Japanese Role-playing Games: Genre, Representation, and Liminality in the JRPG examines the origins, boundaries, and transnational effects of the genre, addressing significant formal elements as well as narrative themes, character construction, and player involvement. Contributors from Japan, Europe, North America, and Australia employ a variety of theoretical approaches to analyze popular game series and individual titles, introducing an English-speaking audience to Japanese video game scholarship while also extending postcolonial and philosophical readings to the Japanese game text. In a three-pronged approach, the collection uses these analyses to look at genre, representation, and liminality, engaging with a multitude of concepts including stereotypes, intersectionality, and the political and social effects of JRPGs on players and industry conventions. Broadly, this collection considers JRPGs as networked systems, including evolved iterations of MMORPGs and card collecting “social games” for mobile devices. Scholars of media studies, game studies, Asian studies, and Japanese culture will find this book particularly useful.

This handbook collects, for the first time, the state of research on role-playing games (RPGs) across disciplines, cultures, and media in a single, accessible volume. Collaboratively authored by more than 50 key scholars, it traces the history of RPGs, from wargaming precursors to tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons to the rise of live action role-play and contemporary computer RPG and massively multiplayer online RPG franchises, like Fallout and World of Warcraft. Individual chapters survey the perspectives, concepts, and findings on RPGs from key disciplines, like performance studies, sociology, psychology, education, economics, game design, literary studies, and more. Other chapters integrate insights from RPG studies around broadly significant topics, like transmedia worldbuilding, immersion, transgressive play, or player–character relations. Each chapter includes definitions of key terms and recommended readings to help fans, students, and scholars new to RPG studies find their way into this new interdisciplinary field.

This book engages non-digital role-playing games—such as table-top RPGs and live-action role-plays—in and from Japan, to sketch their possibilities and fluidities in a global context. Currently, non-digital RPGs are experiencing a second boom worldwide and are increasingly gaining scholarly attention for their inter-media relations. This study concentrates on Japan, but does not emphasise unique Japanese characteristics, as the practice of embodying an RPG character is always contingently realised. The purpose is to trace the transcultural entanglements of RPG practices by mapping four arenas of conflict: the tension between reality and fiction; stereotypes of escapism; mediation across national borders; and the role of scholars in the making of role-playing game practices.

Reviews over 400 seminal games from 1975 to 2015. Each entry shares articles on the genre, mod suggestions and hints on how to run the games on modern hardware.

Music in the Role-Playing Game: Heroes & Harmonies offers the first scholarly approach focusing on music in the broad class of video games known as role-playing games, or RPGs. Known for their narrative sophistication and long playtimes, RPGs have long been celebrated by players for the quality of their cinematic musical scores, which have taken on a life of their own, drawing large audiences to live orchestral performances. The chapters in this volume address the role of music in popular RPGs such as Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft, delving into how music interacts with the gaming environment to shape players’ perceptions and engagement. The contributors apply a range of methodologies to the study of music in this genre, exploring topics such as genre conventions around music, differences between music in Japanese and Western role-playing games, cultural representation, nostalgia, and how music can shape deeply personal game experiences. Music in the Role-Playing Game expands the growing field of studies of music in video games, detailing the considerable role that music plays in this modern storytelling medium, and breaking new ground in considering the role of genre. Combining deep analysis with accessible personal accounts of authors’ experiences as players, it will be of interest to students and scholars of music, gaming, and media studies.

Maid: The Role-Playing Game is a comedic take on a uniquely Japanese cultural icon: The fetishized modern maid. Injecting the concept of Maid with 50ccs of anime and comedy, the players take on the roles of maids, serving the master (played by the GM). Sheets are left unfolded and mantelpieces undusted when giant robots crash through the mansion, ninjas attack and kidnap the young master, and a demonic pit to Hell opens up in the pantry... and all before teatime! Play in the modern comedy setting, or mix it up with 9 additional settings including Victorian era, old Edo period, fantasy and post-apocalypse; and 6 genres including romance, horror, and action. Due to the rules system and random events that form the backbone of the Maid RPG, the game practically runs itself: Go from opening the book to playing a game with friends within just minutes! Three game styles in one: The traditional scenario-type; the random event-driven type; and the "favor race," a race to the master's heart! Make characters and start playing the game within minutes of opening the book. Everything about the game gears it for Fast Play, Now. Optional character types including player-character masters and butlers, and optional rules for seduction and romantic tragedy. 11 complete adventure scenarios. 3 complete "replays," actual play scenarios in screenplay format. Great for learning the feel of the game. The first ever Japanese tabletop role-playing game to be released in English! ...which, when you think about it, totally makes sense in a weird sort of way. Hundreds of optional items, costumes, genre and setting events, all presented in a way to easily bring them into the game! Combines the original Japanese core book and two supplements into one huge, complete edition of the game in English. A $75 value!