Animes with TRPGs in them?

[GoblinGilmartin]

So, I was just watching Anime Abandon, and it made me ask something...
There are so many anime where characters play video games (especially MMOs), or the anime takes place in a sword and sorcery setting but...
Are there any anime where characters play D&D, or any TRPG?

I just find it strange how (especially American) nerds have already combined their hobbies in certain ways, bringing Anime to RPGS, creating Anime RPGs like BESM, Panty Explosion, The Project A-ko RPG, The Tenchi Muyo! RPG, MAID, Classroom Deathmatch (which I'm now going to have to look into further, as I just discovered it). But have RPGs ever been brought to anime?

[HandofShadows]

Sword Art Online takes place in MMO's.

[GoblinGilmartin]

Sword Art Online takes place in MMO's.

...you....didn't even read what I'm asking....

[Kitten Champion]

Well, Record of Lodoss War was premised on a campaign setting for a Japanese TRPG I believe, based on the writer's experience as DM.

... but I can't recall any anime depiction of people actually playing a TRPG.

[BWR]

"Haiyore Nyaruko-san" has some explicit references to the CoC RPG, including talk of SAN dropping, pictures of dice and character sheets. These are however more like meta humor than actual portrayals in the show. I seem to recall one scene where the characters sat in front of a Keeper screen with dice and sheets but I'm not 100% sure that I'm not imagining that. In any case, it wouldn't have been anything other than scenery.

[GoblinGilmartin]

"Haiyore Nyaruko-san" has some explicit references to the CoC RPG, including talk of SAN dropping, pictures of dice and character sheets. These are however more like meta humor than actual portrayals in the show. I seem to recall one scene where the characters sat in front of a Keeper screen with dice and sheets but I'm not 100% sure that I'm not imagining that. In any case, it wouldn't have been anything other than scenery.

I'll still take a look. I'm trying to collect a bunch of stuff for my blog...

[Traab]

So basically what you are looking for is a yugioh style anime that has them playing D&D instead of card duels? That could be interesting if any exist.

[tensai_oni]

Not sure about anime but there are several manga titles where the characters play tabletop RPGs. Usually it's just for a single chapter but I know of at least one 4koma where it's the central premise. Unfortunately I forgot its title...

Also more often than not they won't play real RPG titles as they exist in real world but rather games made up for the purpose of the manga. I'm pretty sure I don't have to explain why.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I just find it strange how (especially American) nerds have already combined their hobbies in certain ways, bringing Anime to RPGS, creating Anime RPGs like BESM, Panty Explosion, The Project A-ko RPG, The Tenchi Muyo! RPG, MAID, Classroom Deathmatch (which I'm now going to have to look into further, as I just discovered it).

MAID is a Japanese RPG.

Fate/Stay Night references D&D alignments, but there's no RPGs in the anime adaptations.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Yeah, I'll second the mention of manga based on TTRPGs, which--I'll try and find some names. There's definitely a tabletop RPG scene in Japan, with a number of native Japanese TTRPGs, a handful of which have made it to America.

Doing a bit of a search, I was able to dig up Piyopu Seikatsu (http://www.zeppan.com/book/detail/43781), although you'll have to be able to read Japanese...

[Zaydos]

In the original Yu-Gi-Oh! show (season 0) I think they still played a TRPG against Bakura, of course they did get sucked into the game. Record of Lodoss War was originally a novelization of D&D sessions which they later made into their own system. I don't particularly watch slice of life so wouldn't know many others.

And there are a lot of small TTRPGs in Japan, but the store in Akiba I found them did not seem to have dice... though some of that might have been a miscommunication since I couldn't figure out how to say dice in Japanese.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

In the original Yu-Gi-Oh! show (season 0) I think they still played a TRPG against Bakura, of course they did get sucked into the game. Record of Lodoss War was originally a novelization of D&D sessions which they later made into their own system. I don't particularly watch slice of life so wouldn't know many others.
Oh, yeah! As I recall, Yu-Gi-Oh! was originally supposed to be about all sorts of different games, but the card game took over in popularity and the rest is history.

And there are a lot of small TTRPGs in Japan, but the store in Akiba I found them did not seem to have dice... though some of that might have been a miscommunication since I couldn't figure out how to say dice in Japanese.
Huh, might be a cultural thing or something. Was it Yellow Submarine you went to? Most of the folks I follow who are RPG geeks who went to (or lived in) Japan praise it highly.

[Zaydos]

Oh, yeah! As I recall, Yu-Gi-Oh! was originally supposed to be about all sorts of different games, but the card game took over in popularity and the rest is history.

Yes. At least that's what I've heard. And there was a manga where people played M:tG, it became the game Duel Masters/Kaijudo.


Huh, might be a cultural thing or something. Was it Yellow Submarine you went to? Most of the folks I follow who are RPG geeks who went to (or lived in) Japan praise it highly.

No it was a primarily anime merchandise store, it just happened to have a floor with what looked like miniature paint, d&d books, and I think even a battlemat or two.

[Prime32]

I always say that Record of Lodoss War (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2vxlZkfW-Y) was based on a DM's notes for his campaign, and Slayers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QdtEXexKns) is what happened when it actually came into contact with his players. :smalltongue:


Not sure about anime but there are several manga titles where the characters play tabletop RPGs. Usually it's just for a single chapter but I know of at least one 4koma where it's the central premise. Unfortunately I forgot its title...You might be thinking of Quick Start!. None of the games they play are Western, but some parts of gamer culture are universal. :smalltongue:


Fate/Stay Night references D&D alignments, but there's no RPGs in the anime adaptations.IIRC there was some interview where it came up that Kinoko Nasu's first TTRPG was Dungeons & Dragons, while Gen Urobuchi's was Call of Cthulhu. Make of that what you will. Which reminds me...

"Replays" (essentially campaign logs that have been reformatted into novels) are a fairly big market in Japan, even among non-RPG-players. How big?

Red Dragon (レッドドラゴン) is a non-TYPE-MOON Role-Playing-Fiction project involving Kinoko Nasu, Gen Urobuchi, Ryohgo Narita, Izuki Kougyoku, the author of the light novel Mimizuku to Yoru no Ou, and Simadoriru, who works with the Stripe Pattern doujin circle. Hosted by the publisher Seikaisha, it will be a six day tabletop RPG session played by the various writers with Makoto Sanda as the Fiction Master. Much like the Record of Lodoss War series, its replays will be serialized on their official website during January 2012. The members of the staff have prepared one thousand pages and two hundred illustrations for the scenario over the period of a year, so that the authors may enjoy their session.

Hitoshi Sakimoto has composed original music for the project, and Simadoriru was in charge of the art direction. Veia was in charge of Title Design. Kiyomune Miwa, the designer of Saint George for Fate/Apocrypha and Ukyō Kodachi, the writer of Macross Frontier light novels, are the Fiction System Designers who helped shape the fictional world with Sanda. Katsushi Ōta is the overall producer of the project. Their campaign even had a trailer. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2011-12-10/madoka-magica/fate/durarara-creators-unite-on-red-dragon) :smalleek:

Log Horizon is worth mentioning too. It's about the playerbase of a long-running MMO named Everquest Elder Tale all waking up in one day in a fantasy world with no way to get home; most of the story is their attempts to rebuild society (or the Tippyverse if they can manage it) while juggling local politics and the unexpected ways that MMO-based abilities interact with real physics.
What makes this notable is that the creator has played D&D "since Red Box", and created an official TTRPG tie-in. And then declared one of the Replays to be canon, and had its PCs make cameos in the anime adaptation.

Finally, Yureka (aka "iD_Entity") is a manhwa that's made a number of D&D references, including the line "They're throwing everything in the Monster Manual at us!" and a fight where the protagonist's strategy was based on how spell turning worked in AD&D.

[Terraoblivion]

One thing you won't find though, is the characters playing D&D. For various reasons involving licensing and publishing, it never really got very big in Japan. Instead they made their or fantasy, dungeon-crawling RPG called Arianrhod. It's pretty similar, but it's not quite the same.

[Prime32]

Pathfinder seems to have carved out a niche for itself though. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaeRbup9fus&list=PL6E766DE7190FAE66) :smalltongue:

Most JRPGs are abstract and rules-light, designed for short sessions that move quickly. So JRPG players tend to see D&D the way WRPG players see GURPS.

[Terraoblivion]

Except that the big one is Arianrhod which is an eighties style fantasy RPG that, from what I can gather, is somewhere halfway between AD&D and Rolemaster. Not exactly a rules light system, in any case.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I totally forgot about Red Dragon!

[Prime32]

I'd always heard that the big ones were Sword World RPG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_World_RPG) and Alshard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alshard). :smallconfused: IIRC the intro of the Log Horizon RPG even said something like "this is a standard SRS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RPG_System) game, so if the rules are ever unclear in any places then just assume it works like one you've already played".

Also worth noting is that the English Wikipedia page on GNS Theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNS_Theory) lists chess and Magic: The Gathering as examples of Gamist games, while the Japanese version (https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNS理論) lists D&D instead.

[Sith_Happens]

So basically what you are looking for is a yugioh style anime that has them playing D&D instead of card duels? That could be interesting if any exist.

Reading the OP I don't think that it has to be the main premise of the show like in Yu-Gi-Oh, it just has to have happened at least once.


"Replays" (essentially campaign logs that have been reformatted into novels) are a fairly big market in Japan, even among non-RPG-players. How big?
Their campaign even had a trailer. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2011-12-10/madoka-magica/fate/durarara-creators-unite-on-red-dragon) :smalleek:

I MUST READ THIS. Please tell me there's a translation somewhere.

[GoblinGilmartin]

One thing you won't find though, is the characters playing D&D. For various reasons involving licensing and publishing, it never really got very big in Japan. Instead they made their or fantasy, dungeon-crawling RPG called Arianrhod. It's pretty similar, but it's not quite the same.

Arianrhod is my white whale. I've been trying to get a copy for years.

[TheThan]

Record of Lodoss War and Slayers and slayers are two that immediately come to mind. While they’re not actually playing a game; there is a strong influence there. There’s also a short anime called ruin explorers where the characters go dungeon crawling. it is clearly influenced by RPGS as well all though it’s not quite as good as either Record of Lodoss War or Slayers.

as for anime where the players are actually playing an TRPG, well i'm drawing a blank.

[VincentTakeda]

And its not an 'anime' but 'scooby doo: mystery incorporated' has an episode where shaggy has some flashbacks about his ttrpg experience as a kid and they must use his mad gaming skillz to defeat a player who's favorite character had been killed, so he was using technology to invade the dreams of his former gaming buddies to try and kill them in their dreams.

The episode is 'web of the dream weaver'

[Starwulf]

And its not an 'anime' but 'scooby doo: mystery incorporated' has an episode where shaggy has some flashbacks about his ttrpg experience as a kid and they must use his mad gaming skillz to defeat a player who's favorite character had been killed, so he was using technology to invade the dreams of his former gaming buddies to try and kill them in their dreams.

The episode is 'web of the dream weaver'

If you're going that route, the newest iteration of TMNT has an episode where the guys are all playing a decidedly D&D style tabletop RPG, and they end up getting sucked into one by some mutant owl. It was....fairly nifty ^^

[Knaight]

Most JRPGs are abstract and rules-light, designed for short sessions that move quickly. So JRPG players tend to see D&D the way WRPG players see GURPS.
So, correctly? :smallwink:

[Eldariel]

"Daily Lives of High School Boys" (男子高校生の日常) has the characters acting out an RPG while walking home in one episode. Not quite what you ask and it's certainly played for laughs but it's there anyways.