So, there are at least four (more if you count translations) things in the "Goblin Slayer" franchise, that I know of:

-A series of light novels that are, from what I've heard, decently written for a light novel, but tend to dwell on the rape and ultra-violence. Like a lot.

-Manga interpretations of the light novels (including a prequel series) from two different authors. The manga are, as far as I can tell, lower quality than the light novels but not crap. The manga collections include audio dramatizations of the light novels in some editions.

-An anime series and attending movie-length animated feature that cover the first bit of the light novels, but lighten things up a bit (but not enough to avoid horrifying particularly sensitive folks --especially at rpg.net). These are widely regarded as craptastic.

-The rpg, now translated into English. From the reviews I've seen around, it's based on a solid Japanese Fantasy role-playing system, and is mostly a well-done setting book for the light novels, using art from the manga.

I don't know if any of this helps.

Quote from: Tubesock Army on August 21, 2021, 10:09:48 PM

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on August 21, 2021, 09:51:55 PM

Quote from: Tubesock Army on August 21, 2021, 09:46:32 PM
This forum had a 14-page thread about a $3500-dollar kickstarter with <200 backers, but do go on about how hysterical SJWs are. So much tee-heeing over how mad the libs are gonna be about some niche weeb shit. You guys creaming your jeans about wasting money on a game you'll never play are embarassing yourselves. I'll bet no one gives a shit about this game, any  more than they do F.A.T.A.L., or the Project Veritas "expose" of Hasbro that no one remembered two days after it happened. Don't let me stop the circlejerk, though. You fellas carry on.

That's great and all, but how do you know I (or we) won't play it?

Call it a hunch that some "edgy" anime game won't become the runaway tabletop hit of the year.

That still does'nt mean I (or we) won't play it though. And no one has said that it will be the next 'big hit' of the year. And no one expects it to be either...

But carry on.

Quote from: Tubesock Army on August 21, 2021, 09:46:32 PMYou guys creaming your jeans about wasting money on a game you'll never play are embarassing yourselves.

Yes, I very much agree with this sentiment. Consuming to 'Own da libs' is a really shitty mindset. It is very much akin to the people that back stupid shit like the myriad of SJW RPGs on kickstarter that do the same thing just politically different.

Foreign RPG systems are very interesting to me.  Goblin Slayer I could take or leave, though I do appreciate a group of generic anime adventurers all being killed by a goblin with a sling because they were too stupid to wear helmets, and I'm curious if the RPG is as unforgiving as combat in the source material.

Quote from: Shrieking Banshee on August 21, 2021, 10:24:26 PM

Quote from: Tubesock Army on August 21, 2021, 09:46:32 PMYou guys creaming your jeans about wasting money on a game you'll never play are embarassing yourselves.

Yes, I very much agree with this sentiment. Consuming to 'Own da libs' is a really shitty mindset. It is very much akin to the people that back stupid shit like the myriad of SJW RPGs on kickstarter that do the same thing just politically different.

The difference here is that Goblin Slayer isn't a political product.  It has no agenda to support or oppose.  It's just a popular-ish story/comic/cartoon.  Buying it won't send cash to an ideologue who propped up some garbage on kickstarter just to have some kind of message, it'll send cash to some Japanese guy who made his edgy D&D game into a book.

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on August 21, 2021, 10:12:57 PM

Quote from: Tubesock Army on August 21, 2021, 10:09:48 PM

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on August 21, 2021, 09:51:55 PM

Quote from: Tubesock Army on August 21, 2021, 09:46:32 PM
This forum had a 14-page thread about a $3500-dollar kickstarter with <200 backers, but do go on about how hysterical SJWs are. So much tee-heeing over how mad the libs are gonna be about some niche weeb shit. You guys creaming your jeans about wasting money on a game you'll never play are embarassing yourselves. I'll bet no one gives a shit about this game, any  more than they do F.A.T.A.L., or the Project Veritas "expose" of Hasbro that no one remembered two days after it happened. Don't let me stop the circlejerk, though. You fellas carry on.

That's great and all, but how do you know I (or we) won't play it?

Call it a hunch that some "edgy" anime game won't become the runaway tabletop hit of the year.

That still does'nt mean I (or we) won't play it though. And no one has said that it will be the next 'big hit' of the year. And no one expects it to be either...

But carry on.

I look forward to your session reports.

Quote from: Valatar on August 21, 2021, 10:31:15 PMThe difference here is that Goblin Slayer isn't a political product.

Im not talking about the product. Im talking about the reaction. Multiple people have stated they will support GARBAGE if it means 'Ownin da SJWs'. I think thats a stupid thing to do.

Quote from: Shrieking Banshee on August 21, 2021, 10:24:26 PM
same thing just politically different.

Not really, for me... In fact, politics has fek all to do with it as I'm an old school leftie. For some reason, you and them have turned RPGs into a political thing - Which I don't care about.

It's about 'their' forced authority over others, censorship, the insertion of overly politically correct material, and the sensitization of 'art'. 

Quote from: Tubesock Army on August 21, 2021, 10:39:33 PM

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on August 21, 2021, 10:12:57 PM

Quote from: Tubesock Army on August 21, 2021, 10:09:48 PM

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on August 21, 2021, 09:51:55 PM

Quote from: Tubesock Army on August 21, 2021, 09:46:32 PM
This forum had a 14-page thread about a $3500-dollar kickstarter with <200 backers, but do go on about how hysterical SJWs are. So much tee-heeing over how mad the libs are gonna be about some niche weeb shit. You guys creaming your jeans about wasting money on a game you'll never play are embarassing yourselves. I'll bet no one gives a shit about this game, any  more than they do F.A.T.A.L., or the Project Veritas "expose" of Hasbro that no one remembered two days after it happened. Don't let me stop the circlejerk, though. You fellas carry on.

That's great and all, but how do you know I (or we) won't play it?

Call it a hunch that some "edgy" anime game won't become the runaway tabletop hit of the year.

That still does'nt mean I (or we) won't play it though. And no one has said that it will be the next 'big hit' of the year. And no one expects it to be either...

But carry on.

I look forward to your session reports.

Yeah, I have my quill and a notepad ready for you. It'll be riveting...

Quote from: ScytheSong on August 21, 2021, 10:10:12 PM
So, there are at least four (more if you count translations) things in the "Goblin Slayer" franchise, that I know of:

-A series of light novels that are, from what I've heard, decently written for a light novel, but tend to dwell on the rape and ultra-violence. Like a lot.

-Manga interpretations of the light novels (including a prequel series) from two different authors. The manga are, as far as I can tell, lower quality than the light novels but not crap. The manga collections include audio dramatizations of the light novels in some editions.

-An anime series and attending movie-length animated feature that cover the first bit of the light novels, but lighten things up a bit (but not enough to avoid horrifying particularly sensitive folks --especially at rpg.net). These are widely regarded as craptastic.

-The rpg, now translated into English. From the reviews I've seen around, it's based on a solid Japanese Fantasy role-playing system, and is mostly a well-done setting book for the light novels, using art from the manga.

I don't know if any of this helps.

Also, there are 3 spin off novel and manga lines- Year 1, Brand New Day, and Dai Katana.

Plus, the hilarious Goblin Slayer Abridged which is even better than the actual anime. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i2qquegdB4

Quote from: Valatar on August 21, 2021, 10:26:19 PM
Foreign RPG systems are very interesting to me.  Goblin Slayer I could take or leave, though I do appreciate a group of generic anime adventurers all being killed by a goblin with a sling because they were too stupid to wear helmets, and I'm curious if the RPG is as unforgiving as combat in the source material.

Sounds a little like Rolemaster in that regard. I recall several nasty crits that were greatly reduced if the victim was wearing a helmet.

This has come up on another site and it seems like the key points are also relevant here.


The first point-

I'm a fan of the Goblin Slayer anime. My initial reaction to the news of this RPG was that I'd probably never buy it and that I didn't see the need for it to exist. The setting is explicitly a generic D&D-style fantasy world where every trope and cliche is dialled up to 11- the idea is, this could be your D&D world. Or any generic fantasy CRPG with levels and classes.

The theme of the anime is that of a clash between the light-hearted heroic escapism of modern fantasy games and the brutal reality that going down into a dark cave for a desperate life or death struggle against inhuman monsters is a horror story not a romantic adventure.

And this is why I saw no need for the game. Because it's so explicitly a generic fantasy world you could run the episodes of the anime as adventures for any OSR retroclone and have a reasonable expectation that things would work out the same. Not 5e or Pathfinder because even at first level a TPK is harder to achieve in those and Goblin Slayer is all about OSR lethality and danger. But I assume that everyone reading this already owns their D&D-like ruleset of choice (Worlds Without Number for me) and it's not like even the most inexperienced GM would struggle to adapt the setting.


Which brings us to the second point-

The reason that anyone would want to buy Goblin Slayer is the rules. (Explaining this in full is going require a bit of a history lesson that a lot of the grognards here might be familiar with already, so apologies if you lnow this already.)

When the D&D craze was first hitting its peak way back when, Japan was obviously a target. But there was a big problem- no access to all the funny dice that D&D requires. Japan had no miniature wargames scene like the English-speaking world did and so no matter how hard it was to get hold of polyhedral dice for gamers who didn't live near a specialty store, in Japan it was harder to the point of impossibility. But a lot of Japanese still wanted to play this new game that was the latest worldwide fad.

Enter a game called Sword World. This was written by Japanese gamers explicitly to use nothing but the standard and easily available d6. It was also published by a company that printed collected volumes of Manga, in the same size as those and with Manga-style illustrations. It was also distributed to the same stores as the Mangas they were already publishing. Anyone with even the vaguest knowledge of how RPGs work as a business won't be surprised to learn that this was very successful to the point that Sword World occupies the same dominant role in Japanese TTRPGs that D&D does in the west.

That whole anime genre where you get anime-fied versions of D&D? That started with Sword World. Record of the Lodoss War was in fact set in the official setting of the Sword World RPG and others (Rune Soldier Louie) have been inspired by campaigns of SW that the writers played in.

So I've been very curious about what the Sword World game is like since first hearing about it in the 90s. Unfortunately there's never been an English translation of the rules. Until now, because Goblin Slayer is a licensed adaption of the Sword World system in the same way that you got all of those settings slapped onto the D&D 3.5e rules in the 00s. They've apparently done this with sufficiently popular anime/manga in the past, it's just that Goblin Slayer is the first one someone has looked to do an English translation for.


TL;DR is that nobody- not even fans of the anime like myself- needs to buy a Goblin Slayer RPG for the setting. There are, however, some people who aren't necessarily fans of the anime at all who might be interested in finally seeing what the Sword World rules actually look like.

Quote from: Tantavalist on August 22, 2021, 07:25:24 AM
This has come up on another site and it seems like the key points are also relevant here.


The first point-

I'm a fan of the Goblin Slayer anime. My initial reaction to the news of this RPG was that I'd probably never buy it and that I didn't see the need for it to exist. The setting is explicitly a generic D&D-style fantasy world where every trope and cliche is dialled up to 11- the idea is, this could be your D&D world. Or any generic fantasy CRPG with levels and classes.

The theme of the anime is that of a clash between the light-hearted heroic escapism of modern fantasy games and the brutal reality that going down into a dark cave for a desperate life or death struggle against inhuman monsters is a horror story not a romantic adventure.

And this is why I saw no need for the game. Because it's so explicitly a generic fantasy world you could run the episodes of the anime as adventures for any OSR retroclone and have a reasonable expectation that things would work out the same. Not 5e or Pathfinder because even at first level a TPK is harder to achieve in those and Goblin Slayer is all about OSR lethality and danger. But I assume that everyone reading this already owns their D&D-like ruleset of choice (Worlds Without Number for me) and it's not like even the most inexperienced GM would struggle to adapt the setting.


Which brings us to the second point-

The reason that anyone would want to buy Goblin Slayer is the rules. (Explaining this in full is going require a bit of a history lesson that a lot of the grognards here might be familiar with already, so apologies if you lnow this already.)

When the D&D craze was first hitting its peak way back when, Japan was obviously a target. But there was a big problem- no access to all the funny dice that D&D requires. Japan had no miniature wargames scene like the English-speaking world did and so no matter how hard it was to get hold of polyhedral dice for gamers who didn't live near a specialty store, in Japan it was harder to the point of impossibility. But a lot of Japanese still wanted to play this new game that was the latest worldwide fad.

Enter a game called Sword World. This was written by Japanese gamers explicitly to use nothing but the standard and easily available d6. It was also published by a company that printed collected volumes of Manga, in the same size as those and with Manga-style illustrations. It was also distributed to the same stores as the Mangas they were already publishing. Anyone with even the vaguest knowledge of how RPGs work as a business won't be surprised to learn that this was very successful to the point that Sword World occupies the same dominant role in Japanese TTRPGs that D&D does in the west.

That whole anime genre where you get anime-fied versions of D&D? That started with Sword World. Record of the Lodoss War was in fact set in the official setting of the Sword World RPG and others (Rune Soldier Louie) have been inspired by campaigns of SW that the writers played in.

So I've been very curious about what the Sword World game is like since first hearing about it in the 90s. Unfortunately there's never been an English translation of the rules. Until now, because Goblin Slayer is a licensed adaption of the Sword World system in the same way that you got all of those settings slapped onto the D&D 3.5e rules in the 00s. They've apparently done this with sufficiently popular anime/manga in the past, it's just that Goblin Slayer is the first one someone has looked to do an English translation for.


TL;DR is that nobody- not even fans of the anime like myself- needs to buy a Goblin Slayer RPG for the setting. There are, however, some people who aren't necessarily fans of the anime at all who might be interested in finally seeing what the Sword World rules actually look like.

I fit in the category of wanting to try the sword world ruleset. Ive long been intrigued by it but never really had the chance to. I have a few friends who love the anime to id be willing to GM it. I myself am indifferent to the setting but imo its worth it to get an official trabslation if Sword World rules.

Quote from: Tantavalist on August 22, 2021, 07:25:24 AMTL;DR is that nobody- not even fans of the anime like myself- needs to buy a Goblin Slayer RPG for the setting. There are, however, some people who aren't necessarily fans of the anime at all who might be interested in finally seeing what the Sword World rules actually look like.

As an enthusiast for international systems, this actually changes my perspective around. I may actually support this for the context.

Quote from: Slambo on August 22, 2021, 08:46:00 AM
I fit in the category of wanting to try the sword world ruleset. Ive long been intrigued by it but never really had the chance to. I have a few friends who love the anime to id be willing to GM it. I myself am indifferent to the setting but imo its worth it to get an official trabslation if Sword World rules.

I too am intereted in getting an official translation of a version of the Sword World rules.

Someone got close to translating SW2.0, but never finished?. Just after I wrote this I wondered just how far they got. Apparently due to Covid further than I thought. The wiki http://swordworld.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page may contain a complete translation for those interested.

Given the page numbers listed, I can't see that Goblin Slayer will be a full translation of the 3 Sword World books, but the Goblin Slayer rpg that has adapted Sword World to its setting. I know I'm sort of nitpicking, but Goblin Slayer seems to have 10 levels of advancement matching 'rankings' of adventurers. Sword World 2.0 only had 6 if I'm correct, and I have no knowledge about 2.5