Pain RPG - Untitled

 

Pain (RPG) and stress

 

Oof. I missed the March update.

Well, I took a break from designing the Pain and writing the rulebook. After completing a huge, d666 Sync Omens random table (216 entries, whew!) I was totally burned out. But I feel like I should be able to work on it again.

Why I took a break? Because I could. I have no deadlines and no commitments. I made no promises. And I believe that's the only way to make this game as good as it could be. To minimize the stress associated with the project and maximize the fun. 

That's why there will be no Kickstarter campaign for the game.

I do believe that I could do it right. Calculate everything properly, manage to print and deliver the game in time. But I will be honest with you - even the thought about the responsibility is scaring the shit out of me. There are way too many variables which aren't dependant on me. Hell, we are living in the interesting times. Everything can become worse literally every single second. And I couldn't even imagine the levels of stress I'd experienced during the KS campaign and after it.

I'm battling depression for years. And one of the most important things I learned about the daily struggles with mental illness is that stress is making everything worse. And stress + depression could easily make everything spiral out of control. And it could issues with any aspect of fulfilling the campaign.

Okay, that's one extremely chaotic post! To make things even more convoluted, I will end it right here!

Feel free to ask any questions or express your opinion about my decision (or current weather, haha) either here or on my MeWe account (I stopped updating FB Ortix profile some time ago, as FB sucks ass).

 

Pain - glimpse of the game mechanics

 

Yup, entire ruleset on one page. Of course I expanded it in the Pain manuscript, which by the way is now over 110 pages long. Still, even though I slowly see the end on the horizon, it's still relatively far away.

And then I must make the artwork :)

700th post! PAIN Character Classes

 

For the last two days we were working hard to figure out what Character Classes we want to include in the game. So, after almost boiling our brains due to the overheat, we came up with the following list. They both fit the game world perfectly and also are full of its dark atmosphere.

I think it's a pretty good post for the 700th blog entry!

CHAOS WARRIOR [to embrace the Machine's corruption] 

DEATH CULTIST [follower of the Assassin's philosophy]

DOOMED SENTRY [I've seem too much on the surface, time to delve down]

ENLIGHTENED PILGRIM [in a search of Wisdom of the Depths]

FORLORN AVENGER [going to the Depths Below to avenge his fallen ones]

INSPIRED ARTISAN [and inspiration lies deep under the City of Pain]

LOST MOON SAGE [the Crimson Ones must be punished for the Moon's destruction]

LUCID DREAMER [they need my ability to dream]

MASTERLESS GUARDIAN [looking for a purpose, down there]

REPENTANT SINNER [salvation thru service for the Seekers]

RESTLESS CHRONICLER [someone have to write it down]

ROGUE TINKERER [in a search for the Artifacts]

SHADOW ARCANIST [not all magic is demonic, although all magic is destructive]

VERMIN SPY [servant of the deity known as the Chaos Rat]

XENOLOGIST [not all life is extinct... but all life is dangerous]

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

 

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!

Pain is Eternal

 

still WIP, needs rework

Uh oh. Blogging is weak in me! But I am still working on my game, which I mentioned several times before under this tag (and several other tags as well, as my RPG-related settings and projects intermingled and devoured themselves over and over). But even the name of the game was changed.

PAIN IS ETERNAL.

Yup, that's a saying from the game's world - Pain is name of the city. The only city that survived the Fall (click but bear in mind that this info be quite outdated). And as you can see on the map above - there's quite a lot of things happening under it. So - maybe you should expect some solid underworld-crawling.

Next thing - there will be only one playable race - the Unliving Ones. Humans are now extinct and only the "amalgamations of biological flesh and arcane technology" remain. More info soon (ha, fucking ha... expect to read about them in the next 4d6 months).

Also - game will most likely use my percentile mechanics, a derivative of an engine used in Perilous Ages. But it will be even more streamlined and gritty. Why the d% engine, instead of more standard OSRish approach? There are two main reasons. First - I dislike asymmetrical combat (passive defense and binja armor paradox - the more heavy armor you have, the smaller the chance to hit you is). Second - percentile mechanics are really, REALLY easy to convert them to any other existing ruleset. And they are extremely easy to hack / modify. At least IMO.

However - this time things will be soo fucking different from my previous releases...

Let's be honest - I fell in love with MÖRK BORG. Absolutely, both in terms of aesthetics and content. What is even more interesting (at least from my point of view), I planned to do something similar two years ago - but still had no clue how to start (or finish). Artpunky rulebook is a way for me to go. And - as I already have like ~70 A4-sized pages full of text (not counting the rules) - it will be quite big.

I will try to update the blog with some Pain-related news. Also, check out my Instagram profile and add me on MeWe.