Roleplaying outside the U.S.

[haakon1]

Yeah, I was looking it up on Wikipedia's listed census figures. I assumed New York would have been more populous, but I guess Land Is King after all.

I checked the NY census data on the US Census site (the 2005 estimate) and the Australia population on the CIA's World Fact Book, so they're real data, not just Wikipedia data.

 

[Bagpuss]

While D&D is certainly market leader in the UK, I think generally we tend to play a greater variety of RPG's in the UK than in the US. I've never been in or seen a group in the UK that plays exclusively D&D, but I've heard of plenty of groups in the US like that. Only anecdotal evidence mind you so feel free to ignore it.

 

[Elsenrail]

In Poland D&D is the king... followed by WFRP and our own Polish system, Neuroshima. It gained popularity manly because of the cRPGS: Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Torment, which were translated in a marvellous way... I think Polish Torment has even better voice acing than the original game (they hired top actors for that). However, our current Polish version DnD publisher, ISA, is not supporting the system actually - a few books a year released in comparison with over a dozen sometime ago.

 

[Mark Hope]

In Poland D&D is the king... followed by WFRP and our own Polish system, Neuroshima. It gained popularity manly because of the cRPGS: Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Torment, which were translated in a marvellous way... I think Polish Torment has even better voice acing than the original game (they hired top actors for that). However, our current Polish version DnD publisher, ISA, is not supporting the system actually - a few books a year released in comparison with over a dozen sometime ago.

What is the Polish rpg scene like on the whole? My girlfriend has an interview for a job in Warsaw in a couple of weeks, so we may end up moving there (or we may not, you know how it goes). I am hoping that I'll be able to hook up with an English-speaking group without too much trouble...

 

[Alnag]

In Poland D&D is the king... followed by WFRP and our own Polish system, Neuroshima.

Interesting. I think, I've seen polish RPG Wiedzmin based on Sapkowski's short stories (and novels). Is it popular? Or at least as a gaming world for other systems?

 

[NiTessine]

And which sort of "live-action roleplaying is that"? Is it the improvisational acting sort, or the hit each other with foam weapons sort?

Both.

While GrimGent is right and the tabletop gamers still probably outnumber larpers, the larpers are quite numerous and active. There are Harry Potter larps, fantasy larps, Vampire larps, and then there's stuff like Luminescence. When it comes to weirdo larpers, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark lead the scene. See Dragonbane for a good example.

As for traditional roleplaying games, D&D leads in sales, though disproportionally few people ever admit to playing it. WFRP and World of Darkness are also popular, as is the Finnish fantasy game Praedor. The Finnish translation of the third edition of RuneQuest is also disproportionately popular, despite being thankfully out of print for over a decade.

Last year was exceptionally good for the Finnish gamers, as we got four new Finnish game releases - a new edition of Praedor; Heimot ("Tribes"), a space opera game reminiscent of Dune and Fading Suns; Star Wreck, a licence based on the movie of the same name which you all should watch; and the fantasy RPG Parabellum, which was both overpriced and actually bad to the point of unplayability.

The year before that, we only got Juhana "Luminescence" Pettersson's Roolipelimanifesti ("Roleplaying Game Manifesto"). Yeah.

We also currently have a bi-monthly RPG magazine, Roolipelaaja ("Roleplaying Gamer") that started last year. It hasn't tanked yet and the quality seems to be slowly going up, despite the operation being run by a bunch of art larpers and indie gamers.

 

[Askaval30]

Italy had a brief period during the twilight of 2e that saw an explosion of indie rpgs during the 90s. With the arrival of 3.0/3.x I think I can safely state that D&D is king once again, with WHFRP, Ars Magica and some others coming in a far second

 

[Elsenrail]

Mark Hope -> difficult question. First and foremost, there is a chance You can pick up a group in the capital that doesn't mind speaking English, but it's not obvious. Although the majority of players speak the language, they play in Polish. Of course, You can search for players among foreign students.

P.S. You will find that everything in Poland is really cheap if You bring some pounds.

The whole scene... hmm, besides DnD, WFRP and Neuroshima (a postapocalyptic game set in the US with a machine state Moloch and neo-jungle and small tribes of survivors that are really various in their characteristcs)... hmm WOD, Earthdawn, 7th Sea, d20 modern, Kult, L5R, Monastyr.

Alnag -> Wiedźmin RPG (The Witcher is actually also a cRPG stated for September release) is a niche product. I don't know anyone who plays it nowadays.

 

[Kaladhan]

Canada formerly had a huge MET LARP community, but demographic changes and decisions by White Wolf have left it much smaller. One of the longest, continuous, no-reboot Masquerade games in the world actually runs in my home town.

And what home town might that be?

 

[eyebeams]

And what home town might that be?

Peterborough, ON. No reboot since 1994, though a case can be made for even earlier if in-continuity special events are counted (some of which predate the release of the Masquerade rules). Effectively, much of the old continuity has faded from view, but that's because it outlasted any one group of players. I helped run it in '97 and '99. It has outlived at least two LARP networks it was a part of. I think I dropped by in 2002 to play a Giovanni for a few sessions a while back. I *believe* they still have bimonthly games.