Publisher Fan Support - [BoxNinja] Gregor Hutton on Portugese podcast

Posted by: Gregor Hutton On: Jun 15th 2010 edited

Hey Everybody

I got to meet up with Ricardo from Portugal at UK Games Expo. He played in my Carnage Amongst The Tribes scenario on the Sunday morning, and then very kindly interviewed me for his Portugese RPG podcast.

RPGs are huge in one Portugese-speaking nation (Brazil) but rather less so in Portugal. Ricardo is trying to improve the visibility of RPGs in his homeland and I was happy to help out with an interview.

The interview is here and for those struggling with their Portugese (like me) you will be glad to know the interview is in English.

I'm keen to see the Portugese RPG scene develop and particualrly for games to be produced in the native language (like Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden and Finland do). As Brazil has a big Portugese-speaking gaming scene I think PDFs could do well there and make them more financially viable than just in a smaller local market.

Posted by: jrmariano On: Jun 15th 2010 edited

Hi!

I'm also Portuguese and an zealous listener to Ricardo's podcast, "Jogador-Sonhador". It was a very interesting episode and your inside information regarding your games was really insightful.

We're trying our best to promote RPGs here in Portugal and some of us also believe that we should try to publish some "local" designs. I've recently noticed the effort that the Collective has been doing in just that and we hope we can emulate it here somehow.

Posted by: Joe Murphy On: Jun 16th 2010

Interesting stuff, J! Do you have any links to sites for Portugese designs or discussion?

Posted by: Ricardo Tavares On: Jun 16th 2010

Hello everyone!

Gregor, thanks again for a great interview (so much content!) and for the awesome Carnage Amongst the Tribes session.

"Jogador-Sonhador" (something like Gamer-Dreamer-Man in English) is probably the first RPG podcast in Portugal, although there are many in Brasil. The language may be very similar, but these are very different countries and cultures, so this podcast has been not only a way of promoting RPGs in my country, but also an opportunity to connect with roleplayers on the other side of the Atlantic.

I am an as-of-yet-unpublished game designer :) but I have a .pdf online on Lulu and am working on a final print version. Nothing in English so far, because I also think my native language should have priority. I have a Portuguese blog for my current project at http://ultimosvampiros.blogspot.com

Meanwhile, me and jrmariano are admins at www.abreojogo.com, a community site that allows us to organize events and discuss news, but RPG design projects have gathered few like-minded people as of yet. Indeed we are hoping to change that.

Posted by: Malcolm Craig On: Jun 16th 2010

Hey Ricardo,

Great to see you here. You're quite right, producing games in your native language should be a priority, especially if you can be a standard bearer for new developments in the Portugese gaming community.

I'd actually like to ask something: You mentioned that Brazil has a much larger gaming community, so are Portugese language games produced in Brazil (either domestically designed, or translations of English language games) imported into Portugal at all?

The reason I ask is that we have been approached regarding translations of our games for the Brazillian market and I'm curious to see if those games might also find a market in Portugal.

Cheers
Malc

Posted by: Ricardo Tavares On: Jun 17th 2010

Malcolm Craig:I'd actually like to ask something: You mentioned that Brazil has a much larger gaming community, so are Portugese language games produced in Brazil (either domestically designed, or translations of English language games) imported into Portugal at all?

Good question! Presently, there are only a couple of game stores in Portugal and none of them carry RPGs, as these games have been deemed unmarketable by the local businesses that still survive. Even when some years ago more game stores existed and RPGs were sold, the decision to import Brazilian books was never made and I don't really know why. Possible reasons may include the shipping costs, the differences in the language between both countries and the ease with which Portuguese roleplayers grasp the original material in English. So, the possible problem here is that prospective buyers would have a choice between the English book for a reasonable price and the Brazilian book for a much heftier price and Portuguese gamers - who generally have a good understanding of the English language - would prefer the English book.

However, I believe that translated RPGs can be successful in Portugal if the translation is very well done and even more so if the RPG in question uses language as an essential tool (for example, stuff like D&D is mostly math, so the colour of the words mostly doesn't matter :) but stuff like Fate and its Aspects, or Og and its limited vocabulary, or Polaris and its key phrases - these RPGs only really shine if they are in our own native language).

Posted by: Malcolm Craig On: Jun 17th 2010 edited

Thanks very much for taking the time to write about this. It's great to have an insight into a different games community, especially a foreign (to us, anyway!) language games community.

This has also made me go away and do a bit of reading on the differences between Portugese and Brazilian Portugese!

Your point about games where language is a vital part is really, really interesting. Being an English speaker, reading games in English, it's not something I've ever really thought about. Mainly because there's always that sub-conscious, English-speaking lack of recognition for other languages. But, your mention of it illustrates to me how important a factor it is and how important it is to have games in your own language. That's the big thing I think I'll take away from this discussion.

Edit: Oh, Ricardo: Drop me an email at malcolm [at] contestedground [dot] co [dot] uk and I'll get you set up with some PDFs of our games. It's the least I can do to help support your efforts.

Cheers
Malcolm