D&D General (Anecdotal) conversations with Asian gamers on some problems they currently face in the D&D world of RPG gaming

[Coroc]

Agreed.

I was cogitating some of the statements made in this thread and something occurred to me in regards to the notion of "edginess" and "pablum" in the art and writing.

5e is by far the edgiest and least pablum, most in your face edition of D&D ever produced. You think that the whole "Satanic Panic" was bad? You think that line art of boobies is edgy? My 5e books would have been banned and burned not that long ago. Don't think so? Well, let's look at some specifics shall we?

1. My Dragon Heist book has NPC's who are openly gay and are living openly in a married household. Not that long ago, this would have been suicidal to publish. The backlash would have sunk any chances of printing the game. Heck, even as it was, including a single line about including non-binary and gay characters into the game in the PHB was grounds for major flare ups on forums, Reddit and other places with people being banned from this site for their views, and all sorts of extreme vitriol.

Don't believe me? Scroll back a few years in the forums, or search for the threads.

2. The very first page of my 5e PHB has a black man in a turban wearing some sort of desert gear fighting goblns. You think you could have done that in 2001 with the release of 3.5, just shortly after 9/11? Good luck with that. AD&D didn't even include any images of non-whites in the core books. If you weren't white, you didn't exist. A book with a black man on the first page in 1976? Not a freaking chance.

So, yeah, I'll see your line art boobies and call. The art and writing in 5e includes elements that you couldn't even begin to hint at 10, 20, 30 years ago. Pablum? I kinda wonder what the meaning of that actually is considering that the 5e books have all the flavor of earlier books PLUS a bunch more. Edgy? Having the stones to stand up and be counted on the side of social justice is about as edgy as it gets boys and girls. It's the stuff that gets your stores firebombed and your writers death threats. Pablum would be going back to the old books where everyone is CIS, white, and minorities don't exist.

Temple of elemental evil CRPG came out in the around 200x (still using e3.0 rules) had the possibility of a gay romance.

Imho D&D was more open minded than the "Zeitgeist" during most periods. Simply because D&D has mostly users of better than average intellect and education which includes more tolerance and liberality.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If the cat hunts mice I don't mind it about to be black or white, male or female.

This is strange. Nobody worries about me to be offended for the scarlet mujahideens red paladins in Netflix's Cursed but an innocent children cartoon PAW patrol is not tolerated any more because a character, a puppy, is a cop.

One of the main threads in the TTRPS is about coexistence and cooperation between different people, but this doesn't appear in many titles of Asia speculative fiction.

Nobody should forbid WotC to publish an updated version of OA and Kara-Tur. You can't blame Japan to be a higher cultural impact in the Western fandom, but I dare to say you should thank manga-anime because this opened a doors and now the speculative fiction from the rest of Asian and Pacific Ocean countries can be introduced into the Western markets.

Lots os Korean webtoons create countries and empires based in the British empire for the Victorian age but they don't worry at all about to be a loyal adaptation. And what the matter?

WotC doesn't need serious risks. It starts selling PDFs about monsters and heroes from far realms (not only Asia, but from Philipines, Australia, Africa and American native cultures) and waits the feedback. The strategy would be "don't say me how to build, but here you are the brick and other materials and you build how you think it has to be". Later the PC races based in the folklore from far cultures are added into the open licence SRD.

Other option is Hasbro to buy "cheap" Asian IPs of titles what aren't published any more (broken companies and like this).

* Could half oni/ogre mage be a PC race, and rat goblins, or half-hobgoblings? A Sun Wukong a vestige who pacts with warlorcks/binders?

* Any suggestion about how to remake martial adepts (crusader, warblade and swordsage) to be used in a D&D xuahuan setting? Would you use the martial adept classes by Dreamscarred Press in your D&D games? (and the akasha classes daevi, raja and guru, the ersatz of incarnum soulmelders?) Should the sohei be remade as a martial adept class?

* Would be right the title "Guides by the journeyers to the west"?

 

[BookTenTiger]

If the cat hunts mice I don't mind it about to be black or white, male or female.

This is strange. Nobody worries about me to be offended for the scarlet mujahideens red paladins in Netflix's Cursed but an innocent children cartoon PAW patrol is not tolerated any more because a character, a puppy, is a cop.

That's not true.

Snopes rates that one False.

 

[Catulle]

What is he talking about here? I can't tell who thinks what.

It's fairly standard copypasta "addressing racism is the real racism" nonsense. Best to note that and move on.

 

[Umbran]

I think the shear number of people protesting in American streets ....

Mod Note:

I know it can be hard, but please limit the discussion to gaming. Thanks.

 

[TheBoredGM]

I think we've made it clear that the "those fighting racism are the real racists" nonsense

You’re begging the question.

 

[TheBoredGM]

I think the shear number of people protesting in American streets and the Democratic party and national media's public stance to condemn racism demonstrate just how many millions people do not hold racist views.

Burning your country down does not comprise fighting racism.

 

[Morrus]

You’re begging the question.

I'd say alt-accounts to get around bans are against the rules, but this is like your 7th alt. Give it up, dude. You can't just sneak into somebody's house after they asked you to leave.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Daniel Kwan hosted a panel on using Asian cultures in D&D game design at D&D Celebration this past Sunday. Joining him were Steve Huynh, Ammar Ijaz, Pam Punzalan, and Ahmed Aljabry.

EDIT: Huffington Post article on the above panel: Dungeons & Dragons Panel Offers Advice On Representing Asian Cultures

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I have said in the past WotC wants D&D to be also played by Asians. I understand we have to be politically correct but I worry the cultural consultants even from the same country may totally different points of view about their own past.