Kult (role-playing game)
Cover for Kult: Death is Only the Beginning
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| Designer(s) | Gunilla Jonsson, Michael Petersén |
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| Publisher(s) | Paradox Entertainment, 7ème Cercle |
| Publication date | Third Edition, 2001 / 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Horror |
| System(s) | Custom |
Kult is a contemporary horror role-playing game originally designed by Gunilla Jonsson and Michael Petersén, first published in Sweden by Äventyrsspel (later Target Games) in 1991. The first English edition was published in 1993 by Metropolis Ltd.. The game will get a new edition in December 2016 after a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign by current licensor Helmgast: Kult: Divinity Lost. Kult is notable for its philosophical and religious depth as well as for its mature and controversial content.
The default backdrop of Kult is modern-day real-life larger cities; players taking the roles of contemporary multi-genre protagonists, such as private investigators and femme fatales, vigilantes and drug dealers, artists and journalists, or secret agents and mad scientists. In the game, however, all this and the entire world we see, is an "illusion" held together by monotheistic belief which is unravelling to reveal a darker backdrop where nightmarish monsters lurk, called "reality" in the game. This illusion was created by the Demiurge to hold humanity prisoner and to prevent mankind from regaining the divinity it once had. In the absence of this Demiurge, sinister forces plot to keep us from realizing the truth, or even to plunge the world into an apocalyptic war to restore humanity's ignorance and blind faith in the divine order.
Some symbols and creatures appearing in Kult can also be seen in other Swedish games to which the Kult authors and production team also have contributed. The Mutant Chronicles universe (created by Nils Gulliksson and Michael Stenmark) its spin-offs share creatures such as Nepharites and Razides which appear in the game.
The notion of an originally divine mankind being held captive by sinister forces is borrowed from gnosticism. The cosmological backdrop of Kult is largely based on the Tree of Life from kabbalistic lore, the Sephirot and the Qliphoth. It is balanced with the Demiurge and his Archons on one side and Astaroth and his Death Angels on the other. Each Archon or Death Angel represent a value, group or an action (aid organisations, child abuse, mafia, apathy, judicial systems, etc.) over which they have great influence. The Archons and Death Angels have various creatures and cults (thereby the name of the game) to do their bidding and promote their values. Many of these are our jailers who work to maintain the Illusion. Many of the adventures revolve around how these entities' conflicts affect the player characters and the world around them.
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