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

 

[Mercador]

Iyay illway ebay unimpressedyay untilyay eythay anslatetray allyay ofyay ethay orecay ooksbay intoyay igpay atinlay. Ouyay aventhay ivedlay untilyay ouveyay illedkay ayay ardbay inyay ethay eatestgray anguagelay ofyay emthay allyay.

I hope that you made a search and replace for that one.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I hope that you made a search and replace for that one.

That's actually my native language as taught to me by Taran, the assistant pig keeper; the whole English thing is quite a chore!

 

[darjr]

OTOH, you can also view this as them gearing up for 6E, getting good relationships with the translators they will want to have involved earlier in the process next time around.

If the intent was to do a 6e soon why waste the time and why announce? They'd start with 6e out of the box and keep working on it in secret.

Also what publisher would want to sign up for such a short run of printing? Or try to dial in the "right" number of books to print that may be doomed?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If the intent was to do a 6e soon why waste the time and why announce? They'd start with 6e out of the box and keep working on it in secret.

Because, theoretically, it won't be out for three years and there's money to make in the meantime.

Also what publisher would want to sign up for such a short run of printing? Or try to dial in the "right" number of books to print that may be doomed?

There are ways to address those concerns, starting with minimum guaranteed print runs between the two hypothetical editions.

 

[darjr]

I think we are working from different time frames for the word soon.

I will say doing this work is worthwhile for all future products, that I agree with.

Also while I still don't think there will be a 6e in three years, I really have no idea.

edit: to make this seem less... pejorative? Cause I don't mean to be.

 

[Helldritch]

The new translations will be welcomed by a majority of my players that can barely read English without a dictionary.

On the other hand, I much prefer my books in the original language, so many mistakes in translations occurs...

 

[Rabulias]

I wonder if any rules questions might be settled/clarified by translations?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Now I have got a new question. Will be translated the SRDs, even the elements by 3PPs?

 

[vpuigdoller]

I hope this finally gets latin america the books in spanish

 

[Jaeger]

Yes, and you heard that right, Ulisses Spiele, publisher of DSA, had been the translator for D&D books in Germany, talk about business incentives at cross purposes!

I'm sure USpiele thinks that there's plenty of room for everyone.

If anything I'd think that they'd be keen to see what aspects of 5e's design helps to attract new players, and apply those game design principles to the next edition of DSA.

But they won't.

Because, theoretically, it won't be out for three years and there's money to make in the meantime.

There are ways to address those concerns, starting with minimum guaranteed print runs between the two hypothetical editions.

I think that it would be safe to say that for most of us when we refer to a potential 6e, we are talking about at most a AD&D1e to AD&D2e style new edition.

Not the big paradigm shifts we saw with 3-4-5e D&D editions.

IMHO when we think of "New edition of D&D" we should start thinking more along the lines of the a model Chaosium followed for CoC with their 1st to 6th editions: More of a gradual update and cleanup once the errata of a particular edition got to be too much for the player base, and not a wholesale system redesign that has been the WOTC norm until now.

Or at least that's what WOTC would do if they were smart.