Fantasy Arabia Why is it so rare a setting?

Because one group of people start freaking out about cultural appropriation and the potential for racism, while another group of people start freaking out about other cultures invading their own and indulging in actual racism.

With all the fuss and clamor they cause, it ends up not being worth the bother a great deal of the time. Which is a damn shame, IMO.

Fucking djinn and shit mang.

>>51655495
Because it doesn't sell.

>>51655516
in b4 "KEKS AND RAPEFUGEES?"

>>51655495
Because comparatively they are an inferior setting: Limited terrain options and limited creatures. They can make for an interesting detour/short stay, but otherwise it is a boring setting to play in.

>>51655691

Just so you're aware? This isn't actually true. Arabic folklore and mythology is a vast and complex well you can draw upon, and the area of the Middle East itself has a huge amount of different types of terrain. It is not, as the cliche might have you believe, just deserts and mountains.

>>51655726
Well, then most dms that try it are very uncreative then, because god damn that is all there seems to be. Blame Aladdin

>>51655495
Maybe the lack of great fantasy novels based on such settings, so there is no cultural support to it.

>>51655495
I have no idea but fuck whoever is responsible for this

>>51655691
False. You can easily say the same about your standard not!european setting.

>>51655744

People do tend to fall back on the cliches, which is a shame. If you actually do your research there's a lot to go on, especially if you dig up the old legends from before the rise of Islam.

>>51655754

1001 Arabian Nights is a great work of literature, although I'll admit it's not exactly got many others following it. The sad thing is that a lot of those works do potentially exist, they're just never translated and never leave their country of origin.

>>51655516
This plus people don't actually know that much about it.

>>51655726

A lot of the mundane and also weirder shit the AdMech seems to have inspiration drawn directly from Middle Eastern folklore as well, although they also have a few just Mediterranean references floating around as well.

40k, as much on the nose as it can be sometimes, seems to get away with it in this case because people just aren't familiar with this particular source it draws on.

>>51655495
Because you didn't make one yet.

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>>51655495
Because the best one has already been published.

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>>51655776
Agree, midle eastern cultures, have great legends and a very refined sense of aesthetics.

Best I ever read was one of Sandman specials, when a king asked for his city to be preserved in the dreamland, in order to never see it fade.

>>51655495
Because faggots don't want to let me fulfill my harem magical realm

I hear those Arabian PCs have curved swords. Curved. Swords.

http://princeofpersia.wikia.com/wiki/Prince_of_Persia_Wiki

Start on it.

>>51655495
An authentic Arabian setting would primary cater and sell to the Arab market, who doesn't buy RPG's as that shit is expensive/Haram

>>51655495

Basically what >>51655516 is saying. In today's political climate, it's either "You can't appropriate Muslim culture!" or "I don't want any Muslim lovefests in my games!"

It's a shame, Arabic and Mediterranean culture is ripe with game inspiration but it's just such a hot issue lately.

>>51656015

Appropriation-fags are generally toothless. Nothing much tends to come of them because people actually of that culture shut them down so quickly. Overwatch caught some shit for their Chinese New Year skins, but actual Chinese people chimed in and pointed out that it's not really cultural appropriation when it's done right and respectfully.

Hell, the entire Dark Souls franchise is built on what Japanese people think when they read into European legends and Arthurian shit. Is that cultural appropriation? Hell no, because some of the shit that comes out of it is fantastic and does justice to the source material by being (mostly) quite well crafted. Also consider the Japanese fucking love it when people make an effort to emulate their own culture, because they like to spread the love around, and in a sense are doing much the same with Dark Souls. Pretty good attitude about it IMO.

Basically, an eye for quality and respect for the source material are key to making something that does justice to the culture it borrows from, and generally just good advice when doing anything. Still, those fags are reactionary, mostly just trying to play a game of "more socially conscious than you," but when confronted with actual facts they either wisen up or run away.

>>51656015
>You can't appropriate Muslim culture!" or "I don't want any Muslim lovefests in my games!"
Good thing Arab culture =/= Muslim culture despite their very best efforts to stamp out all traces of pre Muslim Arabia and western asia

>>51656146

It's a globally prevalent process, sadly. The dominant culture suppresses what came before or differs from the norm, whether it's Imperial China, Islam in the Middle East or Christianity in Europe.

>>51656197
True, though Christianity did it via adaptation and incorporation, which early Islam did to a degree as well (Djinn as a whole for example, and their relationship with Islamic scripture)

>>51655495
9/11

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>>51656119
>the entire Dark Souls franchise is built on what Japanese people think when they read into European legends and Arthurian shit.

It... It is?

>>51656533

Anon, take a look at what we know of Japanese culture, with Samurai and Shinobi, Oni, Kitsune, weird eyeball-in-the-ass monsters, giant invisible deadly skeletons, mythic waves, dragons, Chinese and Korean wars, ancient octopus hentai...

When we look at a culture that's so significantly different from our own, we sometimes delve into the weird tidbits that get lost in the noise; the general exposure we have if we grow up in the culture. Read some real ancient and out-there Biblical shit or even OG Arthurian stuff, I can guarantee that you're not going to recognize a lot of that from general European culture. Even going back into Babylonian stories and legends, shit gets weird.

It's been said by the creators in an interview that they basically took Arthurian mythology plus a whole lot of classical and ancient European stuff and made Demon's Souls and Dark Souls with their own personal take on it.

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>>51656604
>It's been said by the creators in an interview that they basically took Arthurian mythology plus a whole lot of classical and ancient European stuff and made Demon's Souls and Dark Souls with their own personal take on it.

>mfw Miyazaki emulated Arthurian myth so well it basically feels like a Westerner's well-crafted rendition of a fantasy medieval setting

The fact I can't actually feel the Japanese influences beyond maybe one or two oddly worded thing just enhances the experience, but it begs the question of which aspects of Dark Souls would be deeply foreign (as you suggested it would seem) to a Japanese person? The whole cyclical nature of the Age of Fire doesn't seem too out of the ordinary in Eastern philosophy.

Same reason I figure a lot of settings don't get used.

Two reasons, actually.
One; most people don't know how to design a setting like that. You'll have to do an absolute fuckton of research to do it justice while we can throw out a quick generic medieval fantasy in a relatively short amount of time and effort.
The second reason is; most people don't know how to play a setting like that. They'll have to read everything you've made in setting primers, and throw away much of what they already know and are comfortable with just to start playing. And they won't appreciate any of the research; because they have no fucking clue of what an authentic retelling of the setting would even look like . This three headed monster that eats dreams could be a clever reimagining of some famous cultural figure that reasonates with people brought up in that culture. But to everyone else it's just a weird creature with some odd abilities. So they go back to dragons and knights fighting fiends and wizards. They know what those are, it's engrained in their culture and upbringing. It resonates. It works.
I made up a three headed dream eater, I don't junk it exists in any mythology

>>51656793
I was paraphrasing Dara O Briain there. https://youtu.be/QJHzwiYG8bM he says the same thing, except jokes instead of campaign settings.

>>51655797
Examples of admech stuff taken from middle eastern folklore? That's like two of my fetishes at once.

>>51656663
That's the Japanese lens you're seeing. It's the bit that says the worldview is still an eastern one, even if everything within is referencing European culture. Nobody in the world thinks of the cycles in what I'd call an eastern manner: Gwyn's linking the flame is even framed as the first sin which cursed all men (original sin). The cycles are seen as an exchange of crowns and thrones, of kingdoms and fiefdoms rising on top of each other and falling, rather than enactment of cosmic law reincarnating men into new lives, even if that's what is happening.

>>51655495
What's the name of that one RPG getting translated that's like, Traveller, but in a pre-islamic space setting? Sinbad the Spacer or something?

>>51657077
Coriolis?

Sand sucks. It's just the same climate everyday.

>>51657015

It seems more vague, but I know the way they view faith and magic (technology in this case) is very close to how Arabic religions and folklore viewed faith and magic, where faith is much the same but magic is seen as an aspect of God's power, though very fickle and often punishing of those who delve too greedily. The way they treat written word (STCs and knowledge) is very Jewish as well, harkening to a very strict reverence to Law and written word. Also the way the AdMech view the Emperor and their relationship to the Omnissiah and Machine God. Actually, the way the praise the Machine God is VERY much like how Allah is praised in Arabic text.

For references, the AdMech is known to have psalms and hymns, while the Ecclesiarchy is near exclusively hymns. Sicarians (stilt-legged assassin models) and a reference to Sicarii; suicide Jewish assassins who targeted Roman leadership (particularly military) when resisting Roman occupation. Sydonian Dragoons are a direct reference to Cydonia, an actual city in Spain, as well as the Onager, which seems to be a vague reference to siege weaponry which was often pulled by donkeys. And, you know, Skitarii wandering the deserts of Mars for years at a time without stopping, kind of like some guy who got lost in the desert once.

There's probably a few more I'm missing, but it seems like they do have a lot of influences in that regard. Obviously the technological aspect is rather unique to them, and sets them apart rather than just being Arabic or Jewish cultists in space, instead making them a vaguely Abrahamic technology cult on Mars.

>>51657089
Spasiba, yeah. It looks like it got translated too, it seems to be up on drivethrurpg.

>>51655516
>A recent social fad that tickles my bumhole is why this has never been a popular thing

>>51657263
Yeah you're definitely right. I had noticed some of those things and missed some of the others, putting it all together makes it obvious. I also see some Neoplatonic and Hermetic ideas and symbols, making for a generally Near Eastern inspiration.

>>51657381
Let's not forget that the Tech-PRIESTS are "Magi", as in Greco-Persian.

>>51656119
>done right and respectfully

>Also consider the Japanese fucking love it when people make an effort to emulate their own culture

How did they react to Big Hero 6 and this Lego Ninjago Movie?

>>51657651

Can't speak for Ninjago, but that's Lego and also Ninjago.

Big Hero 6 is actually really faithful to both cultures, even if the movie itself was more American and geared towards that audience (because it was made in America, perhaps?). It was actually fairly well received.

Half the scenes in San Fransokyo make it feel like you know exactly where you are (this is coming from a San Francisco native) and the other half I presume would be instantly recognizable to someone from Tokyo, or at the very least looks like it was pulled out of Tekkonkinkreet. And blatant stylistic combinations aside (Golden Gate Bridge styled after Torii gates), it's actually a pretty great combination of the two cities, faithful to both and at once its own unique entity.

>>51655495
I don't know, I'd honestly recommend Arabian Nights-themed shit for anyone's first DM experience. Easy to describe the settings and characters, and a limited name list.

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I see a lot of people here saying the terrain would be boring. How would one make it interesting? Even including more fantastical terrain features. Swamps have giant mushrooms, what could the arid landscape of Arabia have?

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does anyone mind if I bump with some arabian character art?

>>51657923
Giant cactuses, though I think in real life they're confined to American deserts. Maybe also some fantastic oasises.

>>51657923
Nothing.
It's called Empty Quarter for a reason.

>>51656793
What we need is some arab fantasy movie series, they'll become the new inspiration, like the pirates of the carribean did for age of piracy games.
Right now we have Disney's Alladin, but little else that can be commonly drawn upon, and games are bound to be qasba & desert.

>>51657971
>cacti
>arabia

>>51657923
Man-made features.
Wizard towers (or equivalent), trade routes with oasis, ancient cities reclaimed by the desert, or secret tunnells of an underground civilization, spring to mind

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>>51658038
>ancient cities reclaimed by the desert, or secret tunnells of an underground civilization
You can have both, even, Qanats (water tunnels) need a whole lot of maintenance

>>51657992
Prince of Persia is obviously Persia rather than Arabia proper, but it was never that picky with the source material

Pick the right city though and you can have high-rise rooftop chases

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>>51655495
>Rare
Hi underage

>>51655691
>Arabian fantasy means it's desert with nothing over it
That's what you get when plebs are making settings - a one-dimensional bullshit that is boring and cliche, so they go back to standard medieval European fantasy, THE most one-dimensional bullshit setting of them all.

Sometimes I feel something went really, really, REALLY wrong by late 80s and people simply stopped giving fucks about quality and depth of a setting.

>>51655823
This. Accept no substitutes.

>>51656280
Protestantism did as much stamping out as islam.

>>51657019
The funny thing is depending on what source material you use, a more eastern view might be more appropriate. The mabinogi and the triads still have a lot of traces of a lot of the pre-christian origins of the cultural mentality behind them.

>>51656604
Please post the interviews where Miyazaki claims to have used the Arthurian legends as an inspiration, because I read extensively on that topic and never saw him claim that. In fact, time and again, Miyazaki says that he was inspired by Western pulp fantasy and the Fighting Fantasy series.

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>>51658863
I had massive flashbacks of Deathtrap Dungeon when going through Sen's Fortress.

>>51657923
Put giant worms

>>51657923
Ground coral reefs that were drained as the ground rose from the sea, probably as a result of some magical ritual.

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>>51657923
Just google Socotra. It's in Yemen and it's got the most alien looking plant life anywhere on Earth.

The arabian desert is already not the Sahara to begin with, it has mountains and more life in general. NotArabia also has a lot of lush, fertile valleys.

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>>51657923
- Sand/rocky formations shaped into a weird trees by wind, forming a whole multi-level dense forest
- Bug/lizard tunnels made from living tissue (like Silithus in WoW)
- Cloud terrain and cloud castles
- Oasis formed around some kind of Palm Tree of Life
- Obligatory quicksand swamp
- Dungeon in the form of a dead and dried out giant worm buried in the sand (like the one in Star Wars), possibly inhabited by goblins/bandits/cultists/lizardmen
- Pyramids with tons of traps and puzzles
- Valley of Death with ribs and bones of giant animals sticking from beneath the sand. Coupled with desert zombies waiting to jump out and grab a passerby
- Cliff cities
- Sea of Lava, maybe even an Ashen Archipelago there

>>51658965
>- Oasis formed around some kind of Palm Tree of Life
>- Obligatory quicksand swamp
>- Pyramids with tons of traps and puzzles
This is thematically Arabian.
The rest is either North American or generic fantasy.

First of all, sadly, >>51655691 is """right""".

It's not that his statement is true, is that for some reason I don't really want to discuss people will think it's true. You could even have a whole Middle Eastern campaign without a single desert having a single second of screentime.

Second point, but related to the first: Middle east = Arabs/Islam. Even OP made this mistake. Of course people will think the setting is uninteresting if it's all arabs and maybe some jew. The middle east is an area with great cultural and religious diversity, specially historically. The supposed unity of the Ummah is the fakest thing to ever exist. In the medieval east you get the big cultural triad of Arab, Turk and Persian, each one with his niches and pretty distinct from the others. And that's not mentioning smaller minorities. As you advance in time you have half the region being ruled by the Mongols, similar in their role to the first turkish dynasties but even more alien (and not only because they're heathens). And that's only cultures, you have to add religion after that which gives even more options (and conflict).

>>51657263
Anon you could write a paper on that shit. That post was your extract

>>51657743
Really? I thought the city was fucking stupid.
If they wanted to go super Jap with it... just set the movie IN Japan.
What would the big deal had been? What did being in some wierd half America/ half Japanese city add to the story (specifically the American half)?

>>51656119
>Overwatch caught some shit for their Chinese New Year skins, but actual Chinese people chimed in and pointed out that it's not really cultural appropriation when it's done right and respectfully.

Fucking this. Don't be retarded about it and everyone loves to be "appropiated". Everybody wants to be mentioned.

>>51659073
>The supposed unity of the Ummah is the fakest thing to ever exist.
It's a lot like the peace of god ever existing and churchfags acting like people listened to the pope that much when half of catholic Europe saw most papal decisions as ploys for power grabs.

Also that problem of cultural unity is pretty much generalized in fantasy. You're lucky if people have cultures that are even distinct enough to represent US state divides, let alone languages and customs different enough to represent the myriad cultures that Europe and the middle east had, at least barring absurd cliches.

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>>51657923
Colorful mountains.

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>>51659169
>>51657923
A natural Portage to Hell.

>>51657263
>Sydonian Dragoons are a direct reference to Cydonia, an actual city in Spain
No. It is a reference to Cydonia, an actual region on Mars.

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>>51659186
Salted lakes that become red when the water gets down.

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>>51659186
That's not Middle East, it's Central Asia. I find Turkmenistan extremely interesting because they have a God Emperor for real.

>>51659245
Turkmenistan is at the region of Khorasan that shows how our regional divisions are arbitrary, since Middle Eastern Iran belongs to it.

I think it belongs way more than some other ideas here in the thread lik fucking giant cacti.

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>>51659233
Also, for those who say that it's all sand, the Middle East not only has mountains but also forests.

>>51659284
Iran doesn't belong to it. It was one of old Persia's provinces and it still remains a province of Iran.

>>51659338
So that specific part of Iran isn't middle eastern according to you, while the rest of the country is? Middle East is an arbitrary designation that varies wildly and basically means nothing. That's my point.

Anon wants inspiration for interesting terrain, and maybe it's me being naive and interpreting that by "Arabia" he means something more vague than the peninsula. You're being literal and not getting the point. Turkmenistan's desert is as valid as Syria's for what he wants.

I just realized that Rifts has over thirty setting books and none of them are Middle Eastern. Rifts is a train wreck of a game so you shouldn't concern yourself with it, but that's fucking funny.

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>>51659328
Giant rock dicks.

>>51659073
>The supposed unity of the Ummah is the fakest thing to ever exist.

Meh, a dude who learned law in Cairo could practice in Calcutta or Malaysia, no problem. And even nowadays, a dude who was taught in Saudi Arabia can get himself a nice job in London.

>>51655495
None wants to be beheaded

>>51655495
Plenty non-Muslim semi Middle East settings in most tabletop RPG kitchen-sink settings which means many of the popular ones. Even Forgotten Realms got it.

None with Islam or Muslims included because nobody want to be murdered like >>51659457 said. Even Japanese translators aren't safe from their rabid insanity.

>>51659450
And said dude would be amazed at the vast differences between the lands he has visited and maybe write a book about it that will be very useful for a DM that wants to make a setting based on the islamic world. Which was basically my point.

Also the "no problem" part is debatable and highly dependent on the political situation.

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>>51659415

>>51657923
I mean Arabia by itself sucks, but if you expand it to the broader middle east you get some pretty amazing stuff. Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Anatolia and Armenia give you a pretty diverse region to play in while still having a similar vibe

>>51659513
No anon, it exists irl :^)

>>51655495
9/11
The Middle East used to be fodder for fun.
Now it's got different dominant stereotypes.

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>>51659528
Even Arabia got some cool places.

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>>51659528
>>51659550

Even the desert got some nice parts, it's not all sand.

Inb4 this is one of the scenes filmed in Spain.

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>>51659492
>None with Islam or Muslims included because nobody want to be murdered like >>51659457 said. Even Japanese translators aren't safe from their rabid insanity.
Then why spaniards weren't blowned?

>>51659589
>Kum Enforcers

KEK

>>51659589
I wouldn't mind them enforcing my kum

>>51659589
Because here in Spain nobody gives a fuck about anything.

Please enforce my kum.

>>51659528
Not to mention that the folklore has loads of people going throughout the known and unknown world. Middle East was just the center.

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>>51659597
>>51659610
>>51659625
Property of Road... I mean Kasym Beg

>>51655495
Because Islam is monolithic and destroyed a lot of the rich folklore and cultures in the Middle East.

That said ancient Mesopotamia is great inspiration.

>>51659654
Reminder that Aladdin was chinese.

>>51659284
>Iran belongs to Middle East
>So does Turkmenistan

Go back to school, you undeducated pleb

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I don't want to awaken the trolls but I must ask this after reading the thread.

Is Arabia/arabs literally the most boring thing ever in the history of the middle east? To me it looks like the equivalent of let's say Belgium or the FYROM invading Europe. Literally every other culture and place in the region is more interesting.

Please redeem arabs to me or I'll start to thing that the best way to make a fantasy middle eastern setting cool goes through removing the arab parts.

>>51659721
>I can't read but I think I'm smart

>>51659743
You're perfectly right, but most of the things we think of when we say "arabian nights" are not arab anyway.

>>51659773
Is also the best way to make the setting hide to your players the fact that you're playing in a middle eastern setting so they don't start arabizing everything?

>>51659506
>And said dude would be amazed at the vast differences between the lands he has visited and maybe write a book about it that will be very useful for a DM that wants to make a setting based on the islamic world.

Fucking tiddies, why do they not cover them?

>>51659780
You should actually do this with most cultures in your setting unless you want them to be stereotypically like a RL culture.

>>51659791
>mfw some niggers claim to be muslims but they practise and condone magic and idolatry
>no picture of my face actually because representing human forms is haram

>>51659802
In case this isn't clear, I mean "medieval europe" defaults to England or maybe France, "east asia" defaults to Han/Ming China or Sengoku Japan, "south asia" is a very narrow interpretation of "indian culture" etc.

>>51659802
Yeah, but some terms are a bit hard to translate without losing character.

>>51659743

The region known today as Saudi Arabia? Yea, it's pretty shit and boring. It's still shit and boring to this day, except with more money and extremist fuckheads who ruin everything forever (seriously, fuck Wahabbism and fuck the Saud dynasty, they're the reason we can't have nice things).

The Iraqi region, especially Baghdad before the Mongul siege and razing of 1258 (fuck them as well for burning the Grand Library to the ground), was a much more interesting and active place. If you're looking for a medieval age arabic setting, look into it.

>>51659676
>Islam is monolithic
a million keks

>>51659389
You know that not all countries are culturally homogeneous like America?

>>51659528
>Armenia
>Middle East
full retard

>>51659890
>culturally homogeneous
>America.

America is so amusing because they really aren't homogeneous.

>>51659890
Is it middle eastern or is it not?

>>51659743
It's not that Belgium isn't interesting. It's that it has no culture to call its own.

>>51659904
Being christian and ex-sovietic doesn't put you out of the Middle East.

>>51659922
Of course not, it's Central Asia.

>>51659912
Germany alone is as culturally diverse as America.

>>51659890
Iran being middle eastern has nothing to do with being culturally homogenous, "near east" as a term has always been a generic term for the parts of asia west of the indus valley.

>>51659933
But being Caucasian does.

>>51659945
No, it doesn't. The Caucasus is part of the middle east.

>>51659935
You have never tried to live in Germany, especially between what was East and West Germany have you?

Unless you'll say a Gangster rapper is the same from Philly as they are in LA.

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>>51659955
Okay, I'll leave you wallow in your retardation.

>>51659959
I have lived in Switzerland for my entire life.

>>51659978
Then surely you should know that Germany is not a culturally stagnant nation (although they do their best at it).

>>51659979
>everything is isis
>/pol/fags in charge of having knowledge of history

>>51658944
This, where the fuck do people think date palms, figs, and shit like that come from?

>>51655495
it isn't but it mostly just devolves to simply "Arabian Nights with XYZ" because that's the most familiar setting when it comes to Arabian mythology. much like how generic euro fantasy is LotR or DnD with a few twists and without the expansive lore

>>51658965
Don't forget rivers with lush reeds, fish, fruit trees, hippos, crocodiles, river birds, migratory birds, etc. If you want to be a pleb about it then google the Nile river and base all of the rivers you encounter in the terrain off of it.

>>51659169
WTF, it's like Mother Nature took an acid trip. What's the explanation for this?

>>51660088
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhangye_National_Geopark

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>>51659415
>giant rocks shaped like dicks
>MFW

>>51659186

I heard it's not burning anymore and that it's filling up with water.

>>51660067
There are sandniggers who are currently living within the United States who want to legalize Sharia law.

Don't believe me? Look up that hijab wearing cunt who was part of the group that organized and led the Womens March.

>>51656119
>Hell, the entire Dark Souls franchise is built on what Japanese people think when they read BERSERK

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>>51659955
>The Caucasus is part of the middle east.

BECAUSE IT'S BEEN HUNDRED'S OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS AND SHAR AND SELUNE ARE STILL FIGHTING.

FUCK IT

I'LL SAY IT RIGHT NOW

MY LITTLE PONY IS A PART OF DND LORE.

THERE ARE FUCKING BEHOLDERS IN IT

LUNA IS SHAR
CELESTIA IS SELUNE

TWLIGHT SPARKLE IS MYSTARA

PONYFAGS ARE LITERALLY WATCHING CREATION MYTH LORE

SSAZZ TAM HAS BEEN SHTI SINCE HE LOST HIS MING THE CONQUEROR LOOK, AND IT'S ILLEGAL TO KEK IN THAY

>>51659955
American education, ladies and gents

>>51659955
Historical Armenia goes beyond the Caucasus. The fact that it was invaded by turks and kurds don't erase the history of Armenia as a middle eastern region and, at one point, empire.

>>51659935
So the cities of Ankara (turkish), Baghdad (arab) and Tehran (persian) are all in the Middle East. But the city of Mashad (persian), in razavi khorasan, is not. It's central asia.

Not only this, but you think that this makes sense and they're not arbitrary regions.

>>51660108
Wind goddess was horny.

>>51660257
The Middle East isn't actually a region anyway. It's West Asia with a touch of North Africa.

>>51660148
Yes, one of them is vice president.

Or you could fuck off back to /pol/ and let the grown up talk about persian literature, the first caliphate and 1001-nights land.

(also reminder that most salafists absolutely hate most of the first caliphate's ruling dynasties and think of them as heretics)

>>51659492
>None with Islam or Muslims included because nobody want to be murdered

Yea right, like all Muslims are ISIS or something. And 80% of Muslims that only want jobs, have kids, get scientifical certification and life wasn't existed at all.

Yeah, Trump speech and Fox are the only reality you've got, i'll get it.

>>51655823
I just found a box full of this in with my things from moving. I have only positive memories of the setting. Good stuff.

>>51655516
>>51655787
These pretty much. Not many people know much about Arabian/Mediterranean mythos past Aladdin and the Genie, or what theyve seen in Indiana Jones. You'd be lucky to find someone who even knows something like a thousand and one nights. And when we know little about a culture like the middle east, its likely that we resort to stereotypes without knowing it and that leads to lousy stories with blamd one dimensional characters

>>51660296
Err, I hope you're not implying that "West Asia" and "North Africa" are more legitimate regions than the Middle East.

>>51657992
A series of a turkish warrior, an arab imam and a persian scholar having adventures together in 10th century middle east would be pretty nice.

>>51659676
>Islam is monolithic
what did he mean by this?

>>51655495

It's very hard to get around the fact that Muslims treat women like dogs you can sometimes put your penis in. Like, every game set in Arabia is going to have to tiptoe around that, and the harems of 12-year-old boys.

>>51660463
Make it a persian imam, a turkish diplomat and an arab sailor and it's actually interesting.

>>51660463
So, if you are interested in that sort of thing, I would recommend the The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones. It's not great, but he's an adequate writer, and it's an enjoyable read.
I didn't even realize there was a sequel until I checked just now.

>>51660372
Just saying that, if you're gonna have a bag full of randomly selected cultures for your fantasy setting, you may as well have the bigger random bag. Or a random bag made by yourself if you think you know enough to not fuck it up making it even more random. The countries in the middle east and in central asia (or better said some of them) have enough similarities to make this combination a single focus of inspiration as opposed of two.

Unless by middle east and central asia we actually mean just Yemen and Kazakhstan (to give an extreme example), of course. That's like basing your setting on Poland and Indonesia, the mix may work or not but will never be subtle.

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>>51660494
You can easily exclude this part (along with shitty treatment of animals) if you are creating a fantasy world and not a historically accurate medieval game.
Or make it so the ruling elite are your stereotypical muslims while the working class along with players plot to dispose of them and make the society better.

>>51660496
No, what he said is waywaymore more expositive of the cliches and therefore better for protagonists.

Cliches are good when we're speaking about introducing a setting.

>>51660494
It's very hard to get around the fact that Christians treat their women like dogs who can sometimes provide a heir. Like, every game set in medieval Europe is going to have to tiptoe around that and the 12 year old arranged marriage brides.

>>51655495
I think it can be summed up with the following quote:
>“There are two reasons I don’t do jokes about Muslims. A, I don’t know a fucking thing about Muslims. And, B, neither do you."

>>51659676
>islam is monolithic

not since Mohamed himself died, and even before.

not near a rock or even a pail of gravel, not even is it just sunni, shia, and ibadi, its every singe school of thought within these that makes the fine talc powder that is islam.

>>51660496
That could also work.

>>51660529
Thanks I'll check it out.

>>51660596
I was just going to post that.

Though anon raises an interesting point in that unless the GM and players are coming from a Middle Eastern background, they are likely going to go with modern stereotypes of the region, rather than any sort of historical hodgepodge that come from centuries of entrenched mythology and personal history, as with most European and American writers.

>>51660614
Islam has borrowed as many pagan elements as christianity has its just less known.

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>>51660496
>arab sailor

there better be a meeting between him and a baggage handler of the same name.

>>51660463
Make it 11th century so the turk is a seljuk noble and the persian is secretely a hashashin. But they become friends and they must fight together against their respective worlds that now reject and persecute them for protecting the other.

>>51655495

Because fantasy settings are mainly inspired by the Ancient Classical period or the middle-ages, but as far as I know Arabia is still firmly in the stone age.

>>51660614
it DOES have the big black stone of doom though, right?
that's a monolith right there

>>51660668
It would be nice to finally see some good horse archery on tv.

>>51655495

Because it is a setting that you need to compeltely cut off from its historical roots, leaving only external aesthetic, to make it even somewhat compelling (never mind palatable), therefore all attempts end shallow. People are not going to be very excited about playing among barbarians who took the heart of the world's civilization and are in the process of running it into the ground through religious fanaticism, anti-intellectualism, tribalism, civil wars, sinking into decadence and being replaced by another wave of barbarians every couple hundreds of years, etc. And unlike weeaboo settings, it is not supported by its heir countries producing tons of mass culture products that popularize and sanitize their legends.

>>51660736
Yes, but enough about playing anglosaxons and other germanics in medieval fantasy.

>>51655495
Islam Muslims will bomb your game dev headquarters if they get butthurt

>>51660757
Whatever you say, Ahmed.

>>51655495
read the Rubaiyat of Omar khayyam, read the seven voyages of sinbad, read 1001 nights, read the works of Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī

if you really want to learn about islam and the time period read Al-Ghazali’s Path To Sufism, by Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali.

im not even Muslim, but persian and arab scholarly writing of the time is very high quality (look for credible translations, there are some far too literal ones out there)

>>51660673
You do realize that most of our underlying mathematics and medical practices come from the Middle East, right?

>>51660771
Arabs already were citizens of the empire, while the anglosaxons, franks and goths were purely invaders.

>>51660736
It's not like most fantasy settings that are European based go heavy into research and simulation of period-accurate social-religious issues, not sure why you would have to with an "Arabian" style one.

>>51660673
>still firmly in the stone age
>they had ironworking before anyone in Europe, even the celts
>stone age
/pol/ plz

>>51660782
>read the Rubaiyat of Omar khayyam, read the seven voyages of sinbad, read 1001 nights,

I've read those, and among fantasy tales/setting inspiration from various parts of the globe they are still close to the bottom, in fact closest to it from anything actually produces by a major cultyre. Fuck, Shahnameh, which was technically written in the Islamic rule, but devoted to preserving pre-Islamic myth and history makes for a much better setting inspiration.

>>51660868
>the Rubaiyat
>close to the bottom

what in the hell else have you read that puts any of those near the bottom?

>>51660607
Ya, already posted, >>51656848, but a good point nevertheless

>>51660793
>Middle East

You mean India?

>>51660803
>Arabs already were citizens of the empire, while the anglosaxons, franks and goths were purely invaders.

They weren't. Germanic federates outnumbered Arab ones by an order of magnitude, and the lower Arabian peninsula Arabs never were subjecs.

More importantly, Europe also entirely owes its Dark Ages to Arabs, specifically to cutting off papirus supplies from Egypt, which effectively doomed the continent to poor literacy until production of early forms of paper started, and to centuries of unending warfare and piracy, which utterly destroyed Roman agriculture - and therefore civilization - even in parts of Mediterrainean not taken over by Arabs, forcing survivors to relocate from fertile coastal valleys to more easily fortified hills.

>>51660920
india, persia, and syria, but yeah.

>>51660926
>what is arabia petrae

>>51660926
>Dark Ages
Not only is that meme history, it's the wrong meme

>>51660920
No?
Nearly all pre-classical Mediterranean philosophy was heavily based off of Middle Eastern scholarly works. Pretty much the entire basis for Western philosophy and thought is based off of the work of a few Persian scholars

>>51660893
>what in the hell else have you read that puts any of those near the bottom?

Oh, as poetry they are great. But it is not like you can get much mileage from them in terms of "fantasy tales/setting inspirations" as I've said.

>>51660926
>owes its dark age to arabs
They used vellum in the western empire you fucking moron. It's not arabs who were taking the western empire apart.

>arab piracy in the atlantic
kek

>>51660926
Maybe it's arab pirates who required the building of the saxon shore forts too!

Why do th arabs cause so much butthurt on 4chan in general OP just wanted inspiration for running a middle eastern based campaigb and the thread quickly filled with retarded /pol/acks sabotaging it.

>>51660962
>Nearly all pre-classical Mediterranean philosophy was heavily based off of Middle Eastern scholarly works
technology, maybe. philosophy, not really

>>51660893
He means they're not pretty good for a fantasy setting and he's right. You have good taste at literature but I don't know how the fuck do you base your setting on Rumi and Khayyam.

>>51661025
Where do uou think the greeks got their ideas from?

>>51661025
With the Greeks, there really isn't a difference, is there?

>>51661025
You might want to read more on stoicism and the amount of influences back and forth it had in particular.

>>51660970
>>51661030
well the rubaiyat does give a few hints about society at the time.

Omar, despite being a well respected and remembered scholar of religion, writes poems of flirting with bar-maids, drinking wine, and making art (all things that are theoretically disallowed by conservative islam)

i think that gives the go ahead to be a bit more open and boisterous as one would be in a normal western europe setting. and not to be too worried about "was this allowed?, or will i be imprisoned for this?"

also the descriptions of the landscape would make great boxtext

overall im thinking less about what creatures you will find and more about how to describe things such as towns and people to the players.

>>51661019
Ignorance based on preconceived notions reinforced by extremists

>>51661030
Arabian nights gives a pretty good idea on how people in those times thought about life.

>>51661019
Honestly, as these things go this hasn't been too bad

>>51661059
I have to accept that we were being a bit close minded and you're probably right.

>>51661019
It's the one time of the day /pol/ pretends to care about women and queers, it's cute.

>>51661059
In general, adherence to islam was the least orthodox in peripheral regions. Arabia proper was probably always weird religiously, but the further away you got from the core the more likely it was that people didn't really give that much of a shit.

In Spain, they realized just how insanely lucrative the wineries were in the first place, and then just didn't care about enforcing anything (a realistic Reconquista era setting would be fun but would basically just be a complex clusterfuck as the two sides basically only gave a fuck when the religious authorities on each side were breathing down their necks), you get similar attitudes with Ottoman Turkey being incredibly loose about alcohol and general application of what the law means, and of course Persia and India (the mughals turning towards more orthodox sunni islam was the beginning of the end in a lot of ways)

>>51661069
It's obviously not the mention to arabian nights or Sinbad that confused me and the other anon.

>>51655495
Because Arabs don't make games

>>51660976
>They used vellum

Vellum was both all too expensive and decayed fast, you ignoramus. They used papyrus in the West as long as it was available.

>It's not arabs who were taking the western empire apart.

Early Germanic kingdoms were diffucult to tell apart from the last 100-150 years of the Empire, or from the Bizantium (where German soldiers also comprised much of the army and government). Vandals in Africa even managed to get as decadent as any Roman ever was by the time Belisarius came to push their shit in.

Arab conquests, however, changed everything in a few decades. They effectively killed the Eastern Empire as a successor of Roman culture, even if survived as a political entity, and razed the entire Mediterranean basin to the extent that judging by (lack of) archeological finds much of it became unpopulated wasteland for centuries, effectively ending the legacy of Rome in the West as well.

>kek

If you weren't an uneducated dipshit, you would have known that 90% of Roman empire's economic life was centred around Mediterranean.

>>51661108
The thing is most of the time muslim countries had large minorities of christians or other group who were permitted to drink alcohol and islamic law only had authority over muslims.
So non-muslims were allowed to drink also it gave revenue through taxes ofcourse.
Also drinking alcohol has been one of the most broken rules by muslims ever.
All the other rules are seen as far more serious.

>>51661144
>Vellum decays fast
>Papyrus
>Papyrus outside egypt
>not decaying terrifyingly fast
You know nothing, jon snow

>>51661032
>>51661049
some inspiration is of course necessary if you have two advanced cultures, but greeks were the first to create what we know as philosophy today
>>51661039
it's true that there was a lot of overlap, especially pre-Socrates, but even the early greek philosophers were mostly concerned with theory as oposed to practical inventions
Zeno of Elea knew that his paradoxes don't actually work in practice, but the culture of dialogue and discussion enabled him to still be an influential thinker

>>51661173
Probably because making wine is one of the few ways to store drinkable liquids for the long time.

>>51661173
>All the other rules are seen as far more serious.
Surprisingly it depends on what other rules. The five tenets were to some extent.

There is a surprising lack of shits given about iconoclasm during the golden age, largely because iconoclasm was probably a reaction to how ostentatious the church was in the middle of the empire falling apart (a lot of early islam is a lot easier to understand when you realize the first muslims were heretic christians just a few years before).

Plus the judges weren't exactly robots.

>>51661226
It also highly depends on the place.

>>51660736
>People are not going to be very excited about playing among barbarians who took the heart of the world's civilization and are in the process of running it into the ground through religious fanaticism, anti-intellectualism, tribalism, civil wars, sinking into decadence and being replaced by another wave of barbarians every couple hundreds of years, etc.

I guess you've never played in a post-apoc or grimdark setting.

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You know...

>>51660736
>People are not going to be very excited about playing among barbarians who took the heart of the world's civilization and are in the process of running it into the ground

i dont know, im Greek and i still like playing as Greeks.

>>51655495
Has anyone ever run anything in d&d's Al-qadim setting? Was it any good?

>inb4 have you tried not playing d&d

>>51661519
It's a really great setting and Wizards killing it in 3.5 was, like with half of the dead settings, bullshit.

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>>51660868
> Shahnameh
my nigga. A setting based in Persian mythology would be amazing

>>51661626
Indeed. For me it's the perfect mix between classic chivalric knights tales and exoticism.

>>51655915

persians aren't arabs

>>51655915
How well persian culture and history are represented in Prince of Persia? Good or Assasin's Creed tier?

>>51661032

From WEWUZ, first KANG of MELANOIDIA

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>>51655495
>Why is it so rare a setting?
The same reason why every hack comedian has a Bible joke but none of them has any Qu'ran jokes: do it wrong and you're dead. Hence why a lot of fantasy media have a Catholic Church equivalent (either as the champions of light or the corrupt evil church exploiting everyone, you see a bit of both) but I have yet to see an Arabia equivalent that actually incorporates elements of (faux-)Islam.

Shame really. A caliphate, as either the setting or the villains, would be nice.

>>51655495
Wasn't there a tg storytime about just this?

>>51662555
Didn't Warhammer Fantasy have an actual villanous Caliphate? They were irrelevant of course like everything that wasn't playable in the main game, but they existed.

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Despite the GURPS system (which I like) I've heard GURP setting books are top notch.

>>51662782

Not sure if they're villainous; but yea, they have Araby.

And 2nd Edition AD&D had Al Quadim (sp).

And then there was also this...
>>51662884

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>>51655726
>>51655691

The terrain in Afghanistan and Iran are fucking beautiful, too bad the Middle East has become a extremely unwelcoming place or you'd get to see shit like pic related more often.

>>51656015
I've never heard anyone with any of these opinions EXCEPT on 4chan, a hole full of people who hate themselves.

>>51663250
Iran is actually an extremely welcoming nation. Visit before it gets too touristic or nuked.

>>51655495
Because in the last 20 years the people from real life Arabia can't stop them selves from spreading terrorism worldwide while blowing them selves up.
Kinda makes people loose interest.

And then there's social pressure as this anon said>>51655516


And finally, it's not even that good of a setting + the image you posted kinda shows why.
You need a Persian-centered setting for that to work.
The Islamic golden age is limited to the first 50 years during which Persia was conquered.
After the last batch of Persian scholars died of in slavery the Arab culture kinda stayed the same old camelfuckers till recently after they worked hard at stifling anything not in line with their beliefs (meaning almost everything).

>>51660694
>muslims actually worship the philactery of an ancient eldritch lich

>>51660148

You christians want a Sharia Law of your own, so...

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There is a lot of cool shit in the middle east/central asia/north africa that could inspire a fantasy setting

Too bad half of it is getting blown up, like seriously looking at the history of that region it seems like anything cool always gets torn down, burned, blown up and sacked by a bunch of dickheads

>>51664569
>Dickheads
Look man, all you have to do is not kill Timur's envoys. It's not that hard. What comes around goes around.

>>51664768
>>51664569
To be fair, a lot of these monuments have been destroyed by Muslims themselves in a trend ongoing since the time of Muhammad. In a lot of ISIS and Taliban videos where they deface old monuments and idols, you will often see commentary stating that in the time of Muhammad these monuments had not yet been discovered (as if to provide a justification for why Muhammad or his earliest caliphs didn't do this themselves).

Islam is a very archeology-unfriendly religion.

>>51664808

Islam is not all radical, extremist islam. Groups like ISIS and the Taliban are abhorrent, but it's not fair to tar them all with the same brush.

>>51664908
still, it has more extremists than i.e. christianity and they are quite a bit more extreme

>>51664808
>In a lot of ISIS and Taliban videos where they deface old monuments and idols, you will often see commentary stating that in the time of Muhammad these monuments had not yet been discovered (as if to provide a justification for why Muhammad or his earliest caliphs didn't do this themselves).

i.e. propagandized bullshit

most of these sites are either MASSIVE, or well known to locals and frequently mentioned in historical records. It's impossible for them to be something that "weren't known about until just now"

Most of the areas in which this is happening have been under Islamic rule fore over 1000 years, the fact that none of the Caliphs, Sultans, Emirs, Kings, Presidents etc. did shit all to the the widely known about and obvious ancient temples and statutes until modern extremist groups show up and claim "This is totally halal! No one knew about these 100 foot tall Buddha statues until just now or they would have destroyed them long ago, honest!" shows just how disconnected from historical norms their interpretation of religion is

>>51664124
Source: Your ass.

>>51664941
Christian extremists get elected.
Muslim extremists have to conquer shit.

>>51656663
Miyazaki explicitly said in interviews that he wanted to recreate the feeling of confusion and being lost that he had when reading western fantasy novels.

>>51664941

You sure about that? Radical Christian groups are responsible for their fair share of atrocities in Africa and some parts of Asia, while they're also the largest source of domestic terrorism in the US.

Radical Hindus are another group nobody talks about, but they've conducted plenty of massacres and attacks on other faiths in and around India.

Faith can be a wonderful thing, providing support to people in times of need, but when you're pushed to your limits or put in a situation where you feel totally powerless, it can be used to justify some of the most terrible things.

The situation in the Middle East isn't some innate property of Islam as a faith, it's an ongoing socioeconomic problem that started with the fall of Ottoman Empire and was exacerbated by ongoing Colonial efforts and the Cold War, with the region being treated as puppets and pawns in the games of larger powers, given no time to really stabilise and find their own place in the modern world.

Of course, some places got out better than others, mostly places with natural resources that were of value to those larger powers, but most of the instability and the rise of extremism can be traced right back to those historical causes.

>>51664315
>>51664994
>>51665005
t. Ahmed

>>51661537
>Using the outdated romanization.

>>51664166
Best way to keep it secure.
Kinda hard to sneak out after regeneration, tho.

>>51665021
what was the last time you heard about christians doing stuff muslims do to each other and non muslims? balkan war? and even there muslims where a part of the conflict there too. Show me a country when you go to jail or are killed for being gay, being the wrong kind of christian? Not even norther Irland compares to what muslims do.

>>51665078
>what was the last time you heard about christians doing stuff muslims do to each other and non muslims?
Kony.

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>>51664987
Except when Archeology became a thing (debatably starting with Napoleon's invasion of Egypt) it started with excavations. In other words, digging precious shit out of the sand. The massive Sphinx of Gize for example was burried up to its shoulders under the sand. It's not only not implausible, but downright proven fact that many great monuments weren't found until excavations in the Industrial Era rediscovered them.

As for the Sphinx of Gize itself, if most of it was already burried under the sand I imagine it was simply too big for the Fatimids to bother with.

And then there's the fact that not all of those Caliphs, Sultans, Emiers, Kings and Presidents were good Muslims. Ottoman Sultans are notorious for giving religious minorities better treatment than the Qu'ran and Hadith dictate, drinking wine, fucking boys and having more wives than the Qu'ran allows. Hell, the Ottoman Empire decriminalized homosexuality nearly two centuries before Britain did, which has less to do with Islam and more to do with the Sultan's Francophile/Liberal upbringing.

>>51655726
Arab folklore is all kinds of weird, but very little of it works for an adventure.
They didn't really do the whole "Hero journeys out to murder magical beasties" thing, and as such their beasties aren't suited for it.

>>51665078
>what was the last time you heard about christians doing stuff muslims do to each other and non muslims?

What is the Lord's Resistance Army

>Show me a country when you go to jail or are killed for being gay

What is Uganda (85% Christian)

Not excusing fuckheads like Daesh or Hamas, but violent retards are found in every ideology. Even the fucking Buddhists get in on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016%E2%80%9317_Rohingya_persecution_in_Myanmar

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>>51665206

Since when were all adventures about murdering magical beasties? And even the, there's still plenty of room for that.

But the archetypal story, even if you just look at 1001 Arabian Nights, is still pretty conducive to adventuring stuff. For whatever reason you've had to leave Bagdhad/the center of civilisation, and go out to redeem yourself, gain wisdom, achieve great wealth or what have you.

This just reminds me that the Tales of the Arabian Nights board game is so fucking good.

>>51665208
In the former case Africans are involved, in the latter case Muslims. Way to prove his point, anon.

>>51659228
As a matter of fact, there is a shop called Cydonia in Barcelona, but no city.

>>51665238
>Since when were all adventures about murdering magical beasties?

No, you're right, sometimes it's a lich.

Or it's delving into a dark dungeon to get something, and murdering beasties on the way.

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>>51665167
>it started with excavations. In other words, digging precious shit out of the sand

Petra was never burred under sand, and its in fucking Jordan, one of the earliest regions to become Islamisized. Likewise the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afganistan weren't burried either and that region has been under de facto Islamic rule for 900 years

>not all of those Caliphs, Sultans, Emiers, Kings and Presidents were good Muslims

But for these sites to have remained unmolested until now its not about "some". You would have to argue ALL of the rulers for 1400 or so years had to have been bad, because if this was actually what the religion proscribed all it would have taken is one or two "devout" heads of state to do serious damage to these things that wasn't done. You can't expect anyone to believe literally no one ruling the Holy Land for a fucking Millennia decided to destroy the big old Pre-Islamic canyon city that is mentioned sever times in historical texts proving they all knew about it for much of Islamic rule over the region

>>51665255
>in the latter case Muslims

Wait so you're saying people being subjected to mass murder are somehow complicit in the violence being perpetrated against them in a way that shows that *their* beliefs are the violent ones?

The actual fuck?

>>51665350
Do you see faces on these statues? I don't.

>>51665375
Yep, killing the rabid dog before it bites you. I think one of the buddhist monks said exactly that about Muslims in his country.

>>51655495
IT SLIPS THROUGH YOUR FINGERS LIKE FINE SAND

>>51665350
The Mughal emperors tried to destroy the Buddhas with artillery, a Persian king sought to end them with cannons, and their faces were destroyed by an Afghan king.

So that's a load of fucking rubbish you're spewing there my man.

Petra was abandoned during Arab rule,

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The graphic novel Habibi has an interesting setting. An Arabic land that has a mix of fantasy and historical, and that of near future cyberpunk, and a bit of post apocalyptic. It's all in the background mostly but it's something.

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The idea being that you can make a setting where for all intents and purposes the landscape, towns and villages can look and act like a fantasy ancient areas but also there are occasional appearances of a more advanced, and wealthy modern Arabesque cities, vehicles, tech, soldiers and weapons. Though it'd be rare as all they would care about is their supply of food, water and labor.

>>51665408
Nearly every massacre or genocide is rationalized as self-defense.

>>51664124
I'm a persiaboo and all in for showing everyone how arabs are lizard-eaters that barely contributed shit, but dude you went full memester. The islamic golden age had not even started after 50 years of the conquest of Persia.

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on the topic of Middle Eastern themed RPGs, The Nightmares Underneath is a very good recent one;

https://redboxvancouver.wordpress.com/2016/11/14/the-nightmares-underneath-rpg/

>>51659228
>>51665266

The anon maybe means Medina-Sidonia in Andalusia

>>51658863
Don't got a link to it but I know what they're talking about, it was an interview where he claimed inspiration for it came from western fantasy novels and myths he used to read, only at the time his grasp on English wasn't that good so he filled in the blanks from where he didn't understand and those half imagined stories were the basis for the souls games

>>51659108
Apparently the comic it was based on was set in an alternate history where San Francisco burned to ground early on in it's history and the Japanese government sent aid and workers over to America to help rebuild leading to closer ties between the two countries early on and a MUCH higher amount of Japanese immigration to America, the movie dropped a lot from the comic but seems to have kept the idea that the city was rebuild as a predominately Japanese style one early on stayed Japanese themed as it modernized

>>51666186
And I'm okay with this

>>51666482
Have a cookie.

>>51666494
Thanks, have a (You)

>>51659108
Big Hero 6 is actually a Marvel property and was a comic first.

>>51666434
I've read it too. He's talking about cheap pulp fantasy that was sold by American sailors in Japan.

>>51660088
It's a shoop.

>>51665013
He was confused because his English was shit at the time, not because the source material was confusing.

>>51661537
What is it now?

Jinn? Djinn?

How do you determine the difference between The name for all of the genies and the specific air elemental Djinn?

>>51666672
Call it however you feel like. Jinn is a specific creature, the class is called Genie.

>>51666672
In what setting?

>>51666772
In the implied default setting of D&D. The Monster Manual has an entry for Genies, which are a kind of elemental, and the air Genie is known as a Djinn.

>>51666820
Technically djinn jinn and genie are all the same.
Also they are spirits made out of smokeless fire for which they see themselves superior to humans which where made out of clay or earth.

>>51667319

But they and Efreeti are different classes of the same being, right? With Djinni tending to be more compassionate and Efreeti more malicious? Or was that just a simplification?

>>51667334
Well I don't know how DnD does it but according to the book of arabian nights they are also the same thing.

>>51667389
However wikipedia says that Ifrits are a stronger subspecies of djinn.

>>51655726
>Just so you're aware? This isn't actually true.
What the fuck is that question mark doing there, you massive fucking faggot?

>>51667435
Genies are a species like humans or angels. Ifrits are a kind of genie just like there's different kinds of humans and angels. Djinn is just genies in arabic, making djinn a kind of genie is like making loup-garous a kind of werewolf.

>>51667568
Right. In the context of D&D, Djinn, Ifrit, Marid, and Dao are all kinds of Genies.

If Djinn and Genies are essentially the same thing, what would be a better name for the Djinn?, so we could call all Genies Jinn.

>>51667473
It's a means of emphasis.

It breaks up one slightly monotonous sentence into two shorter sentences, which makes the phrase 'pop out' better.

That anime Magi had some cool ideas using middle eastern themes.

>>51658905
>Put giant worms

this, the spice must flow anon

>>51655495
sandniggers

>>51655885
preposterous, how does that even make sense.

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it was they era of earth when ahlla attacked earth.
or i should say yahwh , he has lots of names.

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i wanna impregnate shantae and live in Sequin Land

>>51655495


Europe is a continent of killers where the sagas and epic poetry exalted the warriors and violence. In comparison, middle east the merchant was the moral standard, with zocos and medinas, and the warriors was the necessary evil.

Later, the colonial empires and orientalism hit hard in these lands and plummed his way of life.

We 're the sons of psychos and enjoy the tales of murdering done by our ancestors.

>>51665167
There's a 12th century book by an Arab theologian that recounts a large scale antiquities black market, a tourism business for seeing the Sphinx and Pyramids, and recommends their preservation and protection from looters trying to make a buck for the sake of religious education and sense of history.

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>>51662445
Anglos, germans, spaniards, italians, franks, etc, etc were also not the same races and cultures, but are all represented in one amalgam in European fantasy settings, so fuck off ahmed.

>>51655495
>Al-qadim's Muhammad analogue was a woman

lol(?)

>>51667665
The first one isn't a sentence. It isn't even a question, you spooge-addled fuck. And the only thing that it makes pop out is the eight cocks from your ass - I can practically hear them, reading that drivel.

>>51655495
I don't like brown people.

but their stuff is cool.

sadly, if i start puting white people in this stuff i'll be called a racist.

>>51670880
Try being less racist.

>>51669414
so progressive!

>>51670934
Can you tell me why racism is supposedly bad?

Hard Mode: No CURRENT YEAR arguments.

>>51671150
Generally, holding people accountable for the actions of others is considered poor form.

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>>51671246
But there is a strong correlation between IQ and tendency towards criminal behavior. Blacks tend to have lower IQ- and thus are more susceptible to committing crime. That's not "holding people accountable for the actions of others", that's the law of probability.

>>51671306

Except there is no actual correlation between race, intelligence and crime rate.

All the studies have shown that if you factor in the socioeconomic realities of the situation- That minorities often receive inferior education from poorly funded schools and have significantly reduced opportunities- then the effect of race on such things is non-existant.

>>51671150
Hold not the child in chains for the sins of his father?

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>>51671363
>Except there is no actual correlation between race, intelligence and crime rate.
Lower IQ directly correlates to increased criminal activity. This is Criminology 101. And when you take into account that 60% of intelligence is inherited, and blacks consistently score lower on IQ tests...

>>51671419
This correlation doesn't explains causality.

If they are dumber, our attempts to prevent them from doing any crime should work better, cause they are to dumb to outsmart the law abiding citizens.

>>51671419

>Implying IQ has any relevance

It's a flawed metric that's widely been abandoned by this point as it measures a very narrow and specific kind of intelligence. But by this point it's clear you're one of two things- Someone desperate for a justification for their racism so they don't need to feel guilt or shame, or a troll doing this for replies. Probably the latter, so enjoy your (You)

>>51671306
Except that even assuming that's true, you have no idea where an individual specimen falls on the 'tends to' range, silly.

>>51671419
now show us the chart that relates IQ to crimerate, and then the one that relates IQ to family income, and then the one that relates family income between families with a father and single parent families, and then the one that shows percentage of incarcerated blacks with children.

its a huge input loop.

im not saying race isnt a factor, but the whole issue is mostly education/income inequality. and im not going to say how we should fix it, because its incredibly complicated on another level.

>>51671455
You can't prevent violent crime the same way that you can't prevent me throwing a punch at someone. Until you physically restrain everybody or make Minority Report a reality, people will always commit crimes. It is interesting to note that violent crime is decreasing across the US however.

>>51671458
It's a metric we measure ourselves with, abandoned it is not. Nobody asks what your Myers-Briggs Type is.

>>51671475
You don't need to pinpoint someone's IQ down to the specific number in order to know where on the spectrum they generally will lie. Again, law of probability. Yes there are exceptions but exceptions are not the standard.

>>51671550
>You don't need to pinpoint someone's IQ down to the specific number in order to know where on the spectrum they generally will lie. Again, law of probability. Yes there are exceptions but exceptions are not the standard.

This IQ thing you're going on about is pretty nonsense, senpai. It's not a good metric in any particular way, and can change wildly over time, education, or development in either direction.

But even presuming you're actually trying to defend this position in good faith, you're basically saying "Yeah, I'll get it wrong [and wind up judging people incorrectly and unfairly for things they have no control over] now and then, but." And then... nothing. But nothing. You're still doing the whole unfair-and-unjust thing, holding people responsible for others' doing.

>>51671419
Ah, yes, ‘IQ’. The idea that intelligence can be charted. We have dismissed this claim.

>>51671852

If u try u can hear behind the iq team the phrenologist troupe galloping from /pol/

>>51655495
>Throne of the Crescent Moon
>The Lions of Al Rassan
>Dune

There's 3 excellent novels right there.

>>51670880
That would be retarded though.

>>51669379
>implying europe isn't extended france

>>51655945
>don't buy RPGs

Well, anon they kinda do

>>51659589
We have a deal, we stay away and they stay away.

>>51658669
Dumbass

>>51659840
Read a book

>>51664908
Most Muslims believe what those groups do, it is the core is Islam

Islam is cancer and all the redditors here defending it need to fuck off our board