The Brazilian fans keeping the Street Fighter TTRPG alive

In 1999, Eric Souza was a kid in Campo Grande, a town in southern Brazil, convincing his father to buy him Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game for his upcoming 14th birthday. Today, that game, like all of the White Wolf games from that time period, has been out of print for at least 20 years. It’s also unavailable on DriveThruRPG or similar sites. But not only does Souza still play it, he’s the editor of a fanzine, Punho do Guerreiro or Warrior’s Fist, that’s creeping up on its 50th issue. Thanks to Souza and fellow hardcore fans in Brazil and around the world, a game, which was arguably obscure even when it was in stores, enjoys an enviable afterlife.

Capcom’s Street Fighter is one of the biggest videogame franchises of all time. But in the 90s, it was a fighting game that, through visceral sound and saturated color, made players feel every punch, every kick, every glorious combo like nothing before. People all over the world pushed coins into their local arcade machines for the thrill of just one more round. One of those people was Steve Wieck, former CEO of White Wolf, who was playing the game at a convenience store during breaks from working on another little game called Mage the Ascension. He knew it didn’t make much sense and didn’t really fit in with his company’s product line but nevertheless, he persuaded them to reach out to Capcom and get the license. It came out in 1994 and maybe expectedly, it wasn’t a hit.