Of all the countries I have visited, Spain is the one that most fascinates, that most excites, that most seduces, that most appals - and that best avoids easy description. A country in love like no other with both beauty and death, and which marries them both. Not a country, but a continent in miniature, where one can go from lust celtic green to a desert of vultures in a journey of a day. A land of hunters, conquistadors, and artists. Of chivalry and machismo and delicate manners. Of Roman ruins and Moorish palaces. Of ancient languages still living; of white churches dark and cool and empty on blisteringly hot days; of snow-capped mountains and orange trees; of songs sung in minor keys; of memories of priests and treasure fleets and crusades. Of Don Quixote and Cortes, Jan Potocki and Joaquin Rodrigo, Jose Ortega y Gasset and Salvador Dali. The word "stereotype" does not fit the images it conjures; one feels history there layered upon itself, over and over, like a great blanket folded one way and another and back again in an endlessly accumulating pile.
The roots of Spanish history run so deep and draw on layers of earth so rich that one wonders why it is that they have never nourished RPG settings. We have pseudo-Japans, pseudo-Chinas, pseudo-Romes and pseudo-Germanys by the bucketload, but where are the pseudo-Spains? Where are the pre-Roman Spains, the Carthaginian Spains, the Moorish Spains, the Spains of the Reconquista or the high middle ages or the Age of Exploration? Where are the Spains of the Golden Age - or of the Wars of Religion? Above all, where are you Spanish RPG enthusiasts, of whom I know there are many, and why are you not squeezing your wonderful country's history and culture(s) for all the inspiration they are worth?
There is a long-running fantasy/medieval Spain-set RPG, Aquelarre. Never played it, but I understand it's got a unique vibe and hardcore fanbase.
ReplyDeleteFor most of its life it was in spanish only but recently got translated and got into DriveThru.
Deletehttps://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/237059/Aquelarre
It became available in English a few years ago. I think Chaosium sells it. Link in the name. Unlike English language RPGs, it has nary a trace of Tolkien in it.
DeleteLooks interesting - and expensive!
DeleteEmbedded among much else, Martin's Song of Ice and Fire has at least two pseudo-Spanish entities: the Moorish Dorne and the Castilian Westerlands.
ReplyDeleteHere's at least one suitably atmospheric description of Golden Age Spain: https://worldbuildingandwoolgathering.blogspot.com/2019/07/go-sackville-west-young-man.html
The imagery of the conquistador you do see pop up from time to time, but you never get much of an idea of a Spain-analogue behind all the morion helmets and early firearms.
Thanks to the Gothic romance, among other things, inquisitors are common enough - but many seem to have taken notes from the Witchfinder-General. Among other influences.
I was forgetting how much I both loved the initial image I had in my mind of Martin's world and how much I grew to hate it over the course of reading the books....
DeleteThe tidbit that sticks in my mind would be Winterfell's 'glass gardens'. Mentioned towards the beginning of Game of Thrones and then never again.
DeleteI liked Westeros when it felt like a real medieval realm on a medieval scale. Over time it gradually seemed to get bigger and bigger. King's Landing made sense to me, for instance, as a 'city' like medieval Paris - 30,000 people or whatever. Late era Game of Thrones makes it out to be a metropolis of a million. That really breaks verissimilitude for me in a rather obnoxious way.
DeleteI think it is a combination of the Black Legend and a "low national self esteem" from our part. It is funny how English-speaking RPG products set in the XVII century rarely discuss Spain, wich would be the equivalent of a XX century RPG not mentioning the US. I usually joke about how in the Solomon Kane Savage Worlds supplement it is easier to bump into a werewolf than a Spaniard.
ReplyDeleteBut there are some games set in Spain in Spanish:
Aquelarre (https://www.nosolorol.com/es/3-aquelarre) as already mentioned.
Ablaneda by yours truly (http://www.other-selves.com/p/ablaneda.html), inspired by Spanish myth and legend
Máscaras del Imperio (http://www.other-selves.com/p/mascaras-del-imperio.html), set in a pulp influenced XVII century.
El capitán Alatriste (https://www.amazon.es/Juego-delcapitan-alatriste-Arturo-Perez-Reverte/dp/8495712393), the game based on the novels and that inspired the movie of the same name.
Almogàvers (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almog%C3%A0vers), medieval too
As Crónicas de Gaidil (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Cr%C3%B3nicas_de_G%C3%A1idil) set in a mythical Celtic Galicia that never was
Imserso to the Limit (https://www.verkami.com/projects/21660-imserso-to-the-limit-el-juego-de-rol-de-los-jubilados-de-viaje-con-el-imserso) a humorous RPG were the players are Spanish old-timers in modern times, still full of Spanish culture.
Tirant lo Blanc (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirant_lo_Blanc_(juego_de_rol)), inspired by the chivalric romance of the same name.
And that is mostly what comes to mind. None of these except Aquelarre are translated into English, as far as I know. And I can't think of any English-speaking game set in Spain or inspired by it so... Have fun making them!
I think mainland Europe still looks down its nose at Spain somehow. A stereotype of Spanish "atavism" or whatever that harks back to the Black Legend era.
DeleteAgreed, time I spent in Granada soaking up that history has been a huge influence on a megadungeon project I'm trucking away on
ReplyDelete7th Sea has the Age of Exploration Europe pretty well in hand, Castille being the Spain analog.
ReplyDeleteI've always had a kingdom based on Spain in my setting, though admittedly it's never been one I've featured in much detail. And, based on a long story with me retheming the Freeport books to a more Spanish setting because I'm from a town named Freeport and I can't take it seriously, there's an island just off the coast of it that I based on a gleefully anachronistic colonial-era Mexico, too.
ReplyDeleteBecause many Spaniards have lost love for their own country.
ReplyDeleteI recently saw the verdi opera Don Carlos, resplendent with conquistadors, inquisitors, moorish ambassadors, and more. This, along with a few other things, prompted me to start setting up an anachronistic fantasy-spain as a big part of my next game. It is indeed a very unique place.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever been to Portugal? A bit like Spain, only better. (I recently heard that it's the friendliest country in the world for foreigners to move to, which is not surprising).
ReplyDeleteAlso has what must be IMO the best city tour in the world: https://theworsttours.weebly.com/
I've been to Madeira but not Portugal proper. I'd like to go and explore.
DeleteDo it! Porto & the North definitely best, and some wonderful rainforests around there (I've also heard that Portugal is the most wooded country in Europe). And the food! When we house-sat for friends out in the countryside about 3 years ago, all of the local restaurants did a 3 course lunch, with wine & brandy, for €8-10
DeleteThis is admittedly an extremely trivial and silly example but BECMI has "flamenco elves" in the Glantrian Principality of Belcadiz:
ReplyDeletehttp://pandius.com/belcadi2.html
Haha, yes, gives "wardancers" an entirely different spin...
DeleteMost medieval fantasy draws from an 13th-century-England-like aesthetics (with a pinch o Germany and France in there)
ReplyDeleteBlasphemous is a PC Metroidvania with aesthetics based in southern Spain. It inspired a lot of my ongoing settings and worldbuilding. I'm from Brazil, but Latin-American Catholicism derives a lot of its aspects from Iberian Catholicism, so it's nice to see some familiar themes and aesthetics in there.
I highly recommend checking out Blasphemous - the soundtrack is also really badass
Another Spaniard here. First, thanks for your kind words to my country. You're right in your analysis, and I'd like to offer what, in my opinion, is the most probable explanation to this phenomenon. What I'm going to say is very political, and I wouldn’t dare to post it in twitter and in Spanish, but I think this is a safe space to express my opinion. Sorry for what is going to be a very long comment.
ReplyDeleteFor disclosure, I run a tiny Spanish publishing company (Other Selves) that has published two of the games mentioned by others in the comments: Ablaneda and Máscaras del Imperio. So, I’m trying to do what I can to change this situation.
As another commenter said before, Spaniards have lost the love for their (our) country. I, as a Spaniard born in the 80s, have experienced this situation firsthand. It is important to remember that, for almost half of the 20th century, Spain has been under the rule of a far-right dictator: Franco. After restoring the democracy (latter half of the 70s), Spain considered itself (with reason!) a backwards and outdated country, that had to play catch-up with the rest of the world. This, coupled with the exaltation of the “traditional” Spanish values promoted by the previous regime, made the Spaniards feel that everything that came from outside our frontiers was just plain better. This phenomenon even included (to some extent) the arts! I grow disliking everything that came from Spain and admiring everything that came from outside, especially Europe. In my personal case, I only managed to shed this feeling very recently. I had to grow almost 20 years before starting to appreciate our music and customs!
On top of that, history was heavily used by the dictatorship to promote its agenda, “owning” several key events in the Spanish history. This make such events “dirty”, in the sense that they were part of a national narrative that many in Spain wanted to avoid. Most of the right-leaning people in Spain continued to revere this idealized version of our past and, therefore, continued to “own” these episodes. An example of this would be the “Reconquista” or the colonization of America. In a sense, the Spanish right made the country’s history theirs.
This produced a countermovement (mainly from the left) that shed light on all the horrible things that happened during those historical moments: You can’t have the medieval Toledo without the expulsion of the Jews, or the discovery of America without the horrors of colonization. This is part of what is called the “Black Legend” of Spain. So, for a good part of the Spanish population that is concerned about these things, the Spanish history is something to be ashamed of. Again, as a response to the extreme idealization that came from the right.
The truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle. Let’s look for example at the Spain of the Golden Century (17th century). We were the center of the greatest empire that the history had seen, produced incredible art and left a mark on the whole world. But, at the same time, it was a horrible time, with most of the peninsula living in horrible conditions, the colonies in America being exploited and the Habsburg kings waging war through all of Europe. Those were wonderful and horrible times. And that’s a feature, not a bug! And it’s exactly what happened in any other country. But, unlike other countries, we Spaniards only manage to see the glory (if you’re right-leaning) or the mud (if you’re left-leaning). What we should do is embrace this dichotomy, and learn to love our history, but not looking at it from the politics of today, in a revisionist way, but for what it was.
Sorry, I had to split my comment in two! Surpassed the limit allowed!
ReplyDeleteIn fact, these conflicted eras make the greatest settings for an RPG. Imagine the peril, the adventure, and the moral quandaries of a group of travelers exploring America in the 16th century, of a band of mercenaries in the contested peninsula of the 9th century, of a regiment of soldiers in the civil war. However, we can’t talk about these topics, much less write an RPG, because they’re politically loaded. I’ve been personally accused of promoting a right-leaning agenda with our game, Máscaras del Imperio. A funny comment considering that one of the authors of that game is one of the most left-leaning person I’ve ever met…
And this phenomenon, I think, also extends to the perception of Spain from outside; we don’t promote our culture and history, since we are ashamed of it.
What I’m going to say would probably be considered cultural appropriation nowadays, but I believe that for the creation of a fantasy setting inspired by a particular culture, the best authors are not the natives of that culture, but the people from outside it that look at that culture with admiration and fascination. The outside perspective romanticizes and extracts what is special about it, something that a person that has grown seeing all that as natural can’t see. So: no interest from outside in Spain, no good RPG settings inspired by the Spanish culture that isn’t straightly historical.
And, by the way, most of what I’ve said about Spain, I believe (correct me if I’m wrong) can also be applied to Portugal. We are two countries much more connected that many realize.
Finally, let me reiterate that all this is my opinion. I might be wrong and people that look at this with more care and are professionals of the field my differ with what I exposed.
It's curious that I think nearly the same, but from a different perspective. I'm a child of the 90s, my generation did not know nearly anything of the franquist era (even our fathers were young and only lived the 'soft' era of the franquism, the ye-ye era of (aparently) aperture to the exterior). Nevertheless our teachers, our cultural icons, all were of that mentality, and a lot of people grew with a great disdain of all thing spanish... but whitout an aparent reason. Spanish culture, history, traditions or cinema (this last with some reason!) were always the worst... even the ones that are practilly identical to other european traditions, music or movies.
DeleteAnd, well, we did not touch the nationalist themes that are inevitable related to this convoluted subject.
In the Anglosphere, we're told Gen Z has a strong antipathy towards English/U.S. history (might just be loud Twitter users), but it would be interesting to know if Gen Z Spanish kids share this feeling. You'd almost expect the younger generation in Spain, freed from the hang-ups you describe, to rebel by reclaiming their history and cultural heritage. Which would be nice.
DeleteDon Quixote is one of my very favourite books, but I knew embarrassingly little about Spanish history until watching El Ministerio del Tiempo. It's a really great Spanish-language show about agents who work to preserve the timeline. It was on UK Netflix, but seems to have gone.
There are some good Spanish shows on Netflix. My wife was a big fan of "Cable Girls" - there, I use the term "good" loosely, but Blanca Suarez is always worth a watch....
DeleteEl Ministerio del Tiempo is one of those rare shows that treat history with equanimity. Very strongly recommended. Download it if you must.
DeleteThat's a great quote from Jordan. I have never visited Europe, but I know a lot of people who have. With but a single exception, my acquaintances have had a mixture of good and bad to report of the numerous European countries that they visited. The one exception is Spain. None of my friends has ever said to me a single bad thing about Spain.
ReplyDelete