The Once and Future Dragon Novels

Publisher Kadokawa recently announced the rebirth of the Dragon Novels imprint for novelizations of table-talk role playing games. In addition to releasing five novels on Feb 5th, Kadokawa is also attempting to build a community. As part of that, they’re opening up the Sword World universe for writers to set their stories in, and hint at future worlds also being opened to third party stories. Call of Cthulhu is one of the TRPGs that has a novel in the first release, but they also mention Meikyuu Kingdom and future systems receiving novels. Rounding out the announcement is a contest that will take place on the online novel site Kakuyomu.

What makes this particularly interesting to me is it’s a distinct return to novels, rather than replays, which have long been the dominate literature for TRPGs in Japan. Additionally, the focus on digital as well as paper content seems progressive. Hat tip to ChuoDori on Twitter for first putting me onto this.

A Bit of History

Record of Lodoss War novels by Ryou Mizuno and illustrated by Yutaka Izubuchi from a different Kadokawa imprint

Before we look at the new offerings, let’s make a brief stop in the late eighties and early nineties, the golden age of TRPGs in Japan. The novelization of Record of Lodoss War was published Continue reading The Once and Future Dragon Novels

Kamigakari Kickstarter

With the Kickstarter by Serpent Sea Games funded in just 55 hours, Kamigakari is now getting an official English translation! The Kickstarter runs until the end of November, so there’s still time to get in on some god hunting action.

Kamigakari: God Hunters (神我狩) is a Japanese TRPG about beings with supernatural powers protecting an unsuspecting world from the false gods. It draws on Japanese folklore, mixing it with a heavy dose of anime action for very cool results. Check out the Kickstarter description for more details.

Mechanically speaking, its uses what it calls a “dice control system.” Continue reading Kamigakari Kickstarter

One Year of Entropic Dreams

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since I started blogging. I’ve learned a lot in the process, and am very thankful for all of you who take the time to read it. One of the highlights for me last year was learning that one of the players in the weekly Adventurer’s League game I attend found it because of this site.

January and February will be very busy for me, but I hope to start going through my backlog of games once things calm down a bit. In addition to some board and card games, there’s a number of TRPGs I’ve been hankering to introduce here. It’s funny to think that I was worried about finding topics to write about; it’s more a matter of finding the time to research and write.

The new year already brings some change- namely an impending move from Tokyo to Yokohama. After checking out apartments there, we dropped by a few game shops and cafes. I’ll write about that trip and gaming over the New Years holiday soon.