There are ongoing podcasts where self-identified Asians and Muslim's are performing set-by-step rereads of Oriental Adventures and Al Qadim. Both Al-Qadim (a fantasy Arabian Tales setting), and Oriental Adventures (exactly what it says on the label) were products by TSR in the early 1990s. Both rereads are available through Asians Represent.
Neither of the settings/publications have aged well.
In both cases, the rereads involve a lot of painful cringing, pointed criticisms, and the producers being called out for their racism and cultural appropriation.
As I get older I find myself less forgiving of the “problematic.” As I get older I find myself increasingly unable to enjoy material from bad actors (for lack of a better term) such as Bill Cosby, Woody Allan, Zack Sabbath, and so on.
In terms of games and settings, an argument can be made that if Western Europe gets “represented” with mishmashes of France, Spain, England, and so forth, why not give other regions the same treatment?
The simple answer is such as an act is nothing less than racism, cultural appropriation, for the sake of amusement at the expensive of persecuted and exploited people. Intent is not nearly as important as results. And TSR / WotC are not the only company to have made this mistake over and over.
But this leaves us, gamers, with a following question about how may we produce any such settings? And how could any such setting be used?
I do not have an answer for that question.
Neither of the settings/publications have aged well.
In both cases, the rereads involve a lot of painful cringing, pointed criticisms, and the producers being called out for their racism and cultural appropriation.
As I get older I find myself less forgiving of the “problematic.” As I get older I find myself increasingly unable to enjoy material from bad actors (for lack of a better term) such as Bill Cosby, Woody Allan, Zack Sabbath, and so on.
In terms of games and settings, an argument can be made that if Western Europe gets “represented” with mishmashes of France, Spain, England, and so forth, why not give other regions the same treatment?
The simple answer is such as an act is nothing less than racism, cultural appropriation, for the sake of amusement at the expensive of persecuted and exploited people. Intent is not nearly as important as results. And TSR / WotC are not the only company to have made this mistake over and over.
But this leaves us, gamers, with a following question about how may we produce any such settings? And how could any such setting be used?
I do not have an answer for that question.
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