Campaign Guide: Zakhara - www.dmsguild.com/product/341520/Campaign-Guide-Zakhara--Adventures-in-the-Land-of-Fate-AlQadim-and-Forgotten-Realms-Sourcebook?affiliate_id=728035

@Deathven1482

3 жыл бұрын

I saw the thumbnail and immediately bought it. Thanks Jorphan!

@battlemapbrawl

3 жыл бұрын

This is so cool!

@itzybitzyspyder

3 жыл бұрын

Pin this please

@DuvibdDuvusbudhd

10 ай бұрын

Sounds awesome. I could do without the wierd anti-cultural virtue signalling. Slavery started in the middle east and is still thriving there. Idk why slavery can't be part of the settings. Safe space fiction ruins everything's plausability. Also baffled at how you started talking about slavery and then said "we shouldn't use racial stereotypes" ... slavery is a stereotype? Like what?

@DuvibdDuvusbudhd

10 ай бұрын

Also.. your little anti-white virtue signal was corny and intellectually dishonest: "it was probably written hy four white guys that just read 1001 Arabian nights" ... Lol.. the "Arabian culture" you are referring to and that most of the djinn lore and similar stuff comes from Ehranshar, the Aryan and Semitic pre-arabic empire that ruled the deserts that are now Muslim ruled. Almost all of the Aryans had red hair and so did many of the Semitics. Much of this lore was picked up by the illiterate Arab tribes when Islam conquered them. Even Muhammed was pale with red hair according to the Quran and the Hadiths. This is basic Arab, Aryan ,and Semitic history, and you are not only being intellectually dishonest but doing it from a place of self-hate taught to you by political interests. Idk if you're "white" or jewish. But either way you're sitting here shitting on your ancestors for supposedly butchering a foreign culture that's actually theirs. What a world.

The moment I saw it on DM's Guild I shed a tear. For finally something that isn't so Sword Coast centric! I love everything about this

@battlemapbrawl

3 жыл бұрын

Completely agree.

@razzelmire2008

3 жыл бұрын

It’s why I stick to older editions. Much more stuff. 5e is too slow on releases.

@jbranum3087

3 жыл бұрын

For real.

@powerist209

2 жыл бұрын

Well, it's a cycle. Sword Coast gets video games and media attention (this is why they call it "Baldur's Gate" and not "Cormyr" or "Moonsea"), so this is what we'll be getting. At least early AL did focus on Moonsea area.

This is AD&D's best campaign setting. It is pure sadness that WOTC/HASBRO has done nothing with it. Thank you for the overview on this 5E update!

Bought it on the first day, Ahmed Aljabry (the language and cultural consultant for this book) convinced me with his Zakharan content on his channel. The contents are simply amazing, and I can't wait for my hardcover to arrive!

@brocksayre

3 жыл бұрын

Ahmed was such an amazing help!

@Bear-co2hb

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for mentioning his channel, I'm definitely going to give him a listen and pick up this setting.

@brocksayre

3 жыл бұрын

@@KS-PNW Yes it is! His youtube videos are great!

@khpa3665

3 жыл бұрын

Yes. It was his involvement that persuaded me to get this. He's doing great work for the hobby.

@snieves4

11 ай бұрын

Can you link ahmeds channel? I cant find it specific for d&d

This sounds good. I was a fan of Al Qadim back in 2nd ed, so glad to see this being made. The only gripe I have is the kid gloves disclaimer you described. Why would a book written for adventurers to go out and right wrongs want to minimize talk of the wrongs they want to right? In the older material I read, I remember seeing those villainous things discussed and not glorified, because in order to have a bad guy, the bad guy needs to be doing bad things. Slavery et al are the bad things bad guys do. No need for trigger warnings, and if that bothers you, whatever you do don't look at current day news from northern Nigeria, anywhere in the world for human trafficking, or the Near East.

@powerist209

2 жыл бұрын

Well, the thing is that original adventure do play on problematic assumption (mostly not just slavery, but tendency to code that to be Arabic culture aspect SOLELY. Same with hand chopping and classism, which many of the writings tend to ignore western practices or tend to assume that fantasy western/default with modern values that kinda unintentionally show non western culture as “savage and in need of saving”. Same issue with Kara-Tur where one entry as I paraphrased “unlike the west, people of Kara Tur must show etiquette to their superiors” that had the same tone I said before. Even Alanna novels tend to be guilty of it even if entire book did show in universe sexism of fantasy Europe.

@powerist209

2 жыл бұрын

Also Slavery being portrayed as part of the society in Al Qadim that even good aligned states often have them and sometimes sanitized it abit. That or assuming if “slaves” like Mamluks are mistranslation or assuming any non western as slave holder…like they did pull a praetorian guard by carving out their domain in Egypt.

I really envy those of you guys that still have a static RPG group of friends to play p&p D&D...I keep collecting all new 5E D&D material out of sheer love for the game, but I don't really get to play it 😥

@battlemapbrawl

3 жыл бұрын

Aww man. Just put out a FB post to your friends list saying you are DMing. You will be surprise who is insterested. That's what I did. And 15 players later, this is the group that has been together for 2 years.

@FLEASPIRIT13

3 жыл бұрын

You can jump in my discord when we start up again next month

@Miskatonic-University

3 жыл бұрын

@@FLEASPIRIT13 That's really really kind of you, but English is not my mother tongue and I'm in European time zone. I've already tried with some local groups, but not easy to sustain when there is not a group of long-term friends. In the end reality bites...work, family, time...you know how it goes. After a few weeks, people start to disappear and fail. Happened a few times already. Cheers :)

@Fanatiiq

2 жыл бұрын

@@Miskatonic-University That is why I only Dnd with my family. Wife, son, brother and sister. No drama just fun family times.

@Miskatonic-University

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fanatiiq You're very lucky to have a RPG-loving family! 🙂

Oh wow this looks so good! I'm going to go grab it asap

Ok, you got me. This gets my money... I don't normally like product reviews, but you've made these really watchable.

@Jorphdan

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Hope you like it!

I got this just to come up with background stuff for my Djinn pact warlock, who comes from the Pearl Cities of Zakhara and is influenced heavily by Moroccan djinn lore and customs! Sent this video to my DM as soon as I saw it pop up in my feed, thanks!

This is great! Surely you will get 100K subscribers because you deserve it! I don’t usually get in YT just to look at may notifications, but I get to hear about your new content from FB. I was a little worried because the post for this on FB did not have many ‘likes’, but then I come here and realize that people do know about The Amazing Jorphdan! Please, please keep them coming!

I already buy it and i love it, there is a lot of opportunity for desert campaigns as well.

This is a darn good review. Makes me want to buy the book, despite being "soft" on the setting and some of the rules (kits). :) Sharing this video.

I literally started running a zakahra campaign 2 years ago as my first experience dming and trying to translate from 2e to 5e was so hard. Im so happy this is available now! thanks for the rreview

I was researching Zakhara yesterday! What a coincidence!

This looks so cool 😎. I am going to check this out

Wow. Looks totally worthy. Al Quadim was dope. I have most of the 2E modules.

I'm glad you discussed the evil eye.

Awesome. Now we need an updated Kara Tur.

This book sounds awesome

“The sand witch” 🥪

I thought it was alright, but because they "toned down" the stuff they didn't like, it's rather... dull. I'd highly recommend buying the 2E campaign setting for Al-Qadim which is incredibly rich with content and makes the world feel... well, like a world. Not just a paint-by-numbers-to-not-offend book.

I'm getting it

Just bought in hardback.

Use code HERALDJORPHDAN5 for 5% off $5 digital community-created content - www.dmsguild.com/index.php?affiliate_id=728035

As a DM who set his campaign in Tethyr and did a lot of research into Calimshan before finding out it was wiped off the map as of 4e, I'm extremely excited by the prospect of reintroducing the type of setting without all the slavery.

I've been recently watching your series on Zakhara, wishing to build a campaign in such an amazing setting and this is a blessing! I still don't know if I want a Genie or Mummy based campaign, but hey, baby steps right?

@morganfurnas4242

3 жыл бұрын

You can do both! Genie that's trapped in a mummy's tomb or genie that wants to reawaken a mummie lord

@brocksayre

3 жыл бұрын

In the Ruined kingdoms of Zakhara, there are lots of undead, including mummies of Ancient Necromancer Kings!

Wait, what the hell!? It's BACK!?

I'm going to get this solely for the kits. Backgrounds are cool but kits from 2nd ed are cooler in my option.

@nonnayerbusiness7704

3 жыл бұрын

Aren't kits more like subclasses in 5e?

Instabuy for me! Thanks for the info!

I've been mulling over an Al-Qadim 5e analogue for a couple of years now, working on porting some things over for my table, so this is very exciting! The hardest parts of using the original 2e setting are the problematic stereotypes that you've already mentioned, so I'm glad the authors are taking that into account.

@razzelmire2008

3 жыл бұрын

May I ask what they were? I have an idea but curious on the specifics in the setting so I can better look out for them.

@AhmedAljabry

3 жыл бұрын

@@razzelmire2008 i cover them on my channel 20 Arabia RPG, and I was the cultural consultant on this project

@powerist209

2 жыл бұрын

@@razzelmire2008 Let's see Honor killing being a bit too romanticized (that or uglier side of that subject being more exposed), appealing to exoticism (harem is a thing but the thing in Al Qadim and Arabian fantasy is "hot naked chicks that some old guy and probably you--the players--hoping to be guests there"), or whatever the guy above me said. I wonder if they had scimitars as universal weapons...ignoring clubs, maces, and spears (like one that looks like a king scepter). Or an issue of having little mechanic for damage types for martial weapon (other than undead) while other games had blunt being armor breaker or stuns or something.

Dude you have beautiful hair

@Jorphdan

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Any one else not able to get past order confirmation on dms guild

Hey what happened to your lore on the Ravenloft domains?

@giovan483

3 жыл бұрын

He’s still going to do them I think. He probably just doesn’t want to cover exclusively revenloft content and had other projects planned.

@sepsis67

3 жыл бұрын

@@giovan483 I hope so..

@Jorphdan

3 жыл бұрын

I do plan on more Ravenloft content. Real Life hit hard this month, I needed to do some prewritten scripts while I find time to write more Ravenloft ones. :)

This looks like something I'll appreciate as a lover of campaign settings and a student of anthropology. I also really appreciate that they put in the effort to bring something from the old days of DND forward while also actively seeking to transform appropriation into representation. I hope more creators can drive things in this direction because there's a whole, incredible world of culture out there to inspire great stories and characters beyond generic Tolkienesque setting #512.

This seems like an excellent purchase. As a kid, I loved reading Sir Richard Burton's translation of Arabian Nights... and that was like a "gateway drug" for me to fantasy literature, Shakespeare, and ultimately Dungeons & Dragons... but I've held off on running an "Arabian-style" D&D campaign because of culturally-sensitive issues (I'm about to run Tomb of Annihilation, and as a pretty average white guy, am approaching Chultan society with hopefully a good level of respect)... so I'm hoping this third-party guidebook is what I need to run a decent Zakhara adventure!

@HandlesAreStupid2024

3 жыл бұрын

Or realize its a fantasy world and not a parallel or analog to Earth and just enjoy yourself.

@donkeysaurusrex7881

2 жыл бұрын

@@HandlesAreStupid2024 Pretty much. I was excited seeing this video because this is one of the old campaign settings that seemed like fun, but after seeing the talk about adjusting for sensitivity and representation not appropriation in the comments I will probably pass. I want the classic settings not the politically correct version of it.

Having been to the Middle East during DESERT STORM, I prefer the Disney verson.

While I like diversity within the Realms, back in 2nd Ed, I found this campaign difficult to properly DM and motivate players to condition their roleplay to a foreign culture/society concept. Best results was when players were foreigners themselves visiting these strange lands, and had to adjust/behave accordingly. uhgg station n class.

@powerist209

2 жыл бұрын

And I think I am understanding why people dislike 2E to the point of being conflated with 4E in terms of badness. That or Lorraine Williams forbid play testing and this was the result.

Oh, I was not aware this was out. I was running an Al Qaddim setting. Except i have "ISIS/DA-ESH" knock off running things. Also the polydeistic players from the North had a rude awakening to the world of slave keeping monotheists. and they cut off hands, the rogue really likes that. The bard, well....infidelity is a stoning or a de-stoning. LOL

Really curious, any idea why Mamluks are "slaves" yet are allowed privileges and own properties. Also historically, maybe becoming a Praetorian Guard of Islamic world after overthrowing the Sultan and carved their own domain in Egypt. Just not sure if it was "exoticism" (same with Janissaries who are "slaves" yet are too wealthy or influential for their official title) or directly translating their original term but equivalent to footmen, or conscripts (like impressing conquered people into army being common).

@MrJoeyWheeler

2 жыл бұрын

Mostly it seems to be specifically because the Mamluks are slaves of the Grand Caliph and therefore more important.

@powerist209

2 жыл бұрын

The thing is that Mamluk feeling less like unsullied and more like Praetorian Guard, Jannisaries, or even Dai Li. Even some of the descriptions seem like conscripts than slaves, even down to copying Byzantine habit of placing foreign prisoners and exchange military service for farming in allocate area.

@powerist209

2 жыл бұрын

Both the Al Qadim and Real Life along with inspired. Just that Mamluk were treated as “Arab slave soldiers” and “backstabbing royal guards” (like Jannisaries and Praetorian Guards).

Ok but theres no such thing as proficiency with a healers kit? Anyone can use one, and theres no check when using one, it just lets you bypass medicine checks to stabilize a dying creature a set number of times. So what the heck does a +2 to using healers kit if you already have proficiency mean? Its like saying you get proficiency in socks

@Jorphdan

3 жыл бұрын

Oh you're right, interesting. I guess you could reflavor it to give +2 HP instead of stabilizing.

@brocksayre

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for catching that! You're right, we'll need to fix that typo. I want to say it was supposed to be the Herbalism kit, but I will have to check an earlier draft. And proficiency in socks is a Rawun thing anyway.

What? Nothing about Ghûl Lord's!?!

Surprised the Fate mechanic isn't based on money. Kind of funny that these "adventurers" *cough mercenaries cough* can be humble despite owning castles, magic items, hoards of treasure, etc. You could also do it by level, and have lower level characters naturally weaker and by that measure more humble have greater chances at fate.

@brocksayre

3 жыл бұрын

The Station section also includes rules for permanent increases to Station due to Titles and Positions given, as well as temporary boosts for big, public expenditures!

I don't really know what I think about this campaign setting I kinda like the idea and I think that there should be diversity in dnd at the same time this campaign setting has a kinda rough history and I will probably avoid it for now although I would be open to a redone Kara tur perhaps with some more modern stuff added in

I hate to be the guy to say this because I usually like this dudes work, but 4 minutes in and I don't feel I have seen anything.

Slavery and torture are not inherently racist, they are however quite human, and even within a singular race you will still find both to exist. They are making some strange concessions here to the idea of race and to the nature of humans. If you like your setting sterilized of all social conflict and realism, then great - party on, but I would never run a game that turns a blind eye to this basic truth about the nature of every society ever recorded in all of human history. I don't get the need to reductively eliminate conflict from the game, whether it be glossing over slavery and torture to keep things light or eliminating half-races to avoid the topic of racism (which implicitly means only pure races are allowed now? WTF?). No one requires players or DMs to engage in that content, and anyone can run their game how they like, but apparently those of us who prefer gritty realism and some edgy tones in our adventures are now relegated to the category of "those nasty toxic gamers who won't pretend these complex issues have magically disappeared because WoTC designed it out! See? Societal problems solved! Please buy our VTT...". DnD NEXT may as well be called "Unicorns & Kittens - because we don't want to grapple truly complex issues and instead just role play happy Fae folk". Verisimilitude matters, and non-conflicting "pure" races without social conflict is fake AF in ANY setting.

Not to be the bad apple, but is this book anything more than a Hollywood depiction of the Middle-East? I really got my hopes up that this accurately described culture and way of life, but I was hurt when it opened up with “hold on to your magic carpet”.

@nonnayerbusiness7704

3 жыл бұрын

It is going to be the Hollywood depiction rather than a strictly accurate depiction of Arab culture.

@ThePromptWizard2023

3 жыл бұрын

Does it matter? Is DnD anything more than a Hollywood depiction of various European mythologies all crammed into one? It's a game. History and anthropology books are what you are looking for :) Personally I love the setting having played it extensively in the 90s. Even if not realistic, it has the flavor needed!

@paleking9

3 жыл бұрын

Timothy - It's D&D, it's not looking to be an accurate depiction of anything real life. It's going to have magic rings, genies, carpet rides and rooftop sword fights. I'm not sure you are going to find what you are looking for in D&D.

@natehammar7353

3 жыл бұрын

How many hands do you use on a longsword? In D&D, you use one. In real life, you use two. If you are looking for real life analogs in D&D, you won’t find them. It’s a game system that tries to be fantastical and entertaining, not accurate.

@timothystephens6851

3 жыл бұрын

Hey, all I’m saying is that I personally think this supplement is insensitive to a culture that is already attacked and depicted incorrectly in western society. I’m not middle eastern or Muslim, but did any of you actually purchase it and look at the art? Long, crooked noses and turbans galore do not equate the same inaccuracies as correct weapon usage. D&D and DM’s running it should be especially sensitive in reflecting races and cultures that we find in the real world.

Best Quote: 😂 "..Written by a bunch of white dudes who read 1000 Arabian Nights and probably watched Aladdin.."

@SimonAshworthWood

3 жыл бұрын

There's a big difference between the 2. 1,001 Arabian Nights is a collection of Arab stories. Aladdin is a Disney movie which is inclusive in that it contains some characters of a culture & ancestry other than European, but also includes some racist stereotypes.

Why would wizards ever bother making their own stuff anymore when they can simply sponge off other folk's work for nothing...