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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 6697597">And I think when you start talking about RPGs, cultural borrowing is one of the big engines of setting building. There are better ways and worse ways to do it of course and as Celebrim's video points out borrowing isn't the same as insulting. I try to be sensitive in how I borrow, but this term Cultural Appropriation seems like one those things that everyone has a slightly different definition for and when I try to retroactively apply it to history you have to end up stripping out a lot of great things like rock music (which is appropriation of things like the blues). It often seems to be more about accuracy in depiction than sensitivity. I don't find it particularly helpful when I design. I do find the idea of 'being culturally sensitive" useful, not doing things that are insulting. But borrowing clothing or systems of government, combining different cultural elements, all seem pretty cool to me. In one of my games I borrowed a lot from Thai culture to create key parts of a fantasy world. I know a bit about Thai history culture but my aim wasn't accuracy, it was to take cool elements and use them to make new things. When I showed it to gamers in Thailand (via the internet, I didn't travel there to show them) they were really happy about it.</blockquote>