Quote:
Originally Posted by capnzapp
One aspect of its timeless quality you don't discuss is the game's non-US origins. What do you think about the theory that part of its appeal is its stark approach to several mature concepts (well, all of them, really) which maybe an American designer wouldn't do?
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Funny you should ask that.
I took several cracks at this review. An earlier draft spent a lot of time on this very issue, but it seemed off topic so I cut it out.
To my mind, the gaming industry in America was severely impacted by Evangelical wingnuts out there claiming "D&D was the gateway drug to Satanism." These maniacs were seeing the Devil everywhere, and in extreme cases innocent people were going to jail for accusations that should have gone out with the Inquisition. As a teenager in the early 80s, my school's D&D club was shut down because of protest from the local religious community. This was sparked by some heavy metal fan spray painting an inverted pentagram on an alley wall. Soon, everyone was convinced there was a satanic cult in town and the D&D club just had to be a part of it. And this was not in the Bible Belt, mind you, but upstate New York.
I think this idiocy put--pardon the pun--the fear of God into the gaming industry for awhile. If you look at the fantasy and horror RPGs of the 80s, they all gave real life occultism a wide berth. Chill and Call of Cthulhu are prime examples. But in Europe, games like Kult, Nephilim, and In Nomine Satanis were tackling occult themes head on. Kult more than most (and even in Europe it did draw some fire). The arrival of these games in America, as well as companies like White Wolf pushing the limits, eventually opened the door for darker themes. What is remarkable to me, as I watch the state of affairs in America, is that the Fundies haven't crawled out of the woodwork to go after RPGs again.
Anyway, I left this stuff out of the review because I felt it was A) pure opinion, and B) had little to do with describing the game. But I do believe that the European market allowed Kult to develop under more rational and tolerant conditions that competing American games had.