Just because I am morbidly curious.
My impression was that it was full of cool stuff, things like a 1920s Berlin supplement for CoC, or equally cool a 1920s Wales supplement for CoC. Both items I would love to see in English.
And the other day I learned about this:
"Private Eye" is a really nicely done historical detective game in the 1890's. Attention to detail on par with CoC and a very good "feel" for the era concerned (actually done by some history students to get some use out of their professional research).
http://www.drosi.de/systeme/private_eye.htm
About which I know little, as I don't speak any German and probably will not learn as there are other languages I wish to speak more.
So, all that sounds like coolness writ large. However, from posts by Pundit and Set I get the impression all may not be rosy, so, what's it like over there?
Sett posted some CoC covers on another thread...well at least I know they have some damn fine cover art. I'm hoping to learn more as well.
Regards,
David R
Quote from: David RSett posted some CoC covers on another thread...well at least I know they have some damn fine cover art. I'm hoping to learn more as well.
Regards,
David R
There's some seriously beautiful stuff for CoC, top quality production values if nothing else.
Of course, personally I'm waiting for Heimat, the rpg.
Heimat ?
Regards,
David R
Quote from: David RHeimat ?
Regards,
David R
Oft regarded as one of the best TV series of all time, three seasons in total, season one tracks the life of a small German village from IIRC the 1920s through to I think the 1960s, I haven't finished it but it is spectacularly good.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heimat/dp/B000284A56
I did think it spectacularly good, and I am not a natural market for drama about rural German life.
Big secret:
The wales supplement is a total ripoff from the obscure GW book: green and pleasant land. The publisher still doesn´t know it has been had by that freelancer.
Don´t tell anybody, I didn´t say this.
Apart from that, there´s some decently researched stuff, but most of the times it´s irrelevant for the adventure, or it´s a railroad adventure.
The research is also of lackluster quality for anybody more knowledgable:
They swipe old photos via google, mix up eras and all of this. But the successfully surrounded themselves with an aura of authencity.
The worst example was including a picture of Heydrich with the caption:
"at the police station"
I uncovered that mistake with another guy and made it public, so they had to publically apologize.
The line of defense first taken was frightening:
"Who would notice, it´s not such an important person, not everybody of our readers knows him." :eek:
As I said, they apologized. A friend of mine has a PhD on a subject in the Nazi-Era, and he´s also pretty unimpressed by the research done. It´s rather lackluster although it´s high in text-volume.
There´s a whole box just on Germany in the twenties, very atmospheric but also very Wikipedia-ish and absolutely of no use for actual adventure.
And they don´t cite their sources, so it´s really a mixed bag.
Private Eye actually is a translation of an Anglo-Game AFAIK.
So basically you have an obsession with atmospheric detail, but the quality is only a second or third priority. As long as it looks and feels good, the Swine will buy it.
There´s also a tradition of detective style gaming, Private Eye being an example, but the old Midgard adventures excel in that. Theres very tough mysteries to solve in Midgard, most of them culturally tied. So it´s a bit like National Geographic + Tolkien + Sherlock Holmes.
Sadly Midgard´s and PEs lines of tradition have been marginalized, detective-atmosphere won over actually doing detective work.
It's true--"atmosphere" seems to be the operative term in second-generation German game design/play syle. Besides the CoC material there's also the kewlness faction, and those are more into what I've called Tribe 8 heartbreakers. Tribe 8 is teh awesome, but when you try to translate mad Franco-Canadian stylishness into German the result tends to be pure schlock.
One thing I thought was a great idea that originated in Pegasus Spiele's Cthulhu book was depicting the various gods and monsters in the form of works of art from different cultures.
I hear mixed remarks about Das Schwarze Auge (sp?) -- is it any good?
Funny, I thought by now Settembrini would have posted a massive anti-DSA diatribe. Me, I have no opinion--never played it, never read the books.
I´m burnt out on DSA-hate. I posted all major arguments already.
It´s objectively one of the most fucked up systems of the world.
Fair enough. I really know next to nothing about it, although I assume it's an AD&Desque mishmash of systems.