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http://www.silvervinepublishing.com/ A friend and I are officially launching a project to translate, publish and sell Japanese indie TRPGs. Our goal is to bring Japanese indie TRPGs (and other things!) out in English. We will be publishing all our works through DriveThruRPG and its affiliated sites. Through this service we not only want to bring great indie works to the West, but also support Japanese creators. The majority of what anyone pays for our products will go right back in the pockets of the original indie creators. We hope this can help encourage them to continue producing original content to share with the world. Right now we've got 2 projects listed up on the site:  Project #1: Summon Skate by Yasuda Lin (Yugakugei) In this RPG you play a Figure Skater. No, not the kind you’re thinking. Instead you are a summoner who skates out complex magical diagrams to summon Figures - mythical gods and creatures - to fight giant monsters of chaos in high-speed, tactical battles. We chose Summon Skate as our flagship title because it is incredibly unique and has very high production value. The rulebook is 150+ full-color pages with an easy-to-read layout and tons of original art by the creator. Speaking of the creator, Yasuda Lin is an intriguing figure in Japanese tabletop gaming. He has spent years studying gaming as an industry and a social science, and is often invited to give lectures on gaming at top universities in Japan. He is constantly seeking new ways to use games to connect with players of all ages, as well as games that help bring players who are diverse in every conceivable way together around the table. The name of his indie game circle: Yugakugei represents three of the core aspects of gaming: Entertainment, Education and Art.  Project #2: Floria, The Verdant Way by Nekotsuki (Rokujoma Genso Kukan) You are an adventurer, an explorer of the labyrinthine magic woods. You are a mediator, keeping the peace between the mystical plants and the villages living in their shadows. You are a mage, wielding the power that flows through emerald paths within you. You are a Floria, one of few who chose to walk the verdant way. Floria is a game of beauty. When designing this title, its creator - Nekotsuki - wanted to find a way to translate the feel of a beautiful fantasy world into the core of the game mechanics. To do this she created a unique magic system: the Ley Vine Canvas. This original fantasy world will pull you in with its art and lore, and you will find it in every aspect of the journeys you have and the conflicts you face. Nekotsuki is the leader of Rokujoma Genso Kukan, one of the biggest names in Japanese indie TRPGs. Their booths always draw a crowd at the big Japanese gaming conventions. Her art is one of the big draws for the group, and Floria is an effort to distill her sense of style and love of nature into a system anyone can enjoy. We hope to bring the world many more of her works, as well as those of her husband Lord Phantasm - another rising star of the indie TRPG world. These 2 are already translated and just waiting for PDF creation. We have around 4 others on deck, and several more I'm in negotiations about. Hopefully once this takes off we can attract indie card game makers and my partner also really wants to do indie manga so we'll be trying that too. Feel free to chat about the Japanese TRPG scene in general here or ask me questions about the games or project. I have the ear of the creators so if you have things you're interested in hearing from them, I can bring them questions and translate the responses as well. Keep an eye out, I'll update this thread whenever we have new information (hopefully we'll be adding 2 more games to the site soon).
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Sep 4, 2020 23:53
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Oh cool, I think I remember hearing about you guys either here or on reddit somewhere months ago, nice to see it moving out of the realm of vague internet vaporware! I keep hearing how Japan is this weird almost Galapagos of divergent evolution in rpg design and its own cottage industry of esoteric niche indie titles we only occasionally get bits and pieces of like Ryuutama or more recently Kamigakari, so it's neat to see some of that market open up here. Gotta stay, starting out strong with the cool evocative weirdness in the initial title lineup.
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Sep 5, 2020 03:27
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Asterite34 posted:Gotta stay, starting out strong with the cool evocative weirdness in the initial title lineup. Expect more of this. We're actively looking for anything really out there and innovative.
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Sep 5, 2020 05:00
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Could you tell us what's so unique and interesting about these games from a mechanical side of things? From what I can tell they both involve drawing stuff as a resolution mechanic and that's a little difficult to picture, but intruiging
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Sep 6, 2020 17:41
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How has powered by the apocalypse landed in Japan?
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Sep 8, 2020 07:41
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Asterite34 posted:Could you tell us what's so unique and interesting about these games from a mechanical side of things? From what I can tell they both involve drawing stuff as a resolution mechanic and that's a little difficult to picture, but intruiging Yes, these are two very diverse games, mechanics-wise. Summon Skate is a more cooperative and tactical game, where players work together to use their limited resource (moves per turn) to draw out symbols and summon Figures. Each Figure is basically its own spell, with some being for attack, some for healing, and some have support mechanics. You have to use them to keep yourself and the stage you're skating on intact while trying to kill the enemy. Meanwhile the boss is throwing out random attacks (a d6 roll determines what body part attacks you, and through that which attack the boss uses) and has a sort of primitive AI system built in (you roll to determine what the boss will prioritize when attacking). The boss is trying to either kill all your characters or break the stage by creating cracks that extend from one end to the other. The only other big mechanical note is that Figures can only be summoned during the Summon Phase of each turn but, once they are summoned, you can use their spell or effect at any time, even as an interrupt of an enemy action, so planning ahead and having healing and defense Figures summoned and ready is an important consideration. The gameplay leading up to the battle mainly consists of puzzle solving, as you investigate the town, looking for common points between distortions you find there. It'd take a while to get into the details of what the investigation phase is like, but its nature makes it really easy to set up sessions for GMs, while also allowing for a lot of variety in the story. Floria, on the other hand, uses its drawing mechanics more artistically. During your adventure through the shifting maze of the magical forest, you will collect herbs that allow you to add lines and simple symbols to your Ley Vine Canvas. Your goal in drawing on this canvas is to create triangles, rectangles and star-shapes. These become your magic points in battle. To use your magic spells you have to color in the shapes on your canvas. Damage also takes place on the canvas, so it also represents your character's vitality and ability to continue fighting. In the sense of overall feel, Summon Skate focuses on investigation and puzzle solving followed by highly tactical battles. Floria is more about storytelling and descriptive travels through a fantastic world, followed by expressive but fairly simplified battles. Golden Bee posted:How has powered by the apocalypse landed in Japan? I haven't heard much about it. TRPG fans over there seem to know about it, but I don't see it coming up in conversation often except to mention that it's spreading in popularity in America. Freeform games will tend to lose out to games with prewritten scenarios, though, since the latter are easier to run at conventions which is where most TRPG gaming happens in Japan. I'm sure there are some enthusiasts out there playing it, though.
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Sep 12, 2020 02:07
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I saw this on twitter - what a great project!
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Sep 13, 2020 07:51
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 Here's a special preview of an English sample character sheet. I know this is the first thing I like to look at when I check out a new TRPG, since it gives all kinds of hints as to the mechanics of the game. Plus you can see some of Lin Yasuda's art. It still blows me away that this was a one-man project for him. He did 160 full-color pages! Can't wait to show off more of his art later.
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Sep 29, 2020 12:02
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That is an extremely good hat on the middle character.
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Sep 29, 2020 12:53
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Oh it’s hard to tell from this alone but the two characters to the side of the skateboard lady are her contracted summons (Hecate and Freya)
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Sep 29, 2020 13:03
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I admit, the character art here is really selling the tone of "Shin Megami Tensei except it's  "
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Sep 29, 2020 17:21
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Here's some more previews! First of all we did a little font test with Floria. We're still in the early stages of editing and such so this one's a little ways off, but you can see some of the basic lore of the game here. And we've got a preview of one of the boss monsters from Summon Skate. Lin Yasuda's illustrations are definitely one of the selling points of this game, and I think a lot of people will want to go for the physical print edition to have high quality versions of them. 
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Oct 2, 2020 02:25
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Summon Skate looks insanely rad! Will you guys be doing Kickstarters for physical books or are you solely producing PDF translations?
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Oct 3, 2020 21:33
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Zurui posted:Summon Skate looks insanely rad! Will you guys be doing Kickstarters for physical books or are you solely producing PDF translations? The plan is to do PDFs and print-on-demand physical copies through DriveThruRPG.
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Oct 4, 2020 05:02
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Wanted to know more about Summon Skate and saw this tweet from the creator which gives a rough idea of what fights look like https://twitter.com/linelinglink/status/1236574351983435776
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Oct 7, 2020 01:20
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TIL that I need Summon Skater in my life
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Oct 8, 2020 10:33
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We’ve got a teaser site up for our Kickstarter for Summon Skate. This will be a pre-order campaign and we’ll be offering discounts on the PDF or PoD versions of the game, which will be available as soon as the campaign ends. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/silvervinepublishing/summon-skate-indie-japanese-rpg-translation-project?ref=ksrtwitter-prelaunch
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Oct 20, 2020 20:46
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Hm, have you considered buying an ad banner here for the Kickstarter/pre-order? Looks like indie game The Wildsea did so recently and it's getting a good bit of buzz from what I can intuit.
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Oct 28, 2020 19:40
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/silvervinepublishing/summon-skate-indie-japanese-rpg-translation-project We are live! Come get your pre-orders now!
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Nov 2, 2020 23:04
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Are there specific types of indie JP TTRPGs that you're looking for? How are you sourcing and contacting these designers? It sounds like you have a busy pipeline ahead of you, and remembering the old TTRPG thread and also my own personal challenges with working in that space, I wholeheartedly salute and support what you're doing.
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Nov 25, 2020 02:26
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It's time to necro this thread because the new Kickstarter's up and it's funded. So, what's the next move? e: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...roject_launched
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Jan 28, 2021 01:00
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Just a quick love bump— finally read my copy of Summon Skate (and man, this is probably the fastest fulfilled KS I’ve ever seen) and am prepping to run the intro adventure over Roll20. This is definitely a game that could benefit from one of those bespoke R20 implementations but I’m sure that’s not a realistic ask. Especially not if it delayed getting another game. Anyway, kinda stoked to try it out.
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Apr 19, 2021 06:31
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I just found out about Summon Skate and it looks amazing. Any way to hand you money for pdf after the kickstarter?
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May 5, 2021 06:19
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Xand_Man posted:I just found out about Summon Skate and it looks amazing. Any way to hand you money for pdf after the kickstarter? They sent out a KS update a couple days ago saying they’re going to finish sending out the hardcover books before making it public on DrivethruRPG, so probably another week or two. This was probably the smoothest Kickstarter campaign I’ve ever backed, by the way— I got the final PDF a week after the KS ended, and the softcover maybe a month after that. I’ve gotten to run the game a little over Roll20; not quite enough time to really make a judgement yet, but we’re all enjoying it so far.
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May 5, 2021 10:54
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Xand_Man posted:I just found out about Summon Skate and it looks amazing. Any way to hand you money for pdf after the kickstarter? https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/333101/Summon-Skate It's available on DriveThruRPG! Also, our next project Floria: The Verdant Way, is almost ready for Kickstarter! We've got a teaser site up that you can follow to get updates: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/silvervinepublishing/floria-the-verdant-way-indie-japanese-trpg-translation There's a good write-up about Floria in the OP, but if you'd like more info please ask here!
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Jun 14, 2021 23:06
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