Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Kult CCG

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,382
Greetings y'all. Seeing all the MtG treads popping up, I think it's high time to bring back some CCG incline to the Gazebo.
To this end, I'd like to tell you a bit about one of my favorite collectible card games from the days of yore, Kult.

The game was designed by Brian Winter and published by Target Games. TG is a publisher from Sweden that had quite a few neat products going on, the most well known were the pnp, tabletop and card games based on The Mutant Chronicles Universe. The second product line (and the one I'll be blabbing on about) was set in the Kult universe which was at first used for a pnp game. Now, one unique thing about Kult was its atmosphere, it was very dark and uncompromising. It presented a very cynical outlook and dealt with issues that could be seen as unpleasant and uncomfortable. The game stirred some controversy when it came out, some stores refused to circulate it.

It's tough to summarize Kult universe in brief, but here's my best attempt: it all starts with the Demiurge, a powerful being equivalent to god, the creator. He created the world, filled it with beings and trapped humans behind the veil of illusion to keep them from seeing the world as it really is thus making them easier to control. He also created Archons, acting as his servants, and divided the world between them to rule. Archons (and Angels of Death - their dark and twisted counterparts which sorta sprang into existence automatically) live in the Metropolis, an endless dark city beyond the veil of illusion and use their servants of various kind to rule over man. At some point, the Demiurge has "left" the world, nobody knows of his whereabouts, but naturally, shitstorm has ensued. Archons and Angels of Death now struggle amongst themselves, and as they do, the veil of illusion weakens and some men start to see the world as it really is (which often drives them mad).
So this is how it goes, the whole reality is a lie. Some men learn the truth (with the aid of drugs or whatnot, sometimes illusion gets so weak, one can accidentally walk between realities), fewer live to tell the tale. And the truth is not really pleasant, men are just pawns in the game of higher beings, kept in check by illusion, lies, politics and religion.
You've heard it all before somewhere. Kult universe is very cynical and depressing. There's no way out, no happy ending and no victors.Typical scandinavian stuff.

The card game is set in the Kult universe. You play as one of the "higher powers" and struggle for domination by attracting people to follow your cause. Unlike, say, MtG, your opponents have no life to remove and no libraries to kill, the objective of the game is to win over the majority of the people (represented by population counters). Apart from that, there's no holds barred, the struggle is brutal and you will use your minions, exert influence, cast spells and proclaim commandments to win.

The game is heavily influenced by Tarot, Kabbalah and all kinds of mysticism. Cards are called 'Arcana' and their arrangement on the table is based on the celtic cross tarot reading. Like all CCGs, you build your deck of 58 'minor arcana' (3 copies of each card allowed, some are restricted to 1 by default) and choose one 'major arcanum' to act as the "leader".

Game rules are fairly simple. You play your cards to fill the pre defined stations of your "mystic cross" (the arrangement of cards on the table) to create the connection between your major arcanum (the Hub) and the population pool, then you sway pop counters to the cards that are further away from the Hub. Then, you proceed to attract the swayed population towards the center of the Hub in steps, until you win over the majority. Of course, population can also be repelled in the opposite direction, some cards require such cost to be paid to gain an advantage, sometimes it will be the result of other players' actions. Of course, your opponent will try to do the same, you can try to prevent each other from succeeding by attacking each other's beings and by playing all sorts of cards to foil their plans. As a result, population markers will frequently change ownership, being will be killed, discarded and replaced.

A few words about the board layout, it looks like this:
cross.gif


The central spot is the hub where your major arcanum resides. Your goal is to get pop markers there.
Around it is the stage, your closest servants that are largely invisible to the world (this spot is mostly for places and beings that give you resources).
The row to the left is the cast, your grunt soldiers that work closely to the people, swaying ,persuading and otherwise getting them to follow you. They also can attack other player's cast to capture their pop counters.

A few words about the resources, the most important one are the population markers. Another one are five colors.
Each color represents a facet of reality. Each Major Arcanum has a different level of affinity with each one of these.
eye.gif
The Eye represents Madness
hour.gif
The Hourglass stands for Time and Space
moon.gif
The Moon stands for Dream
rose.gif
The Rose represents Passion
skull.gif
The skull represents Death.
They are a bit like "colors" in MtG, their main use is to play and put cards into the game, however, they are not "spent", so if you control two skulls, you can play as many cards that cost one or two skulls as you want. Your major arcanum card will provide you with 4 suites to play with, additional ones can begained by putting cards into your mystic cross or by repelling pop counters.

Not much point in giving you an earful about the rules. They are fairly simple but add a unique feel to the game. Some card wordings aren't too precise and can be hard to follow (if not misleading), especially in the expansion.

The main selling point of the game is its atmosphere. I'll show you a few cards so that you get the gist. Like in any card game, broken combos happen and there are cards that "feel" unfair. The fighting is brutal until the very end and you can never be certain of victory. Serious business tournament play is not the game's strength. Imo it really shines in multiplayer with themed decks. And oh boy, there's lots of variety to be had here. Want a priest and cardinal based inquisition deck that uses spells and propaganda? Maybe make a deck full of prostitutes, gangbangers and drug dealers? Or maybe a deck that counters everything the other player plays and fills his mystical cross with useless rubbish?

What's the big con, then? As you may know, as of 1999 target games is out of business. Which means the game (and all others) are discontinued and were most likely liquidated. Which means you can only get it on ebay. The game has one expansion, Inferno, and that's it. No more.

To be honest, I think of it as an advantage. Sure, with time you'll learn all the cards by heart. The card pool is limited (~250 in base game, ~150 in expansion), but that's still plenty of stuff to play with on and off. And I really dislike the idea of endless expansions coming one after another. With Kult, I was able to get 95% of all cards by shelling out a relatively small amount of 70$ for a box of 72 booster packs (I felt like I'm 16 year old again unpacking them). And since I only need 3 of each (and alot of powerful cards are restricted by default, in the rules text), it means I can built a lot of different decks with that, spread them around among friends and have some good multiplayer time.

What can I say, the game is not perfect, but I'm having a blast with it. I'm not a big fan of ccgs, but this one somehow got to me (and stayed for all these years). One big advantage is that getting all the cards in not an unrealistic goal, and that it has very few junk-filler cards. Like in every ccg out there there are chase rares, more and less powerful cards, but even the shittiest ones add something to the game. It's especially true for the expansion cards, where they just went overboard with giving the player the ability to mess up the board real bad. The cards manipulate almost every game rule (some even change the board layout slightly!), and different decks can play radically different.

Still, not a game to play with kids and family or girlfriends. Not a flaw, but a feature.

Game rules only come in the core set, which is failry hard to get. Fortunately, Bryan Winter still has his old website online, with the rules, spoilers and detailed card rulings.
http://www.thewinternet.com/games/kult/index.html

It got a bit lenghty, so, I'll just show you some cards with descriptions.

First, the major arcana, which act as the "leader" for the deck.
074gamaliel.jpg
075gamichicoth.jpg
04016564.jpg
241togarini.jpg
024binah.jpg

They come in two types, red are Archons and blue are Angels of Death. Some cards amy be played only by a specific affinity.
Each one control for basic color suits, alowing them to play cards. They also have a special ability and a hierarchy number which is used to decide who goes first. This is used to balance the lesser arcana. Also, Kult has a rule which forces people playing with the same major arcanum to witch deck to discourage using the more obvious ones even further.

Second card type are the beings. This includes Lictors and Razides - servants of the major powers, some are very powerful and come with a unique name, and regular creatures.
035cardinalgiorgiobiotti.jpg
148neonate.jpg
02016336.jpg


They usually have an affinity with either archons or angels of death (the colored splash in the corner of the card - the creatures combat value is given there).
Also notice the station indicators - the red wedges surrounding the card which indicate where in your mystic cross can the card be played.
Also, the suits on the upper left corner of the card show which colors you need to control to play this card.

Apart from powerful beings, there are also pawns - regular people used by the greater powers to further their agendas. They don't have a specified affinity (white splash), which means anybody can play them. they are cheap and weak, but often have unique powers.

015artist.jpg
107journalist.jpg
172priest.jpg
208student.jpg
032burntoutoccultist.jpg
076gangmember.jpg
068femmefatale.jpg

Pawns are attracted to one of the five major spheres, death, passion, time and space, etc.
Many cards affect only a specific subtype of pawns.

Creatures are your main means of gaining new population counters. You can use them to recruit population or attack other beings to win back opulation from them.

Commandments can be played for free, often at any time. They affect the game in numerous ways. From fudging the numbers during combat calculations, to really complex effects.

062eyeforaneye.jpg
110karma.jpg
130manipulatepassion.jpg
189runyoufoolrun.jpg
190sabbath.jpg
096holeinthesky.jpg

Turning means turning a card face down. That's the game's way of indicating that it's "spent" and cannot be used for the reminder of the turn.

Next are places, which represent different parts of reality in our world and behind the veil of illusion.
They too can hold pop counters, and are mostly used to provide you with additional colors, although some have a much more complex function.
049djeraba.jpg
231themirrorhalls.jpg
225theinnerlabyrinth.jpg
224thehuntinggrounds.jpg
219thecityofthedead.jpg
218thecathedral.jpg


Spells require a spellcaster to be put into play. They're a bit like commandments, except they aren't cheap.
162parthenogenesis.jpg
25816542.jpg
046contortother.jpg
072findobject.jpg

Like pawns, spells also have an affinity with a color suite. This is important, because, for example, some cards allow you to cast spells from a specific lore for free, or affect them in any other way.

Finally, we have influence. These cards are attached to stuff, mostly beings, but can also influence the game, major arcana, etc.
251unholyhunger.jpg
017automaticrifle.jpg
244trackingdevice.jpg

They too have station indicators restricting how you can play them.


These cards are from the base game. Inferno expansion .
Hoped you enjoyed a bit of Kult's madness.
 

hoverdog

dog that is hovering, Wastelands Interactive
Developer
Joined
Jul 8, 2010
Messages
5,589
Location
Jordan, Minnesota
Project: Eternity
My favourite card game. :bro:


edit: is there any computer online implementation of Kult? Both cards and players are ridiculously hard to find
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,382
Best bet would be to try something like Lackey CCG. Never used it myself, but if it can handle moving pop counters with minimum fuss, it should be doable.
 

Aegisthus

Barely Literate
Joined
Jul 15, 2014
Messages
2
I registered on this forum to say that I'd like to play the Kult CCG. I don't know how to implement online play but am searching for a solution. I think the atmosphere of Kult is probably the best of any CCG and among the best of any game in any medium. I value this highly.
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,382
It doesn't seem to have the Inferno Expansion in it, but then again, it's next to impossible to get the card scans.
BY THE WAY
If any kind soul would have access to Inferno scans in English, I would love them long time.

The cards look pratty easy to fix, just swap the images in the Sets/Setimages fiolder for english ones.
You can get some here:
http://karcianki.pl/index.php?opcja=lista&op_ilosc=>&idgra=15
but it's a tedious affair, you have to click one at a time to save them.
Unfortunately, quite a few cards seem to be missing.

Alll the interface descriptions seem to be located in plugininfo.txt, doesn't look like there's a lot of text there but unfortunately, I don't speak Spanish.
 
Last edited:

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom