D&D 5E Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks Would Like To Explore Kara-Tur

According to Reddit poster bwrusso, who was in a small group investor meeting with Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks last week, Hasbro's CEO (who was previously President of Wizards of the Coast before being promoted to his current position) currently plays in a Kara-Tur campaign and would personally like to see that setting explored further.

Kara-Tur is part of the Forgotten Realms, and is inspired by real-world East and Southeast Asia cultures, including China, Japan, Mongolia, and other regions. It was originally published in the 1985 book Oriental Adventures, and has since appeared in other formats including a boxed set in 1988. Eight adventure modules for the setting were published in the late 80s. In 2015's Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, Kara-Tur is briefly described.

Cocks also touched on Spanish-language translations of D&D books in Latin America, and indicated that there were distribution issues with former licensing agreements in that region.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

My thought exactly.

You don't really have to damn the canon, its been a hundred+ years and multiple cosmos altering Realms Shaking Events later, outside of place names and very basic nation core ideas, you have a varietble blank slate. Seriously since the last Kara Tur box set I think you've had the Time of Troubles, what ever weird event caused 3e's cosmological changes, the Spellplague, and the Sundering, plus the weird naughty word Vecna is currently doing and the Obilesks.

 

[Shardstone]

@Giantrollorc whats so funny

 

[tetrasodium]

oops

 

[TiQuinn]

This thread kinda exploded fast, but I think that there is some noteworthy things that a well done karatura setting could really add to d&d that existing settings don't. With wotc doing a Japanese version of d&d it seems reasonable to have a setting in the Japanese version of generic nonspecific medieval fantasy.

While the original 80s setting was pretty far into Asian versions of wooden Indian and lawn jockeys without the good location specific historical reasons that you sometimes see those things, there are a few historical periods often seen in the Japanese version ofgeneric nonspecific medieval fantasy that should absolutely be mined for all the same reason

And maybe get rid of stuff like Tabot = Tibet.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

yeah

any kara-tur redesign should be only loosely based on real life asian cultures, about as close as western forgotten realms is to real medieval cultures.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

They need to at least come up with new names for Koryo (that's the actual name for one of the kingdoms that the name "Korea" is derived from) and Tabot (oh look it's Tibet with some letters changed around).

I'm sure they can come up with an in setting excuse to update the names of those nations.

 

[Reynard]

As WotC's market becomes increasingly global, they will inevitably run into things that haven't been offensive that potential new consumer demographics find offensive. They just have to adadapt

Or just consumed by more diverse audiences here. The Spelljammer Minstrel Show would have likely gone unnoticed without PoC readers catching it.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Folks your making it harder then it has to be, hire your asian consultants, artists, and writers to update Kara Tur, which they already have on tap now. Give them a high page count like the PHB has got so they have room to work. Boom let the magic happen, stop fretting and over thinking things, its an TTRPG book, not brainsurgery or building the first warp drive.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

yup

pick your favorite anime/story and push it through that filter and use it to do the spirit of dungeons and dragons: killing them and taking their stuff.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

yup

pick your favorite anime/story and push it through that filter and use it to do the spirit of dungeons and dragons: killing them and taking their stuff.

Bet Piku has fat loot.