docfuturity

Just ordered a new table copy for my group. I need to start running some BRP powered stuff again!

This is a tough subject for someone to defend, because in the current discourse anyone who isn't also Maori or of Polynesian descent will not have a basis for comment. Most gamers who purchsase TDM products are not, I am willing to bet, going to fit that bill. The best I could do is point out that the author of the book probably had no idea that there was a conflict or outdated source material to begin with, and I bet he wishes he had taken the setting and fully mythologized it like he did with his other work, Perceforest (except in a twist I think he could have left out the fantastical setting and used the historical one on which Perceforest was grounded to much greater effect). If Mythic Polynesia had been called Mythic Islands of Lore I think they'd have managed to avoid comparisons to real world modern people. Either way, TDM is not a large publisher, so I feel for them, as this will be a financial hit no doubt. I don't know if cultural advisors would have been more useful here or simply establishing a precedent for not publishing books in which existing, living real world cultures are used is a better future strategy. And yes, I have the book. Ordered it on day one. It strikes me as more focused on an antique version of an old world take of the cultures of Polynesia, and it needed more modern references; a cultural input would have made sense. I tried determining if the author had an academic background and could not, but based on his other work I got at the same time (Perceforest) I think he's an earnest amateur who has likely not considered that in today's day and age, reading some old stuffy tomes and using them as a resource just doesn't cut it anymore.