Apotheosis is a series of articles intended to help game masters run Kult, by providing fresh fodder for the Kult setting. My hope is to provide hints, rumors and details about some of the lesser known gods, creatures, artifacts and personalities of the Kult universe. Before I start to detail these icons, however, I would like to discuss Kult itself.
One of the most difficult things about running Kult is the fact that those who play it already know too much. "Reality" begins to lose it's effect with a group of seasoned players. I usually like to encourage a purist, canon, view of the Kult setting, but given the nature of the beast it might be better to change things up a bit. Where players might expect the workings of an Archon or Death Angel, use one of Elysiums Gods, or even something as simple as a major persona in place of a Nepharite.
All of this assumes that you are going for long term campaigns over one shots. Once the characters have some experience then I begin to up the stakes. In one my earlier campaigns I changed the canon material which stated that the Demiurge was dead. In this campaign the Demiurge is very much alive, only vanished from Metropolis. Condemned to the same prison he has trapped mankind in. Trapped in forgetfulness and Illusion. This gave me a chance to use him as an important NPC.
Kult can be very difficult to run extensively. Small one shots can be easy and fun to run, but running an in depth enterprise becomes increasingly difficult. The main complications are attempting to keep the characters and the players in the dark and the mystery of the world intact. Giving too much away too fast can lead to serious stagnation and a lack of wonder.
Keep your players ignorant as much as possible, if that means you have to change the cosmology here and there, then do so. Feel free to mix in elements that will be unfamiliar to them. Hold the characters back from really learning anything important, but feed them enough to feel they have accomplished something. If they feel like they have figured it all out, cheat, change it up. Are they really wandering the Underground or did they just get lost in the urban sprawl? Don't let them get used to any single aspect of reality.
Players are clever people, they will always find some way to foil even your most clever plans. Expect that to happen, if the setting hinders you, change it. Just when they think they are on the right track, distract them. Use violence to change the subject, kill off a relationship. Shake their world up enough and they will want to give up second guessing you. Kult is about helplessness.
In closing, another thing to remember is that in Kult, the characters will have recognizable human motives for everything they do. The need for love, money or power. Our jailers do not have the same considerations, they should be and should remain totally alien to human minds.
This post was originally published as Icons Unbound in Cenotaphium Vol Two Issue One and has been rewritten
