I've recently moved to Malaysia, where there's a small but passionate DnD community. The basis of the groups seems to be people like me – expats who moved here – but there seems to be interest from people in learning how to play DnD, many of whom come from non-native-English backgrounds.
I wouldn't expect WotC to put out a Bahasa Malay version of their materials at scale, but I feel the TTRPG opportunity in Kuala Lumpur is pretty solid. I'm coordinating with a local bookstore to see if we can do a pilot and gauge interest. We'll be using English materials, and English is widely spoken here, but it got me thinking about how I haven't seen WotC materials in Chinese, which is also widely spoken here (if not by locals, by the many Chinese students and expats).
Have I missed these materials? Or are they made but by third-parties?
I’m pretty sure they don’t publish in any other languages. There had been plans to release translations in some European languages, but I don’t think those have happened yet. I also think I remember something about a Japanese translation, but I don’t think that happened, either.
I have wondered about this over the years. Of course, back in the day D&D was only available in physical books, and translations had to be done word by word by living people. So there was no way that could have made financial sense for a game that was still just a hobby on the fringes of society. But today we've got translation software, we've got the ability to buy purely digital copies of the books rather than paper, and D&D has moved from the fringes of society to be a real mainstream juggernaut.
And sure, it would take a big effort to translate the massive volume to D&D materials into other languages. And we would need native speakers from each of those regions to review everything so we don't end up with some funny/wrong/embarrassing translation errors. But it might be worth it. Making D&D available in Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, Standard Arabic, French, and Japanese would add almost 3.2 BILLION potential customers to D&D's bottom line.
And sure, it would take a big effort to translate the massive volume to D&D materials into other languages. And we would need native speakers from each of those regions to review everything so we don't end up with some funny/wrong/embarrassing translation errors. But it might be worth it. Making D&D available in Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, Standard Arabic, French, and Japanese would add almost 3.2 BILLION potential customers to D&D's bottom line.
This guy gets it.
Maybe it's in the works. But yeah, DnD has gone from basements to sold-out theater events. I didn't have to explain what it was to the people at the bookstore I'm trying to get a table going at; they knew it, they just hadn't seen it really.
I poked around once and saw some people experimenting with DnD-ESL, which is certainly ambitious but I could see it with the right kind of patience and modularity. DnD in Arabic, or Mandarin, or any other major language just seems like good business.
But the short of it is: no, I didn't miss anything probably, and there isn't like a Chinese-language version of Dragons of Stormwreck Isle out there.
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I've recently moved to Malaysia, where there's a small but passionate DnD community. The basis of the groups seems to be people like me – expats who moved here – but there seems to be interest from people in learning how to play DnD, many of whom come from non-native-English backgrounds.
I wouldn't expect WotC to put out a Bahasa Malay version of their materials at scale, but I feel the TTRPG opportunity in Kuala Lumpur is pretty solid. I'm coordinating with a local bookstore to see if we can do a pilot and gauge interest. We'll be using English materials, and English is widely spoken here, but it got me thinking about how I haven't seen WotC materials in Chinese, which is also widely spoken here (if not by locals, by the many Chinese students and expats).
Have I missed these materials? Or are they made but by third-parties?
I’m pretty sure they don’t publish in any other languages. There had been plans to release translations in some European languages, but I don’t think those have happened yet. I also think I remember something about a Japanese translation, but I don’t think that happened, either.
I have wondered about this over the years. Of course, back in the day D&D was only available in physical books, and translations had to be done word by word by living people. So there was no way that could have made financial sense for a game that was still just a hobby on the fringes of society. But today we've got translation software, we've got the ability to buy purely digital copies of the books rather than paper, and D&D has moved from the fringes of society to be a real mainstream juggernaut.
And sure, it would take a big effort to translate the massive volume to D&D materials into other languages. And we would need native speakers from each of those regions to review everything so we don't end up with some funny/wrong/embarrassing translation errors. But it might be worth it. Making D&D available in Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, Standard Arabic, French, and Japanese would add almost 3.2 BILLION potential customers to D&D's bottom line.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
This guy gets it.
Maybe it's in the works. But yeah, DnD has gone from basements to sold-out theater events. I didn't have to explain what it was to the people at the bookstore I'm trying to get a table going at; they knew it, they just hadn't seen it really.
I poked around once and saw some people experimenting with DnD-ESL, which is certainly ambitious but I could see it with the right kind of patience and modularity. DnD in Arabic, or Mandarin, or any other major language just seems like good business.
But the short of it is: no, I didn't miss anything probably, and there isn't like a Chinese-language version of Dragons of Stormwreck Isle out there.