D&D 4E Forked Thread: Al-Qadim, Land of Fate 4e

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Well, the law is the law. I don't know that the great unbinding is going to cause a religious crisis unless a bunch of enlightened gods start going down as a result of the crisis.

Zhakara's meta-religion seems petty resilient.

I think the new action in the deserts is going to be pretty big news.

The return of the Banished Kingdoms will certainly have huge implications.


From the society's perspective I think the big thing would be re-establishing normal relations with the Genie kingdoms.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

So, a question:

We've now seen a complete campaign world work up for FR in the campaign guide and player's guide.

Using that as a template how would we fill out a shorter version for Al-Quadim assuming we got permission to do a Net-Book or something?

Let's do the Player's Guide first.

Filling out - roughly - the spaces on the 'template' we would need:

Player's Guide:
2 Races
1 New Full Class
1 New Full Build
1 Multi-Class
1 Section of Appropriately Flavored Feats
1 Section of Backgrounds for different Regions

 

[Quickleaf]

So, a question:

We've now seen a complete campaign world work up for FR in the campaign guide and player's guide.

Using that as a template how would we fill out a shorter version for Al-Quadim assuming we got permission to do a Net-Book or something?

Let's do the Player's Guide first.

Filling out - roughly - the spaces on the 'template' we would need:

Player's Guide:
2 Races
1 New Full Class
1 New Full Build
1 Multi-Class
1 Section of Appropriately Flavored Feats
1 Section of Backgrounds for different Regions

Hey! Thanks for keeping this thread going, Dr. Strangemonkey.

Here are my thoughts on the template (which I don't think should be treated as a hard and fast thing). I think providing "kits" to modify the core class features works well.

Anyways, shooting off the hip here...

2 Races: Well, we already have genasi. So, going out on a limb I'm going to say the al-miraj as a PC race and either zakharan ogres or a new race called "the fateless".

1 New Full Class: Best candidate would be the sha'ir...perhaps reimagined as an arcane/elemental leader whose powers are based on summoning and who offers mystical guidance to allies.

1 New Full Build: I vote for Hakima as new Cleric build.

1 Multi-Class: Beloved of Fate, or a similar concept.

Backgrounds: I'd do it by city-state. It would be a lot, but not overwhelming. Or you could simplify it into Heart Cities, Pearl Cities, Pantheist League, etc.

 

[Quickleaf]

I just wrote a quick vignette to capture the feel of a 4th edition Al-Qadim. Take it or leave it.


The stranger stood in the back of the mosque, one foot in the morning light kissing veins of white marble, the rest of him in cool shadow. Nazaam knelt again, bowing his head to the floor, saying the extra prayers for the first of the High Holy Days. From the corner of his eye, Nazaam watched the stranger pray, an otherworldly fierceness in the stranger’s eyes as the celebrants clapped to ward off evil. There was no mistaking – he was an aleef, one of the first nomads, wandering eternally in the desert, seeking something he could not define, fast as the wind, and merciless. Nazaam contemplated his prayer beads with a grimace; they still seemed stained with blood from years ago. Perhaps it was time to answer for his crimes, but not like this, not in a holy place. Rising, Nazaam quickly left through a side exit, stepping out into the street. The stranger caught his arm from behind.

Nazaam snarled stepping into the stranger, “Do you wish to spill my blood before the mosque?” The stranger was impassive. “You keep tormenting me, appearing when I pray like a specter. Why can’t you leave me in peace?”

His wild gray eyes appraised Nazaam carefully before the stranger put him in an arm lock and pushed him against the wall of the mosque. “I would kill you if I thought it would bring you peace, but we both know it is not your time yet.”

Nazaam struggled for a moment then went slack, resting his forehead against the decaying clay plaster. “For three years, I have come here each day asking forgiveness. By night I see her face in my dreams, by day you stalk me without speaking a word. My wife and children don’t know who I am anymore. I keep praying for death…”

Gently, the stranger released Nazaam. “Even in death there would be no peace for you, Nazaam ibn-Daoud, but you must release her.”

“What have you come here for?” Nazaam looked up at the aleef.

“You took my sister’s life, the least you can do is give me a moment of your time,” the stranger said smoothly, beckoning for Nazaam to follow. “Will you do that for me, Nazaam?”

Wiping his face, Nazaam felt the dual jambiyas hidden beneath his clothes resting against his ribs. It was a terrible thing to think how many lives those jeweled knives had taken, to think that he could kill the brother of the innocent woman he had killed in a heartbeat. He thought of abandoning the jambiyas which he had lived by, surrendering to his fate, but a glimmer of self-preservation, a memory of what his family had once been, prevented him.
Nazaam nodded, “Yes.”

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Hey! Thanks for keeping this thread going, Dr. Strangemonkey.

Sure, I just thought that working through the template would provide us with a conceptual refresher.

Here are my thoughts on the template (which I don't think should be treated as a hard and fast thing). I think providing "kits" to modify the core class features works well.

On that point: what if we retooled the Background Features to make them about Station rather than geography and then used that to simulate most of the kits. The feat section could then expand on them.

Naturally this wouldn't work for all of the kits, but plenty of them are mechanically light enough that we could run them through some sort of station system. Which is something I'm loathe to drop completely from the core game.

Anyways, shooting off the hip here...

2 Races: Well, we already have genasi. So, going out on a limb I'm going to say the al-miraj as a PC race and either zakharan ogres or a new race called "the fateless".

That could work. Though it'd also be tempting to introduce something new and exotic. Perhaps a Ghul themed race?

It's certainly true that there just isn't much of anything in the way of Zhakaran themed races. Could be we just replace this section with a section on station or expand the build section.

1 New Full Class: Best candidate would be the sha'ir...perhaps reimagined as an arcane/elemental leader whose powers are based on summoning and who offers mystical guidance to allies.

Agreed. The Shaman actually seems like a good model for the Sha'ir. Maybe make the Gen a less combatitive version of the Spirit Companion and then add in lots of the new Summoning mechanics.

It's also very tempting to use Elemental as the source for Sha'irs since Arcane appears to be locked down.

1 New Full Build: I vote for Hakima as new Cleric build.

Hakima works. Or...

What if we use this to create a new Wizard build off of a weave implement? Or the dreaded Geomancer off of the sorceror? Or even create a new bard build off the Barber?

1 Multi-Class: Beloved of Fate, or a similar concept.

And then make this the Hakima? I make this suggestion because while it's absolutely true that if anything besides the Sha'ir needed a write up it would be the Hakima:

1.) The Hakima probably isn't enough for a full class. If for no other reason than that it has no defined combat role.

2.) The Hakima is also very different from other classes. It was put into cleric in the old edition because of the tradition of specialty priests, but it has no real divine emphasis. It's hard to think of a class that directly fits what the Hakima is working to do.

3.) It's really too little for a full class, and too different for a build. So Multi-Class seems like a decent solution.

Maybe what we do is keep the Multi-Class as Child of Fate and then split it into 2 sub-builds - as was true of the spell scarred - with one build representing the Hakima and the other a masculine equivalent, a mystic or ghazi perhaps?

Backgrounds: I'd do it by city-state. It would be a lot, but not overwhelming. Or you could simplify it into Heart Cities, Pearl Cities, Pantheist League, etc.

I think we should do it by station. We could have regionally aligned feats, but on the whole I think that one of the interesting things about the setting was how it emphasized caste over geography as your origin.

Set it up so that each class has a few obvious choices, but also so that the kits they reflect become more flexible.

I mean Corsairs - for instance - were defined as fighters or rangers in the old game, but in 4e there's no reason Rogues, Str based Clerics, Paladins, Warlords, or even Barbarians couldn't join in on the fun.

And conceptually there's no reason almost any class couldn't become a Corsair. A wizard who wants to be free on the water can make a fine pirate captain. A warlock with a cutlass in one hand and a pact-blade in the other could chill the blood of any fat merchant captain.

And surely all of those characters are more brothers in the sea than they are citizens of any one city?

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Further making kits into something equivalent to Background feats prevents us from having to come up with new kits for the new classes.

And in at least one case the new classes will help to save us some kit building.

Avengers are so clearly Holy Slayers that I think - in that case - there is absolutely no more work to be done.

 

[the_mad_hatter]

2 Races: Well, we already have genasi. So, going out on a limb I'm going to say the al-miraj as a PC race and either zakharan ogres or a new race called "the fateless".

Al-Miraj? Am I missing somethng here? Last time I looked, the Al-Miraj were "depicted as a cross between a rabbit and a unicorn—in effect, it is a large hare with a horn protruding from its forehead".

I am also not in favor of another completely new race, but I am willing to hear your explanation of what they are and where they come from.

Zakharan Ogres sound good to me, though.

 

[Quickleaf]

Al-Miraj? Am I missing somethng here? Last time I looked, the Al-Miraj were "depicted as a cross between a rabbit and a unicorn—in effect, it is a large hare with a horn protruding from its forehead".

Oops, meant the al-jahar from City of Delights, but after reading the race again I'm not sure if it would be a good fit - I think where I would take it would be too similar to my interpretation of eladring in AQ.

I am also not in favor of another completely new race, but I am willing to hear your explanation of what they are and where they come from.

Actually I love Dr. Strangemonkey's idea about a ghul-kin race. It would fill the "creepy hero" archetype, and would have very unique abilites. Also it ties in nicely with the plot he worked up about the scorned ghul lady who orchestrated the Great Unbinding.

 

[the_mad_hatter]

Great. Now we "just" need to figure out who writes what.

I'd volunteer to try myself on the Sha'ir and the Zakharan Ogre.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

By all means - work on what interests you and we can all compare notes - but there's still organization to be done before we could really start delegating tasks.