New (Unofficial) Zakhara campaign guide available 04/13/2021

[TwoSix]

Thanks for your thoughts, and enthusiasm!

The kits have been enormously popular with our playtesters - it's just another little hook that might never even come into play, but helps direct how to develop a character and anchor it to a setting. So just like with prestige classes in 3.x (which were a direct inspiration for our approach), we've found that many players choose feats and other options in anticipation of eventually filling a role defined by a kit. And the great thing is, even if they never end up taking the kit, the idea still help them flesh out their character.

Thanks! I had actually been planning on starting up a Ravenloft campaign for my group, but this has me excited enough that I'm thinking of making a Zakhara campaign.

 

[Davies]

Our solution was a sort of enhanced background: a roleplaying concepts paired with a minor mechanical boost that a character can generally take at 5th level or so. Most give advantage or proficiency in a skill, in a specific application, and have minimal mechanical impact on the game overall (at least across the course of our playtesting). They're easy to implement, ignore, or just use as a roleplaying aid.

... I can't say that I'm fully persuaded, but I do understand your reasoning, appreciate your taking the time to address this, and look forward to seeing the published work.

 

[guachi]

Thank you!

And the word "Zakhara" means nothing, just sounds cool. Ahmed actually reached out to Jeff Grubb about it, and Grubb confirmed that it was just a vaguely Arabic sounding nonsense word.

For the record, the same is true of the Zakharan names for the calendar months.

It's a good nonsense word, then, as it had me fooled. Many of the terms used really are Arabic (Al-Qadim, Sahir). And Zakhara deriving from the Arabic verb "to teem or abound" at least made some sense to me as the name for a fantasy land.

 

[Ath-kethin]

... I can't say that I'm fully persuaded, but I do understand your reasoning, appreciate your taking the time to address this, and look forward to seeing the published work.

I appreciate the vote of confidence!

If you haven't done so yet, I recommend downloading the Sha'ir document I linked above; you can find it here: The Sha'ir (Warlock and Wizard options) - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

It has our Sha'ir kit, our reasoning behind the idea (mostly reiterated in this thread anyway), our Noble Genie and Pact of the Lamp option, and the wizard Genie Lore subclass.

It also might not convince you, but it will at least provide a more concrete example of our approach.

 

[Ath-kethin]

It's a good nonsense word, then, as it had me fooled. Many of the terms used really are Arabic (Al-Qadim, Sahir). And Zakhara deriving from the Arabic verb "to teem or abound" at least made some sense to me as the name for a fantasy land.

This was Jeff Grubb's actual answer when asked:

"Zakhara does not mean plentiful or bountiful from this volume, and I either may used a different word as its base, or did a complete keyboard-mash to find something that sounded as good as Faerun. (It may be the latter, only because it gives me the A to Z encompassing of al-Qadim, set in Zakhara (zah -KARR-ah)."

So there's a chance it had something to do with an Arabic word, but even Grubb doubts that.

 

[jayoungr]

Ignorant question, so forgive me, but I thought Al-Qadim was the Land of Fate? Is this related?

 

[Stormonu]

!!!!!

Are you planning any supplements or adventure conversions to go along with the base book?

@jayoungr - yes, this is Al-Qadim. Zakhara is the name of the continent, like the Forgotten Realms is set on Abber-Toril, and Greyhawk is set on the Flanness of Oerth.

 

[dave2008]

Tell me about it. The 2e plague returns!

But we ran into an issue: making everything a subclass is extremely limiting, especially for broad concepts such as a mounted warrior, a holy slayer, or a preacher who belongs to an order that maintains temples and congregations. These archetypes and concepts are deeply ingrained in the Al-Qadim and Zakharan setting, however, and we couldn't just ignore them. It also seemed silly to have multiple subclasses for the same concept (covering different classes). Early ideas to make more generic subclasses that could be taken by ANY class died fast and hard, especially since not all classes get their subclasses at the same level.

In addition, others have published excellent collections of Zakharan subclasses and we didn't want to reinvent the wheel, flood the market, or just copy what they had done.

Our solution was a sort of enhanced background: a roleplaying concepts paired with a minor mechanical boost that a character can generally take at 5th level or so. Most give advantage or proficiency in a skill, in a specific application, and have minimal mechanical impact on the game overall (at least across the course of our playtesting). They're easy to implement, ignore, or just use as a roleplaying aid.

These kits have some of the same problems that kits of old used to: they're by nature not all of equal power level, not everyone uses them (obviously!), and some are very niche and/or specific in their application. But none are likely to break your game, whether or not you use them.

Probably too late for this, but you might look at the supernatural gifts and piety system that was developed for Theros. That seems like a framework that might work for you.

 

[dave2008]

Yes.

We wanted to keep to the feel of the 2nd Edition stuff, so most illustrations are black and white, with the occasional full page color plate. Luckily for our budget, there is a TON of public domain Arabian Nights artwork, and that artwork comprises the vast majority of the pieces in the book.


View attachment 134982

Just wanted to point out the Flyby is a trait in standard WotC statbocks, not an action.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Just wanted to point out the Flyby is a trait in standard WotC statbocks, not an action.

Wow. We literally had like 8 different people review the statblocks before the book was finalized (possibly more; sections of this book were written upwards of 5 years ago), not to mention everyone who's seen this same image where I've posted it in various places, and you seem to be the first to notice that Flyby should be above the Actions heading, not below it. Oops!

It's a bit embarrassing as an oversight, but I feel safe in my belief that most people won't notice it.