Kult Retroclone

Retrocloning when the setting nor the system are open for use.  I've seen several fans of Kult ask about somebody writing up a retroclone of the game over the years.  Well ever since people started the DnD clones oh so many years ago.  My answer as to why not is because with most of those are based of a system that can be pulled from the OGL for D20.  Nearly the entire 'guts' of the old system are there you just have to strip away everything added and work your way around what is missing.  Then most of them are just variations of that system and NOT of the old settings that DnD was known for.  It's all generic fantasy settings for the most part.

The system in Kult isn't under the OGL in any way shape or form.  Besides the system is not what made the game popular and loved among its fans.  It was always the setting, that particular bend of dark horror, with a twisted take on cosmology and how it alters the very reality around us.  That is what people were after, the rules were just a means to an ends.

Now Kult, lock stock and barrel, is owned by a company called Paradox.  This company produces nothing, it exists and earns income by licensing out intellectual properties that it owns.  Maybe you've heard of a few things that belong to them like: Mutant Chronicles, Mutant Year Zero, Chronopia and oh yes lets not forget they own a good chunk of Conan (enough to lawyer up against anybody who uses the name without permission).  They are dedicated to keeping these properties their own and don't like it when people infringe upon them.  Short story, they will take you to court over it really quick.  So a 'fan edition' of the game would probably end up with somebody getting sued.

The only way around this would be coming up with a new setting from the ground up.  One that has a same cosmological control over the world and the same end result on the reality around those hapless characters who live in it.  That would be the key challenge, capturing that same lightening in a bottle from a different storm.  After this is done a system could be bolted into it, preferably one with a decent way of handling sanity/mental balance as that was the only memorable part of the original.  Arguments could be made all day long for systems but that's neither here nor there.  That setting would have to be the core nugget of interest.

So this is why there is no Kult retroclone.  So please stop asking.