Japanese HeroQuest: Rulebook Translation

[The Admiral]

Well in that case I won't find out any more then.

[HispaZargon]

Essentially its a totally different artifact, despite having the same name and image, it's the familiar "Talisman of Lore" in name only. Nobody playing the game in Japan would have been confused by this since there was no other HQ edition available to compare to.

Instead of giving you 1 or 2 extra Mind Points, it resurrects the one holding it if he dies (or can resurrect the whole party in the case of a disastrous quest outcome).

Hence many home brewers have made little changes to differentiate it, like calling it the "Amulet of Life" or similar.

I'm not confused between the two versions. I am fully aware that they are totally different. The Japanese version just seems odd and I have seen different attempted translations of it. I am just interested as to what this newest translation will say.

Hi, my idea is making a copy of the Japanese rulebook (and later, the rest of game components) as much accurate as the original one, but translated to English language (and probably also to Spanish, but that's another "quest" ).

As first step I was not interested in translating every japanese sentence of the original document since I am not a japanese speaker and I have fortunately found here in the Inn several other people who were working on that in the past. I think the best translated version available is the one posted by Bob-Bob here but this version does not include i.e pages #1 and #2 so, I tried to also use the work performed by AerynB posted here, check other sources and make some Googling in order to fill the existing gaps.

My current draft of the first three pages is based in AerynB's posted document, but I have also added minor changes to the texts, mainly in order to adapt them to the available space and trying to avoid any non-sense or out of context sentence which could appear. After that, I think the best option is correcting page #3 of the draft in line with Bob-Bob's posted document and write all the next pages in the same way. I prefer Bob-Bob's version because, as Daedalus mentioned, in such translation was involved a japanese speaker person and, from my point of view this version seems to be the most accepted/agreed by the Inn's Community, up to date (please, correct me if I am wrong).

Therefore, does this work mean the release of a NEW translation version? Well, in my opinion, from a purist point of view, yes, it is, but, in general terms it should finally result in a similar translation as the Bob-Bob's existing one since the idea I have is just adapting the best already existing translation.

Finally I would like to say that, as all of you have sure detected , I am not a native English speaker so, of course feel free to correct me if you see any errata in the texts, I will appreciate it and that's one more reason I want to share with you my work. Notice that Japanese version general look is similar to the UK version of HeroQuest instead of the NA one so, in order to be as accurate as posible, I would like to write it in UK English, I guess this should be the language of this HQ version if it had been released in 1991 outside Japan, so, if you see any improvement also in that way, please tell me too and I will correct it.

[HispaZargon]

Is this actually a new translation though? I thought he was just matching the new text up with the illustrations in the original document. So a reformatting, not a re-translation. Right?

Hi, yes, reformatting a existing translation is the general idea of the work I am doing as I explain here.

[HispaZargon]

Well in that case I won't find out any more then.

Well, I have started with the rulebook, but I would like to have all the japanese game components translated as much accurate as posible to the original so, "legendary treasures" cards are also included there.

This work will be easier if more people is involved so I invited here to everyone who wants to participate for example with cards translation, respecting as much as posible the original japanese format of the cards so, from my side everybody is welcome.

About Talisman of Lore, sorry but for the moment I don't control why it is so difficult to translate or why there is no general agreement but be sure that I will work on it once needed if nobody do it before me.

[HispaZargon]

Then, here you have again my current draft of the first three pages, but corrected as I mentioned here.

Notice that page #1 has been also adapted to the rest of the text ("Warrior" and "Magician" words). Mmmm... avoiding the use of "Barbarian" and "Wizard" terms could be controversial but once I thought about it, if HQ japanese version was understood by manufacturer, since the beginning, as a different game than the rest of HQ versions, maybe taking about these two heroes by means of different words is something that I personally could accept since it gives to this version more personality, but those are only my thoughts .

Edited message: Previously attached file HQ_Japanese_Rulebook_in_English_Pages_01-03_v2.pdf has an updated version in this post.

[Daedalus]

. . . After that, I think the best option is correcting page #3 of the draft in line with Bob-Bob's posted document and write all the next pages in the same way. I prefer Bob-Bob's version because, as Daedalus mentioned, in such translation was involved a japanese speaker person and, from my point of view this version seems to be the most accepted/agreed by the Inn's Community, up to date (please, correct me if I am wrong).

if I recall correctly, bluesun (the translator) was supposed to have studied Japanese in college and was described as fluent by Bob-Bob. My personal opinion is that experience would make for a better translation, but it also likely relies more on interpretation. I don't actually recall if others agreed with my preference, which admittedly relies on an Inn non-member that worked entirely outside of the forum. Bob-Bob pretty much appeared out nowhere, shared the translation (thankfully), and discussed it on the Forum. I'd say his commitment was apparent.

Finally I would like to say that, as all of you have sure detected , I am not a native English speaker so, of course feel free to correct me if you see any errata in the texts, I will appreciate it and that's one more reason I want to share with you my work. Notice that Japanese version general look is similar to the UK version of HeroQuest instead of the NA one so, in order to be as accurate as posible, I would like to write it in UK English, I guess this should be the language of this HQ version if it had been released in 1991 outside Japan, so, if you see any improvement also in that way, please tell me too and I will correct it.

There are a number of NA (US) formatting and naming conventions AerynB used in her translation that made it into yours. They are fine and I personally prefer them for their clarity, but you may wish to switch to the EU (UK) counterparts. With that in mind (plus other edits):

p.1
You may want to change occurrences of:

"King of Neef Island">king of Neef Island
"Information Screen">Screen
"Rulebook">Rules of Play
"Questbook">Quest book
"Chaos Warlock">Sorcerer
"Pieces of Furniture">Pieces of furniture
"Monster Cards">Monster cards
"Treasure Cards>Treasure cards
"Equipment Cards>Equipment cards
"Earth Spells">Earth spells
"Water Spells">Water spells
"Air Spells">Air spells
"Fire Spells">Fire spells
"Artifact Cards">Quest Treasures

p.2
You may wish to change "1. Carefully remove the Heroes and Monsters pieces from the plastic sprue.">1. Carefully remove the hero and monster pieces from their plastic sprues.

(More edits to be added, but stop me if you prefer NA style.)

[iKarith]

A scan won't retain the vector graphics, but be easier to "trace" back into vector, at least.

[HispaZargon]

. . . After that, I think the best option is correcting page #3 of the draft in line with Bob-Bob's posted document and write all the next pages in the same way. I prefer Bob-Bob's version because, as Daedalus mentioned, in such translation was involved a japanese speaker person and, from my point of view this version seems to be the most accepted/agreed by the Inn's Community, up to date (please, correct me if I am wrong).

if I recall correctly, bluesun (the translator) was supposed to have studied Japanese in college and was described as fluent by Bob-Bob. My personal opinion is that experience would make for a better translation, but it also likely relies more on interpretation. I don't actually recall if others agreed with my preference, which admittedly relies on an Inn non-member that worked entirely outside of the forum. Bob-Bob pretty much appeared out nowhere, shared the translation (thankfully), and discussed it on the Forum. I'd say his commitment was apparent.

Finally I would like to say that, as all of you have sure detected , I am not a native English speaker so, of course feel free to correct me if you see any errata in the texts, I will appreciate it and that's one more reason I want to share with you my work. Notice that Japanese version general look is similar to the UK version of HeroQuest instead of the NA one so, in order to be as accurate as posible, I would like to write it in UK English, I guess this should be the language of this HQ version if it had been released in 1991 outside Japan, so, if you see any improvement also in that way, please tell me too and I will correct it.

There are a number of NA (US) formatting and naming conventions AerynB used in her translation that made it into yours. They are fine and I personally prefer them for their clarity, but you may wish to switch to the EU (UK) counterparts. With that in mind (plus other edits):

p.1
You may want to change occurrences of:

"King of Neef Island">king of Neef Island
"Information Screen">Screen
"Rulebook">Rules of Play
"Questbook">Quest book
"Chaos Warlock">Sorcerer
"Pieces of Furniture">Pieces of furniture

p.2
You may wish to change "1. Carefully remove the Heroes and Monsters pieces from the plastic sprue.">1. Carefully remove the hero and monster pieces from their plastic sprues.

(More edits to be added, but stop me if you prefer NA style.)

Thank you, I will correct those words in next draft version and, yes please you can continue!

[HispaZargon]

Here is the draft of the first 7 pages for your comments:

Edited message: Previously attached file HQ_Japanese_Rulebook_in_English_Pages_01-07.pdf has an updated version in this post.

[HispaZargon]

Hi,
Beginner Rules' chapter finished. Here is the draft of the first 11 pages for your comments:

Edited message: Previously attached file HQ_Japanese_Rulebook_in_English_Pages_01-11.pdf has an updated version in this post.