Jessy’s Story – Reflections

Wow. It’s done.

Back in 2018, I had only just started playing KULT: Divinity Lost, and I was mesmerized by it. The deranged yet cohesive setting, the fiction-first gameplay, and the art oh my god the art, it all seeped into my mind and every pore of my body until I could think of nothing else. I had moved from Sweden to Canada just a year earlier and was cooped up in a 25th floor penthouse apartment in Toronto, unaware that the world was about to be plunged into pandemic darkness. I was reading and re-reading the KULT book, becoming comfortable with the tarot cards, and engaging in non-stop online discourse with the likes of Grönn-Kule, Chrystal, Gabe, Ryan, Frost, and so many more. It had been a while since I’d been so rabidly excited for a roleplaying game.

I ran a scenario for my wife, called Paul’s Story. It was about a family man whose wife was becoming possessed, all while he was dealing with strange happenings at his work. It was the first thing I did in KULT, and it went… okay! Both me and the wife had fun, played the game until we reached a climactic ending, and knew that we wanted more. She suggested then to me that she make a character designed explicitly for the purpose of being curious about the world of KULT. While Paul had been a figure resistant to the terrors around him, this new character would be put at the center of them. I loved this idea, and very soon, Jessy Button was born.

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And The Rockets Red Glare – Reflections

Welcome to Reflections! This is a blog segment in which I hope to explore some of my thoughts on stories I’ve shared in the past. This may include musings on the creative process, fun anecdotes from live sessions or downtime, mistakes I hope to never repeat or anything else I think is worth saying about a scenario. These segments may not be suitable to read if you are a Kult: Divinity Lost player who does not have insight into the game’s mythos.

This post concerns my playthrough of And The Rockets Red Glare. You can read the recap of that here.

When the PDF of And The Rockets Red Glare was first made available, I bought it without even a second’s hesitation. Something as baffling and internationally impactful as American politics deserves to be explored in Kult, and especially so the 2016 election. Bryk (the author) makes no effort to hide her feelings about the Trump campaign, and the scenario is much better off for it. By presenting Donald Trump and Mike Pence as literal inhuman monsters, Rockets Red Glare taps into the shock and horror that some portion of America felt as Trump won the election. As delightful as the subject matter is, however, I’m not a political blogger and would never aspire to be. Instead, I’d like to explore the scenario’s presentation, and how I went about running it.

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The last days of Zoe Riemann – Reflections

One November Sunday, me and the wife were bored. Slightly stoned and with nothing planned for the day, I suggested we bring out the Kult tarot deck, perform a reading to create a character, and play a zero commitment one-shot scenario over the next few hours. The result of this experience was The last days of Zoe Riemann, which you can find a recap for here. This was a revelation for me. In the past, I’ve always strongly believed that I require at least some preparation in order to perform as a game master, especially for a game with as involved a mythology as Kult, but in just one afternoon I proved myself wrong. This may seem silly to some of you, as I imagine some amount of my readers are far more versed in Powered by the Apocalypse and this approach to roleplaying than I am. I come from a traditional-esque Dungeons & Dragons background, and so my deep dive into Kult: Divinity Lost over the past years has broadened my horizons. Like, a lot.

Welcome to Reflections! This is a blog segment in which I hope to explore some of my thoughts on stories I’ve shared in the past. This may include musings on the creative process, fun anecdotes from live sessions or downtime, mistakes I hope to never repeat or interesting paths left unexplored. Being a game master is challenging, so by sharing my experiences I hope to both gain a new understanding of my own work and share something interesting for readers to digest. One note is that these segments are not suitable to read if you are a Kult: Divinity Lost player who does not have full insight into the game’s mythos. Lore spoilers ahead.

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