Cultural Consulting and Sensitivity Reading

Are you creating something which features ethnicities, cultures, religions, or other identities that are not your own? Hell yeah! Representation makes the world a safer, better, more interesting place. But you gotta get that representation right—and it’s not easy. A cultural consultant or sensitivity reader joins you during (ideally, early in) your creative process to ensure your project not only doesn’t offend, but also supports and validates the people you’re talking about.

But we don’t just tell you no—quite the opposite. We help you with research, thematics, and inspiration, so you can create the best and most evocative version of your material. It’s scary sometimes, but if you’re willing to challenge yourself, it’s fun as well—and you get to go to sleep with peace of mind.

Since I started writing professionally in 2014, cultural consulting has been a major component of my creative process. I work with companies as large as Wizards of the Coast and Jackbox Games, as well as with individuals writing their first novel or their first role-playing game. I’ve spoken about game design and cultural consulting on panels and podcasts, and I blog about it (especially when it involves orcs) over on this site’s Blog tab.

In this video, I discuss my work as cultural consultant on Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty for the collectible card game Magic: the Gathering.

What are my specialties? Well, I have a lot of experience as a generalist: if you don’t know what you don’t know, if you’ve never worked with cultural consultants before and you need someone to get you started and help you plan your first steps, or if your work spans a really broad cross-section of identity categories from ability to sexuality to culture, hit me up. The topics dearest to my heart, though, are race, culture, and religion outside the Western European paradigm. Some topics I’ve covered during my career include …

West African, Afro-Atlantic, and Asian religion
worldwide and historical martial arts and dance
multiracial identity
antisemitism
cultural appropriation and tokenism

If I can’t help you based on my own background, I’ll find you someone in the network of cultural consultants who can. Even if we can’t find a professional cultural consultant experienced in the specific thing you need, I often co-consult with cultural representatives or fledgling cultural consultants, pairing my own professional experience with their personal background to make sure you get the insight you need. I work with you at any and every stage of your creative process, from brainstorming to the finished product—although it’s always easier if we start early!

Also, in case you’re curious, I’m Filipino American on my mom’s side and European Jewish on my dad’s. My undergraduate degree was in Religion (focusing on West African and diasporic traditions) with minors in Dance (mostly martial arts and South Asian dance) and English Literature (mostly poetry). My master’s degree is in Eastern classics—so, great books of Japan, China, and India.

To get an idea of the kind of topics I often cover in cultural consulting, check my blog. Almost everything in there has something to do with cultural consulting.

Contact me via the form below to get more information, or to see published examples of my work. I work on a sliding fee scale, to make sure I can help you no matter your financial situation. Check below the form for a list of my past consulting engagements.

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This trailer includes material I consulted on for The Finals, an arena shooter video game from Embark Studios!

I consulted on this cinematic for Teamfight Tactics: Inkborn Fables!

Jackbox Games

Jackbox Games creates multiplayer party games. I started working with them beginning with Jackbox Party Pack 7.

Dungeons & Dragons

So there’s this game where you pretend to be wizards and paladins fighting monsters and going on adventures. It’s like improv acting, but also there’s dice like in a board game? It’s hard to explain, but I worked on several projects including the 2024 Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide.

Magic: the Gathering

Magic: the Gathering is a collectible card game set in a multiverse of different planes of existence, each with its own themes and conflicts. I’ve worked with Magic as a cultural consultant starting with Kamigawa, Neon Dynasty. Click on the video up above to hear me talk about the experience of contributing to Kamigawa!

Eat the Reich

Eat the Reich is a tabletop role-playing game written by Grant Howitt and illustrated by Will Kirkby, in which you play a squad of vampire commandos air-dropped into Europe in 1943 with a mission to drink all of Adolf Hitler's blood. This game was one of my most challenging, complex cultural consulting assignments ever and I'm so proud of what we wrote about religion, ethnicity, vampires, and thrashing fascists.

Teamfight Tactics

Teamfight Tactics is an auto battle video game by Riot Games, with characters and setting elements drawn from League of Legends. I helped to source a team of international consultants to work with Riot’s marketing department to create authentic & resonant content for Teamfight Tactics: Inkborn Fables, a set inspired by Asian artistic traditions.

Frosthaven

Frosthaven, by Cephalofair Games, is a legacy-style board game in which you play as a party of adventurers fighting to determine the future of an icy region full of conflict and mystery.

Till the Last Gasp

Till the Last Gasp is a two-player card game about dramatic, emotional duels, which you can play on its own, or to zoom in on a fight in another system!

Fiasco 2

Fiasco is a tabletop role-playing game about powerful ambition and poor impulse control. In addition to cultural consulting, I also wrote a playset called “Fist City” about the secret world of suburban American martial arts.

Agon

Agon is a tabletop role-playing game about ancient Greek epic heroes going from island to island having strange adventures. I worked together with John Stavropoulos to refine the game’s representation of marginalized identities and Greek culture.

Jiāngshī: Blood in the Banquet Hall

Jiāngshī: Blood in the Banquet Hall is a tabletop role-playing game about a family running a Chinese restaurant in North America, fighting against racists by day and hopping vampires by night. We won a Silver ENnie Award for Best Setting!

If I Were a Lich, Man

I was the cultural consultant on this trilogy of Jewish-themed RPGs by Lucian Kahn. We won the 2024 Silver ENnie Award for Best Family Game! Please never play this with your family!

Verizon Diversity Summit

I was honored to participate in Verizon’s 2022 diversity summit as keynote speaker. As part of my presentation, I ran a role-playing game focused on awkward workplace situations, and how applying lessons from RPGs can help us address bad behavior in the workplace in a productive way.

Cultural Consulting Clients and Projects

Here are a few of the creations, creators, and companies with whom I’ve worked as cultural consultant in the past!

Wizards of the Coast: Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: the Gathering, corporate workshops
Amplify Education: educational materials, corporate workshops
Jackbox Games: Jackbox Party Packs 7+, Drawful 2
Rowan, Rook, and Decard: Eat the Reich RPG
- Gold ENnie Award 2024 for Best Short-Form Adventure
Darrington Press: Daggerheart RPG, Queen by Midnight board game and Quarter Past expansion
Vienna Teng: Logo design
Singularity 6: Palia
Hit Point Press: If I Were a Lich, Man
- Silver ENnie Award 2024 for Best Family Game! Warning: Please never play this game with your family. However, if you do, please tell me how it went.
One Shot Podcast Network: Asian-themed content, Campaign Skyjacks, Skyjoust!
Eren Angiolini: Character illustration cards
Rusty Quill: The Magnus Archives podcast
Bully Pulpit Games: Fiasco 2 RPG
Evil Hat Productions: Agon RPG, Deathmatch Island RPG
Magpie Games: Root RPG
Rebellion Unplugged: Adventure Presents RPGs
Insight Editions: Magic: the Gathering cookbook, D&D pop-up book
Fantasy Flight Games: Legend of the Five Rings RPG and fiction
Onyx Path Publishing: Scion and Exalted RPGs
Guildhall Studios: Sea of Legends board game
Hunters Entertainment: Kids on Bikes, Kids on Brooms
Renegade Game Studios: Transformers, GI JOE, My Little Pony, Power Rangers, and World of Darkness RPGs
Khepera Publishing: GODSEND Agenda RPG
Petit Guignol: Thousand Year Old Vampire RPG
- Gold Ennie Award 2020 for Best Production Values, Best Rules
- Silver Ennie Award 2020 for Product of the Year
- 2020 Indiecade Tabletop Design Award
Wet Ink Games: Jiāngshī: Blood in the Banquet Hall RPG
Dice & Whatever Studios: Katanas & Trenchcoats RPG
UFO Press: Legacy: Life Among the Ruins RPG
Ulisses Spiele: TORG Eternity RPG
Draco Studios: Eldritch Century RPG
Axo Stories: Tales from the Gods RPG
Robert Houghton: The Middle Ages in Computer Games
Sly Flourish: The Lazy GM’s Forge of Foes and City of Arches
Pirate Gonzalez Games: Ancestry and Culture 5e supplement
Certain Death: Bleak Spirit RPG
Shewstone Publishing: Magonomia and Drintera RPGs
NerdBurger Games: Capers Covert RPG
Monkey’s Paw Games: Kanabō RPG
Happy Monster Press: Savage Worlds: Legion of Liberty RPG