what geeky said.

You do not need to pay a sensitivity reader it's a bs title that some gimps made up so they could give themselves & friends a completely unnecessary job for some easy cash IMO.

Just a bit of common sense, and some Google fu. You could go on a forum (non-RPG) and ask a few questions about X culture.

And always ignore the mob (don't even respond to them).

Make your game and screw anyone that doesn't like it. If you like it jobs a goog 'un.

Ignore the mob and if they do complain, don't apologize to them or try to explain your actions, no matter how reasonable they are.  They'll just double down.  They are like witch trial judges:  the very fact that you argue with them makes you, the witch, even more damnable and guilty.  Like when Olivier Legrande tried to explain to the TBP crowd about his superhero game:  his arguments were entirely rational, but the TBP people didn't want to be "corrected" or "convinced"; they had decided he was guilty and only utter contrition on his part plus immediately either pulling the game or at least changing its title was going to satisfy them, and even that probably wouldn't have worked.

Agree with those who said do your thing and ignore them. It's your own fictiional world, I would put that in the introduction. IE,

This is a fantasy world, it's meant as entertainment, and is not intended to represent or comment on real life. If you don't like reading fantasy worlds, please put this book back on the shelf.

Ask gamers from the Chinese tabletop scene to look over it.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on May 02, 2023, 09:17:22 AM
Ask gamers from the Chinese tabletop scene to look over it.

Once you've done the research for the basic setting as BCT said float it over to a few RPGers who would know. Just not Danial Kwan (or whatever his name is). And you could offer to do the same if they ever have anything they might want to be looked over.

Quote from: aztecman on May 01, 2023, 08:56:25 PM

*Also, it's based on American Pop culture to some degree. Most folks in Asia won't get the reference. Surprisingly, most of my play testers are from the Philippines. They don't get all the references, but they like style of the original game. The countries that immediately get the references are the US and the UK. The only difference is this version is the RPG version of the game. I've spent a lot of work to get this ready for release, but if it gets a lot of eyeballs on it, there is a high possibility of some one being offended. (if I was a betting man that is...)

I'd be curious as to what the Pundit would say about it?

People are going to get offended because Outrage and Drama allows them to live their Victim complex lifestyle.   Pundit is a whitish Canadian living in Central America who published a book on Indian Asian Culture.  Outrage was had, he didn't give two fucks, it sold well because it was accurate due to the research being done by himself on the topic at hand. At no point did his CrackerGenes give him any super power and privilige to write  this book.

If you want to stay true to the culture or theme of the book then get hands on time with people who actually study the history, people, times, etc. of what you are looking at publishing.  Look at what they've done not the color of their skin or the perception of their blood.

If you want to completely shield yourself from "outrage" (again an impossibility) make your psuedonym be a black lesbian woman living in California.  You will be fucking untouchable.

Quote from: Baron on May 02, 2023, 12:59:26 AM
Agree with those who said do your thing and ignore them. It's your own fictiional world, I would put that in the introduction. IE,

This is a fantasy world, it's meant as entertainment, and is not intended to represent or comment on real life. If you don't like reading fantasy worlds, please put this book back on the shelf.

I'd argue to change the last part to "Please buy the book and tell me what you think."

A sale is a sale after all.

Also, make sure you give a few free copies to YouTubers or bloggers that are immune to childish identity politics so at least you know you'll get a fair review and promotion.

Quote from: aztecman on May 01, 2023, 07:35:42 PM
Howdy  -

Not sure if this is the place for something like this, but I wanted to get some thoughts from the forums here.

So I made a game. The art's done, writing is done, and layout is almost complete. The theme/content is different than my native culture. I approached a translator about giving it the once over to make sure there's no misspellings, etc. I was told that since it's outside of my native culture, and the only way I can avoid the backlash of today's environment is perhaps just not to sell it. Problem is, I've spent a lot of time and hard work on this.

Do I, A) pay the translator hundreds of dollars to point out any faux pas and put it out anyways? B) Scrap all the hard work, time, and money that I've put into it? or C) Some other option yet to be determined?

How do existing publishers handle something like this when publishing material outside of their native culture? (or don't they...)

Thanks in advance

Option C.

0. If you're not a WHAM (white, heterosexual, able-bodied man) publish it and accuse anyone giving you grief of being racist/homophobic/ablest/sexist based on where you deviate from being a WHAM. Otherwise do the following steps:
1. Pay no one for any sensitivity bullshit.
2. Publish it
3. Tell the cultural puritans to go fuck themselves.
4. Grab your brass balls and enjoy the ride when they find you and make you the object of their current ten minute hate.
5. When the ten minute hate hits don't apologize
6. When they realize you won't give them the groveling they want they'll move onto another target.
7. Enjoy being kicked off the big purple.

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on May 02, 2023, 10:15:39 AM
Also, make sure you give a few free copies to YouTubers or bloggers that are immune to childish identity politics so at least you know you'll get a fair review and promotion.

spend the money on marketing in the right areas. We've seen how that can work out really well.

Quote from: THE_Leopold on May 02, 2023, 10:22:23 AM

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on May 02, 2023, 10:15:39 AM
Also, make sure you give a few free copies to YouTubers or bloggers that are immune to childish identity politics so at least you know you'll get a fair review and promotion.

spend the money on marketing in the right areas. We've seen how that can work out really well.

Indeed... Fair point.

Quote from: Baron on May 02, 2023, 12:59:26 AM
Agree with those who said do your thing and ignore them

+1 more, and this is critical: do not respond to or even acknowledge the naysayers. And whatever you do, don't apologize for the game, ever!

Quote from: Zalman on May 02, 2023, 10:52:45 AM

Quote from: Baron on May 02, 2023, 12:59:26 AM
Agree with those who said do your thing and ignore them

+1 more, and this is critical: do not respond to or even acknowledge the naysayers. And whatever you do, don't apologize for the game, ever!

Yep when you bend the knee to the woke idiots they win.  Never let them win.

Quote from: aztecman on May 01, 2023, 08:56:25 PM
It's not specifically based on China, but there is that flavor to it. I am not worried so much about offending people - as people have been offended about some thing or another since the beginning of time. I speak Japanese myself and have a strong tie to Japan, but the game doesn't have the Japanese influence. (well, a tiny bit in there) I've published for my game before about 10 years ago. It was in retail and I even had some international distribution. Heck even WOTC had it in their retail shops back in the day. I even saw copies in various Japan hobby shops around that time too. Sadly, that was a different time and people knew how to laugh and not get so bent out of shape about things. Parody was actually funny back then. Now, not so much it seems - which is unfortunate.

OK, now I'm curious. Do you mind saying what the past product was? I used to maintain an encyclopedia of RPGs. (ref) Even though it got too much to maintain, I still keep an interest in the breadth of RPGs.

There are plenty of people here who could help promote the game.

Quote from: PulpHerb on May 02, 2023, 10:17:32 AM
3. Tell the cultural puritans to go fuck themselves.

They like that - it makes them feel important. What they REALLY hate is being ignored. Best advice is to ignore any criticism not based on the genuine (de)merits of the work.