D&D outside the U.S.

[TerraDave]

I lived in Paris for a while. Were I was, great, great hobby stores and lots of RPG stuff in English and French. When I would visit, I would buy stuff I couldn't find in the US and bring it back. Prices could be a little high for the imports and I also used amazon uk.

I didn't play much, but that was my own fault, as there were english speaking groups around. Of course, it was that non-playing that led me to ENWorld.

 

[Phaezen]

Another South African here, from Durbanville (near Cape Town)

There are 2, unfortunately very bad, gaming stores in Cape Town, although one is heading towards specialising in comics so I tend to do most of my purchases online.

As for players, fortunately there is a relatively large player base in Cape Town especially if you have contact with the University of Cape Town's gaming society.

 

[Marauder_POV]

I'm from Australia, Geelong to be exact.

WE've gto two stores in town that sell these sort of things but they are very limited. One is more Warhammer and the other is more D&D 4e, with very little second hand stuff(actually none)

For the minis I use Reaper(cos of the free international postage for big lots) the wizards mini's i get off the net, both stores are very expensive (like $32 bucks for the new ones, and no older ones)

Interestingly all the players in our group(7) come from PCRPG's(like Baldurs Gate and Planescape: Torment) and have started off at 4e.

The biggest problem we have is getting maps!

 

[Perun]

I'm from Croatia, and it appears there's a small, but active community of gamers there, clustered mostly in Zagreb (the capital) and the Istrian peninsula. I might be wrong on that, though, since I'm from Split (on the Dalmatian coast), where there are a few gaming groups, but my gaming circle has always been relatively closed to newcomers (the core of the group has remained unchanged since we started playing back in '94).

I've been living in Montenegro for two years now, and the gaming scene here (to the best of my knowledge) is almost non-existent.

As for the games played (talking about Croatia here), a couple of years ago the scene was dominated by D&D and Vampire. It seems Pathfinder has gained some popularity (well, I know of at least one group that plays Pathfinder RPG). There was a FLGS-like chain of stores, called Land of Magic, that sold D&D and RPG material before, but now I can't find any mention of RPGs on their web page. They apparently still sell dice.

There are at least two conventions in Croatia (that I know of, there might be more) that feature RPGs, Sferakon in Zagreb and Istrakon in, well, Istria

Regards.

 

[huank]

It has been great to read about role playing in so many different places, I'm glad that this thread helped to figure out the problems that people from other countries face when trying to keep on with such hobby as RPGaming. In general, I think that most of us face the same kind of trouble: Not too many hobby stores, really high prices that don't help when trying to support our FLGS's, bad translations, retailers not very interested on selling RPG stuff, etc. It seems that finding players is not a big issue, which at the end is the most important thing.
I hope that WotC, White Wolf, Paizo or other companies become aware of the potential within international market and start making deals with local stores and retailers that promote RPGaming in other countries, they could start by letting international gamers participate in special promotions or contests like “Never split the party” and so. Don't you think?

 

[Oldtimer]

No other swedes seem to have chimed in, so I'll bite.

I live in Sweden where we've had access to RPGs and regular gaming conventions since 1977. I started a mail order service for games in 1976 and opened my own shop in 1982. We've had D&D in swedish, as well as a multitude of native RPGs.

These days there are two FLGSs in my home town, an annual gaming convention and I have two gaming groups going on a regular basis. All in all, it's good to be a gamer here.

 

[RHGreen]

Could do with a poll with all the countries of the world in it.

With 190+ countries it might take a bit of typing though.

 

[Davachido]

I hop between Mauritius and UK.

Mauritius you'd have a hard chance finding anything at all RPG related aside from video games, even then is slim pickings.

UK on the other hand, as others have said is very easy to get stuff. I still order from amazon though as the only place the sells the books in town always gets the new books 1-2 months later and I think its just cus they are lazy at updating stock.

 

[Solvarn]

I didnt know they had D&D in the US, arent the books in English, how do the americans cope, does someone translate them into american for them ?

In New Zealand, which is an English speaking country, we just buy the English versions.

Just because you brought us Lord of the Rings doesn't mean we will tolerate your bashing of our mastery of English.

I would order our forces to invade, but we probably wouldn't be able to locate New Zealand on the map.

 

[Jools]

If you have not noticed the American spellings in the books by now, I hold out no real hope for you.

@Nichwee Lite and Nite are about on the same spelling level as l33t.

Interestingly here in Japan, I have never met a British roleplayer. Aussi, Kiwi, USian, Canadian, all them, but not Brit. Wonder why. Just lucky?

I'm British, I've played with other Brits too. D&D players tend to be North American, other games less so.