Elden Ring tabletop RPG book to be released in Spring 2023 in Japan

A quick introduction to the history of tabletop RPGs in Japan

Given the genre’s history in Japan, adapting Elden Ring into a tabletop RPG makes perfect sense. The legendary Dungeons & Dragons tabletop RPG has had a huge influence on media around the world, and needless to say, that includes Japan. Tabletop RPG, abbreviated as TRPG in Japan, has always been an incredibly popular format there and has helped shape Japanese media as it exists today. (By the way, tactical RPGs are called simulation/strategy RPGs in Japan and are abbreviated as SRPG instead of TRPG).

Dungeons & Dragons led to the creation of the Wizardry series on PC, which led to the JRPG genre with series like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Additionally, Ryo Mizuno, the author of the highly influential Record of Lodoss War fantasy novels, first began the story as a novelization of Dungeons & Dragons campaigns that he played with friends. Ryo Mizuno was also one of the founding members of the SNE Group, which still develops many collectible card games and tabletop RPGs today, including this new tabletop game Elden Ring.

Tabletop RPGs are still very popular in Japan, and new games are released regularly. Some of them through crowdfunding projects. A handful of games are sometimes fan-translated and even officially translated, such as the recent release of Kamigakari: God Hunters.

SNE Group is in charge of tabletop RPG Elden Ring

The SNE Group already released a Dark Souls tabletop RPG in 2017, and this Elden Ring adaptation will be handled by the same producer, Hironori Katou. He is an author and designer known for the TCG Monster Collection and its tabletop RPG spin-off Rokumon Sekai.

The book will include typical data for tabletop RPGs such as items, monsters, skills, etc., all from Elden Ring. The size and price of the book will be announced later with more details. It will certainly be interesting to see if this tabletop RPG ever releases outside of Japan. Chances are really high to see the popularity of Elden Ring. The Dark Souls Tabletop RPG book has also been localized.

These days, FromSoftware is notably working on a new Armored Core game, which could be revealed soon since the series just celebrated its 25th anniversary on July 10. The studio has already confirmed several times in the past to work on several games. FromSoftware is also still recruiting for several projects.