YMMV / Kara-tur

• Broken Base:
  • There are two major splits when it comes to Kara-tur. The first is whether or not its greater focus on Asiatic Historical Fantasy versus the more Heroic Fantasy feel of the rest of the Forgotten Realms is a good thing. The second is whether or not the setting is racist, and if it is, then to just what extent.
  • Another is the choice of 3rd Edition on Rokugan for Legend of Five Rings over Kara-Tur, which many wonder if it should have updated the long-neglected setting over then-purchased properties of Wizards of the Coast.
• Fair for Its Day: Both Oriental Adventures and Kara-Tur books were best-seller and praised in the days of their publications for the revolutionary concept of even having a fantasy Far East setting. But as years passed, proliferation of Chinese period drama, Wuxia genre, Three Kingdoms-based adaptations, anime, online research, and the variety of other fantasy Asian media, such as Avatar: The Last Airbender, made these books' Fantasy Asia look downright embarrassing with how surface level and kitchen sink it is - and that before it eventually became also seen as outright racist by the new 10s. To drive the point futher: the setting was completely discontinued from the 3rd edition onward, while Pathfinder team, normally eager to dredge old D&D materials and repackage them for their own use, simply created their own fantasy Asia setting from a scratch, finding Kara-Tur to be "oriental only in the name".
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • Entire Kara-Tur started the trend of cementing Japan as main focal point on its worldbuilding, which also caused issues when entire game mechanics with mostly Japanese cultural lens—especially its Bushido-based Honor mechanics and class names aside from Wu-Jen and Monk—led its countries to be essentially Japan with different coating despite their inspirations (examples being Sohei warrior monk being present in Tibet-inspired Tabot, and Chinese-named Samurai with Japanese terminology in Chinese-inspired Shou Lung), which also didn't help that majority of the book's meager art tend to be based on Japanese theme. This also caused its inconsistent portrayals in licensed novels, video games, and even its own source books decades after its release, which many issues ranged from assumptions of Kara-Tur as a singular Asian kingdom inspired by Japan as a whole to local areas that didn't appear in the source book.
  • Furthermore, it also started a trend of its negative social aspects (xenophobia, rigid classism, gender roles, and institutionalized slavery) based on historical Asian culture being treated as the "norm" (thus avoiding alignment penalty) while Fantasy Europe's values—such as Faerun and Greyhawk—retaining more modern norms as the means to maintain authenticity that is unfortunately based on orientalist lens. While some of its aspects have been retconned (such as female warriors and ruling elites in contrast to 1E lore's restrictions on women rooted in historic Asian social views), its main roots still remained even up to 2000's (such as Shou-dominated Nathlan having restrictions on foreigners and Shou-Towns—or ethnic enclaves in Faerun—having cautious attitudes towards Faerunians, who were shown to have more open-minded views by contrast).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Much of modules related to Kara-Tur tend to interesting plot-hook but never explored.
  • Challenge of the Ronin had Awang Sophir, who has been hinted yet appeared only in the prologue across both Challenge of the Ronin and Test of the Samurai that felt forgettable.
  • The entire storyline of Test of the Samurai felt disjointed and the crisis only showing up out of blue without warning in the middle of the module. This also applied to Chauntea persecution, which lacks any story connection and any impact to characters as 1. group will most likely consist of OA-class characters 2. anyone—especially "Gaijin" characters—who worships Chauntea will be rare, if not non-existent.

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