D&D General Al-Qadim, Campaign Guide: Zakhara, and Cultural Sensitivity

[Guest 7034872]

I think orientalism and exoticism are very deeply engrained in the hobby because of the Appendix N foundational literature. Anything that help maintain a sense of wonder but alleviates that sort of cultural bias is a net good IMO.

Totally with you.

That said, I don't really think a setting based on Arab mythology needs Islam any more than vaguely-Eurpoean settings need Christianity.

EXACTLY. This is one of the big points the Critical Read podcasters brought up, and I have been especially pleased to see the Zakhara setting book remove material about Islam and just focus on all those fantastic and fantastical Arab, Persian, North African, South Asian, and Middle Eastern myths and legends. Seriously--they've got tons and tons of stuff in there to work with.

If someone wants to bring extant religions into their game, that is surely their business and none of mine, but like you, I don't really see the point of it. To my mind, D&D is about (1) bringing mythologies and legends of all kinds to life as a way of re-enchanting this world of ours, and (2) running away from scary slaadi until you're high-level enough to face them. It isn't and shouldn't be about pooping on other people's religions and/or cultures.

Most of the underlying myths that power the fantasy of D&D are pre-Christian, and the same should be true of Arab and Persian myths (or various African or East Asian cultures and mythologies). Not that you CAN'T touch on modern religions in your elf games, but it seems mostly unnecessary.

A-yup.


The one main element from the new setting book that I (tentatively) prefer not to adopt is its broad cosmopolitanism, where racism hardly exists in Zakhara. Especially if these myths and legends are taken from a deeply tribal set of histories, I have trouble seeing how the tribal biases and hostilities that stem from them can be so easily avoided. Mind you, this is not to say that I do not find their avoidance morally desirable in real life--I do. It's just that if I'm going to work with a setting that is ordered around very tightly-knit tribes, then I figure the warts of tribalism ought to be in there, too.

 

[Lidgar]

Glad you are finding delight in Al-Qadim @South by Southwest. My players have many fond memories of their adventures in that setting.

Thanks for the link for the Zakhara Campaign Guide - I had heard good things, and need to check that out.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Even when the entertaiment industry makes the best esfforts to be polite with the different Asian markets in the tabletop game the players can show their personal prejudices, for example a group can be pro-Egypt and anti-Sumerian, other more pro-Persian but anti-Otoman and a third group pro-Otoman and anti-Egyptian and anti-Persian. Other tabletop can show characters based in the favorite Turkey soap-opera but the antagonists are ersatzs(parodies of real Turkey characters from the goverment. A DM can tell a plot about the classic intrigue in the harem (and the stepmother as a classic antagonist), something that happened usually, too much, but other DM would say all the Zakharans are totally monogams (but if the first wive can't beget a a son ) to avoid the continuous struggles for the succession. Others would rather to use al-Qadim to create stories closer to Indian fantasy fiction.

Even when the original work is totally honest and respectful, the parody version can be really... mercyless. And facts from the real life could cause some things becoming taboo, for example an Asia movie about zombies years before the current epidemic.

Others could use al-Qadim for a plot based in Frank Herbert's Dune saga.
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I wonder if sha'ir should be a core class with special game mechanics, mabye mixing arcane magic with summoning, vestige binders, or incarnum soulmeldrs.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

These settings are much flavourful before monotheism came along. "Elf Games" are massively polytheistic so no need for any inference to 'modern' RL religions.

So much fun and expansive flavour to Al-Qadim there is little need to dwell on the 'tricky' topics.

Don't forget the attempt at monotheism made in ancient Egypt, though, whose fleeing surviving priests and worshipers may have had an influence on certain neighboring peoples' monotheistic beliefs. And this way predates the time setting the Al-Qadim stuff uses.

Akhenaten: The Forgotten Pioneer of Atenism and Monotheism

Intentionally erased from history until the 19th century, Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten established the first known monotheistic religion called Atenism, which was rediscovered in the late 18th century and integrated by 19th and 20th century religious philosophers into the histories of the three...

www.thecollector.com

 

[Reynard]

Don't forget the attempt at monotheism made in ancient Egypt, though, whose fleeing surviving priests and worshipers may have had an influence on certain neighboring peoples' monotheistic beliefs. And this way predates the time setting the Al-Qadim stuff uses.

Akhenaten: The Forgotten Pioneer of Atenism and Monotheism

Intentionally erased from history until the 19th century, Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten established the first known monotheistic religion called Atenism, which was rediscovered in the late 18th century and integrated by 19th and 20th century religious philosophers into the histories of the three...

www.thecollector.com

Not so much "forgotten" (because, well, we're talking about him) as "was nearly erased by those who followed." Egyptian Pharaohs had a nasty habit of editing history.

Monotheistic sun worship does seem the most obvious sort, of course.

 

[Stormonu]

I (vaguely) remember doing a report on Akhenaten, and even ended up using the split between the Memphis worship/priesthood and Aten as the basis for the cultural differences (and war) between my faux Egyptian Iiannhanex and Lllannhanex countries in my homebrew.

Also, I second taking a look at the Zhakhara update to Al-Qadim.

 

[Swedish Chef]

I believe I own every product made for the Al Qadim setting. I thoroughly enjoyed the setting when it came out and loved reading through it. Sadly, none of my group wanted to play in the setting.

Every once in a while nostalgia hits and I'll re-read the books. Although I can now more clearly see the flaws, I can still appreciate the good parts and hope that the cultural errors were more from ignorance than malice.

Not certain spending the money on a hardcover that I'll never use in a game truly makes sense, but my love of reading has never truly needed to justify itself....

 

[Micah Sweet]

Pathfinder's Andorans (an obvious expy of the USA with its democratic 'common rule') ban slavery and liberate any slave who passes into their country. Needless to say, this was not the case in the historical USA at the time of independence.

You are not obligated, when making up a culture in a fantasy world, to include every nasty aspect of the real one from the original culture it was based on. (Gender roles are far more equal in most modern D&D worlds than any preindustrial civilization, or indeed most industrial civlizations until the 1970s!)

It's a game, you don't have to do things your players will find disturbing. Unless that's what they're looking for, of course--but then there's Ravenloft or Midnight.

The new Ravenloft is just as modern as any other 5e world. That just the way it's done now.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

How much of the Zakhara book is system neutral? It sounds interesting but I just don't need 5e stat blocks.

 

[Guest 7034872]

How much of the Zakhara book is system neutral? It sounds interesting but I just don't need 5e stat blocks.

I would estimate it to be around 50/50, maybe slightly tilted in favor of system-neutrality. By the table of contents you'd think it'd be more, but chapter 4 is where the monsters and NPCs are, and it's a big chapter for sure. Still, because it is a setting book and not a campaign, there's a lot of stuff in here that you could throw into any system you wanted. Also, I'll note that the .pdf-only version is just $15.