Appendice N: Valerian & Laureline in edicola

In questi giorni (il 21 settembre), complice l'uscita nelle sale del film dallo stesso titolo, è uscito in edicola il primo numero della collezione a fumetti Valerian con la Gazzetta dello Sport. Il costo del fumetto è di € 9,99 più il costo del quotidiano.

L'edizione non è malvagia specie per chi non conosce il personaggio.

Il fumetto è un bellissimo fumetto di fantascienza, con intuizioni visionarie e invenzioni grafiche di grande impatto. Valerian e Laureline sono agenti spazio-temporali che si troverebbero a loro agio tanto nel mondo di Star Wars che in quello di Doctor Who e probabilmente farebbero anche amicizia con i personaggi di Star Trek!

Sono storie da non perdere per chiunque sia appassionato di fantascienza, fantasy, sci-fantasy.

Insomma se non conoscete Valerian è sicuramente una buona occasione per apprezzare un pilastro della fantascienza a fumetti.

Il problema è per chi, come me, possiede già queste storie in altre edizioni. In particolare personalmente faccio il confronto con la collana Valerian "L'integrale" edito da "001 edizioni".

Pro (edizione gazzetta):

• formato più grande (vedi foto)
• nuovi editoriali e alcuni commenti in più

Contro (edizione gazzetta):

• Manca la prima storia ("Brutti sogni" del 1967 dove Valerian incontra Laureline e il nemico della 2' storia)

Parità:

• l'impaginazione delle 2 edizioni sposta una pagina... ma non avendo l'originale non sono in grado di valutare quale sia più fedele (vedi 2' foto)
• prezzo simile (l'integrale 3 storie 16 euro, edizione gazzetta 2 storie 10 euro)
• nessuna edizione conserva il formato originale
• nessuna edizione propone 1 volume per storia con copertina cartonata
• Edizione gazzetta 11 volumi
• Edizione "L'integrale" 7 volumi (a prezzo variabile da 16 a 18 euro)

Quella di sopra l'edizione della gazzetta, quella di sotto quella de "L'integrale" quale sarà più "giusta"?

L'edizione della gazzetta è un po' più grande

Dragons from Brazil

Two OSR Dragons were born in Brazil, they hatched in the comfortable caverns under RedBox Edition.

I bought them in pdf format from their online store (hoping that it will become simpler in the next days).

The first one is a fantasy rpg "Old Dragon", this one I also printed out (I can just skim pdf but to really read something I have to print it.... ok I am not really into portuguese but I can get around a bit to get what is going on.

I must say that this is not a review but just "first impressions" from reading here and there. But I am getting really good vibe from this two games.

Old Dragon is a clever mix of Swords & Sorcery, 3rd edition and BECM plus something new and fresh. 

You get the classical six attributes and bonus like in 3rd edition (+1 each 2 point over 10, bonus spell for high Int or Wis) and from previous editions (% bonus to thief abilities, % to know spells, % of resurrection, % bonus to reaction, a bonus to the number of undead turned by clerics based on Charisma).

There are the 4 classical races: human, dwarf, elf and halfling (each get a +2/-2 to one attribute, human get to chose where) with the usual special abilities, there are no level limits and no multiclassing.

Hit dice are like in Ad&D (Cleric d8, thief d6, mages d4, fighter d10 - but not elf fighters), the classes are the four basic classes but each of them have 2 or more specialization that can be taken around 5th level, such specialization work like the druid and knight/avenger of BECM (you get some powers at higher levels).

Each classes have a To hit Bonus and a Saving Throw (only one like in Swords & Sorcery), the interesting thing is the progression of the To Hit that is quick up to 10th level and then slow down (so a Fighter will have +10/+4 at 10th level but only +15/+9 at 20th level - in the tables the Fighter is the only one to have double bonus).

Clerical spells go up to 7th level, Mages spells to 9th.... there are monsters, spells, magical objects and rules for the Master. The game is complete in 150 pages plus appendix...

We have the classical Law, Neutral and Chaos alignment.

In the monster section we also get old buddy Cthulhu

As you can see even at first glance the game is a lot of old school fun... but the Old Dragon is not the only Dragon as we said.

Indeed the nice people from RedBox Edition also get us Space Dragon a pulp space opera osr rpg based on the same overall system (with adjustments) of the Old Dragon rule set.

In this second game we get 3 races (human, android and mutants), Science take the place of Wisdom and Comunication the place of Charisma. We also get 4 classes (Scientist - that can deactivate robots instead of turning undead, Prowler - a thief, spy and pirate, SpaceMan - pilots and fighters, Mentalist) like in old dragon each class get specialization based on affiliation that get alignments in space, you can be Lealist, Neutral or Rebel.

Then we have spaceships, aliens, relics, powers and all that you need for your pulp space opera rpg in less than 200 pages.

This two games are a steal at less 4 euro/dollar each (consider that the price of both manual in pdf is 12.90 R$ and each US$ or Euro is worth around 4 R$, a R$ is the Brazilian Real, for the two books 25.80 R$ I cached out 6.59 Euro), I suggest you to add this fine OSR books to your rpg collections....

My beautiful printed copy

Interior art

I have to add that a new edition boxed set of Old dragon is coming (that is a box with the rules and some additional goodies as was explained by Fabiano Neme - one of the authors - in the comments), you can find the news here: Old Dragon New Boxed set 

with new logo and graphics and a new print of the bestiary with a hard cover (capa dura!)... looking forward to getting also the new edition new printed versions!