Greetings, folks. I was wondering how the RPG scene was for Hispanics. In which Hispanic countries and/or cities are RPGs more popular? Which RPGs are more popular among the Hispanic population? Which of these RPGs are not published in Spanish at all?
My main motive for asking these questions is to see which RPGs would be the more viable ones for translating to Spanish. I'd like to do my part to increase the accessibility of many of these great RPGs to as wide of an audience as possible and, bilingual, I figured translating rule books to Spanish is a no-brainer. Also, what would be reasonable fees to charge clients for this kind of work? Would it be similar to freelance writing?
Quote from: ronwisegamgee;976113Greetings, folks. I was wondering how the RPG scene was for Hispanics. In which Hispanic countries and/or cities are RPGs more popular? Which RPGs are more popular among the Hispanic population? Which of these RPGs are not published in Spanish at all?
My main motive for asking these questions is to see which RPGs would be the more viable ones for translating to Spanish. I'd like to do my part to increase the accessibility of many of these great RPGs to as wide of an audience as possible and, bilingual, I figured translating rule books to Spanish is a no-brainer. Also, what would be reasonable fees to charge clients for this kind of work? Would it be similar to freelance writing?
Ask:
Imperator, he's a Spaniard.
The Butcher, he's Brazilian.
RPGPundit, who's a half-latino Canadian ex-pat living in Uruguay.
As far as types of games, I see them talking about all sorts of games locally, so I highly doubt there's a "Hispanic-preferred RPG".
CoC, Pendragon, Pathfinder, Mythras, FFG Star Wars all have Spanish versions. Gale Force 9 is doing the agreements for all localized versions of 5e. I don't know if Catalyst has Shadowrun in Espanol.
Keep in mind, pretty much every company wants a partner, not a translator. They want you to pay for a license, then you translate, do layout, get your own art in many cases, and handle your own publishing in the country of choice. Very few large RPG companies are going to handle everything themselves and are just looking for translators. You'd be better off looking for RPG companies inside Spanish-speaking countries that do distribution for American and English RPGs and ask them if they need English-Spanish translators.
Quote from: ronwisegamgee;976113Greetings, folks. I was wondering how the RPG scene was for Hispanics. In which Hispanic countries and/or cities are RPGs more popular? Which RPGs are more popular among the Hispanic population? Which of these RPGs are not published in Spanish at all?
My main motive for asking these questions is to see which RPGs would be the more viable ones for translating to Spanish. I'd like to do my part to increase the accessibility of many of these great RPGs to as wide of an audience as possible and, bilingual, I figured translating rule books to Spanish is a no-brainer. Also, what would be reasonable fees to charge clients for this kind of work? Would it be similar to freelance writing?
Just look for where the nerds hangout.
Keep in mind that there are RPGs originally in Spanish that are popular in their own markets. Try to find book sales data. I wonder if you could gleam info from Amazon? Or Kickstarter?
I like to look at what Nosorol Ediciones has on DTRPG:
http://drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/3424/Nosolorol-Ediciones
I'm not sure how useful they might be as a barometer, but they've got a diverse catalog.
Speaking as an American Latino, I would say it's the same for me as for you. Can't speak for Latinos outside the U.S., though.
I've mentioned a few before. But the biggest RPG source for a long time was the RPG magazine Dragão Brasil which did alot of D&D, World of Darkness and Gurps, with quite a few conversions of movies and such to one or another. They also had their own RPG called Defensores de Tóquio.
Then there is the hybrid board game/RPG called RPG Quest
And a western RPG from Spain called Far West. Which recently saw a comeback.
Also translated versions of many english RPGs are well known too. Gurps, AD&D, Cyberpunk 2020, World of Darkness and a few others are ones I know of.
As with everything though its a matter of location and just pure luck. some areas will be very dry for groups. Others will have possibly several. Depends on where you are and what is open, if anything and wether or not its even something you'd want to play.
As for translating. You'd have to go straight to the publisher to find out. Some have their own in-house translators. Some take on freelancers. And some will only work with a translator that can also handle printing, publishing and selling. It varies alot. So you really have to go out and ask. Expect to be politely told "no thanks" in one way or another.
Quote from: CRKrueger;976116Ask:
Imperator, he's a Spaniard.
The Butcher, he's Brazilian.
RPGPundit, who's a half-latino Canadian ex-pat living in Uruguay.
Just FYI, Brazilians aren't Hispanic.
Quote from: Dumarest;976302Just FYI, Brazilians aren't Hispanic.
Some of them speak Spanish. :D
Quote from: CRKrueger;976303Some of them speak Spanish. :D
Probably better than I do. :o
I figured Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game had a Spanish translation. I checked and you can get BFRPG in French, German, Italian et Anglais. I bet if someone approached Chris Gonnerman about it he'd be happy to have someone willing to translate it and offer it up as a free download on his site and perhaps even print on demand. For anyone unfamiliar with BFRPG, it's basically B/X D&D to level 20 with ascending AC.
The RPG scene is very large in Brazil (technically not a Hispanic country, though it is a Latin country). It's quite large in Uruguay and Argentina, and I know it's pretty big in Mexico too. I can't really talk for the rest of the Americas, but obviously Spain has a big RPG scene too. Only Spain and Brazil have a true and serious RPG publishing industry to speak of.
Regarding what they play, the answer is for the most part exactly what they play everywhere else. Mainly D&D. Pathfinder, a bit less than in North America. Vampire and World of Darkness is still a bit more played than it is in North America, mainly because the books all got here back in the day (just as it was difficult for Pathfinder to get here for a time, so it's less popular). The OSR has a small but growing contingent.
Spanish-language games exist here, and some of them are played, but they don't get any special precedence. They might have more coverage in Spain proper, but in Latin America none of them are as such more popular than what I named above.
As someone already pointed out, most English-speaking gaming companies don't want to hire translators. They want to make deals with existing gaming companies to publish their works in Spanish.
When I had a Californian Latino couple in my group, my Tennessean wife suggested they help her get the crystal meth business going in the UK. *I* knew she was joking (ylthey were ex NASA rocket engineers, or maybe just the girl was) but Californians not known for their sense of humour...
Quote from: S'mon;977081When I had a Californian Latino couple in my group, my Tennessean wife suggested they help her get the crystal meth business going in the UK. *I* knew she was joking (ylthey were ex NASA rocket engineers, or maybe just the girl was) but Californians not known for their sense of humour...
What an idiotic statement. But Brits aren't know for being smart. Or dental hygiene.
Quote from: Dumarest;977375What an idiotic statement. But Brits aren't know for being smart. Or dental hygiene.
But we might understand that hygiene isn't the same as blind conformity?
Quote from: Anselyn;977383But we might understand that hygiene isn't the same as blind conformity?
You forget California is almost twice the size in land mass and over half the population of all of Great Britain. People hear California and think "Hollywood Left" or "San Francisco" liberal.
There's more "Red Staters" in California than in most Red States, and there's a lot of working class Blue that aren't SJWs by any stretch of the imagination.
I'm a white American dude of primarily Irish and Scots-Irish extraction (with a little bit of German and Italian), so I'm pretty far from being classified or qualified as being Hispanic or Latino. But I do have two interesting stories regarding RPG's and Hispanic gamers.
I had a friend in High School who was two grades ahead of me, but we both were part of the school's Latin Club and often would meet at club functions (such as attending the Junior Classical League Convention in Richmond, Virginia in November of 2008). This girl was of mixed ancestry, half-Japanese and half-Latino. She identified with her Asian heritage more than her Hispanic heritage though.
However, I got her interested in tabletop RPG's, particularly Dungeons & Dragons (4e was out at the time, but I recommended she start with an older copy of 3.5 if possible) and Big Eyes Small Mouth (she was also a fan of anime like me). She seemed a little uninterested at first, but decided to try the games out anyway.
During the convention in Richmond back in 2008, my father was one of the chaperones for the school's club on this particular trip and me and him stayed at the same hotel room. We brought some D&D books, pens and notebooks, and some dice with us (specifically the 3.5 Player's Handbook). The convention had a whole segment dedicated to games in general, called "Ludi Frivoli" and the people there mostly played backgammon, various other board games and card games (I did see one group of people playing Magic), and there was even a small boffer combat gathering as well, done with pool noodles, cheap foam Nerf swords, and the like. There was an open table, so my dad and I decided to play a largely impromptu D&D one-shot and my friend decided to join us.
It was pretty cool, I played a Human Sorcerer and she was a Half-Elf Bard.
Later that school year, she graduated but we still were friends on Facebook though we don't talk much. She lives her own life (and apparently moved to somewhere in upstate New York, if Facebook is to be believed) and I live my own life here in Virginia. But I recently saw some posts of her on my Facebook feed of her posting Pathfinder memes and a picture of her at a table with a Pathfinder group.
She's now an RPG gamer and I'd like to think I helped her become one.
I also used to play in a Vampire: The Masquerade LARP with a friend of Puerto Rican background. He was a cool guy overall and again, we're still friends on Facebook, though he lives in Florida now last I heard. Guy was an awesome dude, a fellow anime fan and a great cosplayer. He was also one of the few LARP'ers in that group who was neither a Goth asshole or a Gen X burnout or both (Seriously, me and him were the only Millennials in that group at different points).
Sorry if it's a little off-topic. I just thought I'd share my own personal experiences with Hispanic gamers.
Quote from: CRKrueger;977385You forget California is almost twice the size in land mass and over half the population of all of Great Britain. People hear California and think "Hollywood Left" or "San Francisco" liberal.
There's more "Red Staters" in California than in most Red States, and there's a lot of working class Blue that aren't SJWs by any stretch of the imagination.
Sorry. I really don't see the relevance of your political commentary to my point (knee jerk defaulting to the usual battlelines?) As far as I can see the American cultural view that God gave them the definitive design for teeth alignment which should be imposed on all children doesn't follow political lines - but presumably, if anything, financial ones.
Quote from: Dumarest;977375What an idiotic statement. But Brits aren't know for being smart. Or dental hygiene.
What was the idiotic statement, oh cretinous one?
Quote from: RPGPundit;977045The RPG scene is very large in Brazil (technically not a Hispanic country, though it is a Latin country). It's quite large in Uruguay and Argentina, and I know it's pretty big in Mexico too.
My Mexican family-in-law have expressed some interest in playing sometime. IIRC my sister-in-law once mentioned some Mexicans who were into RPGs, but they weren't in her group of friends. Where exactly is this big Mexican RPG scene hiding, Pundit? Is it an upper class, private school thing?
While living in central Florida, I've never seen a Spanish-language ad (LFG/LFP) for gaming advertised despite the prevalence of Spanish-speakers in the area. Of course, I've never seen a Spanish-language RPG book on any of the local shelves either.
Quote from: Anselyn;977389Sorry. I really don't see the relevance of your political commentary to my point (knee jerk defaulting to the usual battlelines?) As far as I can see the American cultural view that God gave them the definitive design for teeth alignment which should be imposed on all children doesn't follow political lines - but presumably, if anything, financial ones.
The reference of "conformity". Based on the original message you were quoting, in which "Californians have no sense of humor", I was responding to the idea of the conformity of Californians. You were talking about not confusing dental hygiene with
dental conformity (sensitive about the teeth thing?)
I live in California, I don't have Hollywood teeth either, you're not alone. :D
Quote from: CRKrueger;977573The reference of "conformity". Based on the original message you were quoting, in which "Californians have no sense of humor", I was responding to the idea of the conformity of Californians. You were talking about not confusing dental hygiene with dental conformity (sensitive about the teeth thing?)
I live in California, I don't have Hollywood teeth either, you're not alone. :D
Ah, I see. Yes, I guess a general tendency to broadly "conform" or wish to conform or indeed to wish to be seen to conform is in general a right wing rather than left wing attribute. [Red is right, right?] I read an article recently, which I currently can't locate, about mapping a few psychological traits on to political groupings. Conformity was one of the traits and one of the others was "Disgust", which was a new aspect of this to me.
Certainly, disgust ['Ew, gross!'] seems to be more fully developed or quickly stated response by Americans than Brits - and invoking the disgust response gets seen quite often in Hollywood films, I notice.
Overall, the thing I have in common with S'mon is an American wife. So, exploring The US/UK cultural differences and considering whether difference is the same as right/wrong interests me.
My teeth? Well, I have them all and they work and to wind up my wife I refer to the US teeth thing as "tooth eugenics". The escalation of teeth fashion from uniformly straight to now unnaturally white as well is well - fashion and so, I would suggest, part of an industry to remove money from people. For an interesting parallell, consider body hair an interesting mix or cultural norms with added fashionable shifts and overlayers of alleged hygienic considerations.
OB RPG point: What the role of disgust and taboo in successfully playing culture based games?
Quote from: CRKrueger;977573The reference of "conformity". Based on the original message you were quoting, in which "Californians have no sense of humor", I was responding to the idea of the conformity of Californians. You were talking about not confusing dental hygiene with dental conformity (sensitive about the teeth thing?)
I live in California, I don't have Hollywood teeth either, you're not alone. :D
"Not known for sense of humour" - I was thinking of coastal liberal Californians of course, the kind we get in London & I saw in San Francisco. Not good ole boys from Bakersfield.
Quote from: S'mon;977917"Not known for sense of humour" - I was thinking of coastal liberal Californians of course, the kind we get in London & I saw in San Francisco. Not good ole boys from Bakersfield.
Y'know, I thought by staying out of [strike]The RPGPundit's Own Forum[/strike] alt-Tangency I would be able to avoid most of the ignorant, bigoted filth, but I guess it's just the baseline in all of
Pundejo's Playhouse now, i'n'it?
Quote from: Black Vulmea;977964Y'know, I thought by staying out of [strike]The RPGPundit's Own Forum[/strike] alt-Tangency I would be able to avoid most of the ignorant, bigoted filth, but I guess it's just the baseline in all of Pundejo's Playhouse now, i'n'it?
You have a really really low standard for "ignorant bigoted filth", especially considering the shit you vomit over the forum.
Quote from: 3rik;977538My Mexican family-in-law have expressed some interest in playing sometime. IIRC my sister-in-law once mentioned some Mexicans who were into RPGs, but they weren't in her group of friends. Where exactly is this big Mexican RPG scene hiding, Pundit? Is it an upper class, private school thing?
I suppose it might be. I'm just judging based on internet presence. I'm guessing Mexico City and the other large cities, and yeah, probably tied to the private-school/university scene.
In any case, let's please stick to the subject of gaming.
Quote from: RPGPundit;978993I suppose it might be. I'm just judging based on internet presence. I'm guessing Mexico City and the other large cities, and yeah, probably tied to the private-school/university scene.
I know of exactly one game store in Mexico City and they only carry a rather meagre and disjointed selection of RPG books. My wife picked up a Spanish-language copy of Call of Cthulhu she came across at a bookstore in Mexico City some 10-15 years ago, not knowing exactly what it was. Ordering stuff online isn't very common (yet). Availability may be a problem for potential Mexican gamers.
Quote from: S'mon;977917"Not known for sense of humour" - I was thinking of coastal liberal Californians of course, the kind we get in London & I saw in San Francisco. Not good ole boys from Bakersfield.
Or the normal people of LA County, who outnumber both of those by a factor of...10 at least if not more so. LA County alone has more people than 42 US States.
You live in Southern California, and those "Coastal Liberal Californians" become "Hollywood and Northern California Liberals".
You live in Northern California, you realize those "Northern California Liberals" are really "San Francisco/Berkeley Liberals" and "Sacramento State Politician Liberals".
I don't stick my neck out by pretending I understand the difference between East End and West End, or Manchester and Birmingham. Being a demographics guy, you might want to actually know preschooler-level knowledge about the demographic you're going to stereotype...like...it not actually existing. ;)