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<blockquote data-quote="DammitVictor" data-source="post: 6706665" data-attributes="member: 6750908">I think you're missing the point of why &quot;oriental&quot; is offensive. Sure, it's just another word for &quot;east&quot;, but the implication is that the Orient is east of the &quot;real world&quot;, the &quot;important world&quot; where all of the normal cultures and monsters are. Asians, naturally, view Asia as the real world and many of them do not appreciate their cultures being treated as part of a theme park diversion from &quot;normal&quot; adventuring.The same problem does not exist when you present a whole setting that draws from Asian cultures rather than European cultures, because the world in those settings is &quot;the real world&quot; where the important stuff happens, and if they occupy the same planet as the Western pastiches, the Western cultures become the strange foreigners. The problem with Kara-Tur is that, as part of the Realms, it doesn't have its own Elminsters and its own gods to contend with; it's still an appendix to Eurocentric Faerûn. One of the little details I've always appreciated about Spelljammer is the fact that the Shou were the major Torilian faction in Realmspace.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DammitVictor, post: 6706665, member: 6750908"] I think you're missing the point of [b]why[/b] "oriental" is offensive. Sure, it's just another word for "east", but the implication is that the Orient is [b]east[/b] of the "real world", the "important world" where all of the normal cultures and monsters are. Asians, naturally, view Asia as the real world and many of them do not appreciate their cultures being treated as part of a theme park diversion from "normal" adventuring. The same problem does not exist when you present a whole setting that draws from Asian cultures rather than European cultures, because the world in those settings is "the real world" where the important stuff happens, and if they occupy the same planet as the Western pastiches, the Western cultures become the strange foreigners. The problem with Kara-Tur is that, as part of the Realms, it doesn't have its own Elminsters and its own gods to contend with; it's still an appendix to Eurocentric Faerûn. One of the little details I've always appreciated about [i]Spelljammer[/i] is the fact that the Shou were the major Torilian faction in Realmspace. [/QUOTE]

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