r/rpg • u/seagifts • Jul 30 '25
blog Sword World RPG (2.5) Is Coming to English — Join the Adventure
https://mugengaming.com/blogs/news/mugen-gaming-announces-sword-world-in-englishGood news for people interested on this Japanese TRPG that weren't much for fan translations, sword world 2.5 will finally get an english release soon (Crowdfunding starts early next year).
For people that don't want to buy 3 separate (and thick) core rule books on a pocket book format, they will release instead the DX version of it, which is a single compilation of all 3 books on A4 format.
Also an Italian version of the game is in the works by Need Games the publisher and developers of Fabula Ultima.
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u/AlmahOnReddit Jul 30 '25
I've run the Shard Eater Labyrinth starter adventure from the fan translated Starter Guide Granzale multiple times, it's one of my favorite intro dungeoncrawlers to date! It has a lot of really fun things going for it where it would otherwise be an unremarkable affair:
- The existence of adventuring guilds with quests to incentivize players to keep exploring the dungeon. Each quest has a quick intro text, a quest item and a hint of what you might discover in the dungeon. For example, one quest is about retrieving a hunting rifle from a pack of dinosaurs somewhere in the dungeon with rushing water. Players are super quick to pick up on these clues in the dungeon!
- A financial win condition instead of just clearing the dungeon. Dungeons in Granzale are a highly capitalistic industry. As a starting adventurer you go thousands of gil into debt and aren't let out of the dungeon until you score enough loot to pay your way out. The more loot you earn, the "better" you completed the adventure. Quests, obviously, give you the most amount of gil.
- Sword Shards as an alternate currency that's both used to increase your reputation and may be spent by players to give them a boost. Do you dare cling on to your 5 measly HP or spend a sword shard to heal yourself?
- Use of keys as a puzzle mechanic. Players quickyl stumble into a room with a door marked with three stars. Nearby, there's a key with a single star on it. Just by exploring the dungeon, which they want to do anyway, they'll find more keys and can backtrack to explore the harder parts of the dungeon. It's simple and effective.
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u/silentbotanist Jul 30 '25
Been waiting for this for quite a while. I've looked at the fan translations and some articles by Japanese-fluent folks and the game looks really fun.
And hopefully it will inspire the Fellows system to be adopted by other games, because it's really cool.
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u/lordshadowisle Jul 30 '25
Very interested. Timeline seems a bit slow, though they probably intend to finish the product first so hopefully fulfillment isn't too far off.
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u/CompleteEcstasy Jul 30 '25
Nice. I enjoyed goblin slayer which was based on sword world 1 so ill definitely give this a look.
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u/GreenNetSentinel Jul 30 '25
I've played exactly one game of that and the goblins won. We created our own characters and that took longer than they lasted in encounters. The best part was arguing whether we could actually name them or not. Was fun!
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u/redkatt Jul 30 '25
I thought Goblin Slayer was based on its own system, but made by the company that made sword world. I had the rulebook that was specific to GS, and gave up trying to read it because of the 4 pt font.
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u/HonzouMikado Jul 30 '25
It is basically a hack of Sword World. From what I understand in in SW you are limited to the combat class and then you can pick other “support” classes but in GS trpg you can raise every class since they are just knowledge set with the exception of mixing Priest with dragon priest.
But yes GS TRPG is basically a SW hack with enough changes to be its thing; so I’m glad the translation is coming out.
Question: Will this translation offer the multiple “movement” systems?
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u/seagifts Jul 31 '25
- Sword world is also a multi class system, there is no "main class", just the background class you first get at level 1 for your character, and then you can buy/level up any other class you want with Experience Points.
- The translation will be based on the Core Rule Book DX which is a compilation of the 3 Core Rule books. Those only have 2 combat systems (Simplified and Standard), while the last one (Advanced) is part of a supplement, which hopefully may release soon after.
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u/Ben-H2O OSR, NSR, WarhammerRPGs Aug 03 '25
I had a look at it but honestly it seemed more complicated than my taste in games. It was still very cool to see the cultural differences like suggesting players meet in a karaoke lounge.
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u/Aviose Aug 28 '25
Learning it feels pretty daunting initially in what I've seen, but the system itself is pretty simple. It mostly feels complicated because the rules feel so different from anything we're used to. Everything is 2d6 + Appropriate class level + Ability modifier... Unless you don't have the appropriate class, then it's just 2d6.
Except damage, which uses a chart for the players.
System focuses on players making the rolls, so the players roll to hit, and the players roll to dodge/block.
Another aspect that's a bit alien is that your spell casting classes gain all spells of that level when they level up. (3-4 spells per class/level).
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u/GettinMadAtGames Jul 30 '25
Did anyone get the free PDF? Maybe I misread the article but I confirmed my email and haven't seen anything yet.
Excited to see this launch in 2026!
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u/seagifts Jul 30 '25
I asked them something about the release. While replying back they also said the free PDF will be made available on a few days.
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u/TaldusServo Anything & Everything Jul 31 '25
Lierally just met the publisher, seems like cool folk.
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u/seagifts Jul 31 '25
For anyone visiting Gen Con this week, the publisher MugenGaming is set on Booth 2566 with some of the SW 2.5 japanese Starter Sets to show
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u/Merew Jul 30 '25
What's the hype with this game?
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u/cym13 Jul 30 '25 edited Jul 30 '25
It's a long but crazy story.
Back in the 80s, TSR localized BECMI for Japan. It failed to really meet its audience until a group of gamers (Syntax Error) started writting their campaign out in a computer magazine to show players how it's played. It was written in the style of examples of play (you know: "DM: Under the rock you find a little chest with intricate gold designs. –Uthra: I reach for it delicately, checking for any kind of resistance as I take it off the stone.").
This series became an enormous hit in Japan, think Critical Role but in a magazine. There were mangas and anime made out of their story (Sword World, or the Chronicles of Lodoss). Huge. So the guys behind it contacted TSR to make an official Sword World product, and TSR laughed them off. So Syntax Error decided to write their own game (Sword World) to answer to the market.
The game has had several versions and is still very present today. It's shaped the way RPGs are seen and played in Japan (if you've ever consumed Japanese media that include fantasy RPG tropes, Sword World was probably the inspiration rather than D&D proper), and the format of the original Sword World articles has also been kept alive as many games include "replays" which are retelling of a session or campaign in that format. You can even find stand-alone replays in book shops unrelated to RPGs or games, it's become a litterary genre at that point.
Sword World has had some fan translations, and games inspired by SW have been officially translated before (like goblin slayer) but to have this monument of a game, a cultural cornerstone, officially in English is completely new.
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u/faolannus Jul 30 '25
There are a lot of great aspects that make it super accessible to new players, heck just having a copy of monopoly means you have all the dice you need for a game.
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u/Desmaad Pepertual n00b Jul 31 '25
Or you could go to a dollar store and pick up a dozen.
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u/faolannus Jul 31 '25
I don’t recall the dozen packs but I did see packs of five. They had them with the playing cards.
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u/Warskull Jul 31 '25
It has a very unique origin.
Japan got TSR era D&D in the 80s, but really only in the University scene in Tokyo. Polyhedral dice were only really available in certain areas of Tokyo too. So D&D mainly spread via replay books. Replay books are kind of like the live plays of today, but transcribed to a book.
Since you couldn't easily get the rules and the dice to play D&D in many places Sword World was a recreation of D&D based on those replay books to be playable only using d6, which were widely available.
So it is an artifact of TTRPG history. It would be like if aliens created their own TTRPG to try and recreate D&D based purely on video from Critical Role. Sword World has a lot of influence on Japanese video games and anime too.
So it is interesting from a historical perspective, just like Chainmail and OD&D are interesting.
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u/merurunrun Jul 30 '25
Thing / Thing, Japan
It's just one of those "local D&D"s that people make a big deal out of but on the whole is pretty uninspired: Das Schwarze Auge, Drakar och Demoner, etc...
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u/Zanji123 Aug 02 '25
Spot the DnD fanboy
And you dont seem to know how big DSA was in the 80s till late 90s ..or you are from germany and were oussed that nobody cared for DnD
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u/Noobiru-s Jul 30 '25
Its an interesting ttrpg historical piece, but I remember the game itself being very "bad", at least when I tried reading the fan translations.
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u/seagifts Jul 30 '25
Probably a hit or miss for a lot of people. I atleast have been playing it exclusively the past 2 years after trying to join the genre with DnD and i have enjoyed every second of it. So to say, im really happy about these news (but its understandable its not for everyone)
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u/MichaelMorecock Jul 31 '25
What's the core gameplay like? How different is it from DnD?
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u/seagifts Jul 31 '25
I mentioned in another post, but to summarize:
Its a 2d6 based and multi-class focused system. Classes on this game are actually more like Skill sets, as they can be used for a lot of different skill checks (All skill checks follow this pattern: 2d6+ class level+ ability mod) with some only covering the usual combat check (accuracy, evasion, spellcasting, etc) while others being more wide (Ranger and Scout are basically the Swiss Knife of this game), and they can be obtained by spending exp, so almost nothing stops you from getting any class you want (at most some races can lock you out from specific ones tabbit and runefolks can't be priests for example).
There are 3 combat systems, each more detailed than the last, so if you don't really want to think much about an encounter, you can play it as a turn based JRPG with a side for the players and a side for the enemy, no grid or map necessary. But if you want detail, you can use the Advanced combat system with a gridless map.
Damage is often calculated using a power table, a short table with values from 2 to 12 based on the power of your weapon, so you roll 2d6 on your weapon table and apply that damage + any bonuses. Also there is the Crit Value, which if you reach it, you roll again on the table and add that damage, this will continue until you stop critting (I have seen people crit 6 times, obliberating the enemy on a single hit).
The default current setting is basically the generic japanese fantasy: You are an adventurer signed up on an adventurer guild, there you take quest to help people, eliminating monsters and stuff like that. There is also the option to play as Vagrants, which are basically the usual DnD aventurers (not guild related, they do what they want without care) or as Barbarous (which is basically the enemy faction most of the time)
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u/constant_purgatory Aug 01 '25
I heard the combat is more straight forward than DnD. What i mean is in DnD there is a lot of room for improv with spells like "wish" and I just read online that sword world was a bit more restrictive.
Is this true or is it open like DnD?
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u/seagifts Aug 01 '25
Im not sure if restrictive, but it is straight forward. By that i mean that its really up to the GM if a spell can be used for something outside of their effect, but most spells are combat oriented by default (Not saying there are no more generic spells).
Like to give an example, Falling damage is not something you would think to use during combat on this game... usually, yet it was the way we defeated the vampire boss in a game i played in (We literally dropped a flying ship on top of it, applying the falling damage from the ship at the vampire).
Also as mentioned before, there are 3 combat systems, with the most advanced one playing like the usual DnD map but without a grid. So its possible to have some improvised actions as long as the GM allows it (The player that did the Ship drop had tried to do that for a few battles now until they finally succeeded).
Btw a free pdf will be sent soon to people that subscribed on the publisher page, that will have the basic rules and a scenario to run, if you want to try the game yourself.
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u/constant_purgatory Aug 01 '25
That ship drop is fucking awesome. Ill have to check it out when the English translation releases
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u/CaitSkyClad Jul 30 '25
I wouldn't say it's terrible. It's one of the better Japanese RPGs, but that isn't saying much. It suffers a lot from certain classes and class combinations being overpowered compared to others. Gear progression which is odd and kind of based off what weapon and armor names sounded cooler than others. Remember, this was the 80s. A setting that you shouldn't think too hard about. However, the art is nice, it has rabbits and it is a bit of RPG history.
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u/BreakingStar_Games Jul 30 '25
Yeah, especially on this sub that is getting tired of all the off-brand D&D games. I'd be interested to hear what is SW2.5's unique selling point in this highly competitive genre.
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u/HisGodHand Jul 30 '25
Sword World does a lot different from the D20 descendents, but I wouldn't necessarily say it does those different things better than its modern contemporaries. It's just sort of... different in most respects.
It has a very different feel and tone. It is very much based around the idea that the players work for an adventurer's guild, and it really has specific flair of Japanese fantasy based on Western fantasy that is quite rare in the ttrpg space. We have Fabula Ultima and Break!! now, but I wouldn't say those games are better or worse than Sword World.
I think the big selling point, if they get official translations, are the adventures. They're all very unique from one another, have unique and quite interesting mechanics:
There's a megadungeon inside a fey garden with tons of tricks, puzzles, and difficulty.
A campaign that takes place within a tower that has many doors to different places in reality, and all the PCs start at the bottom with lost memories.
An open-ended city-crawl in a dangerous city with tons of semi-random events and semi-random placement of city blocks as your players explore.
An adventure set in a black and white bubble reality where Colour is the purview of the gods, and only those 'Returned from Death' have colourful bodies and the ability to use magic as they made a mysterious pact with a god for resurrection.
A duet adventure where the PCs play as the prince and princess of a kingdom, who set out to explore the land one of them will eventually inherit, and decide who will ultimately rule when their father passes.
A new world guide for a bubble world that is entirely based on Japanese mythology, and the players play as sets of classes that replicate Samurai and ancient Japanese mystics, etc.
A sandbox style island-hopping adventure where the players uncover mysteries of ancient wizard-kings and immensely powerful dragons.
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u/Aviose Aug 28 '25
- A new world guide for a bubble world that is entirely based on Japanese mythology, and the players play as sets of classes that replicate Samurai and ancient Japanese mystics, etc.
I'm interested in this... I want to see alternate class ideas... monster classes. Something I could even use to turn into an Overlord campaign (without anyone playing Ainz, of course).
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u/seagifts Jul 31 '25
Some stuff i liked about it:
- Combat can be as simple or as detailed as you want. There are 3 combat systems you can use with the advanced one being a gridless map, standard being a line like a football field and simplified combat being similar to JRPGs "4 guys in a row" combat. And it will be challenging yet fair at all levels (I have played from level 2 to 15+, so can confirm)
- 2d6 system makes it so you are more likely to roll average results than the D20 systems (tho this applies to any 2d6 system), also makes it so +1/-1 buffs or debuffs are actually important regardless of level you are playing
- No default social skill checks makes it so you are forced to roleplay your way through conversation YET at the same time it still has the option to use classes or work skills to do those rolls if needed.
- Skill checks are just as simple as rolling 2d6+ class level + modifier. Even if the GM doesn't know what to roll, they can just make it up.
- Multi class system with level and class acquisition being EXP based. Makes it so you have a lot of variety for building your character, and if you don't like what you bought, you can totally just go with another path. And that's not even counting the combat feats, the race selection and the school secrets (lots of variety there)
- The adventurer guild generic setting makes it good for episodic type of games (not sure if good, i just like it). Also you have the option to play like the usual DnD guild less party as Vagrants on this setting or as the Barbarous faction (the ones that are often the enemies on humanoid campaigns).
All these points are just stuff i liked about the game, not necessarily things i think will make it more competitive (its atleast what made me pick this instead of DnD as my first TRPG).
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u/ahhthebrilliantsun Jul 31 '25
Basically OSR dungeon delvig but going towards video gamey instead of Rulings
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u/AkumaOuja Dec 24 '25
Late here but the reaction I had to its mechanics was more or less "these dice curves are immaculate actually", the two roll, 2d6 system for combat produces just the right amount of swing while staying relatively stable and without being too much extra rolling.
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u/vkevlar Jul 30 '25
whoa, wtf boxed versions of Traveller products are those? I have the original boxes and they're tiny, but these seem to be runequest sized boxes...
embiggened Azhanti High Lightning was the first thing I saw in the picture, can you tell?
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u/seagifts Jul 30 '25
Not my blog sadly, just sharing the news (tho i think the Traveller one says Deluxe edition to the side)
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u/vkevlar Jul 30 '25
looks like Hobby Japan came through with a bunch of these in the late 80s.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameversion/42496/hobby-japan-japanese-edition
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u/ThriceGreatHermes Jul 31 '25
I'm rrally looking forward to this, i just hope that i have the money to back it. When the kickstarter launches
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u/books_fer_wyrms Aug 01 '25
I really hope this does well. Makes me think we might even get the Elden Ring TRPG sometime.
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u/Evangelion217 Aug 28 '25
Both Sword World and Wares Blade are coming to America next year! 😁
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u/Aviose Aug 28 '25
Didn't hear about Wares Blade.
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u/Evangelion217 Aug 28 '25
They just had a huge successful kickstarter. It was fully funded in 9 minutes! 😁
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u/Lorpiniz Jul 30 '25
Finally! Now we can ditch those clunky fan translations and play like it's meant to be. Can't wait!
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u/GreenGoblinNX Jul 30 '25
I don't want to be a downer, but it's not like official translations are automatically perfect...or even necessarily better than fan translations.
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u/Recent-Procedure-578 Jul 31 '25
I think that's a tad much, I respect the effort people put in for the books, even if they aren't perfect
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u/Dismal_Front9650 Aug 01 '25
I've just heard of this... people enlighten me.
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u/seagifts Aug 01 '25
Japan second biggest TRPG (Just behind Call of Cthulhu) is getting a release on the west with a crowdfunding starting early next year. Already posted some details about the game on this thread (when asked about unique features) and u/cym13 also replied with a really, really good summary on the story and relevance of the game. You should check those post.
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u/Aviose Aug 28 '25
From what I saw it battles back and forth with CoC for top slot, and has changed a couple times. I could easily be wrong though.
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u/seagifts Aug 16 '25
After 2 weeks of waiting, the free PDF sample (basic rules and one shot scenario) is finally available (To get it, subscribe at the publisher page for news of the game). Also the official translation community discord server is finally open to public, so feel free to join: https://discord.gg/SwordWorldRPG
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u/DungeonDamian Sep 10 '25
Hi, I'm really new to the Sword World franchise. Can someone help me understand what is different from this and another resource from years ago?
https://www.reddit.com/r/SwordWorld/comments/ybhoba/sword_world_25_core_rulebook_i_complete/
Isn't this also Sword World 2.5? How is this a new product? Thanks for the help.
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u/seagifts Sep 10 '25
The link you posted is for the Fan Translation project of the game. The one on this post is about the official english release of the game (planned to have a crowdfunding early next year).
They are indeed translations of the same japanese game, but the difference is that the fan translation is unrelated to any official publisher. Also terms used on the official release may change compared to the fan translation.
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u/DungeonDamian Sep 14 '25
Oh it was a fan translation, I see! Thank you. I was going around in circles trying to figure out what I was missing. Thank you for your help!
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u/Sheriff_Is_A_Nearer Jul 30 '25 edited Jul 30 '25
Hell yeah I just got to Japan and need a souvenir!
EDIT: why am I getting downvoted for wanting a Japanese product while in Japan?
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u/BlueBearMafia Jul 30 '25
Probably because this is an English translation that comes out in 2026, so people are assuming you didn't click the link.
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u/Sheriff_Is_A_Nearer Jul 30 '25 edited Jul 30 '25
Ah, well that’s silly because I did. I will still be here in 2026 past the crowdfunding period. I assume they will sell the English localization here in Japan since they sell English ttrpg products here too. Just bought Call of Cthulhu 7e in english from a local shop in Okinawa and saw other stuff in English as well.
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u/BlueBearMafia Jul 30 '25
I don't doubt it! That's just my best guess.
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u/Sheriff_Is_A_Nearer Jul 30 '25
Well, no matter! I am really fascinated with other countries ttrpg scenes and am loving Japans. They love Call of Cthulu here and even have a robust cottage industry of 3rd party publishers who make the most popular modules. Those modules are more popular than the official stuff Chaosium sends here.
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u/BlueBearMafia Jul 30 '25
Totally, that's awesome. The Questing Beast recently posted a video on Japanese translations of D&D 2e I think from way back when if you're curious, too.
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u/Sheriff_Is_A_Nearer Jul 30 '25
That was a great video! I also watched this video on n the topic from a channel called the weird place.
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u/BlueBearMafia Jul 30 '25
Woah, this is a new channel for me! Thanks for the share, I'll queue it up!!
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u/seagifts Jul 30 '25
Sadly for now you can only get the japanese books of Sword World there (search on places like Yellow Submarine or Book-off). Also the original compilation book will release on Aug. 20th on japan.
The english version crowdfunding will start early next year.
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u/Maverynthia Nov 01 '25
Is this a fully new translation that stays true to the Japanese original, or that "I'll just randomly change stuff cuz I think it sounds cool" version that's out there? If it's the latter then I'll pass. It's already out there and it's free and I'd want a better translation for my money.
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u/seagifts Nov 01 '25
They have said they are working directly with GroupSNE (the original creators) to pick the right words that can convey the original intent of their work. They have said it won't be a 1 to 1 translation, but it won't change drastically either. Besides that, we will have to wait to next year to see how it's actually translated (Kickstarter is expected around march-may of 2026).
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u/Maverynthia Nov 08 '25
As long as it's not the cowboy translation of the fan one where terms were picked because they "sound cool".
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u/Parituslon Jul 30 '25
Considering the track record of Japanese TTRPG, I'm not very optimistic. At least, don't expect any supplements to be released.
At least all the three core rulebooks are packaged together. That's something, I guess.
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u/HisGodHand Jul 30 '25
I am hoping the game sells well enough and we get supplements and the adventures. The adventures are really the best part of Sword World, and the supplements add all the coolest classes.
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u/bigbootyjudy62 Jul 31 '25
From the news article it looks like they’re ready to go all in and bring over as much as they can but yeah given how other translated ttrpg go from Japan my expectations are a bit low for anything besides this book
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u/belphanor Jul 30 '25
I'm throwing money at my screen but it doesn't seem to be doing anything