for the Archons to use, whos orders they will obey blindly!
No!!!! They will not - they are running a double-scheme. It has been stated repeatedly in various rulebooks (including on the page I quoted above) that they have gone renegade and are in fact (except for a few of the mightist lictors) organized in a cell-based structure working behind the backs of the archons.
I see the Lictors as literally inmates
running the assylum... since they are
or were imprisoned with us... with no
clear directives from the Archons to follow
(whom they were made to serve) since the
DU is gone... I imagine a huge chain of
command or structure to get word back to
their Archon... info passed on down the
line and up it... each Lictor putting Its
own spin on things... and remember some
Lictors are still loyal... is it by choice
or are they compelled to obey orders still?!?
Not all Lictors are doing the same thing...
some are Loyal, some are not... some are free
agents with the DU and some Archons gone or
in hiding... working for Astaroth or a Death
Angel... or their own purposes in the splinter
cells mentioned... but my best interpetation
would be if given a direct order from an Archon
they would have to obey.
... all those jailers want is become worse jailers.
Aren't we the slaves of the lictors already, in a way? I think they are supposed to control us... They want less supervision, but they don't try to change things much apart from that.
I have to be more careful as I have read
so many posts, private works and had discussions
on Kult I don't mix it in fully with the core
rule books and official releases so I pop'd open
the old US-Legions and here is my take on it:
Less then 100,000 Lictors are still loyal.
Almost all at the top of the hierarchy...
They do not report the others they are suspicious
of, as not to appear ineffectual in their jobs.
The Archons are suspicious of them for not
reporting the others or bad news.
All Lictors obey the Archons because of fear of
their greater powers... over them.
However, Lictors take every chance to kick
Humanity in the pants and increase their position.
Renegade Lictors use complex telepathic messages to
identify other rebellion leaders.
They have renegade cells as not to get caught.
Some renegades have resources put away equivolent
to the resources of an Archon.
Lictors who retire from the rebellion extinquish
themselves and are reborn without prior memories
so the rebellion isn't revealed.
The next article is an example... ANTON PRADWYCK.
He is high up in the Lictor Rebellion. He has a
plan when the time is right or an opportunity
arises to "augment the power of the Lictors" to
confuse the Archons... make of that what you will.
He plans to replace an Archon when this goes down.
Also in the part is an article on Proto-Lictors:
Who can not fool a true Lictor and their true
nature can be seen. This may imply that True
Lictors can hide from others in the Illusion.
...the US legions of darkness is basically a copy paste of thge Swedish original. What you described there is on page 4, in book 2 of the swedish version.
But what about the line where it says that the organization is top secret and the lictors that are threatened by exposure terminate themselves and all their memories are destroyed when THEY ARE RECREATED?
This directly implies that lictors are being created continuously.
..that Lictors just as humans, are stuck in being created and recreated... basically, they are captive within our jail.
Im thinking something like this:
You have to remember that Metropolis was just our home, and I mean just . There are other worlds out there... but for the lictors, it would (maybe) work something like this: Elysium is our jail... Metropolis is our original home, the Lictors have access to most of the stuff in elysium. Like regular jailors, they can deal out coffe and food if they want to, and give ciggs to the inmates who have been nice. At the end of the day, though, when they would be able to go home, they find themselves living on the premises, sure, the premises are a courtyard that gives access to some buildings in our home(Metropolis), but thats about it... no walking between worlds without problems.... and if they find a key, a door or a passageway, they have to get away without getting spotted by the Archon's videocameras... so that they wont get scolded...
they die, and get remade, just like men die and rebirths... where they go in the time when they have died...we have no clue..maybe something to make something about?, I wdoubt they go to Inferno though...Nepharites are giving scars to every soul that passes there... it would show on their personality...
I think that when it says they are recreated it means there is no usual creation process - there seems to be a finite amount of lictor selves which have to be recycled (otherwise, why recycle?) - so lictors don't reproduce.
I also think that as there is no need to keep lictors from awakening (awakening is a human-exclusive capability) they don't need to go through inferno. Neither do I think it necessary that their memories always get erased - only in those special instances that they have proven to be out of whack (joining a conspiracy etc.) will they be subjected to such a cleansing process, possibly in the Memory Banks or something similar.
"The Organization is very secret. Lictors wish-
ing to retire from it extinquish themselves.
When they are recreated, their memories are
destroyed."
I just think their memories are lost when
they die... period... you seem to imply
some being or process chooses to erase it
or keep it... perhaps the Lictors themselves
can do that which would seem overly complex.
They are immortal... they get recreated somehow
physically but all that they were is lost
mentally... otherwise the Rebellion would have
been exposed no matter what already. There would
be no point in extinquishing themselves at all.
I recall reading something in Metropolis
about a Lictor encounter with a precession
of some kind... going to an Archon citadel?
Anyhow... I always took it that Lictors
travel back and forth from Metropolis... now.
Always looking for gateways and such... They
must get their general instructions somehow...
Unless the are like the Roman Generals/Governors.
When it took years to get information and replies
from Rome... they were the law in the spirit of
Rome. I always picture Lictors not reporting any
bad news... bending the rules of their assignments
& or mission to comply... yet accomodate their
personal agendas also... heheheheheheheheheheh!
I never really considered wether they know
each other on sight. There is a set number
of them right? Maybe they know of the others
being and track and trade information on other
Lictors whereabouts and such... they surely
conspire together here and there against us.
My judgement would be no... as it was said
in another post here that they are trapped
with us in the Illusion... but can manipulate
it... so it is a toss up. My vote is No...
but would have ways to uncover another surely.
Yeah, it says in the rules that there TRADITIONALLY was a fixed number when they worked for Malkuth as our jailors. They are no longer our jailers, so I guess the "traditional" rules do not apply any longer...
The way I see it, the lictors are still our jailers, doing the best they can to keep the illusion from disintegrating. That's because it is their nature - they have only enough free will to not like the fact that they are our jailers, but not enough (for the most part, there are exceptions) to stop jailing us. Even if they bicker amongst each other they still jail us. Only archons and death angels can conceivably free them enough to do completely different things.
To me a lictor who is no jailer is like a human who stops breathing. The vast majority of KULT critters is created specifically for the upkeep of the illusion, and like any machine which is no longer supervised this setup runs havoc, but the system still tries to work correctly.
There can't be new lictors for a similar reason (whether or not the number given in the book is correct is another matter entirely) - reproduction was never part of their existence. I did however allow a lictor to use fetus perversion and create 'offspring' in a game, but this offspring is not a lictor.
it seems that all motives changed with the dissapearance of the Demiurge. The cabal of archons and death angels motives certainly changed, and in particular Malkuth's role.
Malkuth, who originally created the lictors, changed power base completely - from inprisoning us to suddenly free us. (Perhaps she has motives to ally with the humans once they have all been awakened?). So, since the dissapearance of the DU, Malkuth has no need for her workforce of lictors, hence they were all on the dole for a while until they found 'jobs' working for other lictors - or even starting their own shops (although I, as you, see it most likely that these activities would involve keeping the humans oppressed).
Because of this I believe Malkuth, who controlled the lictors, can no longer control the number of lictors.
If Malkuth works to free humans now, why would she not also work to free the Lictors?
Well, she might not be able to control the numbers, but how do the numbers swell when reproduction wasn't built into the lictors? That is all I am saying - they've got no means to reproduce.
Malkuth is the stuff from which the Illusion is built, and she must be ailing when the Illusion is breaking down. Maybe there is a flaw in her which makes her willing to self-destruct. BTW I don't see the motives of the death angels etc. as changing, only running out of bounds. Kether is still about ruling, only more so - etc. He couldn't take up a new career as a cook - because he is not a person with free will nut an embodiment of government.
Malkuth doesn't work to free lictors because it's all about humans and humans only. She cannot free herself or the death angels or anyone else because all of creation is about humans. Without humans all meaning leaves this creation. Lictors cannot be freed because they are no more actually imprisoned than the walls of a jail are. They are fixtures of the prison, but not actual inmates - they might have brains enough to resent that fact now, but actually they have no meaning, no existance outside of the prison. When the prison finally breaks down the lictors are out of an ecosystem and fall by the wayside like the Dodo.
It only says that Lictors have no visible external
genitalia... they may have a way to reproduce beyond
the common Human way... It is important to not judge
the Kult-creetins by Human standards.
In Mörkrets Legioner (1991, Gunilla & Petersen) / Legions of Darkness from 1991 it says the following under the chapter about Malkuth (p79):
"Hon har några få sändebud kvar, människor som har gjorts om till liktorer av henne."
which translates to
"She (Malkuth) has a few messengers left, humans who she has transformed into lictors."
So, no need for all that sticky sex-business, then
I just don't see why she would bother with new lictors when most of them are not working for her any longer... hm...
I believe I read... she has few
Lictor representatives prefering
to have advanced Human agents...
In any case I find Malkuth the most
interesting Archon... she helped trap
Humanity and seeks to set them free...
Maybe the Illusion is faulty by design
if she truly didn't wish to imprison us.
Maybe realizing her betrayal and possible
reprisals from Humanity the DU has beat it
"Malkuth is the stuff from which the Illusion is built, and she must be ailing when the Illusion is breaking down. Maybe there is a flaw in her which makes her willing to self-destruct."
Please explain! I have never even thought about Malkuth being equal to the Illusion as you imply; not in any sense. Ok, that the Demiurge created the Illusion with Malkuth's help, but please elaborate that statement.
I don't really know whether I have this from the actual Kult rules or whether it is my research of Gnosticism and Kabbalah which is playing tricks with me. Malkuth is the final emanation of god in the tree of life and is equal to the material world. I think it says in the rules that her body was used as the raw material for the illusion but I can be mistaken. I'll have to check that later.
... which doesn't give much heed to copyright, here's the bit of text I was thinking of:
Sie war es, die unsere Welt als Gefängnis erschaffen hat. Unsere ganze Realität ist in gewisser Weise eine Manifestation von Malkuth. Sie hat die Welt aus ihrem eigenen Sein geformt. In den alten Zeiten verehrte man sie als' Mutter Erde' oder' Die Große Mutter' .
In English: It was she (Malkuth) who created our world as a prison. The whole of our reality is, in a way, a manifestation of Malkuth. She has created the world from her own being. In the old times she was venerated as Mother Earth or the Great Mother.
The excerpt is from the German edition which is a translation of the Swedish 1st.
In LoD it says that her Lictor servants have has left her to create their own organizations or support other archons. However, why not let her have killed thousands and thousands of lictors in her service? Maybe she did that in Hitler's holocaust on the jews, gay and other 'odd' people? Maybe this part was staged to eliminate as many of them as possible?
Yes, it means Mother Earth; however that is how humans have venerated her, and humans are notoriously clueless. I see Metropolis as the true home of humans, Gaia as true Nature; and Malkuth forming the Illusion from her essence took inklings from both - maybe even more from Gaia as it was more hostile to humans (pre-imprisonment), and the transformation from a Gaia-dominated world to a Metropolis-dominated world is part of the reason why the Illusion now crumbles.
I should add as a general explanation that I don't necessarily follow the books in interpreting the cosmology; never mind the discrepancies between books and editions, I don't think that the cosmology has been used to the utmost effect. For instance the notion of hell as being evil (and thus part of a moralistic universe which is an idea I thought effectively killed by CoC) detracts from the horror. I eliminate everything which I think detracts from it
I would think your German is on the money... and
in the 1st Edition US it also agrees the Illusion
(world) was made from Malkuth and she was known
as a Mother Nature type... and the world reflected
that part of her... after the DU went missing she
decided to help Humanity... but via "Dubious Medical Experiments" and legislation to allow quick growth in
cities where pain and violence and such would degrade
the Illuion faster...
I don't see an absolute connection she would be
weakening as it crumbles though. Like a Lizard
who loses its tail it grows back... or a worm cut
in half becomes two via regeneration... what happens
to one does not effect the other...
That is not the case for Astaroth who's fate is
tied to Inferno. He can never be destroyed while
Inferno exists. That is not implied in the case
of Malkuth. If she is a Mother Earth god-like
being the Earth is like a child to her... killing
it would not effect her physically but maybe
mentally... or magically backlash her... but not
destroy her in any way.
If part of Malkuths essence was bound up in creating the illusion I certainly could see her being strengthened by freeing that part of herself from the illusion.
Malkuth, the rebel, is atypical and so definitely the most fascinating of the archons.
I still firmly believe that the D intended her rebellion and our awakening all along though, or he wouldn't have allowed it to happen.
----
I am fascinated also by the thought of a dualistic universe where the two sexes symbolizes some fundamental polarization. Two complimentary qualities.
Indeed the archons have been given a sex (wether by humans or the D, they still have a sex in the rule books).
I think this indicates that there are fundamental differences between the masculine and feminine qualities. Not to say that the archons or death angels have a sex in the traditional meaning of the word. They are just made up by different constellations of these complimentary qualitites.
The twin jailors also implicates a dualistic view (not that I see the one as more male or female than the other). They represent different areas of these qualities just like their servants.
-----
There are several examples of lictors being created from humans in the Kult supplements and I think they where once all human. They have sacrifices their ability to awaken (too far off for many) for power in the illusion (instantly).
The lictors plot like everybody else though and their free will is only limited to a certain degree. The further off from their master they are, the more free to do what they like.
As their power is dependent on the illusion they strive to uphold it, but they want it for themselves as they thirst for more power (which is why they chose to be lictors in the first place).
They can't see through the illusion but they know more about it than most since they're running it, and so they can recognise when things aren't working properly or something unusual happens. A lictor not being careful will soon be discovered by others. They also know of certain permanent cracks in the illusion.
Archons can in my opinion now create new archons at will if they find a willing medium.
... in some sense anyway why Malkuth's lictors abandoned her.
I have thought in those terms before and what I was having in mind then is the frustration Lictors have towards mankind. They are in some sense offered Power here and now as you say, but the sacrifice is that they will never be allowed to awaken. Then when they come to insight of what choices they had, they realize that they have chosen the wrong way and wants to let go of some steam by punishing mankind.
I have to agree... Lictors would need
to see if the Illusion is working...
and when something breaks down... obviously
the Lictors "in the trenches" here with us
have their own agenda and plans besides
running the Illusion and revenge on Humanity.
Being so far down the line from their Archons
and all the other Lictors corrupting information
they are the more free to indulge themselves.
Still no one would openly disobey an Archon.
They fear their greater power too much... but
lay back in wait scheming ever so secretly
and prepare to pounce when they see their chance.
The lictors wouldn't even be able to see their own true form. Actually they couldn't gripe about being trapped in the illusion because they wouldn't know - just like us.
The way I read it the lictors know absolutely well what is going on and can see through the illusion perfectly; they are only trapped in the illusion the same way a jailer spends his life in jail. It is their function to keep humans imprisoned and to do that they have to spend their life within the illusion.
If they travel they get sent back one way or the other eventually. They may leave if it helps their job (I have the more important ones visit the citadels of their respective Archons occasionally by gate).
How utterly ineffectual would lictors be if they couldn't see through the illusion?
Just as a reminder though - I guess we all agree on this - the prison is not working as it should, right? That means that the Prison doen't work for us either.
If we can see through the Illusion (which we obviously can when evil manifests itself in concentration camps etc.) then why shouldn't the Lictors be able to see through the Illusion??!! I just can't think of them as not being able to see through the Illusion, and I've always acted them out like that (flaunting their ability to open portals to Metropolis for the PC's etc)
In "Legions of Darkness" Gunilla Jonsson and Michael Petersén wrote that a lot of lictors are plotting to abandon their archons and to take over the Illusion by themselves or to even replace the archons. That indicates that they know about the function and purpose of the Illusion.
It is also indicated that the highest lictors in charge are somehow aware of the conspiracy but too afraid to report it to their relevant masters – the archons – for fear of being punished for incompetence. That is a hint that a lictor must know how to identify other lictors, otherwise it would be very hard to guess that one lictor knows about the activities of others.
Indeed they know about the true nature of reality, that is probably the one sole most important thing for them to maintain their work. But this does not neccessarily mean that any lictor can see throuh the illusion at will. I don't agree with Robin's argument that a lictor needs to see through the illusion to keep mankind at bay. What he needs is to have true insight, they are after all making sure that mankind , in this world are kept unknowing and at peace. Using the Jail-Jailor simile: Just because the Jailor is working in the jail, the walls aren't transparent, he can not see what is outside unless he seeks out a window (i.e. using magic). However, when his work is done, when the shift ends, he can leave.
However, as Torb said, the Demiurge is gone, the illusion is shattering and the Lictors are "freer" if not free.
... is not what I had in mind. Lictors are an in-built part of the 'judicial system' and they cannot leave. As the conspiracy shows, even unmonitored lictors go on jailing. Lictors can still see through the illusion, why should they be weaker than any other Kult critter? It's just not within them to go hiking in Gaia, set up shop in Metropolis or begin reconstruction work in the empty paradises. Jailing us is their essence.
Instead of taking their ability to see through the illusion take their free will in that part. There is no critter in all of the KULTiverse apart from divinities which is even half as free as a human - that's why humans had to be jailed in the first place. Lictors etc. might be stronger than unawakened humans - but they have no free will, no free choice, not even the potential for that. Nepharites must mete out cleansing punishment; lictors must jail; the archons and death angels must fulfil their role; libithes and all the other critters address specific problems of possible awakening, but freedom is forever out of reach for them.
Which now that the lictors begin to realize that makes them even madder...
...that we're not all talking about the same thing when we say 'see through the illusion'.
Here's how I define the illusion: there is a world where humans live. It is a very dark, bleak place - if we saw it as it is it would shatter our sanity. In this world, lictors rule and do unspeakable things.
This place is hidden from our view by a thin illusory veneer - this hides the actual form of lictors from us, shows us nice clean meat processing plants instead of dirty charnel houses in which animals, monsters and humans alike are gutted etc... This is the illusion. Lictors can see through this illusion and have to in order to function.
There is also a set of separate worlds such as Metropolis and Gaia - reaching them takes a little more than just a breach in the illusion mentioned above, it also needs some gating. Lictors do not gate at will; they can use gates (for instance I think more important lictors should have a gate to their Archon's citadel as long as they are still loyal) but they cannot open such gates as will unless they resort to magic as humans can.
What makes you think a lictor's essence is restrained is in such a manner? I can't remember reading about any such thing in any of my Kult Books.
1st Ed. English KULT states that lictors were once the servants of man and when the demiurge captured us, he used the lictors as our jailors because of their hatred to their abusive but former masters. Somehow the bargain backfired on the poor lictors though, because suddenly they too were trapped in the illusion and limited in their powers, which is why some of them now plan revolting against the archons, with the demiurge being away and everything. Their petty hatred against mankind, their malcontent with being trapped in the illusion - both things points to the lictors being very much like we are in our imprisoned state, human . Makes me wonder, how cruel have we not been to these creatures once? I mean, imagine the extent of imagination with which an awakened human could torture his disobediant little servant.
Concerning whether or not they might see through the illusion, they wouldn't really be trapped if they could see the real world, would they? I mean, sure they can sense magic, and I believe they have an innate ability to see through smaller illusions, such as the ones created to conceal other kult-critters, but I don't think they can see through the grand deception.
I like to use lictors as well organized puppetmasters, who keep in the shadows and toy with peoples lives in schemes that always end in suffering and death, while they benefit any way they can from it...
...is very anthropocentric. I don't see any of the lesser beings (Lictors, Nepharites, Razides...) as being even halfway equal to (awakened) humans. Free will, souls, these are the things which define the awakened human. Making lictors etc. more like humans by giving them free will etc. lessens the value of humans.
Instead I prefer to think of the whole Kult cosmology as far as it refers to the illusion and to humans as a big machine with the sole purpose of incarceration. No archon, death angel, denizen of heaven or hell has a purpose beyond that. While they are all infinitely more powerful than imprisoned humans they are no match for even a single awakened one.
I still think that lictors who are exactly as imprisoned in the illusion as we are will be useless and not functional - compare my post a level up and to the side about how we probably interpret 'seeing through the illusion' differently. The lictors are imprisoned in the illusion because they are an intrinsic part of its mechanics and have no place outside of the area of it where they are needed. They can see through part of the illusion (much as you allow them to) but they cannot (and would not want to) travel to Gaia, Hell, the empty paradises etc.
I cannot recall a reference saying the lictors had been the servants of humans - I do however recall a different race of Metropolis-dwellers who were (Acrotides? - I don't recall the name). Maybe you are mixing those up?
...wich would probably expose any lictor trying not to be exposed.correct me if im wrong , this is one of their special abilities?. i dont think the lictors have the same thing in mind as humans have.
It clearly states game-wise the superior
Lictors are suspicious of the Rebellion
Lictors... If they could read each others
minds at will their exposure would be up a
certainty a long time ago... I think it works
like a radio... they transmit and receive...
they are not of a hive-mind. If the message
is intercepted by a third party they have
it covered by using the complex imagery.
I am currently working on a Kult adventure as
I have mentioned and chatted about with some
folks on the forum. I hope to release it when
it is completed in about 3 weeks. Of course, not
everything below will be likely touched upon
but it's there for whatever road the PC's pave...
It can be run after Fallen Angels.
My idea lifted from several Kult sourcebook
items and experiences customized to my style
and a full disclaimer will follow with it.
Anyhow... Malkuth is influencing a Medical
Corporation which has begun experimenting on
runaways and homeless to try and excellerate
awakening them. The results are producing
Nephilim... those which live through the torturous
ordeal of surgery, drugs and processing...
A worker on his way to a breakdown is approached
by an agent of Kether to get evidence. The worker
is now an alcoholic unable to deal with the things
he has done and is yet to do and seen. His wife
tosses him out the night he has stolen a serum
from the Medical Corporation.
After a friend drops him off at a Motel he has
gone missing. The room is trashed and bloody.
Burnt paper in the trash pail. He has been dragged
off into purgatory. The wife experiencing strange
happenings in her home.
The PC's must save him should they decide to after
seeing what he has done. Both Kethers and Malkuths
agents will conclude the PC's know too much. I hope
to conclude it with a side trip to Metropolis. Also
fully described Medical Compound for PC's to try
and infiltrate any way they choose.
The investigation to find him will be dangerous and
uncover bits and pieces of true reality. Along the
way over coming obstacles and dealing with various
NPC's. Although written for NYC in can be moved
and adjusted to any major Metropolis.
I suggest a group with an adventure or two under
their belts.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Brief Cosmology
• PC Suggestions
This little excerpt is from the Swedish 2nd Edition. It might be in the US second too
"Astaroth
--------------
The Demiurg's dark twin is the Lord of Darkness, Ruler of Inferno. He has since the beginning of our imprisonment controlled the hells and lands of the dead where men are tormented between their lives.
Why Astaroth wasn't imprisoned with the rest of mankind is a riddle. Maybe he was too powerful to submit to the Demiurge's decree, or maybe he was his trustee.
Regardless of the truth, Astaroth has been shaken by the Demiurg's disappearence..."
How should one interpretate this? Especially interesting is the line that says "Why Astaroth wasn't imprisoned with the rest of mankind is a riddle." Is this implying that Astaroth (and the Demiurg as Astaroth is his twin) are a human never imprisoned?
If so, how could that be as it is said that before the imprisonment all human were gods, and noone had the power so subdue another human.
I saw that this description differs a bit from US 1st, but I don't know about the US 2nd.
The 1st ed US only hints at the POSSIBILITY that Astaroth and the Demiurge (DU) are twins... It seems (to me) that it implies that the preferred/dominant interpretation is that Astaroth was created by the Demiurge to create a "complete" image of himself.
Of course, if Astaroth is to be considered as powerfull as the DU, then one might ask why Astaroth hasn't created some new, nasty prison for us... I know I would :P
Then again, the rules hint at Astaroth trying to take over the power of the DU by becoming the DU (ie. changing motives and activities) so that the image of the DU is kept alive in some way...
All in all, the rules speculate on so many different theories that I guess it's up to each GM to find his/her own interpretation that they find most likely. The one I presented in this reply is of course my favourite interpretation.
I myself follow the 1st Ed. US... But there
always seems to be 2 main roads in Mythologies/
Religeons to me...
Model A: Supreme Being (er... Good) Has
Supreme Sibling Usually A Twin...(Evil)
Symetrical Overall... (Brother may be cut
from Superior Beings' self as not to be alone)
Model B: Superior Being Has Favorite Underling
Who Rebels... Becoming A Rival... Of Some Type
Tree Like Structure
... what could be cheaper than the idea that the Demiurge and Astaroth are in any way subject to human-type motivations and emotions. 'Good' and 'evil' are flimsy ideas we humans have created, morals and such fantasies have no meaning on the divine level.
Hell is no more evil than paradise; it is just another place which is bad for your health. It's only human understanding which makes one seem good and one seem evil - but these terms have no objective value whatsoever.
I like the concept of the paradise-like kindergarden-origin where two of the kids at some point get jealous of the others because they seem to have more fun. So they go bad, and they find out they can dominate the others by planting poisonous seeds among them.
Eventually the most faithful are named archons and help imprisonate all the others. Of course these two bad guys eventually get jealous of each other and start to fight each other.
I also like the idea that the D imprisoned human kind just to teach them a lesson so that they would learn to appreciate and learn the potential of their divinity and freedom more fully.
This of course suggests another line of events. Maybe the D intervened in an ongoing fight started by Astaroth.
I'm not sure the Illusion ever was meant for Astaroth as I think that awakened humans emerge maybe stronger than ever before and with their regained memories from their earthly lives they would never go back to fighting and trying to dominate eachother.
The D has retired because mankind is on the verge of breaking out and he is not needed anymore. Malkuth and the already awakened humans play a key role in this and it will eventually end with the overthrow of Astaroth who then finds himself in a Inferno without souls to torment except his own.
Bla, bla, bla... There are countless options - which is why it's so fascinating! The cosmology-differences between the two editions (1st and 2nd) doesn't really matter as not even the GM need to know how it all works - it's too complex! The players will never want to find it all out since it would ruin the fun of game!
The complexity of the background is indeed fantastic, and it is so much to it that I don't think a Player group ever will be able to investigate it all, much less understand it. Hehe, even I can't and I have been gamemastering it for 10 years.
However, I am not sure that they should be human. I like the Idea that there was a creator who created mankind, and being some kind ultimate power. But this may be because I haven't realized the potential of awaken humans.
However, this supreme being does not rule out that the Demiurge a creature from beyond 'this' reality is a human; who came here and decided to inhabit it. Then he felt like he needed company or something and created the rest of man.
Mankind realized they had commited an error, a crime if you will, and DECIDED to get imprisoned. If you look at it that way then there is nothing to say that both Astaroth and the Demiurge where once(maybe still are) humans. Think of it:
Humanity is imprisoned in their own paradise, their torment is that they spend to little time to realize that they are gods. The torment of the Demiurge and Astaroth is that they are outside, lonely. Possibly they where handpicked by the rest of "us" because they originally despised eachother.
The events that lead to "today" is then more easily spotted:
The Demiurge starts doubting wether or not mankind has redeemed themselfs by now, he decides to let the prison go havoc, if the persons that break free find themselfes remembering their error and think they havent payed the prize yet, they will take the role as Demiurg.
The original Demiurg can then take his place amongst the rest in the prison (or go into oblivion, or whathaveyou that suits YOUR campaign).
Astaroth, on the other hand, finds this outrageous!
Mankind cannot have redeemed themselfes by a longshot allready!
The way to solve this is to try taking the Demiurgs place himself, but his disposition originally (the reason why he was chosen as the counterpart of the Demiurg) makes him unfit to keep the machine going as it originally did.
Eternal darkness, as the servants of the Demiurg goes mad without guidance, and the servants of Astaroth rallies and revolts whilst Astaroth himself is occupied in finding the Demiurg or the keys to the machine.
In this case, both Astaroth and the Demiurg are originally the gods mankind once where, granted, there are loads of other gods out there in the Kult universe.
However, why would mankind let themselves be imprisoned by others? (most likely lesser beings.)
Nah, my brothers keeper is my own. If I have 10 servants under me, ranging from my Lictor to my Azghoul, all of whom I have ruled for eons, would I let them rule me for an unknown time? Not really, they might hold infinite grudges against me. If Im powerless they can torment me forever...and Im just set for an imprisonment with an END. Let me brother be the master of the house whilst Im gone. He might feel lonely, and that can be HIS punishment, but atleast he can rule with equal supremacy as my own over these servants...
..of course...what do I know...Im just a low Nepharite...
I think the missing Archons & Demiurge
are laying low for some reason... either
they realize humanity will break free no
matter what and their may/will be reprisals
or they want the power players remaining to
show their true colors and ambitions and
remove each other... If Asteroth and the
Demiurge are linked that one may not exist
without the other and yet Asteroth still
does (although weakened from the search)
would suggest the Demiurge is alive and well
just not participating currently... why should
they worry if Humanity awakens while the others
fight it out for his mantle... nothing suggests
he could not imprison them all again. Maybe
the big DU has just grown tired and bored with
us... insects at his feet... took those he
wanted or needed and has traveled away from
our Universe... I don't see Asteroth as a true
equal or he'd have long since made a move...
All he has done is mimic the DU's agenda...
...this implies that both the Demiurge and Astaroth are more then Humans, and that limits you. Think about this: Humans are GODS! What would that make the Demiurge if he is more then Humans?
That he has left because he is tired of it might just aswell have happened if one takes my outlook at it, but for a different reason: He cant bear it no more!
As for wether or not Astaroth is equal to the DU or not:
What is the biggest place? Inferno or Elysium? The Demiurge was put in charge of the Machine, without it working proper, the illusion shatters... but look through the books... HOW does it shatter?
The Hells arent breaking apart because the Machine isnt working, quite the contrary.
If the Hells are loosing anything at all, it is because of a lack of order from Astaroth's side, which makes his underlings plot and scheme against eachother (get a hold of Purgtory for that info).
Just because our prison is threefolded doesnt mean that the Machine keeps them all under one wing.
I'd like to give a small simile story, it describes how one CAN look at it (in the end we all decide for ourselfes how to interpret it anyway =) ), and yeah...sorry if it seems long:
Imagine our prison being a cattlefarm:
Out in the fields of (elysium), the cattle spend their days waiting for the inevitable slaughter.
At night, the farmer lets his cows inside a barn with strange lights (Limbo) which captivates the cows attention, if just for a night. (...in the dark corners of the barn, there is a well which a few cows have fallen into, but there is nothing to do about them)
Outside of the fences of the field, there is a mirror, that shows the cows themselves and their field, but behind them lies a (once)technological city. The city is now in turmoil, demonstrations and riots, but so far they havent arrived at the farm...the cattle is needed for sustenance still...
At one end of the field lies a strange machine. The machine makes the mirror's stay shiny, it makes the fences keep the electricity to stave off the cattle from moving out into the city. It also has a prod with which it moves the cattle towards the slaughtering area.
Behind the machine lies a slaughterhouse, its run by the farmers brother. The brother and the Farmer have never really liked eachother, but they make good business so they keep an understanding and have an agreement about how to deal with things. The brother dont really believe in machines, so he hires some outof town Goons (Nepharites) who like to do some slaughtering by hand.
One day, the Farmer doesnt show up at the field. The cows dont really think much of it, atleast most of them, there are some who where used to be fed directly by him, and they are aware of the new deal, but dont think much of it...they are, afterall, cows..and he has more to do then give them food.
At the end of the day, the cows walk into the barn, just like they are used to, and the next morning they come out...one of the lightbulbs where out, but that is not that bad.
The cows that feel that they are up for slaughter dont seem surprised when the prod comes after them, this is the way of things so what do you do?
At the end of the next day, it is evident that the farmer has been gone for wuite some time, still most of the cows never see him nyway, but some of the cows, notably those on the edge of the field, near the mirors, are starting to get a bit disturbed by the fact that there are small cracks in the mirrors.
The day after that, the farmer still doesnt show up, and his handymen (lictors) are starting to realize that he left them alone for a while...some of these buggers are real sadists, so they take some out on the cows.
Now, the brother realizes that he hasnt seen the farmer for a while, and he starts interrogating the henchmen of the Farmer, who laugh him straight in his face: We aint Your employees boy!
Rather then smack them down himself, he lets some of his own henchmen pick fights with them, and then he decides to go look for his brother.
He decides that the most likely thing is either that the Farmer is asleep in the midst of the Field, or he has gone to the city. So he goes to the city to look for him.
Now, the Henchmen of the Farmer and his Brother are arguing and picking fights with eachother, some of them are still doing their duties, but quite often they get to meet eachother, and they never really liked eachother anyway.
Soon someone on the Farmers team realizes that they dont have any keys: No keys to the fusebox, no key to the toolshack, no key to the machineshack and no key to the suply-wearhouse...
As the machine slowly starts to cease to work, the henchmen starts to realize they gonna have to do alot of things by hand: Feed the cows, polish the mirrors, move them towards the barn (but not enter, for christ's sake...its dark in there...and weird lights...and...we...don't really like the darkness...besides..there is supposed to be this frickin hole in there somewhere...noway we're going in there!)
One day the prod ceases to function on its own, and since it is at the end where the brothers Goons are, they are the only ones to realize that it doesnt work, so they pick up their tools and start fetching the cattle themselfes... now they can only fetch cattle with specific marks on them, and not all cattle have those, but since they're sadist little f***'s they start marking the cows themselfes...the better to get more meat with !
The brother comes walking down the field crying out for the Farmer, has anyone seen him? The goons hide a cow behind their back, nono...haventseenhim SIR. The brother marches on.
As the Goons are now out and searching for cows, there are less of them in the slaughterhouse. They have fences and prods in there, but they are all manually handled, so there is a slim chance that one cow might be able to sneak out.
In the fields, some of the mirrors are shattered, and a very few brave cows are realizing thet there is no electicity in the fences...
Some even run into the barn, to hide from the henchmen, there are still some nice lights in there, besides...close to that hole in there is a fusebox, hay, a radiator and loads of daisy's...only thing you have to do is watch out for the hole...nothing to it.
Okay, its more of an "animal-farm"-esque story..so sue me...but:
The Farmer= Demiurge, has left, no one knows where he is..maybe he dont like Farming at all.
The Brother= Astaroth, is looking for the farmer everywhere...even in the fields.
The Goons= Nepharites/Desparythes, are rpodding cattle ad slaughtering them, just because they like it.
The Henchmen= Lictors, are polishing mirrors and running a handdriven generator to keep the cattle in shack.
The Slaughterhouse= Inferno, is filled with cows, the machine doesnt really have anything to do with anything in here, but since it aint working, the Goons are out in the field instead of making sure no Cows are hiding anywhere in here.
The Barn= Limbo, is getting more and more dark, there are some cows that found sanctuary in here, but they are at peril from falling into the pit close to their safespot.
The field= Elysium, is slowly getting the fumes from the city...and it makes the grass lessen, and the air filled with smog.
The mirrors= The Illusion, are falling apart, some are a thousand pieces, some are very, very dirty.
The City= Metropolis, is in riots, maybe before the machine stopped to work, maybe after...but it has indeed something to do with the cows...
The Machine= The DU's Machine, is at best running on one coil out of ten... Nobody can get to it and fix it excpt the Farmer, because he has all the keys.
Well... probably I have made you even more confused with this one...but the essential of this little story is that you all realize....
...you are cattle MUWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
!mpact, Nepharite PhD (Doubble Major in Torture/Misleading Information, graduate Cum Laude)
I think the DU and Asteroth are/should be beyond
humanity one on one... the nature of Humanity all
through out history has been a struggle... to
survive, to grow and get along, to live with
ourselves... I am reminded of a quote I once read
about if God didn't exist as we know him it would
be necessary to invent him... perhaps that is
what the capture of Humanity is all about... but
I feel the Demiurge is better then Humanity...
but maybe together we godlings rivaled him...
which prompted our capture... I see Humanity as
a neusaince to the cosmos and thus we were
contained... going where we wanted... doing what
we wanted when we wanted... and changing the
worlds we touched... but the others weren't
happy with it and one way or another Humanity was
captured... our servants and guides all to happy
to punish us for our transgressions as they saw it.
About Inferno... in my opinion of course with
the Hells becoming emptier every passing day
there is less wear and tear... it is holding up
well compared to the Illusion and Metropolis...
which is actively changed and run down by beings.
Also the nature of Inferno... continually grows
to accomodate the influx of souls to be processed...
Razides and Nepharites are getting out to get someone.
I additionally feel Asteroth is not as ever-present
as the Demiurge was/is... He created his own world
and is all powerful there which is not enough...
thus he wants to break into our realm(s)... and
replace the DU. If he was equal to the DU why would
he want to be the DU? He would have nothing higher
to acheive...
Anyhow DU be damned... if the Illusion ever falls
in my campaign the players would surely just awaken
into yet another... and then another... heheheheh!
..and the pigs are in the equation..but it is still about the cattle now so...
Like I said though, how things work is up to every ST/GM on his own... I merely provided my outlook at it... if you opt for having the DU and Astaroth being more then humans then that is your choice... that makes humans inferior...and in my opinion gods can't be inferior... they might have been the head-honcho gods..weild a bit more power because of that...but for me...if the DU and Astaroth are humans themselfes...then it is more psycology underlying in the disappearence of the DU....
Odin the all father... is far superior
to the other dieties and races. Freya,
Tyr, Heimdall even Thor are not nearly
his equal. He calls upon other mytho-races
to do things for him they are good at...
like enchantments and such but he is the
undisbuted king...
The Greeks have Zeus far superior to
the others... in power except maybe
his wife is close (who's name escapes me
at the moment) but the others are not equals.
It is only through pledges and tricky deals
that they get their way over their king god.
Zeus is in his powersituation because he is the one who slayed the Titans, the parents of the gods. The difference with greek mythology and others are that the gods originally had to deffer to the natural laws, materialized as the Titans. True, Zeus is the eldest and the father of most of the Gods, however he is more in charge as the eldest and wisest then out of sheer power. (Poseidon and Hades spring to mind as mighty oponents that on occations threathen to overthrow Zeus but in the end fail because the rest of the gods fall behind Zeus or he simply uses his wisdom to outwit them).
Odin is the wisest of the Asa-gods, he is deffered to as the wisest and put in charge of things because he has more wisdom then anyone else, however: Thor on occations give him good spankings as he is "the mightiest of Asagods" (reffered to as such on numerous occations in both the Edda and other mythological refferences).
He is simply the wisest, and being gods they all realize that he is, and wisdom is meassured more then power by the gods.
As far as Titans, Giants and other "over-godly" beings... there are other religions with "creator gods" that then created everything else such as new (inferior) gods, usually not named gods per se, but rather deities(that being "godlike" and not "gods").
Titans are forces of the world, but not gods, they are raw power but not the ability to use it in a fasion like a god can do, Giants in the Norse mythology are likewise a very broad spectra of beings, rangin from the frost giant, Ymer, the one from which the world is built on (originally he died and the gods created the world on him, later (with the introduction of the originally Middle East god Odin(Wodan/Wotan) ) slayed by Odin and then built on - and down to the malicious mighty beings that are powerful enough to be potent enemies to the gods, but no match for Thor.
Like I said, it's in the GM's scope, you do what you want to do... btw... I actually studied religions for 4.5 years, University of Uppsala, one of the most renowned Universities in the World when it comes to Religious studies of other religions then Christianity (not that they are that bad with that stuff either)..I know the semantics, and I do know what Im talking about.
US First Edition #5000 1993
First Printing / Pages 7, 8 & 9
Clearly informs the reader...
that there was a creator God
who brought firm order... and
has abandoned his children in
the midst of a war... and how
demons and angels have even
forgotten or have all but...
the way things were... it also
says that the Prince Of Darkness
wanders far looking for the now
missing creator God to give him
meaning and purpose... and how
the heavens and hells have broken
open and the beings seek Human
worshippers to give them what they
need to survive... and how forgotten
dieties lay about slums and such
powerless... half forgotten or
born again from old memories...
how the division of good and evil
is a blur to everyone... further
into the first chapters the heroes
are described in that they are not
crusaders for good or evil... just
trying to make peace with themselves
as the doings of Humans erode the
Illusion further and further... I
skimmed through it earlier... that is
the Kult I endorse...
One of the most interesting lines is
that the nature of the Illusion is
Humanities attempt to avoid going insane.
...and that reason is that it was too close to Christianity, and was actually concidered a mockery of it, which the gamedesigners and the publisher did not want to endorse.
If Im not misstaken it has also been said that the revision of the game embraced the Gnosticism because it was a religious direction that dont really exist anymore. Hence: if you mock christianity by saying: your god is dead, is worse then to mock them by saying: We where once gods and can be it once more.
Reasoning?
Its like saying : Your MOMMA!
and the new way of saying it: MY mother!
Then again...that was the reasoning behind the big revision of it...what version you use is up to you... just watch out for that God-fearing person who enters yer group...watch carefully for the twitch in his eyes....muhahahaha
I actually was reffering to the raw gnosticism that was the origins of the first great split between the churces (coptic, western and greek-roman), Im sorry if you took it as me giving your current beliefs a bang in the head....
I'm giving my beliefs a bang in the head myself quite frequently.
It's just that the basic teaching of the human soul being a fragment of a divine whole which can attain divinity after a series of incarnations is not at all dead.
I have posted a longer abstract of my cosmology a couple of months ago, but in a nutshell I prefer to think (in keeping with various Gnostic systems) that there was a first human (Anthropos, Adam Kadmon) who was divine, and the demiurge was divine, too. Adam Kadmon had the power to divide itself, fragment into smaller parts, each fragment retaining all the power of the original but being independent. The demiurge tried to replicate that feat but became two halves (spawning Astaroth), lessening the power of the original deity.
Now weaker than the human gods the Demiurge and Astaroth used guile and trickery to deprive humanity of their access to divinity, trapping them in the illusion. Now they've got to keep the system running in order to not be overrun by a divine humanity every single part of which is far more powerful than they are, especially now that they have invested part of their power in Archons and Death Angels, too...
I see your Cosmology award is once again
well desearved... I like your views very
much...
I don't really write for good or evil...
but starting players will fall in line
that way to some degree... I like to
try and keep that vague image in their minds
adds to the pressure... wondering if they
are doing the right thing... will their
actions cost them in the end... or they
hesitate at a crucial time bringing some
fall-out upon themselves... when good or
evil really doesn't exist for game purposes.
I get a thrill when it happens... "My own
little lie" - hmmm where have ai heard that?
I myself am an Agnostic and not very religous
but a bit spiritual on occassion I admit...
I have a friend who is Catholic and I talked
with him one day about the game concepts...
and he was stunned with the idea God is missing
or has abandoned us outright... throughout
the day when I saw him he was still intellectually
primed and wanting more info to mull over...
That's something I really enjoy about Kult...
In my current storyline... Malkuths intention
to free Humanity while her agents are capturing
and experimenting, drugging and working
on homeless/runaways/down and out subjects
without the benefit of anestesia because it
only complicates things... (Seemingly Bad Guys?)
Kethers forces (The seemingly Good Guys?)
trying to catch her red-handed, trying to
recruit and inspire the PC's on to their
side to stop the experiments secretly wanting
to keep Humanity dominated...
In any case once they now too much both
sides will want them removed from the equation.
Kult PC's are about doing what they can to
live with themselves... and as GM you provide
the obstacles, challenges and interference
to them doing so... IMHO!
Brief Synopsis:
The story is largely inspired by the Arthurian Legend and is set in Spain. The PCs are invited there by a NPC friend that is the sole heiress to a guy that is a guardian of the Judas Grail.
Malkuth is seeking to get her hands on the Grail as she can use its powers to revive Chockmah, and use his and the grail's powers to awaken Spain.
The PCs friend is grabbed by Malkuths minions and the PCs have to find her. Failing to rescue her they fulfil their role in Malkuth's plans and get lost in Metropolis. After finding their way back to our world they have to confront Malkuths minions to save the day....
The plot is reveals pretty much of the cosmology, but in my opinion that is pretty good. I like a story where the stakes are high. (Your players will probably never get a grasp on reality unless they read the rules.)
In my opinion (I know that there are others on this board that will disagree ) Judas Grail is a Pretty good adventure. However, there are some things that need to be changed for the story to really work, and to be balanced enough. I think it can be a great source for Ideas and events in a homemade campaign, and if you can get it pretty cheap ($10-15?) I would say it is pretty much worth the expence.
The module itself is really nice...
maps are great for instance... but
the start of it really needs work...
a free trip to Spain for you and all
your friends by a friend... very weak.
Additionally, the PC's are told what
to do and where to go... blah blah blah
revealing much of the Cosmology base...
at the very end of a campaign this would
be a nice conclusion but never to be
used in my opinion for a new group...
Kult should encompass the struggle and
hopelessness... building up against over
coming the obstacles and beings keeping us
in the Illusion... You will never be free!
This module just jumps through that... I
like some of the characters in it though.
But honestly, I have never run this adventure.
Also... "Malkuth" definately is my favorite
Archon and great in that in the end you realize
after defeating her plans you may have not done
the right thing... and set back Humanities
freedom.
to few deamons.... I mean.. _I'm_ not even in it!!!
Seriously though, I find it best to introduce the friend in an earlier story, so that there are links to her earlier, also like LC sai: better suited for an experienced group with (IMPORTANT!) experienced PC's.
It sais in the end of the book that it is suited for 6 PC's with 150 abilitypoints each(or less with more or more with less :P ).
Personaly I fitted the NPC in with the group in a story about the Hamurabian stone being stolen by a group of angels following the (now)renegade angel Gabriel. (In my great project that never seems to end, Host, I will delve more with angels and the different angelic hosts [since Raphael is one of the major angelic forces, there are Raphaelites, but other angelic forces have other angelic hosts/groups]..)
I still remember these introductory adventures as the highlight of the Judas Grail. As Pirelli was a introduced in this nice way earlier to the group as close friend it was easier to buy that she invited the group on this trip.
I am as I have said earlier currently doing a variant of the JG set in Mexico, with all entities exchanged for bad ones that only want to screw mankind until the next millennim or so. Two of my PCs are invited to collect this inheritage (as the NPC has come under threat from mysterious men, she don't want to go alone.) The rest of the group will already be on location. It is not decided what roles exactly they will have; But it can easily range from a CIA-agent stationed at the US Embassy in Mexico, via a Homicide detective who is privately investigating the death of "Aguillar Sangre" to a Reporter looking for a Scoop. It should cover any type of character my/your player may want.
This introduction can be used in the original JG too. The cop or reporter can be involved on a personal level by only making the dead guy a relative or someone else who the PC respect; maybe a mentor.
this is the first animation project we have made so far.
it was supposed to be just two rolling balls of plastelina but it became a bit more ambitious after we found some old horrible doll from around ww1. the music we used in the backround is "god eat god" by MAnson, the end of "buying new soul" by Porcuoine tree.
hope you enjoy the film and please send feedback if you feel like it.
the film is about 3,5 minutes long and the theme is dark and gloomy , so it should appeal to most people here. we might create a music video for band soon , stay tuned for more stuff.
remember to download the XviD codec you need to run the film
Detailed summary and intro to Black Madonna--in code
by someone
I thought someone here might know how to decode this; it was sent to the kult-l list a few years back, in Rich Text Format. The fileserver has converted it into ascii, and what comes out is total gibberish.
Re: Detailed summary and intro to Black Madonna--in code
by Mhoir
THE BLACK MADONNA
Part One: Chagidiel's Blessing
Background
The cold pierced my gaunt body. The wind swept forward along the street and blew the snow from the mounds of frozen bodies. A twisted, white-gray hand reached out from the icy mass of corpses and seemed to signal to me with stiff, twisted fingers. Far away I could hear artillery fire. But here the wind was the only sound. The cold kept all the sounds away. I stepped in through the dark doorway, down the stairs. The furnace was cold when I entered the small basement. Jurij's twisted body lay on the floor. Dead. I turned him around and confirmed it. The bony face was gray and dead. In his lifeless arms, Magda was curled up. She looked at me with empty eyes. But she was alive. I gently removed her from the embrace of the dead man and lifted her up. She didn't say anything. Two ration-cards were in Jurij's pockets. I took them from Jurij, hesitated for a short moment, and then took Magda's as well. She saw me put it in my pocket, stared at me with a thoughtful look as if she understood I had just sealed her death sentence. At first I planned to leave her there, but the look of accusation made me sweep her in Jurij's coat, put her on his sleigh and take her with me. We crossed the Gribodjedova River and came up on Dekabristova Street. Two people staggered along the houses on the other side of the street. A patrol was on guard at the intersection by the Opera, where the frozen bodies of the dead covered the steps. I passed the guards on the bridge and turned left to Kalenko's palace. Two half-sleeping guards stood outside the gate. They hardly looked up at me when I knocked on the door. An old man opened. I placed the sleigh with the girl in front of the door and clumsily made my way back. Those who have gone through Kalenko's door have rarely come out again. The old man smiled a toothless smile at me, picked up the girl with one hand, as if she had been a small package, and slammed the door shut behind him as he went inside. I staggered back over the bridge through the snow.
The backgrounds to these events are to be found in besieged Leningrad during the Second World War. For 900 days the town was cut off from the rest of the world by Finnish and German troops. Hundred of thousands of people died of starvation and cold. The Germans flooded the town with bombs and artillery grenades. The hunger and the suffering in Leningrad broke through the borders to Inferno and made the Death Angel Chagidiel to incarnate.
Chagidiel planned to physically move himself and his citadel to Leningrad, and there recreate his inferno in our reality. The dead had stopped coming to his hell and now he thought he would move into the world of the living.
The Death Angel incarnated himself into three people in Leningrad in 1941. The three incarnations worked to spread madness and to break down human minds to make the whole town a portal to Inferno. Leningrad was already staggering on the brink of hell, and it only needed a little more suffering to forever make it a part of Inferno.
Since children are those who last let their dreams and hopes die, the three incarnations turned to them, the children. With the help of an old former noble who had fallen to worshipping Chagidiel they opened a orphanage in the central parts of the city. There they tortured the children, forced them into cannibalism and made them torment each other. They brought the dead to life and turned the children into monsters that were let out into the suffering city to steal and kill.
Chagidiel couldn't recreate hell by his own power, but he gave his strength to desperate people. Their low mental balance was so contagious that people broke through the veil of death with nothing but their will.
Chagidiel's incarnations were kept back by the black Madonna, the arkont Binah, who has had some control over Russia for a couple of thousands of years. She saw the Death Angel as a threat to stability and undermined Chagidiel's position until he was forced to flee. His incarnations hid in three of the children at the orphanage and continued to live on in our world, waiting to try again later.
That time has come in 1991, with a crumbling Soviet Union, threatened by civil war. The characters are drawn into the Death Angel's attempt to once again pull Leningrad into hell. To stop him they have to return to the past and force him back to Inferno.
Leningrad 1941
Leningrad in 1941 is a city with over 3 million people. It is the center of much of Soviet's heavy industry. Around the core of the city and its flashy buildings and monuments are huge suburban ghettos with industries and rental houses and flats. In the south lie the Kirov factories, the rubber factory Kransnyj Treugolnik, the docks and the harbors. Outside of the city are several railway stations that tie together lines from all over.
Peter the Great, who built it at the cost of many dead workers, founded the city in 1703. It is also called "the city built on human bones". In 1709 St. Petersburg, or Piter as the people called it, became the capital of Russia. It continued to be that until 1918. It was the acting place for the revolution, but still lost its role as capital to Moscow, the Russian Empire's traditional capital.
1914 - 24 the city was called Petrograd, before it got its current name. It's still called Piter by the local population.
The 900 days
The Soviet Union in 1941 bears Stalin's mark. The dictator has cleaned out all opposition, imprisons real and imaginary enemies and keeps the country in the fist of terror. In 1934 Leningrad's leader Kirov is killed, probably on the orders of Stalin. Major changes happened during 1937 - 38. Practically everyone of the city's leading men disappears to Siberia or the firing squads. Andrej Zjdanov replaced Kirov as the leader of the city.
On July 22 1941, Germany attacks the Soviet Union. The attack is not unexpected, but the Soviet army is still weak, and the Germans push quickly far into the country. The Luga River forms a line, 100 - 150 kilometers south of Leningrad. It is kept at a standstill until the 8th of August when the Germans crosses the river and approaches Leningrad.
The people of Leningrad realize at an early stage the threat of siege. From the north, Finnish troops are pressing forward and the supply lines to the rest of Soviet Union are cut off. On the 18th of July, food rations are introduced, even if the rations still are quite enough.
On the 30th of August, the Germans cut of Leningrad's means of supply. The city is under siege. During September heavy artillery bombardments and bombings are common. On the 8th of September, the central food storage goes up in flames. After that, the remaining food supplies are distributed all over the city. The Germans marches across the country side, south of Leningrad, where many refugees have fled for shelter. Now, the refugees are pouring into the city. Barricades, trenches and defense lines are set up. Special tank obstacles are placed on the streets. Outside of the railroad line just out of the suburbs, barbed wire fences railway tracks and trenches are laid out. On the 17th of September the Germans takes the town of Ligovo, just south of Leningrad, but shortly thereafter the attacks are weakened when parts of the German tank division are re-routed from Leningrad, to take part in the attack on Moscow.
In November, the lack of food makes it hard for the people in Leningrad. The rations are cut down to one quarter of a kilo of bread per day for a worker and one eight of a kilo for everyone else. The soldiers who are defending the lines against the Germans are getting twice as much. Now the famine starts. On November 19th, a road is opened across the now frozen Lake Ladoga. Some food is brought in this way, but not nearly enough. Over one hundred thousand of the people of Leningrad is evacuated this way in the beginning of winter. It is an unusual cold winter. The electricity is cut off, except for a small spare generator. The phones are disconnected. With minimal wood rations, the people make fires in their furnaces. After a few weeks, there are no pets left. The rats leave the city. There are no pigeons or crows left. People stay indoors and tries to save what little energy they still have. Leningrad is a dead city. During the coldest winter months about two or three thousand people dies every day, some days as many as ten thousand.
Mass graves are being dug at the cemeteries, but no one has the strength to carry the dead to these graves. The bodies are piled up in parks, along the streets towards the cemeteries and on open fields. The hospitals are turned into morgues.
When the spring finally comes, they must quickly bury the dead to avoid a mass epidemic. Small patches of cholera and other diseases blossoms, but there is no epidemic. The number of dead decreases during the spring and the food rations are somewhat bigger. The worst crisis is over. The city has now a population of only a couple of hundreds of thousands, due to famine and evacuation.
In January of 1943, the Soviet troop reclaims the town of Schlüsselburg and opens a railway line in to the free Soviet. Limited train traffic is possible and some supplies come into Leningrad. The blockade continues until the German retreat in January of 1944, but the mass deaths does never reach the heights that it did that first winter.
Kalenko's Curse
The family Kalenko originally came from the Ukraine, and entered St. Petersburg in the 1740's. They then came from Jaroslavl, where they had lived for over three hundred years. A dispute of a heritage had deprived the head of the family, Josef Kalenko, his land outside Jaroslavl. The family settled in the capital with a small fortune.
Since the Middle Ages, Kalenko's had had in their possession an old book written with partly Cyrillic letters in an unreadable language. According to the family tradition it was an old bible written in pre-armenic. When the family was in danger in any way, the father of the family would take out the book and read some chosen lines and at the same time cut his hand and let the blood drip on the book's leather binding and let it soak up and disappear. After a few hours a stranger would appear at the house and offer his help to the family. When the danger was gone, the stranger would disappear again. As thanks for his help, the stranger would get some of the family's servants, who were never seen again.
The book was an artifact, the proof on the pact with the Death Angel Chagidiel that the Kalenko's made back in the dark ages. It wasn't written in armenic at all, but in a language that are spoken by the damned in Inferno. The father of the family taught the oldest son which phrases that were to be read at different occasions and the payment the helping angel would demand for his services. Sometimes it was enough to give him cattle, but most of the time he demanded servants or their children, and on rare occasions he would claim one of the family's own children.
With the help of Chagidiel, the Kalenkos managed to keep their mansion and some of their privileges even after the revolution. The father of the family, Nikolaj Kalenko, got a place in the city's administration. In 1937, he summoned the Death Angel's help to avoid Stalin's extermination of "enemies". The Razide who helped him took his daughter as payment. Nikolaj lost a bit of his mind then, and was never the same again. When the famine started in 1941, he once again turned to the book for help. This time he didn't get an answer from one of Chagidiel's servants. The pain and suffering around him was so strong, and the border to Inferno was so weak that the Death Angel himself incarnated. Kalenko was turned into the incarnation's slave and his family was destroyed gradually. His wife and daughters were turned into Nepharites in the mercy of the Death Angel.
The Death Angel Descends
On the 13th of September 1941, Nikolaj Kalenko decides to use "The Black Bible", as the family calls the cursed book. The Germans are bombing the city and entire neighborhoods are destroyed. Starvation is horribly close. Nikolaj's wife and daughters begs him not to use the book, and reminds him of how the youngest daughter disappeared a couple of years earlier. But Nikolaj is under the influence of Chagidiel. He secretly opens the book and reads the passage that his father told him was the most powerful and dangerous. He drowns the book in blood, which is sucked up and disappears into the black leather binding. That night, the moon over the city turns black.
On the following morning, a well-dressed man knocks on the Kalenko gate. He introduces himself as Ivan Sergejevit Purgatov, a distant relative from Jaroslavl. Nikolaj greets him with a warm embrace. The rest of the family sense something is wrong.
Purgatov settled in the Kalenko household. He uses Nikolaj's contacts to get into the city council and administration. After a couple of weeks he is assigned the role as coordination of wood supplies in the inner areas. He gets contacts everywhere and completely takes charge over the Kalenko family. Jelena, the mother is put to work in the black market business, and Katarina, the daughter, becomes Purgatov's mistress. Nikolaj Kalenko is degraded to a whimpering servant. Nikolaj's father, Leonid is thrown out of the house and dies of hunger and cold.
After a couple of months, the incarnation has secured his position in Leningrad. It decides to incarnate into two other bodies as well to be able to use all of his power during the coming winter crisis. Purgatov instructs Kalenko on how it is going to happen. Through a ritual, two more incarnations will take their place in two bodies, those of Aleksandr Garudin and Jurij Ignatiev, two prominent party members. Purgatov likes to have Kalenko perform the ritual. It will cause more pain than if he was to do it himself.
Nikolaj invites the two party members on the night of the 31st of October. They are brought down into the basement of the house, where they are chained with handcuffs. Nikolaj sacrifices his daughter Katarina to make the basement sacred. He smears her blood all over the walls and floor, and then he dismembers her body and the ritual is performed in the shape of a cannibalistic dinner where Garudin and Ignatiev are forced to eat the girl's intestines.
The temple in the basement becomes a portal between Chagidiel's hell and Leningrad. Garudin's and Ignatiev's bodies are torn up and they are born from them as purgatides, prisoners of Inferno. Razides comes and drags them away. Chagidiel himself takes their bodies in possession, and two new incarnations are born in Leningrad. From that moment on, Kalenko's house is an open portal towards Inferno. Aleksandr Garudin is responsible for the caring of orphan children in Leningrad. He ensures that Kalenko's house becomes the housing for one of the largest orphanages in Leningrad. Hundreds of children are brought to the old palace on Vasiljevskij Island. They are given enough food to survive, but are horribly tormented by the incarnations and the, by this time completely insane and twisted, Kalenko family.
Jelena Kalenko starts to organize kidnappings and dealing with human flesh on the black market. The children on the orphanage are turned into monsters that go out on the streets of Leningrad to steal food, ration cards and fuel, murder and destroy at night.
Chagidiel tracks down and kill all lictors and servants to other Death Angels or Arconts he can find in Leningrad. Party members and military officers dies during December. With the power from the fear of the dying, the incarnations build a strong defense against other beings that tries to enter the city and disturb their work.
The Night of the New Year
On the night of New Years Eve 1941/1942, God disappears from Leningrad. The few remaining lights go out in churches and cathredals. The faces of the saints go dark on the icons. Twenty priests are found on the following day, dead by their own hands.
Nikolaj Kalenko sacrifices his wife Jelena to the Death Angel and at the same time summons his two daughters from Inferno, where they have been tortured for eternity. The three incarnations turn the three dead women to nepharites, tied to serve Chagidiel.
Chagidiel has started to move his citadel, and thus his true physical shape, to Leningrad. He widens the portal around Kalenko's basement and makes the Illusion crack in central Leningrad. The incarnations revive the dead and let them roam around in the city and to attack the Russian troops in their back. Creatures from Inferno start to pour out into Leningrad from Kalenko's basement.
The Madonna Awakens
Now Chagidiel cannot keep what happens secret anymore. The Arcont Binah becomes aware that the whole human reality is threatening to crash through in Leningrad. But she cannot penetrate Chagidiel's protective defense, which is there in the first place to keep her out. She has no lictors left in the city.
She decides to use her old power as a divine figure and seek control over some of the people who are left in the city. She can still send dreams and visions, even if she cannot move anything physical into Leningrad.
She finds Dimi Nesterov and Ivan Chazenko. Prior to the revolution Dimi was an icon painter, but for the last twenty years he has worked as a dollmaker and poster painter. Ivan is a priest. He officially works as a groundskeeper in a cathedral outside of the city, but still performs some duties of a priest. On that new years eve night, Dimi Nesterov finds his cousin Jurij Solojov dead in a basement by Sadovaja St. In the basement Dimi also finds his cousin's seven year old girl Magda, barely alive. Dimi takes her to the orphanage at Kalenko's house and leave her there. On the way home, he meets a woman on Lt. Schmid's bridge. She has a wool mask in front of her face, a common way to protect yourself from the cold, so he cannot see how she looks. The woman tells Dimi that he will paint of final icon before he dies. "An icon of me", she says and removes the wool mask. He sees a completely black female face that reminds him of the darkened Madonna pictures he saw in his childhood in the Ukraine. The woman disappears in the snowy mist.
Dimi goes home to his small apartment on Kaznatjeskaja St. and starts to work on the icon of a black Madonna.
The Man in the Cathedral
In a black cathedral from the 16th century dedicated to Our Lady of Kaptjeno, the priest Ivan Chezenko resides. The cathedral is in Kaptjeno, south of Leningrad. Chezenko has refused to leave it when the rest of the city's suburbs were evacuated. Now he is in no mans land, in the empty parts of the war zone between German and Soviet troops. The cathedral has been stuck by artillery fire and is partly destroyed. The Soviet soldiers has put their dead in the church rooms while waiting for an opportunity to take them away. Chezenko prays waits and helps the medics to take care of the wounded. He finds himself more and more down among the crypts beneath the cathedral, by a small chapel where a Madonna statue in black iron is found behind rusty iron bars. The statue was the object of pilgrimages in the 18th century, but is now forgotten for more than a hundred years. It is an image of Binah, who makes it possible for the arcont to get in contact with Chezenko. When he sits and is shaking with cold one night in the crypt, the statue comes to life and speaks to him. It says to him to go to Leningrad and to find the children.
It is all the arcont can say. Chagidiel's protective walls are so strong that she can't exactly determine what is going on in the city. She only knows that children are involved. The statue reaches out on of her hands through the rusty bars and touches the eyes of the priest. He is blinded for a moment. The arcont is going to use Chezenko's eyes to see through.
The priest doesn't know if he has dreamt or not, but he staggers out of the cathedral and goes to the city through the network of trenches and barbed-wire fences. He asks his way to Kalenko's orphanage, the biggest in all of Leningrad. He senses something bad when he approaches but is driven on by the arcont who wants to see what is inside Chagidiel's gates.
Nikolaj Kalenko opens the door for him. He usually never lets in any outsiders, but he notice that there is something strange with the priest, and he invites him to step inside. Kalenko's palace is almost completely intertwined with Chagidiel's citadel in Inferno, a mace of torture chambers and prison cells. Chezenko is paralyzed from the shock when he enters. He hardly notices how Purgatov's servants drag him away. He is throw in among the children, now almost insane and degenerated, so they can kill him, but the arcont's protection causes the children to fear to touch him.
Purgatov is called. The incarnation becomes afraid. It can't clearly see what has protected Chezenko, but it realizes that he is a threat. Purgatov breaks the back of the priest with a single blow and quickly throws him out on the street outside the palace. Then he punishes Nikolaj Kalenko thoroughly for letting the man inside the house.
A Lictor is Born
Ivan Chezenko lies dying in the cold snow outside Kalenko's palace. The arcont is pleased. She has seen what she needs to see, but she doesn't want to lose Chezenko. She keeps the life in his dying body and gets him to drag himself along the street, across the bridge and in among the quarters around the Gribodjedova canal. In front of Dimi Nesterov's door he collapses and begs to all divine powers to be allowed to die. They don't listen.
The icon painter opens the door and sees Chezenko lying outside in the snow. He has ever since the new year had a bad conscience growing over the fact that he took Magda's ration cards and then left her at the orphanage. Now he tries to ease that feeling by taking the wounded man inside and laying him on the couch.
Ivan Chezenko has very small chances to survive with a beginning atrophy and a broken back. But the arcont wants her servant to remain. Dimi Nesterov watches in amazement how the priest recovers over the next few weeks. The icon painter hasn't the power to see what actually happens, how Chezenko gradually is turned into a lictor. But the priest sees his head swells up and grows how his hair falls from his body and how his human feelings are numbed and disappears. After two weeks Binah has a new lictor inside Leningrad.
While Chezenko lies sick at Nesterov, Purgatov's men are looking all over the city for the priest. A couple of hundred people are arrested, tortured and killed, officially as German spies, but actually because they have been connected to Chezenko somehow. Nesterov explains to the priest what's going on. As soon as he has recovered enough to walk, Chezenko decides that the two of them shall go the cathedral in Kaptjeno.
When they leave Nesterov's house, Purgatov's servants catch their scent. They have to run from razides, nepharites and bewildered children on their way to the cathedral. But as soon they are inside the black cathedral, their pursuers cannot follow.
The lictor Ivan Chezenko begins to make up plans to fight the Death Angel. He secretly contacts certain people in authority and tries to speak bad about Chagidiel's incarnation and the Kalenko family. It doesn't work. The Death Angel is hiding his activities by erasing the memory that he exists. The party leaders don't understand whom those persons that Cheznko talks about are. They dismiss him as a fool. Meanwhile, Chagidiel increases his attempts to move his citadel. The neighborhoods around Kalenko's palace are more and more haunted during nights and several buildings are on the edge between Leningrad and Inferno. The people of Leningrad are no longer aware that the area even exists. They walk around it and cannot see it. No one longer remembers Kalenko's orphanage.
Chezenko fights an uneven fight against a superior enemy. He cannot come close to Kalenko's palace without being captured and killed. He cannot move freely without risk being apprehended by Chagidiel's agents. The situation seems hopeless.
The Madonna Incarnates
During the whole of February, Dimi Nesterov stays in the cathedral. He works on his icon, something that demands several weeks of work. When March comes he's almost finished. He notices something strange with the picture. The black face on the icon reminds him of Magda, his cousin's daughter whom he left at the orphanage. The more he looks at the icon, the more certain he becomes that it's the girl's face he sees. He goes below the cathedral, to the chapel, and studies the iron statue. It is also uncanningly similar to Magda in its features.
Ivan Chezenko becomes thoughtful when Nesterov tells him this. He says to the icon painter to go to Kalenko's palace and try to get the child back. Nesterov refuses at first, well aware of the danger with the project. Chezenko then appears for him in his lictor shape and threatens with horrible punishments if he doesn't do as told. Nesterov obeys and goes into the city.
The people of Leningrad have started to come out from their shelters and clean up on the streets after the horrible winter. The bodies are taken from the streets and mass graves are being filled up at the cemeteries. Nesterov makes his way to Bolsjaja Neva and over the bridge to Kalenko's house. He notices how the cleaning patrols avoid coming near the area. They move in circles around it and behave as if it didn't exist.
The icon painter approaches a group of women and some soldiers who are cleaning up along the river, and explains to them that he knows of a house nearby that they must clean up before the temperature starts to rise. Finally he manages to convince the women and the soldiers to come with him to Kalenko's house.
They enter the buildings that border on the edge to Inferno and come to Kalenko's palace. It is being guarded by two guards, actually razides. They try to prevent them from entering. A fight ensues. They make their way past the razides and into the house. Inside, Chagidiel's citadel has started to form. Nesterov finds his cousin's child, half-dead and barely recognizable. The soldiers and the women are fighting a more and more nightmarish struggle against the inhabitants of the house. When the icon painter finally manages to take Magda with him out of the house, he doesn't really know what just happened. Two badly wounded women also get out of the house. The others are left behind in the palace. The three doesn't say anything to each other; they just go different ways and acts as if nothing happened.
Chagidiel becomes aware that someone has been in the inner room of his fort. He sends out his servants to hunt down Nesterov who barely manages to get back to the cathedral with the girl. Chezenko greets them there.
Magda gas been turned into a half human predator. She sees through the illusion well enough to be able to see Chezenko's true form. She doesn't even recognize Nesterov when he tries to calm her. Meanwhile Chagidiel is sending out patrols to search the city for Nesterov and the girl. He cannot see the black cathedral, which is hidden by the arcont's power.
Chezenko brings Magda to the crypt below the cathedral where the black iron statue stands. He locks the door and leaves her there. Magda is locked in the crypt for three nights. She is not scared, just relieved to have escaped hell. During those three days, the arcont opens a gate to the cathedral. The girl has so low mental balance that she helps with the opening of the portal. On the third night, the iron bars in front of the statue fall away, and the image of the arcont is plunged into the girl's body. She has become an incarnation of the black Madonna. She breaks the door to the crypt and goes up to the cathedral.
The Death Angel Escapes
Binah's incarnation goes to Kalenko's house together with Chezenko and Nesterov. When they cross Lt. Schmidt's bridge the Death Angel notices that an arcont is approaching. It prepares to hide itself, should it become necessary. The three enters the house. The Madonna tells Nesterov and Chezenko not to let anyone get out of the house, not even any of the children. Inside in the palace, the arcont is pushing the Death Angel's citadel from Leningrad and looks for the three incarnations. But she cannot find them. They have hidden in three children and repressed their true nature, so she cannot see them.
Dimi Nesterov doesn't listen to the arcont's orders. He finds ball -rooms filled with children in terrible condition. He leads as many children as possible out of the house. Among those who are brought out of the house are the three children that hide Chagidiel's incarnations: Anatolij, Sasja, and Filip.
When Chagidiel's citadel fades away from Leningrad, so does Kalenko's palace. The buildings on both sides of the palace slides together, and soon it's like there never stood a palace there at all. Only Nesterov, Chezenko, hundreds of starving and tortured children and the unconscious Magda are left on the street. When Magda wakes up, she has zero in mental balance and a complete amnesia. The arcont is gone.
The children are brought to a temporary camp in the Church of John. Chezenko rids the city of razides and other creatures from Inferno. He makes sure that more lictors are brought into the city, and plans to take charge again of the city's offices. Dimi Nesterov returns to making dolls. He makes a series of dolls with faces just like the black Madonna.
In January 1943 the railroad over Schüsselburg is opened again. The children are evacuated and end up in a camp outside of Moscow.
Camp S-17
The camp S-17 at Vladykino outside Moscow is a huge camp for refugees from the German offensive. The children stay here until the end of the war. Most of them are very mentally disturbed and a lot of them have physical changes that make them look hardly human. The camp administration is horrified by the deformed, aggressive children and has no understanding for what they have been through. They are locked in cages and fed once a day. Other refugees in camp treat them like animals. Some goes into catatonia. Some becomes aggressive and starts beating up their friends in the same way they were forced to do at the Kalenko's house. It scares the administration even more, and the children are placed inside a guarded barrack in at the end of the camp. Magda quickly loses the mental health that the arcont gave to her.
The Clinic
After the war the most disturbed children are moved to a mental clinic in Moscow. The clinic is run by a Dr. Natalja Tatlina, who specializes in war injuries with children. The treatment is primitive, with electric shocks and the use of experimental drugs. The patients don't make any progress during the time after the war.
In 1951 Dr. Tatlina receives an invitation from the East German government to start a new special clinic to the incurable insane in the small border town of Frankfurt an der Oder. She agrees to the offer and takes the most part of her patients with her to Germany. 44 of the children from Kalenko's house go with her to Frankfurt an der Oder. They are now between 12 and 20 years old. Among them are Magda and the three children who hide Chagidiel's incarnations. At the clinic at Frankfurt an der Oder some starts to show signs of recovery. Magda is not as bad as many of the other, and can cope better than them as well. The three children who hides the Death Angels incarnations are in very bad shape, but the incarnations have enough awareness to make them act sane and healthy. In 1958, Magda and the three young men who hide the incarnations are discharged from the clinic. All four move to Berlin. In the beginning, they spend a lot of time together. Then Magda is rejected by the other three when they turn to crime and violence when the Death Angel's incarnations inside of them starts to wake up.
Four Lives
Anatolij, Sasja, and Filip, who carry the Death Angel's incarnations inside of them, will never lose the contact between each other. Occasionally they also keep in contact with Magda. The fates of their life eventually lead to the inclusion of the player's characters.
Magda Orlova
In 1958, Magda leaves the mental institution and moves to Berlin. She is in her mid-twenties. She gets an apartment on Prenzlauerstrasse and gets work in an antiquarian bookstore for Slavic literature. She also spends a lot of time with Anatolij, Sasja and Filip.
In 1961 she engages in a short relationship with Filip. She partakes in the foundation of The Slavic Union together with the three friends.
In 1962 the relationship with Filip collapses after a time of destruction when Magda loses her job and starts to drink heavily. It all ends with Filip opening a gate to Inferno and demolishes an entire apartment building in Prenzlauer Berg in a huge fire. Both are sent to a mental hospital.
In 1964 Magda leaves the hospital and gets her old job back. She marries the owner of the shop, Lev Orlova, and moves to a big apartment at Spandauerstrasse. The couple are terrorized during the following years by the jealous Filip, who several times threatens to kill Lev.
In 1968 Lev Orlova is found dead with black boils all over his body. Magda goes into shock and is admitted to a hospital. In 1971 she is admitted and opens the shop again. She suspects Filip for causing Lev's death, but tries at any cost to avoid both him and the other two. She becomes active in opposition circles and writes a book about the lingering nazism in East Germany that draws a lot of attention in the west, where it is published.
In 1972 she is arrested for hostile activity against the government.
In 1977 she is released from prison and is deported to West Germany.
In 1978 she opens an antiquarium in West Berlin. She occasionally works for the West-German intelligence service, and she studies economy and political science.
In 1980 she moves to Hamburg. During the 80's she earns a living as a freelance journalist and political reporter. In 1986 she publishes a thesis about the black economy in East Germany, which draws some attention.
In 1990, after the fall of the wall, she travels back to Berlin. There she meets Anatolij, Sasja, and Filip for the first time in 15 years. They convince her to engage in the Slavic Union again. She starts to spend some time with Filip.
Anton Mahler (Anatolij)
In 1958 Anatolij leaves the mental institution. He moves to Berlin and assumes the name Anton Mahler. He gets a job as a night watchman at an industry complex that belongs to Spandau Werken, and lives near Alexanderplatz. During the days he studies and receives a decent education.
In 1961 he forms The Slavic Union together with Sasja, Filip and Magda.
In 1965 he gets a job as an investigative officer for the East-German secret police, Stasi.
In 1967 he is accused in an internal investigation for torture and sexual assaults against political prisoners. The case is hushed down and is never tried by a higher instance.
In 1969 he is promoted to chief of department for Stasi.
In 1972 he arranges for Magda to be arrested, fearing that she will cause problem for him and the two others. He tries to have her killed in prison, but she escapes death miraculously.
In 1978 he becomes head of Stasi's internal affairs. He starts to become interested in black magic and studies for Nigel Hartcombe, a fugitive from England and a death magician. The Slavic Union more and more becomes an occult union.
In 1984 he commence work with Germanische Gemeinschaft. He works as a link between neo-nazis in East and West.
In 1986 he gets a warning from the top of Stasi to keep his occult activities to himself, as not to bring a bad name to the police force.
In 1989 he realizes that East Germany is about to collapse. He leaves his service with Stasi and erases all records about his past. He conjures up the image of a fictitious life that shows that he has been a peaceful investigator of agricultural issues within the government.
In 1990 the incarnation starts to come to life for real. Anton has nightmares and old memories resurface. He contacts Magda Orlova.
Aleksandr Purgatov (Sasja)
In 1958 Sasja leaves the mental institution. He moves to Berlin and assumes the last name Purgatov, the only name he can remember from his childhood. He starts to earn money by petty theft and fencing.
In 1961 he participates in the forming of The Slavic Union.
In 1962 he starts to deal with black market business and fencing in a large scale.
In 1968 he is one of East Berlin's leading black market dealers. He starts dealing with drugs.
The 70's are rewarding. He builds a powerful Mafia-like organization with connections to the Russian Mafia. Anton helps him stay clear of government involvement.
In 1978 he meets Nigel Hartcombe, and starts to dabble with black magic.
In 1990 he sees a large part of his criminal empire collapse together with the wall. The incarnation starts to awaken and he has nightmares. Repressed memories start to surface.
Filip Kramer
In 1958 Filip leaves the mental institution. He assumes the last name Kramer and moves to Berlin, where he ends up in the sleaziest buildings at Prenzlauer Berg. He supports himself with begging and theft.
In 1961 he is a part of the forming of The Slavic Union. He starts a short relationship with Magda.
1961. After a wild relationship with Magda, he manages to open a gate to Inferno and releases a firestorm over the building where he lives. 22 people are killed. It ends with him being committed to a mental hospital. At the hospital he meets a mad magician. He starts to become interested in magic.
In 1965 he is released from the hospital and discovers that Magda has married. He becomes violently jealous and starts to stalk her. He begins to use heroin and experiments more and more with magical rituals.
In 1968 he kills Lev Orlova with a curse.
During 1968-71 he occasionally works as a hit man for Sasja Purgatov. He regularly visits Magda at the hospital and tries to make her forgive him.
In 1974 he meets Nigel Hartcombe and start to correspond with him.
In 1978 he persuades Anton to find Nigel Hartcombe a sanctuary in East Berlin. The magician is wanted for several ritual murders in west Europe.
During the 80's he becomes the leader for a large group of Satanists in East Berlin. His heroin addiction becomes harder and harder to control.
In 1990 the incarnation starts to awaken and he has terrible nightmares. Memories resurface. He finds Magda to try and talk to her about it. He convinces her to visit the other three at The Slavic Union.
The Return of the Death Angel
The incarnations have prepared to come out of their sleep after many years, when the Madonna has gone away. Their plan is to gradually come to awareness, so they won't draw the attention of the Madonna, and then kill the bodies they are hiding in. They can not push Anton, Sasja, and Filip to suicide without risking getting the attention of the Madonna.
The most practically for them is to have other people kill the bodies they are hiding in. This is where the players' characters come into play. Chagidiel wants to push them to kill the three bodies that his incarnations are hiding in.
When the adventure starts, the incarnations have just come to full awareness. They are looking for powerful and experienced people with a low mental balance. They intend to, via dreams and distorted facts trick the players into killing Anton, Sasja and Filip. Their intent is to make the player characters to believe that the three men are out to get them, and has already killed one of their friends, Magda Orlova, with a mysterious disease. The same disease is about to break out in the characters. Their friend Magda has been infected by it at a magical ritual at The Slavic Union. The three Russians don't know that it is they who have infected her, they only act under the incarnation's increasingly stronger influence. Magda spreads, unknowingly, the disease to the PC who has been chose by Chagidiel to free the three incarnations.
During the adventure, the PC will discover that the three men have also committed a number of crimes and has a very doubtful moral. Everything will point to the fact that the PC has to fight back before something very bad happens to them. At the same time, Chagidiel will influence the three Russians with dreams and visions, so they will think that the PC's are trying to kill them. They will think that they have to attack the PC's before it's too late. Filip knows the PC through Magda, which means that Chagidiel knows of their existence, and chooses to use them for his own purposes. Anton, Sasja, and Filip already have a low mental balance, and their minds have been disturbed just by the fact that the three incarnations are hiding in their bodies. Sharing body with an incarnation can pervert anyone. They have a twisted aggressive sexual idea; they practice black magic and are completely ruthless.
There is a magical ritual that allows the incarnations to leave their host bodies without being discovered by the Black Madonna. It uses the bodies death anxiety and pain to hide what is actually going on. Chagidiel want to trick the player to perform this ritual to release the incarnations. If the Madonna discovers what is going on, she will be fooled into believing that the PC are the three incarnations and start to hunt them instead. Since time is an illusion, Chagidiel knows how dangerous the PC's are to his plans. He knows that Magda once served as a tool that destroyed his plans. Now he will try to get rid of both threats, Magda and the PC's, at the same time as he frees his incarnations.
He plans to let the Madonna's lictor chase the PC's when the incarnations are released. The PC's carry the mark of Chagidiel, and the lictor will believe that they are the host bodies for the incarnations. The Death Angel will have two victories with only one try. He will trick the lictor away from the incarnations and can perhaps even get rid of the PC's. It doesn't matter whether everything is pre-destined or not. If fate is impossible to influence Chagidiel will only play his part according to plan, if time is possible to shape, he is simply trying to kill eventual enemies. It is best if any of the PC's have magical intuition, so they can learn the magic ritual (another reason for Chagidiel to chose the PC's), but if none of them have that, they GM can give that advantage to someone secretly. The character will then have to pay for the advantage with experience points. The ritual is to be found in a book that they can find at Magda's place, or any of the three Russians.
The Incarnations' Plans
When the ritual is performed and the incarnations are released they will start the work of trying to get Chagidiel and his citadel to physically appear in Leningrad. The three incarnations goes in three different ways.
One goes to the Dream Inferno where dreams that belongs to the children from Leningrad are kept.
Another goes to Soviet to prepare a military overtaking that will lay the ground for Chagidiel's overtaking in Russia. He takes the name Staski and gets a post as a general in the air force.
The last and most powerful, the same Purgatov who originally incarnated will go to the Leningrad of today. He creates a connection between 1941, the present and Inferno. By taking the suffering children from the war into the present he can tear down the illusions and bring his citadel into the world of humans. They all work towards getting the Death Angel's citadel to Leningrad. To stop them, the PC's must free the imprisoned children. It is their pain that gives the incarnations their power.
The PC's must destroy all three incarnations and free the children that they keep imprisoned to prevent that Inferno permanently materialize in Leningrad and causes the suffering and death of over 100 000 people.
The Events
The plot can change depending on the course of the PC's, and other circumstances, but this is an approximate plan over the events.
Chapter One: The Dance of the Killers
The PC's will meet their old friend Magda Orlova, who without knowing it herself spreads a curse to them. They will become sick with an unusual parasite-disease. A couple of days later, Magda dies from the disease. The PC's will have cause to suspect three of Magda's friends to be the ones behind her death, and their own sickness. They will find a book with a ritual that seems to be able to cast back the disease to the ones who are responsible to it in the first place. By investigating The Slavic Union, an occult order where Magda was a member, the PC's will find out where they can confront the three suspects and use the ritual against them. They will go to the house of one of the men, where a satanic meeting is going on. When they perform the ritual the Death Angel's incarnations will be released. The PC's will understand that they have been set-up. The three who performed the ritual will receive Chagidiel's blessing and are destined to become his servants in the future. The PC's are still suffering from the parasite disease.
Chapter Two: Shadows From the Past
Chezenko, the arcont Binah's lictor from Leningrad will find and attack the PC's, believing that they are Chagidiel's incarnations. He will end the attack when he realizes his mistake, and the PC's will get to know a bit about the background to the existence of the incarnations. They can visit the Frankfurt Clinic, where Magda and the three Russian's were kept. There they will receive a black Madonna doll from Pjotr, a patient who came from Leningrad together with Magda and the other three. A doctor can tell them that Magda and the three Russian's came from a refugee camp outside Moscow in 1946.
Chapter Three: Dark Dreams
A dreamwalker will find the PC's and teaches them dream art. It is Pjotr from the Frankfurt Clinic. He is a prominent dreamer in the future. He twists time to be able to help the PC's. When they master dream art, Pjotr will draw them into his dreams, dreams that are mixed together with Chagidiel's Inferno. They will go back in time through Pjotr's memories: through Leningrad and to Kalenko's house. In Kalenko's house in the dream, one of the three incarnations that the PC's let lose is trying to bring Chagidiel's citadel to the real world. The children who were left behind when Kalenko's house disappeared into the dream are also here. The PC's will defeat the incarnation and liberated the dream image of the children. They will realize that they have been to Leningrad in their dreams. If they travel to the real Leningrad, they will discover that Kalenko's house has disappeared without a trace. They can meet the icon painter Dimi Nesterov who is painting a Madonna picture, strangely resembling one of the PC's.
Chapter Four: German Autumn
The Slavic Union and the three dead Russian's who hid the incarnations had close contact with the right extremist organization Germanische Gemeinschaft. The PC's will discover how close the organization is to the Russian patriotic movement Slava. The German's are buying weapons and drugs from Slava. They will also discover that one of Chagidiel's incarnations has a close connection to Slava.
Chapter Five: Mother Russia
The PC's go to Moscow to investigate Slava. They notice that an incarnation has taken over the organization. A death magician who previously belonged to The Slavic Union in Germany has also escaped to Russia and joined up with Slava. Before they have had the chance to anything, they are captured by Slava and are taken to an air base for questioning. They escape from the air base and discover that the incarnation probably is at a missile base north of Moscow. With the help of KGB, who one of Binah's lictors has gotten involved in order to help the PC's, they can enter the missile base. It is completely twisted and perverted, due to the incarnation's presence, and is guarded by child soldiers who originally came from Kalenko's house in Leningrad. The PC's can defeat the incarnation. They discover that something strange is going on in Leningrad. The city is guarded by the military, and a state of emergency is declared.
Chapter Six: Back To Hell
The PC's travel to the black cathedral in Leningrad. There, one of them will hide the incarnation of Binah within him/herself. They travel through the city, which is becoming more and more a mix of 1941 and Inferno, and reach Kalenko's house. There, Chagidiel's citadel is about to manifest itself. When they enter the house, the Madonna will release herself from the PC and attack the incarnation. The incarnation will pull the whole house into Inferno and take his power directly from the Death Angel. The incarnation and the Madonna engage in a furious battle. The PC's must save the imprisoned children in order to banish the Death Angel. If not, they are forever prisoners in Inferno. If the free the children, Kalenko's house will re-form around them and Leningrad will turn back to it's real form. Everything goes back to normal.
Experience Points & Hero Points
The Black Madonna is a whole series of adventures, so you can give out experience- and hero points during these adventures. When the PC's have finished a chapter with a successful outcome, they will get experience points and hero points. The experience points can be used right away or be saved for a later time. The hero points are constantly needed during the whole campaign.
Below you can find a suggested outline for the number of points for each chapter. Of course you can modify them depending on how the players perform.
Chapter one: 3 EP, 3 HP
Chapter two: 1 EP, 1 HP
Chapter three: 3 EP, 5 HP
Chapter four: 2 EP, 3 HP
Chapter five: 3 EP, 3 HP
Chapter six: 1 EP, 5 HP
Any character that performs direct hero acts - see the rulebook for a definition of hero acts - will receive three extra hero points per act.
Timeline For the Parasite
The timeline for the parasite will show how the disease proceeds for the PC's. It will continue no matter what they do, until they have killed all three incarnations and the campaign is finished.
14 Sep Magda Orlova infects the characters
16-17 Sep High fever, up to 40 degrees Celsius
18-23 Sep The fever sinks to just above 37 degrees Celsius. They feel weak and have an itch all over their bodies. It is the parasite who is reproducing and spreads across the body.
20 Sep Nightmares. They dream that they are children, surrounded by unknown adults. They are locked in dark rooms. A compact darkness, so close that they can almost touch it is all around them. Something is moving out there, something they can only sense. It is cold. The floor is hard. The walls are bare and damp, on some places it is covered with ice. A disgusting sweet-like smell is in the air. Weak sounds, just like someone breathing can be heard. They crawl up in a corner and shivers.
21 Sep Magda's death. Rashes are showing up all over the PC's bodies. Nightmares: The creature in the dark is coming closer, and the PC's can almost figure out a shape. The pain begins. The PC's feel a disgusting, indefinable pain that burns through the entire body. They sense how their pain amuses the creature in the dark. It is coming closer. They can almost see it, but not quite. It feels as if it is tormenting them without they never managing to see it and see how close it is.
21-28 Sep The rashes are gradually developing into centimeter sized boils in the groin area, under the arms and on the back of their knees. The boils are blue-red and covered by a thin, yellowish liquid-film. It smells sharp. No one other than the PC's can see or smell the boils. The rashes are slowly spreading all over the body.
4 Oct It is starting to move within the boils at the groin and the arms. It's only a slight hint, a tickling.
15 Oct The boils are starting to show on other areas than the groin, under the arms and behind the knees. The rashes are almost over the entire body. In some of the boils, something is starting to move rather much. The itching is horrible.
24 Oct During the night, some of the boils start to crack. Yellow larvae show their heads and emit a single-note kind of sound, almost chanting.
2 Nov The boils have spread all over the body. Every night they crack open and the PC's cannot sleep because of the sound the larvae makes. If they manage to fall asleep, the nightmares are terrible. This stage will continue until the campaign is over. None of the PC's will die by the infection before the end.
Timeline For the Incarnations
You will have to adapt the chain of events a bit, depending on how your quick the PC's progress. You mustn't let
Chagidiel's citadel form before they have had a chance to stop him. Use the timeline as a guide to get a feeling for the time press they are under.
Day 1 The Incarnations are released by the PC's
Day 3 The Incarnations have taken physical form in three places: in Dream Inferno, in Kalenko's hidden house in Leningrad, and with Slava and the military in Moscow
Day 15 Kalenko's house is once again visible in Leningrad (it doesn't happen until the PC's has been to Leningrad, if they intend to go there. Adjust the time accordingly)
Day 20 Military state of emergency is declared in Leningrad due to a supposed epidemic.
Day 30 General Staski commences the movement of his troops and prepares for a military overtaking. Leningrad is starting to slide into Inferno. After Staski's death: Dimi Nesterov finishes his picture of the Madonna that enables Binah to incarnate in one of the PC's.
I'm sure it is copyright-protected, but think about this:
after reading that intro, do you feel LESS inspired to buy the book, or MORE?
As for me, it has me salivating; I'm going to buy the book as soon as it's released in English.
It's in the eye of the copyright-holder really, whether it's free advertizing or ripoff. Personally, I think all the evidence points towards "free advertizing."
Brought a lot of things to mind...
and I'd be inspired to purchase it
more so then without but I'd probably
have purchased it anyhow but that is
neither here nor there... it is not up
to individuals at large to make the
decisions of release/infringement of the
work to anyone but the company... no
matter how aggravating the wait is...
and yes oh yes I am sure I am a hypocrit
in some manner... but that is the party
line we follow here on the forum is it not?
... Crazy not to buy it when it comes out. It is in my opinion one of the best campaigns ever!!! (Any category, any game)
Free advertising: I think that the copyright holders should feel that this is only in their best interest. This part of the Madonna is after all only the background and a very short plotline/timeline.
Torb: Is this the "official" translation you said were full of errors?
I don't remember where I got a copy of it from but I've had it for several years now. Somebody sent it to me after I heard about its existing. From what I was told it was the first 12 pages of the Black Madonna translated into english. My copy is in word or works or something compatible.
I also got a copy of the text for the unreleased Inferno sourcebook. It was verified as real when I the person who edited it saw it (again years ago when I was on the pyramid forums a bit). Also told me he had to threaten legal action to get paid as well.
My personal opinion is that it should remain unpublished. Its not that good.
I have read that through a few times now...
and I have to say I really like what I see
so far... some translation stiffness here
and there but that's the kind of adventures
I'd like to see more of... utilizing the
cosmology... I imagine it must have been
a story or something that was converted
(and quite well too) to the KULT genre...
I like to see time travel in KULT used in
this way/method. What kind of support material,
maps, graphics were included in the publication
of Black Madonna?
This translation you have is not the official translation... I actually can say that this translation sucks, as it is full of misuse of verbs, errors in translation and just generally crappy... :D
maybe some lictors dont want us to see the truth?
same patterns everywhere. impossible to get hold of kult material , a new edition wich is just as impossible to get by as the old ones.
hmmm
anyone thinking the same as i do.... conspiracy ....
maybe .....hmm...paranoid .... should`nt have eaten those mushrooms.
I need a new pc by tomorrow morning - gimme gimme!
by Laughing Corpse
Alright, I need this by Saturday so sorry for the rush. The only idea I have for him is he's a wannabe vampire, only slightly gothy, lesser occultist type.
Any and all suggestions and skill/stat ideas would be welcome.
I missunderstood, I understood you needed a new Personal Computer by tomorrow...
Well, why don't you take inspiration from the character Pat Bateman (American Psycho)... adding some occult flavor (such as he partecipated to some medianic experience, or in a sexual magick sect for a while, perhaps with some collegue)...
As a fellow italian i can understand Lucifuges confusion...it happens commonly every time an italian reads PC (player character) instead of PG (Personaggio Giocante)...it means the exact same thing but for some unexplainable reason PG just sounds "better"
PC has long been the norm... Role Playing
games basically started with TSR (D&D) and
the always used PC. Also in storytelling and
scripts... PC is Primary Character(s)... As
those of us growing up in a world before there
was a computer in every home just might recall.
"I need a new PC for tomorrow"... for some reason it seemed to me that you needed a new computer.
Here in Italy we refer to computers as "PC" not "computer", and in RPGs we talk about "personaggio" not "PC".
But mine was a joke. The answer to your real question is in the rest of the first reply.
Bye
I thought that was what I said in my own half-assed manner TSR has "Dibs" as far as I am concerned on PC... but since it is so wide spread... it is understandable with the Computer remarks... but when I saw PC on a RPG Forum I figured Player Character...
I use the abbreviation all the time in my game outlines and such.
Hehehe... is it echoing in here... didn't notice :P I read your post but I don't think the message got through. A short circiut I guess...
I too think that it isn't too far fetched to think "Player character" as this is a forum. But I think my first thought when I saw the post was "Personal Computer? Wtf is he asking for one of those here?"
Does anyone have any idea how to incorporate HP Lovecrafts work into the Kult world. Ive been thinking quite alot about this and want some advice. Ofcourse Ive heard about Call of Cthulu, I even have it, but I want to do something completely unexpected. I think I am going to make an adventure that takes place on the Titanic just before it smashes into the iceberg. I also think I am going to incorporate the Necronomicon in the story as one of the mainaspects of it. Plus an alternate ending is at hand where Titanic isn't sunk. //Anders H.
That depends on which interpretation you are willing to use.
Basically, "Legions Of Darkness" insinuates that there are other planes of existence except Metropolis, Gaia, Inferno and the Illusion. Therefore, the Mythos' creatures could very well exist on other planes. They came to Metropolis a long time ago and were imprisoned when the Demiurge created the Illusion. Or they are not bound to the Illusion and can move freely, like the Forgotten Gods (Shiva Nataranja or Baal Reshef).
The basical question is: What to do with Lovecraft? If you assume that Kult reflects our history, then H.P. Lovecraft really existed and his books are still on sale.
You could go and say that his works were thinly veiled descriptions of reality, or that Lovecraft was suffering from a low mental balance and mixing glimpses from true reality with hallucinations and products of his distorted imagination.
...i like that..instead of trying to insert lovecraftian mythos' in your campaign instead why not have a whole story revolve around the figure of Lovecraft himself....imagine the PC's researching on Lovecrafts life and works and searching for a "key" amist his ramblings with which to decode ancestral secrets of reality...
Maybe the Necronomican really does exist and Lovecrafts works hold clues as to its whereabouts
Or maybe Lovecraft saw terrible truths that he could not confess with any person and so jot them on paper
Do the ancients exist?Are they shadows of Archons?Are they forgotten deities? Or maybe only the ramblings of a madman given meat and still throbbing though their creator is not?
Has Lovecraft awakened?
Imagine sects so inspired by his works as to institute a cult in honour of Azathoth himself...uncautious of how Azazoth is nothing but a manifestation of "she who waits"....a bubbling KAOS of nothingness
Or maybe even people so convinced that his word is truth that they are ready to follow any end in order to stop the return.....they are only madmen...right?
A good film for inspiration (especially if one would like to consider Lovecraft as an awakened) is "in the mouth of madness"
A true masterpiece by John Carpente and one of my all time favourites (seriously! Its up there with Fellini's Satyricon!!)
Just a tidbit for those willing to dig. On pg. 211 of the english 1st edition rulebook, under the section on re-animatory drugs, there is mention of a Dr. H.West. I imagine they are alluding to Herbert West, Reanimator. This is a lesser known story by Lovecraft (and also a fairly tasteless, but fun movie). It is the only actual tie-in I have found linking Kult to the Cthulhu Mythos.
Unless you take into account Tiphareth's ties to creatures so far from our reality they have never heard of mankind
I had an idea awhile ago I really never developed
where-in PC's return from Metropolis on the Hindenburgh Zeppelin... Nazi's fit so well in to Kult... and they can save the airship... my thinking was they knew too much or some servant of Kether aboard realizes they are out of place and seeks to silence them causing the disaster... What is great about using historical things like that is you can research the real event for people and motives just put a Kulty swing on it... I scap'd an idea about the Mary Celeste once as well...
I have played with the idea. In my games, Lovecraft was as real one until he was captured by Hammad al-Sufi (the real Abdul...); and then all became real in a dreamworld.
There Lovecraft is still alive in Arkham, and there is a gate in New England...
I just became interested in the game only to find out that the book is out of print. Can someone direct me to a place where i can get a copy or somone that has one for sale. Thanks
I saw on Amazon they had METROPOLIS
and wanted $32 USD for it... they are
out of their minds... nice review by
our good friend Torben there though
(Flowers delivered free of charge)
My players have started to insist that they roll their own dice (don't ask me why). This is especially when they are engaged in combat.
Personally I think that is bad. Especially as I usually plan many events in my adventures as acts of Fate rather than randomness.
Of course combat is random, but how should I tackle this? I have let them roll their own attack/parry/dodge rolls, but so far kept them away from rolling for damage. This is crippling the GM role as a storyteller. It becomes very hard to create opposition that they can overcome without it being too easy or too hard.
I know that many of you prefer a diceless game, but I think that some elements of the game should be a bit random to keep up the players beliefs that they can affect the world by their skills and actions.
Should I just say: No! I will keep track of rolling all dice. Keep your minds on playing your characters. Or should I let them in on the game mechanics if that is what they wish?
Let them roll their dice.
My experience says that players has a lot more fun when they can feel have "power" over their fate. Obviously the result of a die is random, either if is the GM or the player that rolls. But if THEY roll the die thy feel they are handling the combat.
My suggestion is: let them roll their dice, but you shold keep the track of the damage, THEIRs and of the enemies. Infact the PC cannot know how much damage they did to a NPC: a little hole can seem a scratch but being almost lethal! And viceversa a big wound can seem very bad but bein' a bit more than a scratch.
Dude, half the fun is whatching the players roll their dice and end up with the number "20" so that all can see... :D It's a lot of fun having them blame each other for their poor rolls.
In our group everyone has their lucky dice and go through long (and disgusting) rituals to keep them that way...
I like the unpredictability of letting the players roll the dice (the only thing I roll for is NPC's, events and PC's 'secret' actions such as if they succeed in making fake ID's (which they won't find out until the go through passport control) etc.)
I always adjust the level of intervention through the NPC's - just roll for NPC's behind the screen and cheat if necessary.
The only thing you have to look out for is the cheating bastard players who will frequently say "oh, I hit him in the head!" when they actually have only managed to get the left foot or similar. My players use dice that are cunningly low-contrast so that I can't see what's going on... Bastards.
PS - Got my computer running again!! Whoopee!
-torb
... killing of the bad guy I made him vulnerable only to perfect hits from which he takes normal damage. He does however have several FW before dying... MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I used to participate in K6's games a while ago, havent been lately, so this aint no direct critiscism about his style of play (he can long since have changed, and HAVE changed it since I last played). However, something to think about: There are VERY few things in the RPG that deals with randomness that nobody is in charge of, yet it is SUPPOSED to be something that works without anyone being "in charge".
The role of a ST/GM is to tell whats happening, not decide whats happening. Even if you have ideas about what is to happend, this is still a form of "improvise-theater". There are set rules to increase or decrease probabilities, but thre should be a limit to what you decide what the players should do. Im not going to go into the possibilities of how players can ruin campaigns by simply deciding to go left when theyre supposed to go right, but dont take away the thing that makes them feel like they are actually ROLE-playing here... dice = possibility, different depeding on how good your character is in a specific trait. If you roll and "fake" to get a specific resault then you might(probably _do_) cramp up the game for the players...who are also there to enjoy the game...
I say: give yer henchmen/badasses/monsters/whathaveyou a bit of an upper hand... dont overdo it but still let everything go by the dice. Damage...good idea to keep it secret as long as its not 2 players who are in a fight.
Something that is a common thing to loose track of on online roleplaying chats, but also in TT games is one simple fact: We are there to have fun... ALL of us: players and ST's/GM's. ALL of us are human, we make misstakes: Players and ST's/GM's.
Keep track of that and let the dice roll... when it have to roll.
As far as "specific outcome", remember that the players have to have a feeling that what happened did happend because of THEIR actions, not just because you as a GM wanted it to happend. If my monsterdupolous-supervillainesque-nefarious adversary aint in the final scene this session, or at the end of the campaign...fine...might be dissapointed, but Im h***uva lot more dissappointed if the players and I didnt have fun on the road to the end...
[snip] I say: give yer henchmen/badasses/monsters/whathaveyou a bit of an upper hand... dont overdo it but still let everything go by the dice. Damage...good idea to keep it secret as long as its not 2 players who are in a fight. [snip]
The player characters all have dark secrets...
this is really a multi-functional advantage to
the GM... Have some one pop up from someones past
to interupt the fight and get them working together
again against a common foe... or use a NPC from the
adventure... I keep someone/thing in mind for this
type of situation when PC's are off on a tangent.
I usually let my players roll their own dice as long as it is feasible they can assess the result. But I am not using the original system of any game but my own, and there is no such thing as a damage roll for instance.
In combat PCs will usually see the effect their roll has immediately, so that's something the players would roll themselves. But I keep a copy of the character sheet of each PC, and things like perception rolls, investigation rolls etc. the result of which is not readily apparent to the PC I make for them. I guess on that rationale you can make your players understand that they shouldn't make all rolls themselves.
If they insist on rolling the dice because they fear you fudge things against them, have them roll a sizeable list of values up front, take the list and work it off from top to bottom whenever they should roll. That speeds up things a lot
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"In combat PCs will usually see the effect their roll has immediately..."
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If the target is in fact a Razide or a Lictor, taking a Fatal wound, and it doesn't drop, then the Players KNOW that it is a supernatural creature even if it hasn't revealed this yet.
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"If they insist on rolling the dice because they fear you fudge things against them, have them roll a sizeable list of values up front, take the list and work it off from top to bottom whenever they should roll. That speeds up things a lot"
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That is good advice. I have had a premade list of dice results earlier. It is a lot easier to conceal the fact that a secret roll for perception or something has been done.
I have had a premade list of dice results earlier.
So do I... or rather, in the beginning of each session I let the PC's roll the dice because they think it's fun. They start each session by rolling for NPC's initiatives (not knowing that this is what they roll for, of course), rolls to determine which of the PC's will have a special dream etc. without knowing the modifiers to each roll. Then I write it down to save time when combat comes.
It's really fun watching them roll 10's on initiatives for NPC's they don't know when they are going to meet... :D
"If you get into combat in my Kult games you know that you have made a serious mistake."
I would agree if it wasn't for the fact that all the players on my group are addicted to action and get bored if it's all horror & investigation. So I think it definetly depends on the group you are playing with, as the game can still be fun & horrific while having combat scenes...
My players like investigative adventures but they want to have some combat in most of the stories. They, as do I, feel that combat in one way or the other is a very important part to spice up the game.
In my stories the players may pick a fight with the baddies. But they should be well prepared and plan it. If they end up in combat without preparing, they often know that they have made a pretty serious mistake or misjudgement of the enemys potential. But that does not mean that it can't be fixed. If the players manage to take a prisoner they might be pretty well of with some information.
Often there has not to be combat per see. But the threat that hell may break loose at any moment is thrilling enough. I often plan the campaigns in a way that the players should, unless they have done something unbelievably stupid, survive the story. I think that it is a major setback if the entire group is wiped out at the end of the session.
"No OPLAN ever survives initial contact"
"The important things are always simple; the simple are always hard"
"Intelligence is measured in 'tary'. The loweset possible is 'Mili-tary'"
GM is always right even when he isn't...
let players do some rolls... but insist
that do to the nature of the story some
things must be hidden from them - period!
If you make your game session entertaining
for them they won't complain for long...
Well... I always aim to please the entire group, including me. I rarely kill PCs because ot this, and I almost never kill the entire group. I get the most out of it if they actually meet the objectives of the story. In all other cases I have most likely planned some interesting events to never play them. That's a waste don't you think...
I have had that happen over and over again...
I plan out a whole section of events or NPC back
ground to be explored... and they skip right on by
it... or kill/alienate someone with crucial info...
other times you have a nobody and they get
stuck on him/her... you can't win... will always be!
Why don't we pick a weekend and a time that
is relatively good for everyone and try to
have a chat... I see a lot of new folks on
the forum lately may have to have another roll
call soon...
Let's see... we have Sweden, USA, Italy that
I know of off hand anyone else? Suggestion for
a time and a weekend to give enough notice out?
The relay chat here is basic but it should do,
nicht wahr?
It seems that a lot of people are into chatting here... Perhaps those of us who have ICQ/MSN/Y!/AOL should share our ID's so that others have the possibility to chat?
So please, assume this as an invitation for other Kutlists to respond with their chat identities:
My MSN id: torb_@hotmail.com
My ICQ #: 131733279
My Y! id: torben_rygg
I use Trillian which allows me to use all channels simultaneously.
