Rules for running a cult

Question

I would like to run rules for a cult but do not have any rules to base it on. Is there some supplemental information in the WoD universe to help with this?

The quick and dirty is that there are 6 sub-cults, which together as a whole are known as the "Cult of the Dying Sun". They reside in Siberia and believe slightly different things, but the one thing they share is a belief that magic is evil and will destroy the material world. They also believe that magic is related to the sun in some way or another. The cult the group will be dealing with is run by a man who uses sleepers to discourage Mages from casting magic around him. The main plot will revolve around a girl who is a golem created by old Mages to destroy this cult.

Answer 1

You should, imo, take a look at the Guardians of the Veil sourcebook, which, the order being what it is, has bits of useful information on how cults are handled by Mages - information that you can base your own setup on. Do check out the Cultor (Status •) merit, for example, on p.58 - but this really is just an example, there's a lot more on cults in the book. Another prominent - if not even better - example would be the section beginning on p.119 titled The Many Faces of the Labyrinth, itself a subsection of the - again - very relevant Labyrinth section.)

You can get this book in pdf format at DriveThruRPG, for example.

Another source you may find fitting your purposes is Sanctum and Sigil, a sourcebook that details, among tons of other things, the organization and workings of various cults, including those of the Banishers, which may be a good candidate for the cult(s) you've described in your Q. The third chapter of the book is titled Pylons and Cults...

Answer 2

Mummy: the Curse

The creation, operation, and cultivation of cults is well represented in Mummy. There are elaborate rules in place to represent their Reach, their Grasp, and the fringe benefits they can offer. Although these cults are written with an eye toward their impact on the Arisen, it would be trivial to put a Golem in that role instead. Or — as a thought — you could use MtC rules to represent that Golem, and put real fear in the hearts of your Mage PCs.

Answer 3

Hunter the Vigil

Your cult, sounds like some of the more cultish hunter compacts. (Not conspiracies like TFV, but compacts smaller less powerful (no pseudo-magic abilities)). Hunter is the rulebook all about people who think the supernatural is evil. So you might like to take a good look at the hunter rulebooks.

What cult members would get out of being considered as a hunter compact, is access to Tactics. A good example of a Tactic is moral support (quoted below to give you a feel).

A monster might be able to tear a man’s arm off or bite through his throat, but the truly terrifying ones are those that can control his thoughts and feelings. Hunters have long been aware that many creatures of the World of Darkness can do this sort of thing — some even cause memory loss by their very presence. The Moral Support Tactic, hopefully enacted before it becomes an issue, gives a cell some protection against this kind of attack. The secondary actors exchange words of encouragement and support, psyching each other up, as it were. The primary actor then says a few words to the cell: last-minute advice, reminders about Tactics, or just an admonition to “kill the bastards.” The cell can then enter a dangerous situation knowing that the members have each other’s backs

Second Sight:

Not so ideal for your use. Worth a glance if you have access to the book still. Second Sight has a chapter on cults. These are much more focused towards the Cthulu-worshiper end of things though. These cults do grant super-natural powers. There is a bit of mundanity in there like the Cult-resources merit. I figure it is worth a mention for anyone who finds this answer later.

Answer 4

Victorian Age Vampire puts a lot of attention in secret societies. You really need to take a look into Victorian Age: Vampire Companion. In the first chapter there are a huge amount of secret societies you can see as examples, and at the end there are four pages of rules.

The rules work mainly through Backgrounds.