Bearded One Speaks: Davis on Aihdre

cuchulainkevin · Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:28 am

I found this on the old boards; Davis replying to a negative review of the old Erde hardcover. Ironically, the negative review by the poster became a positive one, but Davis also talked about Erde's conception and evolution parallel to other settings like Kalamar. Unedited Davis, typos and all.

Well, I amglad you came around to enjoying the setting. Although most may not know, steve and I both feel a twang of guilt when someone does not enjoy what they purchse. But, there is little in the long run we can do but give out as much information to consumers prior to purchasing - something we've only recently begun to master.

I think some of the tropes mentioned in your first review are spot on. Steve and I both (more steve than I) have anextnsive literary background and play often borrows from classic tropes. We like the classic tropes because, for better or worse, they work (they are classic for a reason). Our formative gaming years were with greyhawk also so thematic elements were borrowed - either intentionally or accidentilly. But more design/presentation elements as we feel it is one of the better fantasy settings for fantasy rpgs that fit the game.

kalamar/lankmahr were prduced long after erde had been in existance for close to two decades with over 5000 pages of notes (you should see steve's shelf, I can't make heads or tales of any of it as his organizational method is, well to put it politely, not familiar to me. But he swears he can find anything at a moments ntice.) I think this is an example of parallel evolution in world development. I do, by the by, like Kalamar (which is why we agreed to help with Dangerous Denizens).

As for the language. LOL. Out father was in the military and steve and I have spent a LOT of time in Deutschland. Me going on 11 years of my life and steve 4 years. Our teenage years were in Heidelburg. To say that we were influenced by our experiences there would be an understatement in the extreme.

We both tend to see the medieval/fantasy world through a germanic prism. The words convey to us images of warriors, castles, dark halls, mighty battles, glorious and militaristic pageantry. it just works for us. German also conveys a great deal. The words themselves are heavy and laden and weighty - at least to us english speakers in america. So we went with german. Erde as a setting was also, incidentilly, started and developed in Germany in the early 80s.

We didn't want to use a made up language as that often fails to hit the mark.

All that said, many place names have numerous names. For example, in A2 there is town called Syvanwale - the Fay/Havenwale (Avendin) - Gnomes/Diamond Dale - current distant humans/Sparkling Hill - Old humans/ Slag Heap - current local Humans. that is one town 300 years old.

So, many of the place names have differing references. We went with the most common 'in game' references.

But the foreign language usage is really a nod to the cultural influence and power of those languages to convey images and themes. In the rewrite we will be exploring alternate languages and naming conventions more.

Oh and if steve never replied its not because of lack of interst or anything, it was more than likely an oversight or getting busy with other projects and not being able to address it. Just ask robert (serleran), we drop a project on his lap and he does not hear from us again for four months. sorta sad.

Anyway, thanks for the good word and I hope you come to enjoy it more as time goes on and we clean up elements of the production and presentations.

Davis Chenault

Bearded One Speaks: Davis on Aihdre

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