Kult
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- For the Polish band see Kult (band)
Kult is a contemporary horror role-playing game.
The game universe is strongly influenced by Gnosticism. Influences of Clive Barker, H. R. Giger are also obvious.
The setting is exceedingly gloomy: The world is nothing but a prison for humanity, put there by the Demiurge (or if you will, God). The world as we see it is as real as a movie set: All smoke and mirrors. In reality, humanity lives in the ruins of its former greatness. Around us in the darkness are our guardians, the Archons, put there by the Demiurge to keep humanity in ignorance. The Archons have various creatures do their bidding, and these are our jailers. Death is merely a ploy to reset the consciousness of the soul and make impossible the acquisition of enough knowledge to escape the prison.
The system is a skill based system utilizing 20-sided dice (It is however not the d20 system published by Wizards of the Coast), with point based characters. It has one of the most deadly combat systems yet seen in an RPG and fatality rates of the characters to match.
The first version is out of print, and a French company called 7th Circle has bought the license and released a new edition. The first game was originally created by Gunilla Jonsson and Michael Petersén from Sweden and released by the company Target Games. Some symbols and creatures that appear in Kult can be seen in other Swedish games at odd locations.
Kult drawn on the same real-world occult belief systems as some modern magick societies. Dragon Rouge magic beliefs, in particular, are similar to the magic theory described in Kult, if one ignores the more extreme aspects of the game (such as the supernatural creatures that function as "enemies" to the players characters, or the idea that the world is an illusion).
Kult was, for some time, covered in media due to a suicide committed by a young boy who was playing the game. The Swedish TV news station Rapport broadcast a warning about the game. Of course, this only resulted in a increased interest in the game. It was later discovered the suicide was not related to the game.
External links
- 7th Circle webpage (http://www.7emecercle.com/)
- Extensive fansite with The Last Cycle Kult forums (http://www.kult-rpg.com/)
- The Abyss (Fansite) (http://www.kult-rpg.org/)
- Another fansite (No longer updated!) (http://kult.symbolique.net/)
- Category at ODP (http://dmoz.org/Games/Roleplaying/Genres/Horror/Kult/)it:Kult