The Backerkit campaign for the first ever official English language edition of Sword World RPG, the first and longest-running Japanese TTRPG, has raised over $2,800,000 at time of writing, with 18 days to go. Sword World was originally published in 1989, and completely displaced Dungeons and Dragons as Japan’s premier fantasy RPG.
The crowdfunding campaign is for the “complete localization, design, and printing of the Sword World 2.5 Core Rules” in English. A pledge for the holy trinity of Core Rulebook, Monster Manual, and Gamemaster’s Guide, in both hardback and PDF, plus a slipcase and DM’s screen, costs $175 (£130), while the core rulebook alone is $55.
Japanese TTRPGs often have more boardgame-like components and handouts than Western ones, and the optional add-ons are accordingly packed with bling. The campaign runs until November 20, and is expected to ship around the end of 2027 – you can find the full details on Backerkit.
Sword World is a classic fantasy RPG, but optimised around a different set of design goals from D&D, particularly modularity, and telescoping design. The core resolution system is a 2D6 roll, adding any modifiers from skills, and comparing against a target number. Then there are Power Tables, lookup tables that turn the result of a 2D6 roll into a range of other values, to give you combat damage numbers. The full Power Table has 50 different power levels for attacks, but the progression is subtle, and it’s quite normal to use only every fifth power level.
There are three different resolution levels for combat as well. In the simplest mode characters are assigned to the front row (for melee) or back row (for support), like a turn-based JRPG. The most complex mode uses full grid-based movement. The standard combat mode sits in-between them, using a single distance axis to track how near or far characters are from the middle of the fight.
Though the rules are the same as 2018’s 2.5 edition, these are otherwise completely original books; Japanese text takes so much less space than English that it would be impossible to just “swap out” the languages and reuse the old graphic design. The art and design of the English editions is being directed by Shunsuke Nakashige, the director of hit anime Solo Levelling, with new art from long-time Sword World illustrator Hitoshi Yoneda.
Sword World has been continuously published by Group SNE for 35 years, and the game is only on edition 2.5. Assuming the game launches successfully in English – and the crowdfunding total suggests it could well do – there are a lot of Japanese supplements waiting to be localized into English. I’ve got my fingers crossed that everything goes well!
I interviewed the mom and pop duo who are translating Sword World and publishing it via their company Mugen Gaming, Ai and Shawn Namima-Davison, this spring. They provided me with a detailed history of how the Sword World RPG developed out of the D&D campaign write-up series turned fantasy novelization Record of Lodoss War, as well as some incredible insights into the challenges of translating the game – you can find the interview here.
Source: Wargamer
