We're on an epic adventure to bring Sword World to English for it's first-ever official translation, and we're so glad you're here! If you follow the campaign, you earned your first of the 3 Swords of Genesis pins!
Next, you can earn the Cardia pin by reserving your pledge.
Not interested? That's OK! You're still set to receive the Lumiere pin with your physical pledge. You can join us on the Discord to stay up to date and chat with other adventurers about Sword World.
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The First English Release of the Oldest and Most Popular Japanese RPG is Coming to Crowdfunding.
Sword World is Japan’s most iconic tabletop RPG - played by generations of fantasy fans and featured across anime, novels, and pop culture. For the first time, we're bringing an official, full-English release to the West. This crowdfunding campaign will fund the complete localization, design, and printing of the Sword World 2.5 Core Rulebook.
To ensure the highest quality translation possible, we are working closely with Sword World's original Japanese creators at Group SNE. With careful translation of cultural elements and game terms, guidance from the original developers, and collaboration with Japanese translation and TTRPG experts, this localization aims to set a new gold standard. We are putting in the time and effort to get every detail right so you can enjoy playing Sword World the way it was always meant to be.
The popularity of Record of Lodoss War is what encouraged Group SNE to make their own game system based in and around the series, that game system being the original Sword World RPG. Record of Lodoss War has been entered into the Tabletop Gaming Hall of Fame as the creator of the Replay genre for books, shows, and other media. Based on an RPG campaign playthrough, the Lodoss War novels inspired more books, anime, and games. Their legacy has led to the Critical Role Actual Play, their Vox Machina and Mighty Nein shows, and more.
Sword World is not a new TTRPG - it's one of the oldest. Its rules have been refined for decades. Sword World uses a fast, intuitive 2d6 system: easy to learn, but rich in storytelling and tactics. The simplified combat system feels like classic JRPGs, and its side-based combat skips the grid for smooth, cinematic battles that stay focused on the action. Looking for more depth? Use the advanced combat system for more tactical depth when you want it.
The open multiclass system lets you spend experience to grow in any role - mix magic, swordplay, and more to play a character that grows as you do. No rigid classes, just evolving heroes.
With a world built around adventurers' guilds, quests, and dungeons created by swords and magitec, every session feels like an episodic anime arc - complete quests, build your legend, and come back for more.
Thank you!
Click Here to Reserve your Pledge!
Latest from the Creator
Mugen Gaming
2 months ago
❗Important Sword World Crowdfunding Update
We want to share an important update on the Sword World crowdfunding campaign.
We’ve made the decision to delay the crowdfunding launch, with an updated date coming soon. We know everyone is excited for this project, and we sincerely apologize for the delay. Our commitment remains to ensuring that backers of this campaign will be supporting a project they believe in.
Why the delay
This comes down to art production, particularly the cover art. We recently brought on Shun-san as our Art Director, and getting him fully onboarded and aligned across the project has taken additional time. At the same time, we had to make a change in cover artist, and the new artist won’t be able to complete the covers within our original timeline.
We are also committed to using human-made art from Japanese artists. That commitment is important to us, but it does mean longer timelines due to scheduling, coordination, and working across teams internationally.
We are not comfortable launching without finalized cover art, and we want to make sure backers have the information they need to confidently support the project. For us, that means choosing quality and completeness over speed.
What we’re doing about it
We are taking steps to make sure this stays on track. We’ve added additional support on the art production side, and we’re traveling to Japan this month and will be meeting directly with Group SNE, Shun, and the broader art team to ensure alignment and keep everything moving forward smoothly.
The good news
We are very confident in the direction of the art, and this decision will result in a much stronger final product rather than a rushed one.
The other possible silver lining for this delay is that we are also in ongoing discussions with Yoshitaka Amano-sensei’s studio about the possibility of including his work in this project. This is one of the biggest requests we’ve received for art for Sword World and we are very excited about the chance to work with such a legendary artist. It is not finalized at this time, but we will share more details if and when it comes together.
Timing of this Announcement
We also want to acknowledge the timing of this update. We were pushing to have cover art ready to share, and when that became unlikely, to lock in a revised schedule before announcing anything. When it became clear that the art wouldn’t be possible in time, we started working on a new launch date, but when we realized it might cause our art team to make decisions they weren’t confident in, we decided it was better to update you now without the new launch date rather than wait any longer.
Timeline and commitment
Our overall production timeline remains intact. We are still aiming to launch the crowdfunding campaign as soon as we are ready, and we are still targeting completion of the core rules and starter set by the end of the year. While the cover art affects the timing of the campaign, the rest of the project is continuing to move forward.
Our mission is to bring Sword World to you in the best possible form. We know all crowdfunding projects experience delays, and when we came to the fork in the road we decided we wanted to choose the quality and fidelity of the work on the project over timelines. We will always choose to take more time rather than ask for your support before the project is ready.
Thank you for your patience and continued support. We’re excited to share more with you very soon.
-Shawn & Ai
P.S. Followers of the project can view a timelapse below of some Sword World art from one of our Japanese artists working on the project. You can see what a process this all has been from the development of this one single piece of art. Thanks so much for your patience and understanding. We’ll have more to share soon.
We just wanted to drop a quick note because we realized we just crossed the 3,000 reservation threshold. WOW! Thanks so much. Your enthusiasm for this project really warms our hearts. We'll have a lot coming up to share, but for now, thought we'd ask you all to share some thoughts with us:
One of the most frequently asked questions so far has been "will there be stretch goals and what will they be." Unfortunately, we can't divulge much information about that yet (see our latest livestream where we discuss some of this). We'd love to hear your thoughts though. What kind of Sword World content interests you the most?
Here's a poll with a few choices (had to keep it short and simple to avoid giving anything away)...but feel free to get wild with your ideas. As always, we love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Now's your chance to help shape the campaign 🤩
We have gotten some recurring questions that we'd like to have the answers to in one place, and since the FAQ's page on BackerKit can't be accessed until the project launches, we decided to do an update with all of the important questions we get regularly answered, and we'll make sure to edit/review/add and change anything as we move forward.
Are you planning to localize all of the Sword World RPG books?
We will be working through the books with Group SNE. This will take some time. It won't all happen at once, but we are planning to do additional books and work through the back catalog. This crowdfunding campaign performing well would help to move that process along!
What will the size of the book be?
We are still finalizing, but it will likely be 8.5 x 11 (letter sized). This is because the Japanese written language is more space efficient, and the books would be insanely thick if we chose a smaller form.
Will it be in black and white?
We will be releasing the Sword World RPG Core Rules in full-color!
International fulfillment?
We are planning to ship to wherever we are able! While this campaign is allowed to ship to other countries, it will have to be on a country by country basis due to shipping restrictions. We will keep you updated!
FYI: Just a note to potential backers who want to reserve but are worried that we won’t ship to their countries: This reservation lasts till the day of launch so you don’t need to reserve immediately, and we should have some more information on shipping before launch.
Is this a 1:1 translation?
No, it functionally cannot be. However, we are working with Group SNE as the authority on the translation to make sure it's as close to the source information as possible. This requires difficult decisions, however, those decisions are being made with the original creators of the game in order to make sure you are getting to experience Sword World the way it was originally intended.
Will you be using Generative AI for art and translation? What is your stance on AI?
Our stance on AI is similar to what most game producers is: we have absolutely no intention at all to use generative ai in any part of the release of Sword World. We are working with Japanese artists, we are doing the translation, we are working with writers and proofreaders that are human, so every step of the way we are having humans produce the art and translation.
...we'll keep this page updated with more FAQs as they arise!
📣 Livestream with Shawn and Ai | Why Is Sword World Taking So Long?
Hey hey, my friends! Shawn and Ai will be live again today at 2pm EST! We know the wait for the Sword World Crowdfund has been a long one, so we wanted to talk a bit about WHY it is taking this much time. TLDR - we are not willing to sacrifice quality for speed. Shawn and Ai will be talking all about it today in the livestream, and they'll also answer any other questions you might have. Here are some frequently asked questions and their answers, just to get them out of the way now:
What kind of tiers will there be in the crowdfund? Unfortunately, we can't answer any questions about tiers yet as those have not gotten final approval from Group SNE yet.
Are you planning to localize all of the Sword World RPG books? We will be working through the books with Group SNE. This will take some time. It won't all happen at once, but we are planning to do additional books and work through the back catalog. This crowdfunding campaign performing well would help to move that process along!
What will the size of the book be? We are still finalizing, but it will likely be 8.5 x 11 (letter sized). This is because the Japanese written language is more space efficient, and the books would be insanely thick if we chose a smaller form.
Will it be in black and white? We will be releasing the Sword World RPG Core Rules in full-color!
International fulfillment? We are planning to ship to wherever we are able! While this campaign is allowed to ship to other countries, it will have to be on a country by country basis due to shipping restrictions. We will keep you updated!
You can also drop questions in the comments here, below! See you soon!!
As we consider virtual tabletop (VTT) support for Sword World, we were wondering what platform you would personally like to see us partner with. We had a lot of suggestions in our last livestream, so we wanted to consolidate the feedback here! That doesn't mean we'll definitely go with the winner, but your feedback will help us narrow down the options, for sure. Let us know!
Happy Tuesday, @everyone ! Popping in to let you know that Shawn and Ai will be live again today at 2pm EST! They are going to be available to answer any of your questions regarding Sword World and will also be giving a run down on why they chose crowdfunding and what it means for you. Bit of a curveball, but we'll be going live on YouTube this time and are also planning on streaming that live through to BackerKit.
If you are in the Discord, make sure to pop into the "leveling_up" channel and drop the sword emoji to get your XP points!
Feel free to drop your questions and comments below! See you soon!
