RTal has a deficit of rpg cred at this point. Cyberpunk 3.0, Mekton Zero in dev hell, etc.

Lemme know when there's a product on the shelves.

The novels are very mainstream tabletop like fantasy, but nicely done, with a dark edge. I'd not make too many assumptions about the translated English text versus the Polish, but we could ask a Pole.

Moorcock has gone from an anarchic rebel to a pain in the ass, does he really think he invented and owns 'Colour'+'Noun'?

I used to really grok RTG and I like Fuzion lite, but Fuzion heavy is a bit of a beast for modern gamers. I loved the Artesia books and loved the rpg, but can I be bothered with grappling the system to the ground and running it when I can just use RQ or Savage? Nah.

But it can be done and I may well bite when a book hits the shelf.

In the meantime you don't need an rpg book. Buy the setting book that Dark Horse put out, read the novels and take notes.

http://v.gd/51RkWE

Then run it with your preferred dark rpg, D&D would work, Dragon Age is quite a good fit with the dodgy aspects of sorcery mapping well, and WHFRP would mesh well with the Central European vibe.

Quote from: JRT;845164The thing I keep wondering is that there are all these spin-offs like the Witcher Comics being licensed from CDPR to Dark Horse Comics, and now this RPG...

But The Witcher series is based and licensed from the books written by Andrzej Sapkowski, and there was an RPG released in the past directly from the books--so why are these new projects licensed from CDPR instead of directly from the author?  Usually you don't sub-license a license like that.  Or am I missing something?

"Usually you don't sublicense like that?"

All LotR games (from MERP onwards) are sublicenses of the movie license.
Lots of Harry Potter merch (including card games) are Warner Bros. licenses.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;845241"Usually you don't sublicense like that?"

All LotR games (from MERP onwards) are sublicenses of the movie license.
Lots of Harry Potter merch (including card games) are Warner Bros. licenses.

Well, I'm familiar with that because it's a Hollywood thing, but in those cases I think they are using the artwork and film--I know with Tolkien sometimes they get a separate license from the Tolkien Enterprises directly for stuff that didn't appear in the films.  

This is the first case of it being from an RPG--in most cases when this has been done, the IP was owned by the CRPG maker like Dragon Age.  

It's possible that this is based on the "look and feel" of the Witcher games, but they've licensed comics to Dark Horse, and from what I've seen the look and feel of Garrett is pretty much akin to the book.  

All this is a long-winded form of saying I really hope Sapkowski isn't getting screwed in the deal by a poor license or something like that.  Maybe I'm worried about nothing, but it's been bugging me a bit.

Talsorian rocks. Can't see why they'd do a lame franchise like Witcher though.

Quote from: The Ent;845253Talsorian rocks. Can't see why they'd do a lame franchise like Witcher though.

I'm not a big fan but I think I see why; it's a well-known videogame franchise. It does have some potential of bringing in new blood.

Nevertheless, I expected anyone new to the hobby who picks up RTG's The Witcher RPG to be immediately turned off when faced with Fuzion. I recognize that the system may have its fans, but generally speaking, I feel licenced RPGs are better served by more accessible systems.

The Witcher has drugs, and PCs working as deniable assets, what could be a better fit than a company that already has experience with cyberpunk?

Quote from: AsenRG;845273The Witcher has drugs, and PCs working as deniable assets, what could be a better fit than a company that already has experience with cyberpunk?

One that actually delivers product promised, and demonstrates that it is a current, competently-run company.

I hear the Witcher is a pretty popular franchise in Europe? Eastern Europe? Can our residential Euro-badasses confirm? I heard the books were... okay.

Anyhow - the reason they're doing Witcher is because they're partnered up for CP2077 which they're spending the next year working on.

So in the meantime...

Quote from: JRT;845164The thing I keep wondering is that there are all these spin-offs like the Witcher Comics being licensed from CDPR to Dark Horse Comics, and now this RPG...

But The Witcher series is based and licensed from the books written by Andrzej Sapkowski, and there was an RPG released in the past directly from the books--so why are these new projects licensed from CDPR instead of directly from the author?  Usually you don't sub-license a license like that.  Or am I missing something?

Was this a Polish-language RPG?

Do you know anything about what the mechanics were like?

Quote from: tenbones;845406I hear the Witcher is a pretty popular franchise in Europe? Eastern Europe? Can our residential Euro-badasses confirm? I heard the books were... okay.

In France the books seem to be successful, I have no hard numbers to provide but :

_all the novels so far have been translated (I read a lot about the english translation being awful though). This usually doesn't happen if the books don't sell well (The Laundry books translations didn't go farther than the second volume for example). Last book was published in may 2015.

_The Dark Horse artbook/worldbook based on the game has been translated as well (whereas the Dragon Age books aren't while the games are also quite succesful here).

Quote from: tenbones;845406I hear the Witcher is a pretty popular franchise in Europe? Eastern Europe? Can our residential Euro-badasses confirm? I heard the books were... okay.

In Germany The Witcher computer game seems to be big. We had a booth in the same hall as the Witcher publisher at Gamescom in Cologne (2013), and there was always a big commotion around the booth.

I am not sure if all those gamers read the stories, though. The books are published by one of our more respected publishing houses (dtv), not the ones known for fantasy literature.

I read the first two books and I really loved them. They convinced me (once more) that the ideal format for the fantasy genre is the short story, and not the "endless trilogy" format that has infected our publishing culture.

Quote from: tenbones;845406I hear the Witcher is a pretty popular franchise in Europe? Eastern Europe? Can our residential Euro-badasses confirm? I heard the books were... okay.

Confirmed for Eastern Europe, though I haven't got hard data.
The books are much better than simply okay.

Quote from: RPGPundit;845676Was this a Polish-language RPG?

Do you know anything about what the mechanics were like?

The game is based on a book series written by a Polish author, with the original title being Wiedzmin, and only after it was popular, they made a PC game for it.

Finally would be able to make my own character, rather than play Geralt.  So, that is something.  Don't like that part of that otherwise ok game.

The issue I have with The Witcher series is all the stupid politics.    Seriously annoying.  But I can accept that they're a reality.  And at least there, there's enough of a 'good/evil' axis that even if a bad person does some good things, there are still reasons to remove that person from the fantasy genepool.

And I just want to make a Witcher of my own, not play Geralt.