A fairly good description of the setting. It misses two of the fundamentals though : 1. There never was a supreme God, other than the Demiurge. 2. Every human is divine. "Reality" is just a prison made by the Demiurge to make us forget that.
Well....That's not entirely true. The setting is heavily based on Gnostic cosmology. Many schools of Gnosticism taught that the Demiurge was himself a distorted emanation originating ultimately from the ONE true creator God. But the Demiurge is either insane, evil, diluted or some combination of all of those things and decides that HE is the true creator god. he then goes on to fashion existence as we know as a reflection of his own twisted inner nature. Which is what accounts for why there is suffering, pain, misfortune etc. in the world. Each and every person is, like the demiurge himself, said to have a spark of the original creator God within him usually thought to be our souls. Of course Kult Divinity Lost doesn't appear to include anything about the original creator God in it's setting, it's themes borrow from real life philosophies which do.
@@ino7604 yes, I know. But the KULT cosmology doesn't include the divine creator of spirit, only the creator of matter. Instead, they have Astaroth as the mirror. The KULT- universe isn't a gnostic schoolbook.
@@MattiasWestermark I know it isn't a gnostic schoolbook. I never claimed that it was. I'm still pretty new to Kult so I don't know much about Astaroth yet. They do not include the divine creator God in the explicit Kult lore but they also don't appear to explicitly EXCLUDE him either was all I was pointing out. That and how heavily the language and concepts are based on real life Gnostic Philosophy
@@ino7604 the original creators Gunilla Jonsson and Michael Petersén drew on gnosticism as an inspiration, but deliberately refrained from having a positive supreme force in the cosmology. Instead, all of creation is a prison for divine humans.
Playing Kult - death is only the beginning, listening to Sisters of Mercy, reading William Gibson and watching movies like The Prophecy and Blade Runner....that was the 90s.
I get knowledge of this RPG end of last year/star of this year (2020) i created two characters but i didn't REALLY play, because of complications but i wanna go back into it
@@--enyo-- To be fair, this game is so niche that whoever is looking for it, probably knows damn well what they are getting themselves into, not for everyone that's for sure.
Oh man. I found a copy of this from Metropolis Games back in the early 90’s. I wasn’t much older than 20 back then, and wasn’t I in for a huge surprise. Thanks Borders for absolutely breaking all of my old preconceptions for what an rpg was back then. Hoe Lee Schmidt, I read through it once and immediately stuck it in my secret stash place. I sure as fuck wasn’t going to explain to my family what I stumbled across, especially after the whole religious scare of the 80’s. Fun fact: I still own a copy of the original to this day. Have 2 in fact, in addition to the Mophidius version. One of my most cherished, if not show to anyone, books of my collection. Seriously: Mature minds only.
Re: Sexual Assault in RPGs. At my table is a survivor of such. When we did Session 0 to discuss what was off the table: Green, Yellow, Red, sexual assault was Red. The PCs were dealing with a cult which used sex magic. That was fine. The parents of one of the characters was in this cult, and had been pulled to Inferno prior to Session 1. This is fine. The PCs were exploring the parent's house. They came across a DVD. And if you're a GM and you've looked at the magic items in the book, you know what that DVD is. Two of the PCs decided to watch the DVD. And I had to then decide 'okay, what happens'. So. Yes, the two PCs get pulled in, one being the character of said survivor. What I did was this: I explained what they saw. I was not descriptive. I did not use 'rape' or 'sexual assault' but I did use words like 'trapped', and 'prisoner'. When the demons approached the two PCs, I let the *players* decide how they would respond. The survivor decided that her character would go willingly, and I let her take control of the scene, letting her feel like she was in control as a player, even if her character was ... not necessarily in control, but was a willing participant. Again, I was careful with wording, and I didn't linger on the scene too much. And the entire time, I watched the table like a hawk. The moment I picked up a vibe that the players weren't comfortable with the scene, I'd stop it cold. But ... she was okay with it. Her character passed the roll which needed to be passed, and the two characters were released. I was tense as hell through the entire thing. I'd never, ever done a scene like that before. I was perhaps more uncomfortable then the players were. But we got through it, and the player wasn't traumatized. So we moved forward with the game. I never thought I'd ever do a scene like that. So. 1) Pick your words carefully. Don't be explicit. 2) Let the players make choices. Let them dictate the terms of engagement. 3) Do not linger on the scene any more than you have to, to get the point across. And again, phrasing matters. 4) Keep an eye on the players, how all the players are responding - not just the players in the scene. 5) Once is enough. There is no need to make this a repeat performance. I hope this helps?
To be honest, kult is the last game I would let someone with serious real life issues play, were it up to me I would have skipped the sexual violence entirely and just focus on other things but you handled it perfectly so kudos to you.
I recommend the film, Gabriel (2007). It is inspired by the Crow and has a very similar dark, gloomy, dismal and decadent kind of atmosphere and setting; some good inspiration for this kind of game.
Hellraiser, Coraline (for a slightly more whimsical expression of it,) and Madoka Magicka (particularly the witch labyrinths) are also great inspiration.
The Botch Pit They’ve been amazing so far! I absolutely love the system. I’ve already been a player in one game and had the confidence to run a second myself. And of course I’ve finally got my head around the lore which in itself I’m super happy about! (Also the way the character sheets are set out is wonderful!)
The other influence I would add is the Barker film "Lord of Illusions", or the comic series "Hellblazer" which people might know as the stories for the lead character John Constantine.
It was inspired heavily by what the ancient Gnostics knew and had warned us about; Demiurge and the Archons. And there is a lot going on there (if one really does their homework)! It's not fiction.
@@spiegelnder Quite an assertion to toss in the air without _any_ evidence provided. In other words how very _religion™️._ Care to present any of that _homework_ of yours on the topic? 😏
Really cool to hear you talk about this. My friend kickstarted the newest version and has been super hyped about it sense he got the system. We are currently playing a pathfinder game that will some how influence the kult game he is planning. Well I am not a fan of everything involved in kult I do love the darker aspect and honestly silent hill is indeed the perfect example I think.
@@TheBotchPit agreed I may run a game in it my self. Just need to borrow my friends book. Then again there is a lot of settings i wanna try. Cyberpunk,more chronicles of darkness lines, dread, shattered (you guys totally should look into this last one).
Welcome to Swedish rpg's. Helmgast is my first and favorit rpg maker. Eon, there fantasy rpg is the one I grew up with. Kult is amazing and its so nice to see that rpg and the other Swedish rpg maker Free league treating players like adults. Free league's soft horror game Vaesen doesn't even have a "warning" at the start of there books. Its nice to see them not overdoing "sensetivety warnings" like so many games do nowadays...
You only pronunced Gunilla somewhat right, but sweds don't care much usually we even pronounce our names US style talking to americans. Great intruduction of Kult you are a great speaker, even thou I like the original from my teens better than the divinity lost version.
I tried to run the original Kult in the 90's. The system was a mess and many of the players found it too much. I have been reading the relaunch (Divinity Lost). The system has been cleaned up quite a bit and I like the tweaks they've made to the original.
Here are a few things that are also great inspirations for this game Spec Ops: The Line Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem Horror World of Junji Ito Dark City The Dreams in the Witch House by H. P. Lovecraft It by Stephen King World of horror Paranoia agent Serial Experiments Lain Friday the 13th: The Series The Lost Room Mononoke: 2007 Anime Hell girl Requiem from the Darkness American gods by Neil Gaiman
its the thing that will eat your nightmares, kill your sanity and feed on your anxiety, absolutely amazing and actually nice to see a game that will capture the "true" reallity for what it actually is
A fairly good description of the setting. It misses two of the fundamentals though :
1. There never was a supreme God, other than the Demiurge.
2. Every human is divine. "Reality" is just a prison made by the Demiurge to make us forget that.
I'll make sure to clarify that in the next setting entry. Thanks for the heads up!
Well....That's not entirely true. The setting is heavily based on Gnostic cosmology. Many schools of Gnosticism taught that the Demiurge was himself a distorted emanation originating ultimately from the ONE true creator God. But the Demiurge is either insane, evil, diluted or some combination of all of those things and decides that HE is the true creator god. he then goes on to fashion existence as we know as a reflection of his own twisted inner nature. Which is what accounts for why there is suffering, pain, misfortune etc. in the world. Each and every person is, like the demiurge himself, said to have a spark of the original creator God within him usually thought to be our souls. Of course Kult Divinity Lost doesn't appear to include anything about the original creator God in it's setting, it's themes borrow from real life philosophies which do.
@@ino7604 yes, I know. But the KULT cosmology doesn't include the divine creator of spirit, only the creator of matter. Instead, they have Astaroth as the mirror. The KULT- universe isn't a gnostic schoolbook.
@@MattiasWestermark I know it isn't a gnostic schoolbook. I never claimed that it was. I'm still pretty new to Kult so I don't know much about Astaroth yet. They do not include the divine creator God in the explicit Kult lore but they also don't appear to explicitly EXCLUDE him either was all I was pointing out. That and how heavily the language and concepts are based on real life Gnostic Philosophy
@@ino7604 the original creators Gunilla Jonsson and Michael Petersén drew on gnosticism as an inspiration, but deliberately refrained from having a positive supreme force in the cosmology. Instead, all of creation is a prison for divine humans.
I really love your live plays - but I love these info videos even more.
Thank you! And we'll get back to Kult as soon as possible. Great game.
Playing Kult - death is only the beginning, listening to Sisters of Mercy, reading William Gibson and watching movies like The Prophecy and Blade Runner....that was the 90s.
Everything I hear about the lore in Kult just makes me think of the Sandman Slim books. It so perfectly describes that world
My favourite rpg since the age of fourteen. I'm thirty-seven now; I grew up fine
Edit: wow, that's an old comment. I'm 42 now 🤣☺️
Yea no need for such long warnings. We are not PC snowflakes.
I get knowledge of this RPG end of last year/star of this year (2020) i created two characters but i didn't REALLY play, because of complications but i wanna go back into it
I can vouch. I’ve been chained up under his bed for six months and he seems like a good guy ✌🏽
@@Qwufi Wow, nice internet flex there. 🙄 Seriously. This game is pretty dark. There is no harm from content warnings, and can avoid harm.
@@--enyo-- To be fair, this game is so niche that whoever is looking for it, probably knows damn well what they are getting themselves into, not for everyone that's for sure.
Oh man. I found a copy of this from Metropolis Games back in the early 90’s. I wasn’t much older than 20 back then, and wasn’t I in for a huge surprise. Thanks Borders for absolutely breaking all of my old preconceptions for what an rpg was back then.
Hoe Lee Schmidt, I read through it once and immediately stuck it in my secret stash place. I sure as fuck wasn’t going to explain to my family what I stumbled across, especially after the whole religious scare of the 80’s.
Fun fact: I still own a copy of the original to this day. Have 2 in fact, in addition to the Mophidius version. One of my most cherished, if not show to anyone, books of my collection.
Seriously: Mature minds only.
I miss Borders so much.
Re: Sexual Assault in RPGs.
At my table is a survivor of such. When we did Session 0 to discuss what was off the table: Green, Yellow, Red, sexual assault was Red.
The PCs were dealing with a cult which used sex magic. That was fine.
The parents of one of the characters was in this cult, and had been pulled to Inferno prior to Session 1. This is fine.
The PCs were exploring the parent's house. They came across a DVD. And if you're a GM and you've looked at the magic items in the book, you know what that DVD is.
Two of the PCs decided to watch the DVD. And I had to then decide 'okay, what happens'.
So. Yes, the two PCs get pulled in, one being the character of said survivor.
What I did was this:
I explained what they saw. I was not descriptive. I did not use 'rape' or 'sexual assault' but I did use words like 'trapped', and 'prisoner'.
When the demons approached the two PCs, I let the *players* decide how they would respond. The survivor decided that her character would go willingly, and I let her take control of the scene, letting her feel like she was in control as a player, even if her character was ... not necessarily in control, but was a willing participant. Again, I was careful with wording, and I didn't linger on the scene too much.
And the entire time, I watched the table like a hawk. The moment I picked up a vibe that the players weren't comfortable with the scene, I'd stop it cold.
But ... she was okay with it. Her character passed the roll which needed to be passed, and the two characters were released.
I was tense as hell through the entire thing. I'd never, ever done a scene like that before. I was perhaps more uncomfortable then the players were. But we got through it, and the player wasn't traumatized. So we moved forward with the game. I never thought I'd ever do a scene like that.
So.
1) Pick your words carefully. Don't be explicit.
2) Let the players make choices. Let them dictate the terms of engagement.
3) Do not linger on the scene any more than you have to, to get the point across. And again, phrasing matters.
4) Keep an eye on the players, how all the players are responding - not just the players in the scene.
5) Once is enough. There is no need to make this a repeat performance.
I hope this helps?
That seems very responsibly handled.
To be honest, kult is the last game I would let someone with serious real life issues play, were it up to me I would have skipped the sexual violence entirely and just focus on other things but you handled it perfectly so kudos to you.
I'm looking forward to seeing more Kult videos.
Hope to see more Kult videos from you!
You will, for sure! I happen to work at a hospital (this is Chris, btw) so things have been crazy.
I recommend the film, Gabriel (2007). It is inspired by the Crow and has a very similar dark, gloomy, dismal and decadent kind of atmosphere and setting; some good inspiration for this kind of game.
Hellraiser, Coraline (for a slightly more whimsical expression of it,) and Madoka Magicka (particularly the witch labyrinths) are also great inspiration.
Great video, starting this game completely fresh with an open mind so this was really helpful.
We're glad you enjoyed it, Almorea! What are your first impressions of Kult: Divinity Lost so far?
The Botch Pit They’ve been amazing so far! I absolutely love the system. I’ve already been a player in one game and had the confidence to run a second myself. And of course I’ve finally got my head around the lore which in itself I’m super happy about!
(Also the way the character sheets are set out is wonderful!)
I love the original Swedish KULT game. Need to try this one now.
So dark the con of scurge. Feels very cthulhu-esque. But more along Nyarlathotep. This sounds cool.
Great video. Thanks for posting.
Excellent video as always.
Where's this music from? It really captures the feel.
I've always felt Kult was inspired by Hellraiser a lot too, not my cup of tea when roleplaying but cool setting nonetheless
The other influence I would add is the Barker film "Lord of Illusions", or the comic series "Hellblazer" which people might know as the stories for the lead character John Constantine.
It was inspired heavily by what the ancient Gnostics knew and had warned us about; Demiurge and the Archons. And there is a lot going on there (if one really does their homework)! It's not fiction.
Check out the Sandman Slim series, they would make a perfect campaign for Kult.
@@Wolfsheim23 as would Silent Hill.
@@spiegelnder
Quite an assertion to toss in the air without _any_ evidence provided.
In other words how very _religion™️._
Care to present any of that _homework_ of yours on the topic? 😏
Very very gnostic ideas. I like it.
Really cool to hear you talk about this. My friend kickstarted the newest version and has been super hyped about it sense he got the system. We are currently playing a pathfinder game that will some how influence the kult game he is planning.
Well I am not a fan of everything involved in kult I do love the darker aspect and honestly silent hill is indeed the perfect example I think.
It has tons of potential, for sure.
@@TheBotchPit agreed I may run a game in it my self. Just need to borrow my friends book. Then again there is a lot of settings i wanna try. Cyberpunk,more chronicles of darkness lines, dread, shattered (you guys totally should look into this last one).
Will there be a second video?
Eventually, yes.
Thanks for the introduction. Will You continue with Kult videos?
Absolutely. Quickly, might I add.
only one video? : (
Welcome to Swedish rpg's. Helmgast is my first and favorit rpg maker. Eon, there fantasy rpg is the one I grew up with. Kult is amazing and its so nice to see that rpg and the other Swedish rpg maker Free league treating players like adults. Free league's soft horror game Vaesen doesn't even have a "warning" at the start of there books. Its nice to see them not overdoing "sensetivety warnings" like so many games do nowadays...
Agreed.
I really need to do more on Kult.
what was the song in this video?
Someone has been reading a lot of 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE gnostic literature.
You only pronunced Gunilla somewhat right, but sweds don't care much usually we even pronounce our names US style talking to americans. Great intruduction of Kult you are a great speaker, even thou I like the original from my teens better than the divinity lost version.
I tried to run the original Kult in the 90's. The system was a mess and many of the players found it too much. I have been reading the relaunch (Divinity Lost). The system has been cleaned up quite a bit and I like the tweaks they've made to the original.
Here are a few things that are also great inspirations for this game
Spec Ops: The Line
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
Horror World of Junji Ito
Dark City
The Dreams in the Witch House by H. P. Lovecraft
It by Stephen King
World of horror
Paranoia agent
Serial Experiments Lain
Friday the 13th: The Series
The Lost Room
Mononoke: 2007 Anime
Hell girl
Requiem from the Darkness
American gods by Neil Gaiman
First 3 minutes in, i said whos giving out the red pills lol. Ready to hear more about this, sounds good.
ZERO imagery? Wow, talk about low effort...
Thanks for the view!
ONE word in caps? Wow, talk about high commenting effort...
What even is this?
A very occult and gnostic gem of a horror RPG. Absolutely brilliant.
its the thing that will eat your nightmares, kill your sanity and feed on your anxiety, absolutely amazing and actually nice to see a game that will capture the "true" reallity for what it actually is
Something snowflakes and sjw should stear clear away from.