Kult: Difference between revisions

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''Kult'' is a Swedish [[Dark Fantasy]]/Splatterpunk (self-description) [[Role-Playing Game]] by authors Gunilla Jonsson and Michael Petersén. It takes place here and now, in the reality of today. But reality is not what we think. Around us the world is dark and dangerous and nothing is what it seems to be. Our reality is {{spoiler|an illusion, created to keep us captive. We are imprisoned since the ages past by a dictatorial creator.}} The true world, invisible to us, is ruled by creatures who dominate the false facades, our prison wardens and torturers. And if your characters happen to steep too far into Evil, they might actually {{spoiler|turn into monsters physically}}.

* {{spoiler|[[A God Am I]]: Every human has the potential. And they're ''right''.}}

* [[Alien Geometries]]: {{spoiler|Everywhere outside The Illusion.}}

* [[Ax Crazy]]: The Angels of Death, who serve a similar function to the Archons, but are much, much more malevolent about it.

* [[Bedlam House]]: Most asylums are like that, and often the doctors and wardens there are at least as mad as the inmates.

* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: {{spoiler|Quite unavoidable for any character who has high enough mental balance or truly accept the truth about the world.}}

* [[Body Horror]]: What can happen when your mental balance plummets low enough.

* [[Corrupt Church]]: Chokmah, The Black Madonna.

* [[Cosmic Horror]]: It's difficult to judge whether this setting or the [[Cthulhu Mythos]] are more horrific.

* [[Dark World]]: {{spoiler|In the forms of Metropolis and Gaia, representing urban and natural landscapes respectively.}}

* [[The Dragon]]: Golab and Hareb-Serap, {{spoiler|two Angels of Death that're most loyal to Astaroth. They hate each other, but will ignore that for time being.}}

* [[Fighting a Shadow]]: Subversion. {{spoiler|Archons and other superbeings can have multiple incarnate avatars and it take less than one day to create a replacement when one is destroyed. However, getting killed ''hurts'' and if several incarnates are killed in short period, the pain can actually kill the being.}}

* [[Freak Lab Accident]]: One possible background for player characters.

* {{spoiler|[[Genius Loci]]: The cathedrals of Archon and Angel of Death are the true self of their owner.}}

* [[God]]: {{spoiler|The Demiurge}}

* [[God Is Evil]]: {{spoiler|Humans were immortal superbeings before he took all our powers away and made us what we are}}

* [[Happy Place]]: One could say, in the world of ''KULT'' most humans are there

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Failing a terror throw.

* [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]]: {{spoiler|Despite being embodiments of evil, Angels of Death found the darkness in humans' hearts surpasses theirs.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Humans Are Cthulhu]]:}} {{spoiler|Humans are immortal superbeings, they are just slumbering and are unaware of their power.}}

* [[Knight Templar]]: Geburah is embodiment of this trope.

* [[Light Is Not Good]] {{spoiler|1=Or even "Good is Evil": Forces of "good" tend to fight to keep everyone mentally balanced - and this is a setting where "mentally balanced" = "to be blind and trapped in hell forever".}}

* [[Mechanical Lifeforms]]: {{spoiler|The Techrones, actually every piece of machinery can be one, including the monitor you're looking at.}}

* [[Neurodiversity Is Supernatural]]: Schizophrenia is actually the ability to see behind the veil covering mundane reality. Mental illness in general is one of two roads to supernatural mojo (sainthood is the other one, but power-wise they're mutually exclusive).

* [[Room 101]]: {{spoiler|The Abyss, the great chasm where Demiurge's citadel once was. Only Astaroth has ever been known to get in there and return, but only barely alive. And he refuses to speak about anything inside that place.}}

* [[Satan]]: {{spoiler|Astaroth}}

* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: The whole game is practically glued to the cynical end.

* [[So Beautiful It's a Curse]]: The "Sexually Tantalizing" disadvantage. You're so beautiful that everyone wants a piece of you and nobody can listen to what you're saying.

* [[Soulsaving Crusader]]: The player can potentially become one of these, since {{spoiler|driving someone over the [[Despair Event Horizon]] can allow them to break free of the illusion.}}

* [[Torture Technician]]: Golab and many others.

* [[Weirdness Censor]]: Probably the only reason why ordinary humans can survive in this world without going mad immediately.

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: Malkuth's servants kidnap humans and perform wild experiments on them. {{spoiler|She actually wants to free all humans from the illusion.}})

Typical [[Characters]] that may appear in ''KULT'':

 

* [[Artificial Human]]: {{spoiler|The Techrones}}

* [[Housewife]] (a subversion)

 

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[[Category:Horror Tabletop Games]]

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