I have a player that wants to build a cult.


Advice


This is for a skull and shackles game and the PCs are EVIL. Not just evil or Evil but EVIL. When the met some ghouls the subdued them and turned them into crew. The even engage in cannibalism with them.

One player had convinced some fellow sailors follow him with several good diplomacy checks. He was upset when I had them run screaming from the above activities. Turns out he would have been okay with a roll against he a DC he could not make but might be able to some day.

I have no problem with cult building in this game. The player would like some rules for it and I do mind providing some but I am not sure where to begin. He wants to be able to try for both brainwashing of willing recruits and Stolkhom syndrome.

Is there a good set rules for this anywhere? They will be on a ship so it will have to be mobile.

The cultists are not intended to increase combat power and I know that leadership is a thing but I do not want a cohort. Also the number of followers is not that high.


Vile leadership in champions of corruption


1 person marked this as a favorite.

The Leadership feat is made for this.


I guess I have to wait a few days for this one but I think it will make my players happy.


Most people, even Evil people, are not going to be okay with this intensity of EVIL. Cannabilism and consorting with undead pretty far down the rabbit hole. So you shouldn't have too many people willing to just join in, but like any cult you can get some.

I think the number from leadership provide the perfect amount to represent how many people you can find and convince to believe in something like this. If your player doesn't want the cohort (which is the main power of Leadership) consider just giving him the followers appropriate for his Leadership Score without having the feat. It's all RP anyways so it wont make much of a difference. In Skull and Shackles the crew regularly goes around recruiting anyways, this can just be part of the recruiting efforts too.


My got said a diplomacy 60 might have got them to stick around but yeah they are way down the rabbit hole.

I think I will have to look at leadership to get an idea for numbers. This number could be those who seek him out with all of their crazy.

Thing is he wants to play out gathering the followers and making them his. I am not sure what that process should be. I realize that for most NPCs it will not even be possible but for evil or impressionable it should be doable but hard.


It you're developing an evil, make sure there are various circles of initiation. The further in a cultist gets, the more depraved/gory/messy/sick it gets. Cults have rules. You don't just eat people willy-nilly. It should be ritualized, perhaps beginning with an initiation into a mid-level circle, or on special occasions, like when a paladin willingly offers a cultist his organs.


Ciaran, I think that depends on whether the cult is a chaotic evil cult, or a lawful evil cult. In regards to how rigid the cult is and how many rules they have.

They could really just "willy-nilly" go out and eat people. With the only hierachy being time in the cult or even more nebulous. I mean people form heirachies at work and stuff (outside of managers and such) even without explicitly trying to do so. Humans just have a natural tendency to do this.


Skyrim's Dark Brotherhood was a fairly good representation of an evil guild. Maybe you could draw inspiration from that.

Night mother was pretty messed up.

-MD


Even demons have rules.

Scarab Sages

I'd also read the entries on religion in inner sea gods for Zon-Kuthon, Urgathoa, and Lamashtu. They all give pretty detailed activites for followers of those gods, which could be extrapolated into any LE/NE/CE cult respectively.

Zon-Kuthon really sticks in my mind because of the Eternal Kiss and Joyful Things.


Considering they're in like Flint with the ghouls and cannibalism, I think that the lovely Urgathoa, goddess of gluttony and undeath would fit as a patron diety for the cult.

I do hope this individual has taken the Corpse Cannibal trait. Then they wont risk disease or the like when noshing on the dead they've tossed into the hold in order to ripen enough to add the extra flavor.


I will have to point that out to him. The cult builder has so far refrained from cannibalism but has helped prepare the meals. The other 4 are Hannibal Lector like and do at least respect Urgathoa.

I think he wants to try an build his cult based on not giving them to the other PCs. I will not let that one fly.


Two of them claim that they are not cannibals since they are Tieflings and would not eat and outsider while the others are monk of Zon-Kuthon and a witch.

The cult builder is a gnome bard.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

If you want rules, i'd just use some form of the downtime rules for building an organization. He could gain 'influence' for any number of activities, which could be used to recruit members. Whether is intimidation, diplomacy, or plot events.


So the downtime rules give me a good idea of how long it takes to recruit different types of people and how much it costs. You can buy a cult for about 2800 GP and a month of work. The problem is that he will want to take them with him. A one time move costs half of the organizations cost. If he is always moving them around how often should he have to pay the half cost thing?
Once and just call it mobile?
Every month?
Every year?

I doubt that he will want them to earn for him very often but he will want them serve him.

Good for recruitment and costs but the mobility is a factor.


This is skull and shackles right? Make his ship the home settlement. Its a bit unorthadox, but its the best fit for the downtime rules. Just make the 'home settlement' the ship and any port it is currently docked in.


That could work. It says that team members have lives outside of you including income but if they are also crew then that can solve that. Either that or just pay them 1sp-1GP a day each. Also simply feeding and housing them might do it.

Their ship is quite small but a once they capture a bigger one that problem will go away.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / I have a player that wants to build a cult. All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Advice