Edge Review:

Beyond the Boundaries
and
Heart, Mind and Soul

Reviewed by Earl P. Thatony


  • Two supplements for the Kult RPG
  • Written by Gunilla Jonsson and Michael Petertson
  • published by target games and metropolis limited
  • 64 pages each

One of the few flaws of the KULT RPG was a comparative lack of material on the magic system. Subsequent supplements have focused on other elements of the game, leaving magic and the wonderful possibilities it entails more or less bereft. Well, KULT GMs need fear no more, because these two products really help to fill that gap. Beyond the Boundaries and Heart Mind & Soul go a long ways towards developing magic for the game, and give players many imaginative ways to flesh it out in their campaign.

Beyond the Boundaries covers the Lores of Death and Time & Space, adding many new spells to each. It also adds material on four occult sciences - Alchemy, Astrology, Numerology, and Voudoo. Heart Mind & Soul covers the rest, adding spells to the Lores of Passion, Madness, and Dreams, as well as covering the occult sciences of Cabbalah, Tarot, and Symbolism. Each book also has a few new character archetypes for use in any campaign.

The new spells and characters are all valuable, and make great additions to the KULT universe. But the most interesting material in these supplements are the occult sciences. Only a few pages are devoted to each, but a good foundation is laid for using them in your KULT campaign. (An especially good job is done integrating KULT cosmology into the Cabbalah.) If you are serious about heavily using any of the occult sciences in your game a trip to the library would still be advisable, though. The supplements give you a good start, but are by no means the end of the story, and are intended more to plant the seeds of ideas rather than provide an all encompassing overview.

As far as aesthetics go, there are certainly some changes present. If you're already familiar with Kult, you will hardly recognize these two books. They are a radical departure from the design of all the previous products. Not in the content, mind you - it's the layout. Plenty of tortured souls grace the pages, and extensive use is made of creepy photography and occult symbology. If you can imagine a glossy, full-color cross between Wired magazine and a Hellraiser movie you're on the right track. Prepare to be disturbed.

As in many such avant garde layouts, some pages are gorgeous, while others are just plain hard to read. Some pages fit both descriptions. Perhaps the gravest offense to the Layout Gods comes in the form of the page numbers, which are missing outright. These books are hard to navigate, no question about it. There are also seemingly random changes in font size and style from time to time, which doesn't make it any easier on the reader.

As with all Kult products, these are intended "for mature players only." If the character archetype "neurotic sex mage" makes you giggle, you're probably not the target market. If, on the other hand, you're already a regular Kult player you owe it to yourself to take a good hard look at these books.

Other Reviews

Back to Shadis #31 Table of Contents
© Copyright 1996 by Alderac Entertainment Group

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com