We're currently 13 backers away from unlocking a free sticker for every backer - please spread the word, and since she's everyone's overwhelming favorite demon god, it'll be a 4" wide sticker of the Void Queen. So tell your friends so I can make these big ol' monster stickers!
I'll also be tabling this weekend at WonderCon, slinging art, enamel pins, and passing out flyers for Cult Crafter. If you're headed to Anaheim this weekend, swing by table A14 in the Artist Alley and introduce yourself!
For our card spotlight, I wanted to showcase two more Event cards: "Ascention" Day and Assassination.
Just a quick warning - I do talk about suicide and violence, as while these cards and the cult are fictional, I'll be discussing how they thematically make sense based on real events. Feel free to jump to the poll if this isn't going to be good for you.
So first off, I know that "Ascention" is misspelled. But I also think that having a) it be in quotes, since it's just death and not real ascension, and b) showcase the fact that people willing to die in a dark ritual probably aren't going to notice spelling mistakes.
I've actually created a new poll for you to weigh in - fix the spelling, or let it ride!
Anyway, so regarding the actual card mechanics, this acts as the only outright negative card in the Resource deck. Idols, at worst, won't match your god's aspect(s), and the other events are can be discarded if they're not helpful.
"Ascention" Day, however, must be played upon drawing. It doesn't cost an action, which is good, but it does force you to sacrifice BOTH a hierophant AND a follower you own. Major bummer.
In playtests, this often set the player back too far, so while you can totally get tripped up, there is one benefit - you get to choose another follower to sacrifice. I thought this change really fits in with the thematic elements as well - it's documented that at the massacre of Jonestown there were folks with poison syringes and guns that took care of people who wouldn't take the poison voluntarily - so having violence spread out beyond the confines of the cult makes perfect sense.
Assassination is a darkly themed but really versatile card. It allows you to get rid of a grifter or saboteur taking up precious space in your sects. It also can be used to target the cultists in your opponent's sects.
Assassination lets you choose any in-play cultist. If it's a follower (presumably of high value) you can immediately sacrifice it, ridding your opponent of tribute.
Alternatively, you can take out a hierophant that is aligned with their god/idol to completely wreck a sect. That said, you need to sacrifice one of your followers to do so - but if you've got a saboteur or grifter as a follower, this is killing two cultists with one stone.
Just be warned that whenever a player finds themselves with a sect with followers but no hierophant, a power vacuum forms - and that player can promote any follower within the sect to a hierophant. So choose your targets wisely!
Historically, cults will use any method they can to control their members, and while I thought it all was mostly brainwashing, it's all forms of coercion - blackmail, violence, death threats, etc. I recently read an article about how two ex-Jonestown cultists were assassinated, likely by a former member. Scary stuff.
Anyway, that's it for this update, and I hope to see some of you at WonderCon! I'm crossing my fingers that a printed prototype* arrives in time to show to folks at the convention (they tell me it'll arrive in time for Saturday and Sunday!)
Thanks again!! -Rick
*While it'll have the art for all the rest of the cards, the cultist cards will still have the "placeholder cultist" art in it, since I need the campaign to finish before I start making all of you lovely Become a Cultist backers into card art.
