[UA] Swedish games

[Mattias Östklint]

Hej Ronnie! Kul att se att det finns i alla fall en (1) till som spelar UA!

Swedish RPG:s? Well, Ronnie already gave a good account of it, I just have
a few comments. There were two swedish RPG:s translated, Kult (if you don't
know it, you should, for a game published in the eighties it is frightingly
modern) and Mutant Chronicles (Warhammer 40K-ish, as an RPG, there even was
a spin-off tabletop battle system called Warzone, wich sold just as well as
every other none-Games Workshop whatever, ie, not very). I have only played
Mutant Chronicles for comedy value, it is way over-the-top. Kult is nice.
Some games were translated, MERP, Chill, Star Wars, an early version of
Dungeons and Dragons (sold really bad), probably one or two I forget.
Then we have the swedish-language games.
"Drakar och Demoner", well, Ronnie already talked about it. It was the
first, and of course it is a blatant rip-off. Only, it is not a rip-off of
Dungeons and Dragons, but rather of Basic Roleplaying.

Now, think a bit about that. Imagine that you, everybody you know who game
and everybody you meet who has gamed at one point or the other DIDN'T play
Dungeons and Dragons as their first game. Drakar och Demoner has no levels.
Practically no swedish (or european, for that matter) rpg:s are
level-based. I'm not sure HOW this has affected the swedish/european gaming
scene, but I'm sure it has.

"Mutant" is the game that will not die. Published in the early eighties it
transformed into some kind of cyberpunk for a while but is now back to the
roots. The setting is Postapocalyptic say, 2-3 hundred years after,
technology is early steam-level, Mutated animals, mutated and "pure"
humans, psykers, robots (with the asimov rule) and lots of humor.
Recommended.
"Viking" is dead, the rules were sub par but it is the only historically
correct portrayal of vikings in an RPG I have ever seen, and it does it
without being boring.
Neotech is rules-heavy cyberpunk, Eon is rules-heavy fantasy. Gemini,
Västmark, Kelathaar and Gondica are, or were, fantasy of differing
sub-genres. Wastelands was a rather uninspiring postapocalyptica.
Western is another survivor, a pretty straight, historically correct Wild
West game that features silouettes with a transparent target you put over
the spot you aim, roll a bit and see where you hit, pretty nifty, but a bit
complicated. (come to think of it, I can't think of a English-language
historically correct Wild West rpg, odd that, are you guys not interested
in your history?)

Then we have a couple (four I think) rpg:s used by the church for
educational purposes (the confirmation, I think it is called in english?).
They are not really christian in nature, but more designed to  provide food
for reflection. (one fantasy, two historical (viking, palestine) and one
hard SF).

But in general the market for games in swedish suffers because everyone
above fifteen know english.

And no levels. Ever.

Mattias

 a short comment turned into a ramble...