FritzedProcess
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2017
- Messages
- 1,378
Ricard Ibañez's "Nahui Ollin" was released last week, and that got me thinking. Some of you might know the man from his more famous work, "Aquelarre", the medieval fantasy game, which as far as I know is his only work to have been translated into English. The author is a historian (specializing in History of the Americas) and as a result, both games are very well researched works with a touch of magic through the myths and legends belonging to each setting. "Nahui Ollin" is set in the first century of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, whereas "Aquelarre" (which was the first RPG ever made in Spain, in 1990 IIRC, and currently on its fourth edition) is set in the Spanish Middle Ages.
In regards to Spanish games, I believe I have already mentioned Walküre, a game in which WWII turns into a stalemate, resulting in a timeline in which the Allies, the Axis and the USSR are in a cold war far into the future (comes with three settings: WWII, 1960s and cyberpunk). An English translation was supposed to be in the works by Nocturnal Media, but there has been only silence in regards to that for the last few years. It uses the CdB system (Cacería de Bichos, "Bug Hunt"), a variant of FUDGE tailored to sci-fi settings.
Another remarkable game was "Mutantes en la Sombra" (1991), a Cold War era about intelligence agencies and secret societies vying for control of psychics born in the years following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and all of the nuclear tests in later years. The theme was gritty espionage and action, not superheroes. Think "Scorpio", "Three Days of the Condor", "The ICPRESS file" and so on, but with psychic powers. It got a post-Cold War second edition in 1997 called "Mutantes G2", pretty much a setting update to account for the fall of the Soviet Union. It was supposed to get a third edition by Edge Entertainment (now a subsidiary of Asmodée), but there have been no news in over a decade, so it is highly unlikely.
Then there is "Arcana Mundi", a very well researched game set in the Roman Empire, and a veritable labour of love (the author maintains a blog which inlcudes a Roman religious calendar). It was printed in two separate volumes, and then got an integral edition (in 2013, currently out of print) by Nosolorol, a Spanish games publisher. A second edition is currently in the works.
And last but not least, "Oráculo", a game infamous for its cost overruns and underwhelming sales which led to its publisher's bankruptcy (which was Joc Internacional, the first Spanish roleplaying games publisher; as an aside, if you played RPGs in Spain in the 80s and early 90s, these guys published 90% of your library, including but not limited to MERP, Runequest, Paranoia, WEG's Star Wars, Rolemaster and Call of Cthulhu, and the aforementioned Aquelarre; their editions were stuck in early 80s RPG book aesthetics and production values, another cause contributing to their demise). The theme of this game was greek mythology, the main cause of ther cost overruns was the game's art, which imitates Greek vase art and does not justify the cost, but I guess Joc's CEO wanted to be a patron of the arts or something.
Anyway, please excuse my rather long digression and let me get back on track: which roleplaying games from your respective countries, obscure either due to not getting translated into foreign languages or because of a limited distribution would you like to share with the wider world? What is special about them?
In regards to Spanish games, I believe I have already mentioned Walküre, a game in which WWII turns into a stalemate, resulting in a timeline in which the Allies, the Axis and the USSR are in a cold war far into the future (comes with three settings: WWII, 1960s and cyberpunk). An English translation was supposed to be in the works by Nocturnal Media, but there has been only silence in regards to that for the last few years. It uses the CdB system (Cacería de Bichos, "Bug Hunt"), a variant of FUDGE tailored to sci-fi settings.
Another remarkable game was "Mutantes en la Sombra" (1991), a Cold War era about intelligence agencies and secret societies vying for control of psychics born in the years following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and all of the nuclear tests in later years. The theme was gritty espionage and action, not superheroes. Think "Scorpio", "Three Days of the Condor", "The ICPRESS file" and so on, but with psychic powers. It got a post-Cold War second edition in 1997 called "Mutantes G2", pretty much a setting update to account for the fall of the Soviet Union. It was supposed to get a third edition by Edge Entertainment (now a subsidiary of Asmodée), but there have been no news in over a decade, so it is highly unlikely.
Then there is "Arcana Mundi", a very well researched game set in the Roman Empire, and a veritable labour of love (the author maintains a blog which inlcudes a Roman religious calendar). It was printed in two separate volumes, and then got an integral edition (in 2013, currently out of print) by Nosolorol, a Spanish games publisher. A second edition is currently in the works.
And last but not least, "Oráculo", a game infamous for its cost overruns and underwhelming sales which led to its publisher's bankruptcy (which was Joc Internacional, the first Spanish roleplaying games publisher; as an aside, if you played RPGs in Spain in the 80s and early 90s, these guys published 90% of your library, including but not limited to MERP, Runequest, Paranoia, WEG's Star Wars, Rolemaster and Call of Cthulhu, and the aforementioned Aquelarre; their editions were stuck in early 80s RPG book aesthetics and production values, another cause contributing to their demise). The theme of this game was greek mythology, the main cause of ther cost overruns was the game's art, which imitates Greek vase art and does not justify the cost, but I guess Joc's CEO wanted to be a patron of the arts or something.
Anyway, please excuse my rather long digression and let me get back on track: which roleplaying games from your respective countries, obscure either due to not getting translated into foreign languages or because of a limited distribution would you like to share with the wider world? What is special about them?
