#martial arts

Jean-Claude Van Damme Officially Returns to Martial Arts With New Yakuza Movie

Jean-Claude Van Damme returns to martial arts in Katana, a Japan-set Yakuza action movie filming in 2027.

Collider · EN

Best Practices for Religious Representation, Part I: Check for Traps

Religion suffuses role-playing’s most basic structure: the adventuring party with a fighter, thief, wizard, and cleric. Fantasy mainstays like demons, dragons, heavens and hells, pantheons, diverse monsters, and magic originate in religious lore. The decisions people make without thinking about their cosmology carry ideological weight that validates some demographics and denies others—and not even just in terms of religious identity. This article is a toolkit to help creators and players of games and fiction build religious characters and organizations, portray them with fairness and respect,

James Mendez Hodes · EN

Asian Representation and the Martial Arts

This article discusses how Asian martial arts stereotypes fit into orientalist dynamics, in which the Western gaze rewrites and reduces Asian experience to a cool violent thing for white consumption. I also point out how imperialist, exploitative attitudes complicate real-world martial arts practice. Finally, we’ll go over practical guidelines for representing Asian martial culture in your creative work. You’ll leave this article prepared not only to avoid racism, but also to craft stronger martial arts stories in general.

James Mendez Hodes · EN

Thousand Arrows is back in print!

On the cover of the Thousand Arrows ttRPG, a samurai in armor and a wide-brimmed hat smirks and brandishes her musket while a multi-tiered tower burs behind her. Art by Yoshi Yoshitani . Reload your muskets. Rally your troops. The battle to unify Japan begins anew. Thousand Arrows is back in print with Evil Hat Productions ! The tabletop roleplaying game of samurai warfare and drama, powered by the Apocalypse, returns with revised text and layout. Get it in PoD and PDF on 21 July! By the way… if you like games about East Asian historical settings, player characters in command positions, politi

James Mendez Hodes · EN