tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post2770297772597350350..comments2024-03-29T07:35:51.362+00:00Comments on Fabled Lands: Don't call them rappasDave Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-55973650573891606032022-08-07T11:19:14.320+01:002022-08-07T11:19:14.320+01:00I agree with you about not just using cultures as ...I agree with you about not just using cultures as a grab-bag of vague notions to layer onto a D&D setting. Not that I'm worried it will offend Japanese of the 16th century or whatever (they're all dead) but because it's an offence to the intelligence of the players today.<br /><br />The BBC's approach is typical these days. They aren't interested in diversity in a cultural sense, they think diversity is all about genes. That's the thinking that would put a Canadian with Chinese grandparents in charge of the Tetsubo redesign. It's more racist than the cultural appropriation they purport to care about.<br /><br />A digression on this: back at the time of the first Gulf War, a Greenpeace spokesperson said that Europeans should not criticize Saddam because to do so was racist. (I assume she meant Europeans who aren't of Iraqi origin btw.) But failing to treat dictators like him or Kim Jong-Un the same as we'd regard, say, Hitler -- *that's* racist. Or at least it was before the world went potty.<br /><br />This discussion is particularly useful because it makes me realize that I don't know what Tetsubo enthusiasts (all ten of them) do want from the game, but it probably isn't the same kind of fantasy Japan I was interested in writing about. Kwaidan is not only dearer to my heart but has the advantage of coming with no expectations -- Warhammer players will never even hear about it. So there I can do what I want.Dave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-70685780477056850402022-08-07T03:33:17.495+01:002022-08-07T03:33:17.495+01:00Didn't you know that Chinese animals were ethn...Didn't you know that Chinese animals were ethnically Japanese-American? And British animals are ethnically French-Patagonian.<br /><br />Actually I think there is something to the idea of cultural appropriation, but there is also a lot of related twittery. It's absurd to suggest that you can't do any creative work in a culture other than your own (so, for example, the BBC can't make a show called The Musketeers). And every culture interacts with and absorbs influences from others (there is a power dynamic here, but the influences nevertheless go both ways).<br /><br />For me, the red line is when what's happening is neither influence nor an attempt to represent another culture for a home audience, but steps into the realm of exploitation. This is when the culture being appropriated is also actively disrespected. To give an example, original Bushido was full of all kinds of nonsense about Japan, but all the same it was evident that they had plenty of respect (or even love) for the culture. On the other hand, D&D's Oriental Adventures supplement was, as the name rather suggests, pure orientalism: the presentation of 'exotica' with no interest in, or respect for, its context. One might suggest that a publisher who wanted a Japanese game that didn't simulate Japan 'right down to the Japanese people' was guilty of the same thing.<br /><br />The pajama-ninja approach could be defended in the 80s in the same way I've defended Bushido. But I think nowadays there's little excuse for it: wilful ignorance becomes more of a crime the easier it is to go out and correct.<br /><br />In which case, I'd say the thing to do with a Warhammer Tetsubo is to move it away from Japan. Make it as much about Japan as Warhammer is about medieval Germany, which is to say there's a patina of flavour, but no serious attempt at representing the culture. In this, at least it is honest. The problem is that you actually are interested in Japanese culture and its creative possibilities, and that presents something of an obstacle.Paul Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13825399893084157058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-46618111575183301692022-08-06T15:43:35.126+01:002022-08-06T15:43:35.126+01:00Never fear, Paul. If Jamie and I hand Tetsubo over...Never fear, Paul. If Jamie and I hand Tetsubo over to a publisher I'm sure they would strip out the Outlaws mechanics. Or, if not, they'd have to negotiate a deal with you, but I assume their goal will be the Warhammer fans who want ninja, not kanja, and who want them to be sneaky rogues in black pyjamas. Still, I would count that as glass-half-full as I could then press on with the real passion project (Kwaidan) with Outlaws rules.<br /><br />Talking of cultural appropriation and related twittery, I just heard an interview with George Takei in which he said CBBC had hired him to play Elder Panda. Of course they'd cast an American with Japanese parents as a Chinese animal character!Dave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-43247257028292940852022-08-06T13:16:35.333+01:002022-08-06T13:16:35.333+01:00I attempted to write both a novel and a role-playi...I attempted to write both a novel and a role-playing game in the way associated with me above; it's instructive that neither has been published!<br /><br />But then much comes down to how much you need it to be published. In my case, I had the luxury of not depending on either of these projects for my daily bread. And revelling in this luxury, I decided that there was no point in just producing a 'product' for a 'market' -- plenty of other people were doing that. I was more interested in producing the book that I believed in. And to be honest, given the amount I've spent on Chinese stuff over the years, even if I published Outlaws next week and it was a big hit, I'd still probably never make a profit from it.<br /><br />Back in the day I thought the growing interest in China might make the game marketable. Nowadays I can't help feeling that it suffers a similar problem to any putative game based on Russian expansionism (as well as having the problem of 'cultural appropriation' to wrestle with: not something that can be dealt with in a racist way, by simply employing someone with a Chinese name!).<br /><br />Given the last paragraph of your comment, Dave, I have to register some alarm at the idea of the Outlaws system becoming the intellectual property of a team of Warhammer enthusiasts!Paul Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13825399893084157058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-12491684236040056422022-08-05T22:15:40.712+01:002022-08-05T22:15:40.712+01:00It's like writing fiction. You can either rese...It's like writing fiction. You can either research your market and then give them what they want, or you can write what you want and hope that there will be readers who get it. The latter is far riskier -- all the greatest innovations in fiction and in game design are created that way, but for every big hit there are a hundreds of failures. <br /><br />I am not claiming that Tetsubo is going to be either a great innovation or a big hit, by the way, but when you're not being paid to work on something I figure you're entitled to do it your own way.<br /><br />But even that raises an interesting question. When I have been employed to design games or write fiction, it's still important to give the target audience what they need, not simply what they ask for. I'm sure you were taught that too, though publishers don't always seem to understand it. They will say, "X% of the focus group requested such-&-such a feature," and I'd have to say, "They don't know what they want yet. It's up to us to figure out what will appeal to them."<br /><br />Given that most of the people who might buy Tetsubo will be WFRP fans, the best answer might be for me to stop treating it as a passion project (I have enough of those to fritter away my time on!) and hand it over to a team who will steer it towards that market. Watch this space ;-)Dave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-64445839342432707142022-08-05T19:45:34.599+01:002022-08-05T19:45:34.599+01:00This was fun to read. It seems that you both disag...This was fun to read. It seems that you both disagree with how game design was taught to me, which was that you target the demographic for the game and then write to it. The very idea that you don't think about the people who are going to give the game a try, and instead just go your own way, was anathema! Anyway, somewhere I have some Outlaws material saved (damned if I know where), but I'd definitely have it on my desk with all the other China and Japan RPG material I'm reading through if I had a hard copy. And while I'm interested in Tetsubo, it would be as Dave fears, an adjunct to 1e WFRP. So I guess I'm not your demographic. :-(Baron Greystonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16636292202674906870noreply@blogger.com