The “work in progress” version of the quickstart rules of the new PbtA edition of Kult was made available some days ago. š
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ekz7nm6tdk2ivlr/KDL%20QSR%20Alpha%200_1.pdf?dl=1
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ekz7nm6tdk2ivlr/KDL%20QSR%20Alpha%200_1.pdf?dl=1
.
Hmm…
ā¢ 2d10+stat, 9-, 10-14, 15+
ā¢ Three passive stats, basically saving throws
ā¢ Seven active stats, assigned +3 to -2 (+1 happens twice)
ā¢ Harm is a description, not a number or clock
ā¢ Your bonds with others have specific values, leading to benefits and costs
ā¢ Dramatic hooks chosen by the players can grant XP
ā¢ Safety section could do with being much enlarged – it feels insufficient for this day and age
ā¢ Translation quality looks pretty good to me so far
While I loved they chose the PbtA system, I didn’t like the changes, so far. While they choose to roll 2d10, they made the standard roll easier (and PbtA is already pretty “forgiving” as systrm). Also, I’m not sold on the characteristics (a couple of “charisma”, 3 saving throws, AND a sort of Discern Intentions characteristic too). Finally, some move isn’t in the full “spirit” of PbtA style, with things like “the GM COULD ALSO make a move” etc.
Of course, those are my 2 cents, I hope they reach the authors, like a sort of feedback of the alpha.
Couldn’t get the download to work. Does anyone have an alternate? I loved Kult back in the day.
Try downloading it and then going to Adobe, or start Abode and open the link from in there?
Alt, because this game is basically no-heroes Hellraiser: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2tzj7sowy80gsft/KDL%20QSR%20Alpha%200_1.pdf?dl=0
Working now! Dice change seems weird. Making things easier is antithetical to Kult. Also “tear the illusion” is Kult talk but doesn’t really give the GM much ammunition as an Agenda. Looks very pretty though, and I’m pleased to see my trad roots going indie.
During a discussion on the K:DL facebook page and when questioned about using 2d10 vs 2d6 Robin Liljenberg from the developing team explained:
“One reason is that d10 fits thematically with the sephiroth. The other is that 2d10 still works with values at +4 (<9 = 10%) and +5 (<9 = 6%) wich works better with the advancement from aware to enlightened archetypes. With 2d6, +4 give a 3% chance of miss and at +5 you can't miss at all. This means that you can advance your attributes more in K:DL before they get to powerful."
Oli Jeffery early days yet. Some fair playtesting should give a more complete impression.
JoĆ£o Marianoā the “problem” is that obtain 10+ (with +0 attribute) is easier than obtain 7+ (with +0 attribute and 2d6). The same thing for obtaining 15+ in place of the 10+.
So, while I like the 2d10 change, so you could have more “fine detail”, you still gain successes in a easier way. Also, I don’t love the help move (with mixed success, you simply give a lesser help, while it’s pretty interesting to give always a “big” help, AND be forced to be involved in the troubles / cost.
We did some probability analysis on RPGnet using Anydice: http://anydice.com/program/a317
And it confirms that, compared to the standard PtbA, it is more probable to get a full sucess in Kult. It also confirms it is less probable to get a partial success. The curves look very similar, though.
We can only speculate as it was conscious design choice although I already asked the developers on the K:DL Facebook page. Could it be that making the characters out to be more “eficient” is intentional to balance it with the harsh consequences of “failing” in a setting like Kult? And also to guarantee that the characters progress more surely through any given plot and are more able to pierce through the veil?
Just to be clear, as I wrote, my % was based on +0Ā stats, and they are both right: in Kult you have better chances to get both the partial success & the full success.
However, it’s not a big thing, of course, because having more fine detail you can dilute/slow down the character’s growth.
Maybe, but still a point or two off.
Should be:
10- for miss
11-16 for partial
17+ for success
That is closer to correct probability scores
Do you really need all 3 investigation moves? There is so much overlap between the 3 I think it will do more harm during play than help.
Only 4 playbooks?
BTW, the art is gorgeous.
Tommy Rayburn, only 4 playbooks are included in the quickstart but there will be 20 in the final product.
And mind that it is an “Alpha” version of the quickstart that hasn’t been edited or revised.
If you check out the list of questions that can be answered there isn’t that much of overlapping but the text really needs some clarification and expansion.
If you would be interested I can post here my impressions of our first session using these rules where I talk of some of my difficulties with the Investigate and Hacker moves. But I must warn you that it is really lenghty. š
JoĆ£o Mariano do it!
I have already posted it everywhere but here it goes!
“Just finished running my first Kult: Divinity Lost session using the QuickStart rules and Iām glad to report that it went really well. What follows are some of my impressions and I must apologize in advance for the big “wall of text”. š
Although I’ve had run a lot of PtbA games before our group included only one other player that had played some Dungeon World. We were also joined by two others with some experience in playing games like D&D 5E and Call of Cthulhu and an infrequent player of RPGs.
I’ve followed the K:DL team suggestion for a shorter story-arc and decided on a common Dark Secret for all the PCs. After some wondering I prescribed that they were all Guilty of a Crime that happened some years ago. Being that that their crime had been in response to an insane act (with unexpected catastrophic consequences to the people that surrounded them) for a time I wondered if Victim of a Crime would be more appropriate but I came to settle on the former. In that sense I tried to establish that their crime was more of an unconscious act but also one that let the characters feeling remorse for years while remembering it in a faulty manner.
After detailing a part of their common experience regarding their Dark Secret we dived headlong into the character creation process. I noticed that the player that would be playing the Artist picked a second Dark Secret (Pact with Dark Forces) and that the group selected their Advantages/Disadvantages quite quickly with the help of printouts of the Archetypes. Most of the players used the available lists for their Looks although the player that would be playing the Detective used its illustration as a reference for his character. After some cursory explanation of the Attributes (and how they relate to the player moves) the players distributed the stats easily while we talked about their characters concepts.
We also established that the story would take place in modern-day Lisbon and that the characters not only remembered their collective participation in the gruesome crime but also were connected through some of the relationships listed on their archetypes. The players also easily created the other three additional Relations and wrote down their gear (just their names really as we didnāt write down any stats for weapons or armor).
At the very beginning of the session something curious happened: as we were establishing the first scene of the Seeker he rolled for his Stalker disadvantage, got a -9 and then I gained 3 hold that I could spend to make a move for his pursuers. The Detective player then mentioned that his character also had the same Disadvantage and proceeded to roll for it because the move mentioned that it is triggered āAt the start of the first sessionā. He got a -9 and I gained 3 hold over him. Then the Artist player looked up his Curse Disadvantage, noticed the timing of its trigger, rolled for it and got another -9.
As I used glass counters to remind me of how much hold I had over the characters in little time there was a pile of glass counters in front of me! Now that I think of it I guess I should had only let them roll at the beginning of their own scenes to not distract us from the fiction at hand but it is true that it created some thrilling expectations on all the players.
We proceeded on playing, cutting from scene to scene while focusing on each character and their daily lives. I resorted to Disadvantages like the Seeker and the Detectiveās Stalker, the Avengerās Schizophrenia and the Artistās Curse to inject some of the surreality and graphic horror of the setting into their lives and I have to say that the players were well into it. In a sense it all progressed like an informal conversation in which weāve added details to what was happening in quite a laid-back manner. In fact the players were more eager to add details to the story that extended to other characters, NPCs or even the setting that in other campaigns weāve played before.
That dynamic slowed down a bit when the Seeker tried to use the internet to look up details concerning a tourist couple he suspected were sent by his pursuers to spy on him and thus I considered it was an appropriate trigger for the Investigate move. While trying to answer the moveās questions I had some difficulty adjudicating them given the specific way the move was triggered. It left me wondering if triggering the Investigate move was the indeed the best option.
Following a schizophrenic episode by the Avenger there was also a violent altercation between him and a taxi driver that resulted in triggering the Engage In Combat move. The Avenger rolled a 15+ and knocked the man out senseless with a kick that pushed the carās door against the him. In an kind of intuitive way I described what amounted to the Subdued harm move even without checking out the specific rules. The Avengerās player was surprised by the violent outcome but was also really pleased by it as he was trying to roleplay the barely contained rage of his character.
In retrospect I guess there were some moments in the fiction that could have triggered the Keep It Together move, as we tried to hit some thrilling story beats, but at the time it didnāt seem appropriate. As a consequence we didnāt really interacted with the Stability mechanics of which I was really curious.
As any good starting introductory Kult story, I guess, there was a violent crime to be investigated and our Detective proceeded to check out the crime scene using the CSI move. I then realized that I had described a lot of clues (strange trail blood prints on the floor that lead to a solid wall, no sign of the victimās bodyā¦) even before the move was rolled for and he got a 10-14. As the Detective only got to ask one question he opted to ask āWho might know more about the crime?ā as he thought it would be the āsmarterā choice given all the information already given. Besides pointing him in the direction of a certain specialist I also declared that she was a member of the police force was that was currently enjoying a bad reputation. I donāt know if it was a bit too much for a success with complications, both answering only one question and giving it a cost, but it seemed like a good lead to have further interactions with the character.
As one player had to leave we didnāt end it in any kind of cliffhanger or something equally ominous. We started checking for any increase/decrease of relationships and experience gain and there werenāt any. It was at that moment that I realized that we hadnāt choose any dramatic hooks for the characters. Maybe it was because of that or the fact that it was a really introductory session but it isnāt the first time that it happened while playing a game using this kind of an evolution mechanism.
Either way it was a great session and the players are eager to play the game again and really thrilled to discover more of the setting. Although I only managed to do some light-prep for this session now I have a lot of hooks that I can use to better develop threats or even establish some milestones.
For this session Iāve created a crude Reference Sheet (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iithsn2nof4w1v4/AACjgPtc2uEvI_gG9vMH9jOoa/KULT-DL%20GM%20Reference.pdf?dl=0) with the Agenda, Principles and GM Moves. I hope you find it helpful.
For the next session I think Iāll create a another reference sheet with the Player Moves, Stability and Harm rules. Maybe it will help our group triggering more of the player moves and the rest of the mechanics.”