anyone got any resources for some kind of persian/ancient iranian campaign? (3rd ed)

[petermcleod117]

can't find anything on drivethrurpg, and my google-fu is failing me.

i'm looking for stuff in 3rd edition. i am aware there is a tiny amount of coverage in 1e in the dragon magazines as well, which i can fall back on if necessary. there is also a little in green ronin's "Testament", but it's just a tiny blurb.

[Quentinas]

The nearest class that come to mind when I think Persian (i will admit i don't know so much about geography) is the Sha'ir from Dragon Compendium , but as far as mechanics or regions nothing come to mind (except maybe rashemen from forgotten realm, it was in Unapprochable est)

[petermcleod117]

The nearest class that come to mind when I think Persian (i will admit i don't know so much about geography) is the Sha'ir from Dragon Compendium , but as far as mechanics or regions nothing come to mind (except maybe rashemen from forgotten realm, it was in Unapprochable est)

sha'ir is good. belief in the jinn was very common in the area.

quick glance over rashemen indicates that it's actually based off of slavic (pre-rus russian) folklore rather than iranian or persian. according to this post https://www.reddit.com/r/Forgotten_Realms/comments/3883xb/real_world_equivalents_to_forgotten_realm/ the Turmish civilization is supposed to be a loose parallel to persia, though i can't find any 3rd edition resources on it.

persia was home to the first monotheistic religion which i will not name for forum rules reasons. this would mean that there would be some angels involved. it was also semi-dualistic as well.

[petermcleod117]

Not that anyone cares but me, but I found a single persian monster in the Book of Exalted Deeds, the Asura (kind of like an angel). genies would then be their opposites (called divs at the time).

I'm posting this here just in case anyone else wants to draw on these resources, sparse as they are.

[Malphegor]

while not 3e (though there are conversions, the sha’ir class originated from it too), the Al-Qadim stuff in ad&d is pretty rad for arabian nights stuff that would be around that wheelhouse albeit not accurate to anything but arabian nights style stuff.

Specifically some of the stuff about djinnis ruling places, maybe some of the ‘ok so people have a lot of faiths out there but local people tend to abide by sorta standard rules of conduct around each other separate to their religions’. Of note, there was stuff emphasising haggling and that classic ‘people tend to refuse things 3 times before they accept a deal’ thing that I thought was more India than persian countries but eh

[razorback]

I ran something nearly 15 years ago that was Mesopotamian based.

I used this (https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Kingdoms-Mesopotamia-Sword-Sorcery/dp/1588469948), and this (https://greenroninstore.com/products/egyptian-adventures-hamunaptra-pdf), and this (https://greenroninstore.com/products/trojan-war-pdf) along with some other 3rd party book that is evading my memory, to build up around. If I get a chance to go by storage this weekend I'll figure out what that was.
As noted already, the Testament 3rd party and Al-Qadim help. As my campaign was only loosely based on the written record, I didn't worry too much about being accurate.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by petermcleod117
I'm posting this here just in case anyone else wants to draw on these resources, sparse as they are.

OP, what sort of material did you have in mind for something “persian/ancient Iranian”?

Do you want classes, feats, other mechanical options that address some aspect of ancient Persia? Do you want episodes from history to base a campaign around? Or did you want information on the weapons and tactics that were used in the armies of Cyrus or Darius or Artaxerxes?

[petermcleod117]

OP, what sort of material did you have in mind for something “persian/ancient Iranian”?

Do you want classes, feats, other mechanical options that address some aspect of ancient Persia? Do you want episodes from history to base a campaign around? Or did you want information on the weapons and tactics that were used in the armies of Cyrus or Darius or Artaxerxes?

mostly the first, but the others would do fine.

[Buddy76]

Dragon 334 has a section called "Dreams of Arabia" with a few monsters inspired by mythological creatures from the fertile crescent,Iran and Egypt. From Iran, specifically, there's only the Simurgh but there are two other monsters inspired by mesopotamian myths (the Assags and the Humbabas) so maybe you could use those as well, seeing how much those cultures interacted?

[Bronk]

Not that anyone cares but me, but I found a single persian monster in the Book of Exalted Deeds, the Asura (kind of like an angel). genies would then be their opposites (called divs at the time).

I'm posting this here just in case anyone else wants to draw on these resources, sparse as they are.

Close, there's the Shedu in the Fiend Folio.

[Asmotherion]

I think the Sandsorm supplement has some lore and resources you could use. Furthermore, the lore around the Elemental Planes and their residents could prove useful?

Other than that, I have no idea.

[petermcleod117]

Dragon 334 has a section called "Dreams of Arabia" with a few monsters inspired by mythological creatures from the fertile crescent,Iran and Egypt. From Iran, specifically, there's only the Simurgh but there are two other monsters inspired by mesopotamian myths (the Assags and the Humbabas) so maybe you could use those as well, seeing how much those cultures interacted?

that could work to an extent, though ancient iranian culture was in many ways just as similar to indian (from india) culture as it was to mesopotamian, if not moreso; to the extent that the iranian name for "angel" was the indian word for "demon lord" (asura) and the iranian word for "demon" was the indian name for "angel" (daeva or deva).

come to think of it, this might imply that the primary "angels" for iran would be good-aligned rakshasas, and their demons would be some kind of evil-aligned deva angels. either that of the demons would be evil-aligned genies, since the term "daeva" eventually evolved to be pronounced "div" and then "djinn" and then "genie" by the time arabian culture asserted itself.


edit: dragon magazine 340 might also be useful, since astrology was really big in ancient iran.

[Psyren]

If what you're focused on is the aesthetic, there's tons to draw inspiration from - almost every D&D published setting (as well as Golarion) has some kind of "1001 Nights" analogue. There's Zakhara/Al-Qadim from FR, Qadira/Jalmeray/Katapesh from PF, Q'Barra/Talenta in Eberron (to a lesser extent) etc.

If you're looking for real-world historical influences to use, those are tricky to discuss here.