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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest 7034872" data-source="post: 8661636">I agree. It makes no sense to me to take a bunch of fables, myths, and legends spanning maybe a half-dozen different cultures over many centuries (Persia ain't Arabia ain't South Asia, wot wot?), throw them all into my literary blender, and then insist on historical accuracy for the I-N-V-E-N-T-E-D smoothie I pour out. It might be that the dispute at the moment on this thread and the other has more to do with how each of us intends to use our campaign settings than with anything about politics or cultural sensitivity. I use campaign settings to brainstorm story ideas, sure, but also to mine them for big, brightly-painted mythological settings that I already know don't add up when examined under a microscope (and I'd never expect or need them to). What's vital to me about these settings is they often do capture something deep about human nature that actual historical settings won't. History cannot enchant the way a myth can.It could well be, though, that another DM wants a game setting that's as close to actual history as narratively possible, and I can see where they might have all sorts of reasons for preferring that. That, I take it, will yield the "warts and all" approach to culture-borrowing when building a setting. For that to work, though, one will have to do a ton of historical research; as others noted early in this thread, not all historical warts are real and neither are all virtues. Sifting out the modern myths and finding the actual facts will take an awfully long time, and success surely will come only in degrees.For myself, I don't see much benefit in sticking to the actual histories much; I'm interested in the myths and legends. My strong recommendation of both Arabian Adventures and Campaign Guide: Zakhara is predicated on sharing these criteria, so it may well be that others will find these books unhelpful.</blockquote>

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