D&D General Asian D&D

[humble minion]

Hasbro wants to introduce D&D into the Asian markets

Do they?

This thread is more about what ENWorld posters (a significant majority of whom are probably from English-speaking countries) want, not what Hasbro wants.

A very quick google tells me that WotC has released a Korean translation of 5e, but i can't find any evidence of a Japanese-language release, let alone one in Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Bahasa, Hindi, Tagalog, etc (they may exist and I didn't find them, of course...)

Surely if cracking the Asian markets was a high priority for WotC, a good first step would be spending the effort on translating the product into languages that are natively spoken in that part of the world?

 

[Bedrockgames]

That's not quite true.

I have a d20 fantasy viking game with fairly analogue real world countries and the semi-monotheistic southlands fantasy Rome has a universal Catholic church of Odin with cathedrals and such.

Historically one of the bigger popular depictions of Thor has him speaking pseudo-Shakespearian.

View attachment 280751

Druids get thrown about and slotted in everywhere throughout D&D.

I would say in general there has long been a mixture of settings that strive for emulating individual cultures as they were historically and pastiche settings. In my view we shouldn't discard pastiche and kitchen sink. As long as people aren't being insulting in their depictions I don't see an issue with blending them. There is also something, in my view, equally bad about only doing individual cultures in isolation (it starts to feel very ethnonationalist when every culture is relegated to its real world borders (often around overly idealized concepts of ethnicity and people). I think it is important also for there to be blending of cultures in settings because that is one of the biggest ways you get something new. It sort of kills creativity to put too many parameters around this stuff

 

[bedir than]

Do they?

This thread is more about what ENWorld posters (a significant majority of whom are probably from English-speaking countries) want, not what Hasbro wants.

A very quick google tells me that WotC has released a Korean translation of 5e, but i can't find any evidence of a Japanese-language release, let alone one in Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Bahasa, Hindi, Tagalog, etc (they may exist and I didn't find them, of course...)

Surely if cracking the Asian markets was a high priority for WotC, a good first step would be spending the effort on translating the product into languages that are natively spoken in that part of the world?

There was a Japanese release last fall. It included a video ad, the starter set, the core 3 and a country specific website.

Japanese is getting the same attention, if not more, than the larger Euro languages

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

WotC has showed interest into the Japanese market. I don't know Korea to give an opinion. China is a bigger market, but too risky by fault of arbitrary censorship.

And the manganime industry can be a true source of the creation of new IPs. Today manga is sold more than superheroes in the Western market. Hasbro is interested in the otaku community (term said with the complete respect, no offense).

* Maybe D&D VTT should add the option the virtual miniatures of the PCs also be used as virtual avatars.

 

[bedir than]

WotC has showed interest into the Japanese market. I don't know Korea to give an opinion. China is a bigger market, but too risky by fault of arbitrary censorship.

And the manganime industry can be a true source of the creation of new IPs. Today manga is sold more than superheroes in the Western market. Hasbro is interested in the otaku community (term said with the complete respect, no offense).

* Maybe D&D VTT should add the option the virtual miniatures of the PCs also be used as virtual avatars.

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

 

[humble minion]

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

They clearly did change the art for the Japanese market though.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

I have seen Japanese language D&D books in stores in Japan, so, as shown above, they are certainly available. They were being handled by Gale Force 9 and Hobby Japan but that ended in 2021 and were reignited directly by WoTC.

I have seen nothing on a Chinese version. The countries outside of China that do not have strong censorship regimes all use traditional characters which complicates it as well. MtG was being sold in China in a Chinese version when I lived there (and I attended the first Shanghai Grand Prix) but I have not paid attention recently.

Japan has a long tradition of a TTRPG hobby, China not so much.

For the most part, Asian themed releases have been aimed at existing markets and that crosses over into the point I made and was reinforced by Hussar above - minority immigrants seem to have more exacting standards than the population of the actual countries they originally came from. Japanese play faster and looser with non-Japanese settings and settings in Japan for their local audience than has been deemed acceptable in the USA market. Chinese in China lean heavily into tropes for their TV shows and movies in China and their treatment of non-Chinese peoples in fictions shows no concern for feelings. I am not as familiar with Korea although I have traveled there extensively. Thailand at least had MtG events at one time. Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines also had MtG events that I attended.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Thailand has an RPG and gaming scene. There is a store in Bangkok called Battkefield Bangkok I believe which has a pretty active community from what I have seen

 

[Myrdin Potter]

Thailand has an RPG and gaming scene. There is a store in Bangkok called Battkefield Bangkok I believe which has a pretty active community from what I have seen

I think I have been to that store, but I am always cautious to extrapolate from one large city with a ton of expats to the country at large.

 

[Iosue]

Just a note about D&D in Japan. Both 3.x and 4e got full Japanese translations during their releases. 5e initially did not, as it seems WotC wanted to revisit their license agreements with all of their overseas partners. (They did allow the previous Japanese license holder, Hobby Japan, to translate the Basic Rules and post them on their website.)

WotC licensed foreign language versions to Gale Force 9 in 2017, who in turn sublicensed the translation to Hobby Japan. Hobby Japan then put out Japanese translations of everything up to Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron. WotC then took everything back in-house in 2022, forcing Hobby Japan to cancel planned releases of Tasha’s and Rime.

The above commercial and other materials are from the new release of 5e under WotC’s Japanese subsidiary. Currently, the Core Rulebooks, new Starter Set, Essentials Kit, Xanathar’s, and Wild Beyond the Witchlight are officially available from WotC Japan.