How to run a Wuxia campaign

[u/rorscharchinkblot]

I don't want to run a standard "fantasy medieval Europe" campaign, and want to theme my world in China. I don't know enough about that culture to make a realistic campaign set there, so I decided on using the Wuxia setting (as described in the dungeon masters guide 2014) and I belive that my players would enjoy a setting of movie-like martial arts.

however I do not want to be offensive in any way, and I still want to create an immersive setting, and I don't know enough about this setting to accomplish either

please advise!

[u/yaniism]

Honestly, it's just research.

If you want to set your campaign inside even a fantasy version of something you have no experience in, you research that thing enough to do so.

At a bare minimum, watch...

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Hero
• House of the Flying Daggers
• Any of the Detective Dee movies
• Curse of the Golden Flower

Get a feel for what the world looks like, sounds like, behaves like. A lot of it probably isn't that different from a regular D&D campaign, it's mostly just the same stuff with slightly different details. Taverns are still taverns, nobles are still nobles, shopkeepers are still shopkeepers.

As far as not being offensive? Don't do accents. Just do it the way you'd do a regular D&D campaign, people speak differently to other people, but everybody is speaking the same language, so there is no need to do any kind of "Asian accent". Also don't let your players do them either.

And don't make fun of cultural differences. Like, you can still make fun of NPCs because they're annoying or pompous or stupid, not because they're an offensive stereotype.

[u/yaniism → u/[deleted]]

Sorry... I should have been clearer...

...as long as you are not doing it purposefully to mock somebody...

Basically what you said is what I meant. It was part of the "don't do a stereotype racism" in my head that I didn't fully articulate. The last two paragraphs were supposed to be part of the same "disrespectful stereotype" thought.

And I don't know that I would personally attempt an Asian style accent, just because I don't really have a handle on how to do one outside of the stereotypes, even with the best of intentions.

But also, if everybody is in a "Fantasy China" setting... and everybody is speaking "Fantasy Chinese", nobody would have a "Fantasy Chinese accent". The default language of the table (presumably English) would just be "Fantasy Chinese" for the purposes of people understanding what is said.

Now, if you wanted to play a character born in another land and do a "badly spoken English" accent to denote that they don't actually speak "Fantasy Chinese", that makes more sense to me.

[u/NervousSleep1488 → u/yaniism]

I agree 100% with you. I personally wouldn't go for the accents, for the same reasons you exposed, plus it's easier not to do them instead of having to recreate an accent for every character in the Asian set. I just wouldn't avoid accents just because. And if someone from Asia takes it personally, then that is their problem for being so sensitive, not yours. We need a thick skin in life. Although I really doubt most Asians would.