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.

 

[MNblockhead]

I understand what you are saying, but how far away from a real world inspiration do you need to be to be "safe"? And look, I admit: I am an atheist and I don't understand or particularly care about why people take one particular kind of fantasy story more personally that others.

But I am still advocating for something new and original that doesn't just put a coat of paint of Ming China or whatever.

Well, you will never be totally safe from criticism. Some people are going to find reasons for offense whatever you do. But for a large corporation with a diverse and international customer base, you (1) want to avoid landmines that you might not see because of ignorance and (2) generally don't want to offend potential customers. Generally, there are two ways to go about it, one is to create a setting that hews very closely to real-life mythology, with lots of input from experts in that mythology from from source cultures. There have been a number of kickstarters that have created such settings for 5e. The other is to create a new setting inspired by certain mythologies, perhaps blending influences from multiple areas and times of history. I am not familiar with Kara-Tur, but I'm sure that they could re-release the setting with some modifications.

One thing I've been meaning to do ever since reading about objects to the old "Oriental Adventures" book from 1e is to go back in read it. I remember really enjoying the book as a kid. After having lived, studied, worked, and vacationed in China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, it would be interesting to see how I react to it today.

 

[MNblockhead]

It seems like a mistake to actively design a product for one market and then hope it sells in another. I don't know what the Asian D&D market is, but I bet it is much smaller than the Western and especially American market. If they are going to do it, they need to do it for the same market that loves things like Avatar and Blue Eye Samurai.

Unfortunately, this is true. I love foreign films and literature. But in D&D primary markets, especially in North America, they don't do well in larger pop culture. That said, this is changing. Increasingly Asian media is gaining popularity (I'm speaking mainly from my experience as an American living in the USA). Anime, K-pop, Japanese and Korean TV series like Alice in Borderland and Squid Games. Also, there have been a number of third-party 5e settings and beastiaries based on other cultures, written by those from those cultures that have had successful Kickstarters. So, perhaps I should be more optimistic.

 

[MNblockhead]

There is potentially much money for D&D to make in E Asia. And the D&D there will be an authentic resource.


Scholars. Yes. The ideals of democracy, personal freedoms, human rights, freedom of the press, technology, urbanism, and so on, are shared Western values. My Indian and Sri Lankan friends self-identify with the West.

The "West" is highly diverse.

Yeah, I get it. But perhaps we should come up with a better term than one based on a cardinal direction.

 

[MNblockhead]

What, I wonder, is the acceptable degree of potential offense. One can assume you will never reach 0%, so what are we willing to allow? What level of pushback is just free press? That's probably where the answer lies.

Right, there will always be someone who gets offended by something. You just tried to avoid clumsy offenses made out of ignorance and certain sensitive stereotypes and political landmines. Basically, the acceptable degree is the degree to which you are not significantly affecting sales and/or avoiding bad press. Perhaps that seems cynical, but it seems the most practical way to measure offense. If very few people are complaining and you are selling a lot of the books, I think you can generally feel confident that you have done an acceptable job at avoiding offending people.

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 adapt.

 

[MNblockhead]

Which cultures require the hiring of grifters- sorry, cultural sensitivity consultants, because D&D has been misrepresenting European culture for 50 years.

Is isn't meant to be historically accurate and how many Europeans have been offended by the European-inspired content?

 

[MNblockhead]

The person who just unilaterally asserted that several Asian countries were "Western" maybe isn't in a great place to complain about cultural insensitivity.

He was referring to a legitimate socio-economic term used by scholars of Area Studies, Political Science, and Economics. I agree that their needs to be a better term, but "liberal democracies", "the Free World", and other terms don't fully capture the meaning. But I think this discussion is out of scope for this thread. The issues that arise over offensive content, that most fans are going to care about, which we have been talking about, come from cultural sensitivities (traditional cultural identities and history, as well as religion).

While some cultures are going to be offended by, say depictions of non-traditional gender roles, I highly doubt that those advocating for cultural-sensitivity consultants are advocating for having those element edited out of the game. WotC has to balance sensitivities and take a stance in some instances. That is going to be less of an issue with more "Western"/"Western-aligned" (seriously, can someone come up with better terminology!) like Japan, the Philippeans, or Korea, than China or Malaysia.

Anyway, your snipe at @Yaarel was off the mark.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Hasbro could create a web like DMGuild but more focused into literature. They could hire a Japanese team, maybe a videogame studio or a manga publisher for a new setting according to special sensibilities.

The menace of the censorship in China is very serious, and too unpredictable and capricious. A collab with a local company is possible, but both sides will want to be the owner of the IP. Even if Hasbro was the legal onwer, somebody could publish a pirate/rip off/ersatz version, changing names and those things.

* Let's remember Geography of Toril-Abeir was affected by the Sundering. This could be a good reason to explain the possible retcons, as if Vecna's machinations weren't enough.

* I hope this example could be useful to explain it better. Let's imagine a Spanniard with her own point of view about the past, but other Spaniard has got a radically different opinion. If these wasn't enough now we add two more, children of Spanish emigrants, one of them born and raised in United Kingdom, and other in Germany. And now to end we add more foreign inmigrants living and working in Spain, one of them from Africa, and other from Germany. These have got different point of view, they can't agree and they are sincere about their opinion.

* If I was Korean, for example, I would wellcome WotC using Korean culture as source of inspiration because this could help to promote Korean soft-power. I hope to have said it politely.

* If in the next months or years something happen in our real life linked to China, then Chinese fantasy could become a taboo in the entertaiment industry. This could be playing the Russian roulette. You can imagine something like Games Workshop can't sell miniatures of Kislev army because now there is a war in Ukraine.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Three Kingdoms? Remember? Barely... It wasn't tournament legal here in the states iirc

I'd buy Kamigawa, Tarkir, AND Kara-tur setting books, if done with cultural consultants and written by folks from those real-world cultures that inspired the settings. Same with Al-Qadim and, dare I say it... Arabian Nights?!? (Ok, maybe not Arabian Nights...)

The Zakhara campaign guide on the DMs Guild is very well done, and was done with the help of people from the Arab world to ensure it had proper regional flavor and to vet it for unintentional insensitivity. Also, it's a pretty good read!

 

[PCD]

Maybe we could get an Asian inspired setting that isn't actually trying to present fantasy China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, etc... Maybe we could create something new that doesn't have the inherent potential to land badly (to give the generous prediction).

Make. Something. New.

As long as threads like this exist, it won't happen. Innovation can get canceled before any knows about it.

Case in point: the number of people who were not from The Deep South who made 'The Blues' their own and who are still held with regard is staggering.

One does not need to be from a place to capture said place's spirit! Current agendas will lie to us and say this isn't true.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

been there, done that.

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Kara-Tur - Some Thoughts - Part 3 - Classes

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