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.

 

[Cistern]

If they do this and it's not completely awful, I wonder what the appetite would be to explore other parts of the Realms that have so far been left out of 5E. I'm looking at you, Maztica and Al-Qadim.

 

[Aephix]

I’d buy it. Did the largest legend of 5 rings or paizo’s get hire a consultant? Did they have any issues after release? I don’t follow them much but curious on the reaction fans had.

Legend of the Five Rings RPG from FFG/Edge did get some criticism (there was a podcast series called Asians Represent that went thru the books and called out a lot of specific issues). Afterwards, FFG kind of slow walked releasing anything new for L5R game while they went thru cultural consulting re-work of the brand/setting (see Asians Represent!).

Paizo just released their new edition of their Tian Xia, which is predominantly authored by Asian writers, at least one of whom works as a cultural consultant. (paizo.com - Community / Paizo Blog)

 

[Shardstone]

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is one of better received sets from Magic's current standard line-up. It was very an all around good set. The cards and the mechanics were fun, and the setting and art was all very flavorful.

I wonder if they gave up on the MTG-D&D crossover products. I'd buy a Kamigawa book before I bought a Kara Tur book.

I'd buy a Kamigawa and Tarkir book before I buy a Kara-tur or another Dragonlance book.

 

[sevenbastard]

I owned the OA 1e book, but not the Kara Tur box set. I honestly couldn't name one feature of Kara Tur.

But if they want to serve up a small regional setting tied to a few sandbox adventure sites I would be down.

 

[Eubani]

A revived Kara-Tur setting would be great, unfortunately clout chasers would ruin it for everybody.

 

[Oofta]

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.

NOTE: After writing the below, I want to be clear on something in case I'm not. I do think we need to be careful when representing cultures, especially in cases where certain beliefs are still revered.

There is nothing new under the sun. Create a monstrous race, use negative language to describe them and someone will come up with a pamphlet from a hundred years ago that happens to use the same phrase. It's incredibly difficult to come up with something truly unique that is still relatable to us mere mortals. At the same time we get people complaining that Kara-Tur is just a mish mash of different tropes from a general geographic area, yet that's what standard D&D with it's influences from everything from Greco-Roman mythology to Norse to Celtic to ... well just about everything including that 70s Kung Fu TV series.

I think they could easily create a new setting, base it loosely on any given historical culture but they need to have consultants helping with it. Ideally you would have an expert in the cultures write significant chunks of lore and setting specific archetypes. But create something completely new without using those consultants? You're bound to accidentally step on some toes if you're unfamiliar with the topic and we should be sensitive to that.

 

[sevenbastard]

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

"Guys let me tell you about my charachter, he is a cat person ninja with magic."

Is that quote from a CEO of a major company or my 12 year old nephew?

Do we think it's a home game or an official office game?

 

[TiQuinn]

If they do this and it's not completely awful, I wonder what the appetite would be to explore other parts of the Realms that have so far been left out of 5E. I'm looking at you, Maztica and Al-Qadim.

I would love to see Al-Qadim, and in fact, I believe there's been some well reviewed 3PP stuff in this area.

What I think is key to Kara Tur and Al-Qadim not sucking is actually removing them from Faerun, and making them just their own standalone settings. The idea of shoehorning these settings into a standard fantasy setting creates that kitchen sink setting of real world analogues that has the bad knock-on effect of mirroring stuff like colonialism.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is one of better received sets from Magic's current standard line-up. It was very an all around good set. The cards and the mechanics were fun, and the setting and art was all very flavorful.

I wonder if they gave up on the MTG-D&D crossover products. I'd buy a Kamigawa book before I bought a Kara Tur book.

We have not seen a major hardcover MtG product since Circulum of Chaos flopped (not the settings fault). We might get minor stuff like the Eldraine Monsters, but I think they are moving away from the MtG D&D crossovers for a host of reasons (Like the kind of grey space they exist in, like what are they canon to, and what multiverse do they exist in), smaller salea, and less freedom to change things or expand, harder to get D&D MtG crossover novels, and MtG settings tend to have much less cultural penetration then D&D settings, and they don't have to run events by the MtG team or vis versa. Personally what killed the MtG D&D crossovers for me was when March of the Machine just absolutely wrecked Theros, ruining the setting. Why do an MtG setting when that team can wreck it at anytime, when you can do a classic setting or new setting within the D&D multiverse and be able to better support and protect the setting in the future.

So yeah I think they are moving away from mtg crossovers. The biggest sign is they left the door open to merging the multiverses then when the perfect moment to do so came, MOM & Aftermath, they failed to do so.

Tiny chance that the next big Arc in MtG, Dragonstorm will link the multiverses, but with Tarkir gettinf a book, but given CEO Chris Cocks being a Kara Tur fan and wanting that done, Tarkir getting a D&D crossover is vastly less likely now, and Tarkir had previoysly been the top pick for a lot of people, although not me, I vote no more MtG setting crossovers they dob't want to commit to the idea and the MtG team is like a bull in a China shop.

 

[Reynard]

NOTE: After writing the below, I want to be clear on something in case I'm not. I do think we need to be careful when representing cultures, especially in cases where certain beliefs are still revered.

There is nothing new under the sun. Create a monstrous race, use negative language to describe them and someone will come up with a pamphlet from a hundred years ago that happens to use the same phrase. It's incredibly difficult to come up with something truly unique that is still relatable to us mere mortals. At the same time we get people complaining that Kara-Tur is just a mish mash of different tropes from a general geographic area, yet that's what standard D&D with it's influences from everything from Greco-Roman mythology to Norse to Celtic to ... well just about everything including that 70s Kung Fu TV series.

I think they could easily create a new setting, base it loosely on any given historical culture but they need to have consultants helping with it. Ideally you would have an expert in the cultures write significant chunks of lore and setting specific archetypes. But create something completely new without using those consultants? You're bound to accidentally step on some toes if you're unfamiliar with the topic and we should be sensitive to that.

My point is that we don't need to make it historical at all. And we absolutely certainly don't need to retread yet another 30+ year old setting.