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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest 7034872" data-source="post: 8660989">It's funny--I agree with both [USER=177]Umbran[/USER] and [USER=7030132]Ixal[/USER] in this: I am not wildly concerned with historical accuracy when borrowing from real cultures and epochs to design a campaign, but I also balk at the notion of lionizing the cultures and epochs from which I borrow when making my efforts to maintain cultural sensitivity and avoid stereotyping. The way I figure this, lionizing is a species of stereotyping, just a congratulatory one instead of a demeaning one.I'm pretty sure one of my two next campaigns will be in Al-Qadim because I've so fallen in love with that material (the other will be a riff on Brân the Blessed). So on one hand, in the interest of cultural sensitivity and and avoiding stereotyping, I've decided to eliminate all references to honor killings. Not because they don't or didn't happen (that's daft--in some places they did and do), but because as best I can see it, there just is no way of including this in my fictional setting without it being completely incendiary and insensitive in the real world. I don't think my players would appreciate having to deal with it and neither would I. I'm here to give my players an adventure they'll relish and remember, not to throw any cultural hand grenades into the room just for the malicious fun of "being controversial." So I'll happily give up something on accuracy here.On the other hand, I've also decided to remove all references to Islam because (1) the world of Forgotten Realms is explicitly and robustly polytheistic, which entails that Islamic references simply don't fit here, (2) many of the myths and legends I'm borrowing pre-date Islam and therefore are quite independent of it (like honor killings), so there isn't even any potential justification for it in terms of historical accuracy, and (3) as [USER=6915329]Faolyn[/USER] pointed out in the Al-Qadim thread, why do that??? I'm building an adventure, not making any back-handed digs at existing or past cultures. So that part's out, too, but this time because including it would be inaccurate and it serves no valuable story purpose that would trump accuracy concerns. Had it sufficiently served such concerns, I might well have kept it, but it just doesn't.But now on a third hand (imaginary non-human super-brained insectoid PC at the moment, so I can do that), I'm also keeping the phenomena of jingoistic tribalism and slavery because both of those make for some really good tension between competing nations, between players and whatever NPC villains I create, and even within players' own consciences. In some chapter, suppose, they readily can achieve their ultimate goals, but doing so would require them to cut a deal with some very morally unsavory non-villain NPCs. Achieving those goals without those NPCs would be be a much harder task and hold much lower odds of eventual success. So now they have to choose and thereby decide what they really believe in more: their current mission or the moral scruples of which they had been so certain? I like giving my players moral dilemmas that don't have any easy, obvious, "correct" answers (and my group likes them, too). Will my use of these two elements be historically accurate? Almost certainly not, and I'm fine with that. So long as it (1) makes for a better, more exciting, engaging, and challenging adventure, and (2) doesn't completely take a literary dump on someone's real-world culture, that's all I need. Also, I figure because this imagined society into which I'll throw my players is a highly tribal one, it would be narratively inconsistent for me to remove unpleasant consequences of that tribalism. These warts I will include, but not from any "warts and all" philosophy; it's because they fit. They fit the setting and my narrative goals, so they're in.In the end, I will cherry-pick the cultural elements I like, but "liking" here ≠ • ⊅ "approving of." It only means "using those elements that'll fit the larger setting and make for some really cool adventures." Campaign-writing is an art and I have chosen to uphold the maxim, "art for art's sake." Within some basic limits regarding moral decency of the DM towards the players (foremost) and the larger gaming community (secondary), my rule will be that if something improves the adventure for my players, I'll do it and if it doesn't, I won't.</blockquote>

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