Arabian-style campaign/adventure material

[RealMarkP]

I'm looking for any material on an Arabian-style setting that I can use as a base for my own custom campaign setting. Sandstorm and Al-qadim are the first books I thought of, but are there more? Pathfinder and 3rd party material is acceptable as well.

[Gildedragon]

Answers first: OA to an extent can provide you with a sense of the steppes and environment for the Arabian sea trade (Stormwrack too) and Silk Road.

The book for Calimshan (FR) can help
Cityscape is damned handy too as the Abassids were big on building cities.

Planar Handbook: City of Brass

And small nugget of advice: look into history books for the era/region. They might give you ideas and help you produce a less stereotypical depiction of west Asia.

[ngilop]

theres a 3rd party book totally forget teh name though but its about bronze age arabian cultures liek assyrians, babylonians, and hittities.

its actually chalk full of awesome. at least accoridng to fluff and history.. IDK about the crunch as that is alwasy a tertiary matter for me. th only big draw back.. no Table of Contents... weird...


EDIT MY BRAIN WORKED!!!!

its called Ancient kingdoms: Mesopotamia

[Ivellius]

theres a 3rd party book totally forget teh name though but its about bronze age arabian cultures liek assyrians, babylonians, and hittities.

its actually chalk full of awesome. at least accoridng to fluff and history.. IDK about the crunch as that is alwasy a tertiary matter for me

You're likely thinking of Testament by Green Ronin, which would be suitable for an earlier sort of society. It focuses mainly on ancient Hebrew culture and has a lot on the religious aspects of it and nearby societies. If you're looking for a sort of...biblical feel it's a pretty good book.

Edit: While I'm typing I get swordsaged by the poster, but at least my suggestion gives you another book to check out.

[Gildedragon]

None of those are Arabian.
Babylonians and Assyrians are from Mesopotamia
Hittites are from Anatolia

[ngilop]

I guess you and I have completely different definitions of what constitute arabian.

I have no idea what yours is at all. Mine fo course are cultures that were form or had major influences on the arabian pennisula.

Can you please explain what your definition of 'arabian' is?

[the_archduke]

Unearthed Arcana (and the SRD) have desert races (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertRaces). Desert elves (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertElves) are pretty cool. Racial bonus to ride and handle animal and no con penalty. They make great nomads... and nomad (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/psion.htm)s

[CaladanMoonblad]

If you haven't seen "Lawrence of Arabia" with Peter O'Toole, you should. Not only is it a great cinema classic, but it will help with your descriptions.

[GenPol]

Pathfinder has a whole Adventure Path centered around Golarion's version of Arabia/Persia/North Africa, called the Legacy of Fire. I haven't played it myself, but I've heard really good things about it.

Good luck, sounds like a really cool campaign!

[mattie_p]

Kingdoms of Kalamar are Arabesque, if my memory serves me. Please forgive me if you don't like the feats and such, I understand most don't.

[Gildedragon]

I guess you and I have completely different definitions of what constitute arabian.

I have no idea what yours is at all. Mine fo course are cultures that were form or had major influences on the arabian pennisula.

Can you please explain what your definition of 'arabian' is?

Arabian: pertaining to or originating on the Arabian peninsula: eg. None of the above.
Anatolia is in what now is Turkey, Mesopotamia in Irak which is well east of the peninsula.

@OP: Maybe some info on the setting might help us point you towards other soures. Don't be afraid to mix and mash things up.
You could have an absent or mythic emperor, with the actual ruler(s) being the praetorian style militia, or a council of educated scholar-priests...
Cities could be independent states
The desert may be seen as a benign if capricious deity, providing the cities with stones, trade and metal; as well as with oases.
Fire might not be as culturally relevant; rather cold and ice are the more venerated elemental powers; clerics constantly maintaining ice-like glass palaces. Diamonds and other ice-like gems are highly valued.

[ngilop]

Hmm seems our definiton of arabian pennsiula is different as well.

[RealMarkP]

These are all great ideas. I didn't go into specifics of what I thought of what Arabian people look like because I wanted to encompass all stereotypes into one type of race for Humans. Everything from Egyptian to Persian to Arabian proper.

Also, since the campaign setting will be in a hot desert, there will be adventures underground. Other than the Underdark and the Into the Darklands adventure, are there any books detailing a subterranean setting?

[Phelix-Mu]

Arabian: pertaining to or originating on the Arabian peninsula: eg. None of the above.
Anatolia is in what now is Turkey, Mesopotamia in Irak which is well east of the peninsula.


Arabian culture spread across a huge portion of that region, even into Eastern Europe to some extent, mainly under the Ottoman Empire, which was largely defined by the origin of its religious culture in Arabia.

But I find that cleaving too strongly to real-world history is not always helpful to generating fantasy-world ideas. If by "Arabian" you just meant sandy, sun-soaked regions with the occasional Oasis or dusty city of people on the trade route, nomadic horse cultures and so forth, then you could look into a variety of real world sources. While Babylon was hardly nomadic as an empire, and was not Arabian, tribes have long inhabited the whole region and lived in a culture not unlike what pop culture thinks of as Arabian.

Consider an alternate rule set for mounted combat...core D&D is not spotless at this, and if horse culture figures prominently in the adventure, it will come up a lot.

Darksun material also has a lot of info on desert beasties and other survival-type stuff...if you file off the serial numbers, no one will be the wiser.

[RealMarkP]

You touch on a few good points here and I hope it will engage the community to discuss.


But I find that cleaving too strongly to real-world history is not always helpful to generating fantasy-world ideas. If by "Arabian" you just meant sandy, sun-soaked regions with the occasional Oasis or dusty city of people on the trade route, nomadic horse cultures and so forth, then you could look into a variety of real world sources. While Babylon was hardly nomadic as an empire, and was not Arabian, tribes have long inhabited the whole region and lived in a culture not unlike what pop culture thinks of as Arabian.
This is the main reason why I left the topic as general as possible. A sun-soaked region is the base of my campaign, with the occasional oasis. A few dusty outposts, where human or elven citizens are on a constant alert to nomaic Orcs on horseback (or other animal). Or vice versa. There could be skirmishes between various tribes of Humans, Elves, and Orcs.

In the world I envision, the great human city will be similar to Babylon while the Orcs might have something akin to the golden horde.



Consider an alternate rule set for mounted combat...core D&D is not spotless at this, and if horse culture figures prominently in the adventure, it will come up a lot.
I've always saw mounted combat a bit too over powered. Has anyone come across any rules that brings it more in-line with something like the golden horde rather than the jousting competition of western europe?

[Farm_Ecology]

I know this might be a bit obvious, but check out the 1001 arabian nights. It's got fantasy, and even some sci-fi elements to it. Good for inspiration.

As for D&D books, the shining south book for Forgotten realms is a good one. Some elements of the eberron books could probably be used as well.

[avr]

I've always saw mounted combat a bit too over powered. Has anyone come across any rules that brings it more in-line with something like the golden horde rather than the jousting competition of western europe?

That's not so much a rules problem, more with how people are using the rules. Mounted Archery is fine if you want to keep your distance from a foe who doesn't have good missile weapons, Ride-by Attack is good for keeping your distance from a lumbering dwarf. If you want to avoid one-shot kills then you want to ban pounce & similar effects more than you want to ban Spirited Charge.