Back in 2017 I stumbled over this on the Chinese crowdfunding site Modian. They were asking for 50,000RMB (~US$7000 today) to translate the FATE Core rulebook into Chinese.
They got over 215,000RMB (~US$30,000).
As a result of this almost all of the then-extent supplements for FATE were translated and published in China. FATE, as a result, is now actually quite a popular game in China: about #3, from eyeballing Taobao. (#1 is Call of Cthulhu, of all games, and #2 is D&D/Pathfinder.)
This is exciting all by itself already, as far as I’m concerned, but even more exciting to me is this:
There is a native ecosystem of FATE world books and adventures that seems to be popping up. (I’m assuming these aren’t translations because “Bilibili” isn’t a thing outside of China as far as I know, and the other two are about a very Chinese semi-mythical figure that most people outside of China won’t have heard of.)
It makes sense to me that CoC would tank high. The whole mythical sea monster is a popular trope in far east culture.
It’s cool how different systems get wildly different reactions based on culture. When I moved to the US from Brazil I was surprised how hegemonic D&D was. I was expecting the opposite given Brazil has less options to choose from but seemed easier to find people willing to play almost any setting or system.
