 Cover art by Jeff Easley | |
| Rules required | Advanced Dungeons & Dragons |
|---|---|
| Campaign setting | Al-Qadim |
| Authors | Jeff Grubb |
| First published | 1992 |
| Pages | 158 |
| ISBN | 1-56076-358-2 |
Arabian Adventures is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1992.
Arabian Adventures offers over 40 pages of player character kits, including the sha'ir, barber-thieves, beggar-thieves, and other rogues, as well as other characteristically Arabian roles such as merchants, moralistic priests, hakimas (wise women), mystics, mamluks, corsairs, and elemental wizards. Each kit includes benefits, hindrances, and discussion of the kit's societal role in the desert of Zakhara, the Land of Fate. [1] The rulebook also includes rules for calling upon Fate, the Evil Eye, and discussions of honor, piety, the salt bond, and other characteristics of Arabian society. [1] The rulebook offers a comprehensive list of desert equipment, lists of spells with a desert motif, Arab character names, and proficiencies like Haggling and Display Weapon Prowess. [1]
Arabian Adventures was published by TSR, Inc. as a 160-page softcover AD&D campaign rulebook. [1] Design was by Jeff Grubb with Andria Hayday, a cover by Jeff Easley, and illustrations by Karl Waller. [1]
Allen Varney reviewed Arabian Adventures for Dragon magazine #219 (July 1995). [1] He begins by saying: "You know from the first sentence of the original 160-page softcover rulebook that the Al-Qadim campaign setting emphasizes pop cinematic Arabia over scholarly accuracy. "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," "Aladdin and His Magic Lamp"—these and other classics fill the pages of the Arabian Nights. No, they don't. European translators introduced both Ali Baba and Aladdin as spurious additions to the Nights, back in the 1800s. But what of that? Would you want an Arabian role-playing campaign that didn't include them?" [1] He suggests that the player character kits in Arabian Adventures "make up the outstanding section of the rules, still unsurpassed to this day by other AD&D campaign worlds. The most creative of these, the signature class of the Al-Qadim world, remains the sha'ir, the wizard who gets his magic by sending a genie or elemental familiar to fetch spells. Original and ingeniously balanced, the sha'ir class gains its greatest appeal from the role-playing opportunities inherent in negotiating with a genie or a dimwitted familiar." [1] In reviewing the book a few years after its release, Varney commented: "With hindsight we can identify [Arabian Adventures] as an important step in TSR's transition to its current graphic design philosophy, a precursor of the Planescape line and other beautiful products. The Al-Qadim rulebook's gold page borders, elegant endpapers, and six full color plates made a striking impression. Just as important, the Al-Qadim line marked the first time TSR used one artist for interior illustration throughout a whole line: the remarkable Karl Waller, whose atmospheric work conveys exactly the textures, exoticism, muscular genies, and empty desert expanses appropriate to the game line." [1] He went on to say: "Still, even in its time the Arabian Adventures rulebook fell short of perfection. Though pretty, it lacks a distinctive writing style and sense of atmosphere. [...] does it simulate the flavor of the Arabian Nights tales? Only in part." [1] He commented that the character kits "have flavor to spare", and Waller's art "inspires many adventure ideas. Yet for all their beauty, these pages only rarely describe the elements of Arabian adventures—the causes that assassins die for, the bargains that genies make, ambitions and aspirations of PCs, and the conventions of Arabian folktales. There is no attempt at all to describe what you actually do in an Al-Qadim campaign: explore the southern seas, wage holy war, stage palace intrigues, and so on. (This lack was remedied, in part, only in early 1994, in Gregory W. Detwiler's excellent article "Campaign Journal: Arabian Adventures Galore" in Dragon Magazine #202.)" [1] He commented further, saying that the rulebook's "lack of Arabian flavor may derive partly from the uneasy relationship between the Arabian Nights adventures and standard AD&D rules. It's hard enough justifying elves and dwarves in this setting, and there's a worse lack. The Al-Qadim campaign accepts slavery and polygamy as facts of life, and dispassionately discusses the ways of holy slayers, but it never dares hint at that ultimate taboo of all AD&D campaign worlds, monotheism. We must presume that developing a fantasy equivalent of Allah would offend Muslims, whereas compromising Islamic culture with a polytheistic hodgepodge is just fine. No doubt TSR also wished to avoid unpleasant links to the modern Islamic world in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War." [1] Varney concluded the review by saying: "The Al-Qadim rulebook impeccably presents a good set of tools for building an Arabian AD&D campaign, although it leaves the actual construction work to you—or to the host of supplements that followed. Given the fine quality of most of those supplements, this core product becomes essential for Arabian AD&D adventure." [1]
Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, Greenwood brought the setting to publication for the D&D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, as have various licensed products including novels, role-playing video game adaptations, comic books, and an upcoming film.
Jeff Grubb is an author who writes novels, short stories, and comics and a computer and role-playing game designer in the fantasy genre. Grubb worked on the Dragonlance campaign setting under Tracy Hickman, and the Forgotten Realms setting with Ed Greenwood. His written works include The Finder's Stone Trilogy, the Spelljammer and Jakandor campaign settings, and contributions to Dragonlance and the computer game Guild Wars Nightfall (2006).
Abeir-Toril is the fictional planet that makes up the Forgotten RealmsDungeons & Dragons campaign setting, as well as the Al-Qadim and Maztica campaign settings and the 1st edition version of the Oriental Adventures campaign setting.
Al-Qadim is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game which was developed by Jeff Grubb with Andria Hayday for TSR, Inc., and was first released in 1992. Al-Qadim uses One Thousand and One Nights as a theme and is set in the land of Zakhara, called the Land of Fate. Thematically, the land of Zakhara is a blend of the historical Muslim Caliphates, the stories of legend, and a wealth of Hollywood cinematic history. Zakhara is a peninsula on the continent of Faerûn in the world of Toril, the locale of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, although Al-Qadim is designed to stand on its own or be added to any existing campaign setting. The basic campaign setting was divided between two game products: Al-Qadim: Arabian Adventures, a sourcebook describing character creation rules, equipment, and spells unique to the setting, and Al-Qadim: Land of Fate, a boxed set describing the land of Zakhara, with separate sourcebooks for the players and the Dungeon Master.
The flexibility of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) game rules means that Dungeon Masters (DM) are free to create their own fantasy campaign settings. For those who wanted a pre-packaged setting in which to play, TSR, Wizards of the Coast (WotC), and other publishers have created many settings in which D&D games can be based; of these, the Forgotten Realms, an epic fantasy world, has been one of the most successful and critically acclaimed settings. Many campaign settings include standard sword and sorcery environments, while others borrow Asian, Central American, swashbuckling, horror and even space-travel themes.
Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse is an action role-playing game for the personal computer set in the Al-Qadim campaign setting of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The game was developed by Cyberlore Studios and published in 1994 by Strategic Simulations. The game combines role-playing game and adventure with a simplified interface; the player's character is a young corsair trying to clear his family's name, rescue his betrothed and determine who has been freeing genies from their masters. The game was re-released in 2015 on GOG.com with support for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The Wilderness Survival Guide is a supplement to the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D) role-playing game, written by Kim Mohan and published by TSR, Inc. in 1986 (ISBN 088038-291-0).
A sha'ir was a pre-Islamic Arab poet believed to have magical powers.
Jon Pickens is an American game designer and editor who has worked on numerous products for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game from TSR and later Wizards of the Coast.
The Complete Priest's Handbook is a supplemental rulebook published in 1990 for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
Golden Voyages is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1992.
Land of Fate is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1992.
Assassin Mountain is an accessory for the second edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1993.
A Dozen and One Adventures is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy tabletop role-playing game, published in 1993.
The Complete Sha'ir's Handbook is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1994.
Secrets of the Lamp is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1993.
City of Delights is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1993.
Corsairs of the Great Sea is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1994.
GURPS Arabian Nights is a supplement by Phil Masters, published by Steve Jackson Games in 1993 for GURPS.