Designing a DND 5E campaign set in an Arabic themed setting. Anyone have good references for Ottoman/Arabic Architecture, clothing, weapons and armor, historically I would focus on early (Osman 1) Ottomans and the Abassid Caliphate. For example what would a greatsword look like in this setting, and would it be called a greatsword?
Arabic themed campaign
Jason Brooks
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James Ortiz
My only advice is that you should have made this thread two years ago.
Grayson Myers
Have some Turks
Aiden Foster
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Jacob Murphy
I'm gonna lurk this thread OP. I'm currently running a homemade desert campaign based around tribes of djinn. If this thread is still up when I get done with work I'll post some of my ideas.
Tyler Gray
As far as I know there weren't 'greatswords' among those cultures, they favored spears for infantry, and anyone wealthy enough to have a sword also had a horse or camel, so they used curved one-handed swords for use on horse-/camel-back. Axes and maces were also not uncommon, and of course archers and especially mounted archers existed.
Adrian Nguyen
OP here, actually found some good references for greatsword counterparts, the Thracian Rhomphaia, while anachronistic would fit the description.
Eli Taylor
it would be slightly curved...but probably called something similar yes. look at weapon and armor books for the areas/cultures you just mentioned such as DK books and net geo stuff. Study pictures of things in museums and maybe a few documentaries.
Landon Adams
I love the idea of jannissaries but god damn their outfits were fruity.
Mamluks were the superior slave-soldiers both in appearance and achievement. Actually took over the nation rather than just running things behind the scenes and the first force to decisively defeat the Mongol horde.
Jonathan Cooper
I think if Arabs were going to use two-handed weapons, they'd lean towards axes/halberds. The spear and the bow were probably their chief weapons across history, like most human cultures really.
I suppose you could just give someone a giant scimitar.
Fuckheug swords were actually a bit of a curiosity to most cultures, to my knowledge only Europe and Japan really developed the tech beyond ceremonial use and even then, the Jap one was more for show than combat.
Brandon Nguyen
But the Thracians and Dacians didn't have anything to do with Ayrabs.
Jackson Stewart
I assume that's why he said it was anachronistic but it's still an 'exotic' looking weapon if you want a two handed sword that isn't a no dachi or two-hander.
Juan Young
Straight bladed swords were a thing, particularly in Africa. Common, but never really fielded as units. Some of the swords wielded by the Mahdi's followers were said to be a thousand years old.
Anthony Flores
Not OP here, I'm actually curious, how would you handle Arabian fighters and paladins at higher levels? Part of what makes them both good is they can wear heavy armour, and as far as I know heavy armour like full-plate wasn't used in the Middle East, I'm guessing at least partially due to heat.
Personally I'd maybe give them a Dex*2 to their AC after a certain level to compensate, representing more of a reliance on agility in combat over armour. Don't know how well that would work though.
Juan Torres
Also correct me if I'm wrong but I think I remember hearing that in both cases these big swords were more often used like polearms than swords, since its usually more effective to thrust a long weapon like this then swing it.
Dominic Wood
>Arabic campaign
Its called the migrant crisis
Jordan Gonzalez
Or you could put penalties for wearing heavy armor in the heat. Sure, your AC won't be that high, but at least your character isn't dying from exhaustion levels. Same thing for monsters. Heavily armored monsters can only move so much before overheating. Lightly armored monsters are easier to fight but more mobile.
Isaiah Torres
Sure but that kind of misses the point. Of course characters should not wear heavy metal armour in the desert, but fighters and paladins are still nerfed in this situation.
Mason Cooper
i think there is a setting about this alqarim or somethign
Gavin Morris
I thought this guy would make a good foot soldier to a resurgent Thulsa Doom-type.
Christian Hughes
Then use full plate stats, name the damned thing something like "masterwork reinforced mail (full plate)", say that it is made of a very special steel and call it a day. Optionally, turn medium armor into some "waxed hide" and light into "folded cloth", essentially aesthetically downgrading all forms of defence.
Carson King
Like how heavily into islam are we going?
You could do a math quest based around the baghdad house of wisdom, culminating in its distruction either due to your ingame players burning it, or helping your ingame mongol hordes destroy it or whatever.
Some of these mathematicians were paid equivalentally to basketball players today.
Aaron Anderson
Al-Qadim, almost forgot about that one. Its technically part of the Forgotten Realms world but I don't think there's too much interaction between the two settings.
OP may want to look into it.
Isaiah Morgan
Jayden Perez
Have you found any good battle music yet?
Anthony Jones
good idea
Mason Kelly
*Bombs your path*
Nathan Hernandez
The problem is that Janissaries were musketeers, hence the fruity clothes. From the devshirme perspective they were the lowest of the low, hence why they never really took over the country but turned into mafia instead.
Also, a small part of the Mamluk army were actual Mamluks. Baibars is an excellent commander and a cool historical figure, but I wouldn't say that it was his Mamluks alone that won the war.
Easton Adams
Persians are more intersting than Arabs
Asher Nguyen
did you consider making a middle eastern setting with arabs, persians, africans, turcics and so on?
in this way you can draw inspiration all of these cultures and the subcultures of them. you can add indians, chinese, etc. they had trade realitionships all of this cultures and such.
Juan Smith
Why?
Jordan Gray
What races do you use in fantasy Arabia?
Matthew King
>Thracian Rhomphaia
Camden Ortiz
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Carson Rogers
>checked
Elijah Clark
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Matthew Ramirez
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Brody Gutierrez
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Nathan Russell
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Nolan Evans
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Charles Wood
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Jayden Smith
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Sebastian Reyes
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Sebastian Rodriguez
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Luis Taylor
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Andrew Campbell
Arabic/desert settings are one of my favorites if only because how easy it is to describe characters/scenery.
>This dude wears a turban
>Something something fine dunes reaching the horizon
Chase Myers
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Josiah Hill
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Chase Baker
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Brody Stewart
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Jose Baker
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Blake Cook
Pick up 2e AL Qadim.
Hunter Hill
The North African cavalry men were well known for their straight bladed swords.
Curved swords came from further Eastern influences and didn't get big in the Near East/Muslim world until later.
Not much later, the style would also pretty much overtake Western military forces as well.
Ayden Robinson
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