international rpg

[Valamir]

That's very cool.  Ron's always going on about talking about the actual physical and verbal reactions of people at the table as being the key to understanding what Creative Agenda is in operation.

I bet something like these replays would be a great tool to help describe some of that.

[Jonathan Walton]

I've been interested in seeing how American/English audiences take to Japanese-style Replays.

I bet the answer is "like ducks to water."  Reading the Example of Play in Nobilis (basically, a Japanese-style Replay) is what made me realize just what the heck was going on.  It took a dense, opaque setting and instantly made it seem playable.

Have I mentioned lately that I'm writing Ever-After/Facedance in a narrative format?  For precisely those reasons?  To attract non-traditional audience and players?  I guess not.

But we should probably start a new thread if we want to discuss Replays again, and not co-opt this wonderful thread.

[Emily Care]

Thanks for the moderation, Jonathon.  And thanks for the continuing info and the terms, everyone.  Honestly, this is information most of us just have no access to, and it's fascinating to hear about.  Thank you one and all for taking the time to write.

If anybody is inspired, we've had a couple requests for info on rpg and larping in New Zealand and Australia.  Anyone know what's going on there? And does anybody know the state of rpg in mainland China? Someone said there basically isn't any--is that so?  I'm still curious about South America and Africa--two contintents we've heard nothing about or from so far...  

Thanks for sharing more about replays, Andy. As Ralph said, they sound like an ideal tool for concrete discussion of instances of play--timely with Ron's discussion of it in his whole model thread.

And Mark--gamers were called extra-terrestrials and a cult by the media reporting on a large (15,000 people) convention in Israel? I empathize. We have to deal with being called satanists and psychopaths every so often in the US.  Ah, well. Maybe all of us should move to Finland?  

Nah, we can just be inspired by Finland's example that it is possible for a populace to see role-playing as an acceptable, stimulating activity, and continue to make bridges across the miles and cultural differences among us to support and learn from one anothers' efforts.

Vive le jeu de role!
Power to roolipeli!
Go Rol Yapma Oyunu!

Warm regards,
Emily Care

[John Kim]

If anybody is inspired, we've had a couple requests for info on rpg and larping in New Zealand and Australia.  Anyone know what's going on there? And does anybody know the state of rpg in mainland China? Someone said there basically isn't any--is that so?  I'm still curious about South America and Africa--two contintents we've heard nothing about or from so far...  

I can't provide any first-hand information, but I can provide a few links...

For the Australian LARP scene, a good starting point is John Mack's RPG Theory and Practice page, at
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~tarim/rpg/rpgpage.htm

For South America, I know there is an active RPG scene in Brazil.  The company Akrito Editora makes various designs
( cf http://www.akrito.com.br/ )
plus there is the Brazilian RPG portal page at
http://www.rpg.com.br/

I don't know anything really about Africa.  I vague recall there being someone mentioning the RPG scene in South Africa, but I didn't save it.  Incidentally, if you want more links, my http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/companies/">RPG Company List includes the list sorted by country, and includes entries for Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.

[contracycle]

There is an RPG "scene" in South Africa, but I'm not sure exactly whats going on down there anymore, given that I've been out for a decade.  I should point out that its hampered by severe protestant fundamentalism and accusations of Satanism of the sort with which you are probably all familiar (Dark Dungeons has a very wide distribution).

Happily though, the one organisation with which I am familiar still appears to be running: CLAWs, the Cape Legion of Adventurers and Wargamers.  They run out of the University of Cape Town.  They seem to be surviving well, still publishing their newsletter (CLAWmarks) and running cons (Dragonfire).  There page with links and gallery appears below.  They do a lot of LARPing, apparently 1 per month.

Also, the links indicate the cons up in Jo'burg are still running, and also societies at a couple of the other major universities. Wits and Pretoria.  I don't know anything about them.

http://claws.uct.ac.za/salinks.shtml

I'll be dropping the CLAWthing a note to ask if they'd like to respond more completely.

[Dr_Mikenstein]

Just to add to the mix - my name's Mike Dewar, I'm chairperson of CLAWS (Cape Legion of Adventurers and Wargamers) in Cape Town, South Africa.

CLAWS at least as been running since about 1989, and is largely focused on the University of Cape Town (UCT), though it has non-student members. We've currently got about 75 active-ish members, though at times, CLAWS has had up to 140 or so.

Tournament gaming in SA seems to be based largely on who sponsors. Chaosium and Steve Jackson almost ALWAYS sponsor, so CoC and GURPS are always in tournaments, as is D&D. Usually the other systems supported depend on personal whimsy of the organisers.

We've got four major tournaments/conventions that I'm aware of: Dragonfire (SA's longest running tournament, run by CLAWS), ICON (the official national tournament), IMBOLCON (a relatively new tournament in Durban, whose name I've probably misspelt) and SCHPATcon (a small one, run by a former CLAWmember).

Overall, roleplaying is a minor hobby, and still relatively geeky (at least in the public eye). CLAWS tends to focus on a fairly wide variety of games and systems. The only major fantasy system played is D&D, but a few sci-fi and horror systems are played. WW makes an appearance with Aberrant being fairly regularly played, as well as the occasional Vampire or Mage game.

Unknown Armies is possibly the most popular system - it's not necessarily played the most, but most CLAWmembers like it, and there's usually at least one UA game running at any given time within the society. It's a regular feature at Dragonfire, even though Atlas doesn't really sponsor.

LARPing is extremely popular at tournaments and within CLAWS (we run one a month), but it's largely within the framework of the society (due sie and admin headaches). Outside of CLAWS, I only know of one other pair of individuals who regularly arrange LARPS. Styles and setting vary dramatically.

Anyway, that's the set-up in SA. Not that hugely supported, though the community that does exist is very strongly tied together.

[Mike Holmes]

Thanks Dr. M.

Universalis has been pretty darn well represented in South Africa by our Forge members there. Check out the Uni forum for discussions of play. We have Adams & Co. of Durban to thank for this, if I understand it correctly.

Mike

[edomaur]

Hello all,

French gaming : Well, actually Multisim has gone, it was in the French equivalent of Chapter 11 since the beginning of the 2003 year and failed its saving roll... However, a good for a bad, there is now more activity around Asmodée (COPS, INS/MV4, D&D-in-French, L5R-in-French, 7Sea), 7th Circle (Kult, Sorcery, Obsidian, and others), Hexagonal (WW, LotR, Aquelarre-in-French (soon), etc) and Oriflam (still Hawkmoon, Pendragon and Stormbringer, with the little new very interesting puzzling thing that is Post Mortem)

Swiss gaming : Lyonesse's publisher is technically dead, as are Les Maîtres-Mondes' and Laborinthus'. 2d Sans Faces is horribly late for a swiss publisher but has still some project on the run (Nobilis-in-French (ok, i know, it's all my fault), Nightprowler 2, Tigres Volants v3.0, La Noire Essence, ARMMME (a silly game around the green-skinned peoples...))  Our problem is a word : money.

Around Switzerland, there is many different type of gaming. Canton of Tessin is more like Italy, Romands' cantons are more like French market, and German Switzerland is more like Austria. There is around the country a vivid LARP scene, but it is an aging one and new players are beginning to replace the old ones. My old club, Jeu est un Autre, is going to dissolve itself in beer the 13rd of this same month, after 10 years of games.

The tabletop scene is very diverse too. I know some german speaking players who are positively jealous about the french publications, and there is, only around Romandie (the French speaking part of Switzerland), many convention where you can play.

[kwill]

in addition to mike's summary of the south african scene, I covered my take on SA larping in the http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=8613">sorcerer LARPing thread on the adept press forum

with the small gaming population popularity of games that aren't D&D or WW is basically dependent on individuals who start playing them and get everyone interested - ie, GMs with a salary; I don't know of many south african created games that have made it to finished product, certainly none in a large scale sense (I linked up some of Dylan Craig's items on the resources page way back, check out http://www.eyeballkid.co.za/">http://www.eyeballkid.co.za)

two local chains focus on RPGs: Outer Limits does comics and roleplaying in Cape Town and Joburg, and Wizards Warehouse does esoteria and roleplaying in CT, JHB, Durban and some other cities - these have been going since at least the late eighties in various guises (using CLAWmarks and older players as historical references - I only started playing in 1998)

Adams & Co (small chain with stores variously focussing on general, technical and textbooks) carries a small range now that I work here (including Universalis & Sorcerer) and we're the best damn bookstore for special orders, although I might be biased in my opinion :)

Exclusive Books, a national general book chain, used to carry very strange selections of D&D3E material (like only modules and no core books) but no longer appears to do so

distributor representation is fuzzy at the moment

there is an active Magic the Gathering community, pretty much nation wide afai can tell, and Games Workshop wargames are also popular (40K more than Fantasy as I understand it)

there's a South African soccer CCG called "Goal!" coming out, after some delays, this month - soccer is hugely popular (see "race issue" below) and the cards are well-priced compared to other CCGs, so I'm interested to see what happens

outside of the conventions(*) there's little opportunity for gamers to meet, unless they're part of an organisation like CLAWs - hence my support for a local initiative, KZN Roleplayers, for Durban (and presumably KZN) gamers, and on a national level the South African Science Fiction Alliance (for more than just gamers) - both very much in the start up phases

(*) Imbolcon is the correct spelling, although the CLAWsite link is out of date, there's now only a page at KZNRP - I know that the Pretoria/Joburg community is active, but not to what extent, or the status of WARP, another varsity based group in that area

being the roleplaying "expert" at a bookstore I've encountered a few players from outside the crowd I know (which seems to revolve around CLAWs and Joburg players, and Durbanites of course, mostly at or ex-varsity), so I'm pretty sure there are gamers unaccounted for in the current "scene", maybe not very many, but I'm keen on uncovering them - if I had the time this is where I would devote my energies entirely (and if there was a salary attached :D)

race issue: maybe it's a postcolonial hangup but I think this is worth
mentioning: the vast majority of gamers that I know are white, which
basically means it's a nichier than niche hobby (& not forgetting the old satanic panic angle as contracycle pointed out) - now traditionally local soccer has strong black support (where our population is 80% black), so Goal! might be gigantic, we'll have to wait and see

[Erick Wujcik]

...what are the major trends in role-playing (table-top and larp specifically here) in different international markets?  What types of games and gaming are most practiced?

I'll try to add a few bits and bobs to the conversation, based on both my long-term experience (mostly with Amber Diceless), as well as from my recent travels to Asia and Australia.

As the publisher of Amber, I can tell you that diceless role-playing is pretty strong in France (where Jeux Descartes published the Patrice Mermoud translation for several years), The Netherlands and throughout Britain (there's been an Ambercon U.K. in London every year for at least ten years).

The odd thing about France, at least in my experience, mostly back in 1994, is that role-playing (jeu de role) was widely discussed, and that the parents of the young people I met were clearly pleased that their children were involved in such an 'intellectual' exercise. It was reported to me that serious discussions about role-playing were to be found on French television...

I was delighted to see Rich Forest's posting from Hong Kong. I spent a year there, and never found any actual role-players (although the store in Mong Kok did carry a bunch of RPG books). I never actually visited Taiwan, but I did come across a Chinese translation of D&D 3rd edition, published in Taiwan (Important Note: the writing system in Mainland China is 'simplified' Chinese, so the Taiwanese edition I saw would only be useful in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, where they read and write 'traditional' Chinese characters). As far as I know, other than the Taiwanese 3rd edition D&D, there are no RPGs published in Chinese (I would love to be shown otherwise!).

Finally, I had the pleasure of visiting Australia for a couple of weeks in October of 2003. I can't speak for the rest of the country (which, as we all know, is vast and diverse), but I had distinctly different experiences in Sydney and Brisbane.

Happily, my visit to Sydney coincided with "Necronomicon," a small (>200) role-playing convention that I enjoyed enormously. Players there were clearly happy to try just about anything, and were quick to adapt to my unstructured experiments. They also had a tradition of something called "Short, Sharp, Shocks," which were very nice little set pieces, largely diceless, based on good characterization and strong stories (each a pleasure to play and/or witness). Clearly there was, in that one small convention, as much writing, Game Mastering, and role-playing talent, as I've found in any convention, anywhere else on Earth.

Next stop was Brisbane, where I spent a Saturday at a micro-convention (called Stevecon: which had something to do with Steve Darlington -- http://www.geocities.com/catstesha/rpg.html), so small that I was one of two Game Masters in slot 1, and the only one in slot 2. At Stevecon, and then in another game I ran the following day (with almost the same players), I was very happy with Australian role-playing skill and enthusiasm.

Of course, with only a few days exposure, I can hardly draw any real conclusions, and I'd love to see more analysis hereabouts.

Erick

[Emily Care]

H1 Antoine, David and Erick!

Again, thank you for taking the time to contribute.  I have some comments and questions:

Around Switzerland, there is many different type of gaming. Canton of Tessin is more like Italy, Romands' cantons are more like French market, and German Switzerland is more like Austria.

How so? Could you say more about the similarities? Is it in the mix of rpg/larp/tabletop that goes on? Or  styles that are published or preferred?

There is around the country a vivid LARP scene, but it is an aging one and new players are beginning to replace the old ones. My old club, Jeu est un Autre, is going to dissolve itself in beer the 13rd of this same month, after 10 years of games.

Antoine, I salute your gaming group. Is this a semi-generational shift? If so, I wonder if the re-surgence of role-playing seen (world-wide it seems) was part of a generational hand-off tapped by the World of Darkness line?  Or is the change you are seeing a regular phenomenon, as happens in all groups--members joining and being replaced in waves (that are shorter than the 20+yrs of a generation). I can see 10 years being a normal span of time--time from teens or early 20's when one has fewer commitments, through to 30's/40's when life gets more complicated and full with family etc.

race issue: maybe it's a postcolonial hangup but I think this is worth  mentioning: the vast majority of gamers that I know are white, which basically means it's a nichier than niche hobby (& not forgetting the old satanic panic angle as contracycle pointed out) - now traditionally local soccer has strong black support (where our population is 80% black), so Goal! might be gigantic, we'll have to wait and see

Would be worthwhile to look at race and gaming in any country, and is especially worthy of note in SA.  Keep us updated when the game comes out.

Also, David, your discussion of LARPing and in-play authoring was intriguing. I'll have to check out your other thread on LARP.

The odd thing about France, at least in my experience, mostly back in 1994, is that role-playing (jeu de role) was widely discussed, and that the parents of the young people I met were clearly pleased that their children were involved in such an 'intellectual' exercise. It was reported to me that serious discussions about role-playing were to be found on French television...

France and Finland, so far seem to have had the most popular intellectual embracing of the art.

Happily, my visit to Sydney coincided with "Necronomicon," a small (>200) role-playing convention that I enjoyed enormously. Players there were clearly happy to try just about anything, and were quick to adapt to my unstructured experiments. They also had a tradition of something called "Short, Sharp, Shocks," which were very nice little set pieces, largely diceless, based on good characterization and strong stories (each a pleasure to play and/or witness). Clearly there was, in that one small convention, as much writing, Game Mastering, and role-playing talent, as I've found in any convention, anywhere else on Earth.

I can see why people were asking about Australia.  There can be a lot of potential in a small con, if the attendees were motivated and adept. How did this tradition arise there?  If you were interested in doing so, a thread about the Short Sharp Shocks and your unstructured experiments would be great in Actual Play.

Warm Regards,
Emily Care