In an attempt to attract a more adult audience came Kult, 1991. The theme was dark. Demons and fallen angels stalked the world among us humans, but normal people never knew. Only those enlightened or insane enough saw through the illusions and realised what it really was like. Is a modern world just like ours, but not exactly. Murder, rape and occult magic is real and common, but the ordinary Joe just don't care or is not able to care.
When Kult came it got a lot of critisism, especially from people from the Word of Life or those opposing youth's subcultures. Several toystores withdrew the game from their selection and some even stopped selling RPGs. Gradually the debate died and the game was translated into both german and english. A second edition of the game was translated to french, italian and spanish. Rumours say that the french was not all that enthusiastic with the 2nd edition after having already seen the first. These editions had not all the questionable parts left. Sections like sex-magic and other sensitive issues were left out. Later this edition also reached the Swedish shelves. Later it is said that the company publishing Kult, Target Games, regretted making these changes.
The rulesystem of Kult was not entirely new. Kult was written by the same couple that had made En Garde! and Skuggornas Mästare: Gunilla Jonsson och Mikaél Petersén. As freelancers for Target Games Mrs Jonsson had made a lot of writing for Drakar och Demoner Samuraj and together with Mr Petersén was the author Mutant. Together they started a small company, Ragnarök Speldesign, and made these games. Later they went back to Target to make Kult. With them they had the rules from their previous games. For the first edition of Kult there was some supplement clarifying the world as several players had a hard time visualising what the designers had in mind.
Kult was brilliant in the sense that it broke through with almost a new genre. It was not the horror of Call of Chtulhu nor the gothic-punk of Vampire. It was far more horrible, and authors like Clive Barker is said to have been sources of inspiration.

The Products

ProductCategoryYearDesign# pages
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KultBasic rules1991Large box96, 96, 96
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Den svarta madonnanAdventure1991Large box96, 96
Mörkrets legionerCampaign module1992Large box88, 44, 64

The Links

© 1998 Max Zomborszki
Last Updated: 1998-01-04