Ashen Void - the map

 

The game is out now - grab yourself a copy!

Step up in the cross-section mapping

I love cross-section maps. In many cases, they are much more evocative and inspiring than ordinary maps of the regions (I'm not talking about dungeons and hexcrawl). And Pain rulebook will contain mainly such maps.

Also, I realized that I made some progress with my maps. Here is an example from January 2012:

And here is the most recent one I made for my current project:

 

Of course, the second one is much more abstract. But I fell in love with artpunk.

 

If you like my work and want to support me, please consider joining my Patreon.

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 The only city that survived the Fall (click but bear in mind that this info be quite outdated).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.

Ortix Year Ten (+ map!)

Wow... a decade of this blog.

As you can see, I'm still kicking. Not very active on the RPG-side of my numerous hobbies - was mainly focused on drawing, painting and music. But from time to time i work on the Pain project, adding new stuff - but mostly reworking the old ideas.

For example - yesterday I made a small, very basic version of the cross-section of the City of Pain, which you may gaze upon. Right here, right now I'm working on the much bigger and much more detailed one. Most likely will post some progress photos on my MeWe profile.

[work-related] A... mousepad?

It took me five hours to draw this map, and as you can see it's still far from being complete (I recoil in terror when I think about adding doors and secret passages but yeah, it's my task for today).

But it's not a map! At least not per se - it will not be published as one.

As it's the project related with my day job, I have a question for you - will you be interested with a mousepad with such design? Or maybe a playmat with much bigger old school dungeon map?

Most likely it will be available on this year's Essen Spiel gaming fair :)

PS. I will still produce small, cheap and ugly PDFs with my stuff. I just need to regain my focus on the hobby side of my daily activities (or at least gaming hobby, as I have lots of them). Yeah, excuses, excuses...

Charon prime - map from The Archives

The map above was found in The Archives belonging to the House Strakarson. Most likely it was drawn by some adventurer. File is partly corrupted and no date was assigned to it, thus it's impossible to determine map's age.

Click to enlarge :)

HERE you can find the reason why the map is so primitive and lacks almost any names. In fact, it may be the most detailed map of the planet ever created (or rather ever shared with anyone)!

Circuit City - kick-ass idea for a map for your BandB campaign

When I was a child I used to play with broken circuit boards and computer parts, using them as spaceships and cities. Yesterday I thought that pictures of PCBs can be used as great maps for the Bandits and Battlecruisers campaigns (and of course virtually any other sci-fi games). Here's an example (click to enlarge):

A - City's main sensor array
B - Heavy laser batteries
C - The marketplace
D - University and museum district
E - Military Compound (with military corp HQ)
F - Corporate Towers
G - Warehouse district
H - Residential area
I - Ship hangars (bordered with black)

If you like this idea, I'd love to see your maps!

[Repost] Perilous Path Northern Continent Map Preview

Sorry for the crappy picture quality and "yet another blank map" post but I felt an urge to show you this map. This is the northern continent of the Perilous Path game, called the Ran-Gor. Soon I'll try to re-create this on the better paper and with better pencils (I'm rather good at creating digital maps but I find it extremely tedious and time-consuming so I prefer to do it in traditional way).

This post was initially posted on now-defunct Perilous Path blog. As I mentioned it here, I decided to nuke it to keep all my posts and ideas in one place.

Krshal - first map is ready!

I've posted it on G+ before but now I fixed the colors, or at least tried to do it. Now only eight (or eleven) more maps to go (and even then they will not cover the entire city!).

Vaults of Madness (yet another five minute map)

Sorry for crappy pic, probably I'll try to replace it soon.

There are some minor flaws (if lack of connections may be considered as a minor one! :D) but I think it's not bad map.

Underground Mortuary - today Five Minute (and 15 seconds) Map

Also featured in G+ Five Minute Maps Community.

Five minute map... with something more

Several weeks ago I posted this map on G+ Five Minute Maps community:

Yesterday I added some descriptions and random doodles to it. Click to enlarge, or better open in new window:

Should I make a description of each of these locations / objects?

Underworld Day - uranium mine

So, this is the last Underworld Day. Next week I'll try to start a new series of posts containing images. It will be called... nah, you must wait :D

These pictures were taken by me or my girlfriend during our september trip to the wilderness. Enjoy (and sorry for the crappy quality - pics were taken with smartphone).

On the lower part on the map, corridors marked in black were available for tourists.

Today Five Minute Maps

Not much to say. Crude but maybe useful.

Friday (!) Five Minute Maps

Last friday I decided to make my first maps for Friday Five Minute Map challenge. Here are the results, done with timer:

First one.

ARMAGEDDON FLATFISH! Done in 4:58, including searching for green pen :D But I forgot to name secondary eyes in fish's throat...

Underworld Day - Kowloon Walled City part Two

Second set of goodies about Kowloon Walled City - more photos, one youtube vid and ABSOLUTELY STUNNING CROSS-SECTION MAP! Click to enlarge, especially on map.

In 1973

And the map. It almost killed me with its awesomeness. Click, or better open in new tab.

Cursed Palace of Mar Gat'nep

1. Entrance Square
2. Purgatory Sector
3. Cemetary of the Unborn
4. Execution Chambers
5. Ossuary of the Fallen
6. Central Watchtower
7. Inner Palace
8. Wraith Tower
9. Burial Chambers
10. Main palace districts
11. Arena
12. Kitchens
13. Chambers of Thousand Questions
14. Tower of the Brown Fumes

Got the idea of creating map of such place moments ago. I hope that you'll find it inspiring / useful.

Mordor 1.1 maps

Bunch of inspiration - dungeon maps from uber-awesome Mordor - Depths of Dejenol. Images created by members of Braindead's Mordor Site.

Xsection Mapbook contents preview

As I mentioned yesterday, I want to create not really big booklet containing inspirational cross-section maps, suitable for sci-fi and fantasy games. Here is preliminary list of its contents (maps that I have already sketched or sitting comfortably in my mind :D):

1. Abandoned Prison
2. Alien Observatory
3. Ancient City
4. Ash’kari bio-ship
5. Asteroid #1 - Hidden Base
6. Asteroid #2 - Graveyard
7. Asteroid #3 – Nest of Horrors
8. Black Rift Mine
9. Bunker
10. Buried Alien Spaceship
11. Crypt Tower
12. Defensive Satellite
13. Desert Chasm
14. Domed Temple of the Worm God
15. Dungeon of Thousand Rivers
16. Floating Hiveship
17. Floating Mortuary
18. Fungal Spire
19. Giant Ant-invaded Underground Stronghold
20. Glacial Stronghold
21. Golem Factory
22. Great Ossuary
23. Haunted Mansion
24. Lab Tower
25. Levitating Fortress
26. Magma Shrine
27. Mining Ship
28. Nomad Ark Ship
29. Old Dead Tree
30. Old Lighthouse
31. Power Core
32. Pyramid of Doom
33. Raven’s Inn
34. Reactor Shrine
35. Ruined Space Stronghold
36. Spider Caves
37. Sunken City
38. Temple Ship
39. Tomb of the Living Crystal
40. Trap Tunnel
41. Tumuli
42. Underground Arena
43. Underground Excavations
44. Underwater Palace
45. Volcanic Forge

If you have more ideas I will be pleased to make cross-section map of it :)