Cults in T2K

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by unkated

i have been reading a lot of call of cthulu material lately. These frequently feature capture someone and sacrifice them horribly to open a gateway for some horrrific god who will grant the cult knowledge/power/salvation.

It is easy enough to see a group of survivors become crazed enough to profess such a belief as action.

Or, is the cult now simply acting a little more in the open now that the authorities have gone away....

('here in the carpathians, we have always worshipped the old gods. When the christians came in the 10th century, we put up a church, and go on sundays. We don't discuss what we do in the hills saturday night, and we intimidated the priests not to ask; when the communists came in 1945 and shut down the church, we did not argue. But since there was a police squad from the city attached by a phone line, we have had to be more surrepticious for two generations - until now.')

such a cult can either just be lunatic enough to believe their own story; ('in that second truck - a woman with golden hair and emerald eyes! A mate fit for the king in yellow! We must seize her and present her to him - but subtlely to avoid alerting her friends with all the guns...')

it can be a charismatic leader who drives them to horrors and then uses guilt and shame to control the village; ('when the last strangers came and we ate them, as i told you yogsotha commanded, were we not stronger for it? The starving children stopped starving! We must do the same to these strangers before they spread word of what we have done to those in the valley below, who would not understand...')

or for those of you willing to tinge your campaigns with the occult, an actual supernatural connection. ('uh, is it just a trick of light, or is there something with horns and a tail moving in the center of that pentacle?')


uncle ted

"sorry, lt. I thought i was driving through the village, but the non-euclidean geometry of those houses confused the crap out of me..."

so your the one responsible for turning wallshadow into "the necromonger!!"

[Raellus]

@Unkated: Thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of a Pagan revival across Europe (w/ regional variations).

@Swaghauler: Yeah, I deliberately excluded those organizations because, IMHO, they're fairly straightforward "marauder" groups with much less overt emphasis on religious or spiritual doctrine. To qualify as such, cults, in my mind, need to have more central, more overt religious/spiritual beliefs and practices.

Merriam-Webster's website defines cult as "a small religious group that is not part of a larger and more accepted religion and that has beliefs regarded by many people as extreme or dangerous". That's what I'm going for with this thread.

[.45cultist]

Twilight Encounters had one scenario with a doomsday cult.

[Apache6]

There are a lot of real world examples of "fringe elements" growing into militaristic cults during periods of unrest and war. The Lords Resistance Army in central Africa and ISIS are both 'current, realworld examples of "Christian and Islamic" respectively branches of cults.

My 'group' the West Side Boyz, I made it something of a cult, the leader did not believe the 'spiritual aspects' but they used 'religion to manipulate his victims;who were also his child/slave soldiers.

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by Raellus

@Unkated: Thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of a Pagan revival across Europe (w/ regional variations).

@Swaghauler: Yeah, I deliberately excluded those organizations because, IMHO, they're fairly straightforward "marauder" groups with much less overt emphasis on religious or spiritual doctrine. To qualify as such, cults, in my mind, need to have more central, more overt religious/spiritual beliefs and practices.

Merriam-Webster's website defines cult as "a small religious group that is not part of a larger and more accepted religion and that has beliefs regarded by many people as extreme or dangerous". That's what I'm going for with this thread.

Don't you know that Politics IS a religion now?

[Bullet Magnet]

Originally Posted by swaghauler

Don't you know that Politics IS a religion now?

I'm glad someone else said it, and saved me the trouble. I would have gotten much more longwinded about it.

[unkated]

Children of Gaia: This cult (under a charismatic leader), believes that the worlds current woes are basically a curse on mankind brought on by our excessive despoliation of the Earth, with the limited nuclear combat being the last straw.

Or perhaps Gaia/God/force of your choice* manipulated human leaders into as a first step of scourging; after all, the targets of strikes were either cities or industrial targets (both heavy densities of humans and their technology).

At any rate, the Cult hides itself in a remote low-tech settlement (mountain valley far from city or main travel routes) (Northern California, Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Alberta, BC, northern (or coastal island) Maine, Vermont, upstate NY, Pennsylvania, WV, Tennessee, Kentucky, western N Carolina, New Hampshire, the Ozarks (Missouri or Arkansas), southern Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Norway could be suitable base locations; equally in an isolated plain well-away form a city (Montana, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, North or South Dakota, Nebraska, Ukraine, Russia.

They purposely destroy technology dating later than the early 19th century; anything not built by hand. You can meet the cult as a set of warriors who are bent on destroying vehicles, weapons, machines, factories, power systems, etc. They would armed with primitive weaponry: Bows, crossbows, spears, swords, knives, etc, all hand made by the Blacksmith, of course. (as if in a Primitives encounter).

"Gaia asks us to remove these things that men make and cause her such pain, poisoning the water and the air. If we remove enough of them, she will restore her bounty to those that have helped to heal her."


* Could be extra-dimensional beings if you want this to be a pre-cursor to a Dark Conspiracy game...


Uncle Ted

[ArmySGT.]

The Violent Ends

When you have nothing left to live for, live for nothing.

Nihilists. These are a collection of men and women from every ethnic background, every caste, every economic platform, every walk of life. What is the common thread among them all you ask? They are alone. These are the fathers, the mothers that have lost their spouses and children. These are the children who were home or at school when the bomb fell and their parents never came home.

All are sick with grief and loss with more reflected back at them from those they are travelling with. Members have been known to collapse and die of malnutrition or thirst because they just forget to consume what is necessary for life. They move in a herd, share communally food, water, body heat; as they shuffle down the road without a destination. Few if any at all could place a name or remember the faces of their fellow travellers. None make any attachments, except possibly to a companion animal like a dog, a cat, or a horse.

They are worthless for information... They know their name and where they are from, but couldn't tell you where they are now. Yelling, threats, injury, or even rape and they become unresponsive, curled up in a fetal ball. Slavers don't even bother as these typically just curl up a die. They make no effort to protect themselves walking across busy roads, over broken bridges, through even a raging fire fight. Gun fire won't even herd them out of the road when their mass blocks vehicle traffic.

They all die tragically, often by the hand of another; thus their nickname.... The Violent Ends.

[Raellus]

Thanks for the contributions, guys. Good stuff.

@unkated: This reminds me of the bad-guys in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. IIRC, radical environmentalists were trying to launch a virus or something to wipe out 99.9% of humanity.

A neo-Luddite cult could have a similar M.O., albeit with less emphasis on environmentalism. Their reason for destroying new tech is that they blame it for the war. They embrace a return to hand-made articles, eschewing machinery, and a barter-based economy.

@ArmySGT.: I like this idea- the name is particularly clever- but what makes this a group? What brings them together? It seems like there's a missing element here. What's the bond that makes this a cult, as opposed to nickname for certain types of hopeless individuals?

[Nowhere Man 1966]

Originally Posted by unkated

Children of Gaia: This cult (under a charismatic leader), believes that the worlds current woes are basically a curse on mankind brought on by our excessive despoliation of the Earth, with the limited nuclear combat being the last straw.

Or perhaps Gaia/God/force of your choice* manipulated human leaders into as a first step of scourging; after all, the targets of strikes were either cities or industrial targets (both heavy densities of humans and their technology).

At any rate, the Cult hides itself in a remote low-tech settlement (mountain valley far from city or main travel routes) (Northern California, Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Alberta, BC, northern (or coastal island) Maine, Vermont, upstate NY, Pennsylvania, WV, Tennessee, Kentucky, western N Carolina, New Hampshire, the Ozarks (Missouri or Arkansas), southern Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Norway could be suitable base locations; equally in an isolated plain well-away form a city (Montana, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, North or South Dakota, Nebraska, Ukraine, Russia.

They purposely destroy technology dating later than the early 19th century; anything not built by hand. You can meet the cult as a set of warriors who are bent on destroying vehicles, weapons, machines, factories, power systems, etc. They would armed with primitive weaponry: Bows, crossbows, spears, swords, knives, etc, all hand made by the Blacksmith, of course. (as if in a Primitives encounter).

"Gaia asks us to remove these things that men make and cause her such pain, poisoning the water and the air. If we remove enough of them, she will restore her bounty to those that have helped to heal her."


* Could be extra-dimensional beings if you want this to be a pre-cursor to a Dark Conspiracy game...


Uncle Ted

Reminds me of a Cryptic Alliance from Gamma World with the same goals. I think they are The Razors. If you want more ideas, do a Google search for Cryptic Alliances although in the case of Gamma World, it might not always fit into Twilight or Morrow Project when they go into the mutant animal or android territories, unless you have those in your game, especially the latter.

[WallShadow]

Originally Posted by swaghauler

so your the one responsible for turning wallshadow into "the necromonger!!"

Bah, a mere mortal taking credit for my transformation? Hah! Only my studies of the arcane and electronically-mouldering tomes and scrolls could expand my puny flesh-based mind to be capable of unleashing the terrible cthonian knowledge! Cringe before me, puny humans, and despair of your crumbling universe!!! Bwahahahaha!

[LT. Ox]

Originally Posted by WallShadow

Bah, a mere mortal taking credit for my transformation? Hah! Only my studies of the arcane and electronically-mouldering tomes and scrolls could expand my puny flesh-based mind to be capable of unleashing the terrible cthonian knowledge! Cringe before me, puny humans, and despair of your crumbling universe!!! Bwahahahaha!

"Dear" ...."Yes Hun"
Check the Garman is the next stop any where near PA.?