[Scott]

to enslave mankind, what tasks would you ask of a new recruit?

Part of this question is introducing someone new to an organization which at a glance is highly criminal and outright insane, from it's philosophy to its methods to its goals.  I'm guessing you'd want to ease someone into the pool and not start out with the revelations of Xenu.

[Oscar]

I don't know what I would ask, but I can only say that the picture is amazing!

[Anonxeuix]

Wow, that is amazing. Who drew it? Was it Felix?

[FireStomp]

If you were the head of a cult bent on summoning one of the Great Old Ones to enslave mankind, what tasks would you ask of a new recruit?

Well, I'd probably ask them to perform either some variety of infiltration or an initiation right. For infiltration, I would guess either a.) raiding the university for rare texts on mathematics or the occult, or b.) stealing records from the police to derail investigations of cult members and activities, while a possible initiation right could be allowing yourself to be possessed by spirits or studied in other manners.

[Scott]

@FireStomp:  Too obvious (not to say it won't happen)!  Also, too criminal.  I need some ideas for less challenging/obviously illegal behaviour.
@everyone else:  Felix is dead.  This is somebody else who so far hasn't given me enough stuff to start a thread on it.

[Vince]

Cool picture!

to enslave mankind, what tasks would you ask of a new recruit?

Part of this question is introducing someone new to an organization which at a glance is highly criminal and outright insane, from it's philosophy to its methods to its goals. 

Depends on the storyline related to the organization (i.e. what steps are required to complete or get close to their goal). If you'd tell us more about the organization, that would help.

Without giving it much thought:

You are told that the organization has a buyer for a certain artifact, which was last seen in X's collection, but it appears that it's not there anymore. There is nothing strange about criminal organization stealing rare things and selling them to interested parties.

So, quest 1 is to find where the artifact is. That's flexible enough to give you a large variety of options: pretend to be another collector or dealer in rarities, intimidate, ask around, find financial records, etc.

Quest 2 is to retrieve the artifact: trick the owner, kill, steal, buy, etc. Now the organization tells you that they need to appraise the artifact, which makes sense since they appear to be selling it.

Thus, quest 3 is to convince an expert on such things to visit an organization's warehouse and appraise the artifact. It's clearly a shady deal, so a reputable expert won't be eager to go to a warehouse at night, especially an expert who knows what to expect from a crowd that plays with such artifacts. Some persuasion, trickery, brute force, kidnapping, etc would be required. If you have a good talk with the expert, you'd begin to suspect something. That would be a good point to throw in a double-cross or "I've outta here" opportunity. And so on.

[Ellorien]

to enslave mankind, what tasks would you ask of a new recruit?

Part of this question is introducing someone new to an organization which at a glance is highly criminal and outright insane, from it's philosophy to its methods to its goals.  I'm guessing you'd want to ease someone into the pool and not start out with the revelations of Xenu.

Well, you go about this business the same way all leaders of the so-called destructive cults do: you start with brainwashing. The new recruit must see the light and embrace his new life's mysterious (at this point) "higher purpose". He/she must thirst for enlightenment: meetings with the "spiritual instructor" or whatever you want to call the guy, solitary meditation, chanting, drugs etc. are the common methods. I don't think you can assign a specific task without softening the new recruit's brain first. The first task is to cast aside family, friends and conventional morals.
Then, you will have a heart-to-heart conversation where you will tell the guy how special he is.
The second task - weed the garden (meaning - spy on the brethren and find the one whose faith is wavering; the second step - test the "weak one" by poisoning him with some strong drug, then observe his reaction step-by-step and write everything down; the third step - kill the wretch, lovingly, by submerging him into the sacred pond - with some help, of course).

[Hector]

I'd probably start on the more innocuous parts of the cult's doctrine; the stuff that seems perfectly harmless or even beneficial.  I'd congratulate the cultists at every opportunity in order to make them feel special.  Then, as they progress, I'd start making them gradually more insulated from the community, revealing new information little by little until eventually it isn't such a huge leap to "The gods do exist, and when they return all we can hope for is to be killed first and quickly".  As to actual tasks, as they become more insulated, and as I turn them towards the belief that the cult's goals are more important than anything or anyone else; that the means always justify the ends, I'd start them on the slippery slope from small crimes towards the nastier ones.  Hell, it's worked before...

[Scott]

Just to be clear, the PC would be the recruit in this scenario, not the recruiter, so he already has no family, friends or conventional morals.  The goal of one of the cults in question is simply to accrue power to itself, mystical and conventional.  I'm thinking that a charitable society would be a good cover, but then the first few small tasks have to at least superficially pass as charity...

[Wrath of Dagon]

How about the usual organized crime progression, start out delivering messages and running errands, later carrying contraband, graduating to theft and murder. In the process more and more about the cult is revealed, and increasingly macabre ceremonies are performed. There could also be a romantic interest within the cult to help draw the PC in. The more stuff is drawn from real life, the more plausible it'll seem.

[Hector]

What I mentioned above is how most cults manage to sucker people in; even intelligent people can be drawn in by someone charismatic enough through simple techniques like those.  How it would work in a game, I've no idea, but to give you an idea of how real life cults usually get loyal members: Youtube Video.

[Scott]

Shepeshifting? Control of some lesser beings, summoning familiars etc.
Invisibility is always nice and useful in many ways limited only by players imagination.
Various psy-powers too. Telepathy to spy on other people thoughts or influence them.
Telekinesis , pyromania,.... whatever you feel would be appropriate.

Caster, what is your Sanity score right now?  Most of those powers would be end-game appropriate only.  I can't have players receiving permanent arcane abilities as rewards for minor quests.  There won't be any magical trinkets, a la Ring of Protection +1.  If some object is magical, it is an artifact, and there will be nothing casual about it.

What I'm fishing for here are some examples of typical RPG quests, fetch this, deliver a message, but setting appropriate and with a point of interest or twist.  I'm not having any straight FedEx quests, naturally, but it's all right if something appears to be a FedEx quest, but then ruins your life.  So I like some of these ideas, just don't go too far over the top.

I don't mind if the PC sees through it sooner or later.  Some people will want to join a cult regardless.  It's the first thing I would do if I were playing a game like this.

[Hector]

Why should the cult be made obvious, and why should they be giving a brand new member tasks that are obviously illegal?  Ideally, you shouldn't even know you're joining a cult when you first start down that path; if they sat in an office with a sign saying "Cult Here" they'd never have lasted as long as they probably have.  By the time you get told what it is you're into and what you're responsible for, leaving should be difficult at best.  Unless the idea was that you find out about them through research and the like, and if that were to happen, and you just walked in on them saying "hai guise, i can be cultist nao?" you'd probably be the next sacrifice.

[Hector]

Without deliberately going out of your way to deceive the player right up until the reveal, it's going to be hard to make it believable.  That said, there's no reason why a simple delivery mission can't turn into something more interesting...

[GhanBuriGhan]

I assume such an organization would want to learn about your personality and test you before considering you as a member. So they would test if you are loayally following orders, even if they make little sense. Second, if given an apparently fishy assignment and an easy opportunity to report to authorities, would you carry out the assignment or sing (of course this means the assignment is either turning out to be harmless after all, easily denied, or there is a plant in the authorities). Then they would test your suitability to function within the true goals of the organization: do you share their ruthless hunger for power, no matter the means? The fascination for the occult?