The Source of My Annoyance

[kent_allard_jr]

I feel bad that I don't update this journal more often. Hell, I feel bad for not doing much at all these days. Occasionally, though, I feel compelled to write something. Sometimes it's out of pride, other times it's out of annoyance.

In my last entry I wrote about designing a fantasy campaign based, loosely, on sub-Saharan African cultures and

Comments

[agrumer]

You misunderstood the point of my comment about invented worlds. The point isn’t that the setting of The Witcher is an invented world, and therefore could have had unrealistic diversity. Rather, since it’s an invented world, it could have had realistic diversity.

If we opened up a time-door into ancient Rome, would we see only ethnic Italians, or would we see lots of people from all over Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, plus maybe a smattering of people from either farther away? Likewise if we looked instead at Jerusalem, or a large city along the Silk Road?

OK, sure, you might say, but what about the Medieval period, and what about rural regions and more remote parts of the globe? Well, check this out: A woman from Sub-Saharan Africa somehow made her way to Gloucester, England in the 9th or 10th century CE.

There have been times and places that were mono-racial, but plenty of historical times and places were diverse (or at least had some diversity). If you’re setting up an invented world, you’re making choices about

[kent_allard_jr]

Oh, there'd be plenty of diversity in a place like Rome, although even there you'd be talking, largely, of different shades of white folks. And yeah, there would be an occasional Ibn Battuta / Marco Polo far traveler like your African woman. And it's not as if I would object to such characters; players introduce them all the time into my D&D campaigns and I'm fine with them

[agrumer]

OK, but the problem with that (well, a problem) is that you wind up defending the worldbuilding abilities of JK Rowling, whose worldbuilding has always sucked.