Quote from: Ruprecht on April 30, 2025, 02:09:23 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on April 29, 2025, 08:06:57 AMEvery ttrpg I like has been canceled for years.

You can still play the old games. the only problem is if you need constant products to keep your game going or if you want to write/sell something. But you can certainly play any old game you can get your hands on.

I'm interested in the parasocial aspects. Discussing the setting, writing fanfic, that sort of thing.

I dislike Star Wars because of the omnipresent shadow of Luke Skywalker. That's the problem with passive media franchises that aren't anthologies. With ttrpg settings, that isn't a problem. So I find them very conducive to making up stories.

Quote from: JeremyR on April 27, 2025, 04:48:33 PMI think D&D has publishing problems in the 90s that hurt it in Japan. But you can see D&D's influence in pretty much every fantasy IP in Japan. There were even games based on the completely fictitious gods in D&DG (Tower of Druaga for instance). Look at the monsters in JRPGs. So many from D&D and not mythology.

So I have some insight on this because I've been on a kick reading up on sword world. Now if anyone knows more or better please fill me in I'm interested and would like a fuller color picture then what i have.
With that said here we go. So its like this the group that made record of the lodos war started off as a d&d game to promote roleplaying games in japan but they didn't have the rights to D&D. (its worth knowing the only version officially translated at this point is basic). So the guys that became group sne tryed to contact TSR. Now I dont know exactly what happened but in some form TSR ignored them so they made there own rpg.
That rpg was Sword world 1e in 1989. This is worth understanding because a significant amount of the "D&D" in Japanese fantasy makes more sense once youve read threw a little sword world. Sword world to D&D is like that strange relative that is in to all the same things you are but lives out of the country. You like all the same stuff and from the out side things look similar but you go about them in a very different way. What Im getting at is a lot of things that look like D&D arnt D&D they are sword world and it can be hard to tell which is which at a glance and some times its both. Its also sort of come full circle a bit given that wizardry is now owned by a japanese company.
Any way my tangent aside I think some of D&Ds lack of penetration in to that market may still trace it self to the creation of sword world. That said I dont know the full details so I might just be farting in the wind.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on April 28, 2025, 04:05:44 AMD&D is popular in the Anglosphere.  It does have some traction in other markets and countries, that's about it. Go to Japan, its Call of Cthulu and Japanese girls playing it is the main RPG.

In German-speaking countries, the top rpg is The Dark Eye (DSA). D&D was the main rpg in Germany too from about 2018 until the OGL debacle hit, enabling The Dark Eye to regain the top spot. The fact that D&D Beyond only seems to be available in English doesn't help matters for WotC in non-English-speaking countries.
If there are any Brazilians in this thread, I'd be interested to hear about the ttrpg situation in Brazil.

Quote from: Lynn on April 30, 2025, 02:12:36 AMJapan is a very different market and while extremely interesting, it doesn't represent 'out there'. It represents Japan. Ultimately, it comes down to the sort of partnerships you find in republishing there.

One of the reasons that D&D never caught on in Japan is that Japanese gambling laws made polyhedral dice hard to find and outlandishly expensive.  From what I have read, they could cost as much as $150 for a set which would be around $550 in adjusted dollars.  That's pretty specific to that time and place.

Quote from: yosemitemike on May 01, 2025, 06:50:39 AM

Quote from: Lynn on April 30, 2025, 02:12:36 AMJapan is a very different market and while extremely interesting, it doesn't represent 'out there'. It represents Japan. Ultimately, it comes down to the sort of partnerships you find in republishing there.

One of the reasons that D&D never caught on in Japan is that Japanese gambling laws made polyhedral dice hard to find and outlandishly expensive.  From what I have read, they could cost as much as $150 for a set which would be around $550 in adjusted dollars.  That's pretty specific to that time and place.

Now that is a puzzle piece I didnt have at least not in full shape. I knew that polyhedral dice where rare and expensive but Japanese anti gambling laws being involved fills in a lot of understanding. Makes me glad I live in a time and place I can  just buy a chessex pound o dice and call it done.

Quote from: kosmos1214 on May 01, 2025, 02:33:14 PM

Quote from: yosemitemike on May 01, 2025, 06:50:39 AM

Quote from: Lynn on April 30, 2025, 02:12:36 AMJapan is a very different market and while extremely interesting, it doesn't represent 'out there'. It represents Japan. Ultimately, it comes down to the sort of partnerships you find in republishing there.

One of the reasons that D&D never caught on in Japan is that Japanese gambling laws made polyhedral dice hard to find and outlandishly expensive.  From what I have read, they could cost as much as $150 for a set which would be around $550 in adjusted dollars.  That's pretty specific to that time and place.

Now that is a puzzle piece I didnt have at least not in full shape. I knew that polyhedral dice where rare and expensive but Japanese anti gambling laws being involved fills in a lot of understanding. Makes me glad I live in a time and place I can  just buy a chessex pound o dice and call it done.

Call of Cthulhu also uses polyhedral dice though.

Weird point: I have noticed that Japanese anime movies often include some sort of huge misshapen mass, usually a demon/god/monster. No idea why that is popular. But CoC has some of the same.

Quote from: Trond on May 02, 2025, 09:02:18 AMCall of Cthulhu also uses polyhedral dice though.

I was more talking about why D&D didn't become the dominant game like it did in the US.  From what I have read, a big part of the high cost was the D20 which CoC doesn't really use much.  That might be a part of it.

Quote from: Trond on May 02, 2025, 09:02:18 AM

Quote from: kosmos1214 on May 01, 2025, 02:33:14 PM

Quote from: yosemitemike on May 01, 2025, 06:50:39 AM

Quote from: Lynn on April 30, 2025, 02:12:36 AMJapan is a very different market and while extremely interesting, it doesn't represent 'out there'. It represents Japan. Ultimately, it comes down to the sort of partnerships you find in republishing there.

One of the reasons that D&D never caught on in Japan is that Japanese gambling laws made polyhedral dice hard to find and outlandishly expensive.  From what I have read, they could cost as much as $150 for a set which would be around $550 in adjusted dollars.  That's pretty specific to that time and place.

Now that is a puzzle piece I didnt have at least not in full shape. I knew that polyhedral dice where rare and expensive but Japanese anti gambling laws being involved fills in a lot of understanding. Makes me glad I live in a time and place I can  just buy a chessex pound o dice and call it done.

Call of Cthulhu also uses polyhedral dice though.

Weird point: I have noticed that Japanese anime movies often include some sort of huge misshapen mass, usually a demon/god/monster. No idea why that is popular. But CoC has some of the same.

You have a good point on the dice thing. What I dont know the answer to is what year all COC landed and when it became popular time marches on after all.

Quote from: yosemitemike on May 01, 2025, 06:50:39 AMOne of the reasons that D&D never caught on in Japan is that Japanese gambling laws made polyhedral dice hard to find and outlandishly expensive.  From what I have read, they could cost as much as $150 for a set which would be around $550 in adjusted dollars.  That's pretty specific to that time and place.

I lived in Japan from 1989 - 1995. Hobby Japan was in most major cities and carried RPGs, and even a few English titles (I think I paid x 3 the cover price for Horror on the Orient Express when it came out). I bought some rpg dice there and never saw prices like that. Imported stuff from the USA was expensive because there is a huge amount of cost in logistics in Japan and Japanese people were still hoping that the economy would bounce back. Regular dice though you could find cheap.

A lot of Japanese RPG stuff would go into game stores and bookstores, and being in a bookstore in Japan was a huge advantage because you could find them almost everywhere (not just the big ones but neighborhood ones that would also carry the weekly manga series).

Gambling was a problem in Japan, compounded with anything the yakuza take an interest in.

Quote from: yosemitemike on May 02, 2025, 07:16:54 PMFrom what I have read, a big part of the high cost was the D20 which CoC doesn't really use much.

Those words don't really say much though ... if a D20 is used 1 time per game for a critical function it still needs to be purchased.

I don't play CoC, does it require a D20 or not?

Quote from: Zalman on May 03, 2025, 07:39:56 AMThose words don't really say much though ... if a D20 is used 1 time per game for a critical function it still needs to be purchased.

I don't play CoC, does it require a D20 or not?

I run it pretty regularly.  I could go several sessions without using one.  Even in the rare cases where I do need one, a D10 and any other die could be substituted in a pinch.  The only time it is used is sanity loss for a few monsters.

Quote from: yosemitemike on May 03, 2025, 02:02:01 PM

Quote from: Zalman on May 03, 2025, 07:39:56 AMThose words don't really say much though ... if a D20 is used 1 time per game for a critical function it still needs to be purchased.

I don't play CoC, does it require a D20 or not?

I run it pretty regularly.  I could go several sessions without using one.  Even in the rare cases where I do need one, a D10 and any other die could be substituted in a pinch.  The only time it is used is sanity loss for a few monsters.

It seems that depending on exactly how the story all fits together the dice story may be either untrue or more complicated. It could even have just been that you needed to buy polyhedral at a gaming store. That alone could have been the reason and the story about cost and rarity could be over blown.

Quote from: kosmos1214 on Today at 12:50:37 AMIt seems that depending on exactly how the story all fits together the dice story may be either untrue or more complicated. It could even have just been that you needed to buy polyhedral at a gaming store. That alone could have been the reason and the story about cost and rarity could be over blown.

I just know what I have read but I have seen the high cost of dice mentioned multiple times. 

A video of interest regarding RPGs in Japan. Important to note that D&D was published in Japan in 1985, and Call of Cthulhu was first published in 1986. That's a big difference compared to the U.S. where D&D had many years to grow as a phenomenon from 1974 and build a network before Call of Cthulhu was released in 1980.

i want to know why CoC is so big in japan

you guys beat me to it.

also curious why Brazil got an official Yu Yu Hakusho RPG and no other area did