My groups' Star Wars games, .. Bounty hunter, " Come on, just take a second big guy, we only Need a .. little .. More Time, we can get the job done. !:" Vader, " You failed within the given time frame and you have proven you Are of NO Use to me." Bounty hunter, " Gods MAN, we didn't know Leia was going to show up, give us another chance !" Vader, " No lose ends." .. snap/ hiss ... Other bounty hunter, " Relax man this will be over quicker than dealing with Leia." From a remote viewing room watching from a I-pad, .. bounty hunter, " This day is just getting worst and worst, first the Rebel Princess and now Vader." As a gag on one group of space pirate mini campaign the PCs were being killed off by a " White Ghost," which they found out at the end of the game as being Leia, who was ran by another player with Leia's states from EsB.
honestly to me Kult has a sense of hope that can be snuffed when you realise as a player what ascension means. But Call of Cthulhu is more what you thought was doomed all along. I guess it depends on how much your players know about the lore with kult.
This was a great game. And by great I mean "questioning my own humanity playing someone who is scum, doing things that they deserve to burn in hell for." Also playing this late at night before going to bed is a recipe for nightmares. Can't wait for the next one!
You know what my favorite part about this channel is? Seth feels like a cool ttrpg uncle. He shows me all kinds of new (to me) stuff and gets me excited about it while warning me of all the dangers that could happen.
Editing _Oakwood Heights_ was my first introduction to *KULT: Divinity Lost* - having not worked on *KULT* since 2nd edition. I could instantly tell the game had matured, and in all the right ways. Definitely inspired me for working on the game line.
I bet playing this as Aidan would be soul breaking a man who is scarred by his actions and inactions is forced into a situation where he either kills a man, resorts him to damnation or does nothing and never sees his family again. I'd love to play as Aidan and just absorb myself into that spiral of despair he must be feeling after he realises after all those years that he quite literally brought the evil home with him.
Seth, I have to say one of my favorite things about your videos is the grainy effect when Jack is on screen. It is so subtle yet sells the scene entirely. Just wanted to say, I see you and the effort you put in, and I appreciate the shit out of it.
Love the module reviews, Seth. Just finished your Mysteries on Arcturus and it was a complete blast. Rolled randomly and got Taril as the killer, and decided to make her that 'wisened bartender' NPC you said the scenario was missing, lol. My players' reaction to realizing that their helpful bartender friend was actually a psionic criminal mastermind was priceless.
I love Kult! It was translated into polish recently, it became very popular here in Poland but.. my players are bunch of chickens and told me, they couldnt handle this system. Without even trying or looking into it.
This particular scenario is the darkest of what Kult adventures I've read. I was very impressed with Kult's Horror Contract in establishing boundaries and open communication in order for everyone to enjoy it. I find the lore fascinating. The Powered By The Apocalypse mechanics were (still are) a bit weird for us to get used to, as it's far more free-form than old-timers like us are accustomed to. But the mechanics have worked well, and any issues we've had were more my newbie mistakes than anything else. If your players do decide to try it, I'd start them off with something tamer, such as Gallery of Souls. That all being said, the game is clearly not for everyone. I have several players who have played plenty of horror games and multiple RPG systems, and I know for a fact that Kult wouldn't be their cup of tea. Some is that they like more crunch to the rules. Some is that they want more action and ass-kicking characters than Kult focuses on. It's simply personal tastes, and I've learned the hard way that if a player's tastes or style aren't suitable for a game, then it's best for everyone's enjoyment that they not play it.
You guys are right...By the Way Seth - Love your show! Stumbled upon it this year, watched all the videos, bought Traveller ((about which i had a vague idea (it's not a very popular game in Poland)) thanks to your series. Love it!
This scenario sounds awesome but I have this vague notion of keeping it in the GM's back pocket during a longer campaign. Most horror campaigns I've been involved in have PCs acquiring guilty secrets or at least regrets over time. I'll bet you could personalize this story to long term characters that the players were involved in the decision-making that led to those secrets and make the impact stronger than the dark secrets of a pre-made character that they're seeing for the first time.
I've been putting off watching your Kult videos after the first time I heard how the themes here are extremely dark and thought I couldn't handle it. Only recently did I realise that that's honestly something I really vibe with so I went ahead and just finished the video! This whole story and especially the pre-gen characters stories were awesome! Even as a child I loved villains, to find out that three of the players are essentially that made me want to root for them, especially Caitlyn. I could totally see her being someone who'd agree to delivering Franklin in a heartbeat, that the mere thought of having her freedom taken away, control taken away would make her tremble in the knees. I love it when a villain gets away with their crimes and is allowed to keep doing it without anyone being the wiser. It's such a refreshing and much more down to earth ending than the usual "hero defeats bad guy" we see in the majority of stories. Furthermore, I think this adventure is a great way to show players how to play an "evil" character, like you describe in your guide to playing evil in D&D. Evil can have many faces and not every evil character is wearing black armour nor do they wish for the end of the world. These characters felt still human and for that, all the more terrifying.
I thought I was edgy in my horror games until hearing stuff like this. Kult is the kind of game I would try but I think my friends would never let me pick the game system again 😂 Great review!
Great take, Seth! I ran this one almost two years ago (time flies!) and my group loved it. It was our first time with Kult and we haven’t turned back. My group was more into taking their time with the first session, so we set up perfectly for a second session. My group was not nearly as heroic as yours and didn’t attempt to fight the nephrite. Something about their situation and my descriptions, I think, turned them off of that as an idea, and their predicament just served to isolate them. Which felt appropriate for Setharial, so that worked out. Anyway, we had one character survive the ordeal by having to kill another PC to reach her objective (with the player of that PC ok’ing the action - he enjoyed the story). Great stuff and I hope you play around with some other Kult scenarios!
Great review as always! One way of getting through the introduction quickly could be that the players are reviewing the case before it goes to trial and Franklin is being walked through the crime scenes in an attempt to jog his memory. The psychiatrist is there to see what reactions if any he has to them in order to complete his profile.
So wait..is this scenario darker than the Mansion of Madness for CoC that you ran? Because I remember Jack saying that exact same thing for that CoC module.
@@SSkorkowsky wow! Then I’ll definitely give this module a look. Mansion was one of my favorites that you reviewed. So if this beats that, then I’m definitely giving it a try. Keep up the great reviews Seth!
How you described the scene Where the PC is instructed to kill their mother reminds me of the scene from IT (2017) where people on the television are telling Harry Bowers to kill his dad. The fact that they are cheering him on and so gleeful about it makes it all the more disturbing.
Seems like having the reporters as bonus victims works great -- I don't know any players who WOULDN'T check what their cameras last recorded, which is a great opportunity to (for example) have the footage start talking to the PC that's watching. Especially if you do the "Don't Blink" thing and have the PC having a conversation with the recording while the reporter responds in confusion on the tape.
I love these, and the Jack cutscenes are always so well done. Any chance you'll do a review video of Kult, Mr. Skorkowsky? I'd love to know more about this system - and I'm not just saying that so we'll get to see The Gang, as well... Honest!
I thought the backstory for this adventure was a lot, but then you started getting into the NPC's and their secrets and I was just like "HOLY FUCK" I havent played Kult, nor did I know it existed, but you singlehandedly made me order a rulebook. Cant wait to get my group in on this
Hope you enjoy it. The books are beautiful. Fun Fact: There's a hidden message along the corebook's page edges. Slide them at an angle like you're about to flip through it and you can see it.
Got some ideas for giving the PCs' backstories a bit of a less black spin for players who need it. Not by changing it, but by simply appmly some alterations to the circumstances. It should all work the same in the adventure, but the players don't need to feel like they are palying absolute pieces of shit if they don't want to. Detective: After running over the girl she tried everything to help, her phone didn't get a connection to call an ambulance and the girl died. She knew she'd lose her job and a good deal more if she told anyone, so she swept the entire affair under the rug, but is haunted by nightmares and guilt since then. Prosecutor: He told his mother to go and kill herself at the end of an intense argument which he regretted immediately after dropping the phone call. But he didn't want to call her again immediately, because they'd been at it just a second before, and when he tried to mend it the next day she had already killed herself. And being an opportunist, he played the sympathy card for all it was worth, making himself believe that his mother would have wanted to see him advance his career. Psychiatrist: Alright, this one is a piece of work. Maybe her family was killed by a mentally ill killer when she was younger, and she decided that trying to heal them wasn't good enough. So she studied psychology and became a psychiatrist to take it upon herself to "properly" punish any mentally ill criminals she came across, unaware that from her childhood trauma she also lost a few screws and now herself very much qualifies for what she hates the most. This might actually be a very good hook for during the adventure, since Martha can lift that particular veil if she (or rather, the GM) feels particularly cruel. Aiden: Well, he doesn't need it.
Nicely done. This does sound incredibly dark, but like a lot of fun. Though I don't play Kult, I could certainly modify this for another game perhaps. Thanks for the links as well.
Some historic trivia. In the early 1990s KULT single handedly launched an anti-rpg movement in Sweden. The reason was that stuff like this was distributed in toy stores as that were where the parent company had distribution deals and amazingly nobody realized this was not appropriate just from looking at the covers with lots of Clive Barker-type BDSM torture demons. Frankly I think calls for banning it was pretty understandable and that the publishers had incredibly bad judgement in launching the game the way they did. I was something like 13 years at the time and read a bunch of KULT material in the company magazine, which up till that point had had a target audience of something like 12-15 year olds, and that messed me up for several years after getting pretty bad sleeping problems.
I have a question: how do you write a module? What considerations that have to be made? How do pick the most important details to put to print. How to keep to a word count and most importantly, how do you make it legible for others to read. How many handouts to you include?
Seth skorkowsky, are you spying on me? Last time I decided to run a heist, you made a video about running heists 2 days later, and this time, I bought the KULT book about a month ago, and have decided to run Oakwood Heights in 11 days, and BAM, here's your first KULT video, and it's even about this scenario xD
Technically, it's my second Kult video. I did one for Gallery of Souls back in February. Originally, I planned to start us off with Oakwood Heights, but then Gallery of Souls released, so I did that instead, as it felt more like the type of adventure my players were used to, then we'd make the next step into Oakwood Heights. I think it was a good call. Next, we'll be making PCs as diving in with some regular repeating characters. Considering the Atrocity Exhibition as the first, then some sprinkling of homemade adventures and prewritten as we see how it goes. While I have Taroticum and Black Madonna, I don't know if I'll run them or not.
Hey Seth! Question! How did you handle all the circumstances where the characters were split? Shared with the whole table? Pull them aside? Slips of papers? Same for the hints and reveals of their dark secrets. Thanks for the review, mighty disturbing!
I let the other players watch. With the hints of Backstory, such as Detective Jenner seeing a girl across the street in a pink jacket, or Caitlyn receiving a text from Josie saying how she'd cut herself again, there was no explanation given to the other players as to why that meant anything. By the time the purgatides came crawling out of the water and Martha says, "I know what you did," the other players were able to figure out what secrets the other characters had. I made it more interesting for everyone at the table.
It is allways tempting to play out stuff like that seperatly. And sure the players are kept in the dark and everything. But in earnest you are not furthering the fun for all the players by having them missing out on the others beeing tormented by their ghosts.
I really like this scenario and will most likely be using it as my groups first play with Kult. I’d like to see if there is a way to keep the characters(if they survive) and use them in future Kult games and try to make a campaign of it. I am seriously considering allowing the players to make their own characters but then I have to try and blend in the backgrounds of the pre gen with the ones they make. Not sure if it would be worth it or just do a one shot with the existing pre gens. 🤔
Seth, I’ve not played Kult yet but I am a huge fan of supernatural and cosmic horror. I bet a GM would do well to watch Event Horizon and read up on SCP-455 (Cargo Ship) in preparation for this.
Haven't ran Kult yet, but always loved the world. To be more precise, since I bought first CCG Starter in the 90's. The mood of this world is very unique and embraces all dark shit you can think of, yet if you a really good GM you can get away with not using most of it and have very occult\otherwordly experience. One of the best places is Metropolis. It can just be whatever you want.
Was choosing between this scenario and the summit. Only chose the summit because it seemed like it's possible to cleanly separate the 2 acts into two 2h long sessions without rushing or slowing things too much. While here i think it's important to maintain the tension all the time.
Excellent review, which I ruminated on a bit before replying. Kult seems to be an RPG the reflects a lot of the modern horror tropes that I am not entertained by. This adventure, in particular, would never work with the two groups I used to play with. Both groups would assume that the Big Bad was either lying or exaggerating the dark secrets in order to divide the PCs. The more I would try to isolate them, the more likely they would form stronger bonds and try to defeat the nasty. Which, if I get the gist of Kult, is sort of the opposite of the intended convention. I don't think Kult is a game for me, despite the beautifully eerie art style. It's why I appreciate your thorough reviews. Thanks.
The PCs assuming the Dark Secrets she shares are lies or exaggerations is good. Think of a good Exorcism movie when the creepy processed child is graphically spilling out every horrible thing the people trying to save it have ever done or thought, and the old priest is all, "Whatever it says, don't listen to its lies." Also, if the PCs getting separated only fuels their desire to find each other again and team up against the Big Bad, then great. The point isn't to make them work against each other. The point is to tempt them. If the Big Bad can say, "Here's all the perfectly good reasons you should screw over your companions," and the PC is all, "Screw you. I'm even more inclined to team up with them now," then perfect. In regular games of Kult, that aren't 1-shots with pregen characters, the PCs' relations and bonds to one another is one of their biggest strengths, at it keeps them sane and grounded. Part of the Character Creation process is establishing how they're all bonded to one another. That being said, Kult is definitely not for everyone. It's super niche. I love the world and I'm digging the system, but most of my regular players wouldn't be a good fit for it.
Hey Seth man, do you know of any good Cthulhu/H.P. Lovecraft detective type novels you could suggest. I love me some Lovecraft but I'm on the hunt for something other than At the Mountains of Madness. LoL
My version of this game Aiden found out Clark was using his position to extort vulnerable women to sleep with him (or was Martha's influence lying to him? I left it ambiguous.) So playing on a scene the GM can give his player he saw the truth of himself pulling the trigger on Detective Glover. Glover's now also a purgatide stalking the ship.
Thanks again Seth (and Jack!) :) Curious if with a scenario like this one, giving the players the initial handouts during a session zero would be advantageous, since you mentioned that the first period of game-play resorted to a lot of set-up before actual engagement. I'm thinking that if the players have an understanding of what the scenario entails, it may benefit the flow of the first (or only) session? This situation may be applicable to more than just this scenario, so I'm curious on your thoughts toward pre-set up for similar styled games? Ta!
Goddamn, I just thought of something, what if you just end it without the evil child foreshadowing. You wait a few weeks or sth, run some other games. Then you go ahead and do a Delta Green mission (or some similar agency in whatever game you like), about some suspicious activity at a highschool close to wherever you set this campaign set a few years later. You could potentially say that a kid killed himself or sth, but there seems to be some cultist activity involved. Or say a kid was murdered in some ritualistic way. The PCs could insert themselves as youth psychologist, activists or perhaps say that the teen was involved with gang and/or the target of cyberbullying by some known group that is on some watchlist, or simply FBI if you picked the latter. In the end, they'll have to find out that the kid from this scenario, know with the last name of whomever rescued him, is starting to manifest his full potential, powering himself through torment and sacrificing others. The original PC who adopted the child may have completly broken down and gone insane or is maybe under the influence of the demons as well or in a psych ward. Now, while some investigators might figure out that its the child from this scenario pretty quick, the question remains, what do you do with a 15/16 y/o (the age I'd set this at, maybe a bit younger) that is basically becoming a fully fledged demon. Its a child/teen so the signature move of killing/burning it is out of the question. Or are the players gonna stomach killing the kid? If yes, how are they gonna get away with that. Are they gonna kidnap them and throw them into some DG blacksite? Or is there a ritual A-Cell can send them to de-posses the child?
22:11 Well, that doesn't sound like it could turn out really terribly for the boy. 🤔😲🤯 22:25 Oops! It is even worse than I imagined! 28:56 I really like Jack's idea of using the reporters to turn the finale in to the film REC, but on a ship; or "Ship REC", if you will. 😬😬😬😱 I wonder if the ship is the Mississagi, from Bruce Mines, Ontario, which ran aground for a few days near Zug Island in 2015? It certainly looks like the same class of ship.
Hey Seth. Would you be able to make a "How to play" series for Kult: Divinity Lost? It is a very different game in the way it is played from other roleplaying games and it would honestly be super helpful if you could explain some of the basic and obscure rules, just like you did with Call of Cthulhu. It would be amazing if you could do a proper tutorial of this game system as it is quite difficult to get your head around it for new storytellers.
Dunno. Those series come from my having extensive playtime to see what and how it works, as well as criticisms and workarounds all based off my experience. So far, I've played 2 Kult adventures. It will require a lot more than that. I will eventually review the game and go over the rules there. But a giant multi-part How-To, pretty doubtful.
💖 I love your videos and the NPC stuff you do! Like I haven't played a tabletop rpg for awhile (want to again though very much) but enjoy your videos since they are super entertaining ✨
Great video as always, Seth! You should take a look at Shadow of the Demon Lord sometime, it feels like a blend of D&D and Call of Cthulu thematically, with a system that puts a purview on simplicity and action.
i want to play this... here is an idea on the reporters following the PCs in to the ship. They get used as tools to mess with the PC's. the PC's see them as someone ties to their dark secret. so like the mother who lays down and the girl sitting at the table, something like that.
Man I'd name the ship "Little Baronness", a lot of this sounds really Silent Hill inspired with everyone going into a labrynth that's based around thd darkness they hold within themselves.
Seth, how did you handle the split party part of this. I generally try to refrain from splitting the party because that usually means the players whos characters are not present should leave the room. Sometimes it does not matter that they stay, but with character secrets and such it could. What's you thought on this and how did you run it in this adventure? Also: good review. Made me want to GM Kult again.
Hey Seth, great review as always! And this one got me interested enough in Kult to check it out for myself and draw me out of GM retirement. I am really digging the fact that it just uses 2d10, that the players make all of the rolls and every choice they make has a real "give and take" to it with solid risk vs. reward mechanic. I do however have two questions: 1. As a Kult GM, are there any Moves, actions or other pitfalls I should watch out for? and 2. I see that some moves prevent Counterattack but I can't find details on how Counterattack works since NPCs don't get to make an active attack to begin with but rely on the dice (be nice) screwing players over. Can you please explain to me how Counterattack works or where I should be looking in the rulebook? Thanks.
Awesome to hear. It's a really cool system (and I love the lore, which is rare that I get really into a game's lore). The Mechanics are kinda weird to get used to and I'm not quite at 100% with them yet (we've only done 2 adventures with a 3rd scheduled), but I'll share what I have figured out so-far. (also, I don't have the book in front of me, so I'm just pulling from memory for this) Counterattacks are just the badguy's damage. So let's say a PC attacks a badguy and gets that half-success (10-14 range) where they get some attack in but are left open to something else. So you decide that it'll be a counterattack. The Badguy does 2 Harm of damage normally, so you say, "You club the badguy, but they still manage a weak swing and counterattack for 1 Harm." Or if the PC fully fails their Attack Roll (2-9 range) then they might have missed the badguy and the badguy counterattacked for 2 Harm. It's really weird to get used to and took a couple fights before I started feeling comfortable with it. My big warning is that damage in Kult is serious as hell. Originally, I did where a partial success usually meant half damage taken, but even 1 Harm can go bad if the player rolls bad on their Endure Roll. Like they get 1 Harm and get knocked out or take a critical injury. So don't make a habit of making GM Moves out as only counterattacks or damage to the PC. Have the PC's failure and GM Moves mean jammed or dropped weapons, falling down, or other stuff because damage is savage as hell. The second big advice is never fall into a pattern of favoring any one Move. So keep it fresh as to what Move you use and the players can't guess what it'll be. The way I've grown to look at it is less game mechanics and more cool story. Many combats might be completed with one or two die rolls, and then you as the GM just narrate how it goes. So, let's say the PC attacks a badguy and gets a Partial Success, you know they did 2 harm with the attack, but are now open to a GM Move. You might narrate it as, "You swing your ax at their head, but they catch it. You struggle over the weapon, and together you fall down the concrete steps. Roll for Endure Injury with 1 Harm." The PC makes it or maybe gets a twisted ankle or knocked out, but the badguy, who only had 2 points left before the attack is lying dead beside them with a broken neck. Alternatively, you could say, "Your ax buries in his skull and the Badguy fall backwards down the concrete steps, taking your ax with him. During the tumble, the ax head breaks off the handle and now you have a club." I both examples, the GM gave the Badguy their lethal 2 Harm, while still making the Move. Anyway, that ended up being a way longer and rambley answer then I planned. Hopefully that helps.
@@SSkorkowsky That all makes perfect sense to me. If I could give it two thumbs up, I would! Thanks for taking the time to explain all of that. I have a feeling my players are going to hate me but love the story I create.
@@SSkorkowsky We started playing Gallery of Souls and I made a few changes of my own. I decided that not only does the Cairath make people rip off their own flesh but it also compels them to strip naked beforehand. When the group found the guy in the bathroom eating his wife, he was completely naked, crouched by the tub and letting his family jewels sway in the breeze. When interrupted, he glared at the PC (Liza) and then continued eating. The PC backed out of the bathroom carefully and that's when I had Howard make his move and summon the Cairath. I went into great detail describing the portal of swirling black smoke that opened as the creature crawled out of the ceiling. The PCs fought it, immediately lost their Willpower saves against its "strip naked and eat yourself" aura and proceeded to get their asses kicked by really bad die rolls. I also forgot to mention that the creature could lash out with it fleshy bone tentacles as a kind of harpoon and draw the PCs into it where it began melding with and absorbing them. One of the PCs (George) reached for her (gender swap) father's pocket watch hoping it would bring forth some kind of magical energy to save her. It did not. Instead, she took a critical wound when the Cairath impaled her hand and rapidly expanded, basically exploding the hand and spraying blood across the floor. George screamed, the other two PCs (Liza and Ray) ran out of the studio and that's where I called it. This system is absolutely brutal and I love it. But I do have a warning for new GMs running it. Instead of saying, "He stabs you with his sword." You have to say, "He lunges at your with his sword." Because you don't know how the dice are going to roll and may need to change the fiction to adapt. And now that this has went much longer than I intended, I will just once again say "Thanks Seth" for making the video and sparking my interest in the game. We will pick up where we left off in two weeks!
@@SSkorkowsky I honestly prefer the old system to the PbtA system but I think its mostly that PbtA is to flexible. It is a system that has to do everything to a "OK" level but it doesn't really shine cause it has to work in so many different settings. I remember really liking the rules for damage cause that was, at least back then when I played it, very different to everything else. But yes, Kult is a very lore heavy game and still, it works. It really works. I recommend everyone that is interested to know more to look up a two part interview with Petter Nallo where he talks about the themes of Kult. Its really interesting. But I also know this is not a game for everyone. I know some people when I grew up with that refused to play it cause it was so "dark", "violent" and most of all "satanic" (well the last part is just what everyone called everything that they thought were weird. Great review of this and the other scenario Seth and looking forward to more of these. I think Red Moon Roleplaying also have played this scenario, and damn it is dark.
No big issues, but neither interest me enough to pick up and run. My rule is that to review it I have to have played it (which usually means I run it). So it has to meet the qualification that it calls to me enough to not just learn it, but convince my players to play, and isn't getting in the way of all the other stuff we're already playing.
Hey Seth have you run any more of this game since running this? Love all of your reviews. The Atrocity exhibition and Island of the dead are good adventures for Kult 4e too. :)
We just wrapped Atrocity Exhibition last week. We started a campaign and that was the opening adventure. It took 8 4ish-hour sessions. Had a great time with it. I'll get to reviewing it in the next few weeks.
Yikes I'm only 7 minutes in and I'm already astonished at the darkness. However I will persist. I must know more... I must... Edit: oh also hi seth! Long time no see! Missed ya man. :) Edit 2: what a fun little trip into the heart of darkness. You should also totally name it after the ship from that movie the lost voyage
Interesting. I watched a let´s play that I liked a lot because of the great roleplaying but the whole thing went down in the house and ship scene was just a brief showdown. They also never explained what Franklin was really up to or what the dark secrets of the Pcs were...
A description of Kult I heard years ago in a game store: "It's like Call of Cthulhu, only without that sense of hope."
My groups' Star Wars games, ..
Bounty hunter, " Come on, just take a second big guy, we only Need a .. little .. More Time, we can get the job done. !:"
Vader, " You failed within the given time frame and you have proven you Are of NO Use to me."
Bounty hunter, " Gods MAN, we didn't know Leia was going to show up, give us another chance !"
Vader, " No lose ends." .. snap/ hiss ...
Other bounty hunter, " Relax man this will be over quicker than dealing with Leia."
From a remote viewing room watching from a I-pad, ..
bounty hunter, " This day is just getting worst and worst, first the Rebel Princess and now Vader."
As a gag on one group of space pirate mini campaign the PCs were being killed off by a " White Ghost," which they found out at the end of the game as being Leia, who was ran by another player with Leia's states from EsB.
honestly to me Kult has a sense of hope that can be snuffed when you realise as a player what ascension means. But Call of Cthulhu is more what you thought was doomed all along. I guess it depends on how much your players know about the lore with kult.
Martha: you know what you have to do. This one act for your freedom.
Player characters: "Scott Brown motherfucker! Get the fuck out!"
When you said "some dark shit", you weren't kidding . Whew.
Any time Jack raises his drink (flask, coffee, whatever) during his farewell, I return the salute with my own beverage.
"Ya Know..." *the bar downs a shot*
This was a great game. And by great I mean "questioning my own humanity playing someone who is scum, doing things that they deserve to burn in hell for." Also playing this late at night before going to bed is a recipe for nightmares. Can't wait for the next one!
Watching it right before you go to bed is also a recipe for nightmares too!
I'll name the ship "Hope Bearer" for that sweet, sweet irony.
You know what my favorite part about this channel is?
Seth feels like a cool ttrpg uncle. He shows me all kinds of new (to me) stuff and gets me excited about it while warning me of all the dangers that could happen.
Editing _Oakwood Heights_ was my first introduction to *KULT: Divinity Lost* - having not worked on *KULT* since 2nd edition. I could instantly tell the game had matured, and in all the right ways. Definitely inspired me for working on the game line.
I bet playing this as Aidan would be soul breaking a man who is scarred by his actions and inactions is forced into a situation where he either kills a man, resorts him to damnation or does nothing and never sees his family again.
I'd love to play as Aidan and just absorb myself into that spiral of despair he must be feeling after he realises after all those years that he quite literally brought the evil home with him.
...stick to selling squirrels...
I played this as Aidan. Believe me, the world felt a lot more dark afterwards.
Seth, I have to say one of my favorite things about your videos is the grainy effect when Jack is on screen. It is so subtle yet sells the scene entirely. Just wanted to say, I see you and the effort you put in, and I appreciate the shit out of it.
Love the module reviews, Seth.
Just finished your Mysteries on Arcturus and it was a complete blast. Rolled randomly and got Taril as the killer, and decided to make her that 'wisened bartender' NPC you said the scenario was missing, lol.
My players' reaction to realizing that their helpful bartender friend was actually a psionic criminal mastermind was priceless.
I love Kult! It was translated into polish recently, it became very popular here in Poland but.. my players are bunch of chickens and told me, they couldnt handle this system. Without even trying or looking into it.
What about Call of Cthulhu? If they like that, then run that, but use scenarios from Kult instead of the usual CoC games.
Look. Better to admit you cannot handle it than wasting your time.
It's good to know your limits though. If they aren't comfortable you won't get their best rp
This particular scenario is the darkest of what Kult adventures I've read. I was very impressed with Kult's Horror Contract in establishing boundaries and open communication in order for everyone to enjoy it. I find the lore fascinating. The Powered By The Apocalypse mechanics were (still are) a bit weird for us to get used to, as it's far more free-form than old-timers like us are accustomed to. But the mechanics have worked well, and any issues we've had were more my newbie mistakes than anything else. If your players do decide to try it, I'd start them off with something tamer, such as Gallery of Souls.
That all being said, the game is clearly not for everyone. I have several players who have played plenty of horror games and multiple RPG systems, and I know for a fact that Kult wouldn't be their cup of tea. Some is that they like more crunch to the rules. Some is that they want more action and ass-kicking characters than Kult focuses on. It's simply personal tastes, and I've learned the hard way that if a player's tastes or style aren't suitable for a game, then it's best for everyone's enjoyment that they not play it.
You guys are right...By the Way Seth - Love your show! Stumbled upon it this year, watched all the videos, bought Traveller ((about which i had a vague idea (it's not a very popular game in Poland)) thanks to your series. Love it!
Happy 4th Seth.
And Happy 4th to you, as well.
This scenario sounds awesome but I have this vague notion of keeping it in the GM's back pocket during a longer campaign. Most horror campaigns I've been involved in have PCs acquiring guilty secrets or at least regrets over time. I'll bet you could personalize this story to long term characters that the players were involved in the decision-making that led to those secrets and make the impact stronger than the dark secrets of a pre-made character that they're seeing for the first time.
That is some seriously dark stuff. On another note, I love Jack's bits in your videos. Makes them more colorful.
SIx and a half minutes in and no less than five "wtf" moments.
I've been putting off watching your Kult videos after the first time I heard how the themes here are extremely dark and thought I couldn't handle it. Only recently did I realise that that's honestly something I really vibe with so I went ahead and just finished the video!
This whole story and especially the pre-gen characters stories were awesome! Even as a child I loved villains, to find out that three of the players are essentially that made me want to root for them, especially Caitlyn. I could totally see her being someone who'd agree to delivering Franklin in a heartbeat, that the mere thought of having her freedom taken away, control taken away would make her tremble in the knees. I love it when a villain gets away with their crimes and is allowed to keep doing it without anyone being the wiser. It's such a refreshing and much more down to earth ending than the usual "hero defeats bad guy" we see in the majority of stories.
Furthermore, I think this adventure is a great way to show players how to play an "evil" character, like you describe in your guide to playing evil in D&D. Evil can have many faces and not every evil character is wearing black armour nor do they wish for the end of the world. These characters felt still human and for that, all the more terrifying.
You root for killers? Get help sicko. Dr Fauchi can fix you
Franklin and crazy family hammer scene…sound like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 😂
I thought I was edgy in my horror games until hearing stuff like this. Kult is the kind of game I would try but I think my friends would never let me pick the game system again 😂 Great review!
I love these Kult Reviews, I really want to see more!
A perfect end to my weekend. Time to watch while I enjoy my midnight snack before hitting the sack and starting the new work week.
ROFL I originally read that as the new York week and I was confused for a solid minute ... I really should wear my glasses when reading ...
Great take, Seth! I ran this one almost two years ago (time flies!) and my group loved it. It was our first time with Kult and we haven’t turned back. My group was more into taking their time with the first session, so we set up perfectly for a second session. My group was not nearly as heroic as yours and didn’t attempt to fight the nephrite. Something about their situation and my descriptions, I think, turned them off of that as an idea, and their predicament just served to isolate them. Which felt appropriate for Setharial, so that worked out. Anyway, we had one character survive the ordeal by having to kill another PC to reach her objective (with the player of that PC ok’ing the action - he enjoyed the story). Great stuff and I hope you play around with some other Kult scenarios!
When even the warning sticker is R rated, you know that this shot is forked up.
Oakwood Heights is a sketchy ass place man. I have had friends that lived there. Got some dank creeper there one night... it was a nightmare!!!
Rolling in late to thank you, Seth, for outlining this adventure. I modified it for a World of Darkness one-shot I ran for my players last Halloween.
Wow, you weren't kidding about this module being a dark one.
Great review as always!
One way of getting through the introduction quickly could be that the players are reviewing the case before it goes to trial and Franklin is being walked through the crime scenes in an attempt to jog his memory. The psychiatrist is there to see what reactions if any he has to them in order to complete his profile.
So wait..is this scenario darker than the Mansion of Madness for CoC that you ran? Because I remember Jack saying that exact same thing for that CoC module.
Beats Mansion of Madness, which held that crown for several years.
@@SSkorkowsky wow! Then I’ll definitely give this module a look. Mansion was one of my favorites that you reviewed. So if this beats that, then I’m definitely giving it a try. Keep up the great reviews Seth!
@@SSkorkowsky maybe you should someday make a Top 5/10 List about "funniest/most broing/most dark/etc Games i ever had."
One of the UA-camrs i always click!
Really dark game, but I like the premise. Maybe the info dump at the house can be broken up, maybe in the form of flashbacks?
I just bought the core book a couple weeks ago, can’t wait.
Please do more Kult. Loving it!
How you described the scene Where the PC is instructed to kill their mother reminds me of the scene from IT (2017) where people on the television are telling Harry Bowers to kill his dad. The fact that they are cheering him on and so gleeful about it makes it all the more disturbing.
Seems like having the reporters as bonus victims works great -- I don't know any players who WOULDN'T check what their cameras last recorded, which is a great opportunity to (for example) have the footage start talking to the PC that's watching. Especially if you do the "Don't Blink" thing and have the PC having a conversation with the recording while the reporter responds in confusion on the tape.
Great review of one of my favorite scenarios. A perfect start scenario for KULT if the players may stomach it.
I was getting ready to go to sleep! ;)
I love these, and the Jack cutscenes are always so well done.
Any chance you'll do a review video of Kult, Mr. Skorkowsky? I'd love to know more about this system - and I'm not just saying that so we'll get to see The Gang, as well... Honest!
Kult. The greatest game ever released. I love it so much....and this is my favorite game-related channel.
Yes more kult thank you Seth please do more if you can.
I thought the backstory for this adventure was a lot, but then you started getting into the NPC's and their secrets and I was just like "HOLY FUCK"
I havent played Kult, nor did I know it existed, but you singlehandedly made me order a rulebook. Cant wait to get my group in on this
Hope you enjoy it. The books are beautiful.
Fun Fact: There's a hidden message along the corebook's page edges. Slide them at an angle like you're about to flip through it and you can see it.
OOOO BET
Thank you Seth!
Wow...sounds like you're playing an alternate version of Angel Heart.
This system sounds like the closest thing we'll ever get to a Silent Hill TTRPG, and I must own it now! :)
Got some ideas for giving the PCs' backstories a bit of a less black spin for players who need it. Not by changing it, but by simply appmly some alterations to the circumstances. It should all work the same in the adventure, but the players don't need to feel like they are palying absolute pieces of shit if they don't want to.
Detective: After running over the girl she tried everything to help, her phone didn't get a connection to call an ambulance and the girl died. She knew she'd lose her job and a good deal more if she told anyone, so she swept the entire affair under the rug, but is haunted by nightmares and guilt since then.
Prosecutor: He told his mother to go and kill herself at the end of an intense argument which he regretted immediately after dropping the phone call. But he didn't want to call her again immediately, because they'd been at it just a second before, and when he tried to mend it the next day she had already killed herself. And being an opportunist, he played the sympathy card for all it was worth, making himself believe that his mother would have wanted to see him advance his career.
Psychiatrist: Alright, this one is a piece of work. Maybe her family was killed by a mentally ill killer when she was younger, and she decided that trying to heal them wasn't good enough. So she studied psychology and became a psychiatrist to take it upon herself to "properly" punish any mentally ill criminals she came across, unaware that from her childhood trauma she also lost a few screws and now herself very much qualifies for what she hates the most. This might actually be a very good hook for during the adventure, since Martha can lift that particular veil if she (or rather, the GM) feels particularly cruel.
Aiden: Well, he doesn't need it.
Nicely done. This does sound incredibly dark, but like a lot of fun. Though I don't play Kult, I could certainly modify this for another game perhaps. Thanks for the links as well.
Always good to see more Kult
Some historic trivia. In the early 1990s KULT single handedly launched an anti-rpg movement in Sweden. The reason was that stuff like this was distributed in toy stores as that were where the parent company had distribution deals and amazingly nobody realized this was not appropriate just from looking at the covers with lots of Clive Barker-type BDSM torture demons. Frankly I think calls for banning it was pretty understandable and that the publishers had incredibly bad judgement in launching the game the way they did. I was something like 13 years at the time and read a bunch of KULT material in the company magazine, which up till that point had had a target audience of something like 12-15 year olds, and that messed me up for several years after getting pretty bad sleeping problems.
I have a question: how do you write a module? What considerations that have to be made? How do pick the most important details to put to print. How to keep to a word count and most importantly, how do you make it legible for others to read. How many handouts to you include?
This please
Surprised you haven't done a review of Kult itself. Sounds like it could be a neat game!
There will be one eventually.
Thank you so much for everything you do Seth!
Please do all of the Kult scenarios! They're all fucked up.
Seth skorkowsky, are you spying on me? Last time I decided to run a heist, you made a video about running heists 2 days later, and this time, I bought the KULT book about a month ago, and have decided to run Oakwood Heights in 11 days, and BAM, here's your first KULT video, and it's even about this scenario xD
Technically, it's my second Kult video. I did one for Gallery of Souls back in February. Originally, I planned to start us off with Oakwood Heights, but then Gallery of Souls released, so I did that instead, as it felt more like the type of adventure my players were used to, then we'd make the next step into Oakwood Heights. I think it was a good call. Next, we'll be making PCs as diving in with some regular repeating characters. Considering the Atrocity Exhibition as the first, then some sprinkling of homemade adventures and prewritten as we see how it goes. While I have Taroticum and Black Madonna, I don't know if I'll run them or not.
@@SSkorkowsky ah, I missed that one, apparently ;)
Oh! The rare Seth video where ive actually played the scenario!
Hey Seth! Question! How did you handle all the circumstances where the characters were split? Shared with the whole table? Pull them aside? Slips of papers? Same for the hints and reveals of their dark secrets.
Thanks for the review, mighty disturbing!
I let the other players watch. With the hints of Backstory, such as Detective Jenner seeing a girl across the street in a pink jacket, or Caitlyn receiving a text from Josie saying how she'd cut herself again, there was no explanation given to the other players as to why that meant anything. By the time the purgatides came crawling out of the water and Martha says, "I know what you did," the other players were able to figure out what secrets the other characters had. I made it more interesting for everyone at the table.
It is allways tempting to play out stuff like that seperatly. And sure the players are kept in the dark and everything. But in earnest you are not furthering the fun for all the players by having them missing out on the others beeing tormented by their ghosts.
@@SSkorkowsky nice, gotcha. Thanks for sharing!
Man this makes me nostalgic to play some old school Kult, the rules for gnosis and mutations were fascinating.
I really like this scenario and will most likely be using it as my groups first play with Kult.
I’d like to see if there is a way to keep the characters(if they survive) and use them in future Kult games and try to make a campaign of it. I am seriously considering allowing the players to make their own characters but then I have to try and blend in the backgrounds of the pre gen with the ones they make.
Not sure if it would be worth it or just do a one shot with the existing pre gens. 🤔
Seth, I’ve not played Kult yet but I am a huge fan of supernatural and cosmic horror. I bet a GM would do well to watch Event Horizon and read up on SCP-455 (Cargo Ship) in preparation for this.
Wow the name "Kult" rang a bell for me
Checked out my bookshelf and I have a 1993 Metro one.
Slightly worn but if anyone is interested let me know.
This has inspired me to buy the core book & run this adventure!!! Thanks for sharing your maps etc as I cannot wait to run this
Haven't ran Kult yet, but always loved the world. To be more precise, since I bought first CCG Starter in the 90's. The mood of this world is very unique and embraces all dark shit you can think of, yet if you a really good GM you can get away with not using most of it and have very occult\otherwordly experience. One of the best places is Metropolis. It can just be whatever you want.
Was choosing between this scenario and the summit. Only chose the summit because it seemed like it's possible to cleanly separate the 2 acts into two 2h long sessions without rushing or slowing things too much. While here i think it's important to maintain the tension all the time.
Excellent review, which I ruminated on a bit before replying. Kult seems to be an RPG the reflects a lot of the modern horror tropes that I am not entertained by.
This adventure, in particular, would never work with the two groups I used to play with. Both groups would assume that the Big Bad was either lying or exaggerating the dark secrets in order to divide the PCs. The more I would try to isolate them, the more likely they would form stronger bonds and try to defeat the nasty.
Which, if I get the gist of Kult, is sort of the opposite of the intended convention. I don't think Kult is a game for me, despite the beautifully eerie art style. It's why I appreciate your thorough reviews. Thanks.
The PCs assuming the Dark Secrets she shares are lies or exaggerations is good. Think of a good Exorcism movie when the creepy processed child is graphically spilling out every horrible thing the people trying to save it have ever done or thought, and the old priest is all, "Whatever it says, don't listen to its lies." Also, if the PCs getting separated only fuels their desire to find each other again and team up against the Big Bad, then great. The point isn't to make them work against each other. The point is to tempt them. If the Big Bad can say, "Here's all the perfectly good reasons you should screw over your companions," and the PC is all, "Screw you. I'm even more inclined to team up with them now," then perfect.
In regular games of Kult, that aren't 1-shots with pregen characters, the PCs' relations and bonds to one another is one of their biggest strengths, at it keeps them sane and grounded. Part of the Character Creation process is establishing how they're all bonded to one another.
That being said, Kult is definitely not for everyone. It's super niche. I love the world and I'm digging the system, but most of my regular players wouldn't be a good fit for it.
@@SSkorkowsky Food for thought. Thanks.
Hearing your description of this adventure, it really makes me think the author wanted to write a movie script and not a game module.
Hello Seth Skorkowsky, Internet!
We played this a few weeks ago it was awesome. I played Katz and I swung the hammer and made the pact!
Hard Pass on child abuse. Probably going to have to hard pass on KULT as well. Thank you for the reviews! :)
Hey Seth man, do you know of any good Cthulhu/H.P. Lovecraft detective type novels you could suggest. I love me some Lovecraft but I'm on the hunt for something other than At the Mountains of Madness. LoL
There is an anthology called "Hardboiled Cthulhu" that was pretty good.
@@juddgoswick2024 interesting, thank you
My version of this game Aiden found out Clark was using his position to extort vulnerable women to sleep with him (or was Martha's influence lying to him? I left it ambiguous.) So playing on a scene the GM can give his player he saw the truth of himself pulling the trigger on Detective Glover. Glover's now also a purgatide stalking the ship.
Thanks again Seth (and Jack!) :)
Curious if with a scenario like this one, giving the players the initial handouts during a session zero would be advantageous, since you mentioned that the first period of game-play resorted to a lot of set-up before actual engagement. I'm thinking that if the players have an understanding of what the scenario entails, it may benefit the flow of the first (or only) session?
This situation may be applicable to more than just this scenario, so I'm curious on your thoughts toward pre-set up for similar styled games?
Ta!
This one shot isn't your average darkness. This is...advanced darkness!
I really enjoy your review of modern adventures
Goddamn, I just thought of something, what if you just end it without the evil child foreshadowing.
You wait a few weeks or sth, run some other games. Then you go ahead and do a Delta Green mission (or some similar agency in whatever game you like), about some suspicious activity at a highschool close to wherever you set this campaign set a few years later.
You could potentially say that a kid killed himself or sth, but there seems to be some cultist activity involved. Or say a kid was murdered in some ritualistic way. The PCs could insert themselves as youth psychologist, activists or perhaps say that the teen was involved with gang and/or the target of cyberbullying by some known group that is on some watchlist, or simply FBI if you picked the latter.
In the end, they'll have to find out that the kid from this scenario, know with the last name of whomever rescued him, is starting to manifest his full potential, powering himself through torment and sacrificing others. The original PC who adopted the child may have completly broken down and gone insane or is maybe under the influence of the demons as well or in a psych ward.
Now, while some investigators might figure out that its the child from this scenario pretty quick, the question remains, what do you do with a 15/16 y/o (the age I'd set this at, maybe a bit younger) that is basically becoming a fully fledged demon.
Its a child/teen so the signature move of killing/burning it is out of the question. Or are the players gonna stomach killing the kid? If yes, how are they gonna get away with that. Are they gonna kidnap them and throw them into some DG blacksite? Or is there a ritual A-Cell can send them to de-posses the child?
I dig it.
More Kult please Seth.
@ 8:36, Seth's dark secret is revealed that he is reading a script, which was mistyped.
Just kidding, Seth. I love all of your videos.
"It will stain your soul forever" 😆
Great video. Hopefully there's more Kult coming in the future. =)
I know it's a long shot but could we get more videos on cyberpunk 2020 modules. I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate your content. thanks brotha
22:11 Well, that doesn't sound like it could turn out really terribly for the boy. 🤔😲🤯 22:25 Oops! It is even worse than I imagined! 28:56 I really like Jack's idea of using the reporters to turn the finale in to the film REC, but on a ship; or "Ship REC", if you will.
😬😬😬😱 I wonder if the ship is the Mississagi, from Bruce Mines, Ontario, which ran aground for a few days near Zug Island in 2015? It certainly looks like the same class of ship.
I actually am reading the book in the back! (Hounancier)
Great vid as always
Thank you. I hope you enjoy Hounacier.
Hey Seth. Would you be able to make a "How to play" series for Kult: Divinity Lost? It is a very different game in the way it is played from other roleplaying games and it would honestly be super helpful if you could explain some of the basic and obscure rules, just like you did with Call of Cthulhu. It would be amazing if you could do a proper tutorial of this game system as it is quite difficult to get your head around it for new storytellers.
Dunno. Those series come from my having extensive playtime to see what and how it works, as well as criticisms and workarounds all based off my experience. So far, I've played 2 Kult adventures. It will require a lot more than that. I will eventually review the game and go over the rules there. But a giant multi-part How-To, pretty doubtful.
@@SSkorkowsky Yeah makes sense. A review of it regardless would be great. :D
"That player's dice decided to fuck him, so it didn't work as well as he'd hoped" 😆
*Arrived the moment the notification was set to me .*
💖 I love your videos and the NPC stuff you do! Like I haven't played a tabletop rpg for awhile (want to again though very much) but enjoy your videos since they are super entertaining ✨
Jack the NPC is classy. It seems he’s wearing a real tie and not a clip on.
Great video as always, Seth! You should take a look at Shadow of the Demon Lord sometime, it feels like a blend of D&D and Call of Cthulu thematically, with a system that puts a purview on simplicity and action.
With all tihs major digging in every character dark secrets - looks like it will be best to play this scenario 1-on-1
This was an epic length Jack epilogue. And so full of good ideas!
i want to play this... here is an idea on the reporters following the PCs in to the ship. They get used as tools to mess with the PC's. the PC's see them as someone ties to their dark secret. so like the mother who lays down and the girl sitting at the table, something like that.
Finally, a shirt we both have
Man I'd name the ship "Little Baronness", a lot of this sounds really Silent Hill inspired with everyone going into a labrynth that's based around thd darkness they hold within themselves.
Seth, how did you handle the split party part of this. I generally try to refrain from splitting the party because that usually means the players whos characters are not present should leave the room. Sometimes it does not matter that they stay, but with character secrets and such it could. What's you thought on this and how did you run it in this adventure?
Also: good review. Made me want to GM Kult again.
Hey Seth, great review as always! And this one got me interested enough in Kult to check it out for myself and draw me out of GM retirement. I am really digging the fact that it just uses 2d10, that the players make all of the rolls and every choice they make has a real "give and take" to it with solid risk vs. reward mechanic. I do however have two questions: 1. As a Kult GM, are there any Moves, actions or other pitfalls I should watch out for? and 2. I see that some moves prevent Counterattack but I can't find details on how Counterattack works since NPCs don't get to make an active attack to begin with but rely on the dice (be nice) screwing players over. Can you please explain to me how Counterattack works or where I should be looking in the rulebook? Thanks.
Awesome to hear. It's a really cool system (and I love the lore, which is rare that I get really into a game's lore). The Mechanics are kinda weird to get used to and I'm not quite at 100% with them yet (we've only done 2 adventures with a 3rd scheduled), but I'll share what I have figured out so-far. (also, I don't have the book in front of me, so I'm just pulling from memory for this)
Counterattacks are just the badguy's damage. So let's say a PC attacks a badguy and gets that half-success (10-14 range) where they get some attack in but are left open to something else. So you decide that it'll be a counterattack. The Badguy does 2 Harm of damage normally, so you say, "You club the badguy, but they still manage a weak swing and counterattack for 1 Harm." Or if the PC fully fails their Attack Roll (2-9 range) then they might have missed the badguy and the badguy counterattacked for 2 Harm.
It's really weird to get used to and took a couple fights before I started feeling comfortable with it. My big warning is that damage in Kult is serious as hell. Originally, I did where a partial success usually meant half damage taken, but even 1 Harm can go bad if the player rolls bad on their Endure Roll. Like they get 1 Harm and get knocked out or take a critical injury. So don't make a habit of making GM Moves out as only counterattacks or damage to the PC. Have the PC's failure and GM Moves mean jammed or dropped weapons, falling down, or other stuff because damage is savage as hell. The second big advice is never fall into a pattern of favoring any one Move. So keep it fresh as to what Move you use and the players can't guess what it'll be.
The way I've grown to look at it is less game mechanics and more cool story. Many combats might be completed with one or two die rolls, and then you as the GM just narrate how it goes. So, let's say the PC attacks a badguy and gets a Partial Success, you know they did 2 harm with the attack, but are now open to a GM Move. You might narrate it as, "You swing your ax at their head, but they catch it. You struggle over the weapon, and together you fall down the concrete steps. Roll for Endure Injury with 1 Harm." The PC makes it or maybe gets a twisted ankle or knocked out, but the badguy, who only had 2 points left before the attack is lying dead beside them with a broken neck. Alternatively, you could say, "Your ax buries in his skull and the Badguy fall backwards down the concrete steps, taking your ax with him. During the tumble, the ax head breaks off the handle and now you have a club." I both examples, the GM gave the Badguy their lethal 2 Harm, while still making the Move.
Anyway, that ended up being a way longer and rambley answer then I planned. Hopefully that helps.
@@SSkorkowsky That all makes perfect sense to me. If I could give it two thumbs up, I would! Thanks for taking the time to explain all of that. I have a feeling my players are going to hate me but love the story I create.
@@SSkorkowsky We started playing Gallery of Souls and I made a few changes of my own. I decided that not only does the Cairath make people rip off their own flesh but it also compels them to strip naked beforehand. When the group found the guy in the bathroom eating his wife, he was completely naked, crouched by the tub and letting his family jewels sway in the breeze. When interrupted, he glared at the PC (Liza) and then continued eating. The PC backed out of the bathroom carefully and that's when I had Howard make his move and summon the Cairath. I went into great detail describing the portal of swirling black smoke that opened as the creature crawled out of the ceiling. The PCs fought it, immediately lost their Willpower saves against its "strip naked and eat yourself" aura and proceeded to get their asses kicked by really bad die rolls. I also forgot to mention that the creature could lash out with it fleshy bone tentacles as a kind of harpoon and draw the PCs into it where it began melding with and absorbing them. One of the PCs (George) reached for her (gender swap) father's pocket watch hoping it would bring forth some kind of magical energy to save her. It did not. Instead, she took a critical wound when the Cairath impaled her hand and rapidly expanded, basically exploding the hand and spraying blood across the floor. George screamed, the other two PCs (Liza and Ray) ran out of the studio and that's where I called it. This system is absolutely brutal and I love it. But I do have a warning for new GMs running it. Instead of saying, "He stabs you with his sword." You have to say, "He lunges at your with his sword." Because you don't know how the dice are going to roll and may need to change the fiction to adapt. And now that this has went much longer than I intended, I will just once again say "Thanks Seth" for making the video and sparking my interest in the game. We will pick up where we left off in two weeks!
@@SSkorkowsky I honestly prefer the old system to the PbtA system but I think its mostly that PbtA is to flexible. It is a system that has to do everything to a "OK" level but it doesn't really shine cause it has to work in so many different settings. I remember really liking the rules for damage cause that was, at least back then when I played it, very different to everything else. But yes, Kult is a very lore heavy game and still, it works. It really works. I recommend everyone that is interested to know more to look up a two part interview with Petter Nallo where he talks about the themes of Kult. Its really interesting. But I also know this is not a game for everyone. I know some people when I grew up with that refused to play it cause it was so "dark", "violent" and most of all "satanic" (well the last part is just what everyone called everything that they thought were weird. Great review of this and the other scenario Seth and looking forward to more of these. I think Red Moon Roleplaying also have played this scenario, and damn it is dark.
You think you might ever do any Shadowrun or Warhammer or do you have some issue with those settings?
No big issues, but neither interest me enough to pick up and run. My rule is that to review it I have to have played it (which usually means I run it). So it has to meet the qualification that it calls to me enough to not just learn it, but convince my players to play, and isn't getting in the way of all the other stuff we're already playing.
Fair enough.
In any event, yet another great video! Always entertaining, informative content on this channel.
"Some people have hard time playing characters dont sympathise with" Then dont play Kult for fuck sake :D
I don't want to .. sympathize .. with people or characters like that, I want to roll dice and flip coins to see how they get their .. dues.
I wonder if Chaosium will make a dark/er version of Call of Cthulhu...pulp lightens the mood and i suspect a dark CoC would be their version of this
Hey Seth have you run any more of this game since running this? Love all of your reviews. The Atrocity exhibition and Island of the dead are good adventures for Kult 4e too. :)
We just wrapped Atrocity Exhibition last week. We started a campaign and that was the opening adventure. It took 8 4ish-hour sessions. Had a great time with it.
I'll get to reviewing it in the next few weeks.
More Kult reviews would be really cool
Kult is so dark. I love it
Yikes I'm only 7 minutes in and I'm already astonished at the darkness. However I will persist. I must know more... I must...
Edit: oh also hi seth! Long time no see! Missed ya man. :)
Edit 2: what a fun little trip into the heart of darkness. You should also totally name it after the ship from that movie the lost voyage
Interesting. I watched a let´s play that I liked a lot because of the great roleplaying but the whole thing went down in the house and ship scene was just a brief showdown. They also never explained what Franklin was really up to or what the dark secrets of the Pcs were...
Great as usual! I think you are ready for The Black Madonna .