The Old School Otaku Lounge

I picked the show up again a couple months back, and just ran into this video on YouTube a couple days ago.
This video is a lengthy watch, about an hour
'The Game That Beat D & D in Japan' by WilliamSRD
https://youtu.be/9ryt9VJ9gxQ?si=rIU7ZENimZ22GaGo

RoLW has such a rich history that I was never aware of! And the fact that 'Dungeons and Dragons' inspired doesn't SURPRISE me, I just didn't know.

What's also funny about previously being unaware of it's history before mere days ago is, when I picked up the anime again, I told a friend he should watch it with me for what little i'd seen of it was such a cozy example of quintessential mythical fantasy. It had a bit of everything classical, you can tell it came from a place of passion.

So learning about this gives me the warm n' fuzzies.
I dunno, if anything that essay is a fun watch for the uninitiated.

I just....no idea how I never knew all of this.

The one subject about Lodoss War that intrigued me, after I heard it, was the Replay novelization. Not so much storytelling from the game, but what does the prose look like? Is it completely fourth-wall breaking like players playing a game, or is it written as a fantasy novel? I know there have been novels translated to English (I had some sample chapters on my Kindle a while ago) and they read as a fantasy novel. If the prose is different, as in the players playing a game, THAT is what I would be interested in reading.

Drew_Sutton wrote: ↑Thu Aug 21, 2025 9:54 amThe one subject about Lodoss War that intrigued me, after I heard it, was the Replay novelization. Not so much storytelling from the game, but what does the prose look like? Is it completely fourth-wall breaking like players playing a game, or is it written as a fantasy novel?

The original 'Record of Lodoss War' was serialised in issues of Comptiq from 1986. They were a transcription between the player characters and DM. I'll show samples of their frontispiece and the opening text (the art work for this series is NSFW; this was back before zoning regulations changed things for these sorts of all-age magazines). There were also similar Table Talk replays posted in 'Warlock' and 'Monthly Sneaker'.
I'm going to assume you cannot read the Japanese on the pages, and transcribe the following short exchange between the DM and player characters:
ダンジョンマスター(以下DMと略す)
旅の前祝いを盛大にやったあと、一夜が明けて朝になったよ。 昨晩のうち
に、冒険に必要なものは一通り買い集め、準備はすでに整っている。“サイファの隠れ家”に向かって出発だ……。まあ、 昨夜の宴会で飲みすぎて気分の悪い人もいるかもしれないけどね。

ギム　ドワーフは酒に強いから、わしは平気だ。

スレイン　ぼくはァ~、飲んでません。

パーン　オレはちょっと飲みすぎまったい。なんか問題あるかな?

※～※～※～※～※

Coincidentally, after speaking with Armenoid, I want to ask Chet Jasinski about Ryo Shiroma, and whether Ryo Shiroma collected issues of Comptiq. There's no mention of this magazine in the Usenet archives by any relevant parties in the manga or anime community. According to Armenoid, Americans just had no idea what was going on in Japan, and Ryo Shiroma, who could read Japanese magazines, conveyed certain information I believe originated from a series of Comptiq issues. Unfortunately, Armenoid went on a business trip and hasn't responded since April 13th. He said he lost contact with Chet Jasinski a decade ago, but I found Chet Jasinski's Facebook account and had my friend from Czechoslovakia send him my e-mail address a month ago, but it doesn't seem like he saw that message... I really want to talk to him, since he's the only person alive right now that would remember what magazines Ryo Shiroma was collecting and reading before 1992. My native Japanese colleagues are interested in knowing this, and Armenoid made it sound like Ryo Shiroma had big plans for Chet Jasinski's Anime East 94 and 95 conventions (going so far as trying to bridge a connection between them and Comiket staff). The information in Chet's brain is extremely valuable, and it would be a shame if Chet Jasinski were to also pass away like Ryo Shiroma and Steve Pearl before his memories have been transcribed into text (Ryo Shiroma is a figure that absolutely deserves a documentary).

https://zenkaikon2022.sched.com/chet.jasinski
If you're able to speak with Chet on Facebook, elsewhere, or whenever he attends a convention (i.e. Zenkaikon), please send me a private message, and I'll give you my e-mail address, or the account of my French colleague, Chris, who can organise a ZOOM call on my behalf. Thank you.

Thanks for posting those screenshots, Taruby! I think it's very cool that it's much more like a transcription than narrative prose. Do you know if the story has been collected and published separately from the original magazine run?

Regarding Chet Jasinski, I unfortunately do not know him and I am not in or around Pennsylvania.

Drew_Sutton wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 5:10 pm Thanks for posting those screenshots, Taruby! I think it's very cool that it's much more like a transcription than narrative prose. Do you know if the story has been collected and published separately from the original magazine run?

As far as I know, the original live replay serialised in Comptiq weren't compiled due to copyright issues; the story was intended as an introduction to Dungeons & Dragons™ at the time, and they didn't want to pay royalties publishing it outside magazines. Instead, they redid the previous episodes to create Record of Lodoss War Companion (ロードス島戦記 コンパニオン), which used an original RPG system.

Fortunately, an informative website (JP) transcribed all of the original D&D episodes (while giving their own comments):
http://forceria.web.fc2.com/lodoss/repl ... yDD-1.html

It's important to understand the difference between Replay (リプレイ) and Novelisation (小説). Seek out books with the Japanese characters of the former if you want the actual gaming sessions (i.e. "ロードス島戦記"+"リプレイ"). On that note, CompRPG had Record of Lodoss War reader participation gaming sessions (these weren't compiled outside the magazine, either).

Drew_Sutton wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 5:10 pmRegarding Chet Jasinski, I unfortunately do not know him and I am not in or around Pennsylvania.

I don't know anyone from the United States, but I'm hoping you, or someone else, can kindly use your network of acquaintances to help in this regard.

I was trying to research out the Comiket thing from the Usenet archives, but the closest I found was Steve Pearl mentioning they invited Essei Ushijima, who he says is the "COMIKET COSPLAY organizer" that published the first history book on Cosplay (published by Kubo Shoten).