A sure sign of me getting new card games: new translations. I wrote a Finnish translation of the rules of Dorra’s Die Sieben Siegel. It looks like a fun game and it’s fairly high on my list of games I haven’t tried yet but sure would love to.
Also noted is the appearance of Spiel : Boardgames in the UK, a new blog which looks promising (but ugly — there’s just something about the WordPress default font I can’t stand — fortunately I don’t have to mind, as I read through Bloglines).
3 responses to “New translation: Die Sieben Siegel”
Mikko
Thanks for the mention. I’m not that keen on the font either and will probably change it sometime. I’ve been more interested in getting the framework set up first, then I can fiddle with the appearance.
Any suggestions on a default font?
I’m surprised you translated the rules before you played them. I guess that it seems fine in theory, but in practice I wonder if the experience of having played the game a few times and being familiar with how it works (and with what parts of the rules might have been unclear or misleading or even possibly incorrect due to an obvious (in hindsight) typo) would permit a better translation. Do you have thoughts on that?
Re: font — I like Georgia, but that’s just me. It’s not only the font, it’s the spacing and all that, but going with something fairly basic (Times, Georgia, Arial, Verdana) is probably the best bet for a good look.
Re: rules — translating rules is a good way to get familiar with a game. Most card games have fairly straightforward rules — after all, there’s limits to what a trick-taking game can be. If I haven’t played the game, I’ve read through Geek discussions and for example in this case I added some of the Saboteur variant rules to my translation.
Of course, I’ll return to my translation after I’ve tried the game and fix anything unclear. After all, a translation of game like Sieben Siegel won’t be used by many in any case.
If I’m doing a translation job, I’ll play the game so I know what I’m translating.