Did everyone hear the news? No?!? Well lemme lay it on you...
WARES BLADE is coming to the United States in ENGLISH!
Sorry it's taken me so long to post this but I've been in a deep dive down the rabbit hole of Japanese TRPGs lately and it took awhile to find my way back up to the surface. I've got so much I want to talk about! Ah, but first...
On March 12th, LionWing Publishing announced via a 'Showcase' stream and the attached video that they'll be doing a Kickstarter in 2025 for an English Language translation of Wares Blade. This is the classic Japanese TRPG of Magic and Machinery that I've mentioned on this blog many times now (click the Wares Blade tag below). Check out this announcement statement on LionWing's website.
I can't tell you how excited I am. I've literally been waiting for Wares Blade in English since I first found out about the game in 1988. This is news I never expected to hear. It's kind of incredible. Almost hard to believe. What's next? Life discovered on another planet in our Solar System? Some distant relative I've never heard of left me a million dollars? After 'Wares Blade coming to the USA in English' I'm ready for anything!
It seems this is part of what they intend to be a line of games; collectively called 'Legends of Japan' (not the most creative name but it works), focused on Japanese Tabletop Roleplaying Games of that market's early era. Well, sort of. Not so early that they were largely just importing and translating US games and not so late that JTRPGs were regularly produced, distributed, and sold all over Japan and available through JTRPG dedicated websites. Wares Blade is pretty much the perfect example of a game that fits within this category. Others might include Gear Antique, Metalhead, Peekaboo (aka Peekaboo Horror), SATASUPE, and of course Sword World.
Curiously...
The image they used to announce their endeavor is the cover of
'The Renewal', the 2nd Edition of the Wares Blade TRPG.
Here's the full version.
Expect more coverage of this as I learn more. Until then...
AD
Barking Alien
UPDATE: I got the chance to chat with Bradley of LionWing Publishing on their livestream last night (03/19/2024 10:00 pm EST) about Wares Blade and their other upcoming projects. It was very interesting and informative.
Also, Bradley gave a shout out to my blog, saying he'd checked out Barking Alien while doing research on Wares Blade. So cool!
You can check out the stream here.
Cregianの英語編はないのか？
ReplyDelete"Is there no English version of Cregurian?"
DeleteSadly no Tedankhamen and there is unlikely to be one due to the games obscurity among English-speaking gamers. Even many of the Japanese TRPG enthusiasts I've spoken to are largely unfamiliar with Cregurian, possibly due to its start and focus as a Play-by-Mail game.
That said, with LionWing getting into the 'retro' martket, you might just see Cregurian pop up in the future. I mean, I never expected we'd finally get Wares Blade after 36 years.