I'm a bit nervous about my upcoming Plains of the Paynims campaign and I'd appreciate some friendly/fatherly/grognard-esque/creative ideas and tips.
My players are being teleported from Sterich to Dry Steppes, so that they will all be "kafirs". This all comes as a sudden surprise to them.
If your DM told you that you were about to have an adventure at the dunes of the Baklunish nomads, what would be your number one expectations and fears/dislikes?
Personally, I'd begin with a lot of emphasis on the different culture and for that I'd borrow shamelessly from published sources.
The OD&D Gazetteer - Great Khan of Ethengar has some good stuff on running a campaign amongst nomads including some adventures. The FR Hordelands boxed set (available for free at one point, I think, as a PDF somewhere on the WotC web site).
For a more Arabian nomad feel, I would try to find the Al Qadim products. Not sure if PDFs are still available anywhere but there was one specifically dealing with desert nomads. These mini-boxed sets always had a handful of adventures in them.
As I recall there is very little canon source info out there on the Paynims / Dry Steppes so adapting other sources or creating brand new material is all we have I'm afraid.
Sea of Death, a novel by Gary Gygax that involves this area.
Day of Al'Akbar, a generic module that can be shoehorned into this area with a lot of work. Here are some conversion notes.
X4: Master of the Desert Nomads (for the Mystara/Known World setting, but adaptable to the Paynim lands with a lot of work)
X5: Temple of Death (the sequel to X4)
X10: Red Arrow, Black Shield (the sequel to X4 and X5)
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). It give some good insight in how an outsider was able to win the trust of the Arab nomads during WWI.
Good replies, and thanks to rasgon for linking to my Alq'abaj article. I always found the Osprey military books to be very helpful as far as giving me a concise brief on culture, motivation and military equipment for certain groups. I'd recommend Attila and the Nomad Hordes, and Mounted Archers of the Steppes for more of a Central Asian feel; or Armies of the Muslim Conquest, the Mamluks, the Moors the Islamic West 7th-15th Centuries AD. Plus they have cool color plates you can show to your players by example.
Besides just research, make it as foreign to the players as you can. Do your best "middle eastern" accent when talking for npcs. Look up some useful but not common phrases in arabic, farsi or turkic languages, or make up you own for the Paynim to use. Here's another "flavor" article I did, that is actually set in the Dry Steppes region -
http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=908&mode=thread&order=2&thold=0
...I always found the Osprey military books to be very helpful as far as giving me a concise brief on culture, motivation and military equipment for certain groups...
Thank you all so much for the responses! I've opened up my old Al-Qadim books and started to borrow things from them.
I just have one question which causes me a headache...
What are Paynim dervishes?
They are...
a. ...an extremely small tribe(s) with LG-tendencies and strong belief in Al'Akbar.
b. ...all paladins.
c. ..monks who believe in Al'Akbar. They are very much similar to real-world ascetic dervishes.
d. ...characters of any class that have the Vow of Poverty-feat (Book of Exalted Deeds). They resemble real-world ascetic dervishes.
e. ...those who have ranks in Dervish-PrC from Complete Warrior.
I'd really appreciate if someone had some opinion about how to describe dervishes and what is their role in society. Canon or not, any views are much appreciated. I find it frustrating that dervishes are often mentioned but not explained.
I just have one question which causes me a headache...
What are Paynim dervishes?
They are...
a. ...an extremely small tribe(s) with LG-tendencies and strong belief in Al'Akbar.
b. ...all paladins.
c. ..monks who believe in Al'Akbar. They are very much similar to real-world ascetic dervishes.
d. ...characters of any class that have the Vow of Poverty-feat (Book of Exalted Deeds). They resemble real-world ascetic dervishes.
e. ...those who have ranks in Dervish-PrC from Complete Warrior.
I'd really appreciate if someone had some opinion about how to describe dervishes and what is their role in society. Canon or not, any views are much appreciated. I find it frustrating that dervishes are often mentioned but not explained.
From the LGG - "Many nomadic Baklunish clans in the Dry Steppes are dervishes, devotees of mystical religious practices who defend their lands
and beliefs by strength of arms. Their most powerful leader is called the
Mahdi of the Steppes, a prophet and warrior. Dervishes in this region
celebrate his divine insight, and others are well advised to do likewise if
they wish to have the goodwill of these fanatics."
I would put down the use of "clans" being more a reference to how they are organized. I would probably describe them more as a fraternity of holy warriors composed of the initiates and their retainers and dependents (wives, concubines, children, craftsmen, slaves, etc...). Some groups may be composed mainly of members of the same Paynim tribes, but I'd see them as going beyond those associations and allowing members from any tribe, or even nation, as long as they are duly dedicated to the faith of Al'Akbar. So in many ways they'd be similar to an order of eastern knights, but solely organized on religious lines. Ghazi might be a better word than dervish from the real world, although not all ghazi companies were motivated primarily by religious zeal.
To insert other TSR settings, you can look and see what the Hollow World module HWR2 Kingdom of Nithia or from GAZ2 The Emirates of Ylaruam.
I thought it interesting in GAZ2 how unlike some of the other GAZ products, it didn't suggest placement of the setting in GREYHAWK or FORGOTTEN REALMS but it did suggest importing the AD&D I series modules into the GAZ2 setting which I believe a lot of people use for a desert area on Oerth.
Also, there is Gygax' Necropolis which has two different editions neither of which were published by TSR.
I am running a game right now in this particular area using Paizo's" Legacy of Fire" Adventure Path. It only took a little while to map out (convert) them to GH, and so far they work great. It is one of my favorite adventure conceits of all time, and the players really enjoy it.
A nomadic feel is important, no doubt about it. Here's what I think:
These people will mostly be related to Mongolian nomads. For nomads on large prairies, I believe A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin does this very well with the Dothraki. These nomads, under most circumstances, should have little sedentary parts to their lives.
I say to also mix their culture with that of the Great Prairie native Americans who migrate with the herd of buffalo. These people cannot farm, so they have to hunt or gather. This means small tribes or clans on horses. Their shamans should be focused on divination, asking questions like "What will tomorrow's weather be like?" or "Where will the heard go next?"
Giving the people knowledge of herbs, trapping, hunting, and riding is a must. If these people have treasure at all, it would be through family heirlooms and small caches of gold that they keep for traders if they cannot barter.
Thank you so much for all the advices! They helped me to build up some confidence about my on-going campaign, which has been very good so far IMO. Not only has this been a great change of pace but also very canon ;)
Now that my short-lived Plains of the Paynims adventure has been concluded, I'd like to give you a brief summary of the events:
PCs were adventuring in Sterich as they stumbled upon a well-marked and permanent Teleportation Circle. Unaware of the final destination, they all stepped in.
PCs found themselves in an abandoned wizards towers right in the middle of dunes and there were nothing in sight. Horizon revealed nothing. They wandered around and met some paynims who spoke broken Common. PCs were invited to their camp where the old amir was about to die. Clan Al-Dakam had delayed their trip to north until their amir had passed away and a new one was chosen. There was a tea ceremony and they shared many stories. Before PCs received any substantial help beyond standard hospitality, they had to slay a giant ant lion who was keeping camels from approaching a grassy spot in the middle of the desert.
After the giant ant lion was slain, they heard of an ancient legend of the wizard whose tower they had visited: Long time ago he had disappeared, but before that he had donated several powerful magical items to the Paynims. Three of these items were missing, but there were clues about them. PCs decided to simply pursue one of them and they headed towards Crystalmist Mountains, where they entered a fortress of a halfling, who had been a gambler and adventurer. They managed to raid the fortress (halfling had died from a heart attack) and they went to search clan Al-Hatam - a powerful section of Griffon riders, who had been interbreeding with eastern humans so that they could ride to the East and trade freely with the people of Sheldomar Valley, which was normally difficult due to the hated Knights of the Watch.
PCs had no real information where Al-Hatamis were, so they wandered towards the foothills of Crystalmist Mountains. They encountered a lamia and his enslaved paynims, but the beast lost the fight. Paynims tried to apologize from the PCs, but this was denied and they simply robbed them of their water. This was sad, because these Paynims knew where Al-Hatamis and their Griffons were...
So they continued to wander around with no goal where to go, thanks to their willingness to attack natives on sight. They had to fight against a spellstitched sanguineous drinker, who had been created by a desperate cleric-wizard over a thousand years ago. Also a wasteland troll gave PCs a run for their money.
In the end they accidently found the clan Al-Hatam, who were looking for quality mercenaries to aid their blue-eyed boy over the mountains to Sheldomar Valley to sell insanely expensive rugs and black saffron. PCs proved their ability by slaying two hieracosphinx. After this they traded some magical items with Al-Hatams, who were somewhat reluctant to simply sell things for gold pieces.
During the flight over Crystalmist Mountains the PCs suffered quite a bit, due to the lack of oxygen. In the final days of the aerial caravan they encountered a young red dragon, who slew two PCs but then escaped because he was badly wounded.
Now they have arrived to Sterich and it seems that they is no way they will ever go back to the Plains of the Paynims.
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