Fantasy Arabia

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Because you didn't make one yet.

Because the best one has already been published.

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.

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

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

princeofpersia.wikia.com/wiki/Prince_of_Persia_Wiki

Start on it.

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

Basically what 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.

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.

>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

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.

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)

9/11

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

It... It is?

user, 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.

>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

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

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

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.

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?

Coriolis?

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

>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?

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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.

>cacti
>arabia

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

>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

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

>Rare
Hi underage

>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.

This. Accept no substitutes.

Protestantism did as much stamping out as islam.

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.

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.

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

Put giant worms

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

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

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.

- 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

>- 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, 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).

user you could write a paper on that shit. That post was your extract

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)?

>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.

>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.

Colorful mountains.

A natural Portage to Hell.

>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.

Salted lakes that become red when the water gets down.

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

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.

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

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

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.

user 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.

Giant rock dicks.

>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.

None wants to be beheaded

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 said. Even Japanese translators aren't safe from their rabid insanity.

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.

...

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

No user, it exists irl :^)

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

Even Arabia got some cool places.

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

Inb4 this is one of the scenes filmed in Spain.

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

>Kum Enforcers

KEK

I wouldn't mind them enforcing my kum

Because here in Spain nobody gives a fuck about anything.

Please enforce my kum.

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

Property of Road... I mean Kasym Beg