87. Pick a cult, any cult.

I’m looking at the example threats today (pages 119-121), and specifically at threat number 3, the Water Cult threat (120). All of the example threats are educational and great demonstrations on how to make playable threats, but I am particularly struck by the water cult, primarily because they are not given the Cult type as a bunch of Brutes. The other examples are all Brutes, but the water cult are created as an Affliction, a Delusion of the people with the impulse “to dominate people’s choices and actions.” It’s an interesting choice.

By giving each threat type a name and an impulse, the threat lists work to capture your imagination on several fronts. Perhaps you are attracted by the notion of a Breeding Pit, or Sybarites, or a Pain Addict. Perhaps you are compelled by the idea that a threat “craves contact, intimate and/or anonymous,” or has the impulse “to riot, burn, kill scapegoats,” or the impulse “to leave people bereft.” Whatever it is that gets your motor revving, it’s the impulse of a threat that will determine its actions and its role within the unfolding drama, and the example of the Water Cult acts as a gentle reminder to think about how you see that threat fucking up the world you all have built.

As a Cult threat type, the Water Cult would have the impulse “to victimize & incorporate people,” but as a Delusion, they instead seek “do dominate people’s actions and choices.” The line might be a fine one, but by picking Delusion, the MC here sees the Water Cult as primarily wanting to control the populace more than simply grow by incorporating more and more of the population. The joining of the cult is about ceding control to it, not about adding to its numbers—and that distinction tells the MC how to play the cult in the game.

Many of the threats have potentially cult figures. The Prophet Warlord, the Mindfuck Grotesque, the Delusion and Sacrifice Afflictions, the Cult Brutes, and more—they can all form the basis of a cult in a game you play, but each option offers not only a different flavor but a different trajectory and set of goals and desires. By making the Water Cult a Delusion, the example subtly drives that point home.

It’s worth taking a moment to look at the example countdown clock on the Water Cult threat as well, to see how the MC creates a clock that “list[s] things that are beyond the players’ characters’ control” (118). Before 9:00, the cult swells with the addition of NPCs. The cult becomes particularly relevant to the players when someone from Uncle’s Gang joins the cult, but that can be done without demanding anything from the PCs. The crisis point at 9:00 comes when the cult approaches the PCs and demand that they join. And join or not, the cult will lead a revolt against the hardhold to fill in that 11:00-12:00 slot. The PCs can interfere at any time and throw the clock off, but the MC has put forward a vision of what will happen if the PCs keep out of the cult’s affairs. It’s a great example of how the clock makes no demands on the PCs while simultaneously crossing their paths and potentially involving them if they are interested. In the end, the climax will force an interaction and choice from the PCs—who will they side with? Will they talk the cult out of revolt? What will they be willing to do to prevent a revolt, help the revolt, or fight against the revolt? There are so many juicy and difficult questions that are created because of the countdown clock.