Nekromanti Talk to me about Eon IV (and i apologize)

[Lupus Maximus]

Hm... I wonder what settings Eon actually would compete with.

Most DnD settings, if not all, is quite heavily tied to the class/level/alignment system. Exalted has a few thousand pages of setting material, but it is really on the other end of the Fantasy scale. So how many settings would Eon actually compete with? Glorantha (Runequest), Harn and probably something for Gurps. Otherwise, I can't really think of much myself.

 

[jensofsweden]

I'd definitely be willing to help with translations too! I'd love to get an English version of the game so I could introduce people here in the UK to it with a bit more ease

 

[Rhodryn]

Ever since I started playing Eon back in 96 I have always thought that Eon should have had an English version of it as well.

And I have always wondered why it never got one. I mean I could asume partly why. With things like cost of translations for example. And uncertainty if such a complex and detailed game, as Eon 1 to 3 where/are, could ever really get a grip on the market outside of Sweden.

I for one have never encountered any other PnP RPG out there that is more complex and detailed, then Eon is... mostly mechanicaly- and rules-wise... but maybe even the games world it's self, and its inhabitants and their culture as well. Of course, my knowledge of the PnP RPG games out there is limited, and I have probably not played much more than two handfulls of PnP RPG's, most of which have been Swedish... so I might be compleatly wrong in this aspect of it all.

But at the same time... the reason I got so hooked on Eon was thanks to just how complex and detailed it was with most things. It is the reason as to why I personally consider Eon to be the best PnP RPG I have ever played, and why it is my nr 1 favorit PnP RPG. And, due to that I like Eon so much, was what made me decide to helped the indigogo campaign to get Eon IV off the ground last year as well.

So... I do feel that there must be other people like me out there, outside of Sweden/Scandinavia, who would enjoy a game like Eon. The problem is how to reach them, how to find those people. Beause you can't just translate it and put it out there and hope for the best... well you can... but it's probably not the best way to do it.

It would have to be a somewhat large endeavour, where one would have to reach hands out to all of the big PnP RPG communities online. Forums, webpages, etc... and to more then just the English speaking ones. And "we", the Eon community, would have to probably reach out to our PnP RPG'ing friends from outside Sweden, to stretch those tendrils out more. And even then we would probably only reach a certain percentage of PnP RPG'ers, because as we all probably know, we who frequent this particular forum are probably in the minority of Swedish players who would even bother to go to something like a PnP RPG forum, and the same goes for most of the world probably. XD

But... with Eon IV it is probably the best time to maybe give it a try... since it is a new edition. And if things go well, for the Swedish version I mean, most of the stuff from the old 1-3 editions of Eon will probably be reworked, and rewriten, eventually anyway. Which means that Eon IV has not yet managed to reach a level where there is just to much material that has come out to easily handle translating it. Of course, you would probably have to wait until certain current projects for Eon IV are done, befor doing anything with an English version... which could maybe take a few years.

I mean sure, for an initial English version of the game, it would probably be a good idea to, alongside the core Eon IV rule book, also include a book about the world... or at the very least maybe include it as an option or something. A book like the "Mundana" book (#5005... but "Eon IV-ified" of course), so people could get a better idea about each/most of the nations and races currently in the games world. So such a book would have to be written as well (if such a book is not already planed, and/or being made, for Swedish)... which of course would jack the price up significantly for an English version, which can be a problem.

I am sure though that the Eon devs both in the past, and in the present, have probably thought about everything I have said in this post about going English with Eon... so it's probably compleatly unneccesary for me to even post this... but since it's me we are talking about... XD

Well... I have babbled on long enough, like always... so I should probably really stop writing right about... now? Or how about.... now?

 

[Lupus Maximus]

Considering Helmgast is working on an RPG in English, a new version of Kult, they will get experience of dealing with the English speaking market. If that one is well received, it would improved the chance of Eon, and Noir for that matter, to succeed if they are translated.

 

[avatarex]

I am one of the three writers of Eon IV (together with Blasphemy and Kaigon). Very interesting thread to read! Thankyou all for the support.

The answer of why there doesn't exist any English translation of Eon (yet?) is that we three know how to write in Swedish, and that we are not that confident inhow to write in English (which I guess is easy to see in this text). Therefore we need help for the translation, and that often means a big cost and thereby risk.

But as Lupus Maximus writes, if everything turns out well with Kult, that will improve the chances for a English version of Eon.

With that said, I fully agree with all of you who would love to see Eon in in English.

 

[Mundo]

I am one of the three writers of Eon IV (together with Blasphemy and Kaigon). Very interesting thread to read! Thankyou all for the support.

The answer of why there doesn't exist any English translation of Eon (yet?) is that we three know how to write in Swedish, and that we are not that confident inhow to write in English (which I guess is easy to see in this text). Therefore we need help for the translation, and that often means a big cost and thereby risk.

But as Lupus Maximus writes, if everything turns out well with Kult, that will improve the chances for a English version of Eon.

With that said, I fully agree with all of you who would love to see Eon in in English.

 

[Ymir]

Looks like I have a new philosophy regarding Neotech ^_^

 

[Eilathen]

Thanks for all the replies! And in that case, i do hope that Kult rocks your socks off, so to speak, so that you can go ahead and make an english Eon IV. Corebook first, then a world-book after that...and then the elves book (yes, i have a very firm idea of it, don't i ). That'd be awesome^2 ... :wink:

 

[Eleas]

I'm late to the party as is my wont, but Eon has been one of my fave settings ever since Ymir got his grubby little mitts on my gamer's soul back in 2000 or so. Eventually we decided to create Drunoks Drängar, which for a while ran neck to neck with Åke Wombat's page in terms of publishing homebrew Eon material online.

So what made me fall in love with Eon in the first place?

Well, for one, it's just such a meaty setting, with such grit and gristle and texture to it. You know the feeling you got when you started up Dragon Age or the Witcher and realized that hey, this is a living, breathing world here, full of blood and feuds and actual people with actual agendas? That there's a history behind things, a mythic heft? The idea of "raiding a dungeon" or "building a character" never occurred to me because I was too busy playing a lost, scared, determined girl intent on grudge-keeping and ending anyone who would threaten her or her friends. This was compounded by a system that allowed for growth and change, making your character uniquely yours rather than locking you into a cardboard archetype.

Secondly, Eon is a thinking person's game. While I'm quite fond of the way I phrased that, being at once pretentious and subtly condescending, I still think it fits. Eon doesn't have a built-in goal/reward system other than possibly "practice makes perfect," so if you have an obstacle, it's up to you to solve it intelligently instead of invoking a power or spell for an insta-win. This is reflected in the fighting system (where fighting fair will generally get you killed), in the magic of the setting (where cheating and clever tricks are mandatory), and just generally in how the history of the world is presented.

Thirdly, I love, love, the exploding dice. Even when previous versions of the game made them punitive, they were and are still the best way of determining reasonable outcomes that I can find. Whether it was my character Thizara moonlighting as a pickpocket in Eon 2 or Nicoz Mehzinor dabbling at surgery in the latest edition (which, yeah, didn't go all that well), or an attempt to organize the greatest banquet Calnia has ever seen... the exploding dice have had my back in a way that other systems haven't.


The new system, as was previously mentioned, draws heavily on lessons learned from the Indie scene and games such as Noir, thus shifting the focus from pure mechanism to narrativism. I personally approve: you now power-game by playing up your character and putting them in difficult spots. The game feels a lot less safe and predictable in terms of what you can expect and in terms of overcoming hesitation when role playing: we have characters being scared out of their wits and pouring their hearts out to each other in a way that wasn't previously premiered, and it's amazing to watch. All in all, it becomes a lot more fluid and cinematic.

So to top off this spiel with pure self-indulgence, I'm actually also trying to introduce Eon all sneaky-like on an international forum, so I'd be quite interested in collecting viable English translations, particularly of in-game terms and place names. Judging by this thread it looks like I'm not alone. Must be something in the water.