I have seen this come up a few times so I would like to start a thread on how to include other cultures into your TTRPG without being insensitive, written by a mixed race White-Asian who has travelled a lot around the world and lived in 5 countries

lots of people worry about stereotypes but here's the good news, people in Korea are the same as people in the UK, who are the same as people in USA, who are the same as people in Thailand.

Generally people's personalities are the same. Their food, architecture etc are different

This is going to be mostly from my own experiences and my own opinions so if you've got something to add, as long as it's not rude or insulting to others please feel free to chip in

Step 1: Research.
You can't add a Japanese themed culture in your game if you don't do research. The easiest thing to do is to start looking at something like clothing, learn the names of the clothing, learn the materials, learn how it's put on.

What about architecture? What do their buildings look like? what are they made of? How were they designed to suit their envrionment, e.g in Japan how are buildings made to survive earthquakes? (it's really interesting and everyone should look it up)

Food? what do they eat? How is it grown? How is it processed? How is it cooked? what is it called? How is it served? Are there any social associations with it?

For example I have friends who think that Korean army soup is the best cuisine, but I judge them greatly because if all you're eating is Army Soup you're either in the army, a student or you're poor and probably need some help getting back on your feet

What about manners? In the west we don't have as much respect for elders as I feel we should but in the East there is a much greater respect for them and specific ways we address the older generations and those who are older than us. e.g. Eunni and Oppa in Korean

Are there any particular phrases or slang that stand out like the heavy use of "lah" in Singapore and Malaysia? Or "yo" at the end of sentences in Korean?

Are there any terms of endearment such as Senpai that you could integrate to show respect or position?

what about how people interact with each other whether it's bowing, different types of bowing, kowtows, hand shaking, hugs etc. In Europe it's customary to kiss on the cheek in some cultures but in America and Canada it's like

At least it was to the people I discussed it with back in the day lol

What do the inside of people's houses look like? Are they the grand opulant pillared halls of the throne room of the Forbidden palace, do they have paper walls and screens like Korea and Japan, are they simple mud walls and hard packed earth, do they have mosaic floors?

You dont NEED to describe a culture by the physical features of the people, you can describe them by their manners, by the way they address others, by the style of their religion, the food that they eat

Most people are smart enough to know that if you're bowing to elders, eating crosslegged on the floor with low tables and chopsticks and you're presented with noodles you're probably in an asian style setting

And if you're describing warriors what about describing the style of their armour? What is the shape of their weapons? do they prefer the graceful movements and quick slices of using the katana or do they just hack away at each other in platemail?

What about what religions they worship? Every country I have been to around the world worships religion differently. Lets take Christianity for example. You have the church of England and Protestantism which it's pretty basic churches, Catholicism with is grandiose buildings

Western Christianity is so focused on sin and going to hell but when i spent some time in Uganda and went to church there they liked to celebrate life and the fact they were living and healthy

Other things to consider, what sort of instruments do they use? what does their music sound like? do they use a lot of drums? if so what type of drum?

There's a lot of fucking drums in the world

Now lets talk about landscapes. clothing, architecture and food are heavily influenced by the landscape they are in. a tudor house doesn't work in Australia because older Australian houses are designed to capture wind and provide shade.

A Korean Hanok wouldn't work in certain parts of Malaysia because parts of Malaysai floods and so their houses are on stilts and have ladders to get up to them so that they dont get flooded every rainy season

Some cultures use bread made from barley instead of wheat because they can't grow wheat, some food is heavily rice based because thats what will grow best in their climates. If you're going to have a mountainous region you're not going to have wheat fields on the mountainsides

On the same vein, youre not going to have rice paddy fields in a land that is dry and mostly desert. You wont find a banana tree plantation in a land that you based off of viking era Norway (or even modern Norway) so that culture probably wont have bananas unless they're rich