The last few months have kept me pretty busy and away from the blog, but I did manage to sneak out to a TRPG Rakugo performance by Sanyutei Rakuten. There’s a lot to unpack in that statement, so let’s start with Sanyutei Rakuten, a Rakugoka (rakugo performer) who performs both traditional and TRPG rakugo. You’re probably already familiar with TRPGs if you’re reading this, which leaves rakugo. Rakugo is a traditional spoken entertainment where a single performer sits and tells humorous stories, performing all characters and only using a fan and cloth as props. Putting that together, TRPG rakugo is rakugo about TRPGs that Sanyutei Rakuten created by adapting traditional stories to reference TRPGs.
I previously saw him perform at the Fall Tokyo Game Market, and had wanted to see another performance. I finally got that chance and attended a comparison of traditional and TRPG rakugo stories where Sanyutei Rakuten performed both versions back to back. In his words, the versions are “mostly the same”, yet it was interesting to see how small changes affected the dynamic of the story. Continue reading TRPG Rakugo