Tabletop role-playing games in Japan#Replays

In the 1970s, role-playing games received little to no attention in Japan because they only had English titles. However, several gaming magazines and computer magazines started introducing role-playing games in the early 1980s.YASUDA, Hitoshi. "Introduction to SF games (SF game heno shoutai)". S-F Magazine issue 1983-08YASUDA, Hitoshi. "Introduction to the world of role-playing games (Role-playing game sekai heno shoutai)". LOGiN issue 1983-11

Some of the earliest Japanese RPGs were science fiction titles, including Donkey Commando in 1982 and Enterprise: Role Play Game in Star Trek in 1983.{{Cite web |last=Spud |first=Weather |title=The Japanese Tabletop RPG Collector's List |url=https://www.athenopolis.net/2020/02/early-japanese-tabletalk-role-playing.html |access-date=2024-10-07}}{{Cite web |title=japanese-collectors-list/tactics/gallery.md at master · weatherspud/japanese-collectors-list |url=https://github.com/weatherspud/japanese-collectors-list/blob/master/tactics/gallery.md |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=GitHub |language=en}} Traveller was the first translated RPG in 1984, with Dungeons & Dragons (Mentzer basic red box edition) following in 1985. One of the earliest Japanese-designed traditional fantasy RPGs was titled Roads to Lord, published in 1984.{{Cite web |title=japanese-collectors-list/roads-to-lord/gallery.md at master · weatherspud/japanese-collectors-list |url=https://github.com/weatherspud/japanese-collectors-list/blob/master/roads-to-lord/gallery.md |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=GitHub |language=en}}

In the late 1980s, role-playing video games such as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy helped popularize tabletop role-playing games in Japan.[https://www.pcgamer.com/the-forgotten-origins-of-jrpgs-on-the-pc/ PC Gamer: The forgotten origins of JRPGs on the PC][https://workinjapan.today/culture/tabletop-games-japanese-video-games/ Workinjapan: Ducks, Runes, and Tired Wizards: Tabletop's Legacy in Japanese Video Games]

Around the same time, the Japanese game publisher Group SNE pioneered a new book genre called replays. Replays are logs of TRPG play sessions, arranged for publication in a similar style to light novels. The first replay, Record of Lodoss War, was a replay of Dungeons & Dragons that was published in Comptiq magazine beginning in 1986. It became a popular series, which led to increased interest in the fantasy genre.[https://kotaku.com/the-dungeons-and-dragons-session-that-became-a-real-lif-1691643499 Kotaku: The Dungeons and Dragons Session That Became a Real-Life Phenomenon]

Sword World RPG was published in 1989 and became popular very quickly. The Forcelia setting includes Lodoss island from the replay Record of Lodoss War. Sword World RPG had a flexible multi-class system. It only uses 6-sided dice, since other polyhedral dice were uncommon in 1989, especially in rural Japan. The paperback (bunkobon) rulebooks were inexpensive and portable.{{cite journal |author= KATSURA, Norio |date=Autumn 2006 |title=Fantasy TRPG Chronicle |journal=RPGamer |volume=15 |pages=8 }}

Notable role-playing games in the mid-late 1980s and early 1990s included:

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In the mid to late 1990s, trading card games (TCGs) surpassed tabletop role-playing games in popularity, and most Japanese TRPG magazines were either transformed into TCG magazines or discontinued.

Notable role-playing games of the early 2000s include Blade of Arcana (1999), Night Wizard! (2002) and Alshard (2002). Role&Roll magazine was established in 2003. In 2007, Night Wizard! was adapted into an anime television series. Alshard's game system was expanded into a generic role-playing game system named Standard RPG System in 2006.

Since the late 2000s, RPG fan replay videos have grown in popularity on Niconico, a Japanese video hosting service.{{cite web |title=Alexa Traffic ranking |url=https://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/JP |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190521221043/https://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/JP |archive-date=May 21, 2019 |access-date=January 12, 2021 |publisher=Alexa Internet}}

In addition, the rise of web novels has been a major influence on the Japanese fantasy and RPG scene. Log Horizon TRPG was released in 2014.{{Cite web |date=2024-10-07 |title=Back to the Horizon: A Beginner's Primer on Log Horizon |url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2021-01-12/back-to-the-horizon-a-beginner-primer-on-log-horizon/.166964 |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=Anime News Network |language=en}} "Role-playing fiction" Red Dragon was animated under the moniker Chaos Dragon in 2015.{{cite web |date=February 19, 2015 |title=Madoka Magica/Fate/Durarara Creators' RPG Project Inspire Chaos Dragon Anime |url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-02-19/madoka-magica-fate-durarara-creators-rpg-project-inspire-chaos-dragon-anime/.85161 |accessdate=February 19, 2015 |publisher=Anime News Network}} Goblin Slayer TRPG was published in 2019.{{Cite web |date=2024-10-07 |title=Yen Press Licenses Goblin Slayer! Dark Fantasy Light Novel, Manga Series |url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-05-15/yen-press-licenses-goblin-slayer-dark-fantasy-light-novel-manga-series/.102118 |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=Anime News Network |language=en}}

In Japan, domestically-made role-playing games are competitive in the market. Despite the market's small size, many original products are published. For example, 95 domestically-made RPG rulebooks, excluding supplements, were published from 2000 to 2007. In the same period of time, 25 translated RPG rulebooks were published.{{cite journal |date=January 2008 |title={{nihongo|RPG old and present, east and west|RPG Kokon-tozai}} |journal=Role & Roll |volume=40 |pages=16 }}

According to the publisher's press releases in 2019, translated copies of first (2004) to fifth edition core rulebooks of Call of Cthulhu cumulatively sold 200,000 copies domestically.[https://www.4gamer.net/games/438/G043897/20190907005/ 4Gamer.net] (Japanese)[https://news.infoseek.co.jp/article/prtimes_000006235_000007006/ Rakuten Infoseek News] (Japanese)

In 2008, the Maid RPG was completely translated from Japanese into English.{{cite web |url=http://www.maidrpg.com/ |title=Home |website=maidrpg.com}}

In 2013, the 3rd Edition of "Double Cross" by F.E.A.R was released in English by Ver. Blue Amusement.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ver-blue-amusement.com/dx-introduction.html |title=DX-Introduction |access-date=2015-08-09 |archive-date=2015-07-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150719093700/http://www.ver-blue-amusement.com/dx-introduction.html |url-status=dead }}

In 2013, Ryuutama was translated into French by editor Lapin Marteau.{{Cite web|url=http://www.legrog.org/jeux/ryuutama/ryuutama-fr|title = Ryuutama (978-2-9545811-0-1)}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.lapinmarteau.com/ryuutama/|title = Jeux et Accessoires / Ryuutama / Ryuutama - édition anniversaire|date = 25 September 2017}}

• History of Eastern role-playing video games
• History of role-playing games
• List of best-selling Japanese role-playing game franchises

{{reflist}}

• [http://hiki.trpg.net/en/ TRPG.NET Wiki for English]
• [http://www.groupsne.co.jp/ Group SNE] {{in lang|ja}}
• [http://www.fear.co.jp/ FarEast Amusement Research] {{in lang|ja}}
• [http://www.bouken.jp/ Adventure Planning Service] {{in lang|ja}}
• [http://www.hobbyjapan.co.jp/dd/ Dungeons & Dragons Japanese official site] {{in lang|ja}}
• [http://mystara.thorf.co.uk/jrc.php Japanese Rules Cyclopedia]
• [http://www.lapinmarteau.com/ryuutama/ website of french publisher of Ryuutama] {{in lang|fr}}

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Category:Japanese popular culture

Category:Role-playing games by country