Nekromanti Questions for Anders Blixt (if he doesn't mind!)

[runequester]

Some assorted questions about the old days at Äventyrspel and Drakar och Demoner in particular, if you don't mind

Of course, if you'd rather not dredge old forgotten times, I understand too. In any event, thank you very much for your time and all your work over the years.

Responding in Swedish is fine, if you prefer, I just have a hard time writing in Swedish but can read it just fine.

General Äventyrspel questions:

* Were there any foreign language games that you guys really wanted to get a license to translate, but it never worked out?

* To what extent was publishing driven by fan requests versus what you guys came up yourselves?

* To what extent were you guys influenced by the English RPGs ? Were any products specifically an attempt to produce something similar for the Swedish markets?

* Would "Partisan" have been a BRP derived system?

* Was "Partisan" ever playable or was it abandoned while it was still in the conceptual stages?



Drakar och Demoner questions:

* Did you guys assume people would play in Ereb Altor or that people would be more likely to create their own settings?

* Artwork that was meant to show player characters always showed a lot of different races like ducks and vargman characters, with pretty cosmopolitan cities.
Was this how the game was expected to be played or did you assume that the typical group would be mostly humans?

* The switch from Expert to the 1991 rules feels like the game was beginning to take a different direction: More D&D like races, character class abilities, more character class type books etc.
Was this an intentional switch to be more "modern"? Could you discuss what went into that a little bit?

* Were half-elves and half-orcs always intended to exist in the game ? Their inclusion in 1991 seems surprising.

* Was it intended that everything in the monster books exists somewhere in Ereb Altor?

* You guys delved into historical and historical-fantasy settings on occasion (Samuraj, Ivanhoe, the viking scenario in Sinkadus).
Were there ever plans for doing more things like this?
A Napoleonic era Drakar och Demoner book would be worth inventing a time machine for

* It always seemed there was a bit of a contrast between the interior art in the games and the style (fairly low-magic, "realistic" fantasy with strong historical influences) and the cover art for some of the books (lots of almost-naked barbarians with mega-muscles in their underwear).

Was this just because the Conan-style covers were more marketable?



Thank you for your time and consideration!
Ivan

 

[Mekanurg]

General Äventyrspel questions:

* Were there any foreign language games that you guys really wanted to get a license to translate, but it never worked out?
No, not while I worked there 1985-89.

* To what extent was publishing driven by fan requests versus what you guys came up yourselves?
A lot of good stuff arrived as proposals or full-fledged texts from our fans, such as Svavelvinter, Marsklandet, and Barbia. As for our own proposals, we used the Sinkadus questionnaires to determine which ideas were duds to be tossed away.

* To what extent were you guys influenced by the English RPGs ? Were any products specifically an attempt to produce something similar for the Swedish markets?
Partisan was directly inspired by American games, but it came to naught.

* Would "Partisan" have been a BRP derived system?
Yes

* Was "Partisan" ever playable or was it abandoned while it was still in the conceptual stages?
It was abandoned at semi-finished stage. I have written a bit about it on my blog The Dream Forge (gondica.wordpress.com).


Drakar och Demoner questions:

* Did you guys assume people would play in Ereb Altor or that people would be more likely to create their own settings?
We expected people to play in Ereb Altor.

* Artwork that was meant to show player characters always showed a lot of different races like ducks and vargman characters, with pretty cosmopolitan cities. Was this how the game was expected to be played or did you assume that the typical group would be mostly humans?
We expected people to play a mixed bag of species.

* The switch from Expert to the 1991 rules feels like the game was beginning to take a different direction: More D&D like races, character class abilities, more character class type books etc.
Was this an intentional switch to be more "modern"? Could you discuss what went into that a little bit?
I left Target Games in 1989. Therefore I cannot contribute anything in this matter.

* Were half-elves and half-orcs always intended to exist in the game ? Their inclusion in 1991 seems surprising.
No half-elves or half-orcs were permitted during my time as production manager.

* Was it intended that everything in the monster books exists somewhere in Ereb Altor?
No, there are no dinosaurs in Ereb Altor.


* You guys delved into historical and historical-fantasy settings on occasion (Samuraj, Ivanhoe, the viking scenario in Sinkadus).
Were there ever plans for doing more things like this? A Napoleonic era Drakar och Demoner book would be worth inventing a time machine for
I wanted to do a Roman-style DoD (preferably inspired of the years around AD 200 when Commodus puts the empire on a downward spiral), but I left Target Games before anything came out of it.

* It always seemed there was a bit of a contrast between the interior art in the games and the style (fairly low-magic, "realistic" fantasy with strong historical influences) and the cover art for some of the books (lots of almost-naked barbarians with mega-muscles in their underwear). Was this just because the Conan-style covers were more marketable?
The Conan-style covers were cheaper than getting them done inhouse.



Thank you for your time and consideration!
Ivan

You are welcome
Anders

 

[zonk]

runequester - du har säkert redan läst den, men om du på nåt sätt missat Orvar Säfströms & Jimmy Wilhelmssons bok om Ä-spel, kolla in den! https://www.sfbok.se/produkt/aventyrsspel-bland-mutanter-drakar-och-demoner-158632

 

[runequester]

zonk I've seen that! I definitely want to grab a copy but since shipping to the US is expensive, I'm going to wait until I am picking up a couple of things.
Mekanurg Thank you very kindly for your time and responses.

You were still credited in the 1991 books, so I thought you had been involved with them, my apologies!

A couple additional question if you don't mind:

* The various "metamorph" races (Svanmö, Hjortid etc.) were they assumed to be related to elves?

* Do you know or remember where the "Karkion" came from? It's always stuck with me as a really unique creature.

* In your own campaigns, how strictly did you enforce the dice roll to be allowed to play a wizard?

* Did you envision that players who did not begin play as a wizard could try to become one later and learn a few spells?

* Again, in your own games, did you tend to strictly enforce starting money for characters or did you give them some extra equipment to get going?

Mycke takk

 

[Leon]

* You guys delved into historical and historical-fantasy settings on occasion (Samuraj, Ivanhoe, the viking scenario in Sinkadus).
Were there ever plans for doing more things like this? A Napoleonic era Drakar och Demoner book would be worth inventing a time machine for
I wanted to do a Roman-style DoD (preferably inspired of the years around AD 200 when Commodus puts the empire on a downward spiral), but I left Target Games before anything came out of it.

Det hade ju varit ruskigt fräckt om det hade gått av stapeln!

Vet inte om du har sett/läst Paul Elliott/"Mithras" Zenobia - designad i en annan era förstås. Lite senare (under tvåhundratalskrisen), men grymt inspirerande i min mening. Ser att han också gjort en romersk kejsartidshack för Traveller....

https://www.paulelliottbooks.com/free-rpgs.html

För att inte tala om hans utmärkta hellenistiska BRP-spel - Warlords of Alexander

 

[Mekanurg]

Thank you very kindly for your time and responses.

You were still credited in the 1991 books, so I thought you had been involved with them, my apologies!
No apology needed. They used a lot of my old stuff, so they thought that crediting me would be appropriate.

A couple additional question if you don't mind:

* The various "metamorph" races (Svanmö, Hjortid etc.) were they assumed to be related to elves?
Yes

* Do you know or remember where the "Karkion" came from? It's always stuck with me as a really unique creature.
I made it up myself. The karkion was much appreciated by gamers and became a kind of badge-of-recognition for the DoD game. It served the role of philosopher, dispenser of arcane wisdom, and yogi-on-the-mountaintop.

* In your own campaigns, how strictly did you enforce the dice roll to be allowed to play a wizard?
Not at all. I merely required a fairly high PSY (POW), e.g. 13 or more.

* Did you envision that players who did not begin play as a wizard could try to become one later and learn a few spells?
No.

* Again, in your own games, did you tend to strictly enforce starting money for characters or did you give them some extra equipment to get going?
I allowed a reasonable set of starting equipment "free of charge", assessed by profession and social standing, that is, a lot of stuff for a knight, not so much for a thief.

 

[Mekanurg]

Det hade ju varit ruskigt fräckt om det hade gått av stapeln!

Vet inte om du har sett/läst Paul Elliott/"Mithras" Zenobia - designad i en annan era förstås. Lite senare (under tvåhundratalskrisen), men grymt inspirerande i min mening. Ser att han också gjort en romersk kejsartidshack för Traveller....

https://www.paulelliottbooks.com/free-rpgs.html

För att inte tala om hans utmärkta hellenistiska BRP-spel - Warlords of Alexander

Jodå, jag har läst både Zenobia och Warlords of Alexander. Intressant bakrgundsmaterial. Tvåhundratalskrisen skulle vara en utmärkt kampanjmiljö med det fragmenterade imperiet.

När det gäller romersk miljö, lutar jag nuförtiden mer åt att ge den urban fantasy/horror-prägel. Romarriket i vår populärkultur är ju så tydligt knutet till staden Rom med eventuella utflykter till germanska gränsen. Om jag idag skulle ta itu med ett Rom-projekt skulle jag nog placera det i senatikens Alexandria (dock före Konstatin den store) och låt mig inspireras av cyberpunkförfattare som Gibson, dvs information som hårdvaluta, märkliga hermetiska kulter, smygande i gränder och på hustak, alkemiska elixir som tillfälligt förstärker kropp eller själ, gnostiska sammansvärjningar med bakomliggande onda andar, sassanidiska spioner, och så vidare. En rik miljö på alla sätt.

 

[terje]

När det gäller romersk miljö, lutar jag nuförtiden mer åt att ge den urban fantasy/horror-prägel. Romarriket i vår populärkultur är ju så tydligt knutet till staden Rom med eventuella utflykter till germanska gränsen. Om jag idag skulle ta itu med ett Rom-projekt skulle jag nog placera det i senatikens Alexandria (dock före Konstatin den store) och låt mig inspireras av cyberpunkförfattare som Gibson, dvs information som hårdvaluta, märkliga hermetiska kulter, smygande i gränder och på hustak, alkemiska elixir som tillfälligt förstärker kropp eller själ, gnostiska sammansvärjningar med bakomliggande onda andar, sassanidiska spioner, och så vidare. En rik miljö på alla sätt.

Det låter som en väldigt trevlig kampanj! Richard L Tierney har skrivit en sword & sandal & sorcery svit där Simon Magus är en fd gladiator som initieras i zoroastrisk magi och bekämpar utomvärldslig ondska i en gnostisk tolkning av cthulhu mythos. Det finns en novellsamling, The Schroll of Thoth, och en roman, The Drums of Chaos. Men de berättelserna utspelas såklart i ett tidigare skede av imperiet, strax efter Jesus. Personligen börjar jag känna mig lite mätt på Lovecraft så jag skulle nog föredra mindre explicita referenser till the Great Old Ones.

 

[Leon]

...explicita referenser till the Great Old Ones.

Magni Seniores!*
Magna Gens Yithiorum!*
Magnus Catullu.... eh vänta nu

*med ursäkt för mitt grislatin

 

[Mekanurg]

Det låter som en väldigt trevlig kampanj! Richard L Tierney har skrivit en sword & sandal & sorcery svit där Simon Magus är en fd gladiator som initieras i zoroastrisk magi och bekämpar utomvärldslig ondska i en gnostisk tolkning av cthulhu mythos. Det finns en novellsamling, The Schroll of Thoth, och en roman, The Drums of Chaos. Men de berättelserna utspelas såklart i ett tidigare skede av imperiet, strax efter Jesus. Personligen börjar jag känna mig lite mätt på Lovecraft så jag skulle nog föredra mindre explicita referenser till the Great Old Ones.

Cthulhu Invictus finns redan -- det räcker för mig. Jag känner mig mer lockad av en milt kabbalistisk kryddning med skuggvärldar, som är bleka avspeglingar av verkligheten. Nåja, det blir inte mer än lösa funderingar av mig inom överskådlig framtid.

 

[runequester]

While "romans on the Germanic/British frontier" is kind of overdone in film lately, running a scenario that was a pastiche of the "13th warrior" film with Roman soldiers going into the foggy German forests could be a lot of fun

 

[Leon]

While "romans on the Germanic/British frontier" is kind of overdone in film lately, running a scenario that was a pastiche of the "13th warrior" film with Roman soldiers going into the foggy German forests could be a lot of fun

Not sure whether you prefer that we respond in English, or Swedish/"skandinavisk", but will stick to English for now Byter också gärna

It would be remiss of me not to flag my own little hack for BOL - Barbarians of the Dark Ages. It's more Germanics on the Roman frontier than the other way around, and a few hundred years later around the time of the fall of the empire, but still a pulpy (late/post) roman history romp - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7qVp-YWcZD_ZTBkUnRfNUlQR0U/view?usp=sharing

 

[runequester]

Oh, sorry, you are fine in Swedish if it's easier. I can read it just fine, I just aren't proficient enough to speak it (and I don't have a Swedish keyboard in any event so I'd have to switch the keyboard settings every time which is a pain ).

And nice, I'll definitely give that a look. Looks like a nice inversion of the usual trope as well, by playing the "barbarians" so to speak.