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Earthdawn on French TV

Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2016 9:20 am
by Marzhin
(Dear Moderator Adepts, feel free to move this post elsewhere if needed.)

Hi everyone,

I don't know if there are many French-speaking Earthdawn fans lurking around here (besides me, that is :p), but just in case...

I'm a video game designer/writer by day, but by night I work for a small indie TV channel called Nolife (yeah -- we're nerds and not ashamed of it), which for the last 10 years has dedicated itself to all aspects of "geek" culture, ranging from video games to anime and everything in-between. And of course we talk about pen-and-paper roleplaying games too.

Since October 30th, we've been airing a new show called Roleplay (yeah, it was originally only a placeholder name, but use these long enough and they tend to stick ^^).
It's essentially a roleplaying game session, but cut into episodes, seasons, with cliffhangers, etc. It's a bit experimental, I am not aware of any other show trying this on TV, but the reception has been really great so far.

Why I talk about it on this board is because we've been playing Earthdawn (with FASA Games' kind authorization) :)
More specifically, we play a mix of ED Classic (as it's the latest version of the game available in French) but in the timeline of ED4, and incorporating some of the new rules.

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Our campaign tells the story of a group of four Adepts (T'skrang Swordmaster, Human Nethermancer, Dwarf Elementalist and Ork Beatsmaster) looking for their kaer. A Questor of Dis messed with their heads in order to sell them as slaves (removing their Names among other things), and now they travel across Barsaive looking for clues leading them back home. In the latest episode they made it to Kratas where they hope to find some leads, but mostly find trouble :)

The show airs every Sunday at 10PM (Paris time) on the channel, and can be watched on TV but also on Twitch (I don't think there are regional limitations, but to be honest I've never tried watching it from another country so I'm not sure).

I'm very proud to be able to do this show on TV, playing one of my favourite games, and hopefully it contributes to bring in new players :)

Re: Earthdawn on French TV

Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2016 1:31 pm
by Mataxes
Marzhin wrote:I am not aware of any other show trying this on TV, but the reception has been really great so far.
Not on TV, but the web is chock full of it.

On the 'high production values' end, Geek & Sundry has been working on this sort of thing. There's Tabletop (now in its fourth season), which does this sort of thing for board games (with the occasional RPG thrown in for spice). Last year they did Titansgrave, which was a whole season dedicated to an RPG adventure.

They're also behind Critical Role, a D&D show featuring many notable voice actors and the occasional celebrity guest.

That said, I enjoyed the first episode of your show (what I could understand of it). I haven't had a chance to watch the other eps yet, but I'm glad to hear they've been well received.

Re: Earthdawn on French TV

Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2016 1:59 pm
by Marzhin
Mataxes wrote:
Marzhin wrote:I am not aware of any other show trying this on TV, but the reception has been really great so far.
Not on TV, but the web is chock full of it.
Definitely, however TV has different rules and constraints (and laws :p)
For instance we can't just let the camera roll for 3 hours without changing angles or showing artworks. While it works on Youtube since the viewer can just let it play in the background while doing other stuff, TV viewers would just get bored and switch channels. So we had to go for a shorter, weekly format.
It has also a symbolical value for me as RPG were much maligned on French TV in the 90s ("RPG will get your kids desecrating cemeteries and sacrifice chickens!"), and even in recent memory every time there's been a subject about RPG on the "big channels" it has always been a caricature. Doing it on the web wouldn't feel quite as cathartic :p
Strangely, one thing I've been told is that people appreciate that they can watch our show with their kids as it's not too long and has no swearing/dirty jokes/etc. Apparently that's an issue with many of the web roleplaying shows, the ones in French at least. Although Earthdawn being Earthdawn, I have to warn those people that once the party starts encountering Horrors, things might get a little bit, well, nasty :mrgreen:
Mataxes wrote:That said, I enjoyed the first episode of your show (what I could understand of it). I haven't had a chance to watch the other eps yet, but I'm glad to hear they've been well received.
Thanks :) Hopefully we're here to stay and will only get better ^^

Re: Earthdawn on French TV

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 12:20 am
by Slimcreeper
I don't suppose you could do it in French accented English instead of French proper? No? <heavy sigh>

I knew I should have paid closer attention in French in high school ...

Re: Earthdawn on French TV

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 1:03 am
by Tattered Rags
Slimcreeper wrote:<heavy sigh>
Le sigh?

Re: Earthdawn on French TV

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 2:53 pm
by BTL
I agree, it's something complete different, having a Show on telly and casting a tabletop party on YT. Unfortunatly my french is close to not existent. But maybe if you a more or less successful there will be others following your example. At least things running in telly regulary will work in a webcast, too,o in Kontrast to the other way round.
@Marzhin: Is there a Version with subtitles?

Re: Earthdawn on French TV

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 3:04 pm
by Marzhin
BTL wrote:@Marzhin: Is there a Version with subtitles?
Unfortunately we're a very small structure and we lack the manpower to do a transcript, translation and subtitling of the episodes. That'd be cool though!

Re: Earthdawn on French TV

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:03 pm
by bleeding
Hey I'm French ! Je regarde No Life de temps en temps mais pas de façon régulière. J'essaierai de voir cette nouvelle émission.

Re: Earthdawn on French TV

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 10:34 pm
by Marzhin
bleeding wrote:Hey I'm French ! Je regarde No Life de temps en temps mais pas de façon régulière. J'essaierai de voir cette nouvelle émission.
Yay, so this post was useful :mrgreen:
J'espère que l'émission te plaira / Hope you'll like the show!

Re: Earthdawn on French TV

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 6:03 pm
by bleeding
Je viens de le voir, c'est sympa et ça serait bien que ça dure plus longtemps :D

Dommage que je ne sois pas sur Paris, j'aurais bien participé :D