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Any Kult players?
I have never played a tabletop RPG before, but was absolutely fascinated with this Kult playthrough that the YouTube algorithm decided to show me for some reason. I watched the whole thing! The "gnostic" backdrop the lore has is spellbinding.
It's hard to gauge its popularity just from YouTube videos, but I'm curious to know if anyone on Tildes has played it, and if so, what your experiences have been. And do you know of any TTRPGs that are similar? Vampire the Masquerade, maybe? My friend group isn't into this sort of thing at all, but maybe I can persuade them...
(In case you manage to miss the copious warnings at the start of that video, Kult's themes are quite graphic. Fair warning!)
Kult... That's a system I'd not thought about in a long time. I played the 1st Ed in the early 90s. Made good use of the vibe around Tool's Undertow album.
Ran a campaign that felt like a police-investigation detective rpg to begin with, and let the players peel back the layers of the world.
I ran Kult back in the 90's. IIRC 1995-99 most likely. I distinctly remember the Kult 3rd edition cover but I suspect I must have been playing 2nd ed. The 3rd ed. came out in 2001 and college/family/work had long since split up my old group by that time!
It's a hell of a game. For a certain type of person. Kult focuses on divinity, depravity, addiction, insanity.. etc. The older editions had a stat that addressed your characters mental balance. As you indulged in too many heinous acts you'd lose the balance and your physical form would begin to represent the monstrosity you were indulging in. The idea behind this stat was as you went up or down you could eventually reach a divine state, "awakening", and pierce the veil of our current, illusory, reality.
Not exactly light stuff is it?
However for a mature and experienced group it's a lot of "fun", where fun is a dark and sinister exploration of mankind's best and worst.
I honestly don't know how well it would go for a group of inexperienced players going into their first game.
Vampire would be much more accessible to new players. Similar in theme? IMO no, but fun and not a bad start for new players. I ran a lot of Vamp back in the day, it's a great game.
If you want something a bit closer to the vibe of Kult consider Call of Cthulhu. Cthulhu is a horror game based on Lovecraftian themes, but vastly simpler than Kult. The character development is not there at all really. When I ran Cthulhu I used to write spare NPC's that I could hand out to my players when they were killed off so they could get back into the action!
One thing that simplicity accomplishes is it speeds getting new players involved and in on the action without a massive commitment. If you try it out and everyone enjoys it.. well the first hit was free, always is.. "I've got this other game I wanted to try."
So back in the day I used to run a lot of Vampire LARP's at conventions in the NYC/NJ area. I don't recall EVER seeing a Kult game listed on any schedule ever. I don't believe it was ever "popular". Good? Yes, for the right people, but not popular.
I don't mean to talk badly about Kult. I loved the game and enjoyed running it and writing my campaigns, but it's not an easy game to start with.