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.

 

[tetrasodium]

Even with the best inteintons to be impartial, Japan has to be the strongest influence because currently their soft-power is the highest one thanks decades of manga and anime, and here China and South-Korea are relatively just arrived.

I think that there are other significant reasons beyond that. The Japanese constitution has a section for freedom of speech & press that is given similar weight as the US equivalent; just putting it lightly, that's not quite the case on when you look to some of the other Asian nations. On top of all the legal safeguards there is the fact that Wotc already launched a Japanese version of d&d not too long ago.

 

[Bedrockgames]

* For D&D standards, wuxia+xianxia main characters are "overpowered". They are practically superheroes. And D&D is not about becoming stronger but using the brain to survive and fixing troubles with right social skills when it is possible. Usually literature is about the main hero against the big bad guy, but in TTRPGs there are lots of different factions and possible enemies.

I think this depends a lot on the style. Wuxia can be pretty grounded, especially when people understand the basic rules of where the abilities come from. If you are modeling it after say '66 to '77 Shaw Brothers of example, it is quite 'low magic'. If you are modeling it after Condor Heroes, there is a much higher power scale, but characters who can fly and send out waves of energy to kill large numbers of foes would be high level anyways (in Return of Condor heroes he actually breaks down numerically what one martial hero is worth in numbers of soldiers, and characters frequently talk about levels of Kung Fu, so it is kind of easy to eye ball and fit to something like D&D----if I remember there is some dialogue with a character talking about the style of kung fu he uses having ten levels of mastery for instance). I think what makes it tricky is it is a different approach to how martial characters work. But the martial heroes in wuxia are not really exceeding the power levels of a D&D party. I think it really depends on the style of wuxia you are going for and how you translate that into D&D. For example if I were to do a D&D wuxia hack, I would have all the martial schools and sects be classes, and allow people to class dip like they did in 3E, provided in setting it made sense (i.e. a sect agrees to teach you). That way you could take 8 Levels of Shaolin/2 levels of Wudang/4 levels of Divine Serpent Fist......it might get tricky when you are talking about schools versus techniques from one manual, but I think something like that could work very nicely)

Xianxia is insane levels of power and that definitely takes things to a level beyond what D&D can handle (I don't think planescape can even encompass the scope). I am less familiar with this genre though. But I remember the power levels getting crazy.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I don't know South-Korea enoughly to give a right opinion, but I see a lot of manghwas are published in internet freely (you haven't to pay) but curiosly a lot of thems are reincarnation in fantasy version of Western Victorian age, most once within a fictional work. Hasbro has got some links with company Nexon. This could create its own new-brand IP and after to be licenced to Hasbro. They could do something with Tencent, but I don't advice trust blindly in megacorporations.

My idea of wuxia and xianxia are from AMVs in youtube thanks the channel "EDM for you". When I watched it I wondered how would be a xuanhuan version of D&D.

And let's remember TTRPG worldbuilding is different comparing to videogames and literature. D&D settings are designed multiple events could happen in different places. The lesson learnt in Dragonlance is not all should be too linked to the main plot.

A setting is not only a compilation of places. We also need different factions, and these should be enoughly original.

 

[bedir than]

Cultural consultants may be necessary, but don't hope they were totally objetive and honest, because nobody wants to talk about the flaws of your own land.

No one, not even cultural consultants think they are perfect.
But it most certainly isn't because they cover up the flaws in the cultures where they have expertise.

 

[Bedrockgames]

My idea of wuxia and xianxia are from AMVs in youtube thanks the channel "EDM for you". When I watched it I wondered how would be a xuanhuan version of D&D.

It is a pretty varied genre and those shows are great. I used to watch a lot of long form wuxia series (as well as series that were much heavier on the magic).

If you watch a movie like come Drink with Me or Magic Blade, those give a pretty good sense of the how grounded it can be (Magic Blade is still pretty over the topped gonzo but I don't think it is anything that couldn't exist within the power levels of D&D):



The condor heroes have been turned into series over the years and many are subbed in English (and other languages). They are a good example of more pronounced power levels in wuxia. Return of Condor Heroes is my favorite installment (this version has the woman who played Mulan in the recent Disney version of that story). I am sure the series is available online:

 

[tetrasodium]

I was going to just let it drift away till 243 continued the tangent but it's been continuing....

* For D&D standards, wuxia+xianxia main characters are "overpowered". They are practically superheroes. And D&D is not about becoming stronger but using the brain to survive and fixing troubles with right social skills when it is possible. Usually literature is about the main hero against the big bad guy, but in TTRPGs there are lots of different factions and possible enemies.

Adding to what was mentioned in 242, an awful lot of it is far from DBZ and much closer to older editions of d&d with different advancement & magic analogs. That's especially the case when it comes to risk, you might see competence porn style epic smackdowns at times, but it's also very common for the MC to be on the receiving end of them. It's a pretty wide power scale that often begins at the low end of zero to hero or just kinda hovers in some ad&d* adjacent level of grittiness. Take the wuxia/xianxia subcategories quoted from a publisher website back in 231 as evidence

On the subject of characters flying & battles that take place in the sky

being so prevalent in anime manga & manhwa, that's kind of the modern equivalent of the old loony tunes looping landscape when a character is only animated fora few frames of actual arm/leg movement. When most of what needs to be drawn is just sky or some nondescript distant buildings/landscape it becomes a lot easier to put more effort into the characters without overloading the artist.

* The levels people actually reached with regularity without starting at higher levels & one shots

 

[EthanSental]

I enjoy seeing the Shaw brothers mentioned, some of my favorite Kung fu movies growing up and probably why I was a ninja or samurai at Halloween!

I agree with @Bedrockgames, those would be low magic, then the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon being in the middle of the other end with Condor Heroes…in my opinion.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

I think an Asian setting can be done properly for Forgotten Realms, just look at Tian Xia for Pathfinder. Not a hard thing to do. Get the writers, get the consultants, done deal.

I wouldn't focus too hard on a specific Asian style, either. Just collect what's most common. It's been done with Eurofantasy. The iconic castles and European folklore on dragons and monsters.

To be fair, D&D is riddled with monsters from various cultures, although most are European in origin. I think it'd be best to have the same for an Eastern setting, pull from various Asian cultures, make the races and monsters Asian fantasy, but mix in a little of the Western fantasy.

What place does a chimera, medusa, yuan-ti, elf, gnome, etc. have in Kara-Tur, for example? What are the intersections between Lung dragons and Metallic/Gem/Chromatics? Between anything from Faerun to Kara-Tur? Besides distance, what makes the two continents distinct . Do Lung dragons immediately assault any Metallic/Chromatic/Gem dragon that enters Kara-Tur under some divine mandate by the Celestial Bureaucracy? What happens when orc raids turn their sights on the Tuigans and eastern Shou Lung?

So much can be done. I think maybe WotC is overwhelmed with the notion, possibly.

 

[Bravesteel25]

Turmish is somewhat North African in the sense it is home to dark-skinned people, but it doesn't seem to have Africa-specific analogues. It's the only pure democracy in Faerun, which was interesting but under-explored. The general idea is that the Shaar and the Shining South in general are somewhat Africa-like shading to India-like (there being no direct Africa-like continent, although Katashaka has elements of Africa and South America, but has never gotten its own sourcebook, and Zakhara's massive deserts at least a nod to the Sahara).

Mulhorand, famously, is Egypt with the serial numbers filed off.

Thank youfor the break down.

So, nothing truly evoking North Africa. North Africa, to me meaning countries constituted of majority Arab and Amazigh ethnicities with other minorities thrown in? Mulhorand being the closest, evoking an ancient Egypt feel?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

You may like it or not, but here Japan will be the blue-eyed girl, the favorite one, because Hasbro wants Kara-Tur to be a bait for the otaku community.

A sourcebook focused into crunch is perfectely possible, and we shouldn't worry about the classical feedback, for example how to do the korobokuru an interesting PC specie with her own traits, or if the spiritfolk will be retconected to be far cousins of elves.

And we have to choose about what tropes of isekai can be wellcome, for example the harem of monster girls or reincarnation from a world with more advanced technology.

Maybe the title "Oriental Adventures" will be replaced with "Xuanhuan & Isekai" for example.

If my memory doesn't fail Kara-Tur hadn't got metaplot, and I don't remember any no-generic faction.

And WotC has to choose if some space will be added to allow the update of the martial adepts or new classes with some special game mechanic. Maybe they could recycle the incarnum for a new class: the cultivator..