I've been working during the past two years on translating the fifth edition of the Swedish RPG Darkar och Demoner. This covers period from 1994 until Target Games' demise in 1999.
The RPG's version of Chronopia is set in a city state (pictured) that could be described as Manhattan (or London, Paris, or any other great metropolitan city) built like the Kowloon Walled City if it were done like Mont St-Michel. It can be seen as a mirror to the dark worryings of Swedish society, where crime and corruption is rampant, where a sinister religion is poised to conquer the world and the unaccountable government might be in cahoots with it, where immigrants and refugees bring their strange traditions with them.
A wargame of the same name was created in 1997 by Target Games' Scottish division (which is how I was introduced to the setting), but given both the differences of its setting and how much better the documentation is in the Anglo-Saxon world, it is not the focus here.
Chronopia was the official setting of the fifth edition of Drakar och Demoner, a Swedish RPG that was first published in 1982. While the name sounds like Dungeons & Dragons, with it literally translating to Dragons and Demons, it is actually based on Chaosium's Basic Role-Play rules. The first four editions borrowed much more than the rules, as illustrated by the amount of Duckmen one can find in the setting of Ereb Altor, one of the things it initially borrowed from Glorantha.
Five periods: 1994 - Rulebook & GM screen/Hired Swords Handbook - obvious in the rules section that it was originally more geared for Ereb Altor than Chronopia. The books have graphics heavy-layouts, with three columns per page and a variety of artists
1996 - First bunch of supplements - similar in layout to the main rulebook, but includes a lot of art by Adrian Smith
1997 - Second set of supplements - layout has been simplified with a white background, while all artists outside of mapmaker David Hansson have been replaced by Adrian Smith
1997 - Third set of supplements - Layout is simplified even further to two columns
1998 - Last supplement and scenarios - New artists brought in, attempt to weld Chronopia to Ereb Altor to please old D och D fans, three scenario books released
Planned books - From reading the books as well as the magazine Sinkadus (which by the time when 5th Ed. D och D was published, had devolved into a catalog of Mutant Chronicles/Warzone miniatures), there was going to be a third supplement dealing with magic that would end a trilogy of magic-based scenarios, and after the switch to Ereb Altor, there would be four supplements (Frost Vidderna's Ruler, Dragon's Sons, Fire Ocean Subduer and Demonic People) that would have fleshed out the rest of the continent.
Easton Richardson
Notes on this translation project: Not every aspect of every book has been translated. I have mostly kept to translating the fluff parts, so as to determine how much similarity the RPG had with the wargame. Since the original Mutant Chronicles (and most likely Kult, but I must admit that I haven't looked at it) is based on the same rule system (BRP via D och D), and one can find both English and Swedish versions of it, it can effectively serve as a Rosetta Stone if one wants to run with the rule system. The one exception is the magic system, since the MC equivalents, the Art and the Dark Symmetry, clearly don't work the same way. Every book (apart from the scenario books) has been transcribed to a RTF file, given that the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) for most books is quite poor, mainly due to the layouts and backgrounds, as well as an English language PDF. The RTF files and English language PDFs are named after the English translation of the titles.
D och D Chronopia Main rulebook " Main rulebook magic rules D och D Chronopia scenario Main rulebook scenario Hyrsvärdets Handbok Hired Swords Spelledarskärm GM Screen Vapen och Rustningar i Chronopia Equipment Svärd och Svartkonst Sword and Sorcery Magi i Chronopia Magic Dvärgar i Chronopia Dwarves Mörkrets Väktare Dark Guard (MV) Mörkrets Krigare Dark Warrior (MK) Alver i Chronopia Elves Svärtblod i Chronopia Blackbood Väsen i Chronopia People of Chronopia (Vasen) Altors Baksida Return to Altor (Altors)
Camden Sanders
Given that Swedish is not my mother tongue (in fact, I can't speak it), there is still some work to do in regards to getting the best translation possible. However, I have been trying my best.
Ryder Jenkins
Most of the rest of the stuff here will just be the translated PDFs. The eventual plan will to be to mimic the layout of each book.
Jack Perez
I haven't translated the GM screen (or SL - Story Leader) because, just like D&D DM screens, it's just a collection of table and stats.
Logan Lopez
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Luis Edwards
Dwarves in the RPG are quite Dwarvy. You could easily run them as in in D&D or WHFRP and no one would bat an eye. The Dwarf clans of the wargame were far more unique, with their animal gods-turned blood totems and their inevitable degeneracy into animalistic mutants.
Ayden Garcia
Sword and Sorcery introduces us to the Ikki, the Wongo triad. Wongos are a race of the Blackblood (greenskins or goblinoids in other settings) that could best be described as hobgoblins, but more of the Robin Goodfellow variety.
Matthew Martinez
As is standard in any dark fantasy setting, Elves are evil and decadent.
