Quote from: Peregrin;518145I know I'd take the manga-style Rules Cyclopedia art over the American art any day.

oh man, i'd love to see scans of that--then run record of lodoss war with it

ETA:  google is my friend

Quote from: The_Shadow;518559Given that there is a large, English-speaking middle-class in India (tens of millions of people, possibly over 100 million) and that this section of society has extensive connections with America and other western nations through sending their kids to college there (perfect way to pick up geek hobbies),  I wonder why India doesn't have a dynamic branch of the hobby. I suspect there are some cultural factors at play.

I just think no one has ever seriously tried.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;518543I agree that if someone created an RPG market in India or China there's no reason why it wouldn't be a huge potential success.

RPGPundit

Quote from: The_Shadow;518559Given that there is a large, English-speaking middle-class in India (tens of millions of people, possibly over 100 million) and that this section of society has extensive connections with America and other western nations through sending their kids to college there (perfect way to pick up geek hobbies),  I wonder why India doesn't have a dynamic branch of the hobby. I suspect there are some cultural factors at play.

This last sentence.

I'd like to add that speaking English is not required in order to have an RPG community, since RPGs can be translated from English or written in the native language, as it happens in a lot of countries of Europe. For example, there are RPGs written in minority European languages, like Danish or Catalan.

Quote from: RPGPundit;518855I just think no one has ever seriously tried.

RPGPundit

Sure, nobody tried, but the question is, if someone tried, would they succeed? I think not. In other words, there is no sizable roleplaying community because there's no interest.

I'd say breaking into a new market in a new country these days is virtually impossible as this time RPGs wouldn't arrive before computer games, but afterwards and most gamers these days are of the opinion that if you want to explore dungeons and collect treasure you play WoW or something similar.

Quote from: Claudius;518953Sure, nobody tried, but the question is, if someone tried, would they succeed? I think not. In other words, there is no sizable roleplaying community because there's no interest.

An alternative proposition is that India and China were dirt poor in the 1970s and early 80s, when RPGs were at their peak, so they missed out on a crucial 'development stage' when the hobby was laying its roots in the US, Europe, and Japan.

India and China are now more than rich enough to support people sitting around pretending to be elves, at least as far as the middle-classes go, but because the hobby has no roots there they don't (or they just do it on WoW or whatever).

Quote from: Claudius;518953Sure, nobody tried, but the question is, if someone tried, would they succeed? I think not. In other words, there is no sizable roleplaying community because there's no interest.

I findthis somewhat unconvincing. If people had tried and failed, i would say okay maybe there is no interest, but if rpgs are a genuinely new concept in such places, then it entirely possible there is untapped interest. There may be cultural factors that would increase or decrease interest, but I don't see anthing inherent in either place that would them less open to gaming.

I have actually been toying with the idea of of creating an RPG in thai for the thai market. My wife has lots of family there and would be interested giving it a try. The biggest problem as an outsider is having little to no knowledge of the kind of gaming culture that exists there already and how to explain the concepts to a translator so that nothing is lost or confused in the process. Also there are lots of issues with regional laws that can be a nightmare for publishers.

i'd love to see the reverse--an rpg from india/china/etc. that would showcase different cultural expectations, goals, that sort of thing.

Quote from: Claudius;518953Sure, nobody tried, but the question is, if someone tried, would they succeed? I think not. In other words, there is no sizable roleplaying community because there's no interest.

Don't try a career as a marketer or entrepreneur, my friend...

I don't see why it hasn't been done, China alone has a Middle class nearly the size of the entire population of the US and India has plenty of knowledge and Euro-western attitudes about capitalism/consumerism.

Quote from: noisms;518725See here. I bought a copy in Kinokuniya in Shinjuku in early 2010. I was planning on using it to introduce my wife (who's Japanese) to TRPGs, but she wouldn't bite (at least not in this instance, ha ha, etc.). Still got it somewhere.

Awesome.

Although now I'm kind of wondering what type of puns they worked into the spell names...

Quote from: Peregrin;519086Awesome.

Although now I'm kind of wondering what type of puns they worked into the spell names...

Been a while since I looked at it. I suspect they didn't bother and just katakana-ized the English names. I'll see if I can dig it out - I do have it somewhere.

Quote from: DominikSchwager;518955I'd say breaking into a new market in a new country these days is virtually impossible as this time RPGs wouldn't arrive before computer games, but afterwards and most gamers these days are of the opinion that if you want to explore dungeons and collect treasure you play WoW or something similar.

I disagree. RPGs arrived in latin america largely after computer games, and there is a small but thriving fandom.
Nor do I think that language is a barrier.  While there are games written in portuguese in brazil, and spanish games or spanish translations of games brought into south america, the vast majority of gamers in south america play the games using the english game books.  And I'd wager there's at least as many english readers and speakers (or potential readers and speakers) in India as there are here.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;519342I disagree. RPGs arrived in latin america largely after computer games, and there is a small but thriving fandom.
Nor do I think that language is a barrier.  While there are games written in portuguese in brazil, and spanish games or spanish translations of games brought into south america, the vast majority of gamers in south america play the games using the english game books.  And I'd wager there's at least as many english readers and speakers (or potential readers and speakers) in India as there are here.

RPGPundit

The difference is that computer games are very very very prevelant in asian countries while comparatively rare in south american ones.

Quote from: DominikSchwager;519474The difference is that computer games are very very very prevelant in asian countries while comparatively rare in south american ones.

I doubt that too.  There's a computer games INDUSTRY in east asian countries (not really in India as far as I know) but every single kid in south america plays computer games here, probably as much as in north america.

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