D&D General Asian D&D

[LuisCarlos17f]

The translation to diverse languages was delayed for years, not only in Japan, but also in the other no-English-speaker nations

* WotC has got enough experience with the Chinese censorship when several cards of Magic had to be moddified or replaced. Skeletons aren't allowed. And if my memory doesn't fail, a lesbian planewalker became straight to avoid Chinese censorship. Too many troubles.

And China suffer a bad fame the don't respect too much the trademark and copyright.

* Now I am thinking if the goblin rat, a "cousin" of the hengeyokai, should be a PC specie.

Should the bakemono (from Kara-Tur) be redesigned?

 

[ViArca]

I’m thinking WotC should release 5e in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean with a thoroughly updated Kara-Tur. That is a huge market that loves the genre

Do they? Speaking for China, nobody knows anything about D&D.
They do do some roleplaying but not dungeons and they find your dragons pretty strange.

But above all, they cannot even see dndbeyond.com or wizards.com, it is blocked, along with most websites.
So that is a non-starter right there...

 

[jasper]

Makes sense.

In the Renaissance epics Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso, Cathay is a city in India.

People in premodern times didn't know geography all that well.

Remind me to tell you about the sca baron who picked up 4 german hitchhikers in the 80s. The hitchhikes were sure NYC was 4 hours away. He picked them up just outside of Bham Alabama.

 

[dave2008]

You should notice that they didn't change the game, nor create a new setting - just like for German, or French. It's just D&D offered in another language

You will notice the OP specifically states translating the game into Japanese, Chinese, and Korean as the main thrust of their argument (and not an updated Kara-Tur). They probably didn't know it was already in Japanese. I'm not sure about the other two myself.

 

[dave2008]

Do they? Speaking for China, nobody knows anything about D&D.
They do do some roleplaying but not dungeons and they find your dragons pretty strange.

But above all, they cannot even see dndbeyond.com or wizards.com, it is blocked, along with most websites.
So that is a non-starter right there...

Well going by the manhua (or whatever the correct term is) I've read, there is definitely a market for it. From what you describe it seems like it could be particularly huge if there isn't much of one now. I think you just gave a big thumbs up to the OP's argument!

 

[bedir than]

I’m thinking WotC should release 5e in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean with a thoroughly updated Kara-Tur.

You will notice the OP specifically states translating the game into Japanese, Chinese, and Korean as the main thrust of their argument (and not an updated Kara-Tur).

I mean, no. They wanted a thoroughly updated Kara-Tur.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Do they? Speaking for China, nobody knows anything about D&D.
They do do some roleplaying but not dungeons and they find your dragons pretty strange.

But above all, they cannot even see dndbeyond.com or wizards.com, it is blocked, along with most websites.
So that is a non-starter right there...

Yes, what you describe is exactly what I’m talking about. Huge virtually untapped market.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I mean, no. They wanted a thoroughly updated Kara-Tur.

No, dave2008 was correct, maybe you missed this part?

I’m thinking WotC should release 5e in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean…

…Edit: I wanted to clarify that I think the translated core books is the primary vehicle for interaction with Asian markets and the reimagined or new fantasy Asian setting being secondary. I watch enough anime and read enough manga to know traditional D&D has quite a following in at least 2 off those 3 markets

 

[Weiley31]

* WotC could need special rules for "isekai" characters, people from a more advanced civilitation, for example "Kamigawa: Neon Dinasty".

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[MGibster]

I think there's only so much success you can expect when it comes selling products with a lot of cultural baggage in a foreign market. Sometimes you get lucky and strike gold, like with Pokémon, but most of the time your product is probably going to be relegated to niche at best. If WotC ever comes out with a new version of Kara-Tur I don't think they're going to fret over what Koreans, Chinese, or Japanese people think. They're going to be primarily concerned with the US market and doing what they can to make everyone there happy.