Do We Still Need "Oriental Adventures"?

Orientalism -- a wide-ranging term originally used to encompass depictions of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and East Asian cultures -- has gradually come to represent a more negative term. Should Dungeons & Dragons, known for two well-received books titled "Oriental Adventures," have another edition dedicated to "Eastern" cultures?

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Orientalism -- a wide-ranging term originally used to encompass depictions of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and East Asian cultures -- has gradually come to represent a more negative term. Should Dungeons & Dragons, known for two well-received books titled "Oriental Adventures," have another edition dedicated to "Eastern" cultures?

[h=3]A Brief History of Orientalism[/h]For a time, orientalism was a term used by art historians and literary scholars to group "Eastern" cultures together. That changed in 1978 with Edward Said's Orientalism, which argued that treatment of these cultures conflated peoples, times, and places into a narrative of incident and adventure in an exotic land.

It's easy to see why this approach might appeal to role-playing games. Orientalism is one lens to view a non-European culture within the game's context. We previously discussed how "othering" can create a mishmash of cultures, and it can apply to orientalism as well. The challenge is in how to portray a culture with nuance, and often one large region isn't enough to do the topic justice. The concept even applies to the idea of the "East" and the "Orient," which turns all of the Asian regions into one mono-culture. Wikipedia explains the term in that context:

The imperial conquest of "non–white" countries was intellectually justified with the fetishization of the Eastern world, which was effected with cultural generalizations that divided the peoples of the world into the artificial, binary-relationship of "The Eastern World and The Western World", the dichotomy which identified, designated, and subordinated the peoples of the Orient as the Other—as the non–European Self.


Game designers -- who were often admitted fans of Asian cultures -- sought to introduce a new kind of fantasy into traditional Western tropes. Viewed through a modern lens, their approach would likely be different today.
[h=3]The "Oriental" Books in D&D[/h]The original Oriental Adventures was published in 1985 by co-creator of D&D Gary Gygax, David "Zeb" Cook and François Marcela-Froideval. It introduced the ninja, kensai, wu-jen, and shukenja as well as new takes on the barbarian and monk. It was also the first supplement to introduce non-weapn proficiencies, the precursor to D&D's skill system. The book was well-received, and was envisioned by Gygax as an opportunity to reinvigorate the line -- ambitions which collapsed when he left the company. The book's hardcover had the following text printed on the back:

…The mysterious and exotic Orient, land of spices and warlords, has at last opened her gates to the West.


Aaron Trammell provides a detailed analysis of how problematic this one line of text is. The sum of his argument:

Although Gary Gygax envisioned a campaign setting that brought a multicultural dimension to Dungeons & Dragons, the reality is that by lumping together Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Philippine, and “Southeast Asian” lore he and co-authors David “Zeb” Cook and Francois Marcela-Froideval actually developed a campaign setting that reinforced western culture’s already racist understanding of the “Orient.”


The next edition would shift the setting from Kara-Tur (which was later sent in the Forgotten Realms) to Rokugan from the Legend of the Five Rings role-playing game.
[h=3]Controversy of the Five Rings[/h]James Wyatt wrote the revised Oriental Adventures for Third Edition D&D, published by Wizards of the Coast in 2001. It was updated to 3.5 in Dragon Magazine #318.

Legend of the Five Rings, a franchise that extends to card games, is itself not immune to controversy. Quintin Smith got enough comments on his review of the Legend of the Five Rings card game that he included an appendix that looked critically at chanting phrases "banzai!" at conventions and some of the game's art:

Now, I have no idea if this is right or wrong, but I do know that chanting in Japanese at an event exclusively attended by white men and women made me feel a tiny bit weird. My usual headcheck for this is “How would I feel if I brought a Japanese-English friend to the event?” and my answer is “Even more weird.” Personally, I found the game’s cover art to be a little more questionable. I think it’s fantastic to have a fantasy world that draws on Asian conventions instead of Western ones. But in a game that almost exclusively depicts Asian men and women, don’t then put white people on the cover! It’s such a lovely piece of art. I just wish she looked a little bit less like a cosplayer.


Perhaps in response to this criticism, Fantasy Flight Games removed the "banzai" chant as a bullet point from its web site. The page also features several pictures of past tournament winners, which provides some context as to who was shouting the chant.
[h=3]Fifth Edition and Diversity[/h]By the time the Fifth Edition of D&D was published, the game's approach to diverse peoples had changed. Indigo Boock on GeekGirlCon explains how:

Diversity is strength. The strongest adventuring party is the most diverse adventuring party. Try thinking about it in terms of classes—you have your healers, fighters, and magic users. Same goes for diversity. Different outlooks on life create more mobility and openness for different situations. Jeremy also explained that it was crucial that the art also reflected diversity, as did Art Director Kate Erwin. With this, they tried to make sure that there was a 50/50 split of people who identify as male and people who identify as female in the illustrations.


Trammell points out how these changes are reflected in the art of the core rule books:

First, there are illustrations: an East Asian warlock, a female samurai, an Arabian princess, an Arab warrior, and a Moor in battle, to name a few. Then, there are mechanics: the Monk persists as a class replete with a spiritual connection to another world via the “ki” mechanic. Scimitars and blowguns are commonly available as weapons, and elephants are available for purchase as mounts for only 200 gold. Although all of these mechanics are presented with an earnest multiculturalist ethic of appreciation, this ethic often surreptitiously produces a problematic and fictitious exotic, Oriental figure. At this point, given the embrace of multiculturalism by the franchise, it seems that the system is designed to embrace the construction of Orientalist fictional worlds where the Orient and Occident mix, mingle, and wage war.


A good first step is to understand the nuances of a region by exploring more than one culture there. Sean "S.M." Hill's "The Journey to..." series is a great place to start, particularly "Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

D&D has come a long way, but it still has some work to do if it plans to reflect the diversity of its modern player base and their cultures...which is why it seems unlikely we'll get another Oriental Adventures title.

Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, communicator, and a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to http://amazon.com. You can follow him at Patreon.
 

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Michael Tresca

Michael Tresca

These conversations remain unrelenting in their inability to recognize that the cultural climate of the late 80's and early 90's brought forth so much effort at creating interesting new settings in nonwestern environments, and that without that effort it might not have paved the way to a more general and worldly assertion of interest in today's culture.

Now that today's cultural values and respect is broader and more worldly, effort should indeed be made to revisit the rest of the world, both through a culturally respectful lens and also through the equally important mythology, folklore and fantasy that is what we're all really looking for in that adaptation (in D&D, at least).

I know there's a tendency these days to assume that only people of cultural origins can write about those origins, but we really do need to continue to provide a lens on other cultures, even if it is filtrered through (and acknowledged as such) by outsiders with a keen interest and effort at accuracy, because ultimately it's this continued exposure that makes people more culturally aware. Al Qadim, Kara Tur and other settings did that for me as a kid, and there should be a tradition that continues and expands on it today, to insure that we don't accidentally isolate today's kids from other cultures, history (fantatsical or real), non western fantasy and so forth simply because we think that it's appropriation to have an interest and to express it through games and writing. We all benefit from embracing the broader swathe of cultural fantasticism in gaming, and it makes us better for doing so. But we lose if we decide that it's impossible for us to somehow seek out and learn about other cultures, or to express that interest in writing and gaming.
 

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Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
Yeah! I'm so sick of those gamers making ficticious, exotic figures for their ficticious exotic imaginary worlds without a properly culturally nuanced and propery politically correct vetted culturally appropriate character check! I met this gamer once who made a ninja character based on this movie they'd seen 'Flying Dragon Leaping Tiger' and they hadn't even done any proper research or anything! They said they did it because they thought ninjas were epic! So racist! And that Tomb of Annihilation with its text book Orientalism should basically be thrown onto a politically incorrect bonfire and burned! Jungles are so racist too!

Check the site rules before you post again in this thread, please.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
A lot of responses appear to be "Yes but what about Y and Z?" as a way to stifle discussion about X. "Oriental? What about the Vikings?" (known as the "Vikings Are People Too" fallacy; I can't take credit for that) -- the simple answer to that is "Sure! Them too. But today we're writing about "Oriental Adventures"; last week it was Africa. We're not going to cover every culture on earth, but we're touching on a couple."

I'd like to reiterate that if seeing an opinion you disagree with throws you into an apoplexy of rage, the internet might not be the safest place for you. Debate civilly and politely, please. Generally, these threads have gone fairly well until they turn a corner. You don't have to agree, but don't throw a tantrum.
 

Jacob Lewis

Ye Olde GM
"Two things I can't stand are racism and the Dutch!" - Michael Caine's character in one of those Austin Powers movies.
 

Cergorach

The Laughing One
"Two things I can't stand are racism and the Dutch!" - Michael Caine's character in one of those Austin Powers movies.

When you quote a movie, quote it correctly! So that everyone can bake in it's glorious contrariety... ;-)
[MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION]: The article isn't discussing ANY particular culture, that would be great content! But your doing now what we all don't like saying that Africa or the Orient is a culture, it isn't. It's a collection of cultures. Instead of authors raving against things that are wrong with RPG products, why not show them how it's done?
 

When you quote a movie, quote it correctly! So that everyone can bake in it's glorious contrariety... ;-)

[MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION]: The article isn't discussing ANY particular culture, that would be great content! But your doing now what we all don't like saying that Africa or the Orient is a culture, it isn't. It's a collection of cultures. Instead of authors raving against things that are wrong with RPG products, why not show them how it's done?

Imagine if for a moment we all agree that the Oriental Adventures book should go the way of the dodo. Now imagine an elaborate campaign setting based entirely on Korean folklore, mythology and focused through a mytho-historical lens. Or imagine a fantasy setting that is based entirely on contemporary Chinese interests in how to interpret the fantastical (which is often centered on historical recreation with an emphasis on the reality of the mythic elements).

We have a lot of range here to create highly nuanced and very focused settings that draw from very specific cultures and histories. I think everyone would benefit from this.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
Instead of authors raving against things that are wrong with RPG products, why not show them how it's done?

What by writing a book? Maybe I will write a regionally themed book for WOIN at some point, but the slate is pretty full right now.
 

stargazera5

Explorer
Game designers -- who were often admitted fans of Asian cultures -- sought to introduce a new kind of fantasy into traditional Western tropes. Viewed through a modern lens, their approach would likely be different today. "


Really? Tell that to John Wick Presents who just had a very successful Kickstarter, 7th Sea Khitai, that did the exact same approach as Oriental Adventures. From the KS:

As a Khitai Hero, you might...

  • Save the Daimyo of the White Fox Clan from assassination!
  • Lead the navies of Han against Fusoese pirates!
  • Take on ten assassins with swords, knives, and guns all on your own!
  • Make decisions that alter the very course of Khitai history!
In 7th Sea: Khitai, you are a Hero ready to live and die for causes that matter. You don’t start off digging through old dungeons hoping to find a copper piece or two. No! You are noble samurai, a loyal yojimbo, or a mystical monk channeling the spirit of the World.
In other words… you’re Sanjuro from Yojimbo, Yu Shu Lien from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Yeo Wol from The Pirates, and Zatoichi all rolled up into one!


Yes, they did add some further expansion books related to specific cultures as stretch goals, but the fact remains that it is based on what is effectively Oriental Adventures for 7th Sea.
 

Celebrim

Legend
I feel I should note we are unlikely to get an 'Occidental Adventures' with any sort of respectful and earnest treatment of the complexity of Western culture as well. If you are looking for a respectful treatment of the cultural differences in Scandinavian, Germanic, Sarmatian, Gaelic, and Mediterranean cultures, and how they differed artistically and culturally and developed through the middle ages, don't expect to find those distinctions in any published 5e D&D handbook either. Instead, what you are going to find is a very loose mish-mash of those cultures thrown together haphazardly with a bunch of other ideas.

Fortunately, I think most people from say Japan, China, the Philippians, Korea, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Iran, Nepal, France or the United States aren't going to be looking to the 5e D&D handbook or anything in it as an accurate and respectful representation of Western culture at any point in time or space.

I can't ever recall feeling any differently about the 1e AD&D rulebook 'Oriental Adventures'.

One sure fire way to stifle discussion about something is claim that any discussion of it is racist.

Isn't the fact that we are treating non-Western cultures as different than Western cultures and requiring different standards more literally "othering" than treating them as the same? That word "othering" is getting kicked around a lot, but if not othering obviously creates a mish-mash of cultures - elves with katanas hold tea ceremonies, for example, to say nothing of a Dickensonian thieves guild running a town built around a thriving Edwardian castle with a King in early modern Gothic platemail but served by 10th century soldiery - and othering creates a mish-mash of cultures, what doesn't create a mish-mash of cultures and from the mish-mash of cultures how could we work back to know whether othering was the motive or not to know whether to condemn it.

And if both othering and not-othering produces the same result, can't we just apply Occam's razor and use a simpler model that explains the results without appealing to othering at all?
 


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