The first time I tried to run Al Qadim was for my buds in the military.  On the scheduled game day, we went on alert due to Saddam's saber rattling and we had to cancel.  
I bet it would make a great 5e setting from what I remember, and copies of the book are pretty cheap on Amazon.  Thank you for the inspiration!
Edit:  Thanks for that link, TGA!  Added to wishlist.

Quote from: Patrick;817872The first time I tried to run Al Qadim was for my buds in the military.  On the scheduled game day, we went on alert due to Saddam's saber rattling and we had to cancel.  

You have to admit, that is pretty ironic.

Quote from: The Good Assyrian;817866I have always wanted to run a campaign based on Al-Qadim and recently picked up the PDF of Emirates of Ylaruam and was impressed.  It is a hard thing to make the setting feel "Arabian" and steer clear of the thorny issues of religion, but both did so on slightly different tacks.

I have been running a 5e campaign recently and I realized that in it I have been riffing on both of them liberally mixed with a more historical take on the Middle/Near East inspired by the outstanding historical fiction of Harold Lamb.  In particular the "Swords from the Desert" and "Swords from the East" collection.  In my opinion you can do no better than reading "Swords from the Desert" as a primer for an historically inspired Arabian themed campaign.  Check it out at:

Swords from the Desert at Amazon

-TGA

I'd say that it's not that hard to avoid the issues of current religion - just don't have modern Jihadists expy.

Quote from: RPGPundit;817836Yeah, but for me that feels like something of a cop-out.

Cop out in what way? Its an Arabian-esque area for an established fantasy game setting. Same as Kara-tur is. It works just fine for what is was meant to do.

Should though have had a section detailing how to do a more traditional Arabian Knights style setting.

Now what would have been interesting would have been a continuation of the "real world" series that did the same for the Persian, Orient and Arabian eras/regions as it did for the Roman and Chivalric ones.

Quote from: Patrick;817872Edit:  Thanks for that link, TGA!  Added to wishlist.

No prob!  I heartily recommend all of Lamb's fiction.  It is remarkable stuff and it has really influenced my gaming in the last few years - my D&D game has taken on a more historical feel to it lately as a result.  

Edit to add:  Actually if you find that you like Swords from the Desert, I actually like Swords from the East even more!  Highly recommended for a very different perspective in adventure fiction.

- TGA

Quote from: Rincewind1;817873I'd say that it's not that hard to avoid the issues of current religion - just don't have modern Jihadists expy.

On a personal level I feel absolutely no need to avoid real-world religion in my own games, but as a commercial product I can understand why TSR wanted to avoid those thorny issues.  

- TGA

My experience with Al-Qadim and authenticity, is it is about the level that most of the players in my groups wanted at that time (which wasn't really a whole lot). They basically wanted something that felt vaguely arabian in the style of movies they had seen, but didn't have a big learning curve.

My experience trying to run a more authentic Arabic setting for D&D several years ago was pretty disastrous. A lot of that was just me. Most of it was the group didn't want that level of detail or authenticity. They wanted the seventh voyage of Sinbad filtered through a standard dungeons and dragon campaign. I do think there are folks who might be interested in something like that and I think if they had gone that direction during 2E rather than the Al-Qadim route it would have been done as a green book (as someone mentioned earlier).

Need ideas for this kind of setting.....?

Read this...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throne_of_the_Crescent_Moon

Very enjoyable.

Quote from: Thanos;818313Need ideas for this kind of setting.....?

Read this...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throne_of_the_Crescent_Moon

Very enjoyable.

Thank you for the recommendation!  I just picked it up!


-TGA

Quote from: jgants;817862As opposed to other D&D settings that do a great job at representing historical cultures?

No, just like a ton of other D&D settings that do a really shitty job at representing historical cultures.

I get that its fine, to do a non-historical type medieval fantasy thing; I'm not really meaning to dump on people who want that.  But in terms of my own personal tastes, more and more, I want either a world that's totally divorced from 'medieval europe' or any other earth-historical-period+culture to the point that no one thinks its 'how it was', or I want something a lot more accurate than RPG settings have historically been.
Hence, I went and did stuff like Arrows of Indra and Dark Albion:The Rose War.

Quote from: RPGPundit;818787No, just like a ton of other D&D settings that do a really shitty job at representing historical cultures.

I get that its fine, to do a non-historical type medieval fantasy thing; I'm not really meaning to dump on people who want that.  But in terms of my own personal tastes, more and more, I want either a world that's totally divorced from 'medieval europe' or any other earth-historical-period+culture to the point that no one thinks its 'how it was', or I want something a lot more accurate than RPG settings have historically been.
Hence, I went and did stuff like Arrows of Indra and Dark Albion:The Rose War.

From time to time, I do like the idea of a fantasy game setting that is more authentic-seeming. I, myself, tried to use ancient Peru as the foundation to write a setting for.

Where I always stumble is that the authentic settings bleed out a lot of the more standard RPG friendly tropes which make running / playing a game a lot easier.

Quote from: jgants;818836From time to time, I do like the idea of a fantasy game setting that is more authentic-seeming. I, myself, tried to use ancient Peru as the foundation to write a setting for.

Where I always stumble is that the authentic settings bleed out a lot of the more standard RPG friendly tropes which make running / playing a game a lot easier.

I think there is definitely room for both approaches, and for me it is a what am I in the mood for sort of thing. Knowing what you want is important. If you like historical realism or authenticity, then the realms generally just won't do. I see that more as an approachable setting for  your typical fantasy fans, where the anachronisms are are a feature that can make buy in more easy. But when I run something grounded in history, I try to do my due diligence as a GM and make sure I am researching material that fits. It often comes down to the group I am playing with. If the players simply want kitchen sink settings informed by hollywood history and adventure, I am not going to waste my time prepping a HARN campaign for them. But sometimes I have players who want the historical stuff and I am happy to accommodate that.

Personally I find the historical stuff fun because I like history. But I also appreciate games that let me forgot the historical considerations and allow me to throw in stuff that feels cool and interesting (regardless of how authentic it is).Generally if I know a lot about a given time or place, I will be more inclined to take the historical path. If I know very little, and don't have the time or desire to explore the subject, I am going to lean more on painting it from the hip. I also don't mind combining both approaches when I have a mixed group.

Quote from: jgants;818836From time to time, I do like the idea of a fantasy game setting that is more authentic-seeming. I, myself, tried to use ancient Peru as the foundation to write a setting for.

Where I always stumble is that the authentic settings bleed out a lot of the more standard RPG friendly tropes which make running / playing a game a lot easier.

Like which do you mean?

I mean,  I ran pretty good campaigns of AoI and Dark Albion; I think the key is to try to be as authentic as possible without letting "culturewank" get in the way of actual gaming fun.

Quote from: Thanos;818313Need ideas for this kind of setting.....?

Read this...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throne_of_the_Crescent_Moon

Very enjoyable.

As an update:  Read it and thoroughly enjoyed it!  It is pretty much a template for a higher magic Arabian-themed setting when I run it...and that might be sooner rather than later based on how jazzed I was after reading this.  Already talking to players about it.

Once again, thank you Thanos for the recommendation.

-TGA