The Role Playing Public Radio Forums
General Category => RPGs => : Pyrite June 25, 2012, 12:44:01 AM
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Last year I was engaged proofreading a localization of a French RPG called Les Ombres d'Esteren. It looks like it's finally ready for English release now, and I thought I'd share some details about it with you guys.
http://www.esteren.org/shadows_of_esteren/ (http://www.esteren.org/shadows_of_esteren/)
I was actually pleasantly surprised at the production values of the final product. The art turned out to be really decent.
The Shadows of Esteren is a gritty fantasy horror RPG set between three major factions of civilization, each with their own way of warping reality, either the Demorthèn with their cultish magic, the Magientists with their science and factories that basically drain life from the land, or the dogmatic faith of the Temple. The cities are far from each other, and many of the roads infrequently traveled, largely because of unnatural creatures called Feondas who lurk in the wilderness.
To a degree, the Feondas can be fought with sword and bow and magic and faith, and it's very easy to die a hero when the mass up and maraud cities. Many of them however are far less straightforward, with more mysterious ways of overcoming human strength or senses.
Each of the three kingdoms on the peninsula of Tri-Kazel blames the others for the existence of the Feondas, and for a number of conspiracies and mysterious going's on besides. They're all about half right, too.
The biggest difficulty I can see in it is trying to justify the menagerie of character types that most play groups seem to want to put together in the face of how little the factions trust each other, but there's enough variation of roles within each of the factions to allow a faction specific party.
I thought it was an interesting take on the normal fantasy concepts, and overall an effective setting of fear and uncertainty that allowed for a decent horror game in the fantasy genre. Because of this, I thought it might be of interest to the RPPR crew in particular.
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Interests me.
What are your main sources of inspiration?
Mel Gibson's Braveheart, with its ruggedness and romanticism, gives a good idea of the daily life in Tri-Kazel's peninsula. Tim Burton's universe, especially Sleepy Hollow's, as well as the movie Dark City, have inspired us regarding the technological aspect of the game.
Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke represent two major manga inspirations. For other aspects, Berserk, by Kentaro Miura, and the Final Fantasy saga are important sources of inspiration for our game. As for literature, Lovecraft and Masterton are the major references, as are Anne Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley's Gothic novels.
Regarding role-playing, Shadows of Esteren would be somewhere between Warhammer, Ravenloft, and Call Of Cthulhu.
This right here sounds like something I want to check out.
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I'll have to check this out for Gencon.
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Hello everyone!
Pyrite, thanks you very much for your kind support. You have helped us a lot as a proofreader, thank you again!
Tadanori and Clockworkjoe, thanks for your interest, it will be a pleasure to meet you at Gen Con. I have the great chance to come this year! We will present Esteren and do sign session on Studio 2 Publishing booth.
By the way, i am author and illustrator as well as the coordinator of the Shadows of Esteren series in France but i reassure you, i a m NOT the translator of the game... :p Please forgive my horrible mistakes.
Here are some artworks :
(http://a.imageshack.us/img705/3654/esterendemorthen.jpg)
(http://www.esteren.org/blog/esteren_nouvelle_couverture.jpg)
(http://www.esteren.org/blog/esteren_princesse_tulg.jpg)
If you have any question, please feel free to ask.
Regards,
Nel
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Well that's pretty cool. One of the reasons that I'm particularly interested is that I haven't heard of any RPGs crossing over into America from Europe. The only one I know of personally that's transitioned from a French game is "In Nomine", which was quite a polarizing game.
I imagine that a game written by French authors taking inspriation from England will have a different flavor than a similar one written by Americans. Crossing cultures by comparing works on similar themes helps give gamers a broader world perspective which in turn should lead to a richer roleplaying experience.
Any idea when the signing session is going to be?
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More recently, Qin is also a French game, you can find more here (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12349.phtml).
But you are right, if RPGs crossing over into Europe from America is quite common, the opposite is rather rare.
The particularity of Esteren is that we made everything ourselves, including the translation. But we were helped by a dozen of English speakers proofreaders without whom nothing would have been possible. It was really an amazing experience. You can find more information about the history of the project on this open letter (http://shadowsofesteren.blogspot.fr/2012/06/welcome-to-shadows-of-esteren-official.html).
Personally speaking, I am a fan of Ravenloft, I played years with ADD2. It is just like that that I discovered the RPG back in the 90' and that I became a tabletop RPG lover. It is a very special moment to see our work being introduced on the country where come from tabletop RPG. I really hope you will enjoy our interpretation of this classical kind of setting :)
The signing session is going to last during four days. I will be there with the translator of the book and the French editor. We will also bring some home made goodies for this occasion.
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That sounds pretty cool, meeting an RPG author from another country will be a treat.
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Thanks for showing up! It's great to hear from a RPG developer. Do you think someone from your company could run a game of Eseren for the RPPR AP podcast at Gencon?
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Thank a lot for the proposal!
It would be a pleasure but i can't do it myself, i am afraid my english is too poor...
However, i will ask our proofreaders, i think some of them will go to Gen Con, maybe they can do that ?
By the way, i am very happy to announce you that our Kickstarter campaign is now alive :
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1176616619/shadows-of-esteren
(http://www.esteren.org/blog/kickstarter_estere_rpg_400px.jpg)
Thanks for checking out!
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Cool. That is a nice looking book. I don't know if you are familiar with "The Witcher" game series or the novels it is based on, but I've been wanting to run a table top game based off of them for a long time and haven't quite found the right game system to do it in. Would Shadows of Esteren be a good potential system for that kind of game?
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Thanks for showing up! It's great to hear from a RPG developer. Do you think someone from your company could run a game of Eseren for the RPPR AP podcast at Gencon?
Hi there,
I'm one of Shadows of Esteren proofreaders, and will be attending Gencon (my first one !). I'm definitely up for GMing a short (2-3 hours) SoE session for one of your podcasts. I have however a bunch of games already scheduled, so we'll need to find a timeframe. Here are the openings I currently have:
-- Thursday all morning until 1pm and 5pm-8pm
-- Friday, Saturday 8am-10am and 6pm-8pm
-- Sunday after 4pm
Hopefully we'll find a way to make it work :) PM me if you want to work details out.
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Cool. That is a nice looking book. I don't know if you are familiar with "The Witcher" game series or the novels it is based on, but I've been wanting to run a table top game based off of them for a long time and haven't quite found the right game system to do it in. Would Shadows of Esteren be a good potential system for that kind of game?
It would take some modification of the magic system, as I don't believe things like teleportation are possible, but a lot of the setting elements definitely fit. I never got a proper look at the rules for Feondas (not in the half of the book I proofread) but the general concept of them could definitely be adapted to things like the Striga.
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Teleportation wouldn't be a problem, those things exist in the Witcher but they more often function as plot devices; players don't get access to "high magic".
What I'm most focused on would be the lethality; how gritty the combat and damage systems feel. There are two systems I've considered using: the World of Darkness and Song of Ice and Fire. World of Darkness has a very generalized system of damage. Song of Ice and Fire has an abstracted system where details about the kind of damage can easily be filled in. What I'm curious about with Shadows is, if my character is hurt, do I feel where and does it feel like I'm hurt?
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Teleportation wouldn't be a problem, those things exist in the Witcher but they more often function as plot devices; players don't get access to "high magic".
What I'm most focused on would be the lethality; how gritty the combat and damage systems feel. There are two systems I've considered using: the World of Darkness and Song of Ice and Fire. World of Darkness has a very generalized system of damage. Song of Ice and Fire has an abstracted system where details about the kind of damage can easily be filled in. What I'm curious about with Shadows is, if my character is hurt, do I feel where and does it feel like I'm hurt?
Combat is rather deadly, with a condition track for damage taken and successive penalties. The rules don't incorporate hit locations, but that does keep things smoother and less complicated. You get 19 spots on the condition track before incapacitation, and damage is the difference between the attacker's skill roll and the defenders skill roll, plus damage bonus from the weapon, minus armor.
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Interesting. Is the system geometic? As you take damage you get larger penalties proportional to the damage you've taken?
As an aside, how "wahoo!" is the combat design? Does it make room for the possibility of Princess Bride-esk duels or is it a more feet on the ground style?
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What I'm most focused on would be the lethality; how gritty the combat and damage systems feel. There are two systems I've considered using: the World of Darkness and Song of Ice and Fire. World of Darkness has a very generalized system of damage. Song of Ice and Fire has an abstracted system where details about the kind of damage can easily be filled in. What I'm curious about with Shadows is, if my character is hurt, do I feel where and does it feel like I'm hurt?
The combat system was designed to be fast and deadly, but I wouldn't call it gritty.
Here's the rundown (terms may slightly vary from here to rulebook, I'm translating on the fly):
1. Determine order of action (based on Quickness stat (=Combativeness+Empathy) +1d10). The "Quick" combat attitude can be chosen before rolling the d10 , to affect the Quickness.
2. From lowest to highest Initiative, each opponent declares a combat Attitude for the round : Standard/Offense/Defense/Move. That choice will alter the three main combat attributes for the round: Attack/Defense/Quickness. These numbers are already calculate on the character sheet, and differ only by a Variable called Combat Potential.
3. From highest Initiative to Lowest Initiative, opponents proceed with their maneuvers. When attacking, only the attacker rolls (adding his Attack for that round based on the Attitude), then success is determined by comparing to the opponent's Defense (also based on his attitude this round). Damage is based on a success margin plus a set number for the weapon (I believe some advantages could modify this as well), minus the defender's protection (fixed number provided by armor and shield). It's pretty quick because there's only one roll per attack.
There are also typical modifiers for conditions (attack form the back, etc...). Damage is added to the Health chart and move the character from Good health to Dying (5 stages total, each of them adds a modifier to any roll performed by the character : geometric progression indeed). There is no hit location system, however it would be easy to add by any gm.
There is also the ability to learn "Combat Arts", which improve some combat aspects : Devious Attack, Two Weapons Attack, Parry, Archer, Cavalry.
In my experience, combat was very deadly, even when fighting animals such as wolves (not even Feondas). I think this reflects well the game's aspect of man vs nature and how vulnerable characters should feel when facing this hostile world.
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Excellent, that sounds pretty good.
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Thanks Tadanori!
I signal you the existence of a very complete thread on RPG.net about Esteren.
One of the participants introduces our work very well! He is Kyadark.
For exemple :
(English is not my native language, sorry for the weird sentences...)
Shadows of Esteren never claimed to re-invent anything, it just take several concept, atmospheres or gameplay options that alreadu exists and intricate them rather smoothly to make a rather coherent and very well designed game.
En résumé, I'd describe three axis which make SoE a different game :
- The harshness of the daily environnement
- The complexity of the clash between cultures
- How fantasy and horror are dealt with
I can't help but comparing it to Westeros in the first book of ASOIAF (before magic comes to make a mess). I haven't seen the new Pixar movie yet, but Brave appears to illustrate a lot of the atmosphere of the Tri-Kazel environnements.
It's a classic medieval setting, kinda projecting what would have the british isle become if christianity didn't get up here.
Tri-Kazel possess a feudal society where a lot of celtic culture has remained. Most villages evolved from ancient clans and kept their social structure. In some place mens keep wearing kilts, the battle axe is still the weapon of the village chiefs (while sword is more a weapon for feudal lords and knights)
People worship the spirits of nature and the Demorthèn (druids) try to keep the balance between humans and nature, bards (not like in D&D where the bard is only some music player) plays the role of teachers or diplomates and use the arts to get a different point of view of the world.
Dolmens and erected stones belong to the landmark and the whole land is full of a history not perfectly remebered.
The nature is very harsh on the inhabitants of Tri-Kazel. The peninsula is surrounded by furious seas, and most of it's land is covered by huge mountains that cross the peninsula in it's length. So most of the people have no choice but to live in a mountainous environnement, where winters can be so cold that villages can be cut off the rest of the world for months. Flat land exists, but is either covered by thick and dark forests, or dangerously exposed to the winds.
So, basically SoE presents a rather common setting, but when you look closely you can see how it's swarming with little details that send shivers down your spine when you read about it and picture this setting in your mind.
One of the main theme of Shadows of Esteren is the clash of cultures.
About two hundred years before the recommended date of setting for the game, people from the mysterious continent came to Tri-Kazel and brough with them two different thing :
- The Temple brought Faith in a one true god, spreading very fast since the purest believers are granted miracles much more impressive than what the mysterious arts of the Demorthèn can give. Bringing down menhirs to building churches and monasteries (no, the monks in here don't know kung-fu), it looks like the christian religion coming a bit late, but still as determined as ever. The feudal lords don't like them very much but they are very popular with some peasants.
One of the main inspirations for SoE is the Name of the Rose, you get quickly why when you read the chapters about the Temple.
- The Magientist brought an anachronic science, with strange devices using a fuel, the Flux, extracted from rocks or living beings. They can do extraordinary things, the first magientists came in a flying engine, their medicine can cure almost any diseases... It's rather steampunk, the point of this faction is that everyone can become a magientist if he has the capabilities, it's a way to raise socially thanks to your mind rather than your strengh or your blood.
But the costs are huge, the machines use tons of Flux and the liquid needs a lot of natural ressources to be collected, and the by-products of it's extraction causes pollution.
These two + the traditionnal society of Tri-Kazel can hardly live together on the peninsula. It even turned to a war between the three kingdom as the Temple tried to whipe out the magientists. Now there's peace but the war left behind a lot of orphans and ruins are still present in numbers near the borders. The point of playing after such an event is that the tensions are still strong, but the situation can change in still many ways 'cause no one really wants the horrors of the war to return and none of the three factions really has an advantage over the two others.
The factions are well described, the Temple isn't just a bunch of religious maniacs trying to destroy everything that doesn't believe in their one god for example, it's a faith base on purity and respect in front of the creation, believers are hard workers and help each other a lot, the clergy gives an opportunity to get a new start in life.
On the other hand Demorthèn are not just peacefull nature-lovers who meditate to help the life of their fellow citizens, they have a rather strict look upon life (abandonning weak newborns to the spirits of the forest is an old tradition), don't like their autority to be discussed, and jealously protect their secrets.
And in the middle of this, everyone tries to get the best of the opportunities that are given to them. The implications are rather coherent, with the various political applications of every faction on different levels and the troubles it causes. Villagers, knights, messengers, bards, dukes and kings...
Travels are also an important part of the setting, and discovering the variety of situation (you can't find two identical valleys) and the powers at play is a recurring plot-point in most adventures.
It's more complex than it first appears, but everything is logic and you can easily imagine new situations that make perfect sense.
Fantasy and magic have a somehow subtle presence in this universe.
Some chosen priests can unleash ice storms to freeze the ennemies of the Temple, Demorthèn can aquire strange capacities by communiating with the spirits, some magientists study esoterism and even witchcraft...
But it's still a rather discreet part of the setting, the most obvious supernatural forces despicted in the book are the feondas.
Feondas is a generic term (meaning "Ennemy" in the old tongue) to describe a wide range of creatures, sometimes humanoid, sometimes just monstruous; animal, vegetal and even mineral beings that all have in common a furious and unexplained agressivity towards human beings. Coming from the dark corners of the misty valleys and dark forests, they are present everywhere and have no organisation whatsoever. Omnipresent in folklore and legends, you can spend an entire life without seeing a single one, but sometimes they gather together and perform deadly raids upon the villages, towns and even capitals.
Unknown and capable to appear in a great variety of appearances, feondas are one of the main sources of horror in the game. But actually most horror come from the humans themselves.
In Shadows of Esteren, you play really fragiles characters. Not weak, usually they do a god job to perform most actions, just that they don't have a lot of "life points" and even small wounds can harm their capabilities greatly. The combats are deadly and usually comes to an end in a matter of three turns, there are numerous ways of dying and even the character's minds are vulnerable.
Shadows of Esteren offers a really interesting mental health system and you quickly see that psychology is an important part of the game. Not as extreme as the CoC system, it is meant to give a slow progression into madness, specific to each player.
After this description that was much longer than I expected it to be when I began to write this post, I'd like to finish on a few thing that might not mean a lot to other people, but that personally when straight to my heart when I discovered this setting.
First of all, the book is stunning you can all see that easily, but the writing is stunning too. The description of the setting is just like a folder of letters, notes, book extracts and other texts written by very different characters from everywhere across Tri-Kazel, gathered together.
It's dynamic, easy to read, and give several biased description that only makes sense when you put them together.
I don't know how it would look in english, but in french the texts are really excellents, there's a whole double-page describing the Tri-Kazelian cuisine, that can seem like a rather boring/useless topic but it's written so well, like a fable of some witty bard, that makes it absolutely captivating.
Plus the book swarms with small ideas, not enough to make a different setting on their own, but that together helps to make Shadow of Esteren a really unique universe.
For example, centuries ago a new people appeared on the peninsula, called the Tarish. Very mysterious, they claim to have reached the peninsula with a huge boat that no one has ever been able to find, but they don't say a word about the place they came from. Now several of their caravans roam across Tri-Kazel and they behave pretty much like bohemians, performing shows and original arts when they get into a new town, but stays shadowy and mysterious everytime they travels.
Horses are usefull to travel the few real roads the peninsula gets, but in the mountain the best way to travel is on the back of a caernid, a deer-like domestic creature, very agile, like the mount of the hero in Princess Mononoke.
One of the rare large flat area that is not covered by trees is the giant beach that surround the biggest forest of the peninsula. Since you can't grow anything on sand, there are not a lot of villages there, but it's in the middle of one of the main commerce road between south and east. So the main way to travel along this beach is with a sand yacht.
You can find it here : http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?635016-Shadows-of-Esteren
Hope it can be helpful,
Regards,
Nel
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It seems that the Shadow of Esteren Kickstarter now has only 7 days left. So if you haven't checked it out yet, I'd recommend to do that soon. It'll definitely be worth your time :)
Kickstarter link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1176616619/shadows-of-esteren
Since there has already been a few strech goals and each pledge is getting cool bonus materials, you can find a nice and clear summary of what bang you'll get for your bucks:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1176616619/shadows-of-esteren/posts/271599
One of the most popular pledges is the Hilderin Knight, for which you can find a full summary here : http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1176616619/shadows-of-esteren/posts/270861
(The GM screen and game soundtrack are well worth the extra dollars IMHO).
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Hi everyone!
I can not resist the pleasure of sharing it with you ...
This is an illustration for a new NPC for the Shadows of Esteren, commissioned by one of our generous patron of the Kickstarter campaign that will be included in an upcoming release..
(http://www.esteren.org/blog/esteren_snow_witch_560.jpg)
By the way, thanks for your support during our KS campaign!
We hope you will like our books,
Regards,
Nel
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holy shit that is awesome :O
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Reminds me of the Black Raven tribe from the New World campaign.
Great job!