German Products Options

[lspahn72]

I was just reviewing the SR official site and was reading the FAQ a bit and found myself abit......annoyed...


I own just about everyt shadowrun product that FASA ever printed, and almost everything that has been presented by our new host, but why the resistance to translate things into english???? The money is here to pay for it so why not??

I know that SOE is coming up, but there is quite a few German books that i would just out of my skin to get! If anyone from Fanpro is reading this please reconsider! Hell, id pay to have it shipped here to the USA...Thanks

[Caine Hazen]

Hell I bought me a german language version of the New Germany sourcebook at GenCon last year...and I can only read Irish and Latin...

I agree, we need more books in the US, of course we gotta get more people to buy em to make it cost effective for them..

[Frag-o Delux]

Here is one reason.

[Synner]

Let's dispell the illusion here.

Regarding the RPG there are essentially 4 German language sourcebooks and 1 campaign which were not translated, all other "German books" are adaptations of FASA/FanPro books with some German specific material tacked on the end.

Of the German sourcebooks two were DidS and DidS2 which covered the German setting, the former was translated (and adapted) to English in the form of the Germany sb - which you can still find in many stores because it didn't actually sell that well.

The remaining 2 books WP&SI and D&C were location updates that focused on specific regions of Germany plus Austria and Switzerland respectively. After the weak turn out for DidS/Germany it was probably deemed best not to flog a dead horse and continue to try translating this material. There's also the issue that several elements of the setting in the German material were/are incompatible with the English language material and a simple translation wouldn't cut it.

When DidS2 came out (with 350 pages worth of material exclusive to the German setting), the poor results of country-specific books like Germany and CalFree were probably in mind when it was decided not to translate it. On the other hand specific material therein could and was included in SoE.

Which leads us round to the big problem a few people seem to have: Shockwaves. Yes it is a big campaign and it features the truth about Proteus AG (a German creation) however it culminates a metaplot that's been ongoing for almost 9 years and which non-German's lack significant parts of the background (which incidently were published in a German magazine rather than a official sourcebook). If Shockwaves were dropped on most English gamers, despite the efforts of the German writers, without significant additions and clarifications half the stuff would go right over everyone's head.

For instance a major element of the initial Shockwaves story is Proteus attempt to take over the Frankfurt Bankenverein (Frankfurt Bank Association), Nachtmeister's corp. Why do they do this when there's no common ground between the two? Is Nachtmeister the connection? And what exactly was Nachtmeister and what was he up to that led Lofwyr to bump him off? Well, it's all in the original storyline presented in the pages of the currently defunct Wunderwelten mag a few years back (still in the FASA days) which American's never saw. No matter how much recap the campaign provides you're always gonna feel like you picked up a story half way through.

That isn't to say nothing is being done about it just that its really not feasible to translate and release this particular book.

An effort is being made by both the English and the German authors to bring the material back in synch, SoE will go a long way towards doing that but I don't think I'm breaking any confidences in saying that previous German material on Austria and Switzerland is in for a shakeup and revision.


Regarding the novels, I'd suggest you check the FAQ, FanPro US doesn't hold the rights to produce English language novels (Wizkids does) so they couldn't publish the books even if they were translated. There are other big issues like several of them being incompatible with English canon and many of the stories focusing on aspects of the German and European settings which German readers would implicitly recognize but are contextual references English readers simply lack - a couple of novels set in Austria in particular require some ground knowledge to get all the in jokes.

[shadd4d]

Also there are quite a few in jokes that only living over here is actually going to illuminate, sad to say. This is one reason why the Slippery entry in the Germany sourcebook for Berlin is quite funny. Or why someone laughs when there's a bar in Düsseldorf named Campino.

There are some interesting things that I wish had been translated. There's a 2nd ed spell in WP&SI which is basically fertilize and de-fertilize plants.

Don

[lspahn72]

Does anyone have a good breakdown or timeline of the Shockwave metaplot?? I still would like to know. I appreciate the heads up about articles printed in German SR mags. And you are correct, one of my favorite parts of SR is reading a new book and seeing a reference to one of the metaplots...especially if its kinda vague.

As for germany, austria, and switzerland...i eagerly await the SOE. I liked SONA, although i do miss the old SB format with extensive info on the region.. Does anyone have the breakdown of which countries will be included?? And what about a Shadows of Asia or maybe a Africa/South America SB??

[Synner]

[Nath]

The Teaser-maker is back :D

[Synner]

Guilty as charged... ;) but I can't help myself with the release just round the corner.

[Dax]

Hmmm...Synner, I noticed that alot of countries that had been listed as seperate before hand have been condenced into larger countries. (The Scandinavian Union springs to mind.)

So my guestion is, was this a recent change? Or something that FASA had planned, but just never gotten around to?

[Kagetenshi]

I vote that, in the absence of large trolls named Bubba, we hunt down Synner and tickle him to death.

~J

[Synner]

[L.D]

I think what he means is that for example in T:SH you have Sweden, Norway and Denmark listed as separate countries.

[Synner]

[arkadi]

[shadd4d]

@Synner

How much of the new DidSII and the expected Brennpunkt: ADL is incorporated into the SoE?

Don

[Synner]

[arkadi]

[shadd4d]

I bought Shockwaves (Schockwellen) a couple of days ago. More or less everything Synner said is on the money. There's a lot of info spread out in the previous books Synner mentioned, plus a trilogy of novels. Parts of the summary in the end are a tad vague.

One of the main canon departures is how Proteus functions and who makes it work. The corp functions different than a normal corp.

The campaign is also for advanced players. It has a lot of scenes that will require advanced knowledge to actually "win". There are also a few things that are hard to communicate, such as when a German runner is a foreigner because they are in Denmark. Lots of this sort of things are hard to communicate. On the whole, the adventures are well written and pretty detailed; a bit of railroading is to be expected though.

Running it for Americans will be difficult; most of the needed info is in German, which will require players to read German (low probability) or translation by the GM, which will mean a lot of work (handouts, scenes, information, i.e. a lot you don't want to translate on the fly.). It's a cool campaign though, as long as characters have some reason to be in the ADL and also have some contacts, specifically international contacts.

On another note, the books is a great commercial for Shadows of Europe. There are a lot of sidebars that direct one to check out some things in that book, such as the New European Economic Community, the Scandinavian Union, Italy, and other locales. On a semi-personal note, I'm able to read it without consulting a dictionary. The going is slow, but it's worth it.

Don

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]