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.

 

[TiQuinn]

I was referring to European Colonialism, not Mongolian colonism. There are no Faerun colonies in Kara Tur, although Faerun is really more then just Europe, its a mix of Reinannance and classical Europe, North African, West Asian cultures, and Indian Subconinient cultures.

Actually there is some colonial between Faerun and Kara Tur, but its Kara Tur colonizing Faerun, aka Nathlan.

Both are pretty culturally insensitive, and as you yourself pointed out, Maztica certainly had colonialism in multiple products. But I’m not really interested in jousting over whether it’s colonialism, orientalism, or yellow peril. I think combining the settings makes them all more likely than they would as standalone settings.

 

[Yaarel]

Except there are places where those gods have little to no worship, like al-Qadim and Kara-Tur

Those Forgotten Realms regions have "other" FR-polytheistic deities that are defacto identical in all ways but the "exotic" name.

FR religion is completely a monoculture.

Eberron is an example of what diverse sacred heritages can look like. Dark Sun too.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

I have written this before, lived in Asia several times and the real cultural experts are there but their views do not often match the immigrant culture that moved to places where these books are written and published. My experience is that the mono-cultures in Asia are as good with the stereotypes they use (and are also used by outsiders) as european descent peoples are with things like knights in shining armor as compared to the actual violent suppression of the people like actually happened.

As it is pretty much impossible for a major publisher to publish something without one of these consultants (wrath and unhelpful social media angst and reaction if no), I have pretty much decided to ignore it.

 

[Reynard]

hypothetically, you could write a setting inspired by the Warring States period and its penchant for generating larger than life legendary figures, and never once make it Not Japan from a cultural or religious standpoint because the political situation is what makes that thing interesting. That's what I mean.

 

[Professor Murder]

The real question is: Why make this?
What attracts you to the setting? Is it the cultures that inspired the tropes or is it the tropes?

 

[CleverNickName]

I have written this before, lived in Asia several times and the real cultural experts are there but their views do not often match the immigrant culture that moved to places where these books are written and published. My experience is that the mono-cultures in Asia are as good with the stereotypes they use (and are also used by outsiders) as european descent peoples are with things like knights in shining armor as compared to the actual violent suppression of the people like actually happened.

As it is pretty much impossible for a major publisher to publish something without one of these consultants (wrath and unhelpful social media angst and reaction if no), I have pretty much decided to ignore it.

There's a lot of truth to this, unfortunately. I think this might be why cultural adaptations and interpretations are so rare, and almost never done as big-budget projects by Wizards of the Coast. It's just too risky. The Euro-centric approach is the safe choice.

 

[Umbran]

For example, from Wikipedia "Western World".

"Despite being located in the Far East, a country like Japan, in some contexts, is considered a part of the West as it aligns with the ideals of Western-style democracy."

As if we accepted Wikipedia as an Arbiter of Cultural Truth?

"In some contexts" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, without being clear about what those contexts are. I am not sure RPG setting materials is one of those contexts.

And, we could even note that "part of the West" is easily read as a political distinction rather than a cultural one.

But all that is neither here nor there. More basically - Japan and Korea and India (and we here on the boards) don't really need you to do the job of categorizing their cultures for us. Stepping in to do that job unbidden is not itself the height of cultural sensitivity.

 

[Bravesteel25]

I was referring to European Colonialism, not Mongolian colonism. There are no Faerun colonies in Kara Tur, although Faerun is really more then just Europe, its a mix of Reinannance and classical Europe, North African, West Asian cultures, and Indian Subconinient cultures.

Actually there is some colonial between Faerun and Kara Tur, but its Kara Tur colonizing Faerun, aka Nathlan.

Genuine question. Maybe I'm just not as well-read with Faerun as I thought. Where is there a North African analog in the setting? I'm sincerely interested as my wife is Moroccan.

 

[Oofta]

The real question is: Why make this?
What attracts you to the setting? Is it the cultures that inspired the tropes or is it the tropes?

For me? I have a big world and I want to represent different cultures as the PCs travel far and wide. I don't necessarily want to run a campaign in those settings, although I'd certainly consider it if it's something the group wants, but if the group travels to my far east equivalent I want a better representation than what I'm going to cobble together.

 

[Umbran]

What, I wonder, is the acceptable degree of potential offense.

While a company might ask that question, it probably isn't the question we ought to concern ourselves with.

For us, a better question might be what level of effort was made to connect the game materials to the actual culture that inspired them?

For example: Three middle-aged white guys with wikipedia, several katanas on their walls, and a big anime library is probably not what we want to see behind such a product.