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Mediation—Counterpoints of Dis/Connection, or the Third Act

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Role-Playing Games of Japan

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Abstract

Related to connectedness and leading towards “global” group formations, the Internet and “new” communication technologies form the third avenue of uncertainty. The Internet’s uncertainty of interest in the third Act is its ability to connect. Until very recently Japan was believed to know only computer RPGs. The plethora of Japanese non-digital games was unknown in the US or Europe until a small number of English-speaking insider-scholars and translators made their knowledge public on websites around 2010. The Internet might conflate space and time. How does this work in the case of role-players in Japan, Europe, and the US? Who bridges barriers and goes beyond borders? I encountered a number of gatekeepers, translators, and insider-scholars who play at being spokespersons for the collective of role-playing. Some of them want to promote not only elements of the practice of role-playing but seek to carve a space for themselves at the same time.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Kondō Kōshi, Bōken’s CEO, first came to SPIEL due to his connections with Marc Miller, the designer of Traveller, who he encountered through his editorship of Warlock.

  2. 2.

    Lower fees at night were not special to Japan, most USENET servers also established connection to other servers only during the night to batch-transfer their news messages to other nodes in the network (Banks and Card 2008, 71).

  3. 3.

    The term computer also includes smartphones, smart watches, and AR glasses—glasses or head-up displays that augment reality (AR).

  4. 4.

    “Fanzine” also originates from science fiction fandom and was put in opposition to “prozines.” Both these terms were coined by Russ Chauvenet in 1940, a famous chess player and leading figure in U.S. sci-fi fandom (Warner and Siclari 2004).

  5. 5.

    The “completeness” of the Japanese-language Web combined with providing no information in English has been named “Japanese as a formidable barrier” of communication (Kariya 2014).

  6. 6.

    For a detailed overview of the development of graphical computer role-playing games and multiuser online gaming, see Dungeons & Dreamers (King and Borland 2003) and Dungeons & Desktops (Barton and Stacks 2019).

  7. 7.

    A comparison chart can be found at http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/compareVTT.html (accessed 2020/02/20).

  8. 8.

    Cf. Drachenzwinge, a platform for online role-playing offering various guides and information (http://www.drachenzwinge.de/anleitung.php?topic=wuerfeln&topic2=FG; accessed 2020/02/20).

  9. 9.

    WotC with the 5th edition of D&D and before that Paizo with Pathfinder, to name two mainstream games, sought to elevate the “whiteness” and male-centrism of previous games by including rules and artwork that allow for more diversity of genders and skin tones. With also lower access threshold of the rules, these factors have resulted in increased popularity (Alimurung 2019).

  10. 10.

    With the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and Japan, many developers also hope for an easier entry into the European market.

  11. 11.

    Comparable in practice to fan-made “scanlations” of manga (cf. Deppey 2005), there exist also legally grey hubs and websites seeking to translate Japanese TRPGs, such as Sword World.

  12. 12.

    The following account is based on personal e-mail exchanges and conversations in 2010, 2012, and 2016.

  13. 13.

    See https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diamondsutra/tenra-bansho-zero-an-art-and-culture-rich-rpg-from (accessed 2020/02/20).

  14. 14.

    See https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diamondsutra/ryuutama-natural-fantasy-role-playing-game (accessed 2020/02/20).

  15. 15.

    See https://www.ulule.com/ryuutama/ (accessed 2020/02/20).

  16. 16.

    See http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/111713/Tenra-Bansho-Zero-Heaven-and-Earth-Edition (accessed 2020/02/20).

  17. 17.

    In these Director’s Notes, Kitkowski himself addresses the issue of knowledge diffusion, e.g. concerning Buddhism (ibid., 4).

  18. 18.

    The additions amount to approx. 1.5 pages in total and are mostly limited to sidebars (Kitkowski 2015).

  19. 19.

    For example, via podcasts on the “Asian Popular Culture” platform Geeky & Genki (2013–2016), https://lnns.co/6rmfTHn0vOd (accessed 2020/02/20).

  20. 20.

    Interestingly and adding to the mess, when asked, the original designer, Inoue, posits that players should not be concerned about playing “authentic” Japanese (Kitkowski 2015, 10–11).

  21. 21.

    Defunct since 2011 and replaced by several profile pages on Facebook and Meetup, e.g. https://www.meetup.com/JIGG-Tokyo/ (accessed 2020/02/20).

  22. 22.

    Laymūn Homepage: http://laymun.minim.ne.jp/index.html (accessed 2020/02/20).

  23. 23.

    See http://www.larpcensus.org (accessed 2020/02/20).

  24. 24.

    Not part of this investigation but important to note, is the formation of an English-language larp group in Aichi in 2015. Founded by the Canadian Steven Smith and using the background and rules of Underworld (Mercer and Garrotte 2017), a medieval horror-fantasy setting. A group of five to 15 players (Underworld LARP Japan-Guildhouse: Havenhollow) meets each month to play for a weekend on land Smith bought for this purpose. Smith is also the Japan representative of Epic Armory, a producer of larp gear. He is in conversation with CLOSS on joint endeavours.

    As of this writing, there has been only one instance of shared playing between the Japanese-language and the English-language groups. Physical distance and assumed language issues make this difficult, but the first attempt was reported as promising.

  25. 25.

    Adapted from theatrical chamber plays, a chamber larp takes place in an enclosed area, often just a single room, and lasts only for a few hours (2–6)—very similar to how a Laymūn larp proceeds. A subcategory named black box larp further involves a room that has no windows and black walls but features a sound and light system. The room thus offers few distractions and allows for lighting and sound effects. Laymūn larps also incorporate such effects to enhance the drama of the play.

    Freeform games usually eschew taken-for-granted elements, such as technical rules or game masters. Some follow narrative scripts, however, that guide the players through scenes.

  26. 26.

    In this regard, they had also to learn that the way battles are fought in their larp events did not register at ConQuest. They are used to only touch the enemy slightly, which is enough if everyone wears only cloth or leather. At ConQuest, they encountered opponents in full-plate armour, which you have to hit with more emphasis for your target to feel the attack.

  27. 27.

    Soon after their trip, they published a guidebook for potential Japanese participants (CLOSS 2020).

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Kamm, BO. (2020). Mediation—Counterpoints of Dis/Connection, or the Third Act. In: Role-Playing Games of Japan. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50953-8_4

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