Hello fellow DMs, I need ideas for a devil (non demonic!) cult that pursues a non-clichè (or less clichè) goal... if I want to detach myself from the usual World Shattering Ritual, what kind of goal might they pursue?
How about a cult looking for a scroll that grants eternal life to it's leader and they're cut throat enough to get it by any means. (He's super charismatic)
Control the King/Country and at the same time stay hidden. "Gray eminence" style
This is good. You could also switch up the villainy aspect, make the cult's motives sympathetic, even if their methods are not.
The cult worships a God or Spirit of social order - but not good ( think Lawful Neutral ). The Cult - and the PCS - are in a political region which has unstable and corrupt governorship.
The Cult is embarked on a campaign of political assassination, and opportunistic replacement of key Aristocracy figures to seize control, and establish social order. They may even have made an alliances with a tribe of Doppelgangers to aid in this. Whether the Doppelgangers have their own agenda, and will eventually betray the cult, or are playing straight with the cult is up to you.
The Cult could be made to see more monstrous, if they are indiscriminately targeting political opportunities - even going so far as to target some of the current leadership which is actually working toward stability and the elimination of corruption ( essentially the Cult doesn't trust anyone that isn't one of them to not eventually turn and be a problem ).
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Control the King/Country and at the same time stay hidden. "Gray eminence" style
This is good. You could also switch up the villainy aspect, make the cult's motives sympathetic, even if their methods are not.
The cult worships a God or Spirit of social order - but not good ( think Lawful Neutral ). The Cult - and the PCS - are in a political region which has unstable and corrupt governorship.
The Cult is embarked on a campaign of political assassination, and opportunistic replacement of key Aristocracy figures to seize control, and establish social order. They may even have made an alliances with a tribe of Doppelgangers to aid in this. Whether the Doppelgangers have their own agenda, and will eventually betray the cult, or are playing straight with the cult is up to you.
The Cult could be made to see more monstrous, if they are indiscriminately targeting political opportunities - even going so far as to target some of the current leadership which is actually working toward stability and the elimination of corruption ( essentially the Cult doesn't trust anyone that isn't one of them to not eventually turn and be a problem ).
I like very much the idea of a grey eminence! the cult leader could work with the doppelgangers to get political enemies substituted, and at the same time work towards lichdom/immortality to be able to govern from behind the curtain for a very, VERY long time....
How about a cult leader who poses as a priest for a good alligned god and at the night the masked leader of an evil alligned cult, like in the film Dragnet.
How about a cult leader who poses as a priest for a good alligned god and at the night the masked leader of an evil alligned cult, like in the film Dragnet.
I like very much the idea of a grey eminence! the cult leader could work with the doppelgangers to get political enemies substituted, and at the same time work towards lichdom/immortality to be able to govern from behind the curtain for a very, VERY long time....
This is certainly another perfectly good option and flavor - but it returns the cult to a simple black/white good/bad flavor - which has been done a lot.
Or maybe I'm just being unfairly prejudiced against Lichs and assuming their evil - maybe he's trying to be a benevolent undead secret ruler :)
I do like the idea of making the organization and/or individuals within it morally varied. Maybe give the players a little more nuance than "cult member = bad = OK to kill". Making factions within the Cult would be another means to do this perhaps, so long as you don't get "cult member , Faction A= bad = OK to kill; cult member , Faction B= friend!".
It's also not hard to make the opponents of the Cult equally morally varied.
Now the party needs to decide what they want the outcome to be, apart from making simple multiple choices.
This would only work with certain kinds of player groups, however. Some people don't want this kind of complexity - they just want to "roll dice, and kill Orcs" - which is a perfectly valid play style.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
I like very much the idea of a grey eminence! the cult leader could work with the doppelgangers to get political enemies substituted, and at the same time work towards lichdom/immortality to be able to govern from behind the curtain for a very, VERY long time....
This is certainly another perfectly good option and flavor - but it returns the cult to a simple black/white good/bad flavor - which has been done a lot.
Or maybe I'm just being unfairly prejudiced against Lichs and assuming their evil - maybe he's trying to be a benevolent undead secret ruler :)
I do like the idea of making the organization and/or individuals within it morally varied. Maybe give the players a little more nuance than "cult member = bad = OK to kill". Making factions within the Cult would be another means to do this perhaps, so long as you don't get "cult member , Faction A= bad = OK to kill; cult member , Faction B= friend!".
It's also not hard to make the opponents of the Cult equally morally varied.
Now the party needs to decide what they want the outcome to be, apart from making simple multiple choices.
This would only work with certain kinds of player groups, however. Some people don't want this kind of complexity - they just want to "roll dice, and kill Orcs" - which is a perfectly valid play style.
ah, my friend, you have spotted the elephant in the room i fear! my players are not the most subtle when it comes to playstile, they like to put things to the sword (and to the fireball!)... still, it could add a very nice layer of moral dilemmas, especially if our grey eminence has a public façade which is very much loved by the public.
"What?? the councillor Xy, plotting to become a lich? are you mad? he funds out of his own pocket the orphanages in the city so that the children can have a good education and be able to make a living as adults! even if that was true, there would be worse things than have him as an immortal king!"
Are you familiar with Razmir from the Pathfinder pantheon? He is a god-king with his own country. He is known as the 'living god' and only those he deems worthy are able to become his priests. In actuality, he's just a powerful wizard that takes advantage of the downtrodden as they are easy to manipulate. His 'clergy' is mostly made up of arcane spellcasters that deceive the general public to meet their own ends.
well, no, I have never played pathfinder. in the forgotten realms setting there is Tchazzar tho- he's a mad red dragon convinced that he is a god and he is the ruler of the nation of Chessenta.
I'll give you a variant of a plot line I'm running in my campaign:
A man has lost his beloved when he and his party were commissioned to vanquish a threat to the land. One of the party, a good friend of this man, is risen to be the ruler of the land. Beseeching the new ruler of the land this man proposes to subjugate all arcane energy, as this was what was used to kill his beloved. The two argue, enraged the man strikes at his friend/king as well as presenting threats of death and treason. He is exiled to a land across a violent sea, in this new land he strikes a deal with the devil to obtain the power to subjugate arcane energies, and impose his variant of peace on the land. The devil is siphoning the arcane powers, using them to grow stronger so as to upset the balance in the planes of Hell and potentially usurp Azmodeus. The entire land is now under the control of this exiled man, and they worship the devil as their patron.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
The last cult I featured in a game started off worshiping an Old One, but after the leader was killed by a wandering group of murder hobos the cult kinda spun off into a social club. The players infiltrated one of the cults meetings and got to listen to the cults new leader organize a potluck. Players started off thinking the whole thing was a set up and the cult was talking in code, about half way though when they stormed the "Ritual Event" they found out yes, it was just a pot luck and semi-formal dance, complete with masks, robes, and bean dip.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links. https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole @BonusRole
Joey joins the Yoga cult because of the charismatic young lady who has not only nice words.. while Chandler uncovers, the monolithic financial root of the Yoga-mat cartell which is fired by the charismatic female leaders of the cult. Monica and Rachel are reluctant to join the cult, because they are much to self aware and don't want to see their asses exposed on television but Phoebe writes a song about Yoga-Cat and stirrs even more confision. In the end, the cult convinces Joey, that Yoga is the greatest deed ever done to mankind and he begins to follow more closely while Chandler, Monica and Rachel make Phoebe cry because they don't like her song and post bad posts about Yoga on Metacritic - which in the end brings the cartell down :D
In the meantime, Ross marries again and is ditched in the wedding night. Fadeout...
Sorry.. I couldn't resist.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hello fellow DMs, I need ideas for a devil (non demonic!) cult that pursues a non-clichè (or less clichè) goal... if I want to detach myself from the usual World Shattering Ritual, what kind of goal might they pursue?
How about a cult looking for a scroll that grants eternal life to it's leader and they're cut throat enough to get it by any means. (He's super charismatic)
A cult looking to sow economic chaos?
This could be a good idea! immortality to the leader... who maybe pretends to be a god or something...
Control the King/Country and at the same time stay hidden. "Gray eminence" style
This is good. You could also switch up the villainy aspect, make the cult's motives sympathetic, even if their methods are not.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
How about a cult leader who poses as a priest for a good alligned god and at the night the masked leader of an evil alligned cult, like in the film Dragnet.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
How about a cult that is searching for a blue pearl, which they believe is in a blue oyster.
Actually, I think I am going to use this one.
ah, but they must pose as a band of travelling bards, or where is the fun?
Are you familiar with Razmir from the Pathfinder pantheon? He is a god-king with his own country. He is known as the 'living god' and only those he deems worthy are able to become his priests. In actuality, he's just a powerful wizard that takes advantage of the downtrodden as they are easy to manipulate. His 'clergy' is mostly made up of arcane spellcasters that deceive the general public to meet their own ends.
well, no, I have never played pathfinder. in the forgotten realms setting there is Tchazzar tho- he's a mad red dragon convinced that he is a god and he is the ruler of the nation of Chessenta.
I'll give you a variant of a plot line I'm running in my campaign:
A man has lost his beloved when he and his party were commissioned to vanquish a threat to the land. One of the party, a good friend of this man, is risen to be the ruler of the land. Beseeching the new ruler of the land this man proposes to subjugate all arcane energy, as this was what was used to kill his beloved. The two argue, enraged the man strikes at his friend/king as well as presenting threats of death and treason. He is exiled to a land across a violent sea, in this new land he strikes a deal with the devil to obtain the power to subjugate arcane energies, and impose his variant of peace on the land. The devil is siphoning the arcane powers, using them to grow stronger so as to upset the balance in the planes of Hell and potentially usurp Azmodeus. The entire land is now under the control of this exiled man, and they worship the devil as their patron.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
The last cult I featured in a game started off worshiping an Old One, but after the leader was killed by a wandering group of murder hobos the cult kinda spun off into a social club. The players infiltrated one of the cults meetings and got to listen to the cults new leader organize a potluck. Players started off thinking the whole thing was a set up and the cult was talking in code, about half way though when they stormed the "Ritual Event" they found out yes, it was just a pot luck and semi-formal dance, complete with masks, robes, and bean dip.
GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links.
https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole
@BonusRole
The one with the Cult:
Joey joins the Yoga cult because of the charismatic young lady who has not only nice words.. while Chandler uncovers, the monolithic financial root of the Yoga-mat cartell which is fired by the charismatic female leaders of the cult. Monica and Rachel are reluctant to join the cult, because they are much to self aware and don't want to see their asses exposed on television but Phoebe writes a song about Yoga-Cat and stirrs even more confision. In the end, the cult convinces Joey, that Yoga is the greatest deed ever done to mankind and he begins to follow more closely while Chandler, Monica and Rachel make Phoebe cry because they don't like her song and post bad posts about Yoga on Metacritic - which in the end brings the cartell down :D
In the meantime, Ross marries again and is ditched in the wedding night. Fadeout...
Sorry.. I couldn't resist.