What made Al-Qadim special?

[BronzeDragon]

I am surprised no one has yet mentioned the powerful and brilliant writing by Jeff Grubb for the setting.

I believe he is among the best writers that have ever lent their skills to the RPG world, and one of the major factors in Al-Qadim's ability to put the players "inside" the world.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

It was a setting both exotic and familiar, one that the players could grasp right from the beginning.

They changed the rules to fit the setting in an original and thoughtful way, yet it was less unbalanced than many 2nd ed. settings. (Not balanced I am afraid, but an attempt was made...) Magic had its own flavor.

We burned incense while running the game, and played music in the background. On the table was a spouted oil lamp gently burning.

The Auld Grump

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Probably my first "love" of a campaign setting. Ramped up as I was growing up by Sinbad movies which featured fun Ray Harryhausen stop-motion monsters (the one with the six armed statue was my favorite), the "Prince of Persia" video games (I know, I know, Persia's one thing, Arabia's another...I love how the Brotherhood of Fire is a fantasy version of the Islamist depiction of Zorostrianism), a genuine love for the art and architecture, among other *cough* fetishforbeautifuldarkhaireddarkeyedwomen *cough* things made Al-Qadim a tailor made setting for me.

Besides, I don't think I had ever seen a TSR cover as sensuous as the "City of Delights" boxed set. Thank you Brom!

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I don't know a whole lot about Al-Qadim, but I like what I see in the 3e conversions and in the Corsairs of the Great Sea boxed set and the Caravans boxed set from the WotC website.

But what made it different from other campaign settings, crunch- and flavor-wise?

Simply put it was mysterious.

Added to the fact that Disney's Aladdin was highly successful and around the same time.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I am surprised no one has yet mentioned the powerful and brilliant writing by Jeff Grubb for the setting.

I believe he is among the best writers that have ever lent their skills to the RPG world, and one of the major factors in Al-Qadim's ability to put the players "inside" the world.

I agree completely. I've read and re-read the Al-Qadim setting handbook over and over and over... it's just brilliant.

Jeff Grubb...if you're listening... Thanks!

 

[der_kluge]

Does anyone know of a reworked 3rd edition Al-Qadim ruleset? I know that there were some being created, but I don't know if they were ever completed or not.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Does anyone know of a reworked 3rd edition Al-Qadim ruleset? I know that there were some being created, but I don't know if they were ever completed or not.

There were a couple floating on the web...but the last time I checked them they'd not been updated in a long time.

And don't forget Dragon revamped some of the kits as PrC's, though I didn't agree completely with everything they did with them. It'd be a place to start.

Man...I'm wanting to run AQ now bad-bad-bad!

 

[Hjorimir]

When I got my hands on AQ I was blown away. I wanted to run a campaign there very, very badly. Unfortunately, my players (most, not all) were set in their desire for classic, eurocentric settings filled with knights and dragons.

Since then, every time I run a new game, elements of AQ find their way into my world with the hopes of revisiting this gem I passed over.

To me AQ feels exotic when placed up next to something as bland as Forgotten Realms (yes, I know AQ is actually a part of that world, but it is a setting unto itself).

 

[der_kluge]

There were a couple floating on the web...but the last time I checked them they'd not been updated in a long time.

And don't forget Dragon revamped some of the kits as PrC's, though I didn't agree completely with everything they did with them. It'd be a place to start.

Man...I'm wanting to run AQ now bad-bad-bad!

I think that was the consensus of most, especially what they tried to accomplish with the Sha'ir, arguably a difficult class to convert. I'll see what I can dig up..

 

[Staffan]

Rules-wise, AQ wasn't much different from standard D&D. Most of the kits could probably be handled via appropriate feat and skill selection. The ones that come to mind as requiring more are the sha'ir and Hakima, and a little bit for the Kahin (I don't recall to what extent they differed from druids, really) and other wizards (mainly splitting the spell list by element and some stuff about two-element and one-element wizards).