German D&D - Salvation at Hand!

[Kae'Yoss]

For all German (and Austrian and Swiss) board members: Starting on 1st of July 2004, the licence for the German version of D&D will go from Amigo to Feder & Schwert (German publishers of the World of Darkness). The last thing Amigo will release is the Revised PHB

Personal remark:
This is great news! I was never happy with the translation. Maybe it will get a fresh start and I can start buying German D&D products.

 

[Thanee]

It's hard to translate something and have it retain its flavor.

I think the translations were pretty good, altho, of course, the originals are always better.

I doubt this will change now.

Only hopes are for the fans of the german publications, that the release schedule will become better with the change.

Have you checked the Scarred Lands / Narbenlande books from F&S?
Those might give a hint about what level you are looking forward to...

I personally do not know their work, really. Always read in english.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Flyspeck23]

Seeing that I had some very unpleasant first-hand experience with Amigo, I'm very, very glad about this too - even though I'd never touch a translation with a 10 ft. pole...

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Well, the main thing that stands out against amigo is really there schedule. I have no idea how good the translations are - I never looked into them, except maybe once. (One of our group bought the core rulebooks) I guess, this change is to late for our group.
We are already accustomed to the english expressions, and the 3 german books proved how difficult it would be to change. (and to me personally, also the german versions of Neverwinter Nights)

Oh, and there was this incident with our website dedicated to Role Playing Games. I designed a Barbarian/Sorceror Prestige Class and called it "Rage Mage". And some time later, our web master got an email by "amigo" that (besides other things) we should immediately remove the PrC or at least change its name, because there was a identically called PrC published in the Dungeon magazine and we would violate copyrights. (We didn`t evem know this issue of the Dragon magazine nor the class)

In our group we made several jokes about it. I liked especially this one:
We assumed that this would spell the doom of amigo, since FASA (several years ago) send out similar e-mails to fan sites (including ours - though this was was before I started roleplaying) shortly before they went bankrupt.

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Seeing that I had some very unpleasant first-hand experience with Amigo

Care to go into detail?

I have no idea how good the translations are - I never looked into them, except maybe once.

I do - in one of my groups, there are some unfortunate souls whose English isn't good enough (or maybe they just think it isn't good enough) to read the English stuff, so they got the 3e Core Rules in German. There are some really ridiculous translations in it. I confess, some of them are hard to translate, but with some they could have done better.


I heard F&S wants to put out new translated stuff on a monthly basis now, to catch up. If they manage that and retain a decent quality (I doubt that they'll get lower than Amigo) things are going to change for the better.

 

[Longbow]

If F&S will have a more regular schedule with D&D that´s enough for me. It´s strange that the Amigo board will still be available because they distribute the english versions. But to post there on a regular basis is not my cup of tea because of the strict rules there (which may be not their fault). Let´s hope for improvement with F&S.

 

[Thanee]

Why is it strange, that they don't let the forum die?

It doesn't mean, that their forum will be the official german D&D forum, I'm sure F&S will have their own forum, too.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Darkness]

I liked F&S's WoD translations. Not that I bought many; I generally buy the original if I know the language well enough - which is the case with English. Besides, patience is not one of my strong points so I buy books when they come out (or when I need them, depending on the book in question).

 

[Longbow]

Strange was the wrong word. I just wonder if people will continue to post there (old and new players). Won´t they go to the F&S board or an independent like EN World or the D&D Gate? When you pick up a new english D&D book in Germany there is no sign that Amigo is involved so only the old guard will know of the "old" board (IMO). Don´t get me wrong, it´s nice that the board will remain. I just don´t think it will stay that way.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Hmmm. I don't like the Gate, either.