Our run-through (with a halberd) of the Origins Awards nominations finally hits the air. Also discussed before too long are a lot of possibilities for the Ogre’s Choice awards, which we really are working on. And the usual sundry stuff.
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What was the game that Chris had to be revived after opening? Sounded like Careless but couldn’t work it out!
It was me being sarcastic about Caylus…
Good show!
About games in spanish… many of the better known titles have seen a translation to Cervantes’ language since the time Joc Internacional started printing AD&D 2ed (back in the day). Spain has even had its share of BADD-like things getting media atention – not like that’s a good thing, of course.
Spain has also a number of popular local published games, like:
+ Aquelarre (Coven) by Ricard Ibañez. Historical Spain w/demons and witchcraft included.
+ Far West by Daío Pérez & Óscar Díaz. Adventures in the american wild west.
+ Juego de Rol del Capitán Alatriste (Captain Alatriste’s RPG) by Ricard Ibañez. It’s based on Arturo Perez-Reverte’s line of historical novels; a movie, starring Viggo Mortensen, is on the way btw.
+ EXO by Carlos Herreros, et al. A sci-fi space game with megacorps that is also a strategy game.
+ Anno Domini: Adventus Averni Ad Terram by Antonio Huerta, et al. Pious believers of the major faiths aligned against the conquering hordes of an unknown evil power.
+ Fanhunter by Cels Piñol. A humorous game based on Piñol’s own comic. The self-proclaimed Pope Alejo I (a demented bookseller who thinks he’s being posessed by the ghost of Philip K Dick) has conquered the world and has banned all kind of games, comics/manga, movies and novels (except Dick’s). He uses his repression troops, the Fanhunters, to wipe out the resistance: the PCs, who are the last line of defense; an unholy aliance of wargamers, trekkies, movie critics, role players, otakus and more.
+ Supers games in the form of Mutantes en la Sombra (Mutants in the Shadows), Xtraídos and S.H.I.
+ Beyond Fantasy ANIMA. A beautyfully produced anime-based rpg.
+ And Corvus Belli’s line of miniatures: 15mm historical Corvus Belli, 28mm fantasy WarCrow and SciFi 28mm Infinity.
Due to shipping costs, the LatAm gamer finds it easier to get its fix directly from the US. There are very few companies willing to risk bringing the stuff across the Atlantic, and buying online from Spain can easily add 20 euros to the price of a book.
Also, there aren’t a lot LatAm local games. In México, for example, there have been just two published RPGs: Laberinto (Labyrinth) in 1998 and Factory in 2005, both with a less than optimal distribution. The only economic success I can recall is Mitos y Leyendas (Myths and Legends) from Chile’s Salo, a CCG that’s gained a good reputation and enough popularity to succesfully compete, in LatAm at least, against Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh!
See ya!
Hey, Mike, FindPlay might help you get some of your pile of RPGs played. I know there’s a ton of folks in the Portland area.
yrs–
–Ben
I can’t read a lick of Spanish but I swear I’d actually pay some good cash to get ahold of that Fanhunter game just to actually see it in all of its demented glory 🙂
I’ve also found out that, using WinAmp, that I’m able to cut out a LOT of the audio garbage by shifting the balance to the right speaker. Its the stereo that seems to be causing the issue for me. I even went back and listed to the WizKids interview using the same technique and it was far more understandable.
Regarding the Vanguard Award, it seems like the current OA folks don’t quite get the intent of it. As originally conceived, it was meant to reward games that didn’t neatly fit into one of the existing categories. Think of Magic: the Gathering the year it came out. It won in the Best Fantasy and SciFi Boardgame category despite not being a boardgame. This of course pisses off the guys who do publish boardgames. The Vanguard Award was designed to give the OAs a way to recognize innovative games without shoehorning them into an inappropriate category. Another key thing is that the Vanguard Award wasn’t necessarily supposed to be handed out every year. These last couple of years it seems like they went looking for games to fill the category, with predictable results.