Repent

11/06/2024

The U.N. wants you to reduce your enegy use, to save the planet.

Google/Meta/Amazon wants nuclear reactors to power their A.I.

Bill Gates thinks A.I. could give humanity a new religion.

We are not saving the planet.

We are building our prison.

The Beast is stirring...

10/08/2024

A little more inspiration. So now I can't help but get a boost when I look at my phone (empty street is the Lock Screen). Added the "Particles background Icon" set on Android from Suhrab Bazarbayev. Feel free to download the icon-free images below and gear up your own device. 😉

10/08/2024

LUKE: 15-27 KJV

15 For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

16 And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.

17 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.

18 But there shall not an hair of your head perish.

19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

21 Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.

22 For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

23 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.

24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

07/09/2024

Just a little inspirational wallpaper for myself...

05/02/2024

06/19/2021

Faith, Grace & Spirit: The Christian Core of Repent

Part 3: Metagaming and the Ministry of Repent

“Repent: The End Times Role-Playing Game is a work of fiction. Names, characters, governments, shadowy agencies, secret societies, global disasters, and divine judgements are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual beings, living, dead, or interdimensional, or the fulfilment of prophecy by actual events, are purely coincidental.”

Yeah… no.

A disclaimer like that just doesn’t work for Repent, does it?

Repent is a game that strives to realistically depict the state of the world according to ancient prophetic scriptures concerning future events, as written in The Holy Bible—which some two billion Christians worldwide hold to be the infallible Word of the One True and Almighty God.

So, what am I saying?

In my youth I dreamt of exploring the wilds of Middle Earth, trespassing into forbidden Eldritch catacombs, or making the jump to A Galaxy Far, Far Away. All places full of adventure, of epic battles between good and evil, ancient wisdom and prophecies, where ordinary people did extraordinary things. The real world, obviously, was completely boring, and contained no such elements to pique the interest of an imaginative young man.

But one day, while researching ideas for an epic “end of the world” campaign idea for Dungeons & Dragons, I found myself thumbing through the Bible, remembering something about the apocalypse in the Book of Revelations.

As I read, and read, and read some more… I realized that the Bible wasn’t just a book full of stories about the past.

It was a book about the future.

Ages ago, a handful of people were chosen by God, to be shown visions of the distant future, that they were instructed to write down, and would later be transcribed, translated, printed, published, and duplicated for centuries, eventually ending up sitting on your nightstand, on a bookshelf, or in a drawer somewhere in your house, church, or even hotel room.

Where you, can now find it, pick it up, and access the divine knowledge and wisdom contained therein.

Now most of us have read a book, watched a movie, or played a game where when it was over, we found ourselves wishing it were true, wishing it were real, or even find ourselves acting out our favorite scenes when we think no one is looking. But aside from in our imaginations, none of us expect to encounter a Nazgul, a Shoggoth, or an AT-ST while taking the trash out at night.

With Repent, things are… rather different.

A person unfamiliar with the Bible, or any of the things depicted in Repent, may ask if any of it could even possibly be real? While a Christian, well-versed in scripture, will very confidently be able to tell them… yes, it’s all real!

Whether believer or non-believer, once exposed to Repent, you may find yourself thinking… about the world around you in a whole new light…

If a secret occult society infiltrated your community, local government, or even your church, how would you know? If the government offered a reward for the names of any Christians in your school, or neighborhood, who would turn you in? When you see a stray cat watching from across the street as you take the trash out at night, do you tell yourself not to worry, it’s just a cat?

No other game invites its’ players to fundamentally shatter their preconceptions of reality, in such a way, that when you stop playing the game for the night, you find you are still playing the game.

Some would call it metagaming. Actively applying elements from within the game, to your life beyond, after the game session ends.

So, what happens when you create a game like Repent, that teaches the players about what it means to be a Christian, how to bring others to Christ by spreading the Gospel, how to battle demons in Spiritual Warfare, and how to understand Biblical Prophecy regarding the events of the end times and the Return of Jesus Christ?

Well… it becomes a ministry of sorts.

It encourages players to verify the contents of the game against the contents of the Bible. It encourages players to learn about Christianity, and the truth about this world, and the end times, in order to understand and play the game.

And ultimately, through metagaming, it encourages the players to take what they’ve learned and apply it to what they see around them, the people, the places, the news, as well as themselves, their own thoughts, and desires.

By taking the narrow path, and weaving sound Biblical Christianity into the fabric of a game, you cannot share Repent, without sharing the Good News of Christ and his imminent return.

So, it is my dream, and indeed perhaps my calling, to bring people together, in person or via webcams, as friends, families, classmates and coworkers, believers and non-believers alike, to share in the danger, excitement, collaboration, and faith, of Repent.

And maybe share a pizza or two as well.

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:” Acts 2: 17

Up next, Design & History - How Repent Began...

06/07/2021

Faith, Grace & Spirit: The Christian Core of Repent

Part 2: Repent, the Spirit and the Flesh

From the beginning, I knew Repent: The End Times Role-Playing Game would, at its core, have to be different than most role-playing games.

While some RPGs offer players the option to have their characters aligned with a fictional belief system, or worship a fictional deity, it is usually just considered part of the character’s background story or color text and has little or no bearing on the actual gameplay. Other games simply add on a Faith statistic, which serves as a one-stop catch-all for anything in the game related to a character’s beliefs or religion of choice.

With Repent, the intriguing design challenge that presented itself early on, was realizing that Christianity itself had to be the core system of the game. Think about that for a minute before you continue reading. The concept is staggering.

The other nearly opposing component of Repent that was critical to me, was realism. It couldn’t just be an apocalyptic game where you play a bunch of sinful heathens killing, stealing, and destroying, with a tacked-on Christian theme and setting. It also couldn’t be a game where you played righteous perfect saints gallivanting around, ridding the world of evil, in the name of Jesus. Why not?

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” Galatians 5:17

In a nutshell, that means that as Christians, a battle between good and evil, the natural and the supernatural, the physical and the spiritual, is constantly taking place within us.

In order to achieve this goal of “Christian Realism” in Repent, the core system had to depict this internal struggle within the Player Characters. In Repent, you no longer just have to worry about suffering physical Wounds, losing Health, and dying; you also have to worry about incurring spiritual wounds, aka Strongholds, losing Faith, and ultimately losing your “self”, your soul.

I once heard it said that the only perfect people, are the ones you don’t know.

In many RPGs, players role-play as heroic characters who battle external foes. Repent’s player characters are simply ordinary people, with hopes, dreams, and problems, all in a state of spiritual struggle, and enduring what many would simply term, “the end of the world”. Their foes are both external, and internal as well.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12

All player characters in Repent begin the game with a number of Strongholds already accumulated according to their age and life experience in this fallen world. Strongholds, as you may recall, are the fleshly natures, vices, flaws, struggles, or demonic influences, which can lead a character to sin. Strongholds are represented in the game by a percentage score, which can be tested to determine if a character gives in to their sinful nature, or if they are able to overcome it.

For example, if a player character named John has an Addiction Stronghold of 36%, that may mean that in John’s backstory, there is a family history of alcoholism, which John himself struggles with.

In a scenario where John and his companions are searching for food and medicine in an abandoned farmhouse, John discovers a bottle of whiskey, and feels the urge to pocket it for himself when no one is looking. Even though the player knows this is the wrong thing to do, the game Host may decide that a Stronghold Check is needed to determine how John handles this urge.

A successful roll of equal or above 36% could mean that John leaves the whiskey, tells another character about it, hands it to another character, or even pours it down the sink, depending on the degree of success.

While a failed roll of less than 36% could mean that John pockets the alcohol for himself, or quickly consumes it to hide the evidence.

A success will result in a decrease in John’s Addiction Stronghold, representing his increased ability to overcome it. While a failure will result in the opposite. If John’s Addiction Stronghold continues to climb, he will continue to fail to control it, and it may become dangerously problematic for himself as well as his companions.

To make matters worse for John, there may also be an evil spirit lingering in the farmhouse. A demon. Who picks up on Johns weakness for alcohol and decides to attack him spiritually, in hopes of pushing John over the edge by increasing his Addiction Stronghold. But demon troubles are a whole other area of the game, known as Spiritual Warfare.

As John’s Addiction increases, the flesh begins to win over his spirit, and John’s Faith decreases by the same amount. When his Addiction reaches 100%, John’s Faith likewise reaches 0% and his alcoholism now dominates his motivations in all areas of his life.

In addition, John’s 0% Faith, now makes him open to Demonic Possession.

It is this realistic approach to Christianity’s struggle between the flesh and the spirit that makes Repent different than other role-playing games, and when coupled with its end-times survival setting, makes it the perfect recipe for storytelling, adventure, and moral quandaries.

Next up: Part 3 – Metagaming and the Ministry of Repent…

06/03/2021

Faith, Grace & Spirit: The Christian Core of Repent

Part 1: Christianity and the End Times of Repent

If there is just one thing, that I know must be in the finished version of Repent: The End Times Role-Playing Game, it is… Christianity, intact, and truthfully presented.

As I am writing and revising this, I realize that maybe the reader does not have any understanding of what a Christian is, except for what they have learned from the world. Too often we get into arguments and debates, without really getting down to what makes a Christian person different than a non-Christian person.

For my part, I like to imagine that the world is a great big ship, like the Titanic, that is sinking, and we are all in the water together, crying, drowning, freezing, dying. But lo and behold, a light shines out of the darkness, and a hand reaches down for each of us, with the promise that we will be rescued, if we just reach out and accept it.

Sure, a Christian by definition is a follower of Jesus Christ, but like anyone they can fall prey to arrogance, pride, judgmental thinking, and all manner of sin. But often times, a Christian is simply someone who finally “gets it”. Someone who finally sees and hears the message, that we are all broken, we are all flawed, and in the end, we cannot save ourselves. And sometimes we have to hit rock-bottom before we can accept that truth.

The end times, including the major events depicted in the Book of Revelation, are primarily aimed at delivering this message to the world. They are God’s iceberg, to the world’s Titanic. God, through his Son, Jesus, is simply saying, “Take my hand, and I will save you.”

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

However, many stories in movies, books and games have gone the secular route of depicting a portion of the end times, only to completely leave out the Christian elements that define its true purpose and meaning. The absence of this Christian foundation typically results in a story which presents humanity as its own hero, saving the world and itself by preventing the apocalypse, or restoring some fictional requirement for a balance between good and evil in order to avert a catastrophe of biblical proportions. In these stories, the fulfillment of biblical prophecy is something to be prevented.

Likewise, there are also so-called Christian movies, books and games that depict Biblical elements and themes, without including any real Christianity at all. These might be family-friendly, or even Christian-approved, but if they are not delivering the gospel of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, death, and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins and salvation of souls… what is their purpose?

With Repent, the challenge was to create a hardcore apocalyptic role-playing game that stuck to its Biblical guns and did not reject Christ for the sake of reaching a bigger market or avoiding controversy. Plain and simple, if players can pick up a book and learn about fictional worlds, peoples, and creatures, and immerse themselves in the sci-fi, fantasy or horror realm of their choice, then they can just as easily dive into a world of epic good versus evil, chilling ancient prophecies, harrowing spiritual warfare, rock-solid faith, and the power of miracles.

Repent takes the narrow path and aims to present the end times of the Bible with accurate scriptural backing where possible, and inspired creativity where necessary, to deliver a game where players take on the role of Christians battling the Luciferian New World Order, while forming a Christian Underground movement to feed and grow the remnant of the true Christian Church by spreading the gospel of Christ’s sacrifice, salvation, and imminent return.

Or die trying.

Next up: Part 2 – Repent, the Spirit and the Flesh…

05/22/2021

Repent: Story & Setting

Part 7: What about the Rapture?

The Rapture is a subject of debate among many Christians, typically lumped into one of three beliefs: that believers will vanish from the Earth and be caught up to Heaven by Christ prior to the Tribulation (the Pre-Trib belief), or midway through, but prior to the Great Tribulation (the Mid-Trib belief), or lastly that we will simply join Him in the air at His Return, the Second Coming, at The Battle of Armageddon (the Post-Trib belief).

For the game, Repent, the point at which all the player characters disappear from the Earth, would seem to be the end of the game. However, for all intents and purposes, the Rapture in Repent is a relatively innocuous event that can either be the beginning, middle, or end of the story. As author and designer of Repent, I am choosing to let this event be entirely up to the players and/or game referee (The Host, as I call them in Repent).

If the Host/players choose to start the game with the Rapture, then it is assumed that all of the player characters have been “Left Behind” and have come to Christ after the event.

If the Host/players choose to place the Rapture in the middle of the timeline, say, just prior to the Great Tribulation, it could be used to end the story of the initial group of player characters, while beginning the story of a new group of player characters who have been “Left Behind”. It could be really interesting if these characters were acquaintances of the original characters, and the Rapture provides the prompting to give their life to Christ as a result.

Lastly, if the Host/players choose to end the game with the Rapture, at the Second Coming, it could be a dramatic wrap up to the player characters story, and a hard-won victory for their faith.

In a nutshell, in Repent, the Rapture is a story-telling variable, that can impact the player characters’ story in any of the ways above, and more, but it has no bearing on the game rules, or session-to-session play.

I hope this deliberately flexible approach to the Rapture meets more approval among future Repent Hosts and players, than if I had limited the Rapture to a rigid and fixed event in the end times timeline. I also hope that you have been both entertained and educated by my 7-part presentation of the Story and Setting of Repent in these posts.

Next up, I will discuss Faith, Grace & Spirit: The Christian Core of Repent...

05/21/2021

Repent: Story & Setting

Part 6: The Battle of Armageddon

Knowing his time is short, Satan, in his guise as the now possessed human-turned-cyborg Antichrist, the Risen Savior of Mankind, the Leader of the New World Order, and the self-declared One True god of this world… seizes the day, to lead his forces, with his False Prophet, towards the final battle. To victory. In the valley of Har Megiddo, known by the Underground, to be, Armageddon. And as if in long-awaited anticipation, the Almighty God, in a fashion reminiscent of the days of Moses, dried up the Great River Euphrates, allowing the armies of the Beast their farewell march towards Jerusalem.

Upon their arrival, a great sound is heard like a shout, as if a trumpet were blown, and all eyes looked about wondering what it was. Then there appeared a sign in the heavens, like a cross, and clouds seem to billow from around it as it approached the Earth, and every living thing that remained on the earth, and in the sea, turned towards it, and in the air, great multitudes of birds began to circle above the valley.
The Underground knelt and bowed, and the army of the Antichrist stumbled and fell. Then the clouds began to move from the sky, as if rolled up like a great scroll, revealing the stars. Until they too fell from their place, and the dimension beyond human sight, the Third Heaven, was revealed which lie beyond them.
As the heavenly spectacle grew nearer, it began to take the form of a man, upon a white horse, many crowns upon His head, eyes aglow with inner light, His robes dipped in crimson flowing behind Him.

It was He.

The King of Kings. The Truth, the Way, and the Light. The Lord and Savior. The Risen Son of God.

Jesus, the Christ.

And behind Him, a multitude of thousands, in white apparel, and upon snowy steeds of their own, an entire army of His Saints.

They descended upon the Valley of Megiddo in silence, the world and all who witnessed their descent in awe, and finally stood motionless, save for the slightest breeze which moved the cloth of their robes and kissed the locks of Jesus’ hair. But as a growing murmur rose among the odious followers of the Antichrist, Christ and his Saints remained silent.

Eyes wild, scarred fists raised, spittle flying from curses hurled through clenched teeth, the rippling black masses of those who had chosen the world, earthly treasures, and sinful pleasures, and believed the lies of that Old Serpent, and fallen angel, Lucifer, stretched out for miles before them. If the Lord felt the pain of any of the words thrown at Him and His Saints, he did not show it, save for a slight twinkling in his eye that could only have been born of the deepest sorrow.

In that moment, the breeze died, and the air became still as the grave. The Antichrist stepped forward and onto a slight rise, the False Prophet just behind him, his followers parting, but continuing their vile chanting, utterly at unawares of what was about to take place. Surveying his army of lost souls with a bemused smirk that bordered on a sneer of disgust, he turned his gaze to Jesus and smiled with a grin that seemed almost inhuman and larger than the confines of his face.

“Is it finally time, Son of God? You, with your army of… wheat. And I with… so very much chaff. It didn’t have to be like this. You had your chance. And to think what we could have accomplished. It would have been… well… divine. But we all knew how this was going to end—except for these fools,” he chuckled.

“So… may I present… all the world’s unrepentant sinners… guilty as charged! Irredeemable! Unsavable! All… mine.” and with that the Antichrist made a sweeping gesture towards the now hushed masses around him.

“But I’m so sorry… you probably really tried… to have a personal relationship with each of them… didn’t you?” His venomous grin broadening ever nearer his ears, teeth now appearing long, sharp, and rotten with millennia of pure hatred.

“Oh, dear… is that… is that a tear I see?” he spat, with sing-song mockery.

And at that, the Antichrist, Satan, the Devil, the Red Dragon, and that Old Serpent of the Garden began to laugh, and laugh, the sound sickening as it rolled across the valley, as his followers turned wildly and ran, to and fro, as if to escape a burning building.

Then Jesus raised a hand, and all sound ceased.

All motion stopped. Everything seemed frozen in time.

Jesus spoke then, softly, but with a volume that drowned out all other sound.

“It is finished.”

In that instant, all who worshipped Satan, the Antichrist, the Beast, and had taken the Mark… perished. The very integrity of their bodies seeming to fail, as uniformly they disintegrated, flesh peeling from bone, eyes rolling from their sockets, blood pooling into a single sea of blood that stretched the length of the entire valley.

Upon the remains, the great multitudes of birds which had been circling above, fell upon them with relish, to feed.

Across the world the Earth seemed to heave a great shuddering sigh, and even the highest mountains gave in and crumbled, once strong islands succumbed to watery slumber, and the ancient city of Jerusalem itself was rent into thirds. A world away, the once proud ivory towers of the merchants of New Babylon fell in upon themselves, and the great twisted horn that was the New World Order’s headquarters, sunk into the pit from which it came, and was no more.

And it seemed then, to them that had endured until the end among the Christian Underground, that the Lord turned and spoke softly again to each one personally and smiled.

“Well done.”

Up next, the conclusion of the Repent Story & Setting series:
But... Where Is The Rapture?

05/21/2021

Repent Discord Q&A session
with Dan Davenport of Randomworlds...

[20-May-21 07:37 PM] AtomicWarHero , All. My name is Sean, and I’m currently working on Repent: The End Times Role-playing Game. www.facebook.com/repent.endtimesrpg

05/20/2021

Repent: Setting & Story

Part 5: The Day of the Lord

First, a catastrophic miscalculation and near miss by a returning comet occurs when it skims the atmosphere of the planet above South America and explodes above North America. The tremendous heat and shockwave setting the Amazon rainforest ablaze, and leaving forests and grasslands burning across both continents, with the final atmospheric detonation of the comet raining fiery shards of frozen methane across North America, killing many.

Second, a tumbling 3km wide rogue asteroid is detected far too late and strikes deep into the heart of the Pacific Ocean, sending out a 300ft tsunami and 100mph winds, destroying ships, coastlines, and sea-life across the entirety of the Pacific Rim nations.

Lastly, when a third object from space is detected hurtling toward the Earth, the NWO maneuvers its orbital weapons platforms to destroy it, declaring a victory for the planet as it shatters before impact. But the cheers turn to screams, as the fragments of the object light up the atmosphere, and meteors composed of toxic minerals rain down across the globe, poisoning the world’s fresh water supply.

The resultant impacts and fires add to the already clouded post-war skies, casting the world in shadow, by darkening the Sun, Moon, and stars.

When the martyrdom of Jews and Christians rises to the levels of global genocide at the hands of the unrepentant Antichrist’s soldiers and followers, God unleashes the terror of two plagues of demons upon the world.

The demons of the first plague, are hideous locust-like creatures which swarm the landscape like a black cloud, descending upon the horrified masses without the Seal of God, tormenting and torturing them. Those who are poisoned by the insectile demons’ stings, are said to be in agony for months, and unable even to take their own lives, a prisoner of their own suffering.

Those of the second, are a demonic army of mounted soldiers, riding upon the backs of creatures that spew forth fire and brimstone, released for the sole purpose of annihilating 1/3 of mankind with no remorse.

By the time the two plagues have passed, it is clear that Death, and Hell have been visited upon the Earth. For the enduring remnant of the Christian Underground who remain, the world now resembles an artist’s depiction of apocalyptic nightmare, hand-painted in reds, and blacks, shadow, and flame.

For every Seal. Every Trumpet. For each call to repent, one turns to the Cross, and one turns to the Beast. Or remains stagnant in the lukewarm bath of indecision. Like ballistic missiles, and stealth bombers, the angelic destroyers and reapers of the Host of Heaven descend, carrying out the Lord’s promise, to bring division, with a sword.

But there is still time to save those who have not yet bowed to the Beast.

Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth, as the final Vials of judgement are poured out upon them, in what the Underground reverently know to be The Day of the Lord. Those who chose to accept the Mark of the Beast, to worship the Antichrist, and rise in support of his Luciferian New World Order, now experience the full wrath of God.

First, grievous, and painful sores erupt upon the skin of those who took the Mark. Those who once rejoiced at the benefits gained, and scolded others for not accepting the inevitable, now stagger and writhe, furious in their agony, hideous in their semblance of the living dead of horror and television.

Then the seas and rivers turn to blood, and all that lived in them, dies. Inexplicable to science, but undeniable to all their attempts to debunk it, the water has turned to human blood. The blood of martyrs. The blood of the unborn. The blood of those sacrificed in black rituals to Lucifer.

When the Sun itself strangely begins to flicker, all eyes are drawn skyward, only to witness with terror as the Earth’s life-giving star expands into a seething red giant, filling the sky and sending temperatures and solar radiation levels soaring as people seek shelter from the scorching rays.

Lastly, a spiritual darkness so black that only demons recognize it, descends upon the denizens of the NWO headquarters and New Babylon, which, coupled with their ghastly sores, dehydration, and solar burns, drives them deep into psychosis, rending themselves and each other in their soulless agony.

And then it stops.

Up next, Part 6: The Battle of Armageddon...