Your National RPG

[oudeis]

From comments I've seen here I understand that there are more RPGs in Heaven and Earth than I've dreamed of, e.g. The Dark Eye in Germany, etc. So what are the big games for those of you outside of the US, and how do they compare in your opinion to D20 and the other North American standards?

[Aedilred]

Inevitably there isn't as much of a culture divide between the UK and the US when it comes to RPGs as there might be between the US and anywhere non-English-speaking; in fact I'd be hard-pressed to name any UK companies producing significant RPGs. There's Omnihedron, I guess, but I don't think many of theirs are exactly household names.

The arguable exception is Games Workshop, although their RPGs have been produced by American companies for ages now anyway. Certainly, I think WFRP was originally conceived as a sort of anti-D&D in a more subversive British spirit, and a sort of standard-bearer for British RPGs... but it's never had anything like the same profile (not thanks to GW's failure to support it consistently or, for long periods, at all).

Traveller and Call of Cthulhu seem to be reasonably popular here, but they're American in origin too. I'm not as in touch with the gaming community at large as I might be, though, so there might be something really major I've forgotten about completely.

[neonchameleon]

From comments I've seen here I understand that there are more RPGs in Heaven and Earth than I've dreamed of, e.g. The Dark Eye in Germany, etc. So what are the big games for those of you outside of the US, and how do they compare in your opinion to D20 and the other North American standards?

Ultimately there's more WFRP in Britain, and I think more Paranoia, and there's Diana: Warrior Princess as a well known joke game. Oh, and Dr Who: Adventures In Time And Space. But there's very little difference as far as I can tell. Famous current British publishers include Mongoose (Traveller, Paranoia - no they didn't invent either), Cubicle 7 (Legends of Anglerre, Dr Who: Adventures in Time And Space, The One Ring), and Pelgrane Press (13th Age, Gumshoe, Owl Hoot Trail) - they aren't WotC or Paizo, but are in about the league of Chaosium.

Germany I know has Der Schwarze Auge, and Japan has a whole different set of games with Tenra Bansho Zero being well worth picking up.

[Concrete]

Sweden's got their own version of DnD, "Drakar och Demoner", (Dagons and Demons.) Started of as pretty much aa ripoff of the original, but developed into its own game, with a rather darker tone more inspired by scandinavian medieval and mythological themes than the more common central european flavours.

Then there is Mutant, a post-apocalyptic series, involving, strangely enough, mutants, scavenging, murderously militaristic rabbit-people and constantly malfunctioning technology.

Lastly, there is Kult, a horror rpg that takes inspiration from everything from Hellraiser and Lovecraft to Gnosticism. It is known as one of those games where you never really succed, you just suffer a little longer each time.

That's all I can think of for now. THere's probably more. I just can't think of it right now.

[Kol Korran]

Israel mostly uses games from other nations. 1 or 2 years ago however an israeli company called Solar Catalyst published a game called "arrow of time" I don't know that much about it though. It uses a single d12 mechanic, and is a mixture of fantastic and sci-fi. The big story is that some fantasy world had some sort of an apocalyptic event, and some survivors fled o a space station, where they build a time machine, allowing few special individuals to travel back in time, to try and gather resources for thecstation, as nd also try and figure out what happened.
I don't know much about it beside that, haven't played it yet.
D&d and shadowy have a decent crowd here, ad well as rectilinear.

[Rhynn]

I'm not sure I'd call any Finnish RPG "big," but back in the day (early 90s I guess) they translated a bunch of RPGs into Finnish: mostly BECM (all four boxed sets and a bunch of adventures), RuneQuest (including books that don't exist in English, edited together from two English books), 2300 AD, Cyberpunk 2020, Call of Cthulhu, MERP and Rolemaster. RQ was pretty big in Finland (to the point that a surprising percentage of Issaries Trading Company members were Finnish).

The fact that those translated RPGs could be found in the kids' section of several libraries probably helped the hobby back in the early/mid 90s.

Actual Finnish RPGs include the only official S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, and Praedor (an awesome fantasy RPG based on a Finnish fantasy comic). I suppose Ikuisuuden Laakso (Valley of Eternity), the penguin fantasy RPG, is the most famous one...

Oh, and technically Lamentations of the Flame Princess is Finnish, although James Raggi isn't - he's an immigrant.

[Actana]

Actual Finnish RPGs include the only official S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, and Praedor (an awesome fantasy RPG based on a Finnish fantasy comic). I suppose Ikuisuuden Laakso (Valley of Eternity), the penguin fantasy RPG, is the most famous one...

Quick nitpick, it's not S.T.A.L.K.E.R., it's just Stalker. STALKER is the video game inspired by the Strugatksy brothers' Roadside Picnic, but the Stalker RPG is uses the book as a source material, being the licensed Roadside Picnic RPG.

[BWR]

Most of the RPGs in Norway are imports. However, we havea fairly large and strong RPG scene, so inevitably there are several systems that have popped up. I suppose I should support local industry and azquire more of them.
From the Wiki article (which introduced me to several I hadn't heard of before)

The MEGA Roleplaying System - fantasy
Muu - poetic fables
T - action
Impro - a series of five experimal RPGs
Pervo - fantasy game where the objective is to kill a PCs in only slightly better ways than "rocks fall, everyone dies"
Imperium 3000 - space opera
Anarki - Anarchy, cyberpunk
Fabula - fantasy
Ácin Dambágin - fantasy
Nuron - fantasy
Draug - Norwegian folk tales
Archipelago - storytelling game
Lærelyst - Lust for learning, fantasy RPG for use in grade school
Itras By - Itra's City, surrealism

And this isn't counting fairly advanced homebrew systems that haven't been officially published, like Ballerinaprinsessen (the Ballerina Princess - play as Disney'esque princesses trying to win the heart of the Prince while sabotaging your rival with your Disney Princess Powers).

[Yora]

In Germany, DSA is indeed huge. It isn't neccessarily good, but has always been readily available here in the native language, so it got a big fanbase simply by that.

[Spacebatsy]

Sweden's got their own version of DnD, "Drakar och Demoner", (Dagons and Demons.) Started of as pretty much aa ripoff of the original, but developed into its own game, with a rather darker tone more inspired by scandinavian medieval and mythological themes than the more common central european flavours.

Then there is Mutant, a post-apocalyptic series, involving, strangely enough, mutants, scavenging, murderously militaristic rabbit-people and constantly malfunctioning technology.

Lastly, there is Kult, a horror rpg that takes inspiration from everything from Hellraiser and Lovecraft to Gnosticism. It is known as one of those games where you never really succed, you just suffer a little longer each time.

That's all I can think of for now. THere's probably more. I just can't think of it right now.


And Eon!
The fantasy RPG going for realism, especially when it comes to encounters, taking into account trauma, pain and rate of bleeding. Backfires sometimes though.

Ah, Mutant, such good game! I don’t think it would translate well though, sadly enough. The atmosphere relies heavy on the linguistic culture and references to real places and events.

…Wasn’t there a studio that made a short film about Mutant: Heirs of the apocalypse?

Found it! Lacks translation though… I was sure I’ve seen one with subtitles… oh well, enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX1bcDumZBw

[Scots Dragon]

Being from the UK, the most major role-playing games I can mention are the stuff by Cubicle 7, Mongoose Publishing or Games Workshop.

Some of my favourites are;

Golden Heroes: a superhero RPG released by Games Workshop back in the day, which had a pretty awesome AD&D-inspired system and some really awesome random character generation ideas.

Starblazer Adventures: the best space opera RPG ever made

Legends of Anglerre: Starblazer Adventures does sword-and-sorcery, though I haven't looked into this one as much as I should have

Doctor Who: probably the best initiative system ever.

[Zombimode]

Quick nitpick, it's not S.T.A.L.K.E.R., it's just Stalker. STALKER is the video game inspired by the Strugatksy brothers' Roadside Picnic, but the Stalker RPG is uses the book as a source material, being the licensed Roadside Picnic RPG.

Well, the point is: is the RPG anything like the game franchise? If yes, then it is very appropriate to call it the S.T.A.L.K.E.E.R. RPG.

[Actana]

Well, the point is: is the RPG anything like the game franchise? If yes, then it is very appropriate to call it the S.T.A.L.K.E.E.R. RPG.

Not really, as the Stalker RPG is far more about exploration and environmental hazards than shooting dudes in the face. Guns have far less of a presence in the setting than in the video game, and there's also a larger emphasis on the outside world. Not to mention the setting differences like having five or six (can't remember) "zones" where the anomalies happen.

It is a largely different setting, though naturally shares some similarities as the two both have the same source material. The Stalker RPG just follows it more closely.

[Man on Fire]

First Polish rpg was called Kryształy Czasu (Crystals of Time) which, from what I understand, started as modified D&D 2nd edition snowclone, to the point that MiM( I'll get to that in a moment) would publish adventures with stats for both systems. But our real RPG boom started once our scene was introduced to Warhammer Fantasy RPG, which to this day is the most popular RPG in our country. We also have created Two RPGs strongly inspired by it. First was the Witcher RPG, based on the book series, but with mechanics very similiar to Warhammer Fantasy, and later Monastyr, which in themes is very much like Warhammer Fantasy, only much more Christian. But what I would call "the" Polish RPG is Neuroshima.You might have heard of Neuroshima Hex board game, it's one of spinoffs of the RPG. It's it's own thing, with a huge handbook and several modules. They are now working on new editions of both Neuroshima and Monastyr.

Our fandom has been pretty quiet, through for years we had Magia i Miecz (Magic & Sword) magazine, MiM for short, that would print articles and adventures. They ran over 100 issues and had loads of things i nthem. From debate how and why combine Vampire: the Masquarade with Call of Cthulhu, to entire Indiana Jones-like campaing in WFRPG, it's still great source of inspiration for game masters.

Also, we have pretty big online scene, with many people roleplaying on forums. I think that one of longest online rpgs isrunning on Marvel fansite Avalon, it's X-Men rpg that ran through several game masters, while keeping one continuity (through game under first gm was discontinued) and has it's own, also long-running spionff, with which it had few crossovers. I myself play in it, currently running my fourth character (my characters have thendency to die in crossovers). Man, I could talk about this rpg for hours, it's quite of a saga.

[obryn]

Japan has a whole different set of games with Tenra Bansho Zero being well worth picking up.
A number of these, I should add, have been making their way stateside, often through Kickstarters.

I backed Ryuutama, which is an RPG focused on exploration and travel. I've also heard a lot about Double Cross.

[Terraoblivion]

Back in the day the largest RPGs in Denmark used to be such shockingly Danish fare as Vampire the Masquerade and D&D. In the original English versions at that. There were also Danish translations of BECMI D&D and the 1991 black box, I got the latter as a birthday present when I was a kid, as well as Drakar och Dämoner.

While I've pretty much decided to ignore the Danish gaming community for various reasons, looking at the only real game store in the country it appears that the biggest systems these days are Pathfinder and the various Warhammer 40k games. Once again untranslated. However, with easy access to British Amazon and drivethrurpg, just about anything that exists in English is available here and I haven't looked closely enough to tell what's popular. What I can say is that not only do translated games not exist anymore, I can't see a market for them. People are too good at English to really need it and Danish nerd culture holds translation in contempt, possibly due to the fact that Danish is a language with a unique ability to make everything sound silly and clunky.

[tensai_oni]

I'm going to expand on what Man of Fire said.

What RPGs were made in Poland:
Quite a lot actually. But most are really obscure, not just now but during the time they were new as well. Only a few reached popularity:

-Crystals of Time (Kryształy Czasu). It's not a DnD clone actually. The rules are way, WAY more complicated and inconsistent. Do you remember early to mid 90s RPGs with huge tables for everything? This is one of them. But not only that, the tables cross-reference each other. Have fun.
-Wild Fields (Dzikie Pola). Adventures of Polish nobles during the country's "golden age" of 17th century. Flavorful, virtually unknown outside the country for obvious reasons.
-Neuroshima. Like Man of Fire said, this system is probably the most well-known of Polish RPGs outside the country. Post-apocalyptic, kinda like Fallout but very scarcity based. By default you're supposed to count every single aspirin pill you have in your backpack and it can be a lifesaver for you. It's a very good game, if unbalanced.
-Witcher RPG. Based on the Witcher obviously. There were two editions. Not much to say about the mechanics.

What RPGs are popular in Poland:

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay! Tell a Polish roleplayer "Warhammer", they won't think of anything 40k or the fantasy battle game, they'll think of WFRP. Still THE most popular system in the country.

Other than that, it's mostly like everywhere else. DnD is second most popular (3.5 ed, 4th less so), followed by World of Darkness, some Fate and Call of Cthulhu, everything else is relatively obscure.

Earthdawn and Fading Suns used to be relatively popular when Magic & Sword still existed as a roleplaying magazine, but it's no longer the case. Shame.

[Rhynn]

Well, the point is: is the RPG anything like the game franchise? If yes, then it is very appropriate to call it the S.T.A.L.K.E.E.R. RPG.

Eh, yeah, my bad, it is indeed the official Stalker RPG (in contrast to the video games that are not licensed or sanctioned).

And it's definitely nothing like the video games.

[BWR]

People are too good at English to really need it and Danish nerd culture holds translation in contempt, possibly due to the fact that Danish is a language with a unique ability to make everything sound silly and clunky. incomprehensible (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mOy8VUEBk)

FTFY.
Jokes aside, Norway had the B/X books translated to Norwegian way back when, which is AFAIK the only translated RPG. Out of necessity and interest, people learn English. Though relatively large, the RPG community isn't large enough to warrent translation and publication in Norwegian, even for big games like D&D or PF.

[veti]

The arguable exception is Games Workshop, although their RPGs have been produced by American companies for ages now anyway. Certainly, I think WFRP was originally conceived as a sort of anti-D&D in a more subversive British spirit, and a sort of standard-bearer for British RPGs... but it's never had anything like the same profile (not thanks to GW's failure to support it consistently or, for long periods, at all).

I remember when Games Workshop - the original store, in Hammersmith - was one of only a handful of shops in the country where you could buy AD&D books. I remember bullying my parents into taking me on the pilgrimage. After the first time they made me take the train by myself...

But in the 80s, they began devoting more and more space to their homegrown system (Warhammer), and eventually stopped even pretending to support anything else. They have produced some vaguely-worthwhile games in their history, though. I dimly remember playing Judge Dredd (a good all-British product, that one) briefly, and it was ... silly, but no more so than the source material.

[Aedilred]

I remember when Games Workshop - the original store, in Hammersmith - was one of only a handful of shops in the country where you could buy AD&D books. I remember bullying my parents into taking me on the pilgrimage. After the first time they made me take the train by myself...

But in the 80s, they began devoting more and more space to their homegrown system (Warhammer), and eventually stopped even pretending to support anything else. They have produced some vaguely-worthwhile games in their history, though. I dimly remember playing Judge Dredd (a good all-British product, that one) briefly, and it was ... silly, but no more so than the source material.
GW have produced quite a lot of good tabletop games over the years (and one or two decent board games, depending on your definition of board games), although for some reason they've now abandoned everything outside their core three lines (Warhammer, 40K and Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, with the latter only supported begrudgingly these days, it seems). But as far as RPGs of their own go, they only ever really did WFRP, and for most of its history even that was actually licensed to third parties: I don't think they've sold it in their own stores since about 1992.

I think the question of whether GW should have continued supporting other manufacturers in their own stores is one that will vex the gaming community forever - or at least until the last of the gamers who remembers the early 80s dies off. I'm not sure - I think it was probably a bad thing for British gamers (at least for twenty years or so) but maybe the right move for the company (ditto); it's doubtful they'd have become the leviathan they are today had they continued as they were.

In fact, when it comes to tabletop wargames (as opposed to RPGs) the geographical dynamic has probably historically been broadly speaking reversed, with Europe - and the UK in particular - being a net exporter, and it's only relatively recently that American companies have started tapping into the global market in a big way.