Mar 3, 2024 12:43 am
[ +- ] Mood Music
1991. Sweden.
You are sitting in the subway late at night.
The subway car is less than half full.
In the flickering light the three men sitting near you seem vaguely familiar.
They eye you and each other in the same way, as if they were trying to recall where this feeling of familiarity was coming from.
You freeze up and feel ill at ease.
Something terrible is about to happen.
The Game.
Kult: Divinity Lost (4th Edition) is a game for mature and adult audiences, set in the modern world. (Thirty years ago is still modern, right?) In this game, you will select a pre-generated character and engage in journey with three strangers who are strangely familiar.
This is a horror story that is extremely heavy on roleplaying and storytelling, with minimal combat. As a player, you will be expected to engage in the fiction using your pre-generated character.
I have only run a single one-shot of Kult before. I am not experienced with this game. If you want to explore the rules with me as we tell this story, I'd be happy to have you along for the ride.
This game uses a modified version of the PbtA rules. It has 2d10 instead of 2d6, with failure on a 10 or less, partial success on an 11-14, and total success on a 15+. You will not need to make any rolls until requested to do so; frivolous rolling may be met with twisted consequences.
The History.
The year was 1991, and the 7th annual four-day LinCon convention in Linköping, Sweden was just beginning for the weekend. A new game called KULT: Divinity Lost was making its debut - its first public appearance. The adventure that was presented to showcase the game was titled, "An Echo of the Past." The scenario shocked the Swedish RPG scene and immediately became a legend; it was one of the first RPGs written explicitly for a mature audience. The game and the adventure were a huge success at the convention; every table was full, and a second GM was brought in to open more tables.
Today, I present to you that same adventure first ran in 1991, translated to English and rewritten for Kult 4e (which uses a modified Powered by the Apocalypse engine).
The World.
This game takes place in 1991, in Stockholm, Sweden. Life is good. Businesses are booming. Technology is growing by leaps and bounds. Phones, computers, laptops, music, culture - the western world was doing petty dang good.
Compared to today, there are no cell phones. There are no personal electronics you might carry around in your pocket (maybe, perhaps, a cassette or compact disc Walkman if you were some teenaged kid or young adult, but you're a successful man who doesn't play with such modern toys). If you had to make a phone call, you would use a public phone booth or wait until you got home and use your cordless phone currently attached to the wall. If you had a car and were inclined to spend the money, you might have a car phone. But who needs a car in Stockholm? Public transportation is well funded and safe.
If you were technologically inclined, you may have a personal computer at home or at work. Fax machines are still in heavy usage for most modernized companies and some people even had them at home. And for those in the know, a new technology called the World Wide Web was about to be introduced - it would take the world by storm.
In foreign affairs, the Cold War was about to end. The USSR was on the brink of dissolution, and the Warsaw treaty to ban or reduce nuclear weapons worldwide would be enacted this year. Culturally, Michael Jackson was the most famous musician in alive in the world. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the most popular of the action stars and Terminator 2 previews are showing in theaters. Christianity was the most popular religion in Sweden, with about 89% of the country identifying as Lutheran (which was also the state church).
But not all is roses and sunshine. It's only been five years since Sweden "lost her innocence" - the infamous day the Prime Minister was murdered in the streets of Stockholm while taking a walk with his wife. It caused a national trauma that still isn't fully healed. It's still in recent memory for all Swedish citizens. The housing bubble that led to unprecedented economic growth in Sweden's 1980s was about to burst; some are preparing for it, some don't believe it will come and are still buying up homes to enrich themselves. Just last year (1990), the Social Democratic government tried to freeze salaries and ban strikes; the Prime Minister resigned.
This is the world as we begin our game.
(Note - I am not a historian; I gathered the above using Google and Wikipedia. I am not Swedish nor European. What little history I do know is mostly within my own nation, and I know even less about the history of Sweden or the EU, where this game takes place. If you know more, I will defer to your knowledge. However, it should not really matter all that much - this section is just to give a general feeling of the state of the world and country as we play the game, to help with the ambiance and roleplaying).
The Horror.
This story will have mature and potentially horrifying content. Mature content may include (but is not limited to) violence, gore, religious sacrilege, religious atrocities, flesh manipulation, mental deterioration, and more. There are times where you may be uncomfortable with the themes presented - go with it. The scenes are not designed to last long, and as a horror game, those uncomfortable moments are part of the experience. If you do not wish to deal with such discomfort, this game may not be for you.
The Timeline.
I do not expect this game to last more than a few months. This is a single adventure designed to take about 4-6 hours of live play, so it should take about 8-16 weeks if we make daily posts.
I would like our posting rate to average around 4-5 posts per week or faster. Delays are fine, just let us know if it's going to take you a while. If you are the type of player who disappears for days on end with no communication, please do not apply.
The Flow.
This game will open with a strange and unsettling mystery in Sweden, and lead to an investigation led by the players that will eventually end in France. The four characters will work together to solve the mystery, uncovering uncomfortable truths and experiencing strange and horrifying phenomena as they progress.
The story is fairly scripted and linear.
The Resources.
All my games will have their own discord channel for OOC chat and get update notifications.
The Players.
Any adult comfortable with the mature themes listed can join. You do not have to know the rules, but as I am not an expert on PbtA rules, know that I may make mistakes. Mistakes will be forward corrected, meaning that if I make a mistake, I will be unlikely to replay the scene. We can just make a note and correct it moving forward.
The Cast.
You will take control of one of four successful and well-to-do men in their mid-to-late 40s.
• The Doctor. Professional surgeon. Problem solver. Occultist. Easy going.
• The Company President. Man of action. Computer whiz. Business man. Outdoorsman.
• The Lieutenant-Colonel. Man of quiet contemplation. Military pilot. Novelist.
• The Prosecutor. Man of justice. Public Speaker. Humorless. Dancer.
Your job will be to understand your chosen character and help bring them to life as the story unfolds.
The Application.
• Post your interest, and state which of the characters you'd like to play the most.
• Post your experience with Kult 4e or other PbtA games.
If more than four people apply, I will have to make some hard decisions.
The Acceptance.
My games are explicitly friendly to LGBT and any other minorities or marginalized groups.
Kult is a horror game with horror themes. There may be times you are uncomfortable with the content of the game, and that's ok. This style of game is meant to do that.
But that doesn't mean we are allowed to make each other uncomfortable with real life crap. So don’t be an asshole. I don't put up with bullies and jerks, and I will call you out. If you come to one of my games and start stirring shit, I can and will kick you from the game and file a complaint with the mods, who may or may not remove your account. Don’t be a dick.
The Answers.
Please feel free to asked any questions. I will answer them as best I can.
Last edited March 5, 2024 4:52 am
