Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Pulp => Topic started by: FifteensAway on August 30, 2024, 02:08:02 AM
-
So, my vision of pulp is cultist free but I see so often mention of cultists I'd like to know more of the why behind having cultists. For certain, the whole Chthulu thing is not one I'm interested in but I know that is one source. What of the other 'inspiratioins' for having cultists? Thugees don't count, sort of, a cult, yes, but a different vibe I think.
And, of course, I know they can be left out. I just want to know why they are "put in".
Thanks!
-
Well, there's the Imhotep cultists from The Mummy and it's sequel.
Also, I don't understand why the Thugees from The Temple of Doom wouldn't count?
-
Horror cultists (Cthulhu or otherwise) would be the main reason for me. They could be Satanic, pagans (wickerman), aliens or eldritch horror worshiping bad people. They are like Nazi's - when writing a scenario how can you leave them out?
-
Thuggees are their own special cult, very specific cultural dress and vibe. (Just recently watched an old Hammer take on them — The Stranglers of Bombay — quite fun.)
The all-purpose hooded cultists can cover chthulu, satanists, witches, and any other, well cultists...
I just googled 'cultists in pulp stories' and the images show lots of fun covers from Weird Tales, Terror Tales, Horror Stories, etc. genuine pulp magazines. Bleeds over into a bit of Gothic Horror, but with more pulpy flair.
Spider Cults seem to be a bit of thing with "Cult of the Spider Queen" and "Cult of the Spider God" cover stories popping up. Lots of the ever popular red-robed Satanists abounding, or branching of to "Brides of the Swamp God".
All purpose baddies in many settings across the globe.
-
As the others have mentioned, plenty of reason to include thugees, Cthulhu cultists, priests of Imhotep, and various others. But cultists make great baddies even in US or European settings, and those pointed caps many of them wear remind me of a particular group, can't quite put my finger on which...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwOxXsTo-Ec (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwOxXsTo-Ec)
-
Thinking of Hammer Studios examples, there are a couple that are nice blends of Pulp & Horror — The Devil Rides Out, and To The Devil A Daughter.
Occult research specialist heads up investigative team on the track of what turns out to be actual cultists has more of a pulpy vibe than the Van Helsing monster hunter sorts of story lines.
-
And, of course, I know they can be left out. I just want to know why they are "put in".
To provide baddies that are unmistakably evil but wrapped in a shroud of mystery and the occult. The faceless/ masked man always being a bit more intriguing than say the crudely racist tropes of Sax Rohmer and co.
Cults have existed in the popular imagination from our ancient forebears to Scooby Do. The late Reverend Jones probably did a lot to make them both more repellant and macabrely fascinating in equal measure.
Of course the classic cowled and hooded look works best for dramatic effect. Red baseball caps and gold sneakers merely invites ridicule.
-
First,
"They are like Nazi's - when writing a scenario how can you leave them out?" By not putting them in. Lots of scenarios without cultists, too. No offense syrinx but my question is why - not why not? A minor difference but important if you understand what I mean.
Nazi's could be considered a cult, I suppose. But they all too often are the de facto bad buys (with good reason, of course) but, at least for me, growing stale and smacks of a lack of imagination. I have my imagination on notice to come up with something new and horrendous that will give us all the shivers and have us peaking under our beds before we turn in at night. One day I will wake up and my subconscious will make me seem a genius for finding the Ultimate Villain! :D :o lol
Carlos, yes, the faceless man can be quite menacing but I don't know that a crowd of faceless beings has the same gravity of menace, a threat, yes, a menace, yes. But one overarching evil person is so much more ominous to me, we remember Hannibal Lecter and Seven (both creepy and hard to rewatch).
I guess I have a different vision of pulp in some ways than others - most of the standard tropes work for me but I struggle to wrap my head around cults (other than the Thugees who I get). And those pointy hooded folk are too weighted with prejudice for me to want to represent them in any way. Ditto the red baseball hat crowd. And Jones and his situation hits way too close to home - didn't know the people but they were from close to where I lived at the time, many of them. And that does give me the shivers.
Somehow, troglodytes seem a better insert for some reason. And as I typed I realized I already have figures I can use - stashed with my Stone Age figures slowly progressing towards paint, basically chimps with clubs (forget where I got them from but maybe Battle Valor???). Pan troglodytes being the scientific name for chimpanzees after all.
So, will a bunch of troglodytes equate to a cult?
Hmm, perhaps what is important is that a cult must coalesce around an evil leader - so, essentially, that means cultists are really just henchmen and, if faceless, a bit lessened. The henchmen we remember have defining qualities you can't get from faceless hordes.
I know this is a bit of a ramble but it is, slowly, helping propel my evolving pulp sensibilities. Still not really convinced on adding cultists - except for Thuggees. They fit right in - courtesy of Gunga Din and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
So, keep on working on convincing me on why I should 'evolve' into wanting cultists. Or, I suppose, you can agree that troglodytes are the way to go. ;). But they need a spine chilling leader first.
-
Ah but the massed acolytes are but minions and set dressing for the cult leader, a similarly masked figure who usually has some natty variation to the robe/ hood thing. Gold embellsihment, different colour, contrasting trim etc. The evil cult leader is the scary one.
David Duke probably looks a lot more menacing in a satin bedsheet being addressed by his acolytes as Grand Fukkhole than David Duke in mufti. Actually, that's definitely the case, the unhooded David Duke looks like a total retard, with a dodgy cosmetic surgeon. Sometimes things are just as they appear.
Aleister Crowley probably cut more of a dash in robes than the portly paedophile he presented as sans costume. Sometimes things are just as they appear.
-
Cultists are a staple of pulp games because they're a staple of pulp stories - see the covers of Weird Tales, etc:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Weird_Tales_November_1926.jpg)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/Weird_Tales_November_1929.jpg/156px-Weird_Tales_November_1929.jpg)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/Weird_Tales_1936-07_-_Red_Nails.jpg/161px-Weird_Tales_1936-07_-_Red_Nails.jpg)
But they're especially good for gaming (both RPGs and skirmish games) because they offer interesting scenario possibilities.
In RPGs, cults are perfect because they offer opportunities for derring-do with disguise (as in the 1982 Conan film, for example - how many RPG sessions have involved similar scenes?) and both 'timers' and set pieces in the form of rituals.
Wargames can't generally do as much with disguise (though there are possibilities for imaginative design), but cult rituals are a superb element in skirmish games - can the evil priest complete the ritual before the other characters disrupt it, and what happens if he does?
Essentially, you get a grand set piece and an interesting table design with a built-in timer and sense of threat. What's not to like?
-
Cultists, for me, have always been the ubiquitous baddies. They're like the skeletons of fantasy; everyone needs some in their collection, as they can be thrown into every situation and scenario.
I'm approaching this mostly from an RPG DM angle, but the same applies to (skirmish) wargaming for sure. I've used them extensively in my RPG campaigns, and the same bunch of robed baddies have been in league with (of course) Nazi's, Alistair Crowley, the Vryl Society, Templars/Cathars and Cthulu. Plus several unaffiliated cults, usually as plot devices.
Most of them were related to the occult, but some were simply religious groups and in one case, extremist engineers lol
They're also an absolute staple of the pulp setting, just like minecarts, ancient treasure, the aforementioned nazi's, seaplanes, mysterious dames and revolvers. You don't have to include them, but they do add that pulpy flavour. Are they tropish? Absolutely, but so are most elements that make up a good pulp story :)
-
That last Weird Tales cover is curious - three near naked svelte women about to sacrifice another naked woman, though the skin colorings are a bit telling. Not sure any of the cover images taken in isolation are cults, just some sacrificial shenanigans - at least one of which could be a mad scientist at work (a trope that does work for me). The most cult element of the three covers is the one man in a hooded robe.
I suppose there is a challenge in the 1930s era that won't go away, a certain endemic "us" versus "them" and racist tropes. And that translated into a lot of pulp literature. Not sure I want to perpetuate that too much - though I do like the Fu Manchu trope so...(and full disclosure, I'm married to a Philippine woman so no animus towards Asians).
Can turn it more towards the competing ideologies to avoid that, democracy and capitalism versus fascist and communist ideologies - and greed, greed is always a motivator, along with jealousy that lead to bad things in real life. And no need for any racist tropes when pitting altruism versus greed. For me at least, that makes a better core around which to build my pulp games. That does bring Nazis back into full focus - and Italians and Japanese as well as, perhaps, Chinese War Lords and maybe even Indian Potentates (or wannabes) who are allegedly working for independence. Also, Russian communists - and the Chinese, even American communists at the time - and sympathizers of fascism. So, lots of variety in the people to get 'colorful' forces onto the table but not based on racist tropes. Yeah, I like that idea. My whole Slightly Cracked Colonials setup is predicated on European powers versus European powers with the natives coopted in or defending themselves to avoid that whole native bashing element, not my thing.
Now back to those troglodytes: What if there is a King Kong that is a much more intelligent beast than ever portrayed before and he has a league of club wielding chimpanzees that idolize him and will do his bidding? A sort of King Louis variation I guess, ala The Jungle Book animated versions. But his evil ways need some motivation. So, his family was slaughtered by humans - but to give him that needed redeeming quality (even if it is overshadowed greatly) - he is rescued by other humans before growing too large and returned to "the wilds". And I have several large apes from my Banana Wars 'pulpish' collection I'm building so can pick one to be this Kong. Not sure that makes a cult but it is a different take on Kong (at least as far as I know).
Thoughts on that, the Kong variation?
-
Pulp by its origins is rife with stereotypes and tropes. Some I avoid, some are 'it's a Pulp thing' go with it.
Hooded cultists are a good non-denominational culturally unspecific menace that are liable to grab Victim McGuffin out of a dark alley or off the pier, or steal precious artifacts from the museum, etc.
-
At least with my group, a few of the old tropes are still fine for our occasional pulp game. Of course I also have the figures painted and available so that comes into play as well.
If you are thinking of Chinese warlords you can bring in the unexpected Chinese hopping vampires. The unexpected supernatural in a historical setting can make for a fun encounter.
-
Thulsa Doom‘s cult of the serpent is quite well explained in Conan the barbarian. It has a master, priests, men at arms and minions in a hierarchy. It also has a plot or a plan that aims over decades. One has to listen carefully and sometimes read between the lines, but it‘s easy to get the idea and it‘s adaptable for mid 20th century just as easy as for any other period. Designated followers/sacrifices could be the offspring of any family of influence or wealth, like nobles were in the past…
-
I'm not sure it's been covered, but one of the things about the hooded cultist, that hits closest to home in the triple K type, is that the cowl is hiding the fact it's your neighbour, boss, brother-in-law, up to whatever it is. That doesn't really have the impact on a miniatures table that it would in an RPG, movie/novel, or real life.
Outside of that need for anonymity, a cultist could look like anything and be up to anything if you want it in a game. They could be:
- 5th columnists for some warlord (though most of the literary examples are pretty offensive nowadays)
- religious oddities, the theosophists fall under here and can be amped up as you wish, they're the gift that keeps on giving
- 5th columnists for space aliens (theosophists can work here again)
- working for a capitalist coup under a religious guise
- political separatists
- cult of personality types, religion-over-the-airways preachers in the 20s and 30s gone bad
-
Personally, whenever I see figures of pulp 'Cultists', I can never think of anything but the Kih-Oskh from Cigars of the Pharaoh.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/63/163-300824203621.jpeg)
Once a Tintin fan, always a Tintin fan, I guess. To me Tintin always seemed like 'Pulp for kids', anyway. :)
-
Nazi's could be considered a cult, I suppose. But they all too often are the de facto bad buys (with good reason, of course) but, at least for me, growing stale and smacks of a lack of imagination...
I guess I have a different vision of pulp in some ways than others...
... And Jones and his situation hits way too close to home - didn't know the people, but they were from close to where I lived at the time, many of them. And that does give me the shivers.
I can see where you're coming from here. The leftovers of the Nazi cult are still visible where I live, so like with the Jones cult, they are a bit close to home and I don't want to trivialise them.
Besides, I also see what Germany has become and the remarkable history it has outside the horrific decades of the 20's and 30's, so I'm interested in looking at the ways it could have developed differently, but also how things could have been different in the UK.
I think I have a different vision for my own pulp games, too, because I'm coming from a different background. I'm not likely to bother with cultists or many of the other tropes of traditional pulp gaming. That said, I enjoy game report where they're present...
-
Faceless minions are a must for any settings. You heroes can fight through legions of them until they get the big baddie.
-
Found this link on "Mooks" which might enliven the discussion:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mooks (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mooks)
-
As already mentioned, Dennis Wheatley's books often included Satanic cults, born of the rise in the interest of certain 'esoteric' societies between the wars (Aleister Crowley being the most famous proponent) - essentially bored rich people, the easily led and those looking to exploit both. In the days before internet anonymity, cults may have been a way for people to feel special by being part of an exclusive society that promised all sorts of (often magical) rewards for its loyal members. Pyramid schemes for the soul, if you will. WW1 broke a lot of people and their faith in traditional institutions and organisations.
On a more light-hearted note, think about Terry Pratchett's 'Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night' in 'Guards, Guards' - a group of petty-minded men in robes, hypnotised by a charismatic leader, nonsensical ceremonies, chants and titles, willingly galloping to their own destruction, fuelled by the weak-willed bitterness of their own grudges and failings with the promise of power.
A cult can be organised around anything, any sort of secret society promising rewards (earthly or otherwise) to its loyal members, operating in the shadows and being manipulated by its leadership. The fun in gaming terms might be trying to investigate who is and isn't a member, who the enigmatic leader might be, trying to bring the cult down either head-on or through infiltration.
-
Cultists as enemies simply come from the civilised man's aversion of barbaric rituals: these were tales from exotic lands first, then a clever twist from a clever horror story writer made them into the enemy lurking among us. They are the ideal bad guys, as they are
-faceless, so not emotinal connection
-pretty obviously evil as their only feature is serving some evil stuff
-for wargames: easy to model- they all look the same yet distinctively dressed in their church-going hooded robe
-easy to play as they are fanatics to the point of mindlessly attacking
-they can appear in any number, as an entire town can be secretly cultist. They can easily outnumber basically anyone, mob or police. For a lot of factions it would be highly unlikely to appear in great numbers.
-they can appear anywhere from the streets of Kairo to the underground tunnels of New York as they are bound to the people, not for some geographical phenomenon. The world getting smaller, better known and easier to travel do not help the Hidden Secret Empire Of [Wahetver] in the Faraway Lands of [Two Miles after the Worlds Butthole]-type of factions, Mountains of Madness worked because the Antartica was the last undiscovered place in Lovecraft's time.
-despite being pretty basic, they can hide the weirdest features: you kill 3 with two 22LR bullets, then the fourth one turns into the Avatar of the Outer Gods
-era-agnostic, if you do not play only one era, a Victorian cultist can easily be used in a modern times game.
-
Cultists can be any group with a motive, usually veiled, in which they gain control of society at large. This often takes the form of worshipping a statue/God/Demon figure to bring about a utopia for the cult and their enemies destruction.
The hard bit comes with thinking of a reason not thought of before for your bad guys to act as they do.
-
The ultimate real life cult has to be the Serbian Black Hand. Surely kicking off a world war has to be up there! Literature and real life feed off each other. The Freemasons also loom large in all this as well.
-
Here's my take on Cultists.
Origins in Pulp ?
Towards the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century. There was a surge in secret societies, pseudo religious , mysticism, scientific,and naturalist movements.
These all made their way into popular culture at the time. As the unknown and nefarious( and probably perverse)elements of the upper classes,and has the middle, lower middle classes skipping along as followers desperately wanting to socially climb.whilst feeling disenfranchised.
Admittedly that's a more English and mid European view of the topic at the time. But that's the side of the 'Pulp' that I know.
Terry Pratchett touches on this attitude in 'Guards Guards'
Most of the English and western European cults centred around influences of Egypt, India, Afghanistan,and the near East. Movements tended towards the Celtic, Nordic,and Germanic influences.
All these gave birth to the idea of Pulp cults ,and predate the rise of the Hugo Boss wearing one.
In Gaming terms the Difference between Henchmen and Cultist's is motivation,and commitment. Given form in a narrative be it in a visual form.
But they don't have to be just a generic bad guy. You can play the Cultists as the leagues.
I've Cultists in cars , helicopters, mono wheels.with those English and European influences,and then a couple of leagues of Bob's US influenced ones.
It lets you go a little more off the beaten track with your scenarios,and include fantasy pieces from your collection without it feeling implausible.
In short Cultists are a better vehicle than Henchmen for bringing in the bizarre.
-
So, from reading Tin Shed's post above, it would seem that the Nazi's were the penultimate result of cultism, especially the brown shirts and then the SS. Which would also make sense as to why that phenomenon faded after WWII (faded, not disappeared). At least that was my first thought reading through.
Which means if you have a 'faceless' "horde" of Nazis in your game you have cultists in the game, yes? In game terms a horde might only be 3-6 figures (or more if desired). By faceless, I mean just anonymous Nazi Mooks, not hooded or otherwise robed - just in their uniforms.
-
Occultist Nazis who steal arcs or whatnot *and* attempt to perform arcane rituals = cultists.
Non-sectarian Nazis in brown shirts = evil minions.
They have to be wearing some sort of religious garb/paraphenalia to be true pulp cultists. No one would ever do a pulp cover of Nazi Cultists all just mooking around in their regular old brown shirts.
A Cultist baddie in a robe might be supported by a squad of regular non-cultist Nazis.
Also c.f. G-8 And His Battle Aces for a great variety of cultists in German employ during the Great War. A lot of G-8 bleeds over into Mad Science (serums to make Purple Aces, etc., but iirc the Jaguar Men, Vulture Men, and the like tilt more Culty.
-
The other side of the equation is the cultists think THEY are on the right side. Think changing the world for the better, which is what they may think.
-
So:
(https://www.azcentral.com/gcdn/presto/2022/06/28/PPHX/2e863849-a875-4ecb-b6db-d3b473f5d8d5-2503_FFP_00375-1920x801-54cb23a.png?crop=1417,797,x313,y0&width=1417&height=797&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
:o :D lol
Hey, wait, does anyone make those in 15 mm!!! :-* o_o lol
-
The other side of the equation is the cultists think THEY are on the right side. Think changing the world for the better, which is what they may think.
Playing a game where you command the humble and selfless cultists against the evil murder hobos who can not stand people making the world a better place should be a nice twist.
-
So:
(https://www.azcentral.com/gcdn/presto/2022/06/28/PPHX/2e863849-a875-4ecb-b6db-d3b473f5d8d5-2503_FFP_00375-1920x801-54cb23a.png?crop=1417,797,x313,y0&width=1417&height=797&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
:o :D lol
Hey, wait, does anyone make those in 15 mm!!! :-* o_o lol
Try here: lol https://www.tictac.com/us/en/flavours/tic-tacr-mint-flavors/#tic-tacr-mint-flavors-tic-tacr-spriter
(https://www.tictac.com/us/sites/tictac30_us/files/styles/700x700_scaled/public/2023-03/us_sprite_packshot.png)
-
Playing a game where you command the humble and selfless cultists against the evil murder hobos who can not stand people making the world a better place should be a nice twist.
The Mummy movies (Brendan Fraser/Rachel Weisz version) had both the followers of Imhotep and the Medjai - both could be presented as cultists depending on how they are presented. Medjai are born and raised in the service of preventing Imhotep's return, and the cult of Imhotep are, well, a cult! Point is they both have motives that encourage them to behave as they do.
-
Any number of different cults can share the time-honoured battlecry of: "Death to the fanatics!"
-
Playing a game where you command the humble and selfless cultists against the evil murder hobos who can not stand people making the world a better place should be a nice twist.
So basically a pulp version of Dungeon Keeper (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Keeper)... :D
-
So basically a pulp version of Dungeon Keeper (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Keeper)... :D
I actually have a self-developed dungeon keeper game using dungeon tiles and my fantasy figures. The concept can easily be adapted to any setting if you have suitable tiles and figures.
(https://i.ibb.co/bWvSPvt/Fuku2-Cs4folyt-002.jpg)
-
Well, dungeons seems to stray out of topic a bit. So, let's get back to troglodytes! lol
How would you use troglodytes in your pulp games? And no fair saying, "I wouldn't." Defeats the question. So...?
-
Troglodytes certainly work in any Hollow Earth story.
Or simply crawling out from a bomb blast or archaeological dig.
Movie Trog (1970), archaeologists find one in a cave.
(Many pulpy problems can be traced back to those darn archaeologists...)
Mad Scientist working on devolution formula.
Ships crew land on a mysterious volcanic island.
Those darn Cultists dressing up in troglodyte suits...
Our heroes stop those darn Cultists from performing their required ritual at the appointed time, and then the aforementioned Cultists are cursed for their failure, and in the next episode they are all transformed into Troglodytes.
-
Well, dungeons seems to stray out of topic a bit. So, let's get back to troglodytes! lol
How would you use troglodytes in your pulp games? And no fair saying, "I wouldn't." Defeats the question. So...?
So first - are you having a pulp setting but no supernatural powers or are there supernatural events?
So are the troglodytes simply another different branch of evolution found dwelling in a cave or are they of some supernatural origin? Or are they just a corrupt cult of degenerate humans sneaking out at night to abduct and eat their fellow man?
So next are the troglodytes basically humans or are they more like D&D trogs and are lizard people? If the latter then you could build a cult around the troglodytes. eg they are tunneling and scheming to take over the world using useful idiots to further their ends.
-
Troglodytes? You'll need killer shrimp as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW4Gdsnr2Bg
-
Well, dungeons seems to stray out of topic a bit. So, let's get back to troglodytes! lol
How would you use troglodytes in your pulp games? And no fair saying, "I wouldn't." Defeats the question. So...?
well, if you aren't too squeamish to follow the weird racist stuff from the original Tarzan stories, there are the ape-men of Opar. Lost city in the jungle (or other distant place, say, inside the hollow Earth, or in a Land That Time Forgot, or wherever). The ape men are guarding a treasure that the heroes want to steal, or the trogs have captured someone who must be rescued before suffering a fate worse than death (whatever that is...). Or maybe the trogs attack the heroes attempting to capture a suitable sacrifice to placate the even bigger, badder and scarier beastie (Kong or similar), and then the heroes need to rescue the sacrificee from whoever that ends up being!
-
Or those odd creatures that pop up out of the ground in the last version of Time Machine.
-
If you wanted to have them, some possibilities could be:
In isolation
1. In a small town in the middle of nowhere. It has essentially been taken over by a cult, though there are a few non-cultists who are essentially prisoners unable to leave as there's nothing within walking distance and the nowhere they are in the middle of (desert, swamplands, jungle) all provide their own menace.
2. A minority faction - could be a more radical group stemming from a known opposition group to the government. Like the IRA was the violent arm of the Irish opposition, consider a splinter group who didn't think the IRA was doing enough fast enough, big enough. Or labor union thugs who wanted to hit harder than the regular thugs. Or cops who felt that the corrupt politicians don't support them and don't let them enforce the law - so they become vigilantes. Or a new but small anti-establishment group that can't afford to be identified. Yellow peril anyone?
The cult aspect could be from the aspect of a situation where the members know there are others who feel the same way, but when recruited into the cult, they don't know the recruiter and at any gathering, they protect their identity from each other.
But I think you're right that there is no compelling reason for them to be cults. Could just be anarchists, thugs, gangsters, or any other group with a common objective and beliefs outside the main of society and government where they are
2. An old time religion that has been outlawed and decimated by
-
2. A minority faction - could be a more radical group stemming from a known opposition group to the government. Like the IRA was the violent arm of the Irish opposition, consider a splinter group who didn't think the IRA was doing enough fast enough, big enough. ....... Yellow peril anyone?
Not sure that requires much imagination, the only question is whether you mean PIRA (split from OIRA for exactly those reasons), the INLA (also split from the stickies for the same psychotic reasoning) or the so-called Continuity or Real IRAs who split from the wash up of PIRA cos being a gangster is more fun than just drawing your giro. They all existed. Surely a cult requires a cult leader? Unless of course you are thinking of Klement Gottwald's Czechoslovakia and it's famous description as a personality cult without a personality. Anything based on Gerry, Mar'n or Dominic McGlinchey could at best be described a Cult of Personality Disorder.
I do hope you don't mean the Sax Rohmer style trope when you mean 'Yellow Peril'. There's enough racist cuntery about in the real world without porting it into games with toy soldiers.
-
Outside of that need for anonymity, a cultist could look like anything and be up to anything if you want it in a game. They could be:
- 5th columnists for some warlord (though most of the literary examples are pretty offensive nowadays)
- religious oddities, the theosophists fall under here and can be amped up as you wish, they're the gift that keeps on giving
- 5th columnists for space aliens (theosophists can work here again)
- working for a capitalist coup under a religious guise
- political separatists
- cult of personality types, religion-over-the-airways preachers in the 20s and 30s gone bad
Up until the birth of general suffrage in Europe secret societies were the only way to organise political change. It's often overlooked that until the 1920's most political and revolutionary movements had a spiritual or religious side too.
Only after the Russian Revolution and the communist international, revolution and atheism became the norm. 19th century anarchists and socialists groups were too organised in masonic inspired structures to avoid discovery as conspiring against King and state was a capital crime of course. Also those groups more often than not had a spiritual approach and could be viewed as an Evil Cult.
I suppose the idea of The Conspiring Cult remained a strong popular cultural image throughout the Pulp Era.
-
My take on this is that, like zombies, cultists are a type of bad-guy who is morally acceptable for the heroes to kill, when necessary.
Zombie-disease and insanely dangerous religous beliefs both seem to count as creating a threat to society and change the person into something sub-human.
Same with the cliche Nazis, though I would put Communists way higher as an evil bad-guy.
-
I dunno, commies are a lot further down my list but then I have worked with a number of colleagues who were former party members. All good people. When my wife and I first married our local representative was a member of the PCdoB and she was lovely. Good local rep too.
Now Trotskyites, that's a whole different story...... ;)
-
Well, at least 5x the dead victims of the you-know-whats and China is still running conscentration camps.
-
Now Trotskyites, that's a whole different story...... ;)
:D :D
-
Well, at least 5x the dead victims of the you-know-whats and China is still running conscentration camps.
Two sides of the same coin.
I've just finished listening to Terry Pratchett's "Guards, Guards!" wherein a group of cultists summon a dragon, and it helped me understand a lot of the logic behind the cultist idea, especially the anonymity, control under one major personality, and the ideology of killing anyone in the way.
It got me thinking about how I could introduce this into my Ascension Island scenario; I have a league called the "Auxiliary Police", which is an initiative of Prima Minister Oswald Moseley, and they could certainly gain some expendable foot soldiers from among the dispossessed, psychologically damaged, and just plain angry people on the Island. I'm not sure about hooded robes, although I'm reminded that part of N*zi ideology was decidedly mystical...
I do not need to buy nmore figures... I do not need to buy nmore figures I do not need to...
-
This is supposed to be about Pulp Cults for gaming, so let's not get into discussions about politics in any of its guises please.
-
The essentials of the pulp vibe cultists are mysterious, threatening, anonymous (except perhaps the leader); and above all, achieving their goals is focused through arcane and dangerous rituals. That is the pulpy cult.
-
The cliche cult presents a villian who:
- Wants to do bad things
- Join or die (or both)
- Diabolical intelligence sometimes
- Crazy and cannot be reasoned with
- Strange, cool fashions so they can be really cool minis
Perfect adventure!
-
"Death to the Non-Believers!" Death to the Fanatics!"
I always thought that was directed at our heroes, but recently realised it could also mean those in the cult who don't "believe strongly enough."
I have Cultists, who can fill a lot of blank narrative slots. They are timeless and can equally be at home in a Swords and sandals setting as in a early 20th century setting.
As their motivations and reasons, beliefs everything it known to the members and only guessed at by outsiders, it is easy to have them show up.
I can have my Corrupted Fishy Townspeople, Mad Doctor, Evil Scientist, Prussian Baron all be happily affiliated with or part of a Cult.
Equally I could have them team up with my Native Tribes attempting to overthrow the Raj or Oriental secret society. Equally as equally they could have a falling out with the Orientals, something to be exploited by our Heroes.
They are very flexible convenient baddies.
-
I don't get why this even needs explaining, never mind going to now 4 pages...
-
Are you suggesting it's a conversational cult-de-sac? :D
-
...realised it could also mean those in the cult who don't "believe strongly enough."
CINOs?
-
No, that's just chaps in khaki cotton trousers. Not very threatening. Cultists are more of your brown corduroy underpants folk.
-
Are you suggesting it's a conversational cult-de-sac? :D
GOOD ONE
-
I don't get why this even needs explaining, never mind going to now 4 pages...
I tend to agree. I think we can probably say that the conversation has provided enough of a response already.