A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Gregorius21778: The Rockyhill Badlands
Gregorius21778: The Rockyhill Badlands is a role playing game supplement published by Kai Pütz a.k.a Gregorius21778. This is a collection of encounters suitable for the Mutant Future system. As such, this should probably be covered by the Open Game License, but this is not referenced or included.
This is a thirteen page PDF which is available from RPGNow at the regular price of $0.75 but was purchased at the reduced price of $0.62. One page of the supplement is the front cover and around half a page the front matter. Another half of a page is on how to use the supplement, and that it can be used as a freeform hexcrawl.
The supplement starts with a d100 encounter table, with 25 different encounters listed. Each encounter is then described in detail. Some of these encounters will be at fixed locations, due to being ruins or other things incapable of moving, whilst others could be discovered anywhere. The encounters are also interlinked, so what can be found in one encounter may be linked to other encounters. Various encounters can also change, depending on previous experience with them, and whether another encounter also happens.
A bit over half of the final page is an adventure hook which can be fleshed out and there is also a brief section on radiation damage that can be suffered in the area.
Gregorius21778: The Rockyhill Badlands in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although it may not be that long, they would have been useful. Navigation could therefore be better. The text maintains a two column format and, as is frequently the case, the author warns that they are not a native English speaker. There are more errors than usual – often with words that sound the same but have different meanings – but the supplement is also longer than usual. These errors are not bad enough to make it incomprehensible, and some native English speakers have made an equal number of mistakes, which is less excusable. The supplement is illustrated with a few stock art line drawings and looks okay.
This is described as being a freeform hexcrawl, but truthfully it isn’t really such. It could be used as a random encounter table as characters are travelling through the wilderness or a GM could actually add the encounters to an existing hex map, with a combination of fixed and random encounters. With some fleshing out and combining it with other material, this could be used as the base for a fairly decent wilderness encounter area. This supplement is cheap enough, even at full price, and there are quite a few decent ideas in it too, to make it definitely worth picking up. Gregorius21778: The Rockyhill Badlands can be found by clicking here.
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Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing by Joseph D. Salvador is a role playing game supplement published by Raven God Games. This is
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A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Gregorius21778: Works and Misfortunes of ye Alchemist
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Hi there,
thanks for the review, especially for pointing out my mistakes. I tried to proof-read my own document again and found some (hopefully: most of ) the errors your mentioned. A new, updated version (1.1) is now available at drivethrurpg.com. If you would like to review another of my titles, just drop me line via. I will happily provide you with a complementary copy.
Kind regards
Gregorius21778, aka Kai Pütz
I know how difficult it can be to proofread your own work, and I’ve seen native English speakers do a far worse job than you. Your command of English is certainly better than my command of German! I’ll have to take another look at the updated supplement.
I like your stuff and find it good and inexpensive to get. I’ll see if there is anything else that particularly strikes my eye.
Incidentally, I know you can do German to English, but are you able to translate English RPG supplements into German?
Well, that actually depends on the complexity of the text. It is easier to „understand“ than to translate, especially when it comes to idioms, figured speech, common phrases … and PUNS are the worst thing to translate I know off!
All in all, I guess I am able to deliver a translation “somewhere between OKAY and GOOD” when in regard to texts like an issue of “Wisdom from the Wastelands”, as long as I am familiar with the general topic. This should be the case most of the time, but could become problematic in regard to “Hard SciFi”. Same thing when there is a lot of descriptive, novella-like text. I am able to -understand- the original novels of H.P. Lovecraft, but giving a good translation of expedition preparations or the vivisection of the elder things might give me trouble. I used to translate simple/daily business communication for a former employer of mine and acted as sort-of-translator during a business meeting with with a client from the UK back then. I had reached my limits the moment that my boss asked me to write a translation for a contract (as the “legal-ese” was way beyond my abilities).
Last but not least, as I am not as skilled as a professional translator, it takes me some more time. Last time I tried something like that was word-by-word description of a Warhammer 40.000 background text for a friend (as a handout). Time is something I don´t have much at hand right now (my “real” job keeps me busy, and a lot of my free time I invest into the creation of my own releases).
But, may I ask if you have something specific in mind?
Translating legal-ese is effectively another language anyway!
You may have guessed that I also publish supplements – that’s one reason I read so many. Another is people keep offering huge bundles of them for very little money and I keep buying them. I mostly publish generic ones, with a few Pathfinder, Hero Kids and one Cepheus Engine. My preferences is probably for OSR games though, such as Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry, but I haven’t released anything for those as yet.
I have thought about having some translated into other languages, with German, Spanish and French being my first picks. However, there is not exactly a lot of money in the industry, which makes professional translators not really affordable for all but a few.
So all I could really offer is a copy of the original supplement, a copy of the translated one, a credit in the translated one and one on the site and an agreed upon percentage of the money from the sales of every translated supplement, paid directly through OneBookShelf. Not a brilliant offer I understand, and I realise you may simply neither have nor want to spend time on such a project, especially as sales are likely to be substantially lower than for English supplement.
Oh trust me, the sales ARE substantially lower for a German supplement. If somebody is writing in a foreign language instead of the native one, there usually is a pressing reason for this 😉 There is no big e- market for indie-publishers in Germany (or I was simply unable to penetrate it).
Sadly, I guess I won´t have much time to offer this month or the next. BUT if you happen to have a smaller Labyrinth Lord project (a couple of pages), feel free to drop me a line (gregorius21778@fantasymail.de).
I always liked the idea of acting as a translator (and once even tried to get a Cambridge Certificate Advanced English), and I won´t ask for money in return (but rather for credit-as-mentioned, and perhaps reviews and/or simple proof reading).