Arabian Adventures... would you buy it?

[Simulacrum]

I would love it, Al Qadim was great. At the same time though, I don't want a setting based on real world stuff. It's just not worth it for me. I'd prefer a magical setting.

Greyhawk isn't Europe after all, nor Rokugan Japan, so I would prefer something equally removed while maintaining the feel of Arabian Adventures.

Hu?, thats what I call a strange opinion.
think of it a second. Fantasy was always and will always be based on "real world" stuff. Likewise realworld builds on myth.
If you look closely, the whole cosmology, pantheon, and worldbuilding is based completely on real world, philosophy and cultural history. And exactly that makes it so damn good and interesting. There is very few totaly fictional stuff out there that exist and gets popular. The best ideas root deeply in reality and the myth that follows the cultural concepts.
I cant speak for Greyhawk, but FR leans heavily on real history like the tugian horde, it's religious wars (Matztica) and many other examples.
Thats why I'd favour a FR based book that has enough content to make generic worlds possible. Bur please no Rokugan type setting. It's too generic and I would be bored to death by missing all those great flavour that comes with cultural chromatism and divine inspiration that came with the gods and believes of that time.
Zahkara was one of the best settings ever, why not expand the borders and include the eastern heartlands and give the players more flavours to choose from: Saudi Arabia, Sumeria, Syria, Egypt, Akkadian, Nubia, Byzantine, Phoenician all thrown into one!
Also I like Thay to be included there. Thay is/was part of the Mulhorand/Imaskarian empire and needs to be include just simply because Red Wizards are the coolest badguys ever, and they own big time!
I'm going to check out the settings links posted here, see if they're worth the time...
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I'm looking forward to see a FR product with lots of Sumerian/Asyrian flavour in it. This would be on my top list for buying.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Hu?, thats what I call a strange opinion.
<snip>

Different than yours rather
I don't want something people will point to and say "Mulhurand = Egypt". (Sure, it does, but that's FR)

Just as Karatur was largely mutated real world.

I'd like something original, I don't want real world governments with name changes. The least because real world governments all suck and the effects of actually HAVING magic would/ should give vastly different settings. If I want to base a land off of whichever real world land catches my fancy, I'll pick up a history book.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I'd like something original, I don't want real world governments with name changes. The least because real world governments all suck and the effects of actually HAVING magic would/ should give vastly different settings. If I want to base a land off of whichever real world land catches my fancy, I'll pick up a history book.

And it's Plug Time!

If you want a setting that is strongly shaped by magic, try out Urbis , my homebrew setting!

In it, it is possible to draw life force from the inhabitants of a city through so-called "Nexus Towers". This has caused most rulers to build the biggest cities possible and stuff them with people - the biggest ones have populations ranging in the millions! And all that at a late medieval/Renaissance technology base, too...

 

[Redleg06]

Basing fantasy on the real world (NOT the TV show!) adds rhyme and reason, consistancy and believablitlity, and helps you avoid people going "Huh? WTF is THAT supposed to be?". I am not saying you cannot have castles with foutains of gold, flying carpets, Dragon Caliphs, and so forth, but if the social / technological bits are historical BASED I think it acutally creates more depth for the world.

 

[Simulacrum]

I'd like something original, I don't want real world governments with name changes. The least because real world governments all suck and the effects of actually HAVING magic would/ should give vastly different settings. If I want to base a land off of whichever real world land catches my fancy, I'll pick up a history book.

I undestand your thinking. But it's not about portraying any goverment...who told you that? It's all about the culture and mythology of a vertain ethnic group thats all.
And goverments all suck??? Hey even *goverments* have their place in myth. Even more so if you look at the cruelety of certain gods in some cultures etc.... Mythology was always a portrayal of real life events given an esoteric touch to add some moral to their value.
I'm not going to explain all my views on that. You're certainly allowed to have a *different* opinion on this, but keep your mind free from borders. Everything belongs together, like ying and yang.

 

[Raesene Andu]

I already own most of the 2E Al Qadim products, why would I want to BUY a 3E version for $80 (australian) or whatever.

I'm finding this sort of thing to be a bit of a problem with 3E, every single product ever released is being rewriten and sold again at a higher price, just because it as d20 or 3E logo on it. I have over 200 books, boxed sets, adventures, and accessories from 2E, why should I go out and replace all of this with 3E material.

You would have to come up with something very special to convince me to do so...

Also, I think you will find it difficult to get it published. WotC are unlikely to do it, and it would be difficult to get other publishers interested. We had a discussion about this over on the birthright.net forums about the publishing the upcomming 3rd edtion Birthright Campaign Setting (which I would think as special enough for me to go out and buy it). It isn't as easy as you might imagine, even with interested from a publisher.

 

[Simulacrum]

Hey, there are people out there who dont own 200 Books and have not a single 2e supplement at home...remember?
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Expanding Zahkara to the eastern heartlands, so that it includes:
Mulhorand, Unther, Thesk, Aglarond, Thay would make it worth all the way. Or putting that out as seperate campaign book would be cool too. Middle east - Faerun. At least that would be new enough to make people buy it, who already own the 2e stuff.

 

[Greybar]

I have the old Al Qadim book, and a Arabian-themed nation in my homebrew world, so I'm vulnerable to spending my money on such a book. [grin]

Something of a OA level would be very impressive. Let's just say it would immediately go on my Amazon wish-list barring bad reviews, so even if I don't end up putting out my own money, I would encourage others to buy it for me.

However, I do have concerns about how many fine hairs can be split in such books. Is a Mamluk really different from a Fighter, requiring a new core class?

John

 

[Redleg06]

That is a drawback to D&D character classes. There are Prestige Classes, but no sub-class system to make a mameluk different than any other fighter. You could make up feats / skills for them but what would prevent a fighter of any other sort from taking those skills / feats? Then what is it that makes a Mameluk different?
Interesting point...

 

[maddman75]

Simple Feat prerequisite - must be Mameluk.

I'd be interested only if it was a general ruleset for arabian style settings like OA. Believe it or not, not all of us play in the realms. I'd hate to see the book get tied up in a paticular world. Maybe an example world, but nothing so extreme as putting an FR logo on it.

My interest comes from having a Ravenloft campaign. There are a couple of domains with a middle eastern feel. It would be nice to have rulesets for those areas. Plan on getting OA for the same reason.