A Troubling Setting Riddled With Orientalist Tropes

 

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This blog post is a warning. There is at loose in the world a nefarious RPG setting book with foul and malevolent contents. Going under the name of Yoon-Suin 2nd edition, it, at first glance, like a particularly successful mimic, appears to 'stand out' as a 'creative and ambitious work' with 'psychedelic art' and 'evocative writing'. 

But this is a masquerade - a sham to fool the unwary. Lurking beneath its surface there are dangers, there is gaslighting, and there is troublingness. The book is in fact so troubling that it is important to say how troubling it is twice. It is indeed positively troublingerous in its implications.

You see, the author (I can confirm the veracity of all of this, since the author is yours truly) does not possess creativity, collaborativeness, or openness-ness. Rather, he is a defensive gaslighter who has repeatedly shown his unwillingness to LEARN FROM CRITIQUE or ENGAGE IN MEANINGFUL COLLABORATION. He is - let me think of a suitable term - a troubling individual who makes troubling inferences. The things that he infers are indeed so troubling that they border on the unforgivable - he even infers things about opium and tea. He is a naughty boy. The OSR community would be better off without him.

I do not recommend you go within a 10' pole's length of a copy of Yoon-Suin 2nd edition. You will be in deep trouble if you do. You might even find yourself:

• Perpetuating harmful and dangerous stereotypes about slug-men, such as their great propensity for magic, their malign intelligence, their talent for trade and their love of fine fashion
• Participating in the othering of nasnas, ogre mages, rakhosh (both major and minor) and aphid-men, as well as dozens of other monsters, fully detailed in the bestiary
• Looking at illustrations which objectify the likes of crab-men, giant arowanas, barnaclids and rhinoceros demnos - penned by the truly remarkably talented maverick, Matt Adams
• Being gaslit about the real nature of the holes of Láhág, the crystal dragons of Upper Druk Yul, and the original inhabitants of the Old Town neighbourhoods of the Yellow City, as well as many other unsolved mysteries 
• Getting excited about running a game in a fully realised campaign setting which allows you, through the provision of vast quantities of finely detailed and nested random tables, to make your own unique version of an entire continent's worth of adventure (but in a troubling way)
• Becoming bewitched by the twelve fully playable adventure locales included in the book, beautifully mapped out by other noted defensive gaslighter, Tom Fitzgerald
• Being hoodwinked into orientalism by a product which eminent reviewers have said is 'not like anything anybody else could have made or will make', 'probably one of the most impressive gaming supplements (let alone campaign settings) I have ever come across', and 'a labour of wonder'

But don't worry - help is at hand. Having seen the error of my ways after seeing Yoon-Suin 2nd edition repeatedly review-bombed by creative, collaborative and open members of the OSR community, I am coming up with some supplementary products to increase your enjoyment of the book. These include:

• A new 5th level magic-user spell, Due Diligence, with which you can banish troubling inferences and all discussion of opium and most discussion of tea (tea is permitted a saving throw)
• A Helm of Being Critical and Engaging in Conversation, to protect readers from the most crass of inferences to real world cultures - and, possibly, to permit you to better understand what the word 'infer' actually means
• A Wand of One-Star Reviews of Infinite Charges, a Cloak of Anonymity and a Girdle of Cowardice and Snide to allow disappointed purchasers to safely punish the author for his lack of willingness to learn

Above all, though, be forewarned. A print edition is soon to be released and will shortly be available for pre-order! THIS MEANS TROUBLE.