"Oriental (Mis?)Adventures" for the Modern Gamer?

Most people who know me also know that one of my favorite hobbies is playing role-playing games (RPGs), including, of course, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). One of the reasons I love it so much is it lets you create whole fantasy worlds where you can immerse yourself in characters you create, and gameplay focuses just as much on acting out a role as on combat. This also means that D&D can provide very inclusive spaces, as players are mostly free to choose who they want to be, how they want to act, and what they want to stand for.

When you barely see anyone who looks or shares the same background as you in the media even now, sometimes you're happy just to have anything at all.

Despite this potential for diversity and inclusion, recently there's been a resurgence of calls to ban or at least protest older Wizards of the Coast (creators of D&D and many other popular RPGs) campaigns that stereotype/exoticize other cultures. While the problems inherent in some of them may be a bit more clear than others (for example, including a Jihad card in the "Arabian Nights" pack for “Magic: The Gathering”), I'm torn about their "Oriental Adventures" module for D&D (a module is a self-contained "adventure" that you can play through with your fellow gamers). I first heard about it from reading this article, which features a separate podcast regarding the module. I haven't had time to listen to the full podcast yet, but the article itself is nonetheless a fairly thoughtful read. Bear in mind that I haven't personally played or read through "Oriental Adventures" yet (it's not even the same version of D&D I play, actually), but I was able to dig up from the Interwebs a basic idea of how this campaign is supposed to be set up.

The following are some thoughts I had on the topic, starting from what felt most significant to me.

Not your standard Medieval European Setting

In general, I was really kind of pleased when I learned this module exists because it takes us away from the traditional Medieval European settings D&D is usually associated with. So just seeing that someone went out of their way to design an East Asian-inspired module struck me initially as a win for representation. When you barely see anyone who looks or shares the same background as you in the media even now, sometimes you're happy just to have anything at all.

Asian Representation?

That being said, it could be problematic that none of the listed authors appear to be of Asian descent themselves. Tying back into representation, there's also the issue of East Asian (really, all Asian) creators being vastly underrepresented and overlooked. I don't know much about this module's authors' backgrounds, maybe they did extensive research or even spent significant time immersed in one or more Asian cultures before writing the book. If so, that would at least decrease the sense of cultural appropriation in favor of a well-thought-out homage. The fact that in their summary of the guide they mention how "politeness and proper manners really matter in your campaign" and "How many D&D characters worry about how their actions reflect upon their families and comrades", shows at least a basic understanding of traditional East Asian values.

I find this depiction of East Asian culture more accurate than a clearly Westernized version like in "Mulan II", where she decides that "Forget honor, my family, and the Empire, my duty is to myself and my own happiness".

The article I referenced in my introductory paragraph criticizes the authors for stereotyping Asian cultures as being honor-bound and obsessed with "things like first impressions, social grace, and so on". Obviously, if you think that this is all being Asian is about, then yes, it is a very shortsighted view of that entire part of the world and its history. HOWEVER, they aren't wrong that these things were and continue to be very important to much of Asian culture. One of the worst things you can do is dishonor not yourself, but your family/clan/company because it disrupts the social harmony and hurts everyone associated with you. I find this depiction of East Asian culture more accurate than a clearly Westernized version like in "Mulan II", where she decides that "Forget honor, my family, and the Empire, my duty is to myself and my own happiness". That's just a thinly-veiled assertion that "my Western individualism is better than your Eastern collectivism", and it forces a dichotomy where there doesn't need to be one. I'd suggest watching "Crazy Rich Asians" or "The Farewell" for a better depiction of how each school of thought has its own benefits and drawbacks, and how we can try to reconcile them.

Regardless of how you feel about the content itself, "Oriental Adventures" does at least deserve a shout out for being the first module I’ve seen entirely devoted to role-playing in a non-Western setting, and the first to officially use non-weapon proficiencies such as Charisma. So if nothing else, it's still a pioneer in the field of RPGs, and as someone who usually prefers charismatic characters, I'm very thankful they added that in.

All this being said, would I play this now? Without having looked through the entire supplement page by page, it still seems like a pretty fun setting to adventure in. From what I saw, they did include a fair bit of lore from both China and Japan, which can be under-appreciated since so many games focus on European mythology. And it should be noted, D&D as a whole presents a very "fantasized" version of the entire world, so this is not something unique only to their "Oriental" module.

I'm not saying there's not a lot of mutual influence among us, but this is an entire continent we're talking about, and just reducing it to a single Kingdom (not even Empire, which would have been more accurate) is problematic.

So yes, I wouldn't have a problem joining a campaign out of this book, BUT with some modifications. This seems to be entirely set in the Kingdom of Rokugan, obviously inspired by Japan. That's not necessarily bad in itself, but the fact that it's blending in Chinese elements like Monks and Wu Jen means that the authors are falling into the age-old pit trap of assuming all Asian cultures are interchangeable and only based on East Asia. I'm not saying there's not a lot of mutual influence among us, but this is an entire continent we're talking about, and just reducing it to a single Kingdom (not even Empire, which would have been more accurate) is problematic. So I would suggest adding at least a couple more neighboring Empires to your setting, preferably ones from South Asia, the Middle East, anywhere outside of the typical East Asian places. It would also depend on how willing the players are to research and provide a historically accurate experience. It wouldn't make any sense for us to enter a tavern and be greeted with the "usual" fare of bread, cheese, and ale. But if we got to eat rice, bao, and sake or chai, then I'm all for it.

In sum, I agree that this module is fairly outdated and could use quite a few tune-ups, but I wouldn't say we should toss it out completely. If nothing else, it can serve as an inspiration for a new, more culturally-appropriate update with Asian contributors and representing a larger swath of all Asian cultures. And hopefully, it will draw in a more diverse crowd who want to play something that they can relate to.

Overall, I think this is a great example of something that should not be canceled as a knee-jerk reaction to racial stereotypes but used as a learning opportunity to present it better and more inclusively.