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<blockquote data-quote="Agback" data-source="post: 264505" data-attributes="member: 5328"><p>Well, insofar as "Eastern" means a mishmash of half-understood elements from Japanese and Chinese movies, yes, "Eastern" is <em>passé</em>. But let's not forget Persia, India, and Burma-Thailand-Vietnam-Malaysia-Indonesia, which are respectably 'Eastern' but quite different from the <em>melange du jour</em>.</p><p></p><p>As for cultural <em>cliches</em>, I understand and share your dislike of them, but I am afraid that they might be indispensible. A completely different culture is an enormously complicated and detailed things, very hard to convey to character-players (or indeed anyone else) in any sort of concise way. Almost no-one has the time or patience to slog their way through the 100,000 words it takes to describe a culture unless the material is thoroughly sugar-coated with either interesting story or outstanding writing. One solution to the problem is to set adventures in a context that players already know fairly well, such as modern setting, or the setting of an unusually detailed and readable series of fantasy books. Another is to convey only a framework to the readers, and to allow them to interpolate details.</p><p></p><p>In either case, an analogy to some other setting can be extremely helpful. And the difference between this being highly original and it being a <em>cliché</em> is only a matter of time. Before FGU brought out <em>Bushido</em> 'Eastern' settings for RPG were cutting-edge. Since WotC brought out <em>The Legend of the Five Rings</em> they have been trite. A friend of mine has a setting based on a people rather like the Indians of the Vedic period invading a region rather like pre-Columbian America. That's original and different now. But if WotC buy it and publish a raft of fantasy products set there, in fifteen years it may be <em>cliché</em>.</p><p></p><p>Regards,</p><p></p><p></p><p>Agback</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Agback, post: 264505, member: 5328"] Well, insofar as "Eastern" means a mishmash of half-understood elements from Japanese and Chinese movies, yes, "Eastern" is [i]passé[/i]. But let's not forget Persia, India, and Burma-Thailand-Vietnam-Malaysia-Indonesia, which are respectably 'Eastern' but quite different from the [i]melange du jour[/i]. As for cultural [i]cliches[/i], I understand and share your dislike of them, but I am afraid that they might be indispensible. A completely different culture is an enormously complicated and detailed things, very hard to convey to character-players (or indeed anyone else) in any sort of concise way. Almost no-one has the time or patience to slog their way through the 100,000 words it takes to describe a culture unless the material is thoroughly sugar-coated with either interesting story or outstanding writing. One solution to the problem is to set adventures in a context that players already know fairly well, such as modern setting, or the setting of an unusually detailed and readable series of fantasy books. Another is to convey only a framework to the readers, and to allow them to interpolate details. In either case, an analogy to some other setting can be extremely helpful. And the difference between this being highly original and it being a [i]cliché[/i] is only a matter of time. Before FGU brought out [i]Bushido[/i] 'Eastern' settings for RPG were cutting-edge. Since WotC brought out [i]The Legend of the Five Rings[/i] they have been trite. A friend of mine has a setting based on a people rather like the Indians of the Vedic period invading a region rather like pre-Columbian America. That's original and different now. But if WotC buy it and publish a raft of fantasy products set there, in fifteen years it may be [i]cliché[/i]. Regards, Agback [/QUOTE]
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