D&D 5E How should be the future Oriental Adventures.

[LuisCarlos17f]

After reading a new in comicbook I am thinking this is the time we should talk about Oriental Adventures, Kara-Tur and wuxia genre in D&D.

If I was Asian I would support a new Oriental Adventures like a bridge to help Asian culture to be known by the Western public. This is not about to say "Not, Never" but how to do it in the right way. Asian companies should be happy a wuxia D&D as a "icebreaker" to help to their franchises/IPs (manga-anime and videogames) to be known in Western markets.

I would safe Hasbro/WotC really wants to be pollitically correct because it wishes a good relation with the markets of China, Taiwan, Japan and Sourth Korea. But this may cause some potential conflict because these people have got some different points of view. For example I was Chinese I wouldn't like (only?) the main antagonist of "Legend of Five Rings" to have a Chinese name.

Hasbro has got contacts with Chinese and Japanese companies. I guess theses could be consulted. I don't know about the links between Hasbro and South Korea.

Why a Wuxia D&D? Because Hasbro could make a lot of money with a portion of the otaku culture (and licencing of famous Asian franchises). Of course I know Chinese-speaker, Koreans and Japaneses could have very different tastes, but WotC should worry mainly about a right crunch, and the lore to be done by 3PPs.

* About crunchs, rules and gameplay my opinion is Wuxia is perfect for the return of the martial adepts, the classes from "Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords".

* Tropes and racist estereotypes are two different things. Otaku fiction has got lots of tropes, but you can't say it's racism because they are produced by and for Asians. If we allow this censorship without a previous debate, why not to censor in the future the titles with the trope of the sinnister minister?

* As source of inspiration sometimes I see videos from a youtube channel. EDM for you. Sometimes when I watch these videos I wonder how would be wuxia cinematics for D&D.

EDM For You

✪ Follow Me : • Youtube : http://bit.ly/YT_EDMForYou • Facebook: https://bit.ly/FB_EDMForYou • Instagram: https://bit.ly/IG_EDMForYou • Spotify: https://bit....

www.youtube.com

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

If I was Asian I would support a new Oriental Adventures like a bridge to help Asian culture to be known by the Western public.

Maybe avoid that phrasing?

Let's see.

1. Absolutely do NOT call it Oriental Adventures.

2. Try and separate out the cultures/influences a little in the book, instead of having samurais fighting kung fu monks riding war elephants. (People can always combine them on their own).

3. Consult with experts on the issues so that you make sure you are presenting material that is fun and true to the culture, and not offensive.

 

[Minigiant]

1. Don't call it Oriental Adventures
2. Go one of two paths
   1. Fully researched and vetted by experts of Asian mythology and history
   2. Completely reform itself from the truth and only display the feel of Asian tropes and ideas in high fantasy with as few specific references as possible (like the XGTE Samurai)
3. Still consult experts of Asian history, mythology, and culture to prevent offense.

Iznothard, really.

 

[Sacrosanct]

As has been said, avoid "oriental" anything.

I'm pretty sure there are plenty of gamers who are also skilled writers/creative developers who happen to have have east Asian ancestry, so utilize them instead of having, say, a white person do the writing even if they did "research"

Also as mentioned, break it down and don't combine all of them into one pot of mix-mashed stereotypes. East Asian culture takes up a large part of the globe (from India to Japan to the Philippines, etc*), with many distinct cultural flavors. IMO, there's room in the D&D game world to cover them individually.

*For example, Korea and Japan are geographically very close, but very different in terms of cultural aspects

 

[Retreater]

I doubt we ever see another official WotC product based on real-world cultures. If there is something with that kind of Eastern influence, it will be so thoroughly changed it will not resemble the inspiration.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I doubt we ever see another official WotC product based on real-world cultures. If there is something with that kind of Eastern influence, it will be so thoroughly changed it will not resemble the inspiration.

I mean, that's kind of sad if you think about it. It is for me!

I know that inspiration can take many forms, but as I mentioned here a few weeks ago, one of my best friends growing up went on to get his PhD in history largely because of his early experiences with D&D. I didn't, but my love of ancient histories and cultures was spurred by D&D- and I know that a lot of my early exploration of non-western culture was because of Oriental Adventures.

It would be easy to make things unrecognizable (fantastical!), and maybe that is sufficient. But, for me at least, part of the intellectual stimulation I received from this amazing game was seeing the real-world history, even the things that were wrong, that made me go and research and learn more.

 

[Morrus]

What we did for Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters was recruit cultural consultants to assist us with a variety of different cultural figures. I think this is essential, and if WotC were to make a book based on non-Western cultures they would need to do that (and I'm sure they would).

 

[Gradine]

1. Don't call it Oriental Adventures
2. Go one of two paths
   1. Fully researched and vetted by experts of Asian mythology and history
   2. Completely reform itself from the truth and only display the feel of Asian tropes and ideas in high fantasy with as few specific references as possible (like the XGTE Samurai)
3. Still consult experts of Asian history, mythology, and culture to prevent offense.

Iznothard, really.

This, basically.

There's a step 4, as well:

4. Expect that no matter how much you try to do everything right, you will get pushback and criticism, either because you're still going to make mistakes because you are, after all, human; or that you'll potentially offend folks from perspectives even your consultants won't have considered. Accept them with grace and humility and promise to constantly improve.

Still, not very difficult at all.

 

[Slit518]

Genuine question here -- do we know why the term "Oriental" might be considered offensive?

Would it be no different than referring to a region or peoples such as the words Arab or Polynesian?

Is it just the context?

Let's take a look -
1. Oriental Adventures
2. Arabian Adventures
3. Polynesian Adventures

 

[Retreater]

I mean, that's kind of sad if you think about it. It is for me!

I know that inspiration can take many forms, but as I mentioned here a few weeks ago, one of my best friends growing up went on to get his PhD in history largely because of his early experiences with D&D. I didn't, but my love of ancient histories and cultures was spurred by D&D- and I know that a lot of my early exploration of non-western culture was because of Oriental Adventures.

It would be easy to make things unrecognizable (fantastical!), and maybe that is sufficient. But, for me at least, part of the intellectual stimulation I received from this amazing game was seeing the real-world history, even the things that were wrong, that made me go and research and learn more.

Yes, it is sad to lose the nostalgia of our game, the thrill of discovery of foreign worlds, interaction in cultures that might encourage us to read real history. But in the end, it's about creating an atmosphere of inclusion in the hobby, and I don't think we can do it anymore.
Being fair to everyone and welcoming without stereotypes is more important than our nostalgia.
As a writer of gaming material, I will not trust in a person's opinion of what is "culturally okay." It can easily change at the drop of a hat and what doesn't offend one person might be terrible to someone else. At the very best, you end up just getting bad publicity and having to apologize.
So from now on, nothing resembling a real world culture will ever appear in my writings.