Since I have essential tremors in my hands I am  in awe of your ability to paint.

Very cool stuff; What are you playing right now that you would want stats for?

Quote from: Qwilion;383682Very cool stuff; What are you playing right now that you would want stats for?

I'm playing OD&D right now, but if you want to come up with any form of stats, for Arcana Evolved or w/e comes to your mind that'd be cool to share with others, shoot for it!

Vry nice. I've got some stuff I did that looks relatively spectacular, though for 40K, so not to people's tastes usually.

Sadly, I horribly abuse my mini's so even clear coat doesn't work.

But I have found I no longer have the patience it takes for me to be satisfied. I am at an impasse. I can not tolerate doing a half assed job painting, but I can't take the time it takes to make it tolerable. Thus, I do nothing.

then again, I haven't really needed models lately. The machine gun pace of editions of 40k wore me out, along with local boneheads running the local tournaments.  I tried war machine, had fun, but I was already done.

Heh. What I really like is the Confrontation line. Have a bunch of minis from Rackham, some painted, some unpainted still. GOD, these guys are gorgeous. Will take some pics for you guys later on.

Totally agree, though i do not always like the aesthetic of their designs, the models themselves are three shades of cool.  I was seriously considering buying up some wolfen or druid/celtic chick models (ok, I did actually buy some) until I realized that: Every game store I know carries an entire shelf load of the models and NO ONE is ever playing it.  Sort of like the Reaper Mini's. there does in fact seem to be an underlying game behind them but who the fuck is actually using it???

no one. that's who.

Well Confrontation is kind of popular in France, from what I remember. Rackham is actually a French company. The fact that the minis broke in the US even to this extent is kind of awesome. This doesn't happen every day, not because French designs suck, they absolutely do not, but there's always been this invisible barrier between from the French to the US market, with usually "smuggling" designers trying to "redesign" the French games that happen to make it in the US, with the translated results being usually FAR poorer than their original awesomer parents would have suggested.

Don't remind me about translations. I've got Cadwallon sitting on my shelf. I have never attempted to, and will probably never attempt to actually play or run it simply because the translation makes my eyes bleed.  I just thank god I'm not bilingual, the agony of knowing how well written it is in one language would be too painful a contrast, I think.

Quote from: Spike;384421Don't remind me about translations. I've got Cadwallon sitting on my shelf. I have never attempted to, and will probably never attempt to actually play or run it simply because the translation makes my eyes bleed.  I just thank god I'm not bilingual, the agony of knowing how well written it is in one language would be too painful a contrast, I think.

Though I did hear about the abysmal translation of the original in English, Cadwallon is pretty darn confusing in French as well (got the books in French here in Canada). It was actually designed by a guy I know who worked on Nephilim prior to this, and was very much into Swinish/White-wolfish pretense at the time. Which is to say that, even though Cadwallon is an hybrid between wargame and RPG, it's written with a literary tone that is much more complicated than it needed to be. The rules are not that clear either, mostly because of shitty cross-references and a feeling that the book organization is going all over the place.

The setting is pure fucking gold, however.

oh. Well in that case...

I imagine the setting is pure gold, but I'll be damned if I could ever work out enough of it (seeing as Cad is just a single city, after all) to actually USE that.

I really think it's a good game. Like I said, the setting's gold to me, and the game system actually features some pretty cool ideas, as long as you're not getting stuck in trying to make a literal reading of the game mechanics, but use a fair amount of personal interpretation for yourself and your game table.

The real botch here, IMO, is in the actual writing of the book, and its layout (which hasn't been mentioned, is absolutely drop-dead GORGEOUS, but ultimately adds to the game's confusion rather than anything else) and organization/physical production of the whole thing (speaking of which, related to the layout, the book is beautiful, with full gloss pages and stuff, but it doesn't survive actual play very well. It's actually one of those games that looks great as a coffee table reading, not so great in actual play).

Here's my full review in French, if you're interested:

Quote from: Benoist, on the GROG websiteQuand on parle de Cadwallon, deux extrêmes s'opposent : d'un côté, un jeu à base de figurines, et de l'autre, un background fouillé de micro-univers. D'où beaucoup de critiques extrêmes, avec ceux qui veulent des règles tactiques et adorent avoir un cadre détaillé pour permettre des confrontations plus dramatiques, et de l'autre les joueurs de jeu de rôles francophones classiques qui ont une définition précise, je dirais même étriquée, de ce qu'est ou n'est pas un JDR.

Personnellement, entre fan de Vampire La Mascarade ET fan de D&D toutes éditions confondues, je me retrouve plutôt au milieu de tout cela.

Cadwallon, de mon point de vue, représente un énorme pari : il essaie de mêler deux extrêmes dans un seul moule plutôt que de faire le moindre compromis. De ce fait, les fanatiques exclusifs de l'un ou l'autre des aspects multiples du hobby des jeux de simulation vont toujours trouver quelque chose à y redire, et d'expérience, surtout les adeptes du dramatisme et du narrativisme littéraire en JDR qui rejetteront en bloc les figurines et règles simulationnistes.

C'est à mon avis de ces influences, ainsi que de la croyance sur un "progrès" des JDR sur les trente dernières années, dont il faut savoir faire fi avant de faire la moindre critique de ce JDR, au risque de démontrer clairement une appartenance à un côté ou l'autre du débat. Une fois ceci fait, il faut aussi constater que nous n'avons pas là toute la matière qui fait de Cadwallon un JDR entier : ce que nous avons là, c'est un "Manuel des Joueurs", ni plus, ni moins. Il faudra attendre la sortie des "Secrets", ouvrage des MJ de Cadwallon, pour avoir une idée d'ensemble de l'édifice qui nous est ici partiellement présenté.

Sur la forme de ce Manuel des Joueurs, plusieurs choses à dire : l'ouvrage est magnifique. Somptueuses illustrations, photos de dioramas de figurines, nombreux schémas et plans explicatifs, c'est un livre copieux d'un point de vue esthétique que nous avons là. Mais l'argument retombe sur lui-même tant l'ouvrage est copieux. En effet, la réalisation du Manuel des Joueurs de Cadwallon me fait penser au Manuel des Joueurs de Nephilim Révélation par de nombreux côtés : tous deux magnifiques, tous deux très mal arrangés d'un point de vue logistique et ergonomique. Dans ce Manuel des Joueurs, pas d'index pour retrouver quelqu'information que ce soit. Les principes de règles sont expliqués au début de l'ouvrage et séparés du coeur du système jusqu'au Livre II, soit sur un centaine de pages de distance. On a l'impression que les auteurs de la maquette n'ont aucune idée de la façon dont un ouvrage de JDR est utilisé durant le jeu.

D'un point de vue de la substance, le sytème est somme toute assez standard mais solide. Certains aspects sont un peu différents des JDR publiés sur le marché français, mais on s'y retrouve assez vite. Les exemples sont nombreux et dans l'ensemble clairs - le caractère explicatif du texte est assez bien considéré. Pour le background, en revanche, c'est une toute autre histoire. Nous avons ici de nombreuses informations, sans pour autant trop savoir si elles sont destinées aux Joueurs ou MJs.

Il semble, d'après les allusions aux différents contacts possibles et rumeurs, que ce soit destiné aux Joueurs, mais bien peu de joueurs utilisent leur Manuel dans l'intention de le compulser pour chaque détail regardant chaque bâtiment notable. Mon impression est qu'à force de rajouter détail sur détail, la description des fiefs (quartiers) de Cadwallon s'en trouve diluée et somme toute confuse. Plus d'informations sur l'univers en général, sur les nombreuses ethnies d'Aarklash, sur toutes les peuplades dont l'influence n'est qu'esquissée au détour des origines d'une bâtisse ou d'une autre, auraient été souhaitées. Si ces origines et influences importent peu pour les joueurs, pourquoi les leur présenter ?

Le texte du background en lui-même est alambiqué. On a l'impression d'un écrivain dont les résultats sont bien plus clairs en langage courant mais qui se force à être pompeux. Là encore, ça se paie en clarté de background.

Le background est excellent. L'impression initiale que l'on a de Cadwallon, une cité franche de nombreux peuples disparates qui essaient de faire survivre leur havre neutre, s'il n'est paisible, est déclinée de différentes manières suivant que l'on est dans tel ou tel fief de la ville. La possibilité de faire des campagnes à plusieurs MJ, ou tout du moins que la possibilité d'organisation spatiale (un MJ par fief) ou dramatique (un MJ par partie de background) soit évoquée dans l'ouvrage, est plus que bienvenue.

Au final, on a un JDR tout à fait jouable mais à la forme tant physique que textuelle assez confuse. L'ouvrage physique est un bel objet, mais fragile : le poids des pages est nettement supérieur au genre de charge que peut supporter la colle de la reliure - à manier avec précaution donc, ce qui ne fait pas trop bon ménage avec les parties de JDR, nous en conviendrons tous. C'est un JDR inspiré, avec des possibilités ludiques, tactiques ET dramatiques, mais il n'atteindra sa véritable dimension qu'en l'utilisant conjointement à "Secrets".

Si votre imagination est visuelle, et que vous aimez comme moi utiliser des figurines dans certains JDR qui s'y prêtent, foncez : Cadwallon vous plaira. Si vous aimez les backgrounds clairs et extrêmement détaillés, prudence : détaillé, le background l'est, mais il perd en clarté. Si vous voulez être MJ, sachez que ce Manuel des Joueurs vous sera suffisant pour quelque temps, mais que vous aurez besoin du second ouvrage, "Secrets", pour avoir une vision claire du jeu, de ses tenants et aboutissants sur le long terme.

Un bon JDR, mais avec trop de défauts pour devenir un "grand" JDR, malgré un certain courage et une originalité dans ses aspects conceptuels.

I rated it 4 out of 5 in the end, but that was initially, just after I read the book. Today, in retrospective, I still like the game and would love to play it, but the flaws I just highlighted are just too important to ignore. I'd rate it more 3 out of 5, now. Great ideas, both in mechanical and background terms, but too much confusion in the writing, organization and physical production of the book for its own good.

I hope you realized I don't actually speak/read french?  

I have to make that clear, btw. I don't speak Spanish but I can, with difficulty read actual novels in Spanish.  No, I'm not really sure how (latin student in high school, but really....)


I have to agree with your english points however.  I haven't tossed the book aside because it DOES have a number of excellent ideas in it, it IS gorgeous and fun.

I also don't use it because it is a terrible mess, you can't find anything, and the translation, at least, was among the worst I've ever seen. I am forced to conclude that the translation team either lacked a native speaker of English (I remain convinced that greater familiarity with the new language is more important than the original in translation) on their team, or the fucker they had was piss ass drunk the entire time.

Or they used babelfish.

Quote from: Spike;384497I hope you realized I don't actually speak/read french?  

I have to make that clear, btw. I don't speak Spanish but I can, with difficulty read actual novels in Spanish.  No, I'm not really sure how (latin student in high school, but really....)

Sorry. I didn't assume anything, one way or the other, but though you might speak French. I know Boulet lurks around here from time to time and might have been interested. It wasn't meant as any kind of "gotya". My English points actually summarize what I very lengthily went through in my review there.

Quote from: Spike;384497I have to agree with your english points however.  I haven't tossed the book aside because it DOES have a number of excellent ideas in it, it IS gorgeous and fun.

I also don't use it because it is a terrible mess, you can't find anything, and the translation, at least, was among the worst I've ever seen. I am forced to conclude that the translation team either lacked a native speaker of English (I remain convinced that greater familiarity with the new language is more important than the original in translation) on their team, or the fucker they had was piss ass drunk the entire time.

Or they used babelfish.

LOL. That's probably what happened, actually: a bunch of French guys decided to translate the game, and thought they were actually much better at it than they actually ended being when confronted with the extremely convoluted white-wolfian verbosity of the whole thing.

But is it as bad as the somewhat infamous Chevy Won't-Go?

That is the eternal question, innit?

awesome paint job dude!

Quote from: gabriel_ss4u;384582awesome paint job dude!

Thanks dude!

Today's weather is pretty terrible. I'll probably wait until I have some sunshine to take more shots.