KULT - Death is only the beginning Hack

This is my swedish hack: KULT - Prisoners of the Illusion, an hybrid of the horror game KULT - Death is only the beginning and Apocalypse World.

So far the hack is only in swedish, but if there are interest it may be possible to translate it to an comprehensible english.

Download pdf-documents by clicking on the titles.

KULT Prisoners of the Illusion -  Playbooks
There are 10 playbooks based on the arketypes in Kult - Death is only the beginning:
Artisten - The Artist
Brottslingen - The Criminal
Detektiven - The Detective
Fixaren - The Fixer
Företagsmannen - The Corporate Man
Gudstjänaren - The Votary
Hämnaren - The Revenger
Studenten - The Scholar
Vetenskapsmannen - The Scientist
Veteranen - The Veteran

There are 5 attributes:
Kyla - Cold
Hårdhet - Hard
Hetta - Hot
Skärpa - Sharp
Galenskap - Madness

Cold, Hard, Hot and Sharp works like in Apocalypse World.

Madness are a little bit special though. The characters value in Madness depends on how many Weaknesses the player choose for her character in the creation of the character. Madness does also activate many Weaknesses and a high value means that the character probably will be more influenced by her insanity in the fiction. The upside of a high value in Madness is that the character will have a higher insight in the Reality of KULTs dark world and that many Advantages are rolled with Madness. The player stands before a hard choice: shall I get a high Madness and be really crazy or a low Madness and being ignorant of the truth of KULTs reality?

KULT Prisoners of the Illusion - Moves
In KULT - Prisoners of the Illusion Open your brain has been transformed to the advantage Clairvoyance and two new moves has been made available for all playbooks.
Investigate let the characters investigate places, information and objects.
Se through the Illusion are rolled for when the character are experiencing chock, trauma or the supernatural. A sucessful roll means that the character see the dark Reality of KULT and a missed roll means that the character ignore the truth and see the Illusion.

KULT Prisoners of the Illusion - The GM

KULT Prisoners of the Illusion - Fronts
Fronts in KULT - Prisoners of the Illusion are influenced by angels of death instead of fundamental scarcities.
Thaumiel - pride, arrogance, hubris
Gamaliel - greed, corruption, possessiveness
Chagidiel - perversion, passion, lust, desire
Hareb-Serap - envy, jealousy, rivalry
Gamichicoth - hunger, gluttony, thoughtlessness
Samael - wrath, revenge
Nahemoth - sloth, stupor, decay, ignorance
Sathariel - desperation, fear, despair

I'm curious if an English translation of this ever picked up any steam.  I'm certainly interested.

Woah, what the hell? I totally missed this when it was first posted!

I am very much interested in an English translation.

Of course, the Illusion is so weak these days I can just use the internets machine to read Swedish without actually knowing it. Still, it's not quite as convenient.

I like this modification of my Secrets for Hx Rollover move:

When your Hx resets from +4 to +1 with someone, you also get a hold over them. You can spend this hold, 1-for-1 to:
* Get +1 to seduce or manipulate them.
* Give them -3 instead of -2 when you interfere with them.
They can spend your remaining hold 1-for-1 by:
* Giving you something you want that is risky or costly for them to get.
* Save your life.
* Revealing a secret or weakness that can be used to undermine or damage them.

Original:

Vänder Hx till +1 från +4 får du även en hållhake till rollpersonen som Hx:et vände till som kan spenderas 1 för 1 genom att:
• Ta +1 för att förföra eller manipulera rollpersonen.
• Lägga till ytterligare -1 till effekten av att motarbeta rollpersonen (totalt -3).
Rollpersonen kan spendera dina hållhakar genom att:
• Ge dig något som du vill ha som är riskabelt eller kostsamt för rollpersonen.
• Rädda ditt liv.
• Avslöja en hemlighet eller svaghet som du kan använda för att underminera eller skada rollpersonen.

The disadvantages are a great touch. I like them a lot! Especially this one:

Persecution Mania: You're paranoid. You obsess constantly over how you are being persecuted by individuals, groups and forces that are out to get you. You have something they want. What is it? At the beginning of a session, roll+Madness. On a hit, you know someone is persecuting you. Take -1ongoing until you confront them. On a 10+, the MC chooses 3 people you must confront. On a 7-9, the MC chooses 1. On a miss, you've been careful. Your persecutors don't know what you're up to.

(I took a few liberties with the translation.)

Sorry for the late answer... :)

The reason I haven't translated the hack yet is that I'm still working on it. The goal is to make a layouted book with rules, world and cool pictures in Swedish. After it are finished it would be nice to make an english version to.

I'm happy to see that you liked my Hx-move. It's inspired by The Skinner move Hypnotic and designed to force players to make drama. The move could probably be used for Apocalypse World to if you want to. :)

The disadvantages in KULT Prisoners of the Illusion are under work. Some work great in play and have been redesigned under playtesting.

The latest version of the hack have a new deadlier harm-system with a harm move instead of a harm clock. Backgrounds have been forfitted for more Advantages (playbook moves) and Disadvantages are being reworked.

Here are an picture from the hack made by Petter Nallo (swedish rolepaying game designer, KULT Prisoners of the Illusion playtester and illustrator):

Looks good!

If you need any help on the way to an English version, let me know.

Ok. I will do that! :)

Cool illustrations.
I can help with translation if there's any need.

@Robin - Instead of using the somewhat generic archetypes from the Kult book for the playbooks, what about using more AW style playbooks where the characters are more unique badasses. The playbooks from AW are one of the main things that gives such flare. For instance, maybe Mob Boss (like a Hardholder), the Professional (hit man like Gunslinger), and hell the Hocus you could leave as is for a cult leader, Gangbanger (like Chopper), Rockstar (like Skinner).

Of course you'd need to take on disadvantages like you have as Kult is all about the players all having mental issues.

It would make of a different game than the way that Kult is typically played but it would also use the strengthens of the AW system to better effect.

In the revised rules of the KULT-hack there has been some mayor changes in the playbooks. One of them is that the Criminal and the Fixer have the possibility to have gangs like the Chopper and the Votary have advantages that gives her followers.

Instead of choosing two of six advantages every playbook let the player choose three of eight advantages. The playbooks have changed to be more Apocalypse World and the advantages are more unique for every playbook.

But before translation it to english I have to finish the hack in swedish.

For a glimpse on the revised playbooks in swedish you can check here!

If you wan't to see nice picture the swedish blog for the hack are here: http://kult-illusionen.blogspot.se/

@Robin. Damn I wish I could read those! The illustrations look awesome!

I noticed that most of the links are broken. My Dropbox fucked up a while ago and emptied itself of files...

Here are som new links to the latest playbooks for Prisoners of the Illusion. They are still in swedish but I promise that I someday will translate them.

The Playbooks
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0quknzcsg306nef/Illusionens%20f%C3%A5ngar%20-%20Arketyper.pdf

Moves, MC, Influences, Threats and Magic
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7qv0lzb10smdyxr/Drag%20och%20spelledaren.pdf

Here are a preview from the second chapter in the swedish rulebook (To create a campaign).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kdg8te2km8taqn3/Illusionens%20f%C3%A5ngar%20Kap%202%20-%20f%C3%B6rsta%20utkastet.pdf

/Robin Liljenberg

Holy crap I am so happy that I live in the future. I am Google translating these and I am loving it... I can't wait to see what feeling a true translation has going on under the subtext as I am sure Google is loosing something.

This looks amazing. I hope you can translate it to english eventually.