WotC_Rodney on Ari M. and Al Qadim

[S'mon]

1.) Right on, I work in Balham (NHS), and I used to work at St George's.

2.) Definitely, I've been DMing a Planescape campaign for the last 2 years or so, and I would love to take a shot at being a player (for once!) and check out the system.

…Maybe we should hook up and see what's what?

1) Cool - I live 50' from St George's main entrance!
2) Cool - I've tried emailing you via ENW, if that don't work mail me at s.t.newman at yahoo.com , cheers.

 

[Steely Dan]

I've tried emailing you via ENW, if that don't work mail me at s.t.newman at yahoo.com , cheers.

Hey, awesome – will do.

 

[Lackhand]

Mushy Stuff

I love this place.

 

[I'm A Banana]

*kissy noises*

What, are you all gonna gather around and smoke hookah now?

This is the 4e forum! Less lovey-dovey, more broad assumptions and baseless accusations! NOW!

 

[Steely Dan]

This is the 4e forum! Less lovey-dovey, more broad assumptions and baseless accusations! NOW!

I know, sorry, I forgot where I was.

…I'm going to go pick a fight. *in the voice of Chris Farley – R.I.P.*

 

[Steely Dan]

I love this place.

And it loves you!


Come on everybody – group hug.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I didn't like AQ's use of the standard PC races - dwarves, elves, etc. An Arabian setting needs Arabian races - or just humans.

Despite it's artificiality I liked it.

A huge part of the Medieval Arabian scene, at least for me, is that it's a tolerant conquering empire. Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Turks, Iranians, Kurds, and Arabs all living in the same cities and basically accepting the same laws is something I can't not envision. It's a huge part of the cool.

DnD could have introduced analogues to Greeks, Iranians, Kurds, Armenians, Jews, Turks, and Arabs, but I thought it worked just as well to simply have Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and Kobolds living in the same cities and required a lot less introduction.

And their foreigness sort of help to reinforce the memory of conquest motif.

Though, I agree more arabian races with a different role in the setting wouldn't have been a bad addition.

 

[S'mon]

I guess I just don't think of elves, dwarves etc as human race/ethnicity analogues, I think of them as specifically northern-European (and even more specifically Tolkienesque) mythic archetypes. Seeing dwarves and elves in AQ felt like Tolkien butting in where he's not wanted, given that Tolkien's "Stand, Men of the West!" milieu is pretty much diametrically opposed to anything even vaguely Arabic.

 

[S'mon]

BTW I don't know much about AQ's approach to religion; the AQ campaign I played in it seemed to be basically polytheist with an emphasis on synergism/blending - "Pantheist" meant "Worships the Pantheon", as opposed to its usual "Deities in Everything" meaning, which caused me a bit of confusion

It didn't much resemble medieval Islam, which I don't think of as being particularly tolerant except maybe in comparison to medieval Christianity, but I guess it fitted the setting at least as well as the usual polytheist-gods-in-Christian-churches approach in European derived fantasy.

 

[Klaus]

I guess I just don't think of elves, dwarves etc as human race/ethnicity analogues, I think of them as specifically northern-European (and even more specifically Tolkienesque) mythic archetypes. Seeing dwarves and elves in AQ felt like Tolkien butting in where he's not wanted, given that Tolkien's "Stand, Men of the West!" milieu is pretty much diametrically opposed to anything even vaguely Arabic.

See, it's in times like this that I'm glad I only read Tolkien prior to the release of the movies. I viewed all D&D races a without the Professor's input.