I stumbled across to Adam Borbely's RPG blog in Hungarian and apparently he is translating Blackmarsh into Hungarian. Plus, if Google translate is accurate, also expanding it to support another RPG system.
This is one of the advantage of releasing a product under a open license. As a small publisher it is highly unlikely that I could arrange for the translation of Blackmarsh into any other language. But because of the open license Adam is free to do just that and also convert to use the system that he feels that it would be the most useful . Much like what happened over at Heroes and Other Worlds.
One interesting part of his post is where Adam talks about trying to come up with an equivalent name for various locales in Hungarian. The example he gives is Strangeholm, a name of a halfling village.
I used an archaic definition of strange where the word refers to a far away place. Holm is an archaic term used in Middle English to refer to an island in the middle of a river. The literal translation is Far away Island. However the village is built around a prominent hill so why Far way Island? It is a play on words. The Far away part is literal. The village is a halfling colony in Blackmarsh. However Holm/River Island is play on words due to the fact that the hill is an isolated geographical feature rising out of the lowlands. The founders found it mildly humorous to think of their hill as an "island". Hence the name Far away River Island or Strangeholm.
Hey! people used stranger rationale name their village.
Yes, they did!
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing me to "Heroes & Other Worlds," Rob. I was completely unaware of it until reading this post.
Again, thanks!
That's really cool, Rob! It says a lot about the high quality of your work, when people go to the trouble to translate it into another language (a far more difficult undertaking than many people realize).
ReplyDeleteAgain, thank you for the opportunity Rob, I loved translating Blackmarsh.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the translation itself is ready, now it's just a week or two for the artworks to be ready, and Blackmarsh will be released in Hungarian.
It is not me who will be releasing it, as I "just translated" your work, a friend of mine will be doing the final touches, consolidating the text with the artworks done by a skilled artist.
We really hope it will be a success among the roleplayers in Hungary!
Very cool. I agree with Chris. It is high quality stuff. My daughter, a college student, wants to start gaming with her friends. I ordering a copy of Blackmarsh for her.
ReplyDeleteI vote for Klingon and Esperanto next.
The Hill was once an island, a long time ago, when the plains were underwater. Rivers that once connected, altered their course, engulfing new areas to the south. As a result the Hill that was an island is part of a fertile landscape; due to the large amount of silt carried by the former river, leaving behind a 5 yard deep layer of mud in the river’s old course.
ReplyDelete