RPGs Published in Non-English Languages?

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

I was just wondering if many RPG books are published in non-english languages... I know the core books are translated independently into German and Italian.

Do any companies release books in say, Spanish? If not, why don't they? Have any publishers tried it? Are their any publishers that specifically publish in a non-english language?

What are everyone's thoughts?

 

[Someone]

Do you refer to translations of the core books to spanish, or RPGs written and published in spanish? Devir has the rights to translate and publish D&D stuff in spanish, and about local games, there are a modest number of them. Aquelarre being one of the most successful of all.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Do you refer to translations of the core books to spanish, or RPGs written and published in spanish? Devir has the rights to translate and publish D&D stuff in spanish, and about local games, there are a modest number of them. Aquelarre being one of the most successful of all.

I'm wondering about any books written or translated into any non-English...

I can't recall ever seeing one... granted, I do live in the US... but, I live in a large metropolitian area and so, I would assume there are people that don't speak English that do play...

 

[Thanee]

Yep, RPGs are being published in almost any major language around the globe.

In germany there are several RPGs, which are developed in german, and pretty much every major system (from US, UK, france, etc) is also translated into german. The city where I study is very close to belgium (and the netherlands) and you can get books in german, english and french (which is spoken a lot in belgium) there, tho most are english or german, naturally.

Bye
Thanee

 

[johnsemlak]

The only major RPG I"m aware of being (officially) translated into Russian is Ars Magica. A company has the rights to D&D here but a translation hasn't been released.

When considering whether to translate an RPG (or any book) you have to look at the potential audience. That means both the size of the RPGing population, and the overall number of speakers of a language. Many European languages are spoken only by a few million people. It simply makes no financial sense to translate books into some languages (unfortunately). Other countries of course have a very small number of gamers.

Another factor is the likelyhood of potential gamers in a country to be able to speak English.

All this means that in some countries, it can be potentially profitable to translate an RPG into the local language. In others, for better or for worse, the most viable option is to just sell English versions (or possibly versions of another langauge widely understood locally).

 

[Zappo]

All WotC stuff is translated in Italian. The core Vampire manuals were translated as well. I think a handful of the most successful D20 products are translated as well (Warcraft is going to be translated, too). There are also a lot of Italian RPGs, some of which are very good.

 

[johnsemlak]

All WotC stuff is translated in Italian. The core Vampire manuals were translated as well. I think a handful of the most successful D20 products are translated as well (Warcraft is going to be translated, too). There are also a lot of Italian RPGs, some of which are very good.

A number of Monte Cook's releases are translated into Italian.

 

[Bagpuss]

White Wolf have had a lot of their Vampire (and perhaps WoD) products translated into both Spanish and French I believe. Not sure what other languages.

Shadowrun and much of FASA RPG lines were translated into German I think, in fact the company that did the translation bought the many of FASA's English language rights when FASA got out of RPGs

Or are you looking for RPGs that originate in non-English Languages?

 

[Ron]

Devir also publishes WotC and WW's books in Portuguese. Unfortunately, they don't release as many books in Brazil as their Spanish subsidiary. Still, we got all core and splats for 3.0 and the 3.5 PHB was recently released along some stuff for Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft. Additionally, some small Brazilian publishers are releasing d20 stuff, such as Penumbra sourcebooks and the Witchfire adventures.

 

[Nisarg]

There's a lot of Wotc stuff translated into Spanish, and also a lot of WW stuff.

However, most gamers in latin america prefer to work with the english originals, since most gamers here are educated enough to be able to read english anyways.

But there are also some pretty good spanish-language RPGs out there, the very very very best of which is Aquellare, which is easily the BEST real-medieval roleplaying game ever.

I excitedly declare: "In Aquellare your warrior is likely to die of tetanus or the black death! Your wizards spells are very complicated, they damn him to hell, and he will be burnt at the stake... if he doesn't die of tetanus or the black death first"!

Nisarg