New guy returning to EA with questions

[runequester]

Hey gang, wasn't sure if there's a better place to post this, but this looked okay.

I'm a Danish gamer (currently living in the US) who like most of us fell in love with Drakar och Demoner as a kid.
The world of Ereb Altor is something I came to a lot later, but it has become a fascination for me.
In Denmark, we never got many of the setting books, though Torshem was a big influence on my gaming.

I am looking to run some DoD (likely Expert) for my American friends which should be great fun, and I thought it'd be a good idea to talk to some of the EA experts

A few questions I have though, in no particular order:

* I have the archive of DoD books Riotminds made available and found an archive of the Sinkadus magazine lurking online.
Is there a decent article on dwarves anywhere among all that stuff?

I am first and foremost after original material, but if there's any good fan-material, I'd love to have a look at that too.

* I'm inclined towards Expert (EDD) over the 1991 rules though there are aspects of 91 I like as well.
Is there a general consensus on which is the "better" for Ereb Altor?

* Are half-elves and half-orcs canonical within EA? They were not in the original two monster books and don't seem to be mentioned in the Ereb Altor campaign guide, though they show up in the rules later on.
I rather prefer not having them personally though I'd make an exception if a player REALLY burned for it.

* Is there information somewhere about starting languages for characters? The 91 rules spell this out with some non humans starting with a human language and their own.
Anything like that for EDD or any recommendations people might have?

* What are the best maps available online that have country names clearly marked?

Cheers and best wishes.


PS: I can read Swedish pretty well, so if you are more comfortable responding in Swedish than English, that should be fine

[birkebeineren]

I think this is a okay place to post. Hello and welcome!

How many DoD-books did you get in Denmark? In Norway where I come from we didn't get more than the groundrules and the adventure book Novasteinen/Jeraz. After that you had to get the books from Sweden.

Your questions:

* I have the archive of DoD books Riotminds made available and found an archive of the Sinkadus magazine lurking online.
Is there a decent article on dwarves anywhere among all that stuff?

I am first and foremost after original material, but if there's any good fan-material, I'd love to have a look at that too.

* I'm inclined towards Expert (EDD) over the 1991 rules though there are aspects of 91 I like as well.
Is there a general consensus on which is the "better" for Ereb Altor?

There is an article about dwarves in Monster och Män. It describe the dwarven society and culture in a basic way. You can use this for all dwarves but here on this site we have tried to make a description of one more culture. The culture from Monster och Män is to be used for Grynnerdvärgarna and our new culture is to bu used for Nordadvärgarna. You can find this in the wiki. The new culture is based on our own ideas and also have a connection to the goods described in the land Jorduashur in northern Ereb.

There is also an article called Dwärgarnas byggnadskonst in Sinkadus 19 about architecture. This material is used in a map and a description of a castle in the book Djupets fasor and a half-collapsed city in the book Helvetesfortet.

Made by us here is a description of a society of nordadvärgar in northern Ereb called Kûldkres: http://erebaltor.se/wiki/index.php?title=Kûldkres

* I'm inclined towards Expert (EDD) over the 1991 rules though there are aspects of 91 I like as well.
Is there a general consensus on which is the "better" for Ereb Altor?

I dont think there is a general consensus but I'm guessing there's a few more who favors the EDD rules on this site. Maybe because they came first? Personally I like EDD best.

* Are half-elves and half-orcs canonical within EA? They were not in the original two monster books and don't seem to be mentioned in the Ereb Altor campaign guide, though they show up in the rules later on.
I rather prefer not having them personally though I'd make an exception if a player REALLY burned for it.

They are not common but they exist. Not many are described in the books but one example of a half-humanoid is Serek den mörke in Monster och Män. Half elf, half ogre (rese). I think there also is a human priestess mentioned in Enhörningshornet who have elven blood in her veins.

On this site there is a few half-humaniods created but not many.

* Is there information somewhere about starting languages for characters? The 91 rules spell this out with some non humans starting with a human language and their own.
Anything like that for EDD or any recommendations people might have?

I dont have my books available but I think there is rules in EDD? Personally I usually make som adjustments to let all the characters in a group share one common language.

* What are the best maps available online that have country names clearly marked?

The maps on this site are pretty good. Every country have maps posted in the start of their tread. Maps of Ereb and the other continents you can find in the Kartotek section. Most of them are also in the wiki. The maps made by Spelknepe (Tobias Tranell) was the beginning and what started this site back in 2007.

[runequester]

Cheers and appreciate the answers!

In Denmark we received (off the top of my mind)

The 1987 box set.
Expert box set (but with some slight changes to it)
Monster book (only one but it was like a hybrid of the two Swedish ones)

Jeraz/Nova
Kandra
Torshem
and the 3 volume "Hersker serie".

I think that's it.
Several of the Danish books had different cover art, usually taken from another book that we didn't get and like I said the Expert set featured a few rules tweaks.

[Mikael]

Welcome!
Birke covered most of it, but don't miss our wiki and the dvärgar page on this forum.

As for starting language, it is in EDD under Språk and it depends on ones INT which level you start with.