D&D 5E I Am One of the Few Who Plays D&D in Japan

[ren1999]

I, an American in Japan, and a small party of players are probably 1 of just a few groups of people who play D&D of any edition here.

I found polyhedral dice in just one game store in all of Tokyo and it wasn't associated with the game.

If you ask a Japanese person, they never heard of D&D though the "Final Fantasy" series is based on it. Everyone knows what "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" is because they saw it on basic channel television.

There really isn't a market here for D&D. If you turn it into a 5th Edition video game, then yes. People will flock to it. Fantasy RPG games of all types are popular here.

For those of you who are translating D&D. It will be durn hard for you. But go to Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter websites to find out what the commonly accepted terms are. Look at RPG video game terms.

All of my players are using my mobile app, now that I have it barely functional.
http://dnd5.weebly.com

 

[ren1999]

Over 900 visits to my mobile tracker in 1 day. Thanks for looking!

 

[Syunsuke]

To find RPGs in Japan, hobby shop Yellow Submarine is your best bet.

http://www.yellowsubmarine.co.jp/main3.htm

Japanese editions of BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia, 2e, 3e, 3.5e, 4e is/was available.
You can see some of them here.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/s/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=i:aps,k:ダンジョンズアンドドラゴンズ&keywords=ダンジョンズアンドドラゴンズ

 

[the Jester]

Isn't there a Lodoss War RPG that's pretty popular over there?

I always thought Record of Lodoss War was totally someone's D&D campaign.

 

[Halivar]

I always thought Record of Lodoss War was totally someone's D&D campaign.

Everyone looks like they stepped right out of OD&D, for real. If you notice, all the stuff the priest does early on are Level 1 spells, but they look impressive in the anime!

 

[Hussar]

I've been in Japan for twelve years now. Rpg's are really not popular.

 

[Lucas Yew]

If I'm correct, they have their own RPG rules like Sword World (2.0?) dominating the market. Am I right, to any extent?

 

[aramis erak]

Several RPG's have been coming to the US from Japan.

• Gundam Senkai was supposed to, but translation issues caused a failure.
• Golden Sky Stories successfully kickstarted. I got a peek at it; I don't care for diceless, but the translation is a top notch English edition that has used the Japanese art and presents a cogent translation
• RPG Enterprise (ルールブツク) got fan translated and released in PDF.
• Ryuutama - Natural Fantasy Role-Playing Game funded on kickstarter.
• Tenra Bansho Zero also funded on KS for an English edition.

There are others, but those are the ones that come to mind.

There's one that I'm waiting on hitting KS, Vagabonds, being written by an American living in Nippon, with some help from locals, focused upon the non-samurai of the Edo era. I was in on the KS for the related Land of Narrow Paths, a mapset of Japan intended specifically for gaming use by English speakers, using the Edo era as its baseline.

 

[JWO]

I played D&D 4th when I lived in Chiba, and plan to do so when I return, as the people I played with are still out there (but probably 5th ed instead). Yellow Submarine in Chiba City had a bunch of the books and dice on sale, a really good selection of Reaper miniatures, and even had a sign up explaining what D&D was. I went into the Yellow Sub in Akiba once and there were a load of tables set up with foreign and Japanese people playing RPGs (not sure which ones though).

Having written all that, when we played in Yellow Sub in Chiba, we had a little audience of Japanese teenagers, who had been playing some kind of collectable card game, who looked pretty confused by the whole thing. One of the guys with better Japanese took the initiative and explained what we were up to!

 

[Derren]

I am not surprised that D&D is not that well known in Japan/Asia.

D&D and most other western RPGs are deeply ingrained with western culture and mythology. That means that a lot of times we assume something to be well known or that the players make a specific connection people in Asia will think of something completely different.

It already starts with the name of the game. "Dragon" does evoke a very different image for people in Asia than for us. Or take the Devils/Demons. Baator and Celestia in D&D are inspired by Dantes Divine Comedy and while most players here have not read it, this book has shaped our culture and our understanding of Heaven and Hell is still based a bit on it. People in Asia will have a very different concept of those things as well.