Yesterday, I received a copy of the Brazilian old school RPG,, in the mail, about which I'll be talking once I've had a chance to look at it more carefully (and look is all I'll be able to do, since I can't read Portuguese). That reminded me of a point often discussed in the comments to many posts, namely that the roleplaying hobby is much larger than its English-language part. I'm personally most familiar with French RPGs (since it's a language I can read), being very fond of the historical game Miles Christi, for example. There are undoubtedly a vast number of other games I've never even heard of, let alone had the chance to read.

So, for today's Open Friday, post about interesting and unusual roleplaying games in languages other than English. I'd prefer to hear about original non-English RPGs rather than licensed translations of existing game, but, if there's something particularly noteworthy about a translated edition, that's fair game too. In portuguese we have Tagmar, the first brazilian RPG (launched at the begin of the 90’s): a classic fantasy world with a system that reminds a little of Marvel Super Heroes (from TSR), albeit with some innovations, like an abstract Hit Point system over the game's traditional lethal wound system. These hit points are called ‘Heroic Factor’ (or ‘Conan Factor’, as most brazilians fondly call it) and have a dramatic nature.

Tagmar today is available on the Internet as an open game (Tagmar 2). The most original RPG here is ‘Desafio dos Bandeirantes’ (‘Challenge of the Bandeirantes’). ‘Bandeirantes’ were the brazilian trailblazers, members of the ‘Bandeiras’, explorer and slavers groups responsible for discovering and charting the wilderness of South America (and what is today Brazil).

The RPG is based on more romantic notion of the ‘bandeirantes’ (they’re an excellent excuse for adventurer parties) and details a mythic version of Brazil called ‘Terra de Santa Cruz’ (Land of the Holy Cross, one of the titles given to the New World by portuguese sailors) and includes local (and european) legends. The game system was a total mess, taking the worst aspects of BRP and mixing it with a race and class system. The setting was excellent and there’re still lots of fans here waiting for a revised edition. There’re other national RPGs, like the BRP stepchildren ‘Arkanun’ and ‘Trevas’; ‘Era do Caos’, a modern game based on urban horror and local legends; the generic system OPERA; among others English RPGs (translated) were always the majority: specially D&D/d20 and World of Darkness.

Sweden's seminal contribution to modern horror RPGs. It basically filled the (virtually absent, save for Cthulu NOW[80's -90's Update for Call of Cthulu])niche of contemporary psychological/body horror games. It predates 2nd Edition of Chill, updating that game to the modern day. Noted for exploring the depths of social alienation in the modern world, the terror of demonic possession, and the indifference of an uncaring universal creator(the Demiurge; not seen much in RPGs to this point). There was of course, the inevitable controversy over the games themes, accompanied by headline news of a few people losing their minds and committing suicide/killing someone. Like D&D's Satanic Panic on a much smaller scale, 'cuz it's Sweden, ya know.

Good luck finding any edition of this game cheap. Which is too bad. It's very atmospheric and gripping, and the mechanics are half-way decent and accessible.If you get a chance to peruse it, you can perhaps understand why it was often considered to be the only competitor to Call of Cthulu in the Horror RPG field. An aside: its parent company, Target Games, created the BRP-inspired Mutant game(totally Old School), which 'mutated' into Mutant Chronicles in North America(and elsewhere, I see), with its blitz of RPGs, Video Games, Novels, Board Games, etc.

A strange trend in German gaming around the turn of the century was a fascination with post apocalyptic themes: DeGenesis (two very different editions), Endland, and Engel. The most notable one was Maddrax because it had a very peculiar format and distribution: Based on a weekly pulp novel series, it was bundled and shrinkwrapped with issue 200 and sold at almost every newsstand in Germany - one adventure novel and a (flimsy, magazine style) 64pp rule booklet for a price comparable to a regular monthly Marvel comic book. While the effort was there it didn't make a splash.

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It was planned that future novels should include stats for the NPCs and monsters (of that issue), plus the occasional map, turning the novel into an adventure module., and interest died. (While the first three games were high on mood and influenced by story games Maddrax was a very functional, traditional, 3d6-based, old school game with medium crunch.). I am not sure that Chaosium is receiving any love for its current support for Call of Cthulhu, since the only consistency in its output is its inconsistency in terms of quality and content. There are a few titles amongst the Monographs, but only a very few. In the English language version of the game, the best material is coming from publishers other than Chaosium and for licensed versions of the game.

So those of us who love the game and want to see great books in English really do upon the fantastic looking books from France and Germany with envy. Envy and wonder why Chaosium is not translating these books and not publishing books that look as good. @ALias I have a boxed set of the first edition of Magna Verits/In Nomine Satanis, and it is a very different creature to the translated version published by SJG.

We managed to play a game of it for a year with only a Collins English/French dictionary to help us. Fortunately d6 is the same in any language. Just to let people know, one of our favourite pieces of artwork in it is a demon teeing up to knock over a carjack, only the carjack has a car above it and a person beneath it. I also have a copy of Legendes Celtique.

That game managed to capture the essence of Celtic society and package it up as a game. It was another game we played for a year with the assistance of our dictionary. There are two French language RPGs that I would still like to see translated. Polaris is a post-apocalyptic RPG set underwater that had plenty of support and really evocative covers. Bloodlust can be best described as Conan meets Elric. Mir Hasan Mir Manqabat 2008 Mp3 Free Download.

It is a set in ancient times in a land that looks suspiciously like a pre-freeze Antarctica across which mighty warriors stride the land wielding great weapons that fell from the sky. The catch is that the player characters are not the warriors but the weapons, each passing from wielder to wielder as one dies and another is found. Unfortunately, the first German rpg, Midgard, doesn't get very much love from German gamers.

Soon overtaken by the already mentioned DSA, Midgard was - and still is - shunned for its allegedly cumbersome rules as well as for its default setting - even though I only assume the latter. Midgard IS quite rules-heavy but by no means bloated (like DSA4 or D&D 3.X). Rather, it can be thought of as a German version of Rolemaster, having rules which, for example, differentiate between a character's appearance and his/her charisma. My assumption concerning the default setting is purely subjective, but the shiny, heroic Aventurien of DSA seems to appeal to much more players than a rather sober - some may call it dry - low fantasy setting which leans quite closely - and detailed, at that - to actual earthly cultures. My impression is that Midgard has remained far too geeky (rules-wise and setting-wise) to be rewarded with economic sucess. @ mondbuchstaben Maddrox looks awesome!

Very Gamma World/Mutant Future/Thundarr. I have found two pdf versions that you can still download and I've been running bits through Google translate. Both are in german but there are lots of inspiring images and maps.

I believe the two pdfs are; the final printed (reloaded) version, and the original, longer, draft. Here are the direct links for anyone interested: There are a lot of games on this thread sound really intriguing. Out of curiosity, how popular are rpg's or war games (i.e.

Mini's) in other countries? Are they as niche as they are here? Have they always been or did they experience the same Hesoidian epochs that James has enumerated.

I've always wondered this, specifically in reference to j-rpg's. Gaming seems to be such a perfect otaku hobby: the obsessive minutia of game worlds, the supplementary appeal to the collector (who must have everything), the mahou & high adventure. Did they achieve any measurable popularity or were they strangled in the crib by their vigorous sibling (born shortly after), the video game? Although the JRPG talk website largely focuses on recent JTRPGs like YuyakeKoyake and Maid, Japan had some interesting D&D inspired games back in the late 80s early 90s. I have both the Basic and Expert rules of the Lodoss RPG, both pocket-sized with beautiful art and rules reminiscent of Chaosium tweaked in D&D's direction.

I also have the three companions, all over-sized (i.e. Normal North American RPG book size)and brimming with gorgeous art, humorous articles and gaming advice, and terribly written adventures. Then there's the Dragon Half RPG, based on the D&D-inspired comedy manga and anime of the same name, where characters are ALWAYS of mixed monster and human parentage, advance in both Hero Levels and Gag Levels, and have a Gag Skill that always fails spectacularly when they try to use it. Pocket-sized again, brimming with humor and art from the manga.

The system is a boiled down (and IMHO much better) version of the Sword World RPG. As for Sword World, it IS the Japanese D&D. Huge back in the day, cramming the old book stores with replays, supplements, and adventures. Unfortunately, it is such a number cruncher I doubt it'll start any OSR out here. That's not to mention the 'replays', or session reports written down as a novel.

Very popular out here, and the book stores are brimming with them. Old Lodoss ones even have the Tunnels & Trolls stats for characters in them.

More recently, Arian Road (spelling) is a new D&Desque RPG with that cutesy, big head anime art. It's rules, however, reflect computer RPGs more, with unlockable kewl powerz on cards, and all traps, spells, and monsters are statted so that cards can be printed up and used. I think it is still more true to its roots than 4E, however. The big dofference I find between J-D&D and the D&D I remember is that there is a lot more gaming and DMing advice and humour in Japanese materials. Whereas back in the day in North America people too their fantasy waaaay too seriously (thanks, Tolkien), from the start Japanese saw the absurdity in subterranean monster flatblocks with inhabitants crammed cheek to cheek. Advice was also few and far between back in the 80s and 90s I remember, something the OSR helps compensate for nowadays.

Reading Airian Road's advice section, with notes on properly cleaning up the session venue, thanking everybody, being considerate, etc shows how far the Japanese are ahead of the English-speaking ganers in this respect. Not to mention the Japan-only D&Dish GURPS setting, Lunar (I have the Monster book and the Gazeteer), Creguian (Japanese Traveller, sort of.), Dungeon Quest, etc etc.

I am seriously thinking of starting a Grognardia-inspired about J-TRPGs. Wow, I remember Creguian! I also remember, have read or have played. I went to a Japanese TRPG convention once in the nineties and was struck by two things: 1) It was mostly girls 2) They were ALL playing the same module at different tables. 'Char's Counterattack' for the Gundam RPG (which I also have - full size book).

They were competing to see who could do it 'better'. Don't forget the Magius System, which was both a universal and rules lite system (3 stats, Body, Mind, and Spirit I think) that was put out in the 90s and supplemented with books for different anime titles.

Warez Crack Windows Xp Professional Keygen. There were the Slayers books, the Silent Mobius book, and the Evangelion sourcebooks (3 or 4 - one was a BIG sized NERV sourcebbok), plus others. The Evangelion is he only one that looked any good, as the rest were underdeveloped ruleswise.

The Evangelion version split the game into Headquarter Decisons and Mecha Combat phases, and how you performed in the first affected what options you'd have in the second. Also, with the NERV book you had colour cut outs and cards that turned the game into a tactical sim. I sent my whole collection to an Evangelion freak back in Canada a few years ago. @Tedankhamen said: They were ALL playing the same module at different tables. 'Char's Counterattack' for the Gundam RPG (which I also have - full size book). They were competing to see who could do it 'better'.

This isn't so unusual. Tournament adventures were a fairly standard part of the convention scene down here in the 70's and 80's. They are lots of fun, but require you to have a large pool of reliable gamemasters on tap to run them. Especially the post tournament awards, questions, and debrief session. Velaran has already covered several of the Swedish big RPGs. During the 80's this market was huge (albeit on a smaller scale than the US, since Sweden is a bit smaller as a country with 8 million people). Biggest of these were Drakar och Demoner.

A fantasy game that was at first a straight translation of Chaosium's Basic Fantasy, but then took on a life of its own. This accounts for the biggest difference in RPG philosophy between the US and Scandinavia: here level-based systems are considered generally bad, and skill-based systems are generally considered superior. This was followed by Mutant, a Gamma World rip-off using a BRP-derived rules system. A few editions of these followed, and Drakar och Demoner became the base line for fantasy roleplaying in Scandinavia. Everything D&D was in the US, DoD was for us. Culturally and commercially. Some other noteworthy mentions are Kult, as above, Mutant Chronicles which was a multimedia push to challenge Games Workshop and their WH40k line.

Although Mutant Chronicles was conceived for the US market, we who worked on it at first were mostly Swedish. As the RPG market sagged, a small outfit released a game called Eon, a standard fantasy roleplaying game with a fairly complex system that managed to somewhat revive (or maybe reanimate) the hobby. It was notable for its insistence on being 'realistic fantasy' which generated quite a lot of discussion. IMO one of the best is Western, a wild west game. Superbly researched, an intricate and very complex combat and skill system and featuring the shot clock decades before KenzerCo called their Aces and Eights mechanic an innovation. Recent additions are Operation Fallen Reich, which I don't know much about, but which is beautiful and Coriolis, a sci-fi game that is as beautiful as any RPG book you have ever seen.

As I mentioned earlier, for us BRP is the yard stick, and that game's design informs everything that is designed here, either if it is inspired by it or if it is a reaction against it. Of note is that one of the biggest advantages the early games had was being in native languages and having toy store distribution. I myself don't believe that the system itself had much to do with it, and slate the success of those early games up as being the right idea at the right time, combined with good business sense.