News from the French Earthdawn community!
Marzhin created an interactive map of Barsaive that is based on the Atlas of Barsaive by Telarus KSC.
Various locations and point of interest are marked on the map. The register on the left includes all the Cities, Villages, Landmarks and so on of the map and can be searched. GREAT WORK!
You really should have a look at the Earthdawn section of fondationdraco.fr too.
Teilzeithelden.de the German web magazine for roleplaying, LARP and fantasy recently published an interview with Michael Mingers, the German product manager for Earthdawn 4th Edition.
I consider it, as always, my duty to keep the English community up to date about the German Earthdawn developments by Ulisses. But honestly I simply can’t translate every news or interview that contains new information about the progress of the German Earthdawn 4th edition.
I simply publish the news and links about the German development most of the times on the Google+ page of the Earthdawn blog.
But this interview contains so many info and news that I want to point on it here on the blog too. Nevertheless I can only link to a "translated" version of the interview using the Google Translator and provide an overview about the main topics of the interview.
So here’s a short summary of the main, most interesting info mentioned in the interview:
The interview with Michael Mingers was held by Roger Lewin from Teilzeithelden.de. Native German speakers can read the interview in German over here.
It feels weird. To be writing this post. After such a wonderful introduction by Mordom (thanks, man!). Which I did not deserve. It also feels weird, because I kept you, the readers of this blog, so long waiting for my first post. Sorry. Most of all, it feels weird, because I would have never expected to be writing here or anywhere on the net about me being anyhow involed in translating and publishing a Polish edition of Earthdawn...
All right. Enough about me. Yes. That's right. Germany is not the only country getting a translation of the new Earthdawn 4th Edition books. Poland is also on the list. And it's official!
Hier mal eine “relativ” wichtige Neuigkeit für deutschsprachige Earthdawn fans, die am 28. von Ulisses Spiele veröffentlicht wurde (danke an Nico):
2014 wird Ulisses Spiele die vierte Edition von Earthdawn in deutscher Sprache veröffentlichen!
Hell yeah! Nach einer “kurzen” Periode des Stillstands, was die Veröffentlichung von deutschem Earthdawn Material betrifft, tut sich wieder etwas auf dem hiesigen Rollenspielmarkt.
Die Übersetzung der vierten Earthdawn Edition plant Ulisses Ende 2014 zu veröffentlichen.
To all my German readers:
Hier mal wieder einer der wenigen (1/2) deutschsprachigen Einträge auf dem Earthdawn Blog. Es geht um den kurzen Hinweis auf die DORPCast Episode 22: Earthdawn forever, in der Michael und Thomas sich anlässlich des 15 jährigen Jubiläums der DORP mit dem Rollenspiel Earthdawn und den aktuellen Entwicklungen beschäftigen.
Dazu heißt es auf die-dorp.de:
Die DORP wird heute am Tage 15 Jahre alt – und kaum ein Rollenspiel dabei so eng mit der Geschichte und Entstehung unserer Webseite verbunden wie Earthdawn. Anlass genug für Michael und Thomas einmal knietief durch die Nostalgie zu waten und sich an der Vorstellung eines ihrer beiden liebsten Systeme zu versuchen.
Schaut euch einfach mal auf der Seite zur Podcast Episode um, wo auch eine Themenübersicht und die im Podcast angesprochene Medienlinks zu finden sind.
Zitat: “Earthdawn war für uns alles, was DSA nicht war”
(via)
With this funny video about the “nations of the world” I just wanted to remind you of my former reports about the international Earthdawn community (at least some of them). Enjoy!
Image via Wikipedia
Finally we will take a closer look at the German Earthdawn community, its past and future, the books that were translated and the fanpages that you should have a look at.
The German Earthdawn community has a long tradition and a lot of fans are/were active on several webpages, forums and mailing lists. But when did it all start and who was pushing Earthdawn in Germany?
Well, in the beginnings of Earthdawn in Germany, FanPro or Fantasy Productions GmbH had the rights for the German edition and they published the translation of FASA’s First Edition in 1994. The cover of the first German sourcebook looked like this:
Almost the whole product line of FASA was translated and published in Germany so far. When the German copyright holder FanPro dropped Earthdawn around 1998, the rights to publish Earthdawn books in Germany went to Games-In-Verlag, who owns them until today. Games-In-Vlg located in Munich, kept on translating and publishing FASA’s First Edition and when the copyrights went to Living Room Games, Games-In continued translating their stuff. But some books of LRG haven’t been translated or published until today (watch the table below). Games-In started to publish ED2 edition after the “death” of Living Room Games with a new revised and updated sourcebook that is based on the rules of Living Room Games’ 2nd Edition.
Here’s a list of German publications:
| English title | German title |
| Core books | |
| Earthdawn 1st (1993) | Earthdawn 1te (1994) |
| Earthdawn 2nd (LRG) (2005) | Earthdawn 2te (2005) |
| Companion (1994) | Kompendium (1995) |
| Sourcebooks | |
| Arcane Mysteries (1997) | Arkane Geheimnisse (2003) |
| - | Barsaive (2007) |
| Barsaive Box (1994) | Barsaive Box (1994) |
| Blood Wood (1997) | Blutwald (2003) |
| Horrors (1995) | Dämonen (1996) |
| Dragons (1998) | Drachen von Barsaive (2004) |
| - | Heldengilde von Travar (2008) |
| Skypoint & Vivane (1995) | Himmelsspitze & Vivane (1997) |
| Creatures of Barsaive (1995) | Kreaturen von Barsaive (1996) |
| Crystal Raiders of Barsaive (1998) | Kristallpiraten von Barsaive (2009) |
| Legends of Earthdawn Vol. 1 (1995) | Legenden Earthdawns 1 (1997) |
| The Book of Exploration (1996) | Legenden Earthdawns 2 (2000) |
| Magic: A Manual of Mystic Secrets (1996) | Magie: Handbuch Mystischer Geheimnisse (1996) |
| Parlainth Box (1994) | Parlainth Box (1994) |
| The Serpent River (1996) | Schlangenfluss (2000) |
| The Theran Empire (1997) | Theranisches Imperium (2005) |
| Throal: The Dwarf Kingdom (1996) | Throal (1999) |
| Denizen of Earthdawn 1 (1994) | Völker Earthdawns 1 (1995) |
| Denizen of Earthdawn 2 (1994) | Völker Earthdawns 2 (1995) |
| Prelude to War (1996) | Vorboten des Krieges (2001) |
| The Adepts Way (1995) | Weg des Adepten (1996) |
| Adventures | |
| - | Abenteuer in Barsaive (2004) |
| Skypoint Adventures (1995) | Abenteuer in Himmelsspitze (1997) |
| Parlainth Adventures (1994) | Abenteuer in Parlainth (2002) |
| Throal Adventures (1996) | Abenteuer in Throal (1999) |
| Terror in the Skies (1994) | Geissel des Himmels (1995) |
| Blades (1995 | Klingen (1998) |
| Shattered Pattern (1994) | Namenlos (1997) |
| Mists of Betrayal (1993) | Nebel über dem Blutwald (1994) |
| Infected (1994) | Verseucht! (1995) |
| Novels | |
| The Longing Ring (1993) | Der Magische Ring (1994) |
| Mother Speaks (1994) | Die Stimme der Mutter (1994) |
| Poisoned Memories (1994) | Vergiftete Erinnerungen (1994) |
| Prophecy (1994) | Die Prophezeihung (1994) |
| Talisman (1994) | Der Talisman (1995) |
| Scars (2005/2010) | Narben (1995) |
| Little Treasures (not published) | Kleine Schätze (1995) |
| Shroud of Madness (1995) | Schleier des Wahnsinns (1996) |
| Lost Kaer (1998) | Das vergessene Kaer (1996) |
| Piercing a Veil (not published) | Die Geister, die man ruft (1998) |
Books that haven’t been translated yet and I guess won’t ever come out in German, because there is no proof that a translation is planned or being worked on, are listed in the table below. Note that RedBrick books are excluded because Games-In only translates/translated old FASA and LRG books.
| English title | Published in |
| Ork Nation of Cara Fahd | 1998 |
| Barsaive in Chaos | 2002 |
| Scourge Unending | 2002 |
| Secret Societies of Barsaive | 1997 |
| Barsaive at War | 2000 |
| Survival Guide | 1996 |
| Way of War | 2002 |
| The Wanderer’s Way | 2005 |
Today the only company that still translates and publishes German Earthdawn books is Games-In-Vlg (I don’t link to their page anymore because it is a mess, full of errors and won’t inform you that much). They started to publish their “own” works and until today there are two unique German Earthdawn books on the market.
The first one is “Heckel & Kooch’s – Heroes Guild of Travar” or in German “Die Heldengilde von Travar”. Some of you might have heard of “Heckel&Kooch”, that’s because the book is based on a publication of the White Wolf magazine #47 where Heckel & Kooch’s Emporium is introduced. I don’t know if the German book is a simple translation of the White Wolf article or if it has been extended, based on the previous publication. It also contains a chapter with a rule summary to introduce new players to Earthdawn and additionally two new disciplines are introduced, the dwarf librarian and the temple servant. So the 109 pages are not completely about the Emporium of Heckel & Kooch and Travar. But it looks like that the book is in general a good resource for gamemasters to start campaigns in Travar.
The second one is “Adventures of Barsaive”, a sourcebook which I don’t possess, so I can only tell you what the description of Drosi.de tells me. The 80 pages of the book contain 5 Adventures that take place in Barsaive, the adventures are set for character of the first to fifth circle.
The responses of German Earthdawn fans to those two books was divided because a lot of fans criticized that “Heckel & Kooch’s – Heroes Guild of Travar” is a simple translated copy of the original White Wolf material stuffed with the already existing main rules and some descriptions of Travar.
Artwork
The publisher Games-in created its own new artwork for his latest last publications/translations. Like always some like it, some don’t. The books that contain completely revised artwork are: “Drachen von Barsaive”, “Kristallpiraten von Barsaive“, “Das Theranische Imperium“, “Abenteuer in Barsaive”, “Barsaive”, “Die Heldengilde von Travar” and “Arkane Geheimnisse” (have a look at the table above for the English original titles). Some of the artwork was published as wallpapers at the Games-In homepage (damn it I finally linked to their page 
Novels
Another title that was first released as a translation and then as the original version was “Lost Kaer” by Nigel D. Findley. The new novels of RedBrick haven’t been translated nor published yet. It is a pity that those great books won’t be published in German.
Fanpages
Now to the fanpages. The fan page culture was better in the past (“everything was better in the past, even the future used to be better” ^^) and many pages are outdated today, but a few are up to date and worth a look.
Well these are only some of the main pages for German Earthdawn fans. To find further, smaller German Earthdawn pages have a look at the link list of Earthdawn-Wiki.de.
Present and Future
The current Earthdawn situation in Germany is “indescribable” because a lot of players still play the Games-in version which is either the translation of the FASA First Edition or Living Room’s second edition. This is mostly because those are still the only “German” version available so far and most non English speaking groups grab this edition. Others switched to the Classic version of RedBrick and the rest entered the Third Edition train of RedBrick because a constant development of the product line seems to be guaranteed at RedBrick.
As you might have noticed, while reading this article, I am not satisfied with the current situation of Earthdawn in Germany. The publisher who owns the rights in Germany has done a lot to make Earthdawn popular, but the great years are over and Earthdawns popularity has descended year after year. Why? Have a look at the publishing dates of the books in the last years (Barsaive in 2007, Heldengilde von Travar in 2008, Kristallpiraten in 2009) and remember the fact that we have now the translation of the Second Edition which is dead because Living Room Games has no longer a license to publish new material for it. Understand? One translation per year and since 1.5 years nothing happened? What should happen when the companies you translate from are dead and no longer publishing books? Damn it.
The only thing we can do in Germany, in my opinion, is to hope that another publisher comes along and starts to publish a translated German version of RedBricks Third Edition. Another solution would be the collaboration between Games-In and RedBrick, but in my opinion Games-In is no longer interested in Earthdawn, they prefer to develop other product lines instead.
So as long as one of those solutions doesn’t become reality, German Earthdawn fans should nevertheless be happy and satisfied with their situation, because compared to other countries and communities where no publisher exists, we are very lucky that Games-In held up the flag for so long, even if they didn’t publish a book since 1.5 years now. But change has to come to the German Earthdawn and I hope it’ll come soon. Like Dammi replied in an interview questioned about a far-in-future-upcoming-Earthdawn-Third-Edition-translation for Germany: “There is hope….”
Note for German players: Recently prices of some German Earthdawn books dropped dramatically because the price fixing of the books was suspended. For all those who are interested in the sell out should have a look at the following two German RPG shops: Sphärenmeister and Tellurian Games.
For questions, critics and opinions on this article use the comments, thx.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Mordom
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Hey folks, on a request by Elidis, I'll try to show you how the various Earthdawn versions in different countries and in different languages look like and what the publishing companies are about.
So I'll start with the hardest one.
I completely don't know what the Japanese Earthdawn scene is about, but I would say they have a "different" view on the Earthdawn universe. Thank god that they didn't make some kind of weird Earthdawn manga out of it. Most of the web resource or webpages are down or not up to date, but there was or is a scene of fans that had long discussions about Earthdawn. If anyone knows what is going on there please contact me or leave a comment.
The japanese Earthdawn edition, called ASUDON was translated by Megumi Tsuge for the SNE Group, which is or was one of the pioneers for roleplaying material in Japan. Earthdawn was published 1997 by Mediawakusu or Media Works Inc. in Japan. It's a pity but I wasn't able to discover some pics of the Japanese rulebooks or something else of the japanese version except the novel covers beneath.
UPDATE, May 16th 2010
Some weeks ago I discovered a working Japanese Earthdawn page….. and I immediately left a comment to get in touch with the author of the さり海馬 blog. The author is Thalion and he provided some information about Earthdawn in Japan.
In the times around 1997-2000, when Earthdawn had it’s publisher in Japan (Media Works), it was played actively. But when Media Works stopped translating Earthdawn books and support it on their magazine, “the community gradually diminished like a deflating balloon”. (Had to use his words here :-))
Right now there is a limited number of old fans who play Earthdawn in Japan. So, unfortunately it seems that Earthdawn is dying in Japan. Thalion told me that mostly D&D4e Japanese Edition has a rather big scene in Japan.
Only a few books from the first, the FASA, edition were translated into Japanese:
Aasudoon ruuru bukku (Earthdawn Core rulesbook, pic above), Misuto obu bitoreiyaru (Mists of Betrayal), SHATAADO pattaan (Shattered Pattern), Baaseivu aasudoon waarudo gaido (Barsaive: Earthdawn World Guide, an edited book based on the Barsaive Box Set) and below you see the novel “Reimei no Yuusha Tachi” “Braves of the Dawn” 黎明の勇者たち (Japanese original author: Tsuge Megumi).
The last title is one of two novels, that were only published in Japan. I don't know what the title of the second one is. The second novel that has been translated to Japanese seems to be Talisman, but I don’t know if the picture below is the actual cover of the talisman novel. By the way I guess the title of the first novel is completely wrong translated (google translation of the japanese page).
Dammi is the only person I know who owns those rare Japanese Earthdawn novels. He said that these are the most exotic collectibles he owns. Enviable! He also told me that the books are read from back to front like most manga comics, that's why the covers are the wrong way round.
Besides that France got one of the most beautiful national anthems in the world, their English accent is also simply the best I’ve ever heard 
The best is to start with the beginnings of Earthdawn in France. The first edition Earthdawn rulebook (Earthdawn – prémière edition – livre de base) was published in France 1996 in French!!! Only 3 years after the original FASA edition rulebook was published.
The French publisher of the first edition books is “Jeux Descartes”. Some time ago I made an interview with Damien Coltice wherein he stated some critics about “Jeux Descartes”. It looks like that their decisions about which books will be translated weren’t that well chosen. When you look at the table below, you’ll notice that two essential books weren’t translated; “Denizens of Earthdawn” and “The Adept’s Way” are missing. I can’t tell you why they didn’t translate those two books, maybe some of my French readers can leave comments to tell us about that issue. Nevertheless here’s a short overview of the releases of “Jeux Descartes” since 1996:
| French | English | Published in France |
| Earthdawn – Livre de base | Earthdawn | 01/1996 |
| Accesoires du Maître de jeu | | 01/1996 |
| Le Compagnon | Companion | 01/1997 |
| Barsaive | Barsaive | 01/1997 |
| Les Brumes de la Trahison | Mists of Betrayal | 01/1997 |
| Corrompue | Infected | 01/1997 |
| Horreurs | Horrors | 01/1998 |
| Trame brisée | Shattered Pattern | 01/1998 |
| Parlainth | Parlainth | 06/1998 |
| Aventure à Parlainth | Parlainth Adventures | 09/1998 |
| L’Empire Theran | Theran Empire | 01/1999 |
| Créatures de Barsaive | Creatures of Barsaive | 01/1999 |
| Les Dagues de Cara Fahd | Blades | 02/1999 |
In 2009 it was Black Book Éditions to start the conversion of the Red Brick’s classic edition. No not conversion, translation. Yes the French are the only ones that have the classic version translated in their language. All the Polish and German fans might get a little bit jealous. Here’s another short list of the so far accomplished “Classic” translations of Black Book Éditions:
| French | English | Published in France |
| Kaer Tardim | Kaer Tardim | 05/2009 |
| Le Recueil du Joueur | Earthdawn Players Compendium | 09/2009 |
| Le Dossier de Personnage | “Includes players support stuff” (correct me) | 09/2009 |
| Le Recueil du Joueur – édition limitée | Earthdawn Players Compendium – Limited Edition | 09/2009 |
But that’s not all they recently (September 2009) released the first novel in French. It is “Dark Shadows of Yesterday” (“Les Ombres noires du passé”) French players can buy for only 9,90 € !!!
But the best or worst (more jealousy!!!) as you see in the table above Black Book Éditions released a “Limited Edition” of the 520 pages thick Players Compendium. Only 200 copies were sold and the hard leather cover with golden throal symbol only costs 74,90 €. Jealousy!! 
I also found out that they are currently working on the translation of “Prelude to War” and announced the release for November 2009, so I guess the book is not far away.
I got no information if the Earthdawn Third Edition will be translated into French. I guess they have enough to do translating the Classic Edition and that there might be no publisher who wants to battle with Black Book Éditions at the moment.
But now enough of the published French Earthdawn books. I want to inform you a little bit about the places on the net, where French Earthdawn fans meet and support Earthdawn.
One of the oldest addresses on the net is the French Yahoo Mailing list for Earthdawn. It exists since 1998 and, as I was told, 28.0000 posts were made since then. And as I saw at my first visit the community is still active there.
As you might know French is a language that is spoken in various countries and that’s why the French community is supported from Canada, Belgium, Swiss and of course France. It looks like that there are 3.000 to 5.000 players in those countries but only around 20 to 300 of them are active in communities or forums. But there are several good pages that you should have a look at. Even if you’re not capable of speaking French maybe you should use these buttons of Google to quickly translate the pages into your preferred language.
Here are some French pages you should have a look at:
As on my previous posts of EWW I wouldn’t be able to provide those information without the help of several insiders. This time many thanks go to Scorpinou, Mahar and Fred Troll grognon.
Funny thing at the end. As I was told Mordom can be translated as “mort d’homme” which means “dead man”.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Mordom
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As I announced some time ago, the next topic of "Earthdawn World Wide" will be Poland. Finally I am proud that a lot of people from the polish Earthdawn community helped me to get together those information about the Earthdawn scene in Poland. Special thanks go to Sethariel.
"Kronika Skradzionych Legend" is the first, unofficial fanmade Earthdawn sourcebook published and printed in Poland (2007). The book is written from the perspective of a t'skrang woman Troubadur - T'saanas V'shala from the House of V'strimon. "Kronika Skradzionych Legend" contains texts about theran mages, the Death Sea and Creanian Tarot (a deck has been included as a bonus to the sourcebook). On 170 pages, with lots of illustrations, every Earthdawn fan will find something interesting. There are new magical items, adventure ideas and different new creatures. The authors decided to develop also a new discipline – Firedancer (Tancerz Ognia). A scout gliding above the Death Sea and searching for kernels of true elements. The last thing in the sourcebook is the whole epic campaign "Powietrzny Okręt" (Air Ship), half of it was published in the polish magazine about role-playing - "Magia i Miecz" (Might and Magic).
A lot of fanmade material has been published in "Magia i Miecz", the first and longest lasting RPG magazine in Poland (1993-2002). It is dead now since 7 years and had 103 editions. But as it was alive, it contained a lot of Earthdawn material. For example translations of articles from Earthdawn Journal, new polish articles and polish Earthdawn adventure scenarios, including scenarios from "Powietrzny Okręt". A very good campaign called "Pachnidło" (Perfume), with a plot about the perfumers in Throal. There was also some material in newer magazines like "Portal" (also dead, but its company still supports other RPG publications including their own RPG systems) or "Gwiezdny Pirat" (Star Pirate), but they contain a lot of stories and don't provide the quality "Magia i Miecz" did.
