Pict

The year is 208 AD. The Roman general Septimius Severus leads a force of 40,000 Roman troops into what they called Britannia.

As an ancient native warrior, what the Romans referred to as picti ("painted") or picts, you call the region home and must fight a daily battle to survive. The game's primary outdoor zone is an 8000-room map based on an actual map of the area between the Antonine Wall and Hadrian's Wall in ancient Scotland, what the Romans referred to as Caledonia. Your adventure begins just south of the Antonine Wall.

Trapped between great Roman walls and two impassable seas, you are trapped in an inescapable war zone. The highlands and dales alike teem with beasts, bandits, monsters, traitorous vassal tribesmen, and ruthless, reckless Romans, all of whom behave in unique ways based on their individual (or group) AI. Players can explore freely or complete kill quests to advance their character's skills and statistics; questing also gains favor with the tribal faction that issued the quest, which leads to steep discounts at shops and large statistical bonuses. One can also gather pelts from animal kills. The pelts can be used to craft canteens, satchels, or leather armor, or they can be traded with friendly native hunters for random items with unpredictable statistics.

Leatherworking is only one of many powerful crafting skills available. Players can also forge bronze and iron armor and weapons with the blacksmithing skill or craft bows, staves, or wands with fletching. A player can also brew a potion or scribe a scroll imbued with one or more of any spell currently known to the player. Potions and scrolls may be used by any player, and scrolls can be studied in an attempt to permanently learn the imbued spell(s). Failure destroys the scroll. Magic in Pict is arcane but powerful; players start with a very small selection of spells that are difficult to use and can even cause harm to the caster if used without enough mana, but a player who hones their Magic attribute and practices magic thoroughly will see results.

Pict's core gameplay is open-ended character advancement and gear customization that requires difficult choices but can lead to ingenious and powerful equipment combinations; any item that can be worn has a chance to be enchanted or enhanced, and the mods are fully randomized (like Diablo, Path of Exile, and my other favorite games). There are no "best items in the game", only the best items you have found and, more importantly, how well they synergize with your skills.

Pict is currently in casual development; if you would like to report an issue or suggest a change, e-mail me or send a note to Theran. See HELP NOTE for instructions on how to send an in-game note. NOTE: I will be very active in Summer 2017. Send requests now!