Skarpskytten
Ödestyngd världsvandrare
Okej, RQ var ett dåligt exempel. Låg mig säga Harnmaster och Worlds of Wonder istället. Jag gissar att även GURPs erbjuder tämligen sansad lågfantays.
Vad är den svenska stilen?
- Thread starter Magnus Seter
- Start date
Okej, RQ var ett dåligt exempel. Låg mig säga Harnmaster och Worlds of Wonder istället. Jag gissar att även GURPs erbjuder tämligen sansad lågfantays.
DanielSchenström
Swashbuckler
Äventyrsspel sålde egna figurer i sin egen förpackning. Tror det först var Grenadierfigurer eller liknande med konventionell 25mm skala, och senare Heartbreaker miniatures med "heroisk" 25mm som den tidens Warhammerfigurer.
Skarpskytten
Ödestyngd världsvandrare
Ja, jag blev lite osäker och skrev in en brasklapp i min från början tvärsäkra post. Satt och letade i mina Sinkadus igår för jag hade en bild i min huvud av något med figurer, men jag hittade bara ett par generiska artiklar. Inte heller hittar jag något i boken om Äventyrsspel. Men det måste ha varit en rätt kort satsning i så fall? Kan @Mekanurg kasta något ljus över detta?
GURPS erbjuder allt.
Mekanurg
I'd rather be different than indifferent.
Det var en policy som jag drev aktivt under de formativa Äspels-åren på 1980-talet. Jag såg alltför många begränsningar i dramatiska metafysiska konflikter. Istället lät jag mig inspireras av vår världs färgrika historia. Mitt Midgårda storverk -- MERP-boken The Kin-strife -- handlar om ett dynastiskt och merkantilt inbördeskrig i Gondor utan inblandning från sauronska makter. (Sauron gnuggar istället händerna i Dol Guldurs skuggor när han ser dúnedain döda varandra och själva ödelägga Gondors huvudstad Osgiliath.)
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Mekanurg
I'd rather be different than indifferent.
Jo, det gjorde vi. Men jag minns inte detaljerna 35 år efteråt.
Skarpskytten
Ödestyngd världsvandrare
Jag har grävt lite och det verkar ha kommit först från 1990, då jag tror att du dragit vidare på andra äventyr.
Som NeoViking, UltraDucks, Too Hard To Duck, eller NeoBunnies kanske?
Nytt avsnitt av Effekt Podcast där @Magnus Seter och @Mekanurg diskuterar denna fråga tillsammans med outsidern Shannon Appelcline för att få ett utifrånperspektiv. Samtalet börjar runt 25 minuter in i avsnittet. Har inte hunnit lyssna på hela än...
Svarte Faraonen
Sumer is icumen in
När de snackar om vad den svenska stilen är och tar upp Svavelvinter slår det mig hur många element i Femte Konfluxen-kampanjen som bryter av mot det. Städer med svävande klippor som hålls upp av osynliga efriter, självklonande biomantiker, psykedeliska trippar i misslyckade världar på hoprullade pergament... det är avsevärt mer udda än merparten av det som betecknas som svensk stil, och verkar inte heller ha fått särskilt många epigoner på den svenska scenen.
Mogger
Hipsteranka
För mig är detta en del av ett konsekvent världsbygge. Det är inte random gonzo utan känns fullständigt rimligt i sin kontext.
I min värld kan man säga att Blixt och Granström tillhör stilens båda ytterligheter. Båda med lika goda kvalitéer.
Svarte Faraonen
Sumer is icumen in
Ja, absolut. Men det är en typ av konsekvent världsbygge som inte fick så många imitatörer (även om jag och @Ymir gärna tar fasta mer på sådant när vi skriver saker till Eon nuförtiden).
Mogger
Hipsteranka
Vårt kommande äventyr Sirenens klagan till Kopparhavet är rätt trippat på sina håll! Själv ligger jag närmre Blixt i mina fantasier men @vije som är författare har väldokumenterat tokiga idéer för sig! Läs gärna @God45 s recension av hans kampanj till Svärdets sång, om man hittar den. Jag minns tyvärr inte namnet på den...
Men du har helt rätt i att den delen inte alls är lika förhärskande, men det tror jag beror på att det är så mycket svårare! Det krävs lite av ett galet geni för det
Har lyssnat nu och det var väl en okej diskussion. Hade gärna gett det någon timme till. 
Här är mina anteckningar som jag skrev innan podden för att samla mina tankar.
-------------------
The Swedish Style
Today we are seeing several Swedish rpg companies making waves in the hobby. Free League might be the first publisher to come to mind (Mutant, Forbidden Lands, Coriolis, Vaesen, Alien, et. al.) but we are also seeing strong performances from Helmgast (Kult: Divinity Lost, Troubleshooters), RiotMinds (Trudvang Chronicles/Adventures, Lex Occultum) and Ockult Örtmästare Games/Stockholm Kartell (Mörk Borg). Paradox Interactive now owns Vampire. Of note is also the fact that Modiphius is producing the Mutant Chronicles RPG, a property that originated from Sweden.
There are also several podcasts that either focus on Swedish games (Effekt, Three Skulls Tavern and Sweden Rolls among others) or have them as a starting point or focal point (Mud & Blood and Red Moon Roleplaying).
Lately Free League almost smashed the rpg Kickstarter record with The One Ring Second Edition, a game not from Sweden but somehow fitting very well with what gamers want out of games from the north, so to speak. One of the game’s creators, Francesco Nepitello, was adamant that Free League was the best publisher for the game.
So the question is if there’s a Swedish style that is conquering the globe and if so, what is it? I posed this question on rollspel.nu, an online forum for opinionated rpg hobbyists in Sweden and a hub for small scale rpg creators. The answers were predictably all over the place, and the first contention was the existence of such a style in the first place. We’re not that much different from the rest of the world after all … or are we? It then delved into what games that had influenced todays creators before moving on to general questions regarding Swedish society and the cultural influences applied on a growing hobby in the 1980s.
Is there a Swedish style?
My own position is that there must be something about Swedish rpgs that have resulted in them being seen as top tier in the industry. Gamers all over the world have picked up games such as Forbidden Lands, Alien, Mutan Year Zero, Tales from the Loop, Vaesen, Kult, Troubleshooters, Trudvang Chronicles/Adventures and most recently Mörk Borg to play, to talk about and to create for.
All these games come from Sweden or have creators who live in Sweden as driving forces. One publisher, maybe two from Sweden would be a strong enough showing on the international scene, but we’re looking at no less than four (Free League, Helmgast, Riotminds and Ockult Örtmästare Games/Stockholm Kartell). And there are several more hobby creators waiting in the wings, inspired by the success of their friends in the hobby. All from a country of about 9 million people.
Are we just lucky to produce games that challenge for leadership in the second tier of rpgs, together with Call of Cthulhu and Pathfinder? Or are they even contenders? In the data from the online virtual tabletops, Swedish games are a mere blip. So maybe we in Sweden are inflating a bubble about to burst?
I’d like to think that there is a Swedish style, some common design language for rpgs that is more or less pronounced in the games created and produced here.
How did the Swedish style evolve?
It is difficult to pin down exactly what the Swedish style is and it might be easier to do for someone looking in from the outside than me as a Swedish gamer. But what it is must be intrinsically tied to how it came to be.
Magic World and BRP
D&D was never the dominant force in Sweden like it was in the USA. The first and dominant game, Drakar och Demoner, was a translation of Magic World that was further developed and refined, often picking up influences from Runequest.
So we’re looking at a tradition of skill based games with non-escalating hit points. Monsters are truly fearsome, combat is deadly and your hero must rely as much on wits as on brawns.
Intimate rather than grand
Given that the rules didn’t really support the power fantasies of Dungeons & Dragons, the adventures that were written were more intimate than grand. The player characters were defined as adventurers making their way through the world rather than demi-gods waiting to happen.
Fairy-tale influence
The Swedish games and adventures were grounded in fairy-tale sensibilities, something that shouldn’t be that surprising given the strong folklore traditions of Sweden. This also laced the games with a taste of folk horror, picking up the elements that today have been captured in games such as Vaesen and the Swedish language versions of Call of Cthulhu and Chill.
Plot-based rather than location-based
Most Swedish adventures were based on exploring a plot rather than exploring a dungeon. The NPCs and their motivations were front and center in many adventures, and complex plotlines played out in fantastic locales. Dungeons were incidental for a long time.
The 1980s
Roleplaying was huge in Sweden during the 80s. Almost every teenage boy at least tried playing Drakar och Demoner or Mutant. What Swedish society looked like is seen as a factor in this, with some people describing the entertainment landscape of Sweden as being reminiscent of DDR; grey and depressing.
Roleplaying games were creative and fired up the imagination of the youth. A lot of those who grew up during the tail end of the 1980s and during the 1990s are now driving forces in the Swedish rpg industry. A lot of movie and television writers have played rpgs and are building their careers on those experiences crafting stories with their friends.
The 1990s
The dominant player in Swedish rpgs, Target Games, bowed out of the business in 1996 or so. They were split up into different entities that still emerge here and there as part of the computer games industry. They dropped roleplaying games and a power vacuum was created.
This vacuum was filled by an all Swedish publisher called NeoGames who produced the fantasy rpg Eon and a cyberpunk game called Neotech. These games supplied enough oxygen to the hobby that hobbyist gamers started creating their own games, looking to NeoGames for inspiration. If they could do it, why couldn’t anyone do it?
This situation created a strong DIY culture among Swedish gamers. We learned that we could create as well as anyone else, and as the means of production were made more readily available with DTP and ready access to computers, it was true that almost anyone could put together and print a game.
The 2000s
As more and more hobby gamers started looking into creating their own rpgs, they started gathering on online forums to discuss … argue … about rpgs. Given that Sweden is a small country, it seems that everyone knew everyone and the exchange of ideas started to define the hobby. It was execution that mattered, not the idea itself. The DIY tradition grew stronger.
More important to the discussion of the Swedish style is the development of strong graphic skills being important in Swedish games. Not fancy or flashy, but solid, good-looking design, attention to typography and the use of strong artists for covers and interior illustrations. Of course, that didn’t apply to all games but that is something that is evident in many of the games that we are talking about today: many have the same graphic designers, lending their skills to others.
So what is the Swedish style?
So what is a Swedish style game? In my mind, it can be described as:
There are American or British games that match these points. I would say that Call of Cthulhu has always been one of the leading stars for Swedish game designers, together with Traveller and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.
Här är mina anteckningar som jag skrev innan podden för att samla mina tankar.
-------------------
The Swedish Style
Today we are seeing several Swedish rpg companies making waves in the hobby. Free League might be the first publisher to come to mind (Mutant, Forbidden Lands, Coriolis, Vaesen, Alien, et. al.) but we are also seeing strong performances from Helmgast (Kult: Divinity Lost, Troubleshooters), RiotMinds (Trudvang Chronicles/Adventures, Lex Occultum) and Ockult Örtmästare Games/Stockholm Kartell (Mörk Borg). Paradox Interactive now owns Vampire. Of note is also the fact that Modiphius is producing the Mutant Chronicles RPG, a property that originated from Sweden.
There are also several podcasts that either focus on Swedish games (Effekt, Three Skulls Tavern and Sweden Rolls among others) or have them as a starting point or focal point (Mud & Blood and Red Moon Roleplaying).
Lately Free League almost smashed the rpg Kickstarter record with The One Ring Second Edition, a game not from Sweden but somehow fitting very well with what gamers want out of games from the north, so to speak. One of the game’s creators, Francesco Nepitello, was adamant that Free League was the best publisher for the game.
So the question is if there’s a Swedish style that is conquering the globe and if so, what is it? I posed this question on rollspel.nu, an online forum for opinionated rpg hobbyists in Sweden and a hub for small scale rpg creators. The answers were predictably all over the place, and the first contention was the existence of such a style in the first place. We’re not that much different from the rest of the world after all … or are we? It then delved into what games that had influenced todays creators before moving on to general questions regarding Swedish society and the cultural influences applied on a growing hobby in the 1980s.
Is there a Swedish style?
My own position is that there must be something about Swedish rpgs that have resulted in them being seen as top tier in the industry. Gamers all over the world have picked up games such as Forbidden Lands, Alien, Mutan Year Zero, Tales from the Loop, Vaesen, Kult, Troubleshooters, Trudvang Chronicles/Adventures and most recently Mörk Borg to play, to talk about and to create for.
All these games come from Sweden or have creators who live in Sweden as driving forces. One publisher, maybe two from Sweden would be a strong enough showing on the international scene, but we’re looking at no less than four (Free League, Helmgast, Riotminds and Ockult Örtmästare Games/Stockholm Kartell). And there are several more hobby creators waiting in the wings, inspired by the success of their friends in the hobby. All from a country of about 9 million people.
Are we just lucky to produce games that challenge for leadership in the second tier of rpgs, together with Call of Cthulhu and Pathfinder? Or are they even contenders? In the data from the online virtual tabletops, Swedish games are a mere blip. So maybe we in Sweden are inflating a bubble about to burst?
I’d like to think that there is a Swedish style, some common design language for rpgs that is more or less pronounced in the games created and produced here.
How did the Swedish style evolve?
It is difficult to pin down exactly what the Swedish style is and it might be easier to do for someone looking in from the outside than me as a Swedish gamer. But what it is must be intrinsically tied to how it came to be.
Magic World and BRP
D&D was never the dominant force in Sweden like it was in the USA. The first and dominant game, Drakar och Demoner, was a translation of Magic World that was further developed and refined, often picking up influences from Runequest.
So we’re looking at a tradition of skill based games with non-escalating hit points. Monsters are truly fearsome, combat is deadly and your hero must rely as much on wits as on brawns.
Intimate rather than grand
Given that the rules didn’t really support the power fantasies of Dungeons & Dragons, the adventures that were written were more intimate than grand. The player characters were defined as adventurers making their way through the world rather than demi-gods waiting to happen.
Fairy-tale influence
The Swedish games and adventures were grounded in fairy-tale sensibilities, something that shouldn’t be that surprising given the strong folklore traditions of Sweden. This also laced the games with a taste of folk horror, picking up the elements that today have been captured in games such as Vaesen and the Swedish language versions of Call of Cthulhu and Chill.
Plot-based rather than location-based
Most Swedish adventures were based on exploring a plot rather than exploring a dungeon. The NPCs and their motivations were front and center in many adventures, and complex plotlines played out in fantastic locales. Dungeons were incidental for a long time.
The 1980s
Roleplaying was huge in Sweden during the 80s. Almost every teenage boy at least tried playing Drakar och Demoner or Mutant. What Swedish society looked like is seen as a factor in this, with some people describing the entertainment landscape of Sweden as being reminiscent of DDR; grey and depressing.
Roleplaying games were creative and fired up the imagination of the youth. A lot of those who grew up during the tail end of the 1980s and during the 1990s are now driving forces in the Swedish rpg industry. A lot of movie and television writers have played rpgs and are building their careers on those experiences crafting stories with their friends.
The 1990s
The dominant player in Swedish rpgs, Target Games, bowed out of the business in 1996 or so. They were split up into different entities that still emerge here and there as part of the computer games industry. They dropped roleplaying games and a power vacuum was created.
This vacuum was filled by an all Swedish publisher called NeoGames who produced the fantasy rpg Eon and a cyberpunk game called Neotech. These games supplied enough oxygen to the hobby that hobbyist gamers started creating their own games, looking to NeoGames for inspiration. If they could do it, why couldn’t anyone do it?
This situation created a strong DIY culture among Swedish gamers. We learned that we could create as well as anyone else, and as the means of production were made more readily available with DTP and ready access to computers, it was true that almost anyone could put together and print a game.
The 2000s
As more and more hobby gamers started looking into creating their own rpgs, they started gathering on online forums to discuss … argue … about rpgs. Given that Sweden is a small country, it seems that everyone knew everyone and the exchange of ideas started to define the hobby. It was execution that mattered, not the idea itself. The DIY tradition grew stronger.
More important to the discussion of the Swedish style is the development of strong graphic skills being important in Swedish games. Not fancy or flashy, but solid, good-looking design, attention to typography and the use of strong artists for covers and interior illustrations. Of course, that didn’t apply to all games but that is something that is evident in many of the games that we are talking about today: many have the same graphic designers, lending their skills to others.
So what is the Swedish style?
So what is a Swedish style game? In my mind, it can be described as:
- Intimate rather than grand
- Low concept as opposed to high concept
- Focus on plot rather than location
- Coloured by the darkness of Swedish folklore tradition and sensibilities
- High production values
There are American or British games that match these points. I would say that Call of Cthulhu has always been one of the leading stars for Swedish game designers, together with Traveller and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.