A game of infernal thrones (Solium Infernum)

[Jaedar]

The Prince of Darkness has vanished and the Infernal Throne sits empty. A conclave of the Powers and Potentates of Hell will be summoned to Pandemonium to select the next ruler of The Infernal Pit. Do you have what it takes to claim the throne and rule Hell?

Solium Infernum is a turn-based strategy game based on intrigue and scheming. The goal, as stated above, is to claim the throne of hell for yourself. You can do this through a variety of mechanics such as sorcery, martial strength, prestige and many forms of cunning.

As usual, the AI is not quite good at deception, so the game only really shines in multiplayer which requires players. We previously had a game going with codexers but it was brought down by the sloth of one of the participants who shall remain unnamed. But a few months have passed, and this game is very good, so I want to try again.

What you will need to participate in this glorious effort of diplomacy and ruthless backstabbing is a copy of the game(legit or yarr'd) and enough free time to play one turn per day. Since the game will likely take more than a month at this rate this is not an insignificant investment. More than one turn per day would be lovely, but it's hard to pull off with different time zones. It takes about 5 minutes to download, play, and upload your turn files if you know what you want to do in the game.

Mechanics wise, you start the game by creating your archfiend with the very robust character editor. You get a certain number of actions per turn, 2 by default but it can be increased to as much as 6 as the game goes on. Players actions then get executed in a rotating order. Most actions also require one or more of four resources( souls, ichor, darkness and hellfire) which must be gathered, either by your minions or by demanding them from other players.

The game requires 4-6 players. If there are more folks than that interested, we'll try to find a solution.

RPS did a pretty good AAR of the game which can be found here.

pinging ironyuri , TripJack

 

[Darth Roxor]

You know you will never get a game to the end right

Also, you forgot to notify The Brazilian Slaughter, he ought to be interested

 

[TripJack]

dibs on this portrait again

You know you will never get a game to the end right

well not with that attitude

 

[Darth Roxor]

well not with that attitude

well sir, I was almost always the first one to transmit saves, so

I almost feel tempted to participate again, but three times the charm as they say. And three times this has failed so far, so I'm sceptical.

 

[TripJack]

nah it'll work for sure this time i've got a good feeling

 

[hoverdog]

but it was brought down by the sloth of one of the participants who shall remain unnamed.

Are you talking about The Brazilian Slaughter?

 

[Jaedar]

You know you will never get a game to the end right

There can be no rest until someone rules hell.

And this game is pretty enjoyable even if I am always robbed of a conclusion.

 

[EmoBunny]

I'm down if I can acquire a copy of the game.

 

[Trash]

We once did a Codexian play of this one and I can say it truly rocked. Angst, arrogance and butthurt were seen in spades.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...l-infernum-pbem-mrstone-gets-upset-win.39021/

 

[Brotherman Bill]

P cool game, as long as the playing group doesnt sux ololo

 

[Brotherman Bill]

Well Darth Roxor root won, good fucking job. The guy who was sitting on 20 fucking prestige until 60 turns into the game and whose main occupation is feeding praetors, that is. But of course, suiciding on hero has priority.

 

[hoverdog]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/01/05/solium-infernum-dev-quits-pc-for-board-games/#more-260561

Who will rule hell? No longer Vic Davis and Cryptic Comet, creator of the RPS-beloved turned-based strategy game Solium Infernum. In a post over at his blog, Davis explains that he’s leaving computer game development behind in order to take his boardgamey design skills off to the land of actual board games.

Why? “I’ve been selling computer games for over 7 years and it’s been a great ride,” starts the post. “Selling games directly from this website has been an increasingly difficult task. My programming skills are so tied to an aging and abandoned development platform that making even a niche title like my previous games is a dubious proposition at best. So I’m leaving the digital space and moving over to the card board arena where I hope my design skills can shine.”

Off to that damnable temptress world of card and plastic. Oh Vic.


Tech support and downloads of previously released games will continue, but otherwise it’s all curtains for digital works. “I have a working prototype of a 2-4 player game that involves players trying to accumulate enough “influence” points to win the game,” as the same post explains. “The theme is a fantasy setting set in a fictitious city of splendor named Vance. I’ll reveal a lot more about the theme and mechanics as things progress. In general it is played in rounds with each player choosing 2 of 7 possible actions. It involves a card and dice system, screw you cards played face down and an end of round secret bidding phase for important cards from a special deck.”

Which sounds swell, and a similar sort of experience to those Davis made for PC. He’s planning with fingers crossed to update his site once a week from now on with more information on the game’s design.

Games is games are games am games and it’s great that Davis is still going to be making them in whatever format they come – but, in some ways, I still feel the loss. I missed the boat on both Armageddon Empires and Solium Infernum, but I’ve had them in mind these past twelve months and have repeatedly visited Davis’ site for signs of new work. That’s largely because, despite never personally getting a completed match of them going, the aforementioned games consumed the 2009ish formation of the RPS Hivemind, prompting the production of a six-person, eight-part Solium Infernum diary, from which this post’s header image is stolen; a Kieron hands-on andQuinns review of the same game; an interview with their creator; and a 2007 advent Game-o-Calendar pick for Armageddon Empires.

Now we can’t write much about his future work. I guess I’ll have to set up a board game site with an abrasive name and a malignant avocado.

well this sucks.

 

[Renegen]

His games have been getting worse. Armageddon Empires is still my favourite.

 

[TripJack]

seeing this thread gets me all excited about having another codex solium pbem and its this shit instead

also this might be the first time in history that i regret pirating a game instead of buying it

 

[Torrasque01]

Well it's not the worst news in the world. His next game could be ported to vassal or Tabletop Simulator and we wouldn't have to put up with terrible Adobe Air shit.

 

[KoolNoodles]

Remember grabbing the demo of AE before release a long time ago. Bought that and SI, was waiting to buy his Cthulhu game based on the demo(didn't much care for the western).

That's pretty sad, but I also love boardgames and an adaptation of either AE or SI(or similar) in that format would be sweet. Only thing I'd miss was the music.

Also Vic seemed like a stand up guy on his blog and in the forums. I rebuilt my computer a couple years ago, lost my SI key, emailed him about it(this was a couple years after first purchase). He responded within a half hour with a new key. Pretty dope.

 

[Jaedar]

Remember grabbing the demo of AE before release a long time ago. Bought that and SI, was waiting to buy his Cthulhu game based on the demo(didn't much care for the western).

That's pretty sad, but I also love boardgames and an adaptation of either AE or SI(or similar) in that format would be sweet. Only thing I'd miss was the music.

Also Vic seemed like a stand up guy on his blog and in the forums. I rebuilt my computer a couple years ago, lost my SI key, emailed him about it(this was a couple years after first purchase). He responded within a half hour with a new key. Pretty dope.

Yeah. It's a shame his games haven't made it onto Steam. He deserves the sales it would bring.

 

[almondblight]

Be sure to vote for Occult Chronicles on Steam Greenlight. Kind of crazy AE was rejected (makes me think they weren't even looking at many of the games before). I wonder if Vic ever tried GOG.

 

[KoolNoodles]

It's amazing the complete shit that gets on the front page, and his stuff can't even get a fair shake. Granted, maybe he never wanted to go that route because of the fees(though he did put OC on there), but his games are certainly far superior to a lot of the garbage and "average" games on Steam.

As I've absorbed the news it has kinda depressed me. In the back of my mind I was hoping to hear of new weird games from Cryptic Comet/Vic Davis for years to come, and now it's over.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

also this might be the first time in history that i regret pirating a game instead of buying it

Maybe with this news and him previously bundling Armageddon Empires we'll get a Cryptic Comet humble bundle with SI and Occult Chronicles and the western card game and everyone can have legal copies. I swear that bastard Vogel has had 2 or 3 humble bundles to himself, Vic Davis should be able to swing one.

 

[Gragt]

It's amazing the complete shit that gets on the front page, and his stuff can't even get a fair shake. Granted, maybe he never wanted to go that route because of the fees(though he did put OC on there), but his games are certainly far superior to a lot of the garbage and "average" games on Steam.

Davis tried to get them on Steam before, knowing it would bring them much-needed exposure, but got a reply along the lines of “not a chance in Hell.”

 

[Ulminati]

Maybe we'll get an actual Solium Infernum board game!

 

[toro]

Davis tried to get them on Steam before, knowing it would bring them much-needed exposure, but got a reply along the lines of “not a chance in Hell.”

And the reason was?

 

[Jaedar]

Maybe we'll get an actual Solium Infernum board game!

Unfortunately a lot of the mechanics in SI only work when you have an impartial mediator obscuring information between the players. Still, it could be really cool

 

[ColCol]

This sucks, especially because he posted this on his blog shortly before the new direction post:


"So what does the future hold in store for Cryptic Comet? I am working on a new game. It’s a turn based strategy game with a map, units, locations and very board game like. The idea is for the player to use a completely different rule set than the 4 AI’s that he is competing against. I don’t want to reveal the setting but I think it is going to be pretty far out there. The player is besieged on all sides and has to manage limited resources to hold off the AI’s until a certain objective can be achieved. Rorke’s Drift is a big inspiration for this but there are no Zulu’s and your victory condition is pretty nihilistic…so it’s Rorke’s Drift meets the end of John Carpenter’s The Thing. I’ve always wanted to make this game"