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Morty
2008-09-08, 10:43 AM
As it says in the title: I'm wondering how many people here are familiar with The Witcher novels and series by Andrzej Sapkowski- I know few people are, but maybe someone will surprise me- and some general discussion wouldn't go astray either. The first book with novels has been translated to English several months ago -it's titled "The Last Wish"- so perhaps some not Polish-speaking people have read it.
Anyone?
As a bit of help, here are Wikipedia articles on series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witcher), author (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrzej_Sapkowski) and main protagonist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geralt_of_Rivia).
EDIT: Crap, how did this end up in Gaming section?:smallconfused:
@V Sure it should, it's a mystery to me how I ended up posting it here.

Adumbration
2008-09-08, 10:44 AM
I think this should go to the Media Discussions? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=24)

Dublock
2008-09-08, 10:46 AM
yes and I am just about to finish reading the first one (as I am English only).

AstralFire
2008-09-08, 10:48 AM
@V Sure it should, it's a mystery to me how I ended up posting it here.

Forest imps.

DeathQuaker
2008-09-08, 10:49 AM
A lot of gamers are familiar with it because of the video game made based on it which came out several months ago.

Morty
2008-09-08, 10:55 AM
Forest imps.

Guess so. Or, to keep with the spirit of the books, non-humans made me do it.


A lot of gamers are familiar with it because of the video game made based on it which came out several months ago.

Which is why I'm even making this thread, since now there's hope for at least some level of familiarity.

Tengu_temp
2008-09-08, 11:10 AM
Swordsage with some sort of Augmented Human template.

Ahem, right, this is about discussing the books. I like them, but I must admit that AS does black humor and socio-political commentary much better than drama. And the books would be much better if Yennefer wasn't such a total bitch and Ciri was less annoying and more likable. Also, show me someone who didn't feel sad when in the fifth book
Geralt's companions, the book's four best characters, died
and I'll show you a big fat liar.

Maxymiuk
2008-09-08, 11:22 AM
They made a Witcher tabletop game too, you know...

But anyway.

He can be credited with bringing the fantasy genre out of the closet in Poland, to be honest, along with defining the direction it took over the past decade (black humor, crapsack world, etc.). I probably read the saga half a dozen times or so.

Morty
2008-09-08, 11:27 AM
Ahem, right, this is about discussing the books. I like them, but I must admit that AS does black humor and socio-political commentary much better than drama.

It's not exactly the same, but Sapkowski admitted himself that he considers the novels better than saga.


They made a Witcher tabletop game too, you know...

Indeed. As the point of fact, I even have the rulebook, even though I've never played it.

Tengu_temp
2008-09-08, 11:43 AM
It's not exactly the same, but Sapkowski admitted himself that he considers the novels better than saga.


I agree. It also reminds me that he's bad with ending lost stories - the drama-killing timeskip at the end of the Narrenturm trilogy comes to mind, especially. What The Hell, Hero Author?


They made a Witcher tabletop game too, you know...

I've only read the book for the first edition (did the second edition even come out?), but it felt very lukewarm. For me, an RPG's rules should reinforce the feeling of the game, but The Witcher RPG has very generic rules and there is no reason why couldn't you play it with some other ruleset that works for low fantasy, gritty settings.

Spiryt
2008-09-08, 11:52 AM
Is this even translated to english?
Wiki states that only "Ostatnie życzenie" ("The last wish") and "Krew Elfów" ("Blood of Elves")are published in english so far.



I've only read the book for the first edition (did the second edition even come out?), but it felt very lukewarm. For me, an RPG's rules should reinforce the feeling of the game, but The Witcher RPG has very generic rules and there is no reason why couldn't you play it with some other ruleset that works for low fantasy, gritty settings.

I in fact kinda like the whole handbook, it has nice descripitions and many intersting ideas to just every setting or system (even if they're a bit obvious).

But the system is indeed simply in very forced way, generally poorly developed and unoriginal.

nagora
2008-09-08, 12:45 PM
http://www.penny-arcade.com/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2004/20041024h.jpg