[torg] Berlin Citybook - Rant

[Ralf Schemmann]

Hi fellow Torg players,

I recently bought a copy of the Berlin Citybook on ebay and had the
time to read it over the weekend. Now I need to get some steam off.

As a German myself, seeing my language being mutilated like this 
makes me weep. Couldn't they have involved a proofreader capable 
of the German language to at least correct the most glaring spelling
and grammatical errors? I mean, a simple lookup in a dictionary would
have revealed that it is "Stammtisch" and not "Stamtisch". Heck, they 
can't even translate poperly from German into English: "Altes Museum"
is simply "The Old Museum" not "The Elder Museum". "Bluten Erntenbund"
is hardly recognizable as German at all.

But those language issues are only minor quibbles compared to the
problems I have with the general setting. I came away with the
impression that the author(s) hadn't read the Torg rules section on
cosms, realms and reality at all - much less understood it. For
heaven's sake, simply replacing a Tharkold stelae with a NE one
results in a mixed reality? What happened to introducing your
reality via a maelstrom bridge in the first place? Do stelae now
suddenly produce their own reality? And what about the "zones" of 
other realities in Berlin? It is never clearly stated whether they
are supposed to have brought their own reality with them, apart from
a mystical statement that "where many people of one reality come
together, they bring their reality with them" (or some such). What?
What happened to contradictions, disconnection, and transformation?
The whole thing is a single contradiction to the Torg reality.

The rest of the book is more of a minor annoyance than a gross insult.
The Gamemaster's section wastes a whole page on explaining why there
isn't a map of a German "Burger König" in it (BTW folks, it's "Burger
King" in Germany not "Burger König"). In other places the book 
reiterates a thousand times how dark and dangerous this Berlin setting 
is without giving a lot of clues how to portray that atmosphere. Does
the totally unimportant cybergang attack in the example adventure
constitute that atmosphere?

Don't get me wrong, there are a few nice ideas scattered around the 
book, e.g. the developments in Germany after Operation Central Fire, but 
on the whole the book is really, really bad IMO.

Perhaps someone on this list has had a more favorable impression of
the Berlin Citybook? Has anybody put it to constructive use
in a campaign? I'd be happy to hear of your thoughts on the book.

Ciao,
	Ralf

- -- 
Ralf Schemmann
Institute for European Regional Research
Universität-GH Siegen

e-mail: ralf at fb1.uni-siegen.de
WWW: http://www.fb1.uni-siegen.de/ifer/

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