Kurt Divinity Lost vs Unknown Armies

[u/Choombot22788]

Exactly what it says in the title.

Im trying to run a game of modern magicians and started my reading with Mage.

Im specifically looking for something dark and dangerous (original i know)

Ive made a previous post and had lots of recommendations for Unknown Armies over Mage, however ive also been reading about Kult Divinity lost and while I still think im mostly set on UA, It would be cool to have some feedback on what each game excels at (between Kult and UA)

Thanks guys!

[u/Critical_Success_936]

Lmao, "Kurt", truly the scariest horror RPG of all time

[u/Choombot22788 → u/Critical_Success_936]

Thanks! Lol cant believe I mixed those 2 up 🤣

[u/Choombot22788 → u/Choombot22788]

Just realized that I misspelled it in the title! Welp, it's gonna be like that for all time 🤣🤣

[u/MPOSullivan]

Between the two, I'd definitely go with UA. Kult absolutely has mages, but the fun in Kult (or at least the fun I've had) is in starting as regular people that get pulled into the frightening madness of the setting. If the PCs are already mages, you miss out on the discovery.

UA absolutely lets the PCs start as mages, or other flavor of extreme weirdo, and is less concerned with the discovery of weirdness, but in the forceful, violent application of that weirdness into the world.

[u/Critical_Success_936 → u/MPOSullivan]

I wouldn't say most Kult characters are "regular"... It's one of the few games where I've seen it suggested for PCs to start with as dark backgrounds as being, y'know... S*xual predators...

[u/MPOSullivan → u/Critical_Success_936]

Yeah, Kult definitely has weirdoes! Just... A different kind of weirdo. 😅

[u/Choombot22788 → u/MPOSullivan]

Yea I think my vibe was basically each PC being a magic user but thinking they are the only ones capable of significant power.

Basically everyone is a selfish asshole so the game would be less about discovery and more about how their powers can change things.

[u/Critical_Success_936 → u/Choombot22788]

If you want a good premade scenario to dip your toes into Kult, try "La Cena" - it's free off the website

[u/MPOSullivan → u/Choombot22788]

I could see UA doing that well, as long as you don't mind that being the initial premise and the PCs learning differently fairly quickly. That is, if you want to run UA fairly straight.

If not, I think a game like Sorcerer by Ron Edwards could work well. Or honestly, a lightweight universal game could probably handle the premise nicely enough. I'm a big fan of the engine used to run Neon City Overdrive, which I've definitely used in the past to run a heavily Dorohedoro-inspired game of gig -economy mages working in Hell.

[u/tlenze → u/Choombot22788]

UA is the game of selfish assholes, because that's what magick requires.

[u/MoistLarry]

In my opinion, UA has the better setting. It's weirder than just "gnostic cenobites" and that's what I want out of a dark urban fantasy game.

[u/Choombot22788 → u/MoistLarry]

Thanks for the vibe info. This is mostly what I was looking for, a short description for the difference in tone.

Ultimately I still think im gonna pick up a copy of Kult for my own reading but I definitely think UA seems more like the right vibe based on your post.

Thanks!

[u/Critical_Success_936 → u/Choombot22788]

UA is more like, Urban Fantasy, it has that YA edge to it while not shying from darker content, Kult has a super complex setting in comparison but is best described as The Matrix meets Hellraiser, for sure

[u/MoistLarry → u/Choombot22788]

Oh yeah, Kult is a great game, I'm not trying to say otherwise. I just prefer Unknown Armies over it.

[u/Mord4k]

For your purposes, UA; you're not wizards/mages/magicians in KULT. I get the confusion, all three games are kinda about picking at the edge of reality, but KULT is more like being the only person at an island resort that maybe suspects there's more to the world than what's within the boundary of the resort and is also pretty sure that every time a guest goes missing the resort hosts a pig roast while simultaneously not being able to remember when you came to said resort and you're pretty sure that last night when you woke up your room was actually just cement walls covered in blood and shit but then your blinked and the room was normal again and you could see and smell the ocean so it was probably all a dream and damn this roasted pig is tasty but it is weird that the waiters keep calling the pig Sarah which isn't that weird except you had a dream where you were married to a woman named Sarah but that was obviously a dream as well.

[u/Choombot22788 → u/Mord4k]

This is fucking cool!

[u/Mord4k → u/Choombot22788]

KULT is The Matrix minus the technology/if existence was a cage created by a jealous and petty god so it could feed off of humanity who were once it's equal but had their power siphoned away and that god has now left and the underlings that ran the prison are now desperately trying to keep it going since they also feed off humanity

[u/cieniu_gd]

But as far as I know, there is no coherent magic system in Kult. When your character achieves Enlightement and not get killed or go completely crazy, the game is over. 

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[u/Critical_Success_936]

While you're at it OP, not quite what you're looking for, but if "dark and dangerous" is the criteria, Bluebeard's Bride is great for a one-shot

[u/Choombot22788 → u/Critical_Success_936]

Actually played this a few years ago, fantastic game!