Back in the Saddle...For Now

It's only a start, only about a thousand words, but I finally did some more writing tonight. I've had over a year of very little writing, not even keeping my blog consistent, since we moved to PEI. But it's time for that to change. I was given a quick reminder of Heinlein's Rules for writing, particularly the first one: You Must Write. So, I did.

One of my biggest writing inspirations is Dean Wesley Smith. He's written an absolute ton of stuff, some of which I have read. But I'm more interested in his online courses and lectures, several of which I have gotten for incredibly low prices on his Kickstarter projects. Five or six short online courses as stretch goals with a minimal investment? Sold, thank you. He has a lot of really useful information, accumulated over more than four decades as a professional writer. And he's willing to share it, so I'm taking him up on it.

The course I just picked up on a half-price sale was on Heinlein's Rules. These are well-known in the writing community, at least the successful writers. And the first rule is, You Must Write. I watched some of the videos in the lecture course, in which he points out that an estimated ninety percent of would-be writers can't get past this first rule. "WRITE!" Not research, not plot, not plan...just plant your butt in front of the screen and get typing. It's a rule I followed pretty faithfully in my first year as a real writer, but I let it go as we approached our move, and in the past year as we've gotten settled on the farm.

It's time to get it back together.

The other course of Dean's that I watched was about the pulp writers and how they worked. It goes hand-in-hand with the Heinlein's Rules, because the pulp writers followed those rules to the letter. That's why they were successful; they wrote fast, they wrote a ton, and they kept trying to sell it no matter what. And they wrote good stuff, too, especially the 'genre' writers who wrote science fiction, weird fantasy, and pulp heroes like the Shadow and Doc Savage. And at the end of it, he offered a challenge that he didn't expect anyone to really do: Write a pulp-style short story and send it in.

Challenge accepted.

I'm halfway through this story; it's going to run about six thousand words. I'd worked on it on-and-off for the past couple of months, but always managed to get distracted instead of getting it done. Which, of course, is Heinlein's second rule: You must finish what you write. I've got plenty of half-written or unfinished stuff on my hard drive; it's time to put the second rule into practice and get those stories done, too. That includes two Cameron Vail mysteries, a Japanese-style fantasy, another fantasy book, and several Meterran short stories. I've had plenty of time to recharge the creative batteries; it's time to get them running again.

I hope I can keep this up; my goal is to finish this pulp story in the next day or two, and get it sent off to Mr. Smith for his perusal. After that, I want to maintain the momentum and keep doing some writing on a daily basis until the New Year; then, it's time to get serious again and get some stuff published.

It's still going to be crazy busy on the farm, even in the winter; we still have to get the rink built, and Christmas is in less than three weeks. So, there's plenty to do. But there will still be time to write, too. And blog, of course. Blogging is good.

And writing...that feel darn good as well.

Star Trek: Enterprise Retrospective

I know it's not the most popular take, but I love Enterprise. It's the only Star Trek series that I have watched in its entirety, much of it when it first aired from 2001-2005. I love the raw, 'low-tech' ship with the submarine interior, the function-before-form bridge, the cramped quarters where everyone has to duck to avoid banging their heads... yeah, that's the era of Star Trek I would want to live in.

I've been rewatching the series with my son, who has a unique perspective on the show: It's the only Star Trek he's ever seen. I just asked him if he knows who Mr. Spock is, and I got a blank look. So, it's really fun to watch this show with him, as everything is fresh and new to him, while for me I'm always picking out the callbacks to previous series. It's going to be interesting as we go through the series to see how he reacts to some of the more jarring callbacks (the Ferengi episode and the Borg in particular). He likely won't even notice them. Much like his first run-through of the Star Wars movies, which he watched in chronological order (so the big reveal of Empire wasn't so big to him), seeing Star Trek from this fresh perspective should be an interesting experience.

The only episodes I don't plan to watch with him on this run-through are the Mirror Universe episodes (In a Mirror Darkly) and the series finale (which, let's face it, totally sucks as an Enterprise episode). I'm going to save the Mirror episodes until we watch the two pertinent TOS episodes (Mirror, Mirror and the Tholian Web), so he has the necessary context to understand them. I might watch 'These are the Voyages' when we get to TNG season 5. Otherwise, we're going to watch the whole series in chronological order.

So far, we're most of the way through the first season. We've seen some great episodes (Andorian Incident, Dear Doctor) and some not-so-great episodes (Unexpected, Terra Nova). I think the first-season quality is higher than a lot of people give it credit for. Especially for someone new to the Trek universe. I'm considering asking Tanner to give his thoughts on the episodes as we go through the series. Even just a capsule review of each episode would be nice. For now, though, I'm going to give my thoughts on the best Star Trek pilot episode ever, Broken Bow.

Broken Bow establishes the embryonic Star Trek universe very well. Ninety years after First Contact, the Vulcans are the elder statesmen and 'big brother' of the humans, keeping them mostly confined to their own neighborhood of space because of all the big nasty dangers out there (and because humans are impulsive and dangerous themselves). When a chance encounter with a Klingon courier threatens to delay the launch of the first Warp 5 starship, Enterprise, new captain Jonathan Archer takes on the mission of returning the Klingon to his people alive, giving humanity its first taste of real deep space adventure.

The crew are well-established from the beginning, and there are some callbacks to the original series; this time around, the helmsman is black and the comm officer is Asian, a switch from the Sulu-Uhura situation. There's a full-blooded Vulcan science officer, but she isn't good friends with the crew; she's basically a chaperone who thinks the humans are wasting their time and incapable of handling any real dangers in deep space. The armory officer (tactical and security, so he's Worf) is a stiff-upper-lip Englishman, and the Chief Engineer is a good-ol' boy from the south, much like a certain doctor. The Denobulan doctor Phlox rounds out our main crew.

There are a few moments in the pilot where the humans are clearly out of their depth; their trip to Rigel is a good example of this, as T'Pol, the Vulcan, has to give them basic etiquette instructions on how to deal with the myriad cultures there. The new enemy, the Suliban, seriously outmatch the Enterprise in their tech, with cloaking devices on their little ships and genetic engineering that makes them into supervillains. But human perseverance pays off, and the crew not only disrupt the Suliban plot to destabilize the Klingon empire, but also convince Starfleet to let them continue on their mission of exploration.

After years of watching 24th-century Trek, with holodecks, luxury-liner ships, technobabble galore, and all kinds of aliens, watching Enterprise felt like a breath of fresh air. It's human-centric; the Federation doesn't exist yet, and humans haven't even met two of the other founding races yet (Andorians and Tellarites). There's tension, even conflict, between the human crew and the Vulcans, particularly the ones back on Earth whispering into Starfleet admirals' ears about how much of a screwup Archer is. The tech is laughably weak compared to what we saw over twenty-one seasons of TNG, DS9 and Voyager; no deflector shields, no phasers, lame little torpedoes, and a transporter that nobody trusts. The crew member with the most space experience is the helmsman, who grew up on a cargo transport that spent years between ports. The comm officer is jumpy and uncomfortable, the doctor uses animals and slugs as homeopathic medicine, and there's a definite sense of wonder to go along with the trepidation. This feels like a show about exploring the unknown, at least in this first season.

So, maybe Tanner will give his thoughts on the series. If so, I'll definitely share them here; otherwise, I've still got some thoughts to write up. And yes, I even like the theme song.

Winter is Coming...

No, I'm not doing a Game of Thrones review; I hated the books, and have never seen so much as a trailer from the show. This week has been a tease for what's to come: lots of wind, lots of precipitation, lots of snow.

Well, in my defense, my wife did say before we moved that she wanted white beaches. She just didn't specify 'sand.'

We were warned over the weekend that we would be getting high winds and rain for three days. Well, we did get the winds on Monday, but they mostly died down yesterday and today. The rain has been pretty consistent, but we didn't get the 100 mm we were promised. I feel let down somehow. Although there was some snow showing up, it hasn't stuck around. Still, snow tires are definitely in the plans for the weekend.

We're hoping to get our rink built this weekend; we're going to need some more wood, since last year's rink turned into a chicken coop. We learned a lot from our experiences last year, and if things go well this year, we'll have a nice, full 30' x 60' rink to play on. I don't know if I'll do much skating, though; I haven't skated in years, and the one time I tried it last year, my feet hurt like the fiery pits of hell. I'm way out of skating shape. But Tanner is looking forward to getting back into it, even if he won't be playing hockey this year. We can't afford it, and there are other factors, as well.

This time of year is always busy for us; aside from Christmas, there are three birthdays within a month: Ashton turned nineteen almost two weeks ago; Dannielle turns...one year older next week, and five days after that, Garrett will be nine. And then it's Christmas, New Year's, and so on. Busy, busy, busy.

There's not a lot  to say tonight. It's been quiet, which is normal for PEI. Maybe tomorrow will prove to be more interesting.

Arabian Nights at the Gaming Table: Arabian Adventures, Part VI

We had our first taste of snow this morning. A cold, wet, insta-melt snow powered by winds strong enough to blow the trampoline halfway across the yard, or about a hundred feet overnight. So, it seems only fitting that I continue our examination of the Arabian Adventures rulebook and get back to desert stuff.

So, we're looking at priest kits. No specialty priests; there aren't any in Zakhara. So, regardless of what god a Zakharan priest worships, he gets the same, standard clerical abilities based on his kit. There are seven kits to look at: the Clerics of Order (three kits) and the Free Priests (four kits). The Clerics of Order are the Pragmatists, the Ethoists, and the Moralists; the Free Priests include the Hakimas (wise women), Kahins (idol-priests), Mystics, and Outland priests (the outsiders).

We'll start with the Clerics of Order. The Pragmatists are the most common cleric of the Land of Fate, wandering about and preaching tolerance and mediation instead of kicking followers of other religions in the shins. They can and will fight when necessary, but it's not their go-to tactic for the most part. Any cleric (race, gender, etc.) can be a Pragmatist. They get Religion as a bonus proficiency, of course, and their most popular church is the Temple of Ten Thousand Gods. They get the standard spell spheres that clerics get, regardless of which deity (or deities) they serve. Basically, they're as close to a bog-standard D&D cleric as Al-Qadim has to offer.

Next up are the Ethoists, or Clerics of the Faith Ethical. These are the temple workers, the ones who maintain the mosques and monasteries, sort of like a parish priest. They can't be chaotic, but that's the only restriction on the kit in terms of who can take it. Eventually (around 8th level) they are the ones who set up new mosques and temples. They're less tolerant than the Pragmatists when it comes to religious ecumenism, insisting that those who don't follow the same faith they do are misguided. But they won't push people around about it, either. They get Religion and Bureaucracy as their bonus proficiencies, as well as a few special benefits from the kit. Safe haven, food and board within the temple, borrowing money, fighter-servants when needed, and an assistant once they've gained a few levels. Like the Pragmatist, the Ethoist gets the standard cleric spheres, and they can, of course, turn undead.

Third, we have the Moralists. These are the Taliban-types, the hardcore, strict types who follow every dietary law and consider themselves the 'purest' of all priests. Militant and arrogant, you're either part of their faith, or you're a godless heathen. Their favorite colors are black and white. Moralists must be lawful, and of any race or gender (although the Moralists do segregate men and women). They also take vows of celibacy and chastity, and give their lives entirely to the mosque. They are not at all fun at parties, and even the lawful-good ones can be implacable enemies of a group of PCs if they don't measure up. They get Religion and Debate as their bonus proficiencies, as well as the same benefits the Ethoists get. Their spells are cleric-standard. They also have some serious clout within their temple, able to push around lower-level moralists. However, this cuts both ways; higher-level moralists will tell them what to do, and they'd better get it done. Oh, and the temple gets 50% of whatever money they earn adventuring or whatever.

So, those are the 'traditional' clerics of Zakhara. Next up, we have the Free Priests, starting with the Hakima, or wise woman. These are not pacifists, but they aren't bloodthirsty fighters, either. These women (no men allowed) have a special ability to see the truth, which makes them valuable advisors to rulers and leaders. They don't do a lot of fighting, having only a few weapons to choose from, and while they get no bonus proficiencies, they are considered to have access to all NWP groups, meaning they don't pay extra slots for any proficiency regardless of who normally has access to it. Their primary power is their truth-sight, which allows them to detect all sorts of things, including disguised shapeshifters, depending on their level. They get a limited selection of spells, and can't turn undead. They also can't use any class-specific magic items, only the general-use ones. Only human and half-elven women can become Hakimas.

The Kahin, or idol-priest, worship powers that predate Zakhara's enlightenment, and thus are considered uncultured and uncivilized by the majority of the people. They are as close as Zakhara gets to having druids, but they aren't quite the same. They are always some variation of neutral in alignment, and there are no other restrictions on who can become a Kahin. They are wanderers and teachers, rather than settling down, and tend to preach a doctrine of moderation in all things in tune with the environment. No, they aren't Greenpeace. They get Survival as a bonus proficiency, but only get to wear hide armor and no shields. Their special abilities don't kick in until they get to 16th level, at which point they start collecting immunities to various things (weapons, elements, creatures, etc.). Their spells are limited, mostly the same as a druid would get. They don't turn undead, either.

Mystics are hermits in the desert, sort of like the desert dervishes of Arabian tales. They can use additional weapons beyond those a cleric normally can, and get Religion and one other bonus proficiency. The other proficiency has to relate to how they receive their spells; dancing, meditation, singing, etc. are typical methods to get spells. They get the standard clerical spells, and can turn undead. They even attract followers at high levels like standard clerics do. However, their spells can only be retrieved through their particular method, and Clerics of Order don't like them (2-point reaction penalty for Pragmatists and Ethoists, 4-point penalty for Moralists). Any race or gender can become a mystic, and demihumans with this kit can exceed their maximum level by 2.

Outland Priests are the outsiders, yadda yadda yadda, like the other 'non-kit' kits for non-Zakharan characters. They can even be specialty priests and have outsider kits. However, they get reaction penalties in Zakhara, which get worse with native priests (-2 for most people, -3 for pragmatists, and -4 for ethoists and moralists). Other than that, there's nothing special about these guys; they're visitors from another land, nothing more.

And that concludes our overview of the various kits of Zakhara. Next time, we'll tackle the new proficiencies of the Land of Fate.

The Lord Giveth...

...and the Lord taketh away. One thing about life on a farm: Life and death are a lot closer than they are in the city.

First, the good: We actually have three baby chicks in our kitchen, and not previously-hatched birds that we bought and brought home. No, these are sitting in our incubator on the kitchen counter. The first one, a black Cemani named 'Pumpkin', was born yesterday morning while my wife was outside doing farm chores. I was sick in bed; don't judge.

Pumpkin was discovered by Tanner, who heard his peeping and called me downstairs to see. I threw open a window and called Dannielle, who jumped for joy as she came back in, the farm chores forgotten momentarily. I opened the incubator and snapped a picture while everyone marveled over the tiny miracle.

Pretty exciting, isn't it? I know, I know...we're total newbies here. But it's still quite a moment.

This afternoon, another egg started to crack, and Pumpkin was right there to help the newcomer to break free from its eggy prison and out into the wide world of the incubator. Tanner immediately named this one 'Pie.' Because why not? Pie is a brown chick, and we don't know nearly enough about these birds to know what breed she is. We're assuming (and hoping) that most of these birds are female, because we've got plenty of roosters. Oh, did I forget to mention that the Crazy Chicken Lady got six more this week? Seven, actually, but one was a lone rooster who spent a week being chased into the rafters by the Highland girls, who are just mean to newcomers. So we found him another home with friends of ours, where he's the only roo and gets to hang out with six girls that aren't trying to tear him apart with their beaks.

The third one showed up only a few minutes ago, and hasn't gotten a name yet. It's black, but not Cemani black, so we think it might be an Orpington. This is based on a complete wild guess. Still, it's been a pretty exciting weekend on the chicken front.

Now, for the bad...

Sadly, our beloved Flemish giant bunny, Daisy, was found stiff as a board this morning in the bunny kennel. We're not sure what it was, but we're afraid she didn't get enough food; Bugs is a piggy of a bunny, and she must not have been getting enough to eat. Tanner is devastated, because he's the one tasked with feeding them, and he's missed a few meals for them because of his general lackadaisical attitude and rush to get his chores done as quickly as possible regardless of how complete they might be. We warned him repeatedly about this, asking how he would feel if one of the animals died because of his neglecting his chores. Well, now he knows.

It may seem harsh, but he's thirteen and a half years old now; his childhood days aren't over, but they are waning, and adult responsibilities are growing. It's a hard lesson to learn, but it's a necessary one. We will see if the lesson takes.

Speaking of adult responsibilities, a Happy 19th Birthday to Ashton, our oldest here at the farm. He celebrated with his first 'legal' beer, chosen carefully from the brands he's tried before. In a decision that satisfies irony in every possible way, he had a Corona.

So, that's the weekend on the family farm. The garlic's in the ground, the animals are tuckering in for the winter, and there's snow on the horizon. It's going to be a fun winter. 

Time's A Wasting...

They say time flies when you're having fun. It also flies when you're doing stuff that isn't so fun. But it flies faster when you're distracted by everything else, taking you away from what really matters. In my case, there are a few things that have fallen by the wayside, including this blog. Not that this blog is the most important thing in my life; my family is far higher on the list. But I need to get things back on track, and this blog is one of the things that has been derailed.

It's funny...turning 51 a couple of months ago didn't really seem...real. I mean, obviously it happened; I can read a calendar and do basic math, so yeah, I'm 51 years old. To put that in perspective, if I'm scheduled to live for a century, I'm already on the second half of that. If I've got less, then time is winding down. Either way, it's time to take serious stock of where I've been, where I am, and where I'm going.

Where I've been is simple enough; I've talked about that before, and won't go over it again now. Where I am is smack-dab in middle age, looking backward and forward at the same time. Where I am going...well, that's the real question, isn't it? I haven't done much writing whatsoever since moving to Prince Edward Island; I've done farm stuff and work, but not much on the creative side. And that does frustrate me.

This farm is important to our family; it's a chance to start over in a new home, a new way of living, and a new part of the country that I hadn't seen in nearly fifty years (and had no memory of whatsoever). But my writing matters, too. And I've let myself get too distracted by everything under the sun. It's easy to get distracted in today's world; distractions are all over the place, even in your own home. The internet, in particular, is a big distraction. I've toyed with the idea of just canceling it altogether; we've got plenty of entertainment to keep us busy for the rest of our lives if we wanted to, and arguing with strangers on the internet really isn't a productive use of time. In fact, after a discussion with my family tonight, the arguing with strangers is over and done with. I'll lurk about in a few places, but I'm no longer going to be an active, anonymous commenter on political or religious matters.

So, what's next? I want to get back to regular blogging, and especially regular writing. I was working on a pulp short story that I need to get back to, so I'm going to sign off here and revisit that. The Arabian Adventures read-through/review will continue once I get myself back on track. And of course, the farm. Winter is rapidly approaching, and we've got work to do. The skating rink will be back, bigger and better than before.

And if all goes well, the second half will be an improvement over the first.

Arabian Nights at the Gaming Table: Arabian Adventures, Part V

Let's get sneaky, shall we? The rogue kits of Al-Qadim are a diverse bunch, from the gregarious barber to the deadly holy slayer. There are seven kits in total, but not all of them are for thieves; bards are rogues, too. The seven are the sa'luk, the barber, the beggar-thief, the holy slayer, the matrud, merchant-rogue, and rawun.

We start off with the sa'luk, who is basically the adventuring thief of the Arabian lands. It's the 'generic' rogue kit of Zakhara, and includes the outlanders (like the ajami wizard). The difference with these outsiders, though, is that they aren't treated as outsiders the way the wizards are; thieves stick together, even if they are different. They can even take kits from other sources like the Complete Thieves' Handbook, keeping most of their special benefits. The kit is also for local thieves, though; like the outsiders, they are free-roaming adventurers, not tied to any particular location. Bards can take this kit as well as thieves.

The barber, on the other hand, is found in just about any bazaar, and most of them are quite gregarious and friendly. But they are skilled with their razors, skilled enough that some of them double as surgeons and doctors. This kit is open to thieves and bards, any race or gender. They tend to congregate in cities, not the desert. They get healing and herbalism as bonus proficiencies, which is a pretty sweet deal, since they normally cost two slots apiece. Bards who are barbers also get reading/writing and a modern language for free. The amusing thing about this kit is the description of how barbers are portrayed in folk tales. They talk and talk and talk, going into long-winded nested stories that go on forever, driving customers crazy. That is actually taken directly from the Arabian Nights, where there is indeed a barber who does exactly that, telling ridiculous stories about his seven brothers that ultimately has no point. 

All barbers have the bard's ability to discern the general use and purpose of a magical item; bards get 5% per level, thieves get 3%. They get less regular thieving skill points than they otherwise would at first level, since so much of their training involves learning how to barber (and heal people).

Next up is the beggar-thief. Hi, Aladdin! This is exactly what it looks like: thieves who are also beggars. Again, these are more of a city dweller; there aren't too many opportunities to fleece passers-by in the middle of a desert. This is a thief-only kit, and western beggar-thieves (from the Complete Thieves' Handbook) are considered sa'luks in Zakhara, not beggars. Don't ask me why; I didn't write the book.

Obviously, beggars get begging as a bonus proficiency. They can have other marketable skills such as weaving or tailoring, but beggars don't generally want people to know they could work for a living; it cuts into their profits. Their starting equipment is...a bowl. Nothing like reinforcing the stereotype, is there? They also don't tend to wear armor, since it interferes with their begging. Magic items are even worse, since they're a flat -5 to the begging proficiency check. They're great at disappearing in crowds, but they are treated as having the lowest of stations (because they do). Any race or gender can be a beggar-thief, of course.

Fun fact: Dragon 22 was the first (and only, prior to Al-Qadim's launch) magazine to include an article about the holy slayers, the original assassins. And unlike the 1st edition assassins, these guys are religious zealots who kill not for money, but for paradise. Well, here they are, in all their hidden glory. The holy slayers are fanatics who serve their own particular fellowship and its leadership. They are described as 'ghosts of the desert.' They tend to live in remote locations where their recruits are brought and trained. In Zakhara, there are several of these fellowships, including the Soft Whisper (all females), the Wind of Fate (all males), the Wrath of the Old, the Storm Which Destroys, and Grey Fire; there are probably others as well.

Holy slayers have a simple life: live your life as normal until the call comes, at which time you drop everything and do whatever your master commands. Word of advice: Don't ignore the call, unless you want to spend the rest of you (likely short) life dodging the people who trained you. If you really screw the pooch, the Grandfather (or Grandmother) might come after you personally.

Holy slayers get to specialize in a weapon, just as fighters do; each fellowship has their signature weapon (all one-handed). They have superior stealth abilities compared to other thieves, but lower pickpocket and read languages skill. They get Disguise as a bonus proficiency, which enables them to hide in between suicide missions Elves, gnomes and halflings are rarely holy slayers, although dwarves are more common (especially among moralist dwarves). Bards can't be holy slayers.

The fifth kit is the matrud; these are the desert thieves (no bards), rejected by their tribes and living on the edges of what they think of as civilization. Another thief-only kit, these guys can be found everywhere from the sea to the desert; they're outcast, as well-respected as beggars. In fact, they eke out a living by doing things even the beggars don't want to do. They're very transient, usually one step ahead of the local law. They travel light, and can be of any race and gender; non-human matruds are sometimes branded or otherwise marked.

Merchant-rogues are the stereotype for all merchants; not all merchants are thieves, but enough of them are that the label sticks. That and their notorious haggling practices convinces most people that none of them can be trusted to be honest. This reputation makes it easier for merchant-rogues to operate; everyone expects you to be a thief anyway, so why disappoint them? This is another thief-only class. Needless to say, they get haggling as a bonus proficiency, and often improve it to obscenely high levels. Their special abilities revolve around money: They can buy in bulk at low prices from other merchants, and they can set up a profitable company. I mean, any character could do that, but these guys are really good at it. Of course, they have to pay taxes on their profits, because even fantasy worlds can't escape the taxman.

Finally, there are the rawuns, the bards of the desert (no thieves allowed). Like their western counterparts, rawuns are the tale-tellers, the walking Wikipedias, and party animals. Most of them are members of desert tribes; they might appear in the cities as well. Desert rawuns are often advisers to shieks and tribal leaders, while in the cities they can be street entertaininers all the way up to grand viziers. They can all sing (bonus proficiency) and can recite epic poems from memory; they love to collect books and scrolls to add to their knowledge. They get a bonus to their legend lore ability, and have the terrifying ability to call down the evil eye upon someone once a day. They can also remove it from someone else instead.

And that's Zakhara's rogues. One more set of kits to go: the priests.

Arabian Nights at the Gaming Table: Arabian Adventures, Part IV

Well, so much for consistency. Let's try this again. We're back to the Arabian Adventures kits, and this time we're looking at the wizards. There are only three wizard kits in Arabian Adventures, four if you count the 'outlander' wizard kit. Two of the kits are pretty standard wizards, but the third is Al-Qadim's signature class, and one of the best design concepts TSR ever came up with.

We'll do the easy ones first. The sorcerer is the bog-standard wizard, or at least as close to it as you get in this game. Wizard spells in Al-Qadim are divided into five categories: the four elements of flame, sand, sea, and wind, and the 'universal' category, where everything else fits. Sorcerers get to use any spells in the universal category, and also pick two elements to use. Unlike the 'normal' elements of air, earth, fire and water, there are no opposing elements in Al-Qadim; a sorcerer can pick any two elements, such as fire and water, if that's what he wants. However, they can never use spells from the other two elements, no matter what. Or at least, they can't ever 'learn' them, but perhaps a scroll or a wand would be permitted. That should be a DM's call, but I'm inclined to widen the ban just to keep the character's theme intact. Otherwise, you end up with 'my sorcerer specializes in wind and sea spells, but he carries a wand of fireballs just in case.' Yeah, we'll make that a wider ban.

Sorcerers are the most common wizards in Zakhara, although they aren't hanging out on every street corner (unless you really want to do that). They're also the most socially accepted of the wizard classes, having the least damaging reputation compared to the other two. Any race allowed to have magic-users can be a sorcerer, and of course there are no gender limits, because women could and were sorcerers in the Arabian Nights stories.

Next up is the elementalist. There are really four of these kits, one for each element, but their abilities are functionally identical regardless of the element they choose. Each of these can use universal spells, and only one element. However, they get some nice bonuses with their element, adding +2 to any saving throws or proficiency checks related to their element, as well as +1 to damage inflicted with it.  They also reduce the target's saving throws by -2 when attacking with spells of their element. Conversely, if they are attacked by magic using their element, they get two points taken off of the damage done.

Now, for the downside. Elementalists are the most feared of Zakharan wizards, thanks to the reputation of one particular group of elementalists: The Brotherhood of the True Flame. These are called out as one of the big bad organizations of Al-Qadim, being a sort-of magical mafia that takes down not only any mages of other elements, but even fellow fire elementalists who don't join their ranks. And they are not a nice group at all; even flame elementalists who aren't part of the Brotherhood have a tendency toward evil alignments. So fearsome is their reputation that any elementalist is going to be looked at sideways, regardless of how nice they might be. Most people don't differentiate between True Flame elementalists and any other group. It might be possible to use that reputation in social circumstances, but overall, it's a definite negative. Thanks to the reputation and predatory nature of the Brotherhood, elementalists are a rare breed in Zakhara.

The ajami is the outsider wizard, the foreigner who has no culture and no manners by Zakharan standards. Note that western elementalist wizards (from the Tome of Magic) are considered ajami, not elementalists, in Zakhara. There's nothing special about these guys, although they can replace the 'ajami' kit with one from another source (such as the Complete Wizard's Handbook).

Finally, we get to the big guy: the sha'ir. These are, as mentioned earlier, Al-Qadim's signature class, the one class that definitely screams 'Arabian Nights' tales. These are the genie masters (or genie worshipers, or genie servants, or whatever relationship they have with the genies might be). They are unlike other wizards in that they don't study scrolls and spellbooks and memorize their magic ahead of time. Instead, they each have a small familiar called a 'gen', a tiny elemental of one of the four (Arabian) elements. The gen is a spell-fetcher, going out to 'find' a spell for its master and bringing it back so the sha'ir can cast the spell.

It's a pretty neat concept, but it seems pretty limited. After all, the gen can only get one spell at a time, and it takes a while to get them. However, there are some serious advantages to this method of spell-casting.

First, the sha'ir isn't restricted to spells in his spellbook; he can get any spell he wants. And I do mean any spell, including cleric spells. Mind you, those ones can (and do) take longer to retrieve. However, it's still a big deal when your sha'ir can pull out a neutralize poison to save your dying cleric.

Second, the sha'ir has a special bond with genies, and gains special abilities related to them. These won't be detailed until a later chapter, but they can be pretty significant, especially at higher levels. Let's just say that now we know where efreet bottles and rings of djinni summoning come from.

Sha'irs are usually loners, but some will serve as advisors to powerful rulers. And, unlike sorcerers and elementalists, anyone can be a sha'ir; dwarven and halfling sha'irs are permitted, although they have significant level restrictions.

And there we have the Arabian wizards. Ja'far from Aladdin would probably be a sorcerer, since he used both sand and flame magic, and he really didn't have much of a relationship with the Genie.

Next up, the rogue kits!

Big Plans

The harvest is done; now it's time to start thinking about next year. Actually, we've been thinking about it for a while, but now we're doing something about it. Our gardens this year were bigger than anything we've tried before, and it was a good trial-and-error process that taught us quite a bit. Now, it's time to scale things up.

After doing some research and watching some videos on market gardening, we're putting together a much bigger garden that will easily provide for all our vegetable needs for the year. We've torn up the gardens we already had and plowed over them, creating a new space that we'll be planting our garlic crop next weekend. But there's a lot more space than that, and we'll be using that area to grow melons, pumpkins, squash, and so on. We left our berry bushes alone, since we're just starting to get some raspberries.

That's our small garden. The big one is a full fifty feet long and forty-eight feet wide, almost a square. It's going to hold sixteen raised beds, each fifty feet long, where we're going to plant most of our veggies. With the methods we're going to be copying from successful market gardeners, there's going to be a lot of veggies in that garden in the spring.

Another bonus is that my wife just used up a box of fresh peaches to make a nice rhubarb-peach compote. And we have the pits, about twenty-five of them. We've already got one peach tree growing, but now we're going to plant these pits this fall and see what comes of them in the spring. From what I've read about peach pits, they don't have the greatest germination rate, but even if we only get a couple of trees out of them it would be a nice addition to our mini-orchard. We're also going to be adding cherry trees, and if we can find some that grow here, some grapes.

It's crazy to think that just over a year ago, I had zero experience with farming of any sort; I couldn't even grow flowers in a pot. But now, I'm looking at growing a big pile of food for my family, with some leftover to donate or even sell. I'll have to work really hard at it, but then, that's part of being out here like this. And with the price of food going up and up and up, I have a feeling more people are going to start doing the same thing.

Ooh, there's an interesting idea. I wonder if anyone would be interesting in renting garden plots from us. We've got two big fields in the back of our property that might serve to do a community garden. Hmm...that's something to discuss with the wife. But I like the idea.

At the Twilight's Last Gleaning

Leviticus 19:9-10 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest...you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner.

There are two things everyone knows about Prince Edward Island: It's the home of Anne of Green Gables, and it grows an absolute mountain of potatoes every year. This year is no different, of course. But what is different, at least for us, is that we live right behind a potato field. And the harvest is done. So, the boys decided to go on a little trip in the side-by-side, and brought back some goodies...

Actually, that's a lot less than what they brought home today; we filled an entire bin with these potatoes before they picked these ones up. Now, these are not the organic potatoes that we grew ourselves; these are most definitely GMO potatoes. But with the coming winter expected to be much worse than last year, we want all the food we can get. And hey, it was free. Literally sitting on the ground, missed by the harvesters, waiting to rot and turn into compost. What a waste that would be.

Now, there are some people who think 'gleaning' is a bad thing; after all, you're taking something you didn't grow and didn't pay for. Well, that is true, but while stealing is a Bad Thing, gleaning is a direct command from God, with the above passage being only one of the instances where gleaning is allowed and encouraged in the Bible. I'll take that ruling any day of the week. Gleaning is where people who are struggling can make up for some of their misfortunes. We're not exactly poor, but we're not swimming in money, either.

Now, we have enough of these monster-potatoes (and they are huge, believe me) to keep Mark Watney alive until the Ares IV mission arrives. And there's no way we're going to eat them all before they go bad. However, we can and will donate a good chunk of what we got to the needy and the poor, such as at our church and some of the food banks on the island. Hey, it's better than leaving it all to rot.

The fields are very, very generous to humanity; just about everything we eat originates in those fields. And when we plant something, we get a lot more of it back. It's a pretty awesome system, and it's good to give back ourselves.

Arabian Nights at the Gaming Table: Arabian Adventures, Part III

Hey, two posts in the same week! Improvement!

So, we're taking a look at Chapter 3, which is all about Kits. I'm going to break this chapter up into a couple of parts, since there is a lot to go through here. Not one page at a time, though. Remember, this is a 2e book, so players of more recent editions might not recognize some of the terminology. Since I don't know anything about 4e or beyond, I can't really help bridge those gaps. Sorry. I do know that proficiencies are basically skills, although the mechanics are different from 3e. and 3.5.

After the usual introduction and explanation of the various aspects of kits, we get straight to the warriors. Most of these are available to fighters, rangers and paladins, although there are some exceptions. I wonder how paladins and rangers would work in this setting; paladins are pretty obviously Christian warriors, based on both Joan of Arc and Sir Galahad. And rangers come straight out of Lord of the Rings, essentially a gaming version of Aragorn. I suppose it was easier to look at these as archetypes instead of creating a whole new class, but it's an awkward fit for a setting based on Islamic fairy tales.

Anyway, the seven warriors are: The Askar, your basic, typical warrior; Corsairs, your sailors and pirates; Desert riders, the 'nomad' types who ride horses and/or camels; the Faris, or holy warrior (the paladin equivalent); the Mamluk, slave-soldiers who are usually in charge anyway; Mercenary Barbarians, the 'uncivilized' types from outskirt lands, and Outland Warriors, who are outright foreigners (typical 'western' characters from the core books).

One more thing: Being a fantasy world, there are no gender restrictions for any of these kits; women can be mamluks or corsairs just as well as the men.

The Askar are the 'urban' fighters, the village militias and such. They can be caravan guards or palace officials, and are generally the fighters trusted with important missions. However, they're more provincial, assuming that wherever they are from is better than everywhere else, and they aren't afraid to show it. They are also more literate than typical warriors, getting reading/writing as a bonus proficiency. Their only special benefit is their 'home town' bonuses, where they get a +2 bonus to proficiency checks related to town business. It's not applicable in combat or other situations, just when dealing with the locals in their own town. They can also buy their starting equipment at cheaper prices in their home town, which is a nice bonus for beginning characters. Any race can be an askar, as can any of the three warrior classes.

Next is the Corsair. Rangers can't be corsairs, but paladins can. Hey, a paladin's sea-warhorse! There's an image for you. Anyway, corsairs are brave, meritorious, and free, riding the waves instead of the dunes. They are not quite outside the societal bounds, but they are on the borders of civilization. They tend to hop from port to port, and love to explore and find new lands. Sinbad is the obvious archetype here. However, they are also pirates, looting and pillaging in the style of the Barbary Pirates from our history. They start out with seamanship as a bonus proficiency, and are restricted to light armor (no better than studded leather) at first. They can upgrade if they want, but they lose a lot of their efficiency when wearing metal armor, including their two-weapon fighting ability. They fight like rangers in that respect, with no penalties to attack rolls for using two weapons. They start out with less money than the typical warrior, which isn't that big a deal since their armor purchases are restricted anyway. Any race can be a corsair, including a gnome, halfling or dwarf. Good luck to the latter with swimming in the ocean.

Alright, the Desert Riders. These guys are the 'classic' Arabian warriors, sweeping out of the desert on their mounts and terrorizing the civilized peoples in the cities. Well, not necessarily. But they are definitely survivalists in the desert. To their fellow nomads, desert riders are the ultimate warriors (no, not the wrestler), the heroic paragons they all aspire to be like. To the small towns they like to raid, they're just thieves and terrorists. Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Desert riders can be good or evil, so there isn't a 'standard' type of warrior among their number. Their most important possession is their mount, which can be either a camel or a horse. They start with riding specialization with one of the two types of mount, which makes them even better riders, and they also have survival proficiency for the desert. They won't wear anything heavier than chain mail, since they live in the desert. Their expertise with their own mounts makes them experts in evaluating other horses or camels, meaning that any horse (or camel) they buy will always improve in quality while in their care. Some unscrupulous types might train up a horse to a better quality, then sell it; after a week, the horse (or camel) reverts back to its original quality. This doesn't help the desert riders' reputation. Outside of the desert, they are less effective at proficiency checks (but not combat). They start with a mount, as well as a small amount of coin to buy their weapons and such. Only humans, elves and half-elves can be desert riders, since the other races are too small to properly ride a horse (or camel).

The Faris is the paladin of the Arabian desert, although they are not restricted to a good alignment; they can serve evil causes as well. However, the majority are good, and this is definitely the paladin kit to take, with their abilities meshing well with those of this kit. They get religion as a bonus proficiency, of course. They aren't restricted in their armor or weapons, although considering the terrain and climate, they probably won't be wearing full plate armor. They get bonuses when dealing with members of their faith, whether laypeople or clergy, and can draw upon the local temple's resources for a brief time (no more than a week). However, they can't borrow magic items, full stop. On the negative side, they are also obedient to their faith, which means the local imam can pluck him out of his adventuring party and tell him to go chastise the desert riders who just sacked the temple on the other side of those hills. If he doesn't do what he's told, there are consequences. They also tithe 20% of their income from adventuring (or anything else). Any starting money they don't spend gets donated. Any race can be a farisan.

Mamluks are a historical group, based on the jannisaries of the Ottoman Empire. They are slaves, bred for battle, but they are also bureaucrats and professional soldiers, to the point that they were effectively running Turkey for a time. They are a strict meritocracy; you didn't have nepotism to help you advance, since everyone in the organization was a slave, even the highest-ranked generals. The mamluks of the Land of Fate wear facial tattoos to identify their particular organization and their rank within that group. Rival groups tend to respect each other, since they're all very good at what they do. Mamluk adventurers are a possibility, since they can be given leave from their units (with the understanding that they will report anything they learn back to their superiors). They use the curved khopesh sword that was common in Egypt, and get both reading/writing and bureaucracy as bonus proficiencies. Their starting equipment includes a set of laminated scale mail and their sword, as well as a little bit of money. They don't need much money; their needs are taken care of by their organization. They are part of a chain of command, giving orders to lower-level members and taking orders from higher-ranked ones. All races can become mamluks; demi-humans, with their longer lifespans, tend to rise high in the ranks over time.

Mercenary Barbarians are the uncivilized warriors, but not the European-style foreigners; they get the next kit. These are the tribes living on the outskirts of Zakharan civilization: the hill tribes, the plainsmen, and the jungle warriors. They've left their homes to come to the Land of Fate, for various reasons. Being uncivilized, they take a -2 penalty to reaction checks from anyone not from the same homeland as they are, and reactions will never be higher than 'indifferent.' These are mercenaries, as the title indicates, so they basically fight for the money. Unlike the mamluks, these warriors aren't organized, sometimes having rivalries even with warriors from their own homelands. They all learn the short sword and the spear, as well as a third weapon from their own homeland. They also get survival as a bonus proficiency (based on their home terrain), as well as the Midani language, which is Zakhara's equivalent of the 'common' tongue. Their reputation as savage brutes gives them an advantage in intimidating native Zakharans, but it also gives them the penalty mentioned above. They don't get to keep any of their starting money, either; whatever they don't spend is lost. Any race can be a barbarian mercenary.

Finally, there is the Outland Warrior. These are the foreigners, whether they be from the 'west' or the 'far east,' viewed as uncivilized savages regardless of how they see themselves. They don't even speak the language! The interesting part of this kit is that it can encompass kits from other sourcebooks like the Complete Fighter's Handbook; any of those kits will qualify as an 'outland warrior' in Zakhara. They are restricted in that they can't learn any of the Zakharan-specific weapons or proficiencies at first; they are newcomers, after all. Any race can be an outland warrior, although some of the demi-humans from other lands might struggle with Zakhara's racial equality; elves and dwarves don't hate each other here, and just because you're a dwarf doesn't mean you can go all John Cleese on an orcish wedding and expect to be treated as anything but a mass murderer by the authorities.

Next time: The Wizard kits, including the legendary sha'ir!

Arabian Nights at the Gaming Table: Arabian Adventures, Part II

Since Castalia House has been so kind as to link to my previous post, I suppose it's high time I write the next one in this series. I really, really need to get more consistent on this.

So, Chapter 2 of the Arabian Adventures rulebook discusses Characters. Specifically, PC races and classes. The ability scores get a two-sentence paragraph that says 'look at the Player's Handbook for this info'. That's easy enough; there are no special rules for ability scores in Al-Qadim.

Races are likewise the same as they are in the PH, although humans dominate the culture. Elves don't stick to the forests (which is good, since Al-Qadim has a lot of desert terrain), dwarves aren't restricted to living in the mountains and hills, and humanoids (orcs, goblins, gnolls, even ogres) can be found in the cities.

Here's the part that doesn't jive well with me. "Despite their small numbers, nonhumans suffer almost none of the prejudices found in most "Western" AD&D campaigns. In comparison, Zakhara is an egalitarian society. Here the standard “racial hatreds” of the AD&D game—such as the antipathy between dwarf and elf, or hatred between gnome and goblin—no longer exist. Zakharan elves deal with orcs and dwarves as easily as they deal with humans (though it’s true that many elves ultimately prefer to deal with other elves)."

Well, that's a noble, very modern Western viewpoint. Without getting political, I'm going to point out that the Islamic culture on which this is based has no such egalitarianism at any point in its history. So, this is very much a Westernized, idealized fantasy version of the world. I'm sure there are people who enjoy playing in that sort of game, but it just cuts against the grain for me. One of the fun things about playing the demihuman races in D&D is the fact that they are different, and they get treated differently by the normal people in society. Can you imagine if Drizzt Do'Urden had surfaced in Zakhara instead of Icewind Dale? I mean, aside from the constant heatstroke he'd be suffering. But there goes all that story potential of a drow on the surface; he'd be treated as a religious outsider, but being a drow wouldn't faze anyone, not even the elves.

No, the racial issues being handwaved away by the sheer awesomeness of the Law of the Loregiver isn't a good take, in my opinion. Better to just leave the demihumans out altogether, or create new ones.

Oh, and the racial harmony in Zakhara means dwarves and gnomes don't even get their combat bonuses against certain humanoids. We also learn that dwarves and gnomes can actually become wizards in this setting, although dwarves are restricted to the sha'ir kit, can't multiclass, and are restricted to 10th level. Gnomes aren't forced to be illusionists, since the normal specialist wizards aren't available in Zakhara.

Speaking of kits, this is one of the highlights of the book. There are no generic 'fighters' or 'wizards' in Zakhara; every character must take not only a class, but a kit as well. There are no druids or, as mentioned above, specialist wizards in Zakhara, unless they are foreigners. And even the foreigners get their own kits. Multi-class characters must also take kits, one for each of their classes. So, instead of an elven fighter-wizard, you might have an elven corsair/water elementalist, which would be a pretty potent combination.

Each kit has a special statistic called 'station,' which ranks from 1-20 and determines your place in the social pecking order; the higher, the better. The highest station a PC can start with is 12, for one of the three kits of priests (Pragmatist, Ethoist, and Moralist). Beggar-thieves can't start higher than 3. NPCs can, of course, go higher. Station can be improved through experience or money. If your experience level is higher than your initial station score, your station automatically moves up to match. I just had a vision of a 20th-level beggar-thief now dealing on equal terms with the Sultan of the realm.

Station has gaming effects; the highest-station person in the party is assumed to be its leader/spokesperson, and interruptions from their lessers (other PCs with lower station scores) will impact the speaker's station. Being a criminal, enslaved, or too broke to buy a meal will negatively affect your station, of course. Station can be masked, although you risk being found out, which will have negative consequences.

In some parts of the Land of Fate, station is fixed in a caste system. You can fall, but you can't rise. There is no specific such land indicated here (since the setting hasn't been put together yet), but the DM can include such places if he wants. In caste systems, don't speak to people too low on the station totem pole, or your own will drop.

Next up, names. There are some example names taken from the Arabian Nights as well as actual Middle Eastern names, with examples of how to construct surnames. There's also a note that 'Abdul' is not a name; it means 'slave of the', which is nonsensical and doesn't work.

And that does it for chapter two; next up, the big chapter on kits. Which I will do this week, period.

One Year in Paradise...

Exactly one year ago, my family and I woke up in our new house. We arrived on the 29th, a little after suppertime, and spent that first evening just trying to get our bearings and all the usual stuff that goes with a new house: What rooms do the kids get, where's the master bedroom, why did it look so much bigger in the pictures we saw, why does the floor slant so much that the rooms look like villain lair sets from the old Adam West Batman TV show...like I said, the usual.

We were on day one of our mandatory 14-day quarantine, where we were treated like lepers forced to stay outside the walls of civilization. Fortunately, with nineteen acres of space, we weren't cramped together or bored. In fact, those two weeks provided us with some great family bonding time. Thankfully, however, once the two weeks were up we went back to ignoring each other like normal families do.

I kid, I kid. But now that we've been here for a full year, and we actually own the property that we bought...let me explain.

See, Prince Edward Island has this rule, more like a law, that states that if you are not a resident of Prince Edward Island, you cannot purchase more than five acres of land per adult on the premises. Well, there were two adults in our family; Ashton was still only seventeen, and a minor, so he didn't count. Therefore, by PEI law, we were limited to a maximum purchase of ten acres. And the property we bought is nineteen acres.

Now, here's where things get interesting. We dealt with two realtors before buying. Neither of them ever mentioned that rule, not even when we were negotiating on the purchase price with the third realtor, who also didn't mention this rule. Neither did the bank while we negotiated our mortgage. Nor did the lawyer who was writing up the contract and settling the affairs. It wasn't until the second lawyer that someone pointed out that what we were doing was actually illegal in PEI.

By the time he told us this startling tidbit of information, we had already sold our own house and closed the deal. We had already packed up everything, and the giant shipping crate was on the truck heading east. We were going to be officially homeless in less than a week, and we were six days from setting our GPSes to Prince Edward Island and leaving Ontario behind for good. And now we weren't legally allowed to own the property we had bought.

Fortunately, we had an understanding seller, who just wanted to be rid of the property anyway. And since the realtors and the bank had already cleared the sale, there wasn't anything to be done but let us come. The property is actually split into two parts; one is the house itself, which only covers about fifteen or so feet away from the actual building. The rest of the property was technically separate, including the garages and barn. So, we worked it out with the former owner that we would buy the house, and 'lease' the rest of the property for a year for the princely sum of one dollar.

And now, that year is up. We (or rather, the bank) officially own this whole property. We've added the chicken coop, we've grown some veggies, we're raising rabbits...we're doing the farm thing. And it's great.

Seriously, anyone who's never been to PEI before...what are you waiting for? There's more to this place than Anne of Green Gables. That's one tiny corner of the island. And while it's a small island by provincial standards, it's got a lot to do. It's a three-hour drive from the northern tip to the eastern tip. Charlottetown is a small city that acts big, but it's smaller than Chatham. And yet, they pack a lot of stuff to do there. Summerside is beautiful; the harbor is just gorgeous at any time of day. There are beaches galore, nature trails and ATV runs, and the area outside the two cities can basically be described as 'split' between farmland and forest. You've got acres of trees next to acres of potatoes and barley. There's still a lot to explore and enjoy.

I said when we first moved here that I could spend the rest of my life on this island and never leave. That's partly because I'm cheap, and don't really want to shell out fifty bucks to cross the Confederation Bridge. But it's also because there's literally nowhere else I would rather be than right here, on this island, on this farm, with my family.

Next week, I plan to work with Ashton to dig up the gardens we're going to be preparing for next spring. There will be a bunch of garlic going in before the snow falls, of course, and in the spring we're going to get some serious planting done. We dabbled this year, and it was a lot of work; next year, we're getting serious.

So, come on out to this little island and see what I'm talking about. You won't regret it.

The Crazy Chicken-Lady meets the Psycho Puppy-Girl

Well, that was...an experience.

I love my dogs. I really do. Raven is our puppy-girl, our beautiful black lab-Chow who jumps on me when I come home from work and drops dead raccoons on our front porch. She's seven years old, and her bark has always been worse than her bite, at least until we moved here.

However, today was not a good day, not by any stretch of the imagination. I mean, sure, the first chunk of the day was fine, with me doing the work-thing and my wife at home doing the homeschooling thing. Nothing unusual at all.

When I got home, Dexter, the beagle, was all over me. But Raven didn't make an appearance right away. That in itself should have clued me in that not all was well. But she did come downstairs eventually, and got her lovin' and petting like she always does.

Honey-Bunny was cooking supper, Tanner was playing NHL21. After a while, my wife asked me to go up and check on the baby chicks, up in Tanner's room. No problem; I started up the stairs.

And then the theme from Psycho started playing in my head. I saw the first torn up chick-carcass at the top of the stairs.

And that was it for me; I was having Vietnam flashbacks, and I wasn't even born when that war started. I am not ashamed to say that I freaked out. I don't handle death well, even if it's natural death. Seeing a dead body just does not suit my mental well-being, especially one that died violently. I would make the world's worst homicide detective.

As I'm tearing back down the stairs, Raven runs down as well and jumps on the couch, licking her lips. This did not bode well.

My darling wife went up and surveyed the carnage. Out of forty baby chicks, eleven survived; one might not make it through the night. Raven killed nearly thirty of them, including nine of the ten egg-layers. We were angry enough to kill her ourselves.

Now, I suppose I can see things from her point of view; we were raising these birds to be slaughtered and eaten anyway, at least the meat-birds. She was just getting a head-start. But that excuse didn't fly with my wife.

So, my wife has decided to correct the problem by buying a hundred more meat-bird chicks. We'll be putting them in the garage, as we should have done in the first place. But it's starting to get cold, and they don't have their feathers yet. Well, three-quarters of them aren't going to get their feathers, now or ever.

Yeah, this was a rough day on the farm. Tanner's at least as traumatized as I am; I doubt he'll ever sleep in that room again. We're going to switch his bedroom to the spare room this week, and turn that one into a pantry/food storage room or something.

And no, I'm not posting any pictures of the slaughterhouse. In the first place, I didn't take any. In the second place, what kind of sick freak wants to see the torn-up carcasses of a bunch of baby chicks?

It's going to take a few days to get that image out of my head. Sometimes, having a near-photographic memory really sucks.

I Married a Crazy Chicken Lady

My wife is a wonderful woman. I love her beyond measure. But she's gone completely crazy since we moved here.

See, this spring we decided to get a few chickens. Not too many, just a few egg-layers that would provide us with some free eggs in exchange for being fed and kept in a decent coop. Well, the 'few' turned into twenty-one chickens: six roosters and fifteen hens. Well, that's not too bad. The coop gives them plenty of room, they've got some nice roosting spots, and they're laying eggs every day. Not all of them, but they are pretty regular.

Well, last week she decided that it was time to expand our chicken enterprise.

So, today she picked up thirty day-old chicks. These are meat birds; they'll be around for eight weeks, and then they're going to the processor and to the freezer. We'll probably sell some of them; they're supposed to be bigger birds, lots of meat. Sounds good to me. We might have gotten fifty due to the way the orders were processed at the seller, but we did end up with the thirty we had originally planned for.

She brought Garrett, our autistic youngest, with her. When he saw the little chicks, he asked the seller, "Where's their mother?" Which, for anyone who knows autistic children, is awesome. He kept asking the question, and he was pointing at another group of chicks. Ten of them. These ones were layers, not meat birds. And they were two dollars apiece. So, my wife came home with forty chicks.

Or so I thought.

While I was typing this post, I overheard her talking on the phone with her father. I didn't hear it all, but I did hear 'Glen doesn't know' and 'coop,' which set all kinds of alarms jangling. So, I ran downstairs and finally dragged it out of her.

She bought seven more laying hens. Hens, not chicks. There are now twenty-eight birds in the coop, and forty chicks in boxes. The boxes are in my son's bedroom to keep them warm for a couple of weeks. I've put two heat lamps in there for them as well. They're quite noisy; it's almost eleven o'clock, and they're still chirping away.

Well, we won't go hungry this winter.

Arabian Nights at the Gaming Table: Arabian Adventures

After the middling reaction (at best) to the Emirates of Ylaruam, TSR took their Arabian Nights interest into 2nd Edition AD&D with the first product of the Al-Qadim line, Arabian Adventures. The book makes it clear: Unlike GAZ2, this time we're going full-blown fantastic adventures, leaving the real-world comparisons to a minimum. Genies, sorcerers, desert scions with secret noble bloodlines...oh, yeah. Bring it all on. We even get the introductory scene from the Arabian Nights stories, with King Shahryar and Scheherazade and the start of the tales (not the Richard Burton version, of course; TSR was very much a PG company at this time).

After the introductory story, we are told that this book is about stories Scheherazade might have told if she'd gone on for another thousand nights. And there will be a fantastic setting filled with those magical wonders, with lots of fun stuff to explore, fight, and steal. Because the only difference between a hero and a grave-robber is whether or not the character is a PC, right?

They do pay some small homage to the historical Arabic Empire and culture, although there is no monotheistic religion here; even in a fantasy Arabia, TSR wasn't going to do 'Fantasy Islam,' especially in the wake of the first Gulf War (Arabian Adventures came out in 1992, one year after the first Iraq invasion). The Arabian Nights themselves, obviously, are a major influence, but not only in their literary form; Hollywood movies and North American perceptions of the Arabian Nights are also going to factor heavily. Sounds like a fun place to adventure to me.

So, Chapter 1 is an overview of Zakhara, the Land of Fate, where this fantasy Arabia is located. It's officially set in the Forgotten Realms (because everything had to be about the Realms in the early 1990s), but it doesn't have to be there. It's placed south of the main FR setting, Faerun, and west of the Kara-Tur, the land of the Oriental Adventures setting, so you can have a whole Marco Polo thing going on if you really want.

Needless to say, Zakhara's primary terrain feature is...desert. Two of them, in fact: The High Desert and the Haunted Lands. It's not all desert, of course; there's lush jungle to the northeast, and coastal lowlands where the cities are across the southern parts of the land. Lots of islands, too. Because you can't do Sinbad without lots of islands. Most of these islands are in the Crowded Sea, which is the sea to the south. On the north coast are the Corsair Domains, where lots of pirates hang out. Because if there aren't any pirates, what's the point of being on the water in the first place?

Arabian Adventures took a very different view on race in D&D; tolerance is the name of the game, and everyone in Zakhara gets along regardless of their race. So, elves and dwarves hang out at the bazaar, gnomes and half-orcs swap humorous stories at the coffee houses, and ogres give halflings piggyback rides on religious holidays. The reason for this is that everyone is so enlightened thanks to the amazing laws produced by the Loregiver (a woman who takes Mohammed's place in history), which convinced everyone to hold hands and sing Kumbaya across the desert. Okay, then. However, racial level limits and class restrictions still apply, so your half-orc isn't going to be a mighty sorcerer no matter how pious he might be. That wouldn't happen until 3rd edition eight years later.

Instead, culture in Zakhara is cut across two basic lines: the Al-Badia, or nomads, who hang out in the deserts, and the Al-Hadhar, who live in the cities and villages of the Land of Fate. The Al-Badia hold the city-dwellers in contempt as soft, money-grubbing effete snobs; the Al-Hadhar consider the nomads to be smelly, uncivilized, and poor. They don't go to war with each other; that would be uncivilized, after all. They just don't hang out at the pub on Sundays.

Honor gets a big writeup, because it's pretty darn important in this setting. I find it interesting that both the Oriental and Arabian Adventures books put an emphasis on honor, to the point where an OA character whose honor score drops below zero is literally removed from the game with their character sheet torn up. Meanwhile, the standard medieval fantasy setting that is generic D&D, complete with knights in shining armor, hardly ever mentions the word. Now, I realize that D&D's pulp roots focused more on barbarians and rugged individualist adventurers rather than Camelot and Roland, but still. Honor mattered in Europe, too.

Still, in today's touchy cultural setting, the honor section of AA isn't going to sit well with too many people; there's a section on honor killings and how people who dishonor their families will be killed by their own family members, and everyone's fine with it. Yeah, that hasn't aged very well.

Let's move on to family instead. Assuming your character doesn't give your family a reason to murder you in cold blood, family bonds are important. Families will consist of children, parents, grandparents, even great-grandparents if they're still around. Now, that could get awkward as you get back a few generations and end up with eight sets of great-grandparents, but things get simplified as married women end up as part of their husband's families. Cousins, uncles and aunts are still a thing, but families are maintained on the male side.

Next up is 'purity.' Coming from a traditional Catholic perspective, the Zakharan idea of purity doesn't quite square. Right in the first paragraph, polygamy is justified as the man being legally married to his entire harem. Divorce is totally fine, and nobody seems to care about it. I particularly like the last two sentences: "The fact that a sheikh or king is married to a particular woman for only few weeks or even days implies no impropriety for him or for her. Long or short, a marriage is sacred in the Land of Fate."

I'm not really sure that a Britney Spears-style marriage would count as 'sacred.' Maybe that's just me.

This is where the Islamic influence comes in; women don't touch other men in case they become 'violently tempted' by their charms. Even flirting is considered a sin. And yes, the burqa makes an appearance, although it isn't actually named. And women tend to spend a lot of time in the house, be it a tent or a palace, so as to avoid the risk of impurity. I doubt that too many gamers followed these rules. I certainly wouldn't want to play in a group that did.

Hospitality and piety are the next concepts; the Bond of Salt is discussed (as it was in GAZ2), wherein if you take salt in someone's home, you're considered a guest. And while the religion in question isn't Islam (being polytheistic), there is still a lot of the Islamic mindset going on (as we saw above). Mind you, the Arabian Nights stories were the same, so it's not surprising.

The last part of this chapter is a brief discussion of Fate (personified as a female being who is superior to the gods and goddesses of the realm) and the Loregiver, the woman who in ancient times gave the Law that got everyone to be nice to each other. it's been five centuries since the Laws were discovered, and they were just so darn awesome that everyone agreed to follow them.

So, that's the introduction and first chapter of the book. There's lots more to come, of course; it's a 160-page book, and we're just hitting page 20. This should keep me busy, assuming I remember to post more than once every other week.

Arabian Nights at the Gaming Table: The Emirates of Ylaruam, cont.

Welcome back, and let's get this Gazetteer finished tonight. There are some more 'procedures' discussed on the next page, including awarding XPs for role-playing points of honor and the social structure of the setting, as well as a Storytelling rating for characters who want to channel their inner Scheherazade. It's based on your non-physical stats (Int, Wis, Cha) and level, and you had better roll high if you don't want to lose the audience (or worse, anger them to the point that you actually lose XP). Since BECMI goes up to level 36, the best base score a character could possibly have is 18 for all three ability scores, plus 36 more, or 90 total, to which you get to add a 3d6 roll, so you'll get a pretty awesome reaction even if you're a foreigner trying to tell the story to a pack of evil efreeti. Not too many characters are going to reach that level, though.

Next, there's a discussion about the Dervishes, or desert druids. These guys don't actually follow the BECMI rules for druids, and are more like clerics in that they get to turn undead. They also have high constitutions and save as dwarves. They also get their own unique spell list which mixes the cleric and druid spells with a few unique ones. This is an interesting addition to the setting, since this is the first variant class in BECMI after the publication of the boxed sets. It's restricted to NPCs, but how many DMs are going to actually follow that?

There's a very helpful page on courtesy tips for foreigners, introduced, like many of the sections in the gazetteer, as a narration from a friendly NPC. There's also a brief section on how to use the Nahmeh (the setting's equivalent to the Koran, although it's not detailed), and how you can just take well-known quotations and adapt them to make them sound more Arabian. It's a useful tip for any setting, really.

Ah, a glossary. Usually found at the end of the book, this is at the end of the Player's Section, and gives a list of typical terms for locations and cultural markers in the Emirates, as well as a few things about the overall Known World setting, which is a handy thing to have for newcomers to the setting, regardless of what part of the world you're adventuring in.

A page of Ylari customs finishes off the Society in the Emirates portion. I should note that the Player's Section was just the middle eight pages of the book, which split the Society section. The customs listed here are useful for gaming and setting adventures, whether it's games and contests that are popular in Ylaruam, or how to flatter your host in hospitality encounters. Good stuff that helps bring out the flavor of the setting.

Now we get to the centerpiece of the book, which is a description of the Village of Kirkuk, a useful starting place for an Ylaruam campaign. It is not, however, given an official location on the map; it's described as simply an important stop on a well-traveled caravan route, with a sacred grotto where Al-Kalim spent some time during his time killing Thyatians. We are promised a DM's map and key plus a list of important NPCs, but it's not on the inside cover as advertised. And while the player's map of Kirkuk is supposed to be on the reverse of the large color map that comes with the book, the back of the map is a white blank space. Oops.

Anyway, Kirkuk is well-described, and it's the only place in Ylaruam that is well-described. But with only 400 residents, it's not much of a place. However, it does have a couple of interesting points that can lead to adventures. First, there is the Well of the Faithful Prophet, the grotto that Al-Kalim visited years ago. It's under a curse, which has poisoned the well. There is an adventure seed to fix the curse, of course, because what else are curses for?

Second, there is Barimoor. Barimoor is an Alphatian wizard seeking Immortality, and he is using his underground complex beneath Ylaruam to help him get there. Barimoor is a great choice for campaign's Big Bad, one the PCs shouldn't even learn about until they're name level. He's been there for eight centuries, with the patience of a spider and the cunning of a high-level evil wizard. He's cautious and taking his time; after all, he's expecting to become an Immortal at some point, so time really is on his side. Barimoor has a LOT of minions, and his various quests and plots can lead to all kinds of interesting adventures. He's not explicitly set in Kirkuk, but he does have agents there, agents that don't even know they work for him (they're magically controlled). Lots of opportunity for mischief there.

There are a few adventure seeds given for Kirkuk, which is a pretty busy place for a small village in the desert on a caravan route. Many of them are in the spirit of the Arabian Nights stories; an old beggar has been babbling in an unknown language; turns out it's the tongue of the Elemental Plane of Fire, and he finally figured out what he wanted to say, and opened up a portal to the Plane just as the PCs happen by. There's a missing nobleman's son who the PCs have been hired to bring back, except that he fled from his father to escape marriage to a spinster, and loves the beautiful maiden instead. Stuff like that, which is all over the Arabian Nights stories.

The last major section of this book is the Campaigning section. This book is unique among the Gazetteers in that it barely details the important cities of the nation; the city of Ylaruam is the least-detailed capital city of any Gazetteer, meriting only a few scattered paragraphs throughout the book. Kirkuk, by contrast, gets fifteen pages.

So, the campaigning section gives a more general overview of things; where are the characters from (natives or foreigners)? Why are they adventuring in this inhospitable desert terrain? The DM is urged to get beginner PCs (native or foreigners) to Kirkuk to start things off, placing it on the map wherever is most convenient for future plans. Pick a Big Bad (Barimoor is one option among several) or two. There's also a list of monsters likely to be found in the setting, from aerial servants to bandits, from camels to lizard men, from manscorpions to zombies. There's quite the selection to work with, with challenges at all levels of play.

There's also a chapter on treasure hunting, because what would the Arabian Nights be without fabulous treasures to find? There is even a list of magical artifacts to find for all levels of play, from Basic to Master levels. Of course, the Master level items are a bit more powerful than the Basic ones.

Finally, there are some adventure seeds for the overall campaign (not necessarily Kirkuk-related). The very first one involves an evil sorcerer who tricks the PCs into going into a cave to retrieve fabulous treasures. Sound familiar? At least they aren't so blatant as to say the sorcerer wants a certain lamp.

Another of the adventure seeds takes the PCs to the fabled City of Brass, which doesn't get detailed, but there are some very juicy tidbits to give an idea of what this City might contain. Check this out: "Inside is an impossible paradise of a lush green jungle and fierce beasts abiding peacefully with their normal prey. They are finally greeted by a talking lion, who takes them to the throne room where they see a beautiful enchantress. She gestures and everything changes again. The characters awake before the gates they shattered at a touch. The jungle has withered, the ground is littered with skeletons, and gaunt men and women wander mindlessly to and fro, marked by the plague."

Good stuff, and there's more where that came from. The adventure seeds are evocative, presenting a wide range of opportunities for adventures of all sorts. Ylaruam might be a big desert just south of a Viking realm, but it's got lots of stuff going on, stuff your PCs will enjoy exploring and overcoming.

Finally, there is the Suggested Reading section. It mentions a few gaming modules from both BECMI and AD&D, some other game references, suggestions to research Egyptians, Mongols, Arabs, the Crusades, and deserts, and one fiction suggestion: Frank Herbert's Dune. It's science fiction, but it's got desert warriors and high-tech magical items, so why not?

You know what they didn't recommend?

Any version of the Arabian Nights! Say what?! You would think that a gazetteer set in an Arabian desert with genies, beggars, and storytellers might want to point gamers in the direction of the most obvious source material there is. But they didn't.

Regardless, Ylaruam is a fun change of pace for a campaign, worthy of checking out. If you want a hardcopy, it's not cheap, going for around $70 minimum on eBay. But you can also get the PDF at Drivethru.rpg if that suits your fancy. I'm glad I still have the original copy I bought way back in the day, and I'll hang on to it.

Chickens, Chickens Everywhere!

 Yes, our chicken coop is big enough to hold about fifty chickens, but right now it's got a total of thirteen. However, we've got some new additions that will soon be joining them. My wife picked up nine laying hens from a commercial poultry plant this week. They're renting the chicken tractor as their home for the next month, then they'll be introduced to the rest of the chickens.

The problem with getting commercial hens is that they've been medicated and eaten nothing but processed crap their whole lives. Sure, it makes for a tasty egg and meat, but let's be honest: The chickens that come from these places aren't the healthiest birds around, are they? And these plants aren't exactly known for their sanitary practices when it comes to the chickens' living quarters. So, we're isolating them for a month to make sure they don't have any diseases or anything.

These birds are called Highland breed, which I don't have a lot of information on them. We found out after we bought them that they can be aggressive toward other chickens, so their beaks are usually clipped. We'll see how they get along in the new coop. They're supposed to be great layers, which means we'll get lots of eggs. One a day per bird, so we've been told. I'll believe that when I see it.

Not much else to say right now; the birds are getting used to their new home, so we'll see how they adapt. In the meantime, though, at least they aren't in a processing plant. That's got to be an improvement.

Arabian Nights at the Gaming Table: The Emirates of Ylaruam

I started playing D&D at the tender age of eleven. My father dropped me off at the local library and told me to meet some new friends. I'd never heard of the game until then, but there was a D&D club that met every Saturday. I got thrown into the deep end, playing a pregen ranger from the Giants series (Beek Gwenders, for you old-timers) who was with a group going through the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks module, which was the hot new module that summer. Talk about a steep learning curve. I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but it seemed to be a lot of fun.

Fortunately for me, the library had a copy of the old Moldvay Basic rulebook, which they were kind enough to lend me for a week so I could get an idea of what was going on. The other players in the group sneered at the 'beginner' material, but it was a life-saver for me. And, being the contrarian that I am, I developed a fondness for the B/X material despite their disdain. I still didn't know what a 'faerie fire' spell was, but I didn't care. There was real magic in that book, and I devoured it.

For Christmas, my parents got me the Cook Expert Set, which was my first introduction to the campaign setting that would eventually become Mystara. I still remember the amazing map, the weird names and the brief descriptions that accompanied them. Names that would become legendary in gaming circles: Karameikos. Glantri. Thyatis. And the Emirates of Ylaruam.

Ylaruam wasn't a big deal; it was desert stuff, which didn't interest my twelve-year-old self. I liked the elves and the Vikings, and I hadn't been exposed to the richness of the Arabian Nights stories yet. Still, it was an interesting place, and B4, The Lost City, was set there, so it had something to recommend it.

Five years later, the Gazetteer series began. While Karameikos had pride of place, being the traditional starting-point for a B/X or BECMI campaign, Ylaruam was the surprising runner-up, getting the second volume. I bought it as eagerly as I bought the first one, expecting a similar treatment of the exotic desert land. However, it was a much different structure; the Gazetteer format wasn't yet laid out as it would later be. It was the same size of a book, but it's focus was much, much different.

Written by veteran game designer Ken Rolston, Ylaruam started off similarly to the Karameikos book, detailing the regions history from both the 'what historians know' and 'what the Immortals know' perspectives. The second one, obviously, is the 'real' history of the land, as opposed what is commonly believed by the populace. And there was a timeline as well. I love timelines. It's one of my favorite things about Mystara, in fact: The timelines in almost every product.

Then we get an overview of the geography and the climate. The latter isn't hard to figure out; it's a desert. It's dry, it's hot, it's inhospitable...what do you expect? There's always been some controversy surrounding Ylaruam, as it's situated north of an empire much like the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, and directly south of the Viking raiders of the Northern Reaches. How exactly do you get a desert in there?

I don't remember if it's detailed in this book or in a later supplement or article, but the official explanation for Ylaruam's weird geography is Immortal tampering and a micro-climate that is really, really hot and dry. It's also related to the Elves of Alfheim and their magical forest that they created; I think it helped wipe out the vegetation in Ylaruam by using up all the rainfall to grow their trees. Elves are like that sometimes. Anyway, that's the 'canon' version, or something close to it, at least.

Next up are the various peoples of Ylaruam, including the Alasiyans (your typical desert-riding, camel-rustling desert tribes), the Makistani (refugees from Ethengar, a Mongol-like culture to the northwest of Ylaruam), the Nithians (the original inhabitants, but they aren't in charge anymore due to a massive curse that I won't detail here), and the Thyatians, who used to be the colonial overlords of Ylaruam until they rebelled a century prior to the campaign starting time.

Then we get a brief treatise on Ylaruam's economics, including a breakdown of the different major regions, such as the Emirate of Alasiya, the dominant group in Ylaruam at this point. This is followed by a discussion of the Ylari religion, the preachings and teachings of Al-Kalim and the Eternal Truth. Al-Kalim is a not-so-subtle version of Mohammed; Al-Kalim's philosophy is very Muslim in its outlook. His history runs almost as long as the history described in the first couple of pages, though it doesn't go into detail about what he's really up to at this point. I won't spoil it for those who haven't read it yet.

There are dervishes in Ylaruam; these are men who live in the wilderness like John the Baptist; they are clerics, and have some unique spells that replace some of the standard ones in the game. Then there's some basic 'this is what life is like here' stuff, and a discussion of the government and the various factions. It's basically what you'd expect from a culture based on late-medieval Islam: emirs, pashas, and sultans abound. We even get a foreign relations section, where the surrounding nations and the Ylari attitudes toward magic are placed within the greater concept of the world. Bascially, the Ylari hate the Thyatians for being their old overlords, they hate magic-users in general, they're not too fond of elves, they like the dwarves, they're fine with Karameikos, and they put up with the Darokinians because of the trade routes both countries use.

Finally, we get to the middle of the book, which includes a few pages on the nation from the player characters' perspective: lists of rumors they could hear in the market square, for example. There's also a helpful page on how to create an Ylari character, especially their names. Finally, there's a page of special rules for being in the desert and trying to not die of thirst.

And that gets us through to the halfway point. I'm skimming the heck out of this, but it's too much to do in a single post.

Arabian Nights at the Gaming Table

The Arabian Nights have been a part of Western culture's landscape for three centuries since the first stories of Scheherazade were translated into European languages in the early eighteenth century. One of the first complete translations into English is, of course, Sir Richard Burton's translation, of which I am fortunate enough to own a complete set, in the original printing. It's not a kid-friendly version, of course, but it's certainly full of adventure.

Hollywood got hold of these stories early on; Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, was made in 1902 by Georges Méliès, one of the earliest important film producers. Ray Harryhausen thrilled audiences with The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and two sequels. And, of course, Disney made that fairly well-known movie in the early 1990s, Aladdin. The spectacle, exotic settings, and fantastic creatures have enthralled audiences for generations, both in print and in film.

So, it was only natural that tabletop gaming would eventually come around to the Arabian Nights setting. GURPS did it with Arabian Nights, a treatise on gaming in the setting, one that, according to a review in Dragon Magazine, took a very dry tone and sucked all the fun out of the setting. Fortunately, TSR did it quite a bit better.

The first time TSR used an Arabian setting was in The Emirates of Ylaruam, published as part of the Gazetteer series for BECMI D&D. The second in that series, it was not as well-received as the first offering, The Grand Duchy of Karameikos, but it included some useful ideas for desert gaming, and had an in-setting religion that was not even remotely subtle about its similarities to Islam. There wasn't a lot of detail on the setting; instead, the book focused on a small, starting village where adventures could be found. It was a game effort, though not their best.

Five years later, in 1992, TSR expanded their marquee setting, the Forgotten Realms, with the Al-Qadim setting. This was a limited line, deliberately set up to run for only two or three years. It was a good idea, as it kept the setting from becoming too bloated and losing the uniqueness. The line began with the Arabian Adventures rulebook, which gave the basic rules and setting information needed to get started. The highlight of the rules was the kits, which offered a fantastic amount of flavor to get players in the right frame of mind to play in Al-Qadim. Barbers, desert riders, moralist priests, sorcerers...and, of course, the setting's signature class, the sha'ir, the genie master.

The line was expanded with two setting boxed sets (Land of Fate and City of Delights), eight adventure boxed sets that expanded the setting and provided lots of adventures all over the place, a Monstrous Compendium expansion with a surprisingly low number of evil monsters to beat up, and the Complete Sha'ir's Handbook, which detailed the class and offered more kits for specialist wizards. In addition, the Complete Book of Necromancers added more detail to the setting in the form of the Isle of the Necromancer-Kings, which was officially set in Al-Qadim, specifically the Ruined Kingdoms region.

The line was beautifully produced, with a consistent art ethos throughout the entire series, as well as the signature golden lining on the pages. Running only for three years, the line remains popular with a small subset of gamers who have converted the setting to third and even fifth edition D&D.

While the line is complete, there are a couple of sub-settings that could have used more detail. The first is the Cities of the Pantheon, which were given only a little detail in the Land of Fate boxed set. These cities, full of moralist priests, would have made an interesting place to visit. And the Land of the Yak-Men, one of the setting's more intriguing villains, are virtually left alone in the official material. If there had been two more adventure boxed sets with these settings as the base, the setting would be as complete as it could possibly need to be. Still, they covered a lot, and it's good material.

Since I'm still reading the Arabian Nights, and I've always been a fan of this setting since it came out in 1992, I'm going to do some retrospectives on each of the products. Not one page at a time like I did with Traveller; I'm crazy, not stupid. But I'll give each product a look-through, and talk about some of the interesting bits that can be found within.