Comet
2012-08-18, 05:41 AM
You guys asked for it to get translated, waited for it with the enduring patience of mountains and may have already forgotten about it. But now it's finally here!
You can get a copy at DriveThruRPG (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/103305/Valley-of-Eternity-%28English%29), either in PDF or printed form.
Valley of Eternity is a game about outcast heroes and anti-heroes, the likes seen in many westerns, told in the context of penguin society with elements of fantasy mixed into a very real and well-researched setting. If that sounds cool to you, read on:
Valley of Eternity is a game about Antarctica and the penguins that call it home. It's a tough, unforgiving life where every waking moment must be spent ensuring the survival of yourself and the next generation. Most penguins do just that, with little thought or agency. They simply do what their insticts tell them, survive.
When the glacier throws its worst at the penguins, though, simple survival is not enough. Someone needs to stand up for something other than themselves, someone needs to become a hero to ensure the community at large lives on to see another spring.
Heroic penguins do not raise younglings, nor do they bond with those around them. They live on the outskirts of society, training their physical and mental endurance in preparation for the next horror that would aim to destroy all they hold dear. With crude weapons and mystical powers granted through philosophical reflection at their disposal, these heroes do what regular penguins cannot. They are admired for their strength, yet shunned for their independence. They become outcasts and martyrs, but still they fight on.
Others gain their independence through different means. They abandon their former homes, wander out into the coldness of the deepest glacier and surrender themselves to the frost and the wind. Most die, but some survive. Those who awaken after being purified in snow become anti-penguins, hunters as white as the snow whose hearts beat as one with the glacier itself. To regular penguins they are alien abominations. In their own eyes they have achieved the most crucial step in mastering the environment that would want nothing more than to kill everything that lives within it.
And so the stage is set. Heroic penguins and anti-penguins clash against each other at the outskirts of "civilized" penguin society, butting heads over morals, philosophy, love and every now and again simple survival. Both sides also have to struggle against the glacier itself and the beasts it sends to destroy them. Alliances between heroes and anti-penguins are not unheard of, yet even with their combined forces the fight seems to be without end. The glacier always wins.
The game system itself is really simple, some could even say minimal. As such the majority of the book is reserved for description of the setting, which is brilliantly put together in part due to the author's background in studying the Antarctic, and the kinds of stories one could explore in said setting.
It took way too long to get the tranlsated edition out there but now it's finally here. And I think it looks really great, even better than the original version. And, best of all, this translation would not have happened without you guys. I'm sure the author is just as pleased as I am to get this little game out into the world and I hope you guys are still keen to give it a go!
I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have about the game.
You can get a copy at DriveThruRPG (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/103305/Valley-of-Eternity-%28English%29), either in PDF or printed form.
Valley of Eternity is a game about outcast heroes and anti-heroes, the likes seen in many westerns, told in the context of penguin society with elements of fantasy mixed into a very real and well-researched setting. If that sounds cool to you, read on:
Valley of Eternity is a game about Antarctica and the penguins that call it home. It's a tough, unforgiving life where every waking moment must be spent ensuring the survival of yourself and the next generation. Most penguins do just that, with little thought or agency. They simply do what their insticts tell them, survive.
When the glacier throws its worst at the penguins, though, simple survival is not enough. Someone needs to stand up for something other than themselves, someone needs to become a hero to ensure the community at large lives on to see another spring.
Heroic penguins do not raise younglings, nor do they bond with those around them. They live on the outskirts of society, training their physical and mental endurance in preparation for the next horror that would aim to destroy all they hold dear. With crude weapons and mystical powers granted through philosophical reflection at their disposal, these heroes do what regular penguins cannot. They are admired for their strength, yet shunned for their independence. They become outcasts and martyrs, but still they fight on.
Others gain their independence through different means. They abandon their former homes, wander out into the coldness of the deepest glacier and surrender themselves to the frost and the wind. Most die, but some survive. Those who awaken after being purified in snow become anti-penguins, hunters as white as the snow whose hearts beat as one with the glacier itself. To regular penguins they are alien abominations. In their own eyes they have achieved the most crucial step in mastering the environment that would want nothing more than to kill everything that lives within it.
And so the stage is set. Heroic penguins and anti-penguins clash against each other at the outskirts of "civilized" penguin society, butting heads over morals, philosophy, love and every now and again simple survival. Both sides also have to struggle against the glacier itself and the beasts it sends to destroy them. Alliances between heroes and anti-penguins are not unheard of, yet even with their combined forces the fight seems to be without end. The glacier always wins.
The game system itself is really simple, some could even say minimal. As such the majority of the book is reserved for description of the setting, which is brilliantly put together in part due to the author's background in studying the Antarctic, and the kinds of stories one could explore in said setting.
It took way too long to get the tranlsated edition out there but now it's finally here. And I think it looks really great, even better than the original version. And, best of all, this translation would not have happened without you guys. I'm sure the author is just as pleased as I am to get this little game out into the world and I hope you guys are still keen to give it a go!
I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have about the game.