Necromancer

Discoverer







Posts: 472

Discoverer Ye Olde School List of Retro Games & Clones, Retro Clones, & merctime likes this Quote Select Post

Select Post Deselect Post

Deselect Post Link to Post

Link to Post Member Give Gift

Member Back to Top Post by Necromancer on Admin said: Necromancer said: Admin Truly remarkable! That is an impressive list,. So much to read, so little time...

Thank you! If you or anyone has any additional games to add or especially non-English Language games to add please post the links and I will be happy to add them. (That by the way applies to all of the "Ye Olde" threads.

Thank you, Admin



Drakar & Demoner (meaning "Dragons & Demons") was the first Swedish RPG. The first edition, published in 1982, is known as the "blue box" (a rarity these days) and was a translation of the Basic Roleplaying game Worlds of Wonder: Magic World by Chaosium. The second edition, published in 1984, is known as the "black box" and featured this iconic image of Elric by Michael Whelan and was a remake of the original rules set. After that, several new editions and expansion sets were released until the original company (Äventyrsspel/Target Games) folded in the 90's. Today the license is owned by Riotminds, and they have released their own version of the game that differs quite a lot from the original editions.



However, unauthorized PDF files of the original games, adventure modules and other supplements have been around on the net for some years, and to mark the 30th anniversary of the original game Riotminds decided to take those files and publish them for free.



Those files can be found here:



All material is in Swedish, but I thought they could be of some interest anyway.



I'd say the products most likely to be interesting from an Old School perspective would be the following:



Drakar & Demoner (1ed, 1982, file number 01) - since it's the first RPG being published in Swedish, and while not being associated with D&D I think it shares a lot of the attributes found in the early RPG scene of the 70's and the early 80's.



Drakar & Demoner (2ed, 1984, file number 04) - perhaps not Old School in the most orthodox way, but this edition was the starting point for a lot of players in Sweden (myself included) and even though it's quite different from the first edition it's still very faithful to the BRP rules core and rooted in the classic RPG tradition.



Monsterboken (1985, file number 07) and Monsterboken II (1987, file number 18) - for being the two first monster manuals published. Both were illustrated by Nils Gulliksson (being a huge influence on the development of my of drawing style) who made a lot of illustrations for Target Games. Here's an option to compare his early B/W line art drawings in the first monster manual and his greyscale material in the second one. And you get a chance to see what kind of monsters being fought in the Swedish boys rooms of the 80's!



Tvillingbergen ("The Twin Mountains", 1983, file number 02) - adventure module actually not released by Target Games, but Titan Games that would publish the Swedish translation of D&D a few years later. A classic dungeon crawl.



Spindelkonungens pyramid ("Pyramid of the Spider-King", 1983, file number 03) - early adventure module that recently was re-released and adapted to new Swedish RPG Fantasy! Old School Gaming. Dungeon crawl set in a pyramid with some weird, twisted humour.



Dimön ("Fog Island", 1984, file number 05) - another classic dungeon crawl, as well as the first adventure module I bought if I recall correctly.



Havets vargar ("Wolves of the Sea", 1985, file number 08) - a peculiar adventure module, set in a fantasy version of viking era Europe.



Other modules released for the basic rules set (2ed) include a trilogy of adventures called Ärans väg ("Path of Glory"), where the first part, Döda skogen ("The Dead Forest", 1985, file number 09) saw the PC's on a quest in a sandbox type forest, and the second part was Maktens portar ("The Gates of Power", also 1985, file number 10), being a dungeon crawl in an abandonded dwarf stronghold. The final part, Mörkrets hjärta ("The Heart of Darkness", 1986, file number 12), was an epic and rather violent railroad style adventure set in a country torn asunder by war.



Target Games also released two so called "adventure packs" featuring two shorter adventures each, for the basic rules. These are files number 13 (Svart duell & Skönheten och odjuren, "Black duel & Beauty and the beasts", 1986) and number 19 (Novastenen & Jeraz, "The Nova Stone & Jeraz", 1987). The rest of the files covers other editions and expansion sets and modules made for those. One of them however was actually originally written for the first edition, but later reworked and released for the first expansion set (Drakar & Demoner Expert, 1985, file number 06). It was a boxed set adventure module (sandbox style) set in a large swamp, and the module was called Marsklandet ("The Marshland", 1988, file number 23).



There's a lot of the later material that is interesting as well, but I think the files above cover the most relevant products from an Old School perspective. Please feel free to add the link if you like. And I'm happy to answer any questions about those games and modules if anyone's interested or curious! Thank you,! I actually do have a link for you. I meant to save it for my post about early Swedish RPG history that we discussed a while ago in another thread, but that's going to be a rather extensive text and I haven't had the time to work on it yet. I will write it down and post it eventually, but it will probably take a while before I get to that point. In the meantime I thought I'd share this instead.Drakar & Demoner (meaning "Dragons & Demons") was the first Swedish RPG. The first edition, published in 1982, is known as the "blue box" (a rarity these days) and was a translation of the Basic Roleplaying game Worlds of Wonder: Magic World by Chaosium. The second edition, published in 1984, is known as the "black box" and featured this iconic image of Elric by Michael Whelan and was a remake of the original rules set. After that, several new editions and expansion sets were released until the original company (Äventyrsspel/Target Games) folded in the 90's. Today the license is owned by Riotminds, and they have released their own version of the game that differs quite a lot from the original editions.However, unauthorized PDF files of the original games, adventure modules and other supplements have been around on the net for some years, and to mark the 30th anniversary of the original game Riotminds decided to take those files and publish them for free.Those files can be found here: Drakar & Demoner free PDF files All material is in Swedish, but I thought they could be of some interest anyway.I'd say the products most likely to be interesting from an Old School perspective would be the following:Drakar & Demoner (1ed, 1982, file number 01) - since it's the first RPG being published in Swedish, and while not being associated with D&D I think it shares a lot of the attributes found in the early RPG scene of the 70's and the early 80's.Drakar & Demoner (2ed, 1984, file number 04) - perhaps not Old School in the most orthodox way, but this edition was the starting point for a lot of players in Sweden (myself included) and even though it's quite different from the first edition it's still very faithful to the BRP rules core and rooted in the classic RPG tradition.Monsterboken (1985, file number 07) and Monsterboken II (1987, file number 18) - for being the two first monster manuals published. Both were illustrated by Nils Gulliksson (being a huge influence on the development of my of drawing style) who made a lot of illustrations for Target Games. Here's an option to compare his early B/W line art drawings in the first monster manual and his greyscale material in the second one. And you get a chance to see what kind of monsters being fought in the Swedish boys rooms of the 80's!Tvillingbergen ("The Twin Mountains", 1983, file number 02) - adventure module actually not released by Target Games, but Titan Games that would publish the Swedish translation of D&D a few years later. A classic dungeon crawl.Spindelkonungens pyramid ("Pyramid of the Spider-King", 1983, file number 03) - early adventure module that recently was re-released and adapted to new Swedish RPG Fantasy! Old School Gaming. Dungeon crawl set in a pyramid with some weird, twisted humour.Dimön ("Fog Island", 1984, file number 05) - another classic dungeon crawl, as well as the first adventure module I bought if I recall correctly.Havets vargar ("Wolves of the Sea", 1985, file number 08) - a peculiar adventure module, set in a fantasy version of viking era Europe.Other modules released for the basic rules set (2ed) include a trilogy of adventures called Ärans väg ("Path of Glory"), where the first part, Döda skogen ("The Dead Forest", 1985, file number 09) saw the PC's on a quest in a sandbox type forest, and the second part was Maktens portar ("The Gates of Power", also 1985, file number 10), being a dungeon crawl in an abandonded dwarf stronghold. The final part, Mörkrets hjärta ("The Heart of Darkness", 1986, file number 12), was an epic and rather violent railroad style adventure set in a country torn asunder by war.Target Games also released two so called "adventure packs" featuring two shorter adventures each, for the basic rules. These are files number 13 (Svart duell & Skönheten och odjuren, "Black duel & Beauty and the beasts", 1986) and number 19 (Novastenen & Jeraz, "The Nova Stone & Jeraz", 1987). The rest of the files covers other editions and expansion sets and modules made for those. One of them however was actually originally written for the first edition, but later reworked and released for the first expansion set (Drakar & Demoner Expert, 1985, file number 06). It was a boxed set adventure module (sandbox style) set in a large swamp, and the module was called Marsklandet ("The Marshland", 1988, file number 23).There's a lot of the later material that is interesting as well, but I think the files above cover the most relevant products from an Old School perspective. Please feel free to add the link if you like. And I'm happy to answer any questions about those games and modules if anyone's interested or curious!