D&D 5E WotC Takes Control of D&D Translations

WotC has just announced that it is taking direct control of French, Italian, German, and Spanish versions of its D&D books (which previously were licensed to third parties).

They’ll also be looking for new printers outside the US and China, and pricing books more equally in non-US markets.

Localised social media accounts are being launched as well as localised pages on the D&D website.

The first products will be the Essentials Kit in September, along with the three core rulebooks.

The initial focus will be Europe and Latin America.

D&D Products in New Languages | Dungeons & Dragons

Read about efforts to create a truly global D&D community with the localization of select products in French, German, Spanish, and Italian.

dnd.wizards.com

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This is good for all who need it but I really dislike "localized social media accounts". I hope these are separate pages and not localized versions of the same page. Facebook at least is really bad with those. Lately I'm not sure you have the option to switch to the international version. I'm not interested in seeing localized posts, I need the original ones.

It works well on Twitter, for whatever it's worth.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Does this affect Gale Force 9's other licensed products in any way? I'm hoping for a Witchlight screen from them, for instance.

 

[el-remmen]

I want to know will be hired for the Spanish translations. I worry seriously because if English languange from USA and UK aren't identical, also a Spanish can notice when something is written by somebody from Hispanoamerica. Maybe you unknow when Halo was dubbes with Latin dubbing, and it sounds horrible for the Spanish from Europe, for example we say "coche" and not "carro" for car(automobile). Even the different countries from Hispanoamerica have got local slang.

This is a very fun song about regional slangs by Spanish-speakers. Don't worry, it is subbtitled.

That video is funny but also hyperbolic (as much comedy is). Maybe it comes from growing up in communities of Spanish speakers who are from many different places in Latin America but we work it out and differences like coche vs. carro are minor and easily overlooked. Now, that is not to say there cannot be bigger differences or that those differences aren't amplified in written text as opposed to the give and take of a conversation. But definitely, I have run into the problem of saying "bolsa" in a place where they say "funda" (which to me is a pillowcase and the former is to them, well. . .slang for a different kind of bag ).

But if I were gaming in Spanish I'd prefer a book in another dialect of it than my own over one in English.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Are there already Latin American translations of the game?

 

[CleverNickName]

Sounds like good news to me. (I'm surprised that they weren't already.)

 

[Mind of tempest]

all is good aside from jobs lost by the other companies.

 

[Dioltach]

I wonder if they know how much it will cost ... Speaking as a professional translator, rates in Europe vary from around 10 eurocents/word to 25 eurocents. Agencies charge higher rates (and don't necessarily deliver better quality or even consistency), individual freelancers would mostly charge less -- particularly if WotC is handling the proofreading/quality control.

So at probably around 1000 words per page, the translations will cost anywhere between €100 and €250 per page. Translation memory software won't help much, and I can't see machine translation with post-editing being all that useful considering all the terminology and phrasing that doesn't exist outside the world of D&D.

And for anyone who thinks this would be a sweet gig to get in on (after all, how hard can it be to translate, if you know the languages?), a professional translator does around 300 words an hour. So three hours per page. Long term, about 3000 words a day is the maximum unless you want to burn out. That's not including spending time research terminology or figure out ambiguous phrasing.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

The german translation is well done.
I hope they don't change too much. I need to ask a friend if the new books are still done by the same people.

 

[Uta-napishti]

Posters from/in Germany, do you think this will pose a significant challenge to Das Schwarze Auge, or is that too entrenched as the fantasy RPG of choice to make a difference?

I am a transplant to Germany, and not an old timer, but I see as roughly as much D&D being played here as DSA (in Berlin at least). I think the biggest difference in from the U.S. may just be there is no clear "majority" system in Germany anymore. DSA, D&D and everything else each seem about a third of the pie? Cthulhu for instance, PbtA games and lots of the Swedish publishers's stuff are played a lot. Anyone with more years of experience, or from a different part of Germany should feel free to contradict me.

The German translations of the D&D books are already quite good, so I expect a price advantage or speed to market to be the only real benefit of this change.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

I bought a french version of the Player's Handbook a month ago to introduce some family members. I can't believe how bad the translation is.