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In this post I am going to make two shameless plugs, but because they are for products other people have written and I have no affiliation, I will not apologize for my plugs or my shamelessness. I am unashamed of how unashamed I am.
First Shameless Plug: the Al-Qadim campaign setting is gorgeous and offers extraordinary adventure opportunities. On the good advice of Lidgar, posted here, I have completely fallen in love with Arabian Adventures and Land of Fate. These are old, long-since-abandoned publications, so finding them is admittedly challenging (but they're really good). On another thread way back in late 2020, some members discussed Al-Qadim, and there Quickleaf mentioned the oft-expressed concerns about cultural insensitivity in elements of Al-Qadim. In that context he mentioned a YouTube channel of Asian gamers called, "The Asians Represent," where they have a podcast series called, "Critical Read." He recommended it and I concur. It's a podcast of all-Arab D&D players who go through the setting books and critique them.
Second Shameless Plug: In fact, I became so interested in this stuff that I chased down a book project one of Critical Read's members, Ahmed Aljabry, worked on: it's called Campaign Guide: Zakhara. Zakhara is an updated Al-Qadim campaign setting for 5e and tailored more to 5e players' sensibilities and sensitivities (or ambitions toward sensitivity), and it's available on DMs Guild. I got so into this stuff, in fact, that I went all out and got both the premium color hard bound book and the .pdf. Now, my own sensibilities are measurably gruffer than many 5e players' will be, so I've arrived at the initial decision that I'll take some elements from Zakhara but also keep some--only some--of the harsher setting elements in Arabian Adventures. I love both books dearly now, so even where I disagree with a decision made in one of them, my admiration for what both groups achieved stands undampened.
One thing my recent reading on these settings, on Islam, on the Arabic language, and on Arab culture has convinced me of, though, is how exaggerated some of our popular perceptions of them can be in the West. Not all, mind you--I'm not setting up any angels or heroes here--but, you know: some. One place where I think the West's popular perception is very skewed is in the matter of honor killings. This is such a fraught, sensitive topic that I almost didn't want to write this post, but then I figured, "We cannot solve problems about which we are too afraid to speak," so here I am posting on something about which I have very little knowledge indeed. The Critical Read podcasts helped me considerably, but what sparked me finally to say something about it on EN World was a set of patient, informative posts from EN Worlder Ondath in this thread, which I encourage everyone to read. Honor killings do happen, yes, and apparently they even can happen in a European country like Turkey (I had not known that), but their frequency and degree of social acceptance is, I think, often exaggerated and "flattened out" in Western media to where it seems they're equally common and equally accepted throughout all parts of "the Muslim world." Even from what little I know, I know this isn't so. As Ondath put it:
Back on the gentler, happier subject with which I started, I'll reiterate that both Arabian Adventures and Campaign Guide: Zakhara have enchanted me. For anyone seeking a new campaign setting to play around with, it's well worth a look.
Edited to correct annoying punctuational errors.
First Shameless Plug: the Al-Qadim campaign setting is gorgeous and offers extraordinary adventure opportunities. On the good advice of Lidgar, posted here, I have completely fallen in love with Arabian Adventures and Land of Fate. These are old, long-since-abandoned publications, so finding them is admittedly challenging (but they're really good). On another thread way back in late 2020, some members discussed Al-Qadim, and there Quickleaf mentioned the oft-expressed concerns about cultural insensitivity in elements of Al-Qadim. In that context he mentioned a YouTube channel of Asian gamers called, "The Asians Represent," where they have a podcast series called, "Critical Read." He recommended it and I concur. It's a podcast of all-Arab D&D players who go through the setting books and critique them.
Second Shameless Plug: In fact, I became so interested in this stuff that I chased down a book project one of Critical Read's members, Ahmed Aljabry, worked on: it's called Campaign Guide: Zakhara. Zakhara is an updated Al-Qadim campaign setting for 5e and tailored more to 5e players' sensibilities and sensitivities (or ambitions toward sensitivity), and it's available on DMs Guild. I got so into this stuff, in fact, that I went all out and got both the premium color hard bound book and the .pdf. Now, my own sensibilities are measurably gruffer than many 5e players' will be, so I've arrived at the initial decision that I'll take some elements from Zakhara but also keep some--only some--of the harsher setting elements in Arabian Adventures. I love both books dearly now, so even where I disagree with a decision made in one of them, my admiration for what both groups achieved stands undampened.
One thing my recent reading on these settings, on Islam, on the Arabic language, and on Arab culture has convinced me of, though, is how exaggerated some of our popular perceptions of them can be in the West. Not all, mind you--I'm not setting up any angels or heroes here--but, you know: some. One place where I think the West's popular perception is very skewed is in the matter of honor killings. This is such a fraught, sensitive topic that I almost didn't want to write this post, but then I figured, "We cannot solve problems about which we are too afraid to speak," so here I am posting on something about which I have very little knowledge indeed. The Critical Read podcasts helped me considerably, but what sparked me finally to say something about it on EN World was a set of patient, informative posts from EN Worlder Ondath in this thread, which I encourage everyone to read. Honor killings do happen, yes, and apparently they even can happen in a European country like Turkey (I had not known that), but their frequency and degree of social acceptance is, I think, often exaggerated and "flattened out" in Western media to where it seems they're equally common and equally accepted throughout all parts of "the Muslim world." Even from what little I know, I know this isn't so. As Ondath put it:
I think it was Mariam on Critical Read who, in the context of critiquing Arabian Adventures' depiction of some utterly brutal honor killings, coined the term "honor hobos," for which I am grateful. The predominant Western media depiction of the whole concept of honor now strikes me as fraught. So I guess this is one place where I am especially grateful to Ondath, the people of Critical Read, and the authors of and contributors to Campaign Guide: Zakhara: their efforts toward setting the record straight on some of this has meant a lot to me and will show up in any Al-Qadim campaigns I might build for my players in the future.To be frank, painting the situation worse than it is smells of reducing Turkey to "one of those backwards Middle Eastern countries", and it is this generalisation that enrages me the most about the fact that Turkey was bundled up with other anti-LGBT countries despite there being no anti-LGBT legislation.
Back on the gentler, happier subject with which I started, I'll reiterate that both Arabian Adventures and Campaign Guide: Zakhara have enchanted me. For anyone seeking a new campaign setting to play around with, it's well worth a look.
Edited to correct annoying punctuational errors.
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