Thursday, January 28, 2021

Pain progress report 2/2021

 

I started working on the current iteration of the game in May 2018, while the first concepts began to appear in... 2005. But for the first time in countless millenia, I feel really full of energy for the game.

So, today I have a big announcement!

I've finished working on the setting! 99% of the world's descriptions are now ready. I worked on it on a daily basis and even reduced my roaming thru the local forests to focus on Pain ;)

Of course, there's still much to do, namely:

  • The game mechanics (based on even more streamlined Perilous Ages ruleset) - as I absolutely love working on game rules, I think I will do it in the following weeks. I must playtest it ASAP!
  • At least 20 random Artifacts (it won't be easy, as so far I created over a hundred such items for my previous projects, haha);
  • Circa 30 maps of various size and detail;
  • About 100 pieces of artwork. It will be pretty time-consuming, as I decided to release this game in full color!

Also, this time I will do a proper proofreading of the game. I want to release it in physical form (as premium as possible!), so I want to make it as perfect as I am able to.

More info really soon!

Oh, and I think you'll be interested in seeing the list of actual content made so far! Here it is:

INTRODUCTION

  • Welcome to the Nightmare
  • Modular game, modular setting

THE UNLIFE

  • General appearance of the Unliving Ones
  • Feeding
  • Healing and body augmentations
  • Connection ports and interface

THE SEEKERS

PAIN IS ETERNAL

  • Layers of the City
  • What Lies Below
  • The Outside

THOUSAND SECTS

THE HOLLOW ONES

  • The Black Dust

THE FALL

  • The Machine 

THE ARCHONS

  • Blood of the Gods
  • Asccension
  • The Architect
  • The Alchemist
  • The Assassin

IMMORTALS

  • The Grey Wanderer
  • The Silent Observer
  • The Masked One
  • The Watcher
  • The Hunter

THE BOOK OF KEYS

  • What do we know about the Book
  • The Abyss
  • The Archives
  • The Altered Ones
  • Awakened Ones
  • The Arena
  • The Ashen Spirits
  • The Black Druid
  • The Bone Forest
  • The Book of Names
  • The Chaos Rat
  • The Chimney Towers
  • Chronicles of the Lost
  • Cosmology
  • Dark Iron
  • The Dead Tree
  • Death Pits
  • The Dust Sword
  • Excavation Station
  • The Fossilized God
  • The Furnaces
  • The Gatekeeper
  • The Great Father
  • The Guarded Passage
  • Human Skulls
  • The Inverted City
  • The King
  • The Knights
  • The Lake
  • The Last Star
  • Lower City
  • The Lower Outpost
  • The Map Room
  • The Mines
  • The Moons
  • The Necropolis
  • The Portal Fortress
  • Portals
  • The Prison
  • The Resurrection Monolith
  • The Rift
  • Rust
  • Sorrow
  • The Sunken Spires
  • Thorns
  • Tower of Mirrors
  • The Trophy Room
  • The Unknown One
  • Upper City
  • The Void Moth
  • Warding Pillars
  • Watcher's Outpost
  • The Waterfall Cave
  • The Waterfall Passage
  • THE FOOTNOTES COMPILED

MOST IMPORTANT INDIVIDUALS FROM THE CITY

COGNITION CARDS

  • Origins
  • Card Suits
  • Known Cards
  • The Moon

THE CRIMSON ONES

  • The Red Moon
  • Ritual of the Seven
  • Demonic Flesh

UNSORTED TEXTS

 

Sunday, January 3, 2021

MMXXI - Pain progress report

 


Wow... three posts in 2020...

This time I decided to give up on any RPG-related plans. I just try to do my part of work but without any promises to anyone - even myself.

BUT I think there is one thing I could share with you - progress I made with designing Pain since my last post.

You know me - bullet point list incoming!

  • I'm currently revising everything I wrote so far - condensed text fits into 27 A4-sized pages. And I rather remove stuff than add new. I simply rip out anything I'm not entirely satisfied with. This should help with, well, finishing it!
  • Yup, only twenty seven pages. But when divided into chapters and fit into B5 format (which will be the final one - or at least I think so) they already take 77 pages. And that's without even touching game mechanics.
  • Moreover - many entries must be expanded. Some really important figures and places are only described in 2-3 sentences. But for now I hit the wall and my brain is empty. So I focus on other aspects of the design.
  • No artwork touched so far, except the first attempts to design a logo. I posted some initial doodles on my Instagram.
  • I often switch methods of designing new stuff - sometimes I write only on Google Docs, sometimes I use pen and paper. The latter works especially well with revisions - but geez, applying the changes to the GDocs is PITA! But there is no way around - I tried a tablet but it was even worse than relying on a laptop! Good thing is that I borrowed one and had not spent any money on my own device.

I really hope that I will finish this game in MMXXI. But we all know how things are looking now. Still - expect no excuses for my laziness. If i drop it for several months due to me being too lazy - I will let you know haha.

Okay, I think it's enough for now. Still no promises - but I will TRY to post at least monthly updates on topic of this project. And it's more than sure that I will drop some less-important stuff on my IG (link above).

Stay tuned and be safe out there!