With Sword World and Wares Blade coming out in the English language for the first time, @crapstacular.bsky.social talks to the publishers about how they're overcoming the challenges of translation.
This campaign snuck under the radar on my end - Jay was one of the first webcomics connections we made after launching D&W, and it's great to see The Pale back in action after all these years.
Knowing the same man who hammered out these pages out ended up becoming a well-off doctor and family man further down the line just makes it all the more surreal.
Another type-written page of German text discussing problems with a Maoist sympathizer.
Some of it's surprisingly sinister too, like this extended missive interrogating a fellow-traveller accused of "not only falling out of the struggle, but denigrating and hindering our work by spreading lies behind our backs."
All deathly earnest in that way only committed 20-somethings can be.
A yellowed page of typewritten German text recounting a conversation with potential Maoist recruits.
I've been dimly aware that my uncles were hardcore Maoists in the early '70s, but didn't really appreciate how deep in they were until leafing through one of their notebooks from back in the day. It's heady stuff, page after typewritten page of spy thriller-level dossiers, reports, and polemic.
Congrats!
Yes, but did said lewd involve sucking?
How about Rebel Assault? It didn't have the same legs Myst did in the long run, but the prospect of gunning down TIE Fighters in an interactive, authentic-looking and -sounding Star Wars movie was definitely a bigger draw to "core gamer" types than shuffling around solving logic puzzles.
Cover of Blue Pill Arcade featuring Eve hugging Dan's static ghostly image surrounded by wires and glitches
If you're nostalgic for my cyberpunk stuff but somehow missed or didn't get to read this series I finished back in 2020 (has it been this long??), it's now available for free.
Finally got the YouTube algorithm re-trained to serve up the good stuff again.
I appreciate that this is true of Japanese RPGs to a certain extent as well. Titles like "Post-Apocalyptic Band Tour TRPG Metal Journey" or "Dungeon Streaming RPG Liver & Labyrinth" make it very clear what kind of game you're in for before you even crack open the book.
How to train your vampire cover with Jack lifting Percy's face by the chin
How To Train Your Vampire is officially a Webtoon! Will be figuring out other platforms for it eventually but in the meantime please share and subscribe, I'm gonna need all the eyes I can get on this thing 🧛♀️🙏
www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/ho...
#webtoon #vampires
#bl #comics
The new project from the VA-11 Hall-A folks also has some clear PE influences, for what it's worth.
A Chinese indie studio's been working on a reasonably slick-looking "spiritual successor" that's supposed to be releasing at some point this year. A demo hit Steam a few months back - haven't checked it out myself, mind.
Everybody else can comment on the comics - I‘ll just be here quietly nodding at the vinyl call.
Seeing as it's an anniversary and all, we're matching that discount on Itch for the next four days to boot.
If you prefer your sadboy cyborgs with a wee bit more interactivity, Dates & Wires: Augmented Edition, our dating sim spin-off/reboot/parody, is also 50% off on Steam until March 26th.
Drugs & Wires turns 11 today, rapidly sprinting towards adolescence and - god help us - drinking age.
For a little added hit of nostalgia, you can now download the 12-page Fear_and_Loading zine originally offered as a digital extra for backers of our Down in a Hole Kickstarter.
Have a great birthday, Shaun!
For the curious, more pictures of the box's contents can be found in this thread:
Cover of a Korean-language version of the Basic D&D adventure module "King's Feast," featuring a cloaked, sword-wielding warrior and a female elven archer posing against a golden background. The TSR name is nowhere to be seen; neither is the D&D logo, which has been replaced with a screaming red "Role Playing Game" in gothic lettering.
The arrangement didn't last: Communication Group went bust in the aftermath of the '97 Asian financial crisis, and according to some Korean posters, was publishing D&D material without a license towards the end, which might explain this extra-sketchy version of the "King's Feast" adventure.
A relic from a brief, strange period of time when D&D, Crystania, and Japan's RPG heavyweight Sword World were all licensed by the same Korean publisher, the imaginatively-named "Communication Group."
Washed-out photo of a "Limited Edition" Korean-language boxed set split into two halves: one with a soaring dragon promoting an "Advanced Set" of D&D rules, the other featuring a character collage from Group SNE's Crystania RPG.
The thing that'll forever keep me poking into the lesser-known corners of RPG history is the prospect of unearthing buck-wild artifacts like this: a "Limited Edition" Korean boxed set from the '90s bundling Basic D&D's Companion and Master Rules with the Japanese Crystania RPG.
These Rave Generation Rob Liefeld-level tactical Red Bull holsters are absolutely sending me.
By the time these bootlegs came out in 1996, the Basic D&D line was straight up dead in the water in Japan. The only books still being published at that point were replay collections, and Media Works was a year away from losing their license entirely.
Shinwa left literally dozens of Basic D&D products unlocalized when they imploded and Media Works threw in the towel after translating just three adventures, so it’s not surprising that the fans stepped in and did it themselves.
You know what men wore a lot of back in the ‘20s?
Hats.
Wiztographer is out! It's a map-making game where you're a wizard building out a world you can later use in the fantasy role-playing game of your choice. There's also a rule unlock system inspired by legacy board games. It works solo AND in a group, so take a look!
yourgmjack.itch.io/wiztographer
Picture of the Sieg Zion game box originally posted on FromJapan.com, which depicts a cockpit-eye view of mobile suit pilot locking onto a target from behind.
Very exciting. Any relation to the RPG/wargame hybrid Tsukuda Hobby put out in 1990? Given their history of sourcing designs from university circles, I wouldn't be surprised if they picked it up for publication - especially since they'd just fallen out with ORG, who produced their last Gundam RPG.