Breakfast Cult
A downloadable game
Freeplay Awards Finalist 2018 — Excellence in Narrative and Non-Digital Game Award
In the Weird Age of the late 21st century, the newly-discovered occult sciences are changing the world. If you want to learn them, Occultar Academy is the place to go. In this secluded island school, talented students from all over the world can learn sorcery and occultech under the Foundation's watchful eye.
...But they won't tell you everything.
Occult science is great, but there are risks. Behind the scenes, in the labs beneath the school, they're researching the dangerous secrets of outer science. The Forbidden Sections beneath the library hide secrets once lost to history, from forgotten occultech to the existence of the Ancient Ones. If the wrong person finds them, it could mean the end of the world.
Breakfast Cult is a Fate Accelerated TTRPG about cosmic horror mysteries and high school drama. Play students at the world's best occult school as they solve mysteries, uncover the terrible secrets of the Ancient Ones, and try to find which of their classmates is conspiring against them before it's too late!
Peer Pressure: A rules primer and example mystery. Name your own price!
Game Over: A major expansion pack that adds some cool technology, Factions, a bunch of new pregen characters and encounters, and digital-themed Ancient Ones.
Sweet Shub And Hella Thotep: An expansion pack that adds some Cthulhu Mythos to Occultar with an alternate setting, new pregen characters and encounters, and some Great Old Ones.
Terrible Friends: A second major expansion pack that explores the setting's cults and their connection to Occultar Academy, plus pregen characters and encounters.
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In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $14.95 USD. You will get access to the following files:
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Hey, did you know there's a review video on this RPG? Go check it out!
Breakfast Cult is a high-energy cthulhupunk comedy/dramedy about wacky teens at an occult-horror high school. It's quick to pick up, but nevertheless has a good feeling of gameyness to it. It doesn't diverge hugely from Fate's formula, but that also doesn't feel like a problem.
The PDF is 220 pages with a clean layout, and it has a ton of excellent custom illustrations. Notably, it uses two different art styles---one for the high school hijinks, and one for the cosmic horror---and this is a genuinely neat effect.
Setting-wise, Breakfast Cult's setup is a little similar to Cthulhutech. Occult technology is discovered in the 20th century, humanity uses it everywhere, this creates a massive existential risk to the planet, but humanity decides it's fine, they'll just slap an oppressive government over the problem and everything will work out alright.
In Breakfast Cult's world, that oppressive government is dedicated to make sure the average person doesn't know about the shoggoth juice in all the occult generators that run the local power grid. If the average person does find out, that makes them a danger to themself and others. Or, if they're a kid, it makes them a perfect candidate to be shipped off to a magical high school where they can learn even more about shoggoth juice generators and possibly also get eaten by one.
Breakfast Cult's worldbuilding and writing are consistent and solid, even though the premise is wacky. They also provide a lot of room for you to wedge in your own canon, or to safely change elements of the lore without massively butterfly-effecting everything else. If there's stuff in the game that you don't like, you have a lot of freedom to adjust it.
Mechanically, Breakfast Cult has everything you'd expect from Fate. Characters have some crunch, but the rules err on the side of being a little loose. You have Approaches instead of skills, and Approaches are more about your attitude (Flashy, Careful, etc) rather than specific knowledges (computer, karate, etc.) You also have the standard pool of Fate Points that you can spend to alter outcomes and hedge the dice, and you have the same broad set of actions (Overcome, Create An Advantage, Attack, etc) to navigate conflicts.
Character creation is quick but involves a lot of thinking about who your character is---and less about what they can do. Breakfast Cult is a character driven game, and your character's capabilities stem from their backstory, not vice versa.
For GMs, a lot of advice is given throughout the book, but there's also a really solid GMing section, and I think Breakfast Cult would work just fine as a first game for a new tabletop group.
GMing resources are also not lacking, and there's everything from sample school facilities to students to monsters and spells and artifacts, all statted out.
Overall, if you're looking for a fast-moving, character focused game about occult horror in a zany high school, Breakfast Cult should be at the top of your list.
Hey hey! Apologies for the question, but how do i access the info of the last detentioneer, with the blacked out info? Obviously it's there as a teaser or something, but is there info for them somewhere else or is it there as a standin? Thank you!
This is a great deal of fun to read, and does fantastic things with Fate Accelerated Edition. The characters are vibrant, diverse and interesting, the setting drips story hooks, and the writing made me laugh frequently.
So many of the character stunts are anime references. SO MANY.
I love this game!