RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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As some of you know, I had went to Japan over the Christmas and New Year's holiday, on vacation from my "job" (remember, It's an Adventure!). Most of the time, I hopped from city to city, checking out the culture and "culture". It was one chilly day before New Year's when I stumbled across this gem of a store.
This is the Akihabara ward of Tokyo, alias "Electric Town". This is the center of the electronics craze in Japan, where you can't walk a block without hitting a place to shop for games, CDs, and porn. In this crazy part of town, I caught a glimpse of a sign for a store called the "Yellow Submarine", and dragged my protesting friend with me.
(Unfortunately, I did not think to get a picture of the sign, or a good one of the interior, for that matter.)
This is what greeted me upon entering this top story shop! At first, I was shocked, then giddy! So Paizo managed to make it across the Pacific to the Land of the Rising Fun! What else could I find?
Glee! A whole bookcase of 3.5 material, in both English and Japanese! Excited by the realization that, yes, Japanese people do in fact play D&D (I had my suspicions when I saw Record of Lodoss War, but this cinched it!), I took a picture of a Japanese copy of the PHB.
Oh, but what's this? What's this...? If your name begins with a "J" and ends with a "acobs", then you'll be very pleased to see this! Just to prove it, here's your name in Katakana (one of the alphabets of Japanese).
And, to our pleasure, here is a copy of one of Pett's works. However, take a look at that price tag! The conversion rate, when I was there, was 111 yen to a dollar, which give you an idea of how much that book had cost. Whew, now I'm glad I get my Pathfinder in America!
Well, that's all from me. I enjoyed my time in Japan, though I wish I had thought to interview some gamers over there. Oh well! From your intrepid gamer, Sect.
Thats awesome Sect! Thanks for the update!
Accelerate Your Life!
Very cool!
Yatta!
Nifty. Me Likey.
Watakushi wa ureshii, mata Donjonzu to Doragonzu no sensha Nippon-ni ga arimasu! Sugoi! Shashin wa arigatou, Sect-san! :)
(and if I slightly butchered that sentence, sumimasen. Watashi no nihongo wa mata heta desu. Nihongo wo benkyo ni narimasu. :) )
Awesome! :D
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Watakushi wa ureshii, mata Donjonzu to Doragonzu no sensha Nippon-ni ga arimasu! Sugoi! Shashin wa arigatou, Sect-san! :)
(and if I slightly butchered that sentence, sumimasen. Watashi no nihongo wa mata heta desu. Nihongo wo benkyo ni narimasu. :) )
Ara, ii desu yo! Watashi no nihongo mo heta desu. Ganbatte!
Great trip! Makes me want to go. Not on my budget though . . . .
Watakushi wa ureshii, mata Donjonzu to Doragonzu no sensha Nippon-ni ga arimasu! Sugoi! Shashin wa arigatou, Sect-san!
Watashi no nihongo wa mata heta desu. Nihongo wo benkyo ni narimasu.
Hey, I don't read Italian!
-W. E. Ray
Es tut mir leid, Mein Herr. Ich soll mehr langsam sprechen. :P
By the way, does anybody know if Dragon Magazine was ever published in Japan? A friend lent me one of the original "Slayers" novels... and it said something about originally being published in a "Dragon Magazine" in Japan in the early 90s. At the time I read that, I blinked, and thought to myself "... is that? ... could that be? Naw, it couldn't be...," but now I'm not so sure...
I think I may have seen the magazine that you're talking of in my local Book-Off (Japanese chain used bookstore) in the Rolling Hills Plaza in California. It's not a derivative of the TSR/WoTC/Paizo mag, IIRC, but is a same-named sci-fi and fantasy anthology magazine.
(For those who don't know, Slayers is about a young sorceress who travels around delving dungeons, chasing treasure, and robbing ancient ruins,
...when she's not running from the latest town she inadvertently blew to smithereens by the thoughtless application of a certain spell... ;)
dragging along with her a meathead fighter, a slightly smarter fighter who is a monstrosity of templates, and a cleric type who is obsessed with justice... and occasionally teams up with a scantily-clad sorceress with huge breasts who periodically tries to double cross her. No sir, that doesn't sound like a D&D game at all! XD)
Nope. Never had any of those types in MY D&D... Not at all... :P
BTW, I'd heard somewhere that Hajime Kanzaka (the original author of The Slayers) was (and maybe still is) an avid D&D player, and based the Slayers on a D&D campaign he'd participated in in the '80s. Wish I could remember whaere I heard that, though.