Brainwoods Staff Blog

A Quest to Improve My Translation Skills

Hello, my name is Joel. I’m an in-house translator at Brainwoods. I moved to Tokyo from the UK almost exactly 4 years ago. Today I’d like to talk to you about my new hobby. For the last 3 months I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons (DnD). Some of you may have heard of this from the TV show Stranger Things, in which the young characters liken the terrifying creatures they face in real life to monsters from the game. DnD is a table-top role playing game (TRPG) created in 1974 and is the father of all modern role playing games, from Wizardry through to Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. In DnD, players take on the role of classic heroes such as warriors, wizards, monks or clerics, and sit around a table to tell a story together. The gamemaster narrates the scene, we players describe our actions, and dice determine the outcome. In my recent game, we were tasked with recovering a powerful magic item and destroying a rogue automaton. We promptly set about gathering clues to track down the whereabouts of our quarry. This lead to the infiltration of a corrupt politician’s manor through the sewers and a deadly battle with their hired thugs and finally the automaton itself. Not only do I enjoy the camaraderie of working together with the other players at the table, but smashing the automaton with my warhammer while dodging magic missiles from evil mages makes for great stress relief! As I live in […]