# Record of Lodoss War RPG tags: #game/rpg/record-of-lodoss-war ![[Record of Lodoss War RPG (cover).jpg|600]] The tabletop RPG behind the fantasy franchise that a generation met through Deedlit and Parn before they ever touched a d10. **Record of Lodoss War RPG** began life in 1986 as a [[Dungeons and Dragons]] magazine replay — a set of transcribed session notes that outgrew the table, then the page, then the TV screen, until it was a nostalgia brand with its own 30th-anniversary edition. That edition is this book: the 2018 KADOKAWA *renewal* of the classic Lodoss Island d100 system, repackaged so a new generation can learn what 1989 felt like when the dice did the work. There was never an official English release — the publisher left that market to the fans — so your copy is the **fan translation** by Gilgamesh108 and Zantam03 (completed 30 September 2026), lovingly reconstructed across an ocean and a language barrier. English readers get the Accursed Island in its natural habitat: warm, guild-and-coin party fantasy with just enough retro percentage checks to smell like a magazine you'd have had to import. ## Setting There is an island named Lodoss. Long ago, in the final stages of the War of the Gods, the land was touched by the curse of the Goddess of Destruction, Kardis, in her dying breath; the Earth Mother Goddess Marfa used the last of her power to sever the tainted land from the continent of Alecrast. Where Marfa fell, fertility was promised; where Kardis was vanquished, a dark place filled with monsters. So the people called it the Accursed Island — and the adventurers keep coming anyway. Players are adventurers of the same freelance breed as Parn and Deedlit: they register with guilds, take dangerous jobs for coin, and throw themselves into peril for reasons ranging from a king's mission to a get-rich-quick dream. It's the classic Japanese party-fantasy economy — the oldest job market in the genre, and roughly as glamorous as a staffing agency — and the book aims it squarely at the era of the first novel, *The Grey Witch* — the **War of Heroes period**. In the 510th year of the New Royal Calendar, the Dark Emperor Beld, who unified the savage tribes of the demon-haunted Marmo Empire into a conquering force, invades the kingdom of Kanon, seeking to unite all of Lodoss through force of arms. Forty years earlier the Six Heroes — White Knight Fahn, Red-haired Mercenary Beld, Sage of the Wilderness Wort, Neese, Iron King Flaibe, and a sixth who vanished before leaving a name — slew the Demon King in the Demon War. Now the PCs wade into the great war that will decide the island's future. The world is the familiar Lodoss map: the Millennium Kingdom of Alania (with the Royal Castle of Stone Web at its heart), the desert kingdom of Flaim under its Mercenary King, the merchant-ruled Free City of Raiden, the dragon-covenanted Duchies of Moss where the golden dragon took the name Mycen, the Holy Kingdom of Valis and the Temple of Pharis, Kanon, and the Marmo Empire. The book carries a world guide walking through these countries, plus four scenarios set during the War of Heroes. ## Mechanics The system is a race-and-class **d100 percentage** game, descended from Lodoss Island Companion (1989) and Lodoss Island RPG (1995) and tightened so it can run in shorter sessions. The book's own back cover promises the whole thing in one slogan: *"The key to adventure lies in 'Concentration,' the mark of a hero."* — and that is exactly where the fun lives. ### Action Checks An Action Check rolls D100 at or under a success rate: success if you land below it, failure if you exceed it. Three edge cases keep even a stacked character honest: **Automatic Success** on 01–10, **Automatic Failure** on 91–00 (a guaranteed 10% each, whatever your rate), and a **Great Success** when you roll under one-tenth of your current success rate. The success rate is a Base Value — eight of them: Combat, Evasion, Resistance, Educational, Perceptual, Athletic, Operating, and Negotiation — plus skill levels ×5% and situational modifiers the GM hands out along a sliding scale (+20 to +60 for easy, −20 to −60 for hard). ### Concentration Checks — the mark of a hero The signature mechanic. Concentration is an ability value held only by heroes and hero candidates: all PCs have it, but most ordinary NPCs and monsters do not. Spend one of your daily uses (a pool equal to your Adventurer Level, refreshed by a good night's sleep), roll D100 against your **unchanged** Concentration value, and on success you either improve the result of an Action Check by one step (failure→success, success→great success) or turn your initiative die into a flat 10. The book is almost sentimental about it: Concentration Checks sit outside all modifiers precisely so nothing spoils the player's big moment — a little bubble of hero-worship the rules refuse to second-guess. It's a limited, dramatic safety net, and it's charmingly unapologetic about letting the heroes be heroes instead of pretending the dice are an impartial judge. ### Character Creation Six base classes — Knight, Warrior, Thief, Sorcerer, Shaman, and Priest — and five races: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Half-elf, and the Grass-runner, the continent-bred folk who are the only race able to sing the Spellsong. Each race carries an origin table that grants a starting skill and gold, and its own class restrictions (humans alone may be knights). Eight ability values set the tone: Concentration, Endurance, Intelligence, Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Luck, and Charm. You build them by point-buy (95 points across a 6–15 scale) or by rolling 3d6 eight times, three times over, and keeping your favorite set, then layering on racial modifiers. The resources you track are LP (Life Points), MP (Mental Points), and Concentration-Check uses. Data runs adventurer levels 1 through 16 — from first jobs to legendary deeds. ### Combat Rounds run about ten seconds of game time, resolved side by side. An **initiative check** — a single 1D10 player-representative's roll against the enemy's fixed initiative value, nudged by Battle Order checks and pushable to a flat 10 via Concentration — decides which side is the *initial attacking side*, and each character's turn is one Movement, one Main Action, and two Auxiliary Actions. Battlefields come in three tiers — Simplified, Standard, and Advanced Battlefield Rules — with lighting and visibility imposing real penalties on ranged work. Attacks are Hit Checks against Combat Power; defenders can Parry with a weapon or shield, make an Evasive Defense, or simply trust their armour value. Damage splits three ways — **Physical** (shaved by armour), **Magical**, and **Internal** (poison, disease, suffocation) — and carries attributes (fire, ice, earth, wind, poison, pure energy) that play off weaknesses and resistances. LP is unforgiving: at 0 or below you're LP-Depleted and incapacitated, and dipping to −10 or worse is permanent — you stay dead even if the points come back. ### Magic Five systems share the stage: **Common Language Magic** and **Ancient Language Magic** (the sorcerer's arsenal, right up to summoning magical creatures), **Spirit Magic** for shamans (including spirit-summoning at high level), **Holy Magic** for the priest's efficient recovery, and **Spellsong Magic** for the Grass-runners. Spells cost MP, and most damaging ones resolve against the target's resistance, with the standard "half damage when resisting" or "not applicable when resisting" notations deciding how much actually lands. ## Editions The Lodoss line is Japanese through and through, and none of it ever got an official English release — the publisher left that to the fans. This note's copy is their work: the translation by **Gilgamesh108 and Zantam03** (completed 30 September 2026). - **Record of Lodoss War Companion** (1989) — the original Lodoss TTRPG, d100 percentage, marketed squarely at people who'd played computer RPGs but never sat at a table — the hobby widening its own funnel before 'gatekeeping' was a word. - **Lodoss Island RPG: Basic Rules** (1995) and **Expert Rules** (1996) — the more detailed evolution, adding advanced classes, spells, skills, and longer sessions. - **Record of Lodoss War RPG** (2018) — this book; the 30th-anniversary renewal by Tadaaki Kawato, Takeo Sugiura, and Group SNE (game concept Hiroshi Takayama), keeping the old system's strengths while organizing the rules for shorter sessions — the anniversary special, selling the same d100 bones a third time because the nostalgia market had spoken. *In the library (as the Gilgamesh108 & Zantam03 fan English translation).* - **Record of Lodoss War RPG Supplement: Demon Wars / War of the Destroyer's Resurrection** (2019) — adds the Demon War and Evil God War periods, more rules, poisons, diseases, and monster data. The world is a sibling of **[[Sword World]]**, the 2d6 system that grew out of the same replays and went on to become Japan's most-played fantasy RPG — but Lodoss War RPG keeps its own distinct d100 identity. ## References - [Record of Lodoss War - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_of_Lodoss_War) - [ロードス島戦記RPG - KADOKAWA product page](https://www.kadokawa.co.jp/product/321803001651) - [ロードス島戦記RPG - Fujimi TRPG Online](https://fujimi-trpg-online.jp/game/rodoss.html) - [Record of Lodoss War Wiki: Fan-translations](https://recordoflodosswar.fandom.com/wiki/Record_of_Lodoss_War_Wiki:Fan-translations) - [Record of Lodoss War RPG fan translation (direct download) - OneDrive](https://1drv.ms/b/c/44de0dbd925ad4aa/IQA5KkvcSYlnQqgVv-dmujdvAa3WSwzOfzwYHJNtsqPaxB4?e=FfE3Ej)