D&D 5E World of Kensei (KS)

[GreyLord]

I’m not following you. What bothers you about this? What would you prefer they do?

They used the word Oriental in their marketing materials, a word which offends many Americans, particularly young Asian-Americans in some groups and White Americans who sympathize with them. In the Americas (and some in Europe) it is considered offensive to use the term and it is preferable for writers to use either a more specific connotation today (such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, etc) or a more generic broad usage (such as Asian, though that ALSO is a problematic term because it can be offensive to MANY various cultural groups in Europe and areas connected to Europe as they feel it is too broad a term when talking about the MANY different cultural and racial groups that are actually found in Asia from the Russians and Arabs to the Afghans and Indians to the Mongolians, Chinese and Japanese...etc).

They stated they had utilized East Asians (or Asians) in reading over the materials (but, as the word Oriental is NOT offensive to most who are actually Japanese, Chinese, Korean, or others who are actually FROM East Asia [as in those who are born into those nations, are from those races, and still live there currently], it is understandable why they may have missed this item), but obviously their readers did not catch this item.

They writers admitted to their mistake, removed the word oriental from the materials and apologized for it.

It may be that some question the writers sincerity and motives and how truthful they are in relating the information.

I could go further in detail, but it would probably just cause a bunch of turmoil on this site which is unnecessary.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Some times accidental/unintentional offenses happen, but I hope among polite and civilited people apologies should be enough.

Other point is when WotC really worries about to send a message of "everybody is wellcome to the tabletop" but other people with no-so-good intentions use the speculative fiction to show stereotypes based in prejudices against other nation what was a historical enemy and rival power in the past, for example. Usually when I see a fictiona character wearing a "morrion" (the helm used by the Spanish conquerors) my fear is this is the bad guy, or with some pejorative trait.

Some times some stereotypes are showed in the fiction, but nobody realises until a lot of time after, for example a native who notices these are stereotypes about a different region, or a foreign who has been living in that country for years, and with a different point of view about the natives.

Now WotC has to publish only "crunch": PC lineages, monsters and subclasses, and the own fandom will create new worlds based in their local culture.

 

[Rogerd1]

I honestly can't figure out if you're offended that their disclaimers seem insincere, or by the fact that they wrote disclaimers at all.

Someone above was concerned about so posted a link. That is all you need to read into that.

 

[Weiley31]

Well there is also this in case anyone is interested?

Kamon: Japanese Fantasy Setting for 5e

Kamon is a Fantasy Setting based on the Japanese Feudal Period for the 5th Edition of the World's Greatest Roleplaying Game.

www.kickstarter.com

I suspect that Rokugan is extremely lore heavy due to the number of books in the original system - so these may be a nice way to remove any baggage?

Kamon might be the one that has the kind of Kitsune pc write-up that I've been looking/wanting for in 5E and meets the criteria that I want/expect for said option.

That or Undying Corruption might convince me as well if its good.