Skinning the fat from the rules of
Kult.
The very basic system for the Kult rpg
isn't actually to bad. It's pretty simple, roll a D20 and get under
your skill. Damage uses a wounds system. You have some added flavor
like Advantages, Disadvantages, mental balance and, of course, your
dark secret. However a lot of that the simple ideas are buried under
some mid to late 80's game design. So I started cutting down on what
is there and I'll go over it bit by bit one blog post at a time.
First off I'm giving the skill section
an overhaul. Games from this time period loved their skill lists and
man does it show with the pages and pages of them. Don't get me
wrong I used to love them as well and would go through all my games
and compile a master skill list for everything.... yeah but I got
over that. Vampire: TM was the game that sort of opened my eyes to
the 'simpler is better' approach. Their base list of thirty skills
covered a lot of what was ever necessary in most games. Not to
mention tossing what other games had several skills for under one
title. Like just having 'firearms' instead of pistol, long gun,
shotgun, etc.
So going with the simpler is better
approach works best in this area. Athletics can cover swimming,
climbing, etc; anything sports of physical activity related is good
to throw into there. Firearms replacing all the different gun types.
Brawling and Martial Arts replace all the special maneuvers and
strange attacks (more on how I work them specifically will be in a
future article).
Now I know combining them like this
isn't realistic. But I toss realistic out the window when it comes
to making something smoother, faster and easier to use.
Then I also remove another part of old
style game design. I remove the skills based on attributes or
special stats idea altogether. No more CHA based, or MOVE based,
etc. They stand alone from your attributes in every way. How this
changes attributes I'll have to go over later.
In the end I have a half made list that
is strangely like that of the old World of Darkness games. Plus
being open to player suggestions or specialization. If it's not on
the list they can ask if they can buy it and then I say yes or tell
them which existing skill it falls under or suggest a better broader
skill to buy. Example: Say a player wants Acupuncture as a skill, I
could either let them buy it or suggest that they buy Eastern
Medicine as it will give them Acupuncture along with some other handy
stuff.
I'm not posting up a skill list yet as
I'm still revising and tossing ideas around. Currently playtesting
with pregenerated characters and getting feedback. But when I'm all
done I will make a final suggested list.
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