Kuei-jin: The Exotic

As I said, I will be talking about this roleplaying rulebook called Kindred of the East (KotE) and I have. But first, I made a mistake in saying that KotE dealt in South Asia. I was misremembering but for any South Asian readers, despair not! White Wolf already covered the region, or at least just India, in the main Vampire: The Masquerade books. You get the Ravnos clan which are basically Indian vampires organised into the Hindu caste system and whose western brethren are stereotypes of Roma people.

The Ravnos was also originally written as just stereotypes of Roma people, complete with the clan nickname “Gypsies”. And White Wolf also once released Gypsies, where Roma people are more magic than even vampires and werewolves.

Then you also have the fanatical Muslim assassin Assamite vampires.

As for vampires in Africa, well, I would be making a complete arse of myself talking about cultures which I have nearly no familiarity with. But looking at their track record so far… The title is Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom for anyone curious, by the way.

So after saying all that, how well do you think KotE would fare?

Hong Kong Act-xoticficat-ion Theater! Blue Dragon, White Tiger

Sometimes, I read RPG rulebooks just for fun, which to me is imagining what kind of character I would make if I could play in a campaign. Just now, I finished skimping through Blue Dragon, White Tiger, which I guess is a supplement for Hong Kong Action Theater! (HKAT!). I don’t know and don’t really care.

I have not read HKAT! yet but I assume it is based on roleplaying scenarios where the player characters shooting gangsters with a pistol in each hand like Chow Yun-Fat, jump from building to building while fending off relentless thugs like Jackie Chan, or being just damn fucking cool like Michelle Yeoh. Well Blue Dragon, White Tiger is supposed to be based on wuxia films.

My debut article here on Ars Marginal talked about wuxia being a uniquely Chinese genre with a long history behind it and why non-Chinese should not claim to write wuxia. With a special focus on white people because, well, what other group of people can proudly claim such a high track record of cultural appropriation.

Let’s look take a look at the book cover.