Attention: all non USA members or anyone who speaks languages other than English

[Yaleric]

Attention: all non USA members or anyone who speaks languages other than English as a first or second language. Please tell us of what OD&D or old school D&D things go on in your country and what websites and blogs, etc, are there in your language. Please post links to blogs, forums and other OD&D or old school D&D sites that are either not in English or are in English, but are based outside the USA and that we may not be aware of. Almost all of the links on the forum are to English language sites and we are missing a lot that way and we know people from all over do view the site. Please help us compile resources that are not in English.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Oct 14, 2022 23:10:23 GMT -5 Yaleric said:

Attention: all non USA members or anyone who speaks languages other than English as a first or second language. Please tell us of what OD&D or old school D&D things go on in your country and what websites and blogs, etc, are there in your language. Please post links to blogs, forums and other OD&D or old school D&D sites that are either not in English or are in English, but are based outside the USA and that we may not be aware of. Almost all of the links on the forum are to English language sites and we are missing a lot that way and we know people from all over do view the site. Please help us compile resources that are not in English.

Have an Exalt for starting this thread, I think this is a great idea.

[Yaleric]

Oct 15, 2022 9:33:21 GMT -5 The Perilous Dreamer said:

Oct 14, 2022 23:10:23 GMT -5 Yaleric said:

Attention: all non USA members or anyone who speaks languages other than English as a first or second language. Please tell us of what OD&D or old school D&D things go on in your country and what websites and blogs, etc, are there in your language. Please post links to blogs, forums and other OD&D or old school D&D sites that are either not in English or are in English, but are based outside the USA and that we may not be aware of. Almost all of the links on the forum are to English language sites and we are missing a lot that way and we know people from all over do view the site. Please help us compile resources that are not in English.

Have an Exalt for starting this thread, I think this is a great idea.

I see it did not go anywhere, but I am sure we have members who do not speak English as their first language. I am rather curious about what non English language resources there are. Seems like it would be a lot of fun to speak 7 or 8 languages well.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Jan 25, 2024 18:14:25 GMT -5 Yaleric said:

Oct 15, 2022 9:33:21 GMT -5 The Perilous Dreamer said:

Have an Exalt for starting this thread, I think this is a great idea.

I see it did not go anywhere, but I am sure we have members who do not speak English as their first language. I am rather curious about what non English language resources there are. Seems like it would be a lot of fun to speak 7 or 8 languages well.

Yeah, it would be. I had hoped this would get some traction, but perhaps somewhere down the road.

[arjen]

I started with the Dutch translation of the Mentzer Red box and I think I still have B1 and/or B2 around in Dutch, in case anyone is interested in scans. From what I remember only the Red Box basic and B1, B2 and B5 have been translated into Dutch, I think blizzards pass got a translation too. Most 80s, early 90 translations of RPGs in Dutch were for the German "Das Schwarze Auge" (The Dark Eye). The were 2 Dutch RPG's; One was called "Queeste" and that game had the best magic system I've ever encountered in RPG's, like "ARS MAGICA" but 10 years before that, more concise and workable. There was another but that one was older and nver made any waves, even in the Netherlands.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Jan 25, 2024 22:18:35 GMT -5 arjen said:

I started with the Dutch translation of the Mentzer Red box and I think I still have B1 and/or B2 around in Dutch, in case anyone is interested in scans. From what I remember only the Red Box basic and B1, B2 and B5 have been translated into Dutch, I think blizzards pass got a translation too. Most 80s, early 90 translations of RPGs in Dutch were for the German "Das Schwarze Auge" (The Dark Eye). The were 2 Dutch RPG's; One was called "Queeste" and that game had the best magic system I've ever encountered in RPG's, like "ARS MAGICA" but 10 years before that, more concise and workable. There was another but that one was older and nver made any waves, even in the Netherlands.

arjen, that is really cool information. Have an Exalt! I have not really looked at the "ARS MAGICA" magic system. Will you expand more about the magic system for "Queeste," how it worked and ways it was more concise and workable? Apparently the game has never been translated into English.

I did find this information, maybe you could expand on this some (for example the full list of attributes)

Translation:
Queeste is a Dutch role-playing game from 1979, written and published by Joop Oele. In creating the game he was inspired by his experiences in guided imagery and by a self-designed labyrinth game.
From 1992 onwards, the original books and adventures have been edited and reissued by a group of volunteers in cooperation with Joop Oele, along with some new stories.

In this role-playing game the characters have 18 attributes, such as physical strength, mental strength, the five senses, but also intuition and memory. For starting characters, physical and mental constitution have a value of 20 (the character is healthy), the values of most other attributes are on average 5, with a maximum of 10. Skills are derived from one or more attributes.

The game system uses a six-sided die and tokens (with a 'head' and a 'tails' side) to determine whether an action of a character succeeds. After determining the applicable attribute, the die is thrown in addition to a number of tokens equal to the value of the attribute. The number of 'heads' is added to the value of the die, and this must be higher than a predetermined threshold or higher than the total of an opposing player.

Queeste has a number of guilds which the characters of the players can join. These include the Sun Riders, the Druids, the Mages, the Wolves Women and the Jesters. Each guild has rules which the characters must follow, and certain benefits. By accumulating experience, characters can reach a high rank in their guild and may become high priest, for instance.

The magic system of Queeste is inspired by the Earthsea books by Ursula LeGuin. A mage has access to a number of words and grammar rules of the Old Hyksos language (more when he has a higher rank) and must weave them together to produce the desired magical effect.

[arjen]

The attributes for Queeste are:

Physical constitution (basically hitpoints)
Physical Dexterity (Dex)
Physical Strength (Str)
Mental constitution (mental hitpoints)
Mental Dexterity (kinda Intelligence, used for spellcasting)
Mental Strength (Willpower, also used in spellcasting for strength of a spell)
The senses:
Sight
Hearing
Smell
Taste
Feeling
Intuition
misc.:
Size
Speed
Memory
Need (this one is interesting, this attribute represent characters non-essential needs like luxuries, nice food, entertainment, comfort; foods/drinks and goods can have a "needs"-score. If your characters doesn't have this "Needs" score met each week the character will suffer some mental damage but it will also lower the "Need" score if this happens 3 weeks in a row. Overindulgence (consuming twice the "Needs"-score) will increase the score)
Beauty

In my opinion the attribute list is a bit bloated. The core of the 'general' rules are not that great and it involves rolling a d6 and some chits, the chits have a 1 and 0 value side and you often have to throw like 10 of them, it provides a nice bell-curve results-wise but is a bit of a hassle (the chits that came with the boxed game were 1/4 by 1/2 inch-ish wooden things). The PCs were class based with levels (like D&D) and each level some of the attributes would improve, based on class, and most levels would come with other extra abilities. The classes were well-done, a bit like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (this game was developed before Warhammer).

The Magic system is were the rules shone and is a words and grammar system (complete overview can be found here: www.valdyas.org/hyksos.html)

The basic idea is that a Wizard learns a number of magic words and they can use those words to create spells, each new level would come with 1 or more new words they could use.

A 1st level wizard get the words: NE (changed the next word to the 'opposite'), JAPPA (means "me" or "I"), WODAN (Health), VEDDA (writing, text), QUOT (thing) and ARRAH (air). The grammar rules have ways to change the magical words into verbs, adjectives etc. , quite basic and easy.

All spells need to start with "Jappa" because the Wizard casting the spell is the "acting" voice here, most spells that change things or creatures are merely illusions unless the magic word "IDORA", meaning "real", is used (attained as 9th level and the most powerfull word. The length (number of words used) determine the difficulty of the spell and a spell succeeds if you roll 8 or more on a d6 plus you metal dexterity score in chits minus the number of words in the spell. So a wizard with mental dexterity of 12 casting a 3 word spell (the simplest possible) rolls 1d6 plus 12 (binary) chits, deduct 3 (#words) from the score and needs to get at score of at least 8. The strength duration etc. of a spell is determined by Mental Strength and each spell (cast successfully of not) costs mental hitpoints.

A sample spell is JAPPA ARREX JAPPA, meaning "I - change into air - me" or in other words "I make myself invisible". JAPPA ARREX JAPPA IDORAS would be a gaseous form spell (I REALLY change myself into air). JAPPA ARREX NE JAPPA: I make someone else invisible. JAPPA ARREX JAPPA EDDAS: I make us invisible; the word "EDDAS" is needed to multiply.

Whether a spell works the way the player intends is decided by the GM

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Jan 26, 2024 16:49:45 GMT -5 arjen said:

The attributes for Queeste are:

Physical constitution (basically hitpoints)
Physical Dexterity (Dex)
Physical Strength (Str)
Mental constitution (mental hitpoints)
Mental Dexterity (kinda Intelligence, used for spellcasting)
Mental Strength (Willpower, also used in spellcasting for strength of a spell)
The senses:
Sight
Hearing
Smell
Taste
Feeling
Intuition
misc.:
Size
Speed
Memory
Need (this one is interesting, this attribute represent characters non-essential needs like luxuries, nice food, entertainment, comfort; foods/drinks and goods can have a "needs"-score. If your characters doesn't have this "Needs" score met each week the character will suffer some mental damage but it will also lower the "Need" score if this happens 3 weeks in a row. Overindulgence (consuming twice the "Needs"-score) will increase the score)
Beauty

In my opinion the attribute list is a bit bloated. The core of the 'general' rules are not that great and it involves rolling a d6 and some chits, the chits have a 1 and 0 value side and you often have to throw like 10 of them, it provides a nice bell-curve results-wise but is a bit of a hassle (the chits that came with the boxed game were 1/4 by 1/2 inch-ish wooden things). The PCs were class based with levels (like D&D) and each level some of the attributes would improve, based on class, and most levels would come with other extra abilities. The classes were well-done, a bit like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (this game was developed before Warhammer).

The Magic system is were the rules shone and is a words and grammar system (complete overview can be found here: www.valdyas.org/hyksos.html)

The basic idea is that a Wizard learns a number of magic words and they can use those words to create spells, each new level would come with 1 or more new words they could use.

A 1st level wizard get the words: NE (changed the next word to the 'opposite'), JAPPA (means "me" or "I"), WODAN (Health), VEDDA (writing, text), QUOT (thing) and ARRAH (air). The grammar rules have ways to change the magical words into verbs, adjectives etc. , quite basic and easy.

All spells need to start with "Jappa" because the Wizard casting the spell is the "acting" voice here, most spells that change things or creatures are merely illusions unless the magic word "IDORA", meaning "real", is used (attained as 9th level and the most powerfull word. The length (number of words used) determine the difficulty of the spell and a spell succeeds if you roll 8 or more on a d6 plus you metal dexterity score in chits minus the number of words in the spell. So a wizard with mental dexterity of 12 casting a 3 word spell (the simplest possible) rolls 1d6 plus 12 (binary) chits, deduct 3 (#words) from the score and needs to get at score of at least 8. The strength duration etc. of a spell is determined by Mental Strength and each spell (cast successfully of not) costs mental hitpoints.

A sample spell is JAPPA ARREX JAPPA, meaning "I - change into air - me" or in other words "I make myself invisible". JAPPA ARREX JAPPA IDORAS would be a gaseous form spell (I REALLY change myself into air). JAPPA ARREX NE JAPPA: I make someone else invisible. JAPPA ARREX JAPPA EDDAS: I make us invisible; the word "EDDAS" is needed to multiply.

Whether a spell works the way the player intends is decided by the GM

Thanks so much, that is some really cool stuff and for the link to Old Hyksos. Really a shame more games cannot be translated both directions into other languages.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

So arjen, so you have a list of websites in Dutch (or I think Nederlands is native term) that you frequent? Blogs or forums or homebrew sites for RPGS?

[arjen]

No, sorry, even when I lived in the Netherlands the main websites I would go to were international/English language sites.