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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8473056" data-attributes="member: 6801845">There has been criticism recently about the new episodes of Critical Role being set in Marquet which is not based on pseudo-European medieval society, but is instead loosely based on SWANA [SouthWest Asian/North African]&nbsp; culture[<a href="https://www.dicebreaker.com/topics/critical-role/opinion/critical-role-love-has-died" target="_blank">article</a>].&nbsp; The problem?&nbsp; The entire cast is Caucasian and somehow that means cultural appropriation. Because somehow having a region and culture that steps outside of the &quot;safe zone&quot; of fantasy culture is wrong, no matter how many professional consultants they employ.&nbsp; I mean, I get it.&nbsp; There have been many truly bad depictions of non-western cultures.&nbsp; I've made a hash of my own &quot;eastern&quot; civilization in my home campaign which is why I don't use it very often.&nbsp; Then again, my primary mythology is only loosely based Norse mythology with a smattering of Celtic but since it's the mythology of my ancestors?The problem is that as authors of fictional worlds we have to draw inspiration from somewhere.&nbsp; Just about any type of culture we create will bear a passing resemblance to some real world culture.&nbsp; I think we need to be sensitive to that, but there's a difference between having a culture and region loosely based on a real world culture and the equivalent of campaign world blackface.&nbsp; We can draw inspiration from and ideas from the real world without falling into caricature. I don't think my ancestry matters.In other words, my dwarves don't have a Scottish accent.&nbsp; People that portray a Scottish accent on TV and movies just happen to sound a lot like dwarves.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 8473056, member: 6801845"] There has been criticism recently about the new episodes of Critical Role being set in Marquet which is not based on pseudo-European medieval society, but is instead loosely based on SWANA [SouthWest Asian/North African] culture[[URL='https://www.dicebreaker.com/topics/critical-role/opinion/critical-role-love-has-died']article[/URL]]. The problem? The entire cast is Caucasian and somehow that means cultural appropriation. Because somehow having a region and culture that steps outside of the "safe zone" of fantasy culture is wrong, no matter how many professional consultants they employ. I mean, I get it. There have been many truly bad depictions of non-western cultures. I've made a hash of my own "eastern" civilization in my home campaign which is why I don't use it very often. Then again, my primary mythology is only loosely based Norse mythology with a smattering of Celtic but since it's the mythology of my ancestors? The problem is that as authors of fictional worlds we have to draw inspiration from somewhere. Just about any type of culture we create will bear a passing resemblance to some real world culture. I think we need to be sensitive to that, but there's a difference between having a culture and region loosely based on a real world culture and the equivalent of campaign world blackface. We can draw inspiration from and ideas from the real world without falling into caricature. I don't think my ancestry matters. In other words, my dwarves don't have a Scottish accent. People that portray a Scottish accent on TV and movies just happen to sound a lot like dwarves. :) [/QUOTE]

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