Yeah it's kinda sad how much of a monopoly wotc is. Even with other medieval systems like pathfinder or old-school-esentials they pushed underground and so many players just don't want to try anything new
“Popular” is an understatement. CoC is HUGE. As soon as I saw the title of this video I immediately went “Yeah I know what this is.” CoC is also big in China and Korea, as far as I know. I think it’s because how adaptable the rules are - you can set the story in 1920s America, but I’ve also seen Victorian England, rural Japan, modern Shanghai, you name it. To play DND you need to at least be familiar with the Western fantasy genre, but for CoC you just have to be vaguely interested in cosmic horror. It’s fine to not know any Lovecraftian lore, because your character is most likely innocent and ignorant as well. I’ve succeeded in introducing 5 Chinese friends into CoC but none into DND yet lol
CoC is also very popular in Poland. I would say it's still no.1, with all its spin-offs combined ( like Achtung! Cthulhu, Delta Green, etc.) And DnD 5e recently won a second second place with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
As the person who's the one that try to introduce other TTRPGs to my friends, this warms my heart a bit to hear that D&D isn't the all-swallowing entity that it is here in the west.
I have recently joined the hobby in a peculiar time for group of freiends of mine who have all or almost all been role players for years now; before 2020 they have been playing D&D 3.5, D&D 5 and pathfinder 1st edition, but in late 2020 they started playing new role playing games. Right now, about 6 months after i joined, they exploded in hte variety of games they are playing. As a result I have barely played a one-shot session of D&D, but I am currently playin a warhammer fantasy campaign, some one-shot sessions of Legend of the 5 Rings, Broken Compass, 7th Sea, Lex Arcana, and a half a dozen more are on the list for the next half a year. On the game variety front, my experience so far has been very atypical. But I know that what you are experiencing is the normal. I am sure someday you'll end up proposing some game that is just too compelling to pass.
@@skovlanpeoplesrepublic Yeah it's an up-hill battle, since from my experience, people don't want to play new stuff because of sunk-cost fallacy. Even the science fiction campaign I'm currently running is a D&D derived system. Also, the list of games I want to play is starting to be pretty long 😅 but one day...
It isn't all swallowing if you started with World of Darkness first 😆 that was my first TTRPG in highschool (I played Forsaken as we liked werewolves and didn't like the Apocalypse versions mechanics) and find in that universe only Vampire seems to get any love. WOD is very story heavy rather than combat but once you've learnt it you can DM any TTRPG.
I managed to introduce my friends to TTRPGs and we started with a little known game called Pugmire, it's a fantasy universe where everyone is a humanoid cat dog or rat. We've been going for over a year the campaign is now reaching it's end. It has been a blast.
In Germany, CoC is relatively big too. But, we got another big competitor on the german Market here, called "The Dark Eye"(german:"Das schwarze Auge") with a similar big playerbase as dnd. It's also fantasy but the adventures are less on the epic site and have a more "realistic" approach. (for the better and the worse)
I would the The Dark Eye had been definitely the biggest game in Germany before D&D 3rd edition, but D&D made quite an inroad in the last two decades while DSA mostly failed to capture new audiences and many of the older players are staying with older editions of the game. Not sure however how the actual numbers look like these days.
Call of Cthulu is also really popular in China, many of my chinese friends play chinese role playing games but are only vaguely aware of dnd, but they know coc well.
I wish that was true here in the western side i really want to join a group for coc but i can never find any meetups. All the meet up are for dungeons and dragons
I would very much like to see more topic explorations, akin to this one, from Dicebreaker. Lets plays are fun, but I do enjoy learning about things "around" TTRPGS.
@@glitchedgod Exactly. I recently unsubbed(like only a week ago) because they weren't doing the video essay style stuff I love. Any more of these and they may earn my sub back.
Interesting. Here in Sweden we have had a resurgence of TTRPGs and quite a lot of them have been translated into English, like Vaesen, and Symbaroum. I guess it's because RPGs were massive in the 80s, and the kids playing them have now grown up and started writing their own RPGs.
And Symbaroum is AMAZING. Another game that D&D players really need to try, so they can start to understand how much they are actually missing out on in the fantasy genre alone.
@@downsjmmyjones101 Simon Stålenhag, the artist that inspired the RPG, is very well known, but I don't know how popular the RPG is. We have a number of popular Swedish language systems, but I don't know which ones are the most popular. Some old classic Swedish RPGs have had recent updates, like Drakar & Demoner, and Mutant, and then there are a number of popular new ones, like Symbaroum, Eon, Trudvang, och "Hjältarnas Tid". I don't follow it very closely, so I don't know how popular they really are.
@@TastyMysteryMeat Adding to this, it should be pointed out that "Drakar och Demoner" and Mutant were both originally BRP games - in fact, similar systems to CoC. DoD is in fact based on the original Glorantha setting, complete with playable anthropomorphic ducks. They've had overhauls and changes over the decades, but they still have a lot in common with their Chaosium parent. *edit:* Also, Mutant was originally a bit of a mashup of Gamma World with dashes of Wasteland. It felt a lot like the old 2000AD comics, with cybperunkish dystopian city states surrounded by irradiated wasteland where weirdness existed,
@@snorpenbass4196 Aaah yes, I remember those ducks. I tried to RP as one once, but I could never get into it. It just felt a little silly. I think the hard classes of D&D never really got a strong foothold here, so most of the Swedish language RPGs more or less have their origin in BRP. I prefer it over the restrictive D&D class system.
That would be awesome. I would love to get an English translated version of Record of Loddoss War. If I remember correctly there used to be a standalone verson, but now its a setting of Sword World. I recommend going out and purchasing Golden Sky Stories, Ryuutama, and Tenra Bansho Zero (the three Japanese systems I happen to know got US releases) just to show the interest is here.
well, the closest we have to an officially translated Sword World book is the Goblin Slayer TRPG, which is made by the same guys behind SW. There also exists fan translations for Sword World, done by a very very VERY dedicated team of translators.
When I was stationed in Japan in the mid 1980’s, Elvis was the craze. People there would dress in 50’s fashions, guys with slicked back hair and duck tails and the girls would be wearing poodle skirts, ponytails with ribbons, and black and white patent leather shoes. It was like seeing a window back through time.
This might also have to do with Dragon Quest being the archetypal baseline “Fantasy RPG” setting that lodged itself into the minds of Japan. While not really popular outside of Japan, DQ was THE first exposure to fantasy for a lot of people, being a more palatable Japanized version of western fantasy settings (eg. Cutely designed slimes being the weakest monster, etc.) Even if one hasn’t played DQ themselves, the influence is everywhere from novels to manga to anime to other games. D&D’s setting probably feels too raw in comparison
The first RPG to gain popularity in a country often wins long-term. Since it's popular, every RPG player at least knows it and maybe has the books. In Poland, RPGs started with Warhammer and it stayed at least relevant, even though DnD may be more popular now.
That’s cool. Is Call of Cthulhu available and popular in Poland? I have to give CoC credit for its international appeal and globe-trotting horror. You can start a supernatural investigation in Warsaw…then travel to another country without sacrificing the story impact.
Honestly, Call of Cthulhu is an amazing RPG, I wish more people would get interested in it. It may not have as many opportunities for the bizarre humor that D&D does, or the “epic loot” that you can get, but I love that it doesn’t shy away from the harsh truths of the eras in which it can take place, and that feeling of having to live with the darker side of history adds to the horror.
In Czech Republic, lot of people are playing D&D, but we have our own TTRPG, called "Dračí Hlídka", or Dragon Patrol in english. It has it's roots in old AD&D, and it uses only D6 and D10 dice for the actual game.
Among many other systems (starting out with Ice Crown Empire's Rolemaster), I've been playing CoC for nearly a decade, and only got introduced to DnD about 4 years ago (and personally, I feel there are more far better systems out there). Now as I work to become a Japanese-English translator, I'm super excited to start trying my hand at playing/running an RPG in Japanese. Also CoC is popular out here in Japan because there are a lot of fan published scenarios that you can pick up for cheap and play through using the pre gen characters or your own, so you're never struggling to come up with game ideas (some of them are even GM free so that everyone can dive into the mystery together).
Heard that Shadowrun held a fair bit of popularity in Japan during it's 4th Edition. Also that Tunnels & Trolls has been rather popular there over the years. Likely due to it's Solitaire scenarios, which Japanese creators have also made (and even translated a few into English).
Call Of Cthulhu is fantastic in the 7th edition & well worth trying (or watching some streams of). It can take some getting used to, considering that character building is the heftier part of it & those characters are likely to die before they make it through a single scenario, but once that middle ground between foolhardy & over-cautious is found, it's great. Characters aren't heroes, they don't have the skills & equipment they need to defeat their enemies, & they don't exist in a fantasy setting with some grand destiny; they're just a few people thrown together into a really bad situation. Sometimes they're trying to save the world, but most of the time they're just trying not to get horribly mashed into a pulp. Also, the sanity mechanic means that players can turn on each other & introduces a vast array of interesting phobias to role play.
The newest version of RuneQuest (CoC's long lost fantasy cousin) is also really really good, if you wanna branch out some, but stay close to the shore. Also much more deadly with a really crazy but cool setting (Glorantha). Most of your description also fits it.
Can also get the Pulp Cthulhu add-on for a little more survivability and action. It's still dangerous, but is great as a middle ground while still keeping the Cthulhu in it.
CoC also has a couple great solo adventures (Alone Against The Dark) and a nice Starter System Package Set to get wary people started. CoC is also a “gateway game” to other related horror RPGs like Delta Green.
I like DnD. I do. It was my first TTRPG, but damnit, it’s not my favorite TTRPG and man is it tiring to go to a store and see it taking up 3 shelves. I expect it, I always do, but I wish some great smaller titles would get more notice.
I wanna buy several copies of Blades in the Dark and Heart: The City Beneath so I can put them on the shelf of my local game store next to DnD. My shop wouod become 100% cooler for having them.
I really want to. At the local hobby shop, which I only live like 7 miles away from, has a super diverse selection. I can’t wait to apply there in the fall. It’s going to be a great high school job.
I find it funny that generally hobby shops fully focus on D&D until some player influence changes it. At my local shop in OKC that is how it was until I started running CoC and VtM and another group ran a Star Wars game. Random people started asking what we were playing and asked the owner and the RPG section was greatly diversified the next delivery they got. If you want stores to change it up, sometimes you need to take it in your own hands
I clicked the video thinking it would be mostly about Sword World. Didnt know cthulu was so popular (though it colliding with Nyaruko isn't surprising) And not one mention of Record of Lodoss War
I really enjoy videos like this, that explore different corners of the TTRPG hobby. Love all your other content, but I’d really like to see more of this kind of thing too!
It's a similar story here in Sweden. A group of war game and RPG enthusiasts opened a store called Target Games in Stockholm in 1979. They realised that they had a golden opportunity to create a Swedish RPG. It was released in 1982, was based on Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying and Magic World and given the name Drakar och Demoner ("Dragons and Demons"). It sold over 100 000 copies - massive numbers for a country that at the time had around 8.5 million inhabitants - and dominated the Swedish market for the next two decades. Another publisher called Titan tried licensing and releasing a Swedish translation of DnD in 1986, but the license was too expensive and DoD too dominant and no more translations were released. Many Swedish RPGs have been published over the years, some of which have also been translated to English and other languages. There was a big dip in the 00's, but since 2014 the hobby has seen a resurgence. Fria Ligan/Free League acquired DoD last year and are working on a new edition for its 40th anniversary.
D&D is not the most popular RPG in most of Europe, im from Poland, Warhammer RPG was the most popular here, now we have a lot of local rpgs that are still more popular that d&d. I have friends living in UK, Israel and France and d&d is not the most popular RPG there. In fact i never played d&d (other than crpg like ToEE, Baldurs Gate) and i play RPGs since '93.
Same in Brazil, which I know isn't in Europe but I think it's still worth pointing out. Our own D20 system called Tormenta(or Tormenta20 if we're talking about the new edition that just came out) is way more popular than D&D here.
I'm a bit weird in that regard. I Prefer D&D to Warhammer, there's somthing about that system and the world itself that is more appiling. Although my TTRPG gateway was in fact Warhammer. So when I explain to my players the rules in D&D, I have to tell them " You know, like in Warhammer ..." XD
d&d is 100% the most popular trpg here in the UK. Other than that I can't really argue. But trust me, trying to start a group for anything but d&d is a nightmare, and I'm in one of the UK's biggest cities.
Im from Denmark, and mostly D&D is and has been the largest system by far, before the release of 5th Edition D&D there was a period with pathfinder at the top, atleast in my experience. From what i see now D&D 5th ed is by far the largest. With many groups i have to actively pursuade people to try something that is not D&D, and some people are completely unwilling to play not D&D. In a current group of mine i kind of forced them to try something new and they looked for stuff not to like so we could go back to D&D
as a guy living in Tokyo, yea there are a lot of Cthulu books at all the various hobby shops like yellow submarine. I was a bit surprised at it- of course there are also a lot of DND and warhammer etc etc etc. But Kawaii Cthulu keychains and plushies and such are def popular in Tokyo. I just wish I could find English language stuff here in Tokyo :( its much more difficult
In France CoC is also really popular, just behind DD. All the editions were published in french from the 3th to the 7th, we have also some exclusive french publication like "Mystères de Lyon" and soon "Mystères de Marseille" two big city in France after Paris, the first was a box set "Les années folles" at the end of 80s for the Paris of "La belle époque".
Thank you for this overview. I'd known _Call of Cthulhu_ had great appeal in Japan, but this helps understand why. As an rpg designer, this was definitely need-to-know. Keep up that great work!
crazy since the whole fantasy anime genre really started with a series based on the first replay The Record of the Lodoss war that went o magazine articles to full blown anime
@@payasoartwork5906 They mean that its crazy that D&D isn't more popular. But a big part of it is that Sword World (from what I understand talking with a few people who've played it) is more Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest in style than it is.... well. Like D&D. But it fits their cultural attitudes better. D&D was really only useful for showing that a thing COULD BE DONE. They basically shrugged and made their own that was more to their tastes. The British market had Dragon Warriors (not to confused with the US release of Dragon Quest the JRPG, which is not to be confused with Dragonquest the US RPG by TSR that is the whole reason Dragon Quest had to be renamed to Dragon Warriors to be released on the NES in the US.... confused yet? LOL) and the Germans had The Dark Eye. There are quite a few "native" RPG systems out there.
6:21 goddamit, Yukkuri Reimu I actually watched that one in Poland, the biggest name is (or rather was, for a long time) Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (two oldest editions) 7:36 Imma straighten you out there. Japanese replays were originally released as *books.* Additionally, replays are often present in various Japanese RPG rulebooks, in a bigger way than the "Example of play" stuff in Western RPGs. The video format is a more recent thing.
You ain't kidding. I ran a Call of Cthulhu one shot a year ago with my group. It was successful with those who showed up but few of the regular players even bothered to try it.
Can confirm even twenty+ years ago, CoC was popular. I used to travel all the way up from Yokosuka to an importer rpg store in Yokohama, paid out my teeth for English print versions of Deadlands (Amazon and the internet weren'y things yet). Half the shelves were Call of Cthulhu, which shocked me at the time given how poorly it sold back stateside. WoD was the main alternative to D&D then, though Cyberpunk and even Paranoia had decent play representation.
As someone who plays in a regular game of Call of Cthulhu, I cannot recommend it enough to anyone looking for a radically different experience from Dungeons and Dragons. It's a really good horror game, and the 1920s setting may sound boring but it really does flavour how the game is played in interesting ways!
And there's a LOT of leeway in pushing the setting around. Cthulhu in Rome or Arthur's Britain or in British India all work great. And that's not counting spin-offs like Delta Green, Trail of Cthulhu and the rest.
Fun fact: The TTRPG game originally wasn't a fan favorite of the folks at Chaosium when they first got the okay to create it; they brought Sandy Peterson on to write it because it was a much greater passion project for him (and they knew that would translate into a better product). It was originally intended to be a 'modern times' RPG when Peterson was first writing it (after all, to Lovecraft, his writings were always "contemporary"), but they decided to keep it set in the 1920s anyway as that gave a 'hook' for the other folks at Chaosium to research, write supplements, create the backgrounds, etc.
This is cool to see. We just finished a homebrewed western based one shot. Not surprised westerns are big in Japan. remember the magnificent Seven was based on Seven Samurai.
Been living in Japan for 5 years, and DMing D&D and GMing Blades in the Dark with an international group of Japanese, French, Thai and American players for the last 2 years. I have only ever seen Japanese D&D books online, in Tokyo (I live in the Inaka) or in select stores. Whereas it is easier to find CoC in places like Village Vanguard, though we have never played it.
Lived there for 11 years (admittedly pre internet for the most part) and never once came across any RPG players. MTG was around. And oddly in a little shop tucked away in a Tokyo side street I picked up a copy of the 1990s Dr Who RPG. Nice to know TTRPGs are a thing over there.
@@LucasSampaioMaia I haven't but that is a nice idea. I am in quarantine for the next week or two so maybe I can could do that to keep busy. I do have a load of notes to go through.
Loved this video! It would be great to see Dicebreaker cover some of the popular games outside the Western-world, though I appreciate this may be challenging without translations.
As well we all should be. Its a fine system, its even a good system. But there is SO MUCH MORE OUT THERE. I mean, D&D's 2 biggest competitors last I heard were Pathfinder and 3.5 ed D&D. Its crazy.
@@staticcharm3808 Sadly true. Glad to see the hobby grow again, sad that its 75% one game. Any game, really. I'd be just as sad if The One Ring was 75%. And it's my current favorite. I just also happen to dislike D&D in addition to hating it's all consuming market dominance.
Slight addendum: Sword-World was written by Ryo Mizuno, a manga artist/game designer, and was the basis for his manga and anime series Record of Lodoss War and Louie the Rune Soldier
SW2.0 has been translated into english by fans, the very same year this video went up. It's not hard to find (just look for the subreddit) and in my opinion is is a much better game than 5e DnD. So if you are looking for a high fantasy ttrpg but DnD isn't your speed, maybe check out Sword World.
I've been baffled by this for years now, but never really bothered to look up how the situation came to be. Thanks for doing the work for me. (Also, I wish that native Japanese TRPGs were my jam.)
I love Japanese fantasy light novels and have played a couple DnD 5E campaigns lasting several months each. Modern DnD is tightly crafted and molded to fit the American playstyle and mindset. To be popular in Japan, WotC would need to make and support a brand new ruleset to fit Japanese tastes. Lighter rules for easier oneshots, more narrative style combat, revamped classes and artwork to fit Japanese tastes, and reincorporating some classic DnD elements such as hirelings and kingdom building.
@@JB-gj8pu To clarify, I was baffled by CoC being the top dog, not by D&D not being #1. And even lighter rules than D&D5e for "narrative combat" lies at the heart of why I reeled back in abject horror when I did a fairly extensive look into current Japanese "table talk" RPGs a couple of years ago. Cool that there are such, but a complete lack of crunchy, remotely simulationist options is dystopian to me.
CoC can be really flexible when it comes to settings, free to pick any Era, country, fantasy or sci-fi. DnD tend to be more geared towards the male demographic, while CoC tends to work like a horror story which is more accessible considering that there's a wider variety of character types to play as, like a wealthy person who simply funds the party's activities.
I think this might be shifting more towards DnD here in Poland, but for many years the most popular RPG here was Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (notably played in a very low-magic, non heroic way). Other really popular ones were Vampire: the Masquarade, Call of Cthulhu, Cyberpunk 2020 and Neuroshima (Polish post-apocalyptic RPG, now probably more known through some if its boardgame adaptations like Neuroshima Hex and 51st State).
Japan loves Yokai and a RPG that is basically Yokai investigators makes sense. Japan also has a mysterious ancient past and ancient megalithic structures.
Also, if I could be a very amateur sociologist for a moment, Lovecraft wrote his works because he was terrified of the world around him. Each new corner was a new and terrible discovery about a world in which he did not belong. And while nowhere *near* as extreme as the man himself, Japan has a very strong internal conflict between a very conservative society which is highly resistant to changing too quickly and the modern world in which it seems like nothing is stable anywhere. So to me it feels like they would be in a somewhat culturally unique position to *really* appreciate the mind space that game plays to.
If anything is going to match or beat D&D anywhere, I can definitely see CoC being it. It already has a solid market in English speaking countries (plenty of great horror video games already borrow heavily from its presence, if not being a CoC game itself).
CoC was my first rpg i’ve played outside dnd and i found it to be a blast because of the gritty setting. Its definitely difficult to run well and I suggest using a module to figure out how to run it compared to dnd, but the look of shock when the players realize they just messed up bad is immense when done correctly. I once was running masks of nyarlathotep and in the prologue there was a part where the players were running around after finding an npc dead in a lab. They ran up to another npc to explain the situation, where the npc then ran off to investigate, only for the players to be interrupted with a loud scream that just terrified them as they realized what had just happened. Fun game, never see that in dnd and it makes me sad
@@bartholen It takes a little practice to not think of Corruption of Champions as CoC when talking with the majority populace. It took me a while to not immediately think of it when I see the acronym.
Saw that one coming. Call of Cthulhu has been played the Japanese since the 2000's, probably earlier, in fact some of their infamous game sessions inspire particular horror manga that gets produced.
god, i wish that transcript thing existed in the english speaking world! it would make learning new ttrpgs so much easier - a lot of the indie games include little examples (which dnd, pathfinder, and call of cthulhu don't as much, which is frustrating as someone with learning disabilities who kind of needs those examples), but it would be so helpful to be able to read a full game
I would be more curious to know what the go to pen and paper rpg in japan is in general. It is nice call of cthullhu does well there, but I doubt it compares to actual japanese products.
Wow! Nice content! I also want to share this Lagim Card game that my family and I are enjoying. It's amazing that they actually came up with the idea of Philippine Folklore since it's kind of dying down a bit. It will surely educate future generations.
Some of the early Vampire the Masquerade manuals had a set of instructions built in that defined a game called The Hunters Hunted, which was VERY similar in content as the Call of Cthulu game, but it never really took off. In my own opinion it was because most who bought the Vamp concept were interested in the new romantic and action packed ideas around Blade, Twilight and Interview with a Vamp that were out around the same time as the Vamp RPG. It was based on the players being able to deal with such horrors and still maintaining their humanity. It's my understanding that that simply vanished in the shadow of COC. Ahh the blessings and pitfalls of living for 7 decades!
As GM I try to do mini campaigns of various systems to help my players expand their roleplaying abilities and break the mindset of kill/loot everything. I’ve also been lucky to be a player under a similar style GM.
Here in Finland current edition of D&D has it place as common ttrpg, but for example in D20 systems Pathfinder is much larger. Example this weekend we have our largest 'Con, held for obviously reasons as e-con, and if you check ttrpg games they host, PF has about 3-4 times more sessions. Also we have lot of high quality games made locally and indie scene, specialy Forge, is also much larger than in other western countries. World of Darkness has also large player base here as does games like Cyberpunk and Shadowrun. DnD's best days I think were in ADnD/3rd ed times, thought RUclips etc have incresed 5e popularity. But it ain't dominating. It's easy system to learn, but lot of people either like more complex or realistic rules with out classes and levels or enjoy free form systems indie games offer. Also ttrpgs and live action rpg (Finnish Larp is generally complete different of that USA has, less rules, no npc etc) are seen more artistict I think, at least among some of us.
I love those Japanese CoC Campaigns one lets you transform into some CoC mytho creature and fight against a cult summoning the Cthulu, and explore what it means to be a hero one lets you explore a futuristic lab trying to harness the power of some mystic creature for the good of the people, but at what cost and one let you join a group of alpinist and aim for the peak of the mountain of madness, and see how far one would go for achieving their goal They are also short and sweet (6-12 hours) which allows their campaigns to have a more centralized theme and make the journey more memorable
Here in Mexico we had Laberinto in the late 90s, a project where the game had an anime aesthetic and very simple rules. It didn't really catch on but the premise was intriguing.
When I read the title, I made some guesses, but wasn't expecting Call of Cthulhu at all. But with the full explanation, it makes sense. And I'm pleased that another TTRPG is doing so well.
I fully agree with you, a little bit a competition can't hurt and in fact, it's even more than that. Without competition and other groups that find new ideas and concepts that could turn the tables, a developper can easily become lazy and stay on what he'd already done for ages without improving the formula, causing people to buy their game, not because they enjoy it, on the long run, but because it's the only one available in the genre. It has been seen multiple times in many games of many kinds and while competition has to be kept to a reasonable level, it's essential for any game (or any product, for that matter).
Closest I've come to playing a Japanese table top game was when I played a campaign where we could make our own classes. We made the class progressions could even make new spells and abilities. They just had to be approved by the DM. My class was anime protagonist. I don't know how it got approved, but it was fun! "Power of friendship" got us out of a lot binds.
I once ran the Japanese D&D Wikipedia page through a translator. One of the major reasons it didn't do well over there was because they kept switching between local publishers, so each of which gave it its own translation. Imagine the arguments between rules lawyers when nobody even has the same version of the rules.
What about the other way around, are there any Japanese TTRPGs translated into English and available in either/both the United States and/or United Kingdom?
Some of the dopest TTRPG’s going currently land under the banner of Exalted Funeral. They have so many amazing RPG’s from high production, beautifully crafted books to indie zine styles pamphlets 3 pages long. But all are curated amazingly and if it’s on the site, chances are it’s a banger.
Sword World also has several anime adaptations - Record of Lodoss War, Legend of Crystania, and Rune Soldier - while D&D's sole TV representation to date remains the 1980s D&D cartoon, which let's be honest is not a faithful adaptation of the game at all.
I've heard that 7th Sea is incredibly popular in Poland. Or at least the 1st Edition was. If I remember correctly the Sarmatian Commonwealth nation they added to the 2nd edition is loosely based on Poland due to that popularity.
Replays sound alot like After Action Reports which is the grand daddy of the youth streaming their games for an audience and a hold over from RPGs ancestors in Wargaming. Neat stuff
@@MedievalFantasyTV they already are, kind of. Puffin Forest and other animated RPG RUclips channels are quite popular, and written AARs are pretty common, especially in the OSR blogosphere (ergh, I despise that word)
I do remember my first encounter to this TTRPG… 😂 …in one of the first ”introduction” sessions the GM did for me (it was a solo intro) he got me a briefing IC of post-American Civilization war where my character had a mission to track a South army’s insurgent, and misworded ”fury” into ”furries”… 🤣 The laughter we had from this was priceless…
So glad to see Chaosium getting a big market share somewhere. their games as so good. I'm not really a fan of DND, [pretty much abandoned it in the 80's in favor of other better designed games] though i play it because most of my group are dnd players [isn't that true of almost everyone?]. I would love to see more people switch to COC or Chaosiums Fantasy marsterpeice Runequest [set in the late Greg Staffords world of Glorantha, seriously the best developed TTRPG game-world in existence, probably by a big margin]. Love to see you guys spend a bit of time exploring Glorantha, its well worth a look, and sadly most people coming to the hobby are just not aware of it. [hint you can download the atlas for free from the Chaosium website, that alone might give you some hint of the scale of this imagined world]
DUDE YES! And the newest edition (whether you count it as 7th as I do, or 4th as Stafford seemed to do) is friggin amazing. I do miss rolling to level up though, based on how you use your skills. Been kicking around the idea of house ruling it in again, but not sure how it would through off things.
Seeing as many jrpgs videogames takes place in a modern or japanes setting aka our own world I could see that too as a reason that Call of Chtulhu setting is so popular as the setting could be all from 1800,1920 up to our modern timeline in our own world. I wish we had more urban fantasy or Call of cthulhu kinda setting here in west. I know a few videogames based on the tabletop exist but would love a full fledge rpg that did away with typical elves,orchs and dwarves etc.
Check out Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. Its from 2005 or so, but its amazing, and a great introduction to the World of Darkness setting. Cyberpunk 2077 is based on a TTRPG as well, but.... well.... Oh there were a handful of Shadowrun rpgs about 7 years ago or so. There are a few (although Shadowrun tries to have its cake and eat it too... its cyberpunk WITH ELVES AND ORCS.... which kinda pisses me off, but that's another story ;) )
@@henrikmygren Cool. I figured. Probably the two most widely known. There were a few based on RuneQuest back in the 80s/90s, but I can't remember the names atm. And a million based on D&D lol.
I wouldn't necessarily say 'better'. It's suited to another playstyle. Try playing CoC like D&D (e.g. fill room after room of your haunted house with an assortment of typical mythos monsters) you won't have that much fun. On the other hand CoC feels more gritty and down-to-earth. Investigators have to think on their feet and rather destroy the mirror, letting the monsters into our world, than facing those creatures one-on-one... However I enjoy this playstyle very much. :D
@@robertnett9793 depends what you enjoy. There's pulp Cthulhu which is more combat heavy like D&D and a good way to introduce players from that to the different setting if you're wanting to try it out. Honestly I came from WoD into D&D so our games are super story heavy because I'm used to running the storyteller system which hasn't been a bad thing, as it's really made our 1920's feel of Eberron come to life more than the original source book for 5e could. (And i had to dig around for all the old material... wish they'd bloody reprint it!)
Not an expert in TTRPG but, as someone who has talk with a lot of big geeks and old players, D&D isn't so big outside U.S.A, is the example because of movies and you can always find a group, but usually is more like one game between campaings of other games. Even in the shops, I sometimes got surprised by finding some rulebook of D&D, I even think that I have seen more of the stranger things one than the "core" rules one.
I do not believe I have anyone one say "TTRPG" before. I've been playing RPGs since before there were any types besides Tabletop. Is it more prevalent to add the "TT" in different parts of the world?
I think part of it is simply the necessity to make it distinct from video game RPG, it has becomes a bit of an SEO (search engine optimisation) challenge to get the right audience in. You become to used to typing TTRPG that you start saying it out loud as well
In every dnd group I’m in I’m the token GM for Call of Cthulhu, where I essentially just run some Halloween one-shots. I just like learning new systems and want to pester my friends into trying them out, and I’ve got a modest hold on CoC. The issue is I truly struggle to let characters die, which misses the point... everyone I play with is coming from DnD, so all their characters are their babies, and I don’t wanna kill their baby. Sure, I’ll permanently scar you and then have a ghost monster haunt you until you figure out how to kill it, but dying!! Nah
You can’t find any of these books anywhere unless they are specialist hobby stores. But the pandemic has kept in a lot of people and the writing in Japanese is pretty good…Japanese like horror movies and scary stuff.
that is awesome that it isn't D&D I am getting so sick of everyone thinking that D&D is the end all be all of TTRPG.
Yeah, that game is EABA. (it's actually a pretty good game)
Yeah it's kinda sad how much of a monopoly wotc is. Even with other medieval systems like pathfinder or old-school-esentials they pushed underground and so many players just don't want to try anything new
@@aofdoom5030 luckily that’s been changing and new systems and games are being made/used.
Let’s hope it keeps up!
“Popular” is an understatement. CoC is HUGE. As soon as I saw the title of this video I immediately went “Yeah I know what this is.”
CoC is also big in China and Korea, as far as I know. I think it’s because how adaptable the rules are - you can set the story in 1920s America, but I’ve also seen Victorian England, rural Japan, modern Shanghai, you name it.
To play DND you need to at least be familiar with the Western fantasy genre, but for CoC you just have to be vaguely interested in cosmic horror. It’s fine to not know any Lovecraftian lore, because your character is most likely innocent and ignorant as well. I’ve succeeded in introducing 5 Chinese friends into CoC but none into DND yet lol
"To play DND you need to at least be familiar with the Western fantasy genre"
Dark Souls and Elden Ring casting a side-long glance at one another.
CoC is also very popular in Poland. I would say it's still no.1, with all its spin-offs combined ( like Achtung! Cthulhu, Delta Green, etc.) And DnD 5e recently won a second second place with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
As the person who's the one that try to introduce other TTRPGs to my friends, this warms my heart a bit to hear that D&D isn't the all-swallowing entity that it is here in the west.
I have recently joined the hobby in a peculiar time for group of freiends of mine who have all or almost all been role players for years now; before 2020 they have been playing D&D 3.5, D&D 5 and pathfinder 1st edition, but in late 2020 they started playing new role playing games. Right now, about 6 months after i joined, they exploded in hte variety of games they are playing. As a result I have barely played a one-shot session of D&D, but I am currently playin a warhammer fantasy campaign, some one-shot sessions of Legend of the 5 Rings, Broken Compass, 7th Sea, Lex Arcana, and a half a dozen more are on the list for the next half a year. On the game variety front, my experience so far has been very atypical. But I know that what you are experiencing is the normal. I am sure someday you'll end up proposing some game that is just too compelling to pass.
@@skovlanpeoplesrepublic Yeah it's an up-hill battle, since from my experience, people don't want to play new stuff because of sunk-cost fallacy. Even the science fiction campaign I'm currently running is a D&D derived system. Also, the list of games I want to play is starting to be pretty long 😅 but one day...
It isn't all swallowing if you started with World of Darkness first 😆 that was my first TTRPG in highschool (I played Forsaken as we liked werewolves and didn't like the Apocalypse versions mechanics) and find in that universe only Vampire seems to get any love. WOD is very story heavy rather than combat but once you've learnt it you can DM any TTRPG.
I managed to introduce my friends to TTRPGs and we started with a little known game called Pugmire, it's a fantasy universe where everyone is a humanoid cat dog or rat. We've been going for over a year the campaign is now reaching it's end. It has been a blast.
@@ragedrako Stars Without Number?
"Wait, folks in Japan are big fans of horror and tentacles? Since when?" he said, positively DRIPPING of sarcasm.
Well, they do like horror and they do like tentacles, but it's usually not part of the same genre...
Tentacles, it had to involve Tentacles!
ah yes freako pornography
I’m sad that I can’t like your comment. You already have 69.
@@jakesgenuineanarchy5955 now 96
In Germany, CoC is relatively big too. But, we got another big competitor on the german Market here, called "The Dark Eye"(german:"Das schwarze Auge") with a similar big playerbase as dnd.
It's also fantasy but the adventures are less on the epic site and have a more "realistic" approach. (for the better and the worse)
I would the The Dark Eye had been definitely the biggest game in Germany before D&D 3rd edition, but D&D made quite an inroad in the last two decades while DSA mostly failed to capture new audiences and many of the older players are staying with older editions of the game. Not sure however how the actual numbers look like these days.
Shadow Run Rules Germany
@@MrRourk Not more than VtM or plenty of other games.
@@Drudenfusz Germany has 70+% of the world's Shadowrun Players. There are jokes the game should just be released in German.
@@MrRourk Maybe that tells you more about a little that game is being playing in other countries. Also, can I see a source for that stat?
Call of Cthulu is also really popular in China, many of my chinese friends play chinese role playing games but are only vaguely aware of dnd, but they know coc well.
Heh... coc.
I wish that was true here in the western side i really want to join a group for coc but i can never find any meetups. All the meet up are for dungeons and dragons
@@cthulhurage5598 : Isn't that why there's digital table top games? Much like there's online chess games.
@@brodriguez11000 yeah call me old school but i like to do things face to face it makes the experience so much better than looking at a screen.
@@werewolf4358
Heh, I see you dood
On a side note Record of Lodoss War was sort of a replay of a DnD campaign
And overlord is the result of the author's ideas for a D&D campaign.
I would very much like to see more topic explorations, akin to this one, from Dicebreaker. Lets plays are fun, but I do enjoy learning about things "around" TTRPGS.
I cannot agree more. It's the original reason why I subbed.
@@glitchedgod Exactly. I recently unsubbed(like only a week ago) because they weren't doing the video essay style stuff I love.
Any more of these and they may earn my sub back.
We also love these kinds of videos. There will be more... soon!
@@dicebreaker a coverage on Nu-OSR would be great!
Interesting. Here in Sweden we have had a resurgence of TTRPGs and quite a lot of them have been translated into English, like Vaesen, and Symbaroum. I guess it's because RPGs were massive in the 80s, and the kids playing them have now grown up and started writing their own RPGs.
And Symbaroum is AMAZING. Another game that D&D players really need to try, so they can start to understand how much they are actually missing out on in the fantasy genre alone.
Is Tales from the Loop big in Sweden?
@@downsjmmyjones101 Simon Stålenhag, the artist that inspired the RPG, is very well known, but I don't know how popular the RPG is. We have a number of popular Swedish language systems, but I don't know which ones are the most popular. Some old classic Swedish RPGs have had recent updates, like Drakar & Demoner, and Mutant, and then there are a number of popular new ones, like Symbaroum, Eon, Trudvang, och "Hjältarnas Tid". I don't follow it very closely, so I don't know how popular they really are.
@@TastyMysteryMeat Adding to this, it should be pointed out that "Drakar och Demoner" and Mutant were both originally BRP games - in fact, similar systems to CoC. DoD is in fact based on the original Glorantha setting, complete with playable anthropomorphic ducks. They've had overhauls and changes over the decades, but they still have a lot in common with their Chaosium parent. *edit:* Also, Mutant was originally a bit of a mashup of Gamma World with dashes of Wasteland. It felt a lot like the old 2000AD comics, with cybperunkish dystopian city states surrounded by irradiated wasteland where weirdness existed,
@@snorpenbass4196 Aaah yes, I remember those ducks. I tried to RP as one once, but I could never get into it. It just felt a little silly.
I think the hard classes of D&D never really got a strong foothold here, so most of the Swedish language RPGs more or less have their origin in BRP. I prefer it over the restrictive D&D class system.
frankly, I would love an official English release of Sword World.
Yes please!
That would be awesome. I would love to get an English translated version of Record of Loddoss War. If I remember correctly there used to be a standalone verson, but now its a setting of Sword World. I recommend going out and purchasing Golden Sky Stories, Ryuutama, and Tenra Bansho Zero (the three Japanese systems I happen to know got US releases) just to show the interest is here.
Oh i would love that.
Hear, hear!
well, the closest we have to an officially translated Sword World book is the Goblin Slayer TRPG, which is made by the same guys behind SW.
There also exists fan translations for Sword World, done by a very very VERY dedicated team of translators.
Using a text to speech app to read the definition of text to speech ... so meta.
When I was stationed in Japan in the mid 1980’s, Elvis was the craze. People there would dress in 50’s fashions, guys with slicked back hair and duck tails and the girls would be wearing poodle skirts, ponytails with ribbons, and black and white patent leather shoes. It was like seeing a window back through time.
I don't know why but I read this as you got stabbed in Japan.
@@markuswelander8551 no, and I didn’t even get “Karate chopped”. I feel I was cheated out of the whole Japanese experience.
I mean, the states was really into it's 50s nostalgia in the '80s as well.
@@TheSmart-CasualGamer I don’t recall that. Of course, I was on Okinawa during part of the 80’s.
There are still biker groups who dress 50's style with the big shiny hair and quiff.
This might also have to do with Dragon Quest being the archetypal baseline “Fantasy RPG” setting that lodged itself into the minds of Japan. While not really popular outside of Japan, DQ was THE first exposure to fantasy for a lot of people, being a more palatable Japanized version of western fantasy settings (eg. Cutely designed slimes being the weakest monster, etc.) Even if one hasn’t played DQ themselves, the influence is everywhere from novels to manga to anime to other games. D&D’s setting probably feels too raw in comparison
The first RPG to gain popularity in a country often wins long-term. Since it's popular, every RPG player at least knows it and maybe has the books. In Poland, RPGs started with Warhammer and it stayed at least relevant, even though DnD may be more popular now.
That’s cool. Is Call of Cthulhu available and popular in Poland? I have to give CoC credit for its international appeal and globe-trotting horror. You can start a supernatural investigation in Warsaw…then travel to another country without sacrificing the story impact.
Honestly, Call of Cthulhu is an amazing RPG, I wish more people would get interested in it. It may not have as many opportunities for the bizarre humor that D&D does, or the “epic loot” that you can get, but I love that it doesn’t shy away from the harsh truths of the eras in which it can take place, and that feeling of having to live with the darker side of history adds to the horror.
In Czech Republic, lot of people are playing D&D, but we have our own TTRPG, called "Dračí Hlídka", or Dragon Patrol in english. It has it's roots in old AD&D, and it uses only D6 and D10 dice for the actual game.
I personally prefer CoC over D&D, but I like both. It's much easier to find players for D&D, but nothing beats good cosmic horror story of CoC.
D&D you are discouraged to taking risk. CoC it's fun to take risk.
I second this
Among many other systems (starting out with Ice Crown Empire's Rolemaster), I've been playing CoC for nearly a decade, and only got introduced to DnD about 4 years ago (and personally, I feel there are more far better systems out there). Now as I work to become a Japanese-English translator, I'm super excited to start trying my hand at playing/running an RPG in Japanese.
Also CoC is popular out here in Japan because there are a lot of fan published scenarios that you can pick up for cheap and play through using the pre gen characters or your own, so you're never struggling to come up with game ideas (some of them are even GM free so that everyone can dive into the mystery together).
Heard that Shadowrun held a fair bit of popularity in Japan during it's 4th Edition. Also that Tunnels & Trolls has been rather popular there over the years. Likely due to it's Solitaire scenarios, which Japanese creators have also made (and even translated a few into English).
it's = it is
Somehow i can see a Shadownrun campaign set in Tokyo
Call Of Cthulhu is fantastic in the 7th edition & well worth trying (or watching some streams of). It can take some getting used to, considering that character building is the heftier part of it & those characters are likely to die before they make it through a single scenario, but once that middle ground between foolhardy & over-cautious is found, it's great.
Characters aren't heroes, they don't have the skills & equipment they need to defeat their enemies, & they don't exist in a fantasy setting with some grand destiny; they're just a few people thrown together into a really bad situation. Sometimes they're trying to save the world, but most of the time they're just trying not to get horribly mashed into a pulp. Also, the sanity mechanic means that players can turn on each other & introduces a vast array of interesting phobias to role play.
The newest version of RuneQuest (CoC's long lost fantasy cousin) is also really really good, if you wanna branch out some, but stay close to the shore. Also much more deadly with a really crazy but cool setting (Glorantha). Most of your description also fits it.
Can also get the Pulp Cthulhu add-on for a little more survivability and action. It's still dangerous, but is great as a middle ground while still keeping the Cthulhu in it.
CoC also has a couple great solo adventures (Alone Against The Dark) and a nice Starter System Package Set to get wary people started. CoC is also a “gateway game” to other related horror RPGs like Delta Green.
I like DnD. I do. It was my first TTRPG, but damnit, it’s not my favorite TTRPG and man is it tiring to go to a store and see it taking up 3 shelves. I expect it, I always do, but I wish some great smaller titles would get more notice.
I wanna buy several copies of Blades in the Dark and Heart: The City Beneath so I can put them on the shelf of my local game store next to DnD. My shop wouod become 100% cooler for having them.
This is why you've got to shop at hobby shops and not retail chains. Sure, DND still dominates, but you usually get a much more diverse selection.
I really want to. At the local hobby shop, which I only live like 7 miles away from, has a super diverse selection. I can’t wait to apply there in the fall. It’s going to be a great high school job.
I find it funny that generally hobby shops fully focus on D&D until some player influence changes it. At my local shop in OKC that is how it was until I started running CoC and VtM and another group ran a Star Wars game. Random people started asking what we were playing and asked the owner and the RPG section was greatly diversified the next delivery they got. If you want stores to change it up, sometimes you need to take it in your own hands
@@jamesgaston2745 Man I’ve been intending to play VtM. I don’t know hoe to run political intrigue to save my life unfortunately.
This was fascinating. So cool to learn that CoC is insanely popular in Japan.
It's probably the tentacles.
I see what you did there.
@@StefKomGeekru Hur dur hur, funni tentacle joke.
I clicked the video thinking it would be mostly about Sword World. Didnt know cthulu was so popular (though it colliding with Nyaruko isn't surprising)
And not one mention of Record of Lodoss War
This is quite fascinating, thanks for the video guys. It’s a bit different than the usual gameplay videos, I can’t wait to see the next one.
I always love videos of actors playing games, they all just mash every button relentlessly.
I really enjoy videos like this, that explore different corners of the TTRPG hobby. Love all your other content, but I’d really like to see more of this kind of thing too!
The concept of Japanese replays was used in the RPG Fiasco to provide written example of play in the base book.
Sword World is AD&D with 2d6 dice rolls to compare to charts. It started as a D&D Homebrew, pretty much similar to D&D
It's a similar story here in Sweden. A group of war game and RPG enthusiasts opened a store called Target Games in Stockholm in 1979. They realised that they had a golden opportunity to create a Swedish RPG. It was released in 1982, was based on Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying and Magic World and given the name Drakar och Demoner ("Dragons and Demons"). It sold over 100 000 copies - massive numbers for a country that at the time had around 8.5 million inhabitants - and dominated the Swedish market for the next two decades.
Another publisher called Titan tried licensing and releasing a Swedish translation of DnD in 1986, but the license was too expensive and DoD too dominant and no more translations were released.
Many Swedish RPGs have been published over the years, some of which have also been translated to English and other languages. There was a big dip in the 00's, but since 2014 the hobby has seen a resurgence. Fria Ligan/Free League acquired DoD last year and are working on a new edition for its 40th anniversary.
D&D is not the most popular RPG in most of Europe, im from Poland, Warhammer RPG was the most popular here, now we have a lot of local rpgs that are still more popular that d&d. I have friends living in UK, Israel and France and d&d is not the most popular RPG there. In fact i never played d&d (other than crpg like ToEE, Baldurs Gate) and i play RPGs since '93.
Same in Brazil, which I know isn't in Europe but I think it's still worth pointing out. Our own D20 system called Tormenta(or Tormenta20 if we're talking about the new edition that just came out) is way more popular than D&D here.
I'm a bit weird in that regard. I Prefer D&D to Warhammer, there's somthing about that system and the world itself that is more appiling. Although my TTRPG gateway was in fact Warhammer. So when I explain to my players the rules in D&D, I have to tell them " You know, like in Warhammer ..." XD
There is a hugely vibrant TTRPG scene in Germany as well
d&d is 100% the most popular trpg here in the UK. Other than that I can't really argue.
But trust me, trying to start a group for anything but d&d is a nightmare, and I'm in one of the UK's biggest cities.
Im from Denmark, and mostly D&D is and has been the largest system by far, before the release of 5th Edition D&D there was a period with pathfinder at the top, atleast in my experience. From what i see now D&D 5th ed is by far the largest. With many groups i have to actively pursuade people to try something that is not D&D, and some people are completely unwilling to play not D&D. In a current group of mine i kind of forced them to try something new and they looked for stuff not to like so we could go back to D&D
as a guy living in Tokyo, yea there are a lot of Cthulu books at all the various hobby shops like yellow submarine. I was a bit surprised at it- of course there are also a lot of DND and warhammer etc etc etc. But Kawaii Cthulu keychains and plushies and such are def popular in Tokyo. I just wish I could find English language stuff here in Tokyo :( its much more difficult
What about Call of Cthulhu spin-offs in Japan like Delta Green?
This was a great video, I love fascinating mini dives into other cultures.
In France CoC is also really popular, just behind DD. All the editions were published in french from the 3th to the 7th, we have also some exclusive french publication like "Mystères de Lyon" and soon "Mystères de Marseille" two big city in France after Paris, the first was a box set "Les années folles" at the end of 80s for the Paris of "La belle époque".
Thank you for this overview. I'd known _Call of Cthulhu_ had great appeal in Japan, but this helps understand why. As an rpg designer, this was definitely need-to-know. Keep up that great work!
crazy since the whole fantasy anime genre really started with a series based on the first replay The Record of the Lodoss war that went o magazine articles to full blown anime
@@payasoartwork5906 They mean that its crazy that D&D isn't more popular. But a big part of it is that Sword World (from what I understand talking with a few people who've played it) is more Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest in style than it is.... well. Like D&D. But it fits their cultural attitudes better. D&D was really only useful for showing that a thing COULD BE DONE. They basically shrugged and made their own that was more to their tastes. The British market had Dragon Warriors (not to confused with the US release of Dragon Quest the JRPG, which is not to be confused with Dragonquest the US RPG by TSR that is the whole reason Dragon Quest had to be renamed to Dragon Warriors to be released on the NES in the US.... confused yet? LOL) and the Germans had The Dark Eye. There are quite a few "native" RPG systems out there.
Eh there where fantasy anime before record of lodoss war you know that right?
What I enjoy about all the CoC doujin culture here is that there are so many scenarios designed for 1 keeper 1 investigator.
That’s great. I would love more single player/single keeper games.
6:21 goddamit, Yukkuri Reimu
I actually watched that one
in Poland, the biggest name is (or rather was, for a long time) Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (two oldest editions)
7:36 Imma straighten you out there. Japanese replays were originally released as *books.* Additionally, replays are often present in various Japanese RPG rulebooks, in a bigger way than the "Example of play" stuff in Western RPGs. The video format is a more recent thing.
I am fascinated by this concept. It could be an alternative to live streams, for people who are camera shy.
Based Japan, im desperate to play anything Lovecraft, but everyone wants to play damn D&D
You ain't kidding. I ran a Call of Cthulhu one shot a year ago with my group. It was successful with those who showed up but few of the regular players even bothered to try it.
Can confirm even twenty+ years ago, CoC was popular. I used to travel all the way up from Yokosuka to an importer rpg store in Yokohama, paid out my teeth for English print versions of Deadlands (Amazon and the internet weren'y things yet). Half the shelves were Call of Cthulhu, which shocked me at the time given how poorly it sold back stateside. WoD was the main alternative to D&D then, though Cyberpunk and even Paranoia had decent play representation.
im now trying to get into swordworld 2.5
As someone who plays in a regular game of Call of Cthulhu, I cannot recommend it enough to anyone looking for a radically different experience from Dungeons and Dragons. It's a really good horror game, and the 1920s setting may sound boring but it really does flavour how the game is played in interesting ways!
And there's a LOT of leeway in pushing the setting around. Cthulhu in Rome or Arthur's Britain or in British India all work great.
And that's not counting spin-offs like Delta Green, Trail of Cthulhu and the rest.
Fun fact: The TTRPG game originally wasn't a fan favorite of the folks at Chaosium when they first got the okay to create it; they brought Sandy Peterson on to write it because it was a much greater passion project for him (and they knew that would translate into a better product). It was originally intended to be a 'modern times' RPG when Peterson was first writing it (after all, to Lovecraft, his writings were always "contemporary"), but they decided to keep it set in the 1920s anyway as that gave a 'hook' for the other folks at Chaosium to research, write supplements, create the backgrounds, etc.
This is cool to see. We just finished a homebrewed western based one shot. Not surprised westerns are big in Japan. remember the magnificent Seven was based on Seven Samurai.
Thank you, this was very informative. I never knew CoC had such a large audience in Japan.
Been living in Japan for 5 years, and DMing D&D and GMing Blades in the Dark with an international group of Japanese, French, Thai and American players for the last 2 years. I have only ever seen Japanese D&D books online, in Tokyo (I live in the Inaka) or in select stores. Whereas it is easier to find CoC in places like Village Vanguard, though we have never played it.
Wow, what a group! Do you write about the sessions somewhere? I would love to read it
Lived there for 11 years (admittedly pre internet for the most part) and never once came across any RPG players. MTG was around. And oddly in a little shop tucked away in a Tokyo side street I picked up a copy of the 1990s Dr Who RPG. Nice to know TTRPGs are a thing over there.
@@LucasSampaioMaia
I haven't but that is a nice idea. I am in quarantine for the next week or two so maybe I can could do that to keep busy. I do have a load of notes to go through.
@@matthewwood4481 Nice. Remember to let me know
Loved this video! It would be great to see Dicebreaker cover some of the popular games outside the Western-world, though I appreciate this may be challenging without translations.
That intro was Wheels speaking from the heart; he's so tired of D&D.
As well we all should be. Its a fine system, its even a good system. But there is SO MUCH MORE OUT THERE. I mean, D&D's 2 biggest competitors last I heard were Pathfinder and 3.5 ed D&D. Its crazy.
Most of his videos get like 1k views. He mentions D&D and he gets 40k. D&D is gold and he will never stop using it for views
@@jasonGamesMaster D&D is never dying. It is only getting bigger
@@staticcharm3808 Sadly true. Glad to see the hobby grow again, sad that its 75% one game. Any game, really. I'd be just as sad if The One Ring was 75%. And it's my current favorite. I just also happen to dislike D&D in addition to hating it's all consuming market dominance.
It would be nice if more people knew about and were willing to play WoD and nWoD games
Slight addendum: Sword-World was written by Ryo Mizuno, a manga artist/game designer, and was the basis for his manga and anime series Record of Lodoss War and Louie the Rune Soldier
Ayyy louie the rune soldier!
SW2.0 has been translated into english by fans, the very same year this video went up.
It's not hard to find (just look for the subreddit) and in my opinion is is a much better game than 5e DnD. So if you are looking for a high fantasy ttrpg but DnD isn't your speed, maybe check out Sword World.
I've been baffled by this for years now, but never really bothered to look up how the situation came to be. Thanks for doing the work for me. (Also, I wish that native Japanese TRPGs were my jam.)
I love Japanese fantasy light novels and have played a couple DnD 5E campaigns lasting several months each.
Modern DnD is tightly crafted and molded to fit the American playstyle and mindset.
To be popular in Japan, WotC would need to make and support a brand new ruleset to fit Japanese tastes.
Lighter rules for easier oneshots, more narrative style combat, revamped classes and artwork to fit Japanese tastes, and reincorporating some classic DnD elements such as hirelings and kingdom building.
@@JB-gj8pu To clarify, I was baffled by CoC being the top dog, not by D&D not being #1. And even lighter rules than D&D5e for "narrative combat" lies at the heart of why I reeled back in abject horror when I did a fairly extensive look into current Japanese "table talk" RPGs a couple of years ago. Cool that there are such, but a complete lack of crunchy, remotely simulationist options is dystopian to me.
CoC can be really flexible when it comes to settings, free to pick any Era, country, fantasy or sci-fi. DnD tend to be more geared towards the male demographic, while CoC tends to work like a horror story which is more accessible considering that there's a wider variety of character types to play as, like a wealthy person who simply funds the party's activities.
Is there a map that shows the top 3 ttrpg's per country? I suspect a regional game is always in the top 3; but what are the other two?
replays are more like a campaign diary essentially.
It's wild that your sponcer is based in my part of the work. Infact, one of the clips is from my county fair. Pretty cool, and a bit scary...lol
I think this might be shifting more towards DnD here in Poland, but for many years the most popular RPG here was Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (notably played in a very low-magic, non heroic way). Other really popular ones were Vampire: the Masquarade, Call of Cthulhu, Cyberpunk 2020 and Neuroshima (Polish post-apocalyptic RPG, now probably more known through some if its boardgame adaptations like Neuroshima Hex and 51st State).
CoC is also popular in Hong Kong as well, but my favorite is D&D, so is not easy to find a D&D game
Japan loves Yokai and a RPG that is basically Yokai investigators makes sense.
Japan also has a mysterious ancient past and ancient megalithic structures.
Also, if I could be a very amateur sociologist for a moment, Lovecraft wrote his works because he was terrified of the world around him. Each new corner was a new and terrible discovery about a world in which he did not belong.
And while nowhere *near* as extreme as the man himself, Japan has a very strong internal conflict between a very conservative society which is highly resistant to changing too quickly and the modern world in which it seems like nothing is stable anywhere.
So to me it feels like they would be in a somewhat culturally unique position to *really* appreciate the mind space that game plays to.
I can see how cosmic horror would be popular in Japan
If anything is going to match or beat D&D anywhere, I can definitely see CoC being it. It already has a solid market in English speaking countries (plenty of great horror video games already borrow heavily from its presence, if not being a CoC game itself).
CoC was my first rpg i’ve played outside dnd and i found it to be a blast because of the gritty setting. Its definitely difficult to run well and I suggest using a module to figure out how to run it compared to dnd, but the look of shock when the players realize they just messed up bad is immense when done correctly. I once was running masks of nyarlathotep and in the prologue there was a part where the players were running around after finding an npc dead in a lab. They ran up to another npc to explain the situation, where the npc then ran off to investigate, only for the players to be interrupted with a loud scream that just terrified them as they realized what had just happened. Fun game, never see that in dnd and it makes me sad
What does it say about me that the first RPG I thought of with the abbreviation CoC wasn't Call of Cthulhu, but Corruption of Champions?
@@bartholen nothing bad probably
@@bartholen It takes a little practice to not think of Corruption of Champions as CoC when talking with the majority populace. It took me a while to not immediately think of it when I see the acronym.
There's another renegade: Check "Das Schwarze Auge"/"The Dark Eye" in Germany (and yes, it's really German)
How German are we talking? Can I summon the spirit of Otto von Bismarck?
@@downsjmmyjones101 maybe If you read the pseudo-latin, that comes with every spell, out loud 🤷♂️
Saw that one coming. Call of Cthulhu has been played the Japanese since the 2000's, probably earlier, in fact some of their infamous game sessions inspire particular horror manga that gets produced.
Considering Junji Ito is the best cosmic horror artist it doesn't surprise me at all that Call of Cthulhu would be popular.
Uh, that was interesting to know. But, do you guys have any opinions on the Brazilian TTRPG Market?
I'm curious to know.
I, for one, have always been intrigued by 3D&T (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D%26T). The fusion of Japanese and Brazilian ideas just sounds fascinating.
god, i wish that transcript thing existed in the english speaking world! it would make learning new ttrpgs so much easier - a lot of the indie games include little examples (which dnd, pathfinder, and call of cthulhu don't as much, which is frustrating as someone with learning disabilities who kind of needs those examples), but it would be so helpful to be able to read a full game
I would be more curious to know what the go to pen and paper rpg in japan is in general. It is nice call of cthullhu does well there, but I doubt it compares to actual japanese products.
They talked about that at the end of the video: Sword World, a homegrown fantasy RPG, is the bestseller overall.
And that’s awesome, as D&D has steadily been going down in quality, much like its owner companies
Wow! Nice content! I also want to share this Lagim Card game that my family and I are enjoying. It's amazing that they actually came up with the idea of Philippine Folklore since it's kind of dying down a bit. It will surely educate future generations.
Some of the early Vampire the Masquerade manuals had a set of instructions built in that defined a game called The Hunters Hunted, which was VERY similar in content as the Call of Cthulu game, but it never really took off. In my own opinion it was because most who bought the Vamp concept were interested in the new romantic and action packed ideas around Blade, Twilight and Interview with a Vamp that were out around the same time as the Vamp RPG. It was based on the players being able to deal with such horrors and still maintaining their humanity. It's my understanding that that simply vanished in the shadow of COC. Ahh the blessings and pitfalls of living for 7 decades!
As GM I try to do mini campaigns of various systems to help my players expand their roleplaying abilities and break the mindset of kill/loot everything. I’ve also been lucky to be a player under a similar style GM.
I love the ttrpg content y'all make
Here in Finland current edition of D&D has it place as common ttrpg, but for example in D20 systems Pathfinder is much larger. Example this weekend we have our largest 'Con, held for obviously reasons as e-con, and if you check ttrpg games they host, PF has about 3-4 times more sessions.
Also we have lot of high quality games made locally and indie scene, specialy Forge, is also much larger than in other western countries. World of Darkness has also large player base here as does games like Cyberpunk and Shadowrun.
DnD's best days I think were in ADnD/3rd ed times, thought RUclips etc have incresed 5e popularity. But it ain't dominating. It's easy system to learn, but lot of people either like more complex or realistic rules with out classes and levels or enjoy free form systems indie games offer.
Also ttrpgs and live action rpg (Finnish Larp is generally complete different of that USA has, less rules, no npc etc) are seen more artistict I think, at least among some of us.
I love those Japanese CoC Campaigns
one lets you transform into some CoC mytho creature and fight against a cult summoning the Cthulu, and explore what it means to be a hero
one lets you explore a futuristic lab trying to harness the power of some mystic creature for the good of the people, but at what cost
and one let you join a group of alpinist and aim for the peak of the mountain of madness, and see how far one would go for achieving their goal
They are also short and sweet (6-12 hours)
which allows their campaigns to have a more centralized theme
and make the journey more memorable
Here in Mexico we had Laberinto in the late 90s, a project where the game had an anime aesthetic and very simple rules. It didn't really catch on but the premise was intriguing.
Call of Cthulhu and other horror genres are great not just to play but for the overall storyline. Glad to see more love to other TTRPGs.
This is probably the most interesting DB video yet, I had no idea that any other RPG outpaced D&D
When I read the title, I made some guesses, but wasn't expecting Call of Cthulhu at all. But with the full explanation, it makes sense. And I'm pleased that another TTRPG is doing so well.
I have to admit, I wasn't initially interested in this video but damn Wheels, you got me there.
I fully agree with you, a little bit a competition can't hurt and in fact, it's even more than that.
Without competition and other groups that find new ideas and concepts that could turn the tables, a developper can easily become lazy and stay on what he'd already done for ages without improving the formula, causing people to buy their game, not because they enjoy it, on the long run, but because it's the only one available in the genre.
It has been seen multiple times in many games of many kinds and while competition has to be kept to a reasonable level, it's essential for any game (or any product, for that matter).
Closest I've come to playing a Japanese table top game was when I played a campaign where we could make our own classes.
We made the class progressions could even make new spells and abilities. They just had to be approved by the DM.
My class was anime protagonist. I don't know how it got approved, but it was fun!
"Power of friendship" got us out of a lot binds.
The stock video at 2:20 is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen
I once ran the Japanese D&D Wikipedia page through a translator. One of the major reasons it didn't do well over there was because they kept switching between local publishers, so each of which gave it its own translation.
Imagine the arguments between rules lawyers when nobody even has the same version of the rules.
Awesome! I used to love playing Call of Cthulhu, also really like the Stormbringer game based on Moorcock's Elric books.
What about the other way around, are there any Japanese TTRPGs translated into English and available in either/both the United States and/or United Kingdom?
Ryutama?
Some of the dopest TTRPG’s going currently land under the banner of Exalted Funeral. They have so many amazing RPG’s from high production, beautifully crafted books to indie zine styles pamphlets 3 pages long. But all are curated amazingly and if it’s on the site, chances are it’s a banger.
Very interesting. If there's any more information on Sword World in English I'd be very interested to hear more.
Sword World also has several anime adaptations - Record of Lodoss War, Legend of Crystania, and Rune Soldier - while D&D's sole TV representation to date remains the 1980s D&D cartoon, which let's be honest is not a faithful adaptation of the game at all.
I've heard that 7th Sea is incredibly popular in Poland. Or at least the 1st Edition was. If I remember correctly the Sarmatian Commonwealth nation they added to the 2nd edition is loosely based on Poland due to that popularity.
Replays sound alot like After Action Reports which is the grand daddy of the youth streaming their games for an audience and a hold over from RPGs ancestors in Wargaming.
Neat stuff
I wonder if replays could be a thing in the West. It would allow for people who are not comfortable with cameras to share their gaming sessions.
@@MedievalFantasyTV they already are, kind of. Puffin Forest and other animated RPG RUclips channels are quite popular, and written AARs are pretty common, especially in the OSR blogosphere (ergh, I despise that word)
@@archons-court That's good to know. Makes me wonder if any of these can ever get to Critical Role levels of popularity.
Very odd. I have lived in Japan for thirty years and never knew that anyone over here knew Lovecraft.
I do remember my first encounter to this TTRPG… 😂
…in one of the first ”introduction” sessions the GM did for me (it was a solo intro) he got me a briefing IC of post-American Civilization war where my character had a mission to track a South army’s insurgent, and misworded ”fury” into ”furries”… 🤣 The laughter we had from this was priceless…
So glad to see Chaosium getting a big market share somewhere. their games as so good. I'm not really a fan of DND, [pretty much abandoned it in the 80's in favor of other better designed games] though i play it because most of my group are dnd players [isn't that true of almost everyone?]. I would love to see more people switch to COC or Chaosiums Fantasy marsterpeice Runequest [set in the late Greg Staffords world of Glorantha, seriously the best developed TTRPG game-world in existence, probably by a big margin]. Love to see you guys spend a bit of time exploring Glorantha, its well worth a look, and sadly most people coming to the hobby are just not aware of it. [hint you can download the atlas for free from the Chaosium website, that alone might give you some hint of the scale of this imagined world]
DUDE YES! And the newest edition (whether you count it as 7th as I do, or 4th as Stafford seemed to do) is friggin amazing. I do miss rolling to level up though, based on how you use your skills. Been kicking around the idea of house ruling it in again, but not sure how it would through off things.
Why am I not surprised the Japanese like the one with the tentacles best
OK but what is the stock footage of two people playing video games!
Seeing as many jrpgs videogames takes place in a modern or japanes setting aka our own world I could see that too as a reason that Call of Chtulhu setting is so popular as the setting could be all from 1800,1920 up to our modern timeline in our own world.
I wish we had more urban fantasy or Call of cthulhu kinda setting here in west.
I know a few videogames based on the tabletop exist but would love a full fledge rpg that did away with typical elves,orchs and dwarves etc.
Check out Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. Its from 2005 or so, but its amazing, and a great introduction to the World of Darkness setting. Cyberpunk 2077 is based on a TTRPG as well, but.... well.... Oh there were a handful of Shadowrun rpgs about 7 years ago or so. There are a few (although Shadowrun tries to have its cake and eat it too... its cyberpunk WITH ELVES AND ORCS.... which kinda pisses me off, but that's another story ;) )
@@jasonGamesMaster yes know about those two and the few videogames based upon them.
@@henrikmygren Cool. I figured. Probably the two most widely known. There were a few based on RuneQuest back in the 80s/90s, but I can't remember the names atm. And a million based on D&D lol.
In all fairness, Call of Cthulhu is fantastic and is a better game than 5e D&D.
I wouldn't necessarily say 'better'. It's suited to another playstyle. Try playing CoC like D&D (e.g. fill room after room of your haunted house with an assortment of typical mythos monsters) you won't have that much fun. On the other hand CoC feels more gritty and down-to-earth. Investigators have to think on their feet and rather destroy the mirror, letting the monsters into our world, than facing those creatures one-on-one...
However I enjoy this playstyle very much. :D
@@robertnett9793 depends what you enjoy. There's pulp Cthulhu which is more combat heavy like D&D and a good way to introduce players from that to the different setting if you're wanting to try it out. Honestly I came from WoD into D&D so our games are super story heavy because I'm used to running the storyteller system which hasn't been a bad thing, as it's really made our 1920's feel of Eberron come to life more than the original source book for 5e could. (And i had to dig around for all the old material... wish they'd bloody reprint it!)
@@robertnett9793 its definitely better than dnd
@@guaplei1 As said - personally I like CoC more.
...I prefer OWoD and Shadowrun over dnd(and I've been playing 3.5 for over a decade)
Not an expert in TTRPG but, as someone who has talk with a lot of big geeks and old players, D&D isn't so big outside U.S.A, is the example because of movies and you can always find a group, but usually is more like one game between campaings of other games. Even in the shops, I sometimes got surprised by finding some rulebook of D&D, I even think that I have seen more of the stranger things one than the "core" rules one.
I do not believe I have anyone one say "TTRPG" before.
I've been playing RPGs since before there were any types besides Tabletop.
Is it more prevalent to add the "TT" in different parts of the world?
I think part of it is simply the necessity to make it distinct from video game RPG, it has becomes a bit of an SEO (search engine optimisation) challenge to get the right audience in. You become to used to typing TTRPG that you start saying it out loud as well
In every dnd group I’m in I’m the token GM for Call of Cthulhu, where I essentially just run some Halloween one-shots. I just like learning new systems and want to pester my friends into trying them out, and I’ve got a modest hold on CoC.
The issue is I truly struggle to let characters die, which misses the point... everyone I play with is coming from DnD, so all their characters are their babies, and I don’t wanna kill their baby. Sure, I’ll permanently scar you and then have a ghost monster haunt you until you figure out how to kill it, but dying!! Nah
I’m kind of fascinated by Sword World - Was it ever put into English?
You can’t find any of these books anywhere unless they are specialist hobby stores.
But the pandemic has kept in a lot of people and the writing in Japanese is pretty good…Japanese like horror movies and scary stuff.
In Poland D&D is at best 3rd most popular TTRPG. We like more Warhammer Fantasy RP(2e) and just like japanese - Call of Cthulhu.