We're late, but we did it!

From: galelis_at_...
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2000 11:47:11 +0200


Well, I guess the news is already out, but I'm still glad to announce it : the French "HeroWars" and "Glorantha" are available!!

The undercover british spy Julian Lord already made his report here, but I'll add a few comments of my own.

>Hard covers ...
>Large RPG-sized thick book format ...

This should be "standard" for all the french HW books in the future. They should be hardcover and with the same dimension (larger than the US HW books, but smaller than A4). The Narrator's screen should be in the same size too. The Glorantha color map is the only exception (well, it's square so it doesn't fit the same standard).

With this visual identity, the French HW collection will look nice on the shelf, even if it also means "small" Hero sheets.

>*Beautiful* covers ...
>Slick, shiny paper ...
>Excellent printing ...
>Elegant layout ...
>Readability ...

The item does look nice.
IMO it is nicer than the US HW.
But somehow, it is also more expansive!

The French Glorantha is quite expansive. (28 euros) The French HW is cheaper than the whole Deluxe pack, I think (29 euros only). But keep in mind that it is not as complete. The constraints of Multisim were to make a "two books" game : one HW book with the full set of rules and one Glorantha book with the introduction to the world.
Compared to the Deluxe pack, the French HW rulebook lacks : the maps, Glorantha Visions, Rising Dark (replaced by a shorter episod), the booklet (which means no glossary, no index, no rule-synopsis, no fully written Heros,...)

And to make it clear it's not perfect, there are a few layout problems, mistakes, missing words, wrong figures,...(as in most RPG books I know).

The main trouble that has been pointed out is that, although most of the names of places have been "made French" (Southbank becomes Rivesud for example) in the texts, there has been a lot of errors about this in the maps : some names are kept in "English", others are misspelled,...

>Excellent illustrations ...

The illustrations of the HW book are the same as the US edition. Only the Glorantha book differs : the idea was to illustrate each of the main cultures and areas with portraits of "typical" characters (features, costume, hairstyle,...).
What I especially like is that sometimes a small picture can save a lot of words "Gosh!, they do look like babylonians (or aztecs, or romans,...)!" Well... this is just basic illustration of the text and of the world, but it works (at least with me).

>But best of all IMO, a truly excellent translation of the HW rules by Xavier
>Spinat. This is translation as I love it : he translates the spirit, rewrites
>the duller passages, adds explanation to the unclear, and turns it into
>flowing, easy, & elegant French ...

Julian! Don't say so much praises or they may think that I paid you!

I'm not certain my translation is THAT good and I surely could point out at a lot of mistakes or problems that could have been easily avoided. The main point is that, at last, the books are out and France will play in Glorantha once again (or so I hope).
We'll see if this marks the beginning of a full french HW line (with translations, creations and why not fan contributions, magazines,...) Well, I don't really expect France to reach the English/US/international level of involvement and creativity... but considering where we are now, it can only get better. (I don't speak about Multisim's products, but about Gloranthan role-players' contributions and activities)

XS aka "and now what comes next?"

PS : while I'm at it, there was a point that caused me a lot of trouble during the translation. The word "Sorcerous". Is it a gloranthan word? Do western people call themselves "sorcerous"? Are they aware of being part of a "sorcerous" society?
The other terms (animist, theist, mystic) are quite obvious to me and are not a problem : people clearly think that they are members of such "culture".
But since there is a clear distinction between the religious and the sorcerous orders, is it not logical to consider that the words "sorcerer" or "sorcery" are not officially considered by the malkioni as describing their way of life.
I really think there is something awkward in this and I'm not sure I phrase my question very well. it's just that "sorcerous" society sounds splitted in two : the "monotheists" malkioni and the "sorcerous" zzaburites. Maybe I emphasizes the differences too much and should pay more attention to their common ground.

But it still strikes me as a very different cultural and social organisation, compared to what the 3 other magic systems imply. Well, I guess my post-scriptum is already too long so I'll stop here. :)

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