Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc From: [d 92 ato] at [nada.kth.se] (ATO) Subject: REVIEW: Kult Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1993 11:14:52 GMT KULT In Sweden by Target games/"Aventyrsspel, in the US by Metropolis, in Germany by Mario Truant Verlag Price: Approx $25 Format: 272 pages, softback (English edition). I hope Clay Luther doesn't mind, because I will be using his format of revew as in the Earthdown dito. :) # Disclamer. I am not sure exactly how the English version will look like, since I only have the Swedish edition. All facts will be taken out of that edition as opposed to the German version (wich is almost identical). I have spoken to the dudes at Target Games, and I _think_ i have gotten all translations approximately right, but consider the next sentence. Please disregard all spelling errors and grammatical mistakes, because: Diss is not maj nejtiv langvidge. I don't know what to compare Kult to, but as a brief introduction I would say "You create a character by generating eight statistics: Agility, Strength, Constitution, Comeliness, Ego, Charisma, Perception and Education. You then pick an archetype to design your character after, and allocate the skillpoints given to you by the GM. After this your aim is to keep your character alive, and sane, through the coming adventures." As I said, I don't know what to compare Kult to. The feeling in Kult significally differs from that in the average gothic horror game. I am given the impression that the designers got a lot of influence from the Hellraiser series, but modified it heavily. Thus, Kult is _not_ gothic horror, more like Clive Barker. My personal opinion of Kult is that this is not only a good game, but a great one. This does ofcouse show in this review, but i will try to minimize the influence. BASIC MECHANICS The core of Kult is the skilltest. This is a simple process. Roll a d20, if the dieroll is lower than the skill (that is on a scale from 0 --> 20 (sometimes higher)) the skilltest is a success. In some cases effect is important. Effect is the difference between the skill and the skillroll (for example, skill = 12, roll = 4, effect = 8). The GM decides what effect is needed to succeed in any given situation. A chart is provided for deciding how much effect is appropriate. If the skilltest equals 1/10 of the skill or lower, the test is perfect, and gets an additional +10 effect. If, however, the test is a 20 the character has fumbeled, with the usual disaserous consequences. Since only one die is rolled, the scale is linear up to skill = 20. If a skill passes 20, success is as likely as skill = 20, but fumble less likely and the likelyhood of a perfect result is higher (surprise!). CHARACTER CREATION The generation has emphasis on personality, not stats. The folloing order is recommended: Decide looks, weight, height, age and so on. Choose archetype (or design a new one, actually stated in the rules!) and decide which advantages, disadvantages, dark secrets and profession, according to your archetype. Design the characters background. Allocate points to stats and compute the secondary stats. Flesh out the dark secrets. Flesh out the advantages and disadvantages. Compute mental balance. Allocate points to skills. Decide how much money and wealth the character posesses. The system is completely level free, and the player is given rather much freedom in designing his character. However, a character is restricted to one archetype, but as the player (if allowed by the GM) may design his own archetype, this is barable. SKILLS There is a fair amount of skills provided in the game, and so far I have had no need to design new, although this should be rather painless too. MAGIC There is magic in the world of Kult. But forget everything about "flash-bang magic", since all magic is lenghty rituals. No pure combat spells exist, the magic is much more sinister than that. Not to much may be revealed here, since some GM's may decide (as I have) to keep the magic system a secret from the players. COMBAT Combat is basically simple, but there are many factors to keep in mind. This means this is no game for beginners, as new GM's may find themselves overwhelmed by its complexity. The core of the combat system is the ordinary skilltest. In combat, however, effect is computed by an extra roll instead of the usual way. Because of this skill modifiers apply in combat. Armor reduces effect. A combat round system with a differing amount of actions within each round is used. Again, no beginner friendly system, but it provides (almost) believable combat. The system does not use hit points, instead different scales of damage are used. This means that with some weapons, a killing hit is very likely (up to almost 50%). This deadliness is countered by the use of hero points (this is proparbly wrongly translated), that may be used to stage down damage. Resurrection is nonexistent, although other alternatives are open... On the whole, a perhaps little too complicated, but workable system. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES An important part of Kult are the advantages and disadvantages. These are what the names indicate. Advantages are what powers are in FUDGE. Disadvantages are used to balance the advantages, since the latter cost a fair amount of skillpoints at character creation. As examples i might mention: advantage - empathy, disadvantage - (specified)phobia. MENTAL BALANCE Mental balance is how stabile the character is. The lower the balance, the more mentally disturbed the person. The higher the balance, the more passifstic (or as my players put it, meek) the person. An average human has about 0 in mental balance. Disadvantages lower the balance and advantages rise it. At character ceration, for every extra negative point the character has, he recieves an extra skillpoint to allocate. The reverse is true for every positive point mental balance. THE WORLD Here we come to the interesting part. The world is what makes Kult the game it is. The mechanics are not extraordinary, but the world certainly is. As with the magic, I can't really reveal too much, as all GM's will try to keep this from their players. As the players knows very little about the word, a tension may be created that is not otherwise possible. I can however say this much, Kult takes place in the present day, in existing countries and cities. But someting is wrong. Somewhere behind the polished facade lurks the horror. Bloody rituals are preformed in expensive penthouses, and in the docks, the mad create their own twisted kingdoms. In the midst of this, the characters, trying to stay sane in a world falling apart. CONCLUSION I think this is a game with good mechanics and a great setting. In the hands of a good GM it might well be the best horror game on the market, in the hands of a bad one, purely distasteful. I don't think that it will sell quite as well in the US as it has in Sweden, but it is a worthy contender to almost anything out there. (Then again, I might just be a bit patriotic ;) # WARNING Kult may seriously offend religious players that cannot separate reality from gaming. Fortunantely, a "nicer" version will be printed in the US :) This might be the right thing to do, since some religious fanatics will probably get stroke, whilst reading even the "nice" edition. ---- ATO, [d 92 ato] at [nada.kth.se] "This is bad for my studies, then again, they are already dead"