D&D General The rise and fall of D&D in Japan

[Iosue]

Let me just add, D&D has never been THE dominant RPG in Japan, not even in its Red Box heyday. But it could have been. Despite not even really trying to get into the Japanese market, TSR had the perfect opportunity fall into their lap when the Lodoss War replays were first serialized and blew up in popularity. A group of RPG enthusiasts had done all the work for them. But TSR (and their Japanese publisher/distributor Shinwa) decided to play hardball with Kadokawa Shoten, and poisoned the well. Then those same RPG enthusiasts went ahead and took hold of the market themselves. TSR should have stood for They Shoot-themselves-in-the-foot Regularly.

 

[mash(live in japan]

Are there many folks playing online in Japan? Are their foreign language versions of DDB or Roll20 etc?

I use Foundry VTT to play D&D. The SRD part of D&D 5e is almost completely localized by volunteers, and the major mods are also supported in Japanese, so it is not a big problem.

Also, VTT udonarium ( GitHub - TK11235/udonarium: WebRTCを使ってブラウザ間通信を行うオンセツール ), an open source site that supports simple 3D rendering, distributes SRD monster data, so there are many people who use it for sessions. This system is easy to use and has recently been made compatible with Fog of War, making it more convenient for playing D&D.

The problem is that currently, to get D&D in Japan, you have to rely on hobby stores that carry RPGs (only in populated urban areas) and Amazon, etc., which takes away the advantage of paperbag-sized domestic games and CoC-level "bestsellers" available at small local bookstores.
I don't want the TRPG scene to be dominated by D&D5e, and I'd like to see it become a second choice for many TRPG players.
The Japanese RPG scene has a rich soil created over the last 40 years or so, with numerous titles being created every year, so it's unlikely that it will get a commercial share of the market. But it would be nice to see the number of 5e players increase, even if only a little. I would like to see more original 5e sourcebooks produced and translated in Japan.

 

[mash(live in japan]

Let me just add, D&D has never been THE dominant RPG in Japan, not even in its Red Box heyday. But it could have been. Despite not even really trying to get into the Japanese market, TSR had the perfect opportunity fall into their lap when the Lodoss War replays were first serialized and blew up in popularity. A group of RPG enthusiasts had done all the work for them. But TSR (and their Japanese publisher/distributor Shinwa) decided to play hardball with Kadokawa Shoten, and poisoned the well. Then those same RPG enthusiasts went ahead and took hold of the market themselves. TSR should have stood for They Shoot-themselves-in-the-foot Regularly.

If "Record of Lodoss War" had been published as a TSR Japan-branded sourcebook with the D&D logo and sold in bookstores and hobby stores in the 80s, or if TSR and WtoC had moved to sell softcover, inexpensive rulebooks to meet the Japanese publishing environment, the landscape might have changed. If TSR or WtoC had moved to sell softcover inexpensive rulebooks in Japan, the landscape might have changed.
But I also think that "selling inexpensive softcover D&D core books" should be done worldwide... I can see the logic of printing and selling Magic cards exclusively, since it makes no sense to do so unless the format is available worldwide...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

selling inexpensive softcover D&D core books

It's impossible to manufacture inexpensive softcovers these days. Looked at magazine prices recently?

 

[Hussar]

The problem is that currently, to get D&D in Japan, you have to rely on hobby stores that carry RPGs (only in populated urban areas)

And, by populated urban areas, you mean Tokyo. Outside of Tokyo, RPG's might as well not exist. Board gaming is doing okay, but, RPG's? Most folks haven't even heard of it.

I mean, there are zero RPG's being carried in any hobby store I've ever found in Fukuoka or Kitakyushu. None. Finding card games and board games isn't too hard. Even things like Catan have made a pretty solid inroad. And Warhammer is very big. Lots of places to find that. Might be the modeling aspect has a better appeal.

Twenty years I've lived in Japan and, outside of some REALLY tiny stores in Tokyo, there isn't an RPG hobby here. At least, not one I've ever found.

 

[Masaki Yanagida]

I shouldn't say an opinion about the Japanese society if I don't know it enough but I suspect teenages and young adults are too busy to enjoy free time, and their homes are too small to can play board games together in a group. They would rather fast creation of characters for one-shot session. Here Ravenloft 5 Ed show the "survivor class", with an alternate leveling up for games more focused into horror and where the fight is not the best option.

OK, I'll tell you what.
Actually, TTRPGs are very popular among Japanese teenagers right now: they are playing an adaptation of Call of Cthulhu, have sold about 100,000 copies of the rulebook, and have streamed tens of thousands of views of their sessions. Many of them are playing online sessions, and the size of the location doesn't really matter.
And you're right, they play a lot of one-shot games.

Who could be interested into D&D brand? Mangaka aspirants publishing their own webcomics to introduce their work, wannabe idols in actual-play shows to prove her roleplaying talent, videogame studios who dream with release a superhit style "Final Fantasy". WotC could be the sponsor of some Japanese actual-play show, or webcomic.

The CoC is widely played, young and creative people work in the CoC, and if we can attract those people to D&D, I think things will change.

* Any new about an official D&D setting created by and for Japaneses? I suspect Japaneses would rather titles created in their own land, they don't want be "tainted" by foreigne soft power.

As for D&D by Japanese for Japanese, I am somewhat doubtful. Perhaps that would be a niche already occupied by domestically produced games. I think D&D will be accepted as it is, and I would rather that users change D&D to suit their tastes.

* Could we see 5e Anime in D&D Beyond?

I'd really like to see that!

 

[Hussar]

Actually, TTRPGs are very popular among Japanese teenagers right now: they are playing an adaptation of Call of Cthulhu, have sold about 100,000 copies of the rulebook, and have streamed tens of thousands of views of their sessions

Would you mind pointing me in the direction of this? I had no idea. It's not made the slightest dent around here.

 

[danir]

What about the localization of D&D in other non-English speaking countries?

In Israel we had two periods of D&D localization, but currently we have Pathfinder - actually pathfinder for savage worlds.
D&D is still dominant as a lot of the players are English speakers, it is common for older players to just use the English books.

There were local translations for BECMI, followed by AD&D 2nd edition, from 1987 to 1994.
Than in 2003 D&D 3 was translated followed by 4th edition.

However due to WotC 5th edition was never translated and instead pathfinder 1st edition was translated, but only the core books, until 2018.
In 2022 the translation of Pathfinder for savage worlds arrived, which is the current edition.

 

[Iosue]

Would you mind pointing me in the direction of this? I had no idea. It's not made the slightest dent around here.

Would this work?

 

[DarkCrisis]

Not only did D&D do quite well when it was originally introduced to Japan, but Sword World was originally a straight calque of D&D tropes to a non-TSR ruleset, and it became the most popular TRPG in Japan by a wide margin. In video games, as well, Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior in the US) these dealt almost entirely in D&D tropes, and were huge successes.

I really miss when JRPGs were obviously western fantasy. Zelda, FF, etc etc. Now they are far more influenced by their home country. Which is fine, I still enjoy them. I just miss when they weren't so "anime".

I'd kill for a Zelda or FF or whatever that looks more like Skyrim instead of 16 year olds running around collecting cute birds or something before returning the quest to kill god.