Astro Inferno

Ov Human Mistakes and Digital Distribution
21 days ago – Wed, Apr 03, 2024 at 03:06:34 AM

FIRST
Hindsight is 20/20 and this is the solution I should've done from the start. Thanks to the backer who came with this suggestion! I've changed the DTRPG links and made them separate. You should have one Free link and one Sacrificial link in your Backerkit now, and you are free to use either one.

Wording in the last update was poor and what should have been written was:
Hello backers! Here's your free copy of the Digital Core Edition! WE ALSO included a Sacrificial link to let you choose to buy it for $0.66 which will count as a purchase and boost the games performance and help us create more content for the game in the future.

I understand the irritation the last solution caused and hope you still have faith in our dark souls, even if we inside are completely void of virtue. And the dark cloud that this endeavor cast upon the digital launch is not only misery and gloom. A Satanic game should have some skeletons in the closet, and why not one that cost $0.66.

Check your digital downloads on Backerkit for both the Free link and the Sacrificial one, they should both show up. And again, I'm sorry for the lost faith - even if it isn't anything we actually strive for, we are all about freedom to have both faith and lack thereov.

A very regretful (well at least as much as he can)
Ruu

Ov Sacrifices to Promotion and the Digital Darkness Coming
22 days ago – Tue, Apr 02, 2024 at 07:38:02 AM

FIRST
The books are in production, and we are still targeting a May shipping window, depending on production speed. The Digital Core Edition is finished, and we're distributing it via the DriveThruRPG store. For distribution, we ask for a small sacrifice of $0.66 to download the file. This is to appease the digital Gods of Marketing and enhance Astro Inferno's visibility on the DriveThruRPG platform. We recognize this may be inconvenient and frustrating for many of you. However, we wouldn't request this if it weren't for the greater good of all things dark. Your sacrifice will enable us to continue creating materials for the game and expand the Astro Inferno universe in the future.

You should receive your special discount link for the Astro Inferno - Digital Core Edition at DriveThruRPG in your inbox later today.

If you prefer not to make this contribution, you can email us to request a manual copy, which we'll send to you free of charge a bit later.

The Satanic Journal, Character Sheets, Journey Sheets, and additional assets will be available in your digital rewards on BackerKit but will also be listed as a Pay What You Want item on DTRPG once approved by them, making them essentially free items.

SECOND
Next are the digital rewards. When they are finished they will be distributed in a similar fashion.

The Cartographer's Codex (formerly “Legendary Locations”)
Includes 10 locations to explore, complete with hooks, inspiration, places, rooms, and loot for running shorter one-shots or incorporating them into your own adventures.

We are very excited about this digital asset. If it resonates well with the community, we plan to expand it and introduce many more volumes in the future.
Expected release: April

Nine Nights in the Gallows
This short "gritty" campaign features dungeon crawling, political intrigue, and quests involving dead gods, satanic nobles, and a very unusual journey. Initially called a micro campaign, it has since expanded into a short campaign.
Expected release: April

The Crown of Ruin
A truly epic campaign involving "world-altering" events, featuring some of the most iconic dark entities of legend. Although quite lengthy, it will be delivered as a micro campaign, including only the essential plot pieces. This gives the GM the flexibility to expand on each part, using lists of hooks, side quests, inspiration, and atmosphere.
Expected release: May

Size Comparison Chart
A large-sized silhouette illustration featuring numerous entities mentioned in the game and adventures, designed to be a reference and to ignite your imagination.
Expected release: TBA

THIRD

Infernal Coasters
These coasters are not only visually stunning, drawing attention at any dinner party, they also look fucking awesome just drinking some coffee at the office. Each coaster features a gold-foiled astrogram (numbered 1-7) on one side and 9 dead gods on the other (numbered 1-9), along with 9 inspirations for use in-game.

Despite being made of cardboard, they are surprisingly durable and resistant to staining. However, they will begin to bulge and warp when wet. Here's a comparison between one I’ve used for a couple of months in the studio and a brand-new one.

FOURTH
Conflict, stakes, carnage, death.
In Astro Inferno, conflict is based upon stakes. Every conflict begins with an End Trouble, a challenge set by the GM that players must overcome or face the consequences. At the end of this verse - one of you will be impaled by the giant spear - the poisonous gas will be released in the room - the demonic rhino will be let out of its cage - YOU will get your face smashed in. It is the players' responsibility to thwart this End Trouble or face its effects, all while attempting to end the conflict as usual. These goals may align or conflict, creating chaotic and engaging gameplay.

The conflict and wound-tier system is designed with massive carnage and violence in mind, affecting both players and their foes. Players can sustain severe injuries – losing limbs, getting their brains smashed in, faces ripped out of their skulls or in panic scramble to keep their intestines inside without actually dying. A character with a hole through the chest, severed arm or even their head cut off, can try to continue the fight with penalties according to their wounds and actions. The full impact of their injuries, including loss of life points, is not revealed until the conflict ends. The characters can of course spend actions trying to minimize the effects of their “presumed” damage to have a higher success surviving when the fight is over. Putting pressure on that wound, finding their head or scooping in all the guts again.

Once the conflict ends, they lose life points according to their wounds. If they run out of life points, the characters get ONE action to try to avert death.

Players will frequently encounter death in Astro Inferno; the conflict system is unforgiving and End Troubles can, unless thwarted, send one or more characters into the cycle of death and rebirth, instantly. However, death is part of the game's mechanics, and sometimes, progression requires dying, making death a bittersweet mistress.

Conflict can also be very rewarding. Using the story point system, it is possible for a character to decimate their enemies, watching body parts and chunks of flesh explode in fantastic cascades of blood and death as they cut down 10 or 20 enemies in a single strike.

Enter the grim world of legends and glorious death

In denial, awake or worn out
Is the sin the silence?
I've got just about - what it takes to make
The same mistake
I cry out loud - I'm inside out!
       - In Denial

Ov the Work of Satan and Letting go of your Baby!
about 1 month ago – Sat, Mar 23, 2024 at 12:23:58 PM

FIRST
Development is done! Layout is finished, edited, copied, and checked, double-checked, and triple-checked! Still wrapped up this week with originals for packaging and appending stuff, but the relief of getting the main PDFs submitted was unreal, to say the least! It’s a lot like leaving your home, and you turn around feeling your pockets to check that you haven’t forgotten the 4000 keys you need.

Even if I come from a background of printing, there are some procedures attached to bookbinding I've never been part of, that would have gone a lot faster if I knew them beforehand.

One detail is ink limits. Going through hundreds of images, looking for small green fields and dots and adjusting images based on a PDF export isn’t the most rewarding experience. It takes a lot of time, and a lot of that time is waiting for the computer to save the files, import them into the layout, export the layout to a PDF for review, and start over because there’s still one tiny green dot somewhere.
Once the printers are satisfied with the print originals for everything, I’ll be moving forward with the digital rewards, the campaigns, the legendary locations, and so on. AFTER making the digital PDF ready for you backers, converting all the core chapters into RGB (again).

SECOND
I thought I’d share some insights into production by sharing some samples for the bookbinding.

The Core Edition, which artwise has a vibrant feel but still with darkness embedded, will have a 3mm hardcover in black geltex paper with a soft embossing effect. The black cross and logos will be in black relief varnish, which should look really nice. The endpapers are in a blood-red smooth geltex, giving it a really luxurious feel.Then there are 384 pages of pure satanic joy printed on very luxurious white Munken paper. The book will be about 4cm thick or 1.6”, and the cut of the book will be painted black as night, making this book one hefty BBB. (Big Black Book)
(In comparison this is a black cut book of about 2cm)

The Legendary Edition, which artwise is a fucking occult mastodon, has an  sepia feel to it, much more brooding and heavier art, and is definitely not for kids. It has a 3mm hard Swiss binding, with an open spine covered in the same black geltex paper as the Core Edition but has gold foil instead of relief varnish, making this beast look as Legendary as it is. The first endpaper and the open spine will be covered in blood-red Brillianta textile, making this a completely unique TTRPG book. The last endpaper is the same blood-red geltex paper as in the Core Edition.

Here we have 400 pages of dark, occult, alternative and additional pieces of art compared to the Core, printed on Cream-colored Munken paper with higher quality. The book will be about 55mm thick or 2.15”, and with the gilded page cut displayed on such a large surface, it will be nuts! It won’t be the blackest of books, but it will certainly be remembered in history as an opulent behemoth – an undead eldritch dragon in black and gold. 
(In comparison this is a gilded cut book of about 2cm)

THIRD
So the game is on its way, but what exactly is Astro Inferno gamewise, and worldwise? Let’s take a tour of hell, reinvented!

"The stars, they are all angled wrong - and the sun and the moon refuse to burn"

The world has ended, and all has gone to hell; all souls have lived through an eternity of the Damnation, in pain and agony, tortured by the fallen angels under the watchful eye of the Serpent Sun, Satan. Millennia after millennia of torture that most souls only instinctually can recognize as an unnatural inherent fear of everything and increased animalistic behaviours.

Something happened in this infernal paradise of hell, something that put out all the fires and shut down the death factories one by one. The world slowly drifted apart, and new worlds came to the surface in the bursting seams. The presence of the great leader of the fallen angels slowly retreated, and soon Satan was only a myth. Fantasies, dreams, and myths of mankind came alive, as did the locations. Mixed in the satanic void suddenly existed new places, places of riches, resources, new creatures to enslave and torture. Most fallen angels left the old hells and ventured into the realms of myth. Here they were met with new powerful entities, old gods, creatures of myth and legend. Repugnant monstrosities given power by the belief and fantasy of mankind, now roaming free in this Fractured World, a blend of old hells, creation, dreams, and myths.

A great war started and a period called the Great Dark ensued. Gods and fallen angels fought for centuries and created a true end of days, cataclysm, ragnarok, apocalypse – scattering souls of mankind all over Fracture. When the most violent wars finally calmed down, partly because of the powers and immortality of the two sides, and partly because they had started to socialize and even get along. Half gods and half demons roamed the world, beings of spark and unlight met beings of myth and legend, as friends, and as foes.

This is where we set our scene; the Astro Inferno can begin. Play the corrupted souls fighting creatures of legend, divine machines of extinction, and fallen angels of heaven.

We will continue the lore recap in the next update, and sort of go through it all, piece by piece.

FOURTH
But what is a mythical world of legends and gods worth, if you can engage it with an equally legendary and mythical system? Let’s start to recap the system of Astro Inferno, the Story Stakes System.

Your soul has qualities and skills, and you roll dice just like in any system to see if you succeed with your tasks. But where other narrative-driven systems shy away from dice, we want to roll dice, all the time! You want to know if there is a bar nearby where you can rest your feet? Roll a Dominions check and see. 

If you succeed, you know of a bar nearby, fine, you succeed in your intention with the check, and can go on with your day.

If you roll a perfect (1), you are standing next to the bar, and you are a regular here and hell… the barkeep owes you some money and you just remembered that you have a room paid for the whole week upstairs!

If you fail, you not only don't know any bars nearby, but you also realize that this is a pretty rough neighborhood. A lot of notices about missing people look really worrying as you make your way through a narrow alleyway. Then you remember that tale of the Midnight Witch they spoke about yesterday, she who dragged souls down into the sewers and cooked them in oil.

If you roll a botch (20), you try to think of a bar when the ground suddenly hits your face in a noxious haze. Your face is shredded as someone is dragging you through the streets holding your legs. You suddenly are wounded and in a very dangerous situation.

The Story part of this system opens up not only for players to influence the story and take part in the narrative in a “mechanical” way, it also gives the GM a narrative tool, to create and build their story in unexpected ways, in the same “mechanical” way.

Next update we go over the, for some gamers, shocking, Stakes part and some conflict!

"In the black water – the sun shining at midnight"

Now the stars they are all angled wrong
And the sun and the moon refuse to burn
But I remember the message in the demon's hand
Dread the passage of jesus, for he does not return
- Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum

Ov Expanding Hell and the Spirits of Old
2 months ago – Tue, Feb 20, 2024 at 05:59:35 AM

FIRST
We’ve gotten confirmation on production of Astro Inferno in March. I plan to have the final print pdfs ready in about two weeks. The printers tell me that they estimate production to take about 5-6 weeks, mainly because of the gilded cut of the legendary version. So we’re looking at a mid April delivery to the studio. We estimate a 2 week packing spree and about 2-3 weeks for actual shipping, making May the expected month of backers receiving the game. I’m unofficially proclaiming June 6 (my birthday) the launch date outside of the Kickstarter.

As for the full Satanic progression it looks something like this right now:

We’re currently only focusing on getting the physical stuff ready and as soon as we’ve submitted all the files for printing we can go back to finishing the digital products that have been neglected for now.

Next update I’ll get you some images of the finished products that are ready for shipping!

SECOND
The hobby of TTRPG has expanded into the digital arena and the last few weeks I’ve dove into the wonderful world of VTTs (virtual table tops). Astro Inferno will be featured in at least one of these platforms and I would like to hear where your preferences lie? The platforms that we’re currently checking out are:

Roll20
Foundry
Alchemy RPG

Other suggestions and ideas are welcome.

THIRD
After development of the Core game there are a lot of plans in the works to expand the hellscape of Astro Inferno. But that isn’t all! Plans to publish other kinds of media under the umbrella of Haxan Studios also has surfaced during development. Astro Inferno will be in the forefront of all ambitions, but RPG related media, horror fiction, and roleplaying guides in general also have been brought up as possible new projects for the future. If there is some kind of project in the same dark vein you would like us to sink our teeth into, don’t hesitate to call it out into the darkness, something might call your name back!

Chemos - obscene dread of the sons of Moab - Rous from your slumber on that fiery bed

Inside of this hole you create, you hide from yourself
You separate every belief that is true, and
you spend your life, attached to this poison
You don't feel anything out of the way, and it’s true that
You spend your life trapped in this void where 
you will stay always
- Phantom Bride

Ov The Work of Satan and Tying Strings
3 months ago – Wed, Jan 10, 2024 at 06:11:35 AM

FIRST
Very short commune because I’m working my ass off right now. 

The first Backer Preview pdf is out and anyone with a zero balance should have access to it in backerkit. Read it, check it and report any irregularities you find. 

Visit the official discord to report any suggestions or make them directly in the pdf online. I’m updating the pdf continually so make sure you have a fresh copy.

Astro Coven Discord
https://discord.gg/eG35G3AH8S

SECOND
Development is heading forward and apart from a little longer holiday than expected it goes as planned. In the next update I’ll be able to share more information and how the satanic progression graph is looking, and maybe even give you a final date on the release!

THIRD
Supersneak peak of the Legendary Edition – never to see the digital limelight again.

Caress the darkness - mold infinity into hope - collect the memories lost inside

I've got a river running right into you
I've got a blood trail, red in the blue
Something you say or something you do
A taste of the divine

You've got my body, flesh and bone, yeah
The sky above, the Earth below

Raise me up again
Take me past the edge
I want to see the other side
See the other side
- The Summoning