Quote from: Naburimannu on April 24, 2025, 03:36:39 AMGreat question! I really think of Sinbad as a more swords-and-sandals, Ancient theme.

Orlando Furioso probably has more in common with the French/English stylings than you're looking for, but it's what comes to mind for Medieval - although written in the early sixteenth century - and https://www.reddit.com/r/osr/comments/nfb5co/italian_osr_appendix_n/ might be a relevant Reddit thread, suggesting https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/307020/lo-scrigno-d-avorio.

I'm not super-keen on Historica Arcanum products, but https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/metismediarpg/historica-arcanum-era-of-the-crusades-5e does Cairo & Jerusalem. Off the top of my head their other projects are later-period?

The Sinbad stories are set in the 9th century, inspired by naval exploration of that time. That's early medieval - two hundred years before the First Crusade. In the Ray Harryhausen Sinbad movies, he is clearly Islamic with occasional invoking of Allah. And yeah, to S'mon's point - he's mostly sailing around the Arabia and the Indian Ocean, not in the Mediterranean. Fair point.

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Mainstream D&D is centered on England and Tolkien - but pulls in lots of English, Irish, Germanic, and Nordic mythology with a smattering of others. Oriental Adventures mixes together Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and a bit of others.

I'm imagining something that's similarly broad and eclectic but centered in the Mediterranean and Arabia. There was a ton of travel and trade - and exchange of stories - around this region, so I feel like there's a lot of potential for a broad fantasy setting like mainstream D&D or Oriental Adventures, rather than historical or semi-historical in a specific country.

The medieval period was very much centered on the Mediterranean. You don't have Europe without the  Mediterranean and that includes Northern Africa and the Western part of the Middle East.

Even Tolkien had the Numenoreans. Maybe they were supposed to be Phoenicians, but they seemed somewhat Arab like to me, especially the Black ones.

Arabian Sea, yeah, that was different.

There is a very good OSR Arabian-ish book, The Thousand Year Sandglass. It's a self contained setting, literally in a sandglass, and very well done.

Quote from: JeremyR on April 24, 2025, 09:43:29 PMThe medieval period was very much centered on the Mediterranean. You don't have Europe without the  Mediterranean and that includes Northern Africa and the Western part of the Middle East.

Even Tolkien had the Numenoreans. Maybe they were supposed to be Phoenicians, but they seemed somewhat Arab like to me, especially the Black ones.

Arabian Sea, yeah, that was different.

There is a very good OSR Arabian-ish book, The Thousand Year Sandglass. It's a self contained setting, literally in a sandglass, and very well done.

The way you talk about Numenoreans makes me think that you have played MERP? Numenor was really Tolkien's "Atlantis", but there were many MERP modules set in the Harad region where the Black Numenoreans were a sort of colonizing force.

Quote from: jhkim on April 24, 2025, 06:50:03 PM

Quote from: Naburimannu on April 24, 2025, 03:36:39 AMGreat question! I really think of Sinbad as a more swords-and-sandals, Ancient theme.

Orlando Furioso probably has more in common with the French/English stylings than you're looking for, but it's what comes to mind for Medieval - although written in the early sixteenth century - and https://www.reddit.com/r/osr/comments/nfb5co/italian_osr_appendix_n/ might be a relevant Reddit thread, suggesting https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/307020/lo-scrigno-d-avorio.

I'm not super-keen on Historica Arcanum products, but https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/metismediarpg/historica-arcanum-era-of-the-crusades-5e does Cairo & Jerusalem. Off the top of my head their other projects are later-period?

The Sinbad stories are set in the 9th century, inspired by naval exploration of that time. That's early medieval - two hundred years before the First Crusade. In the Ray Harryhausen Sinbad movies, he is clearly Islamic with occasional invoking of Allah. And yeah, to S'mon's point - he's mostly sailing around the Arabia and the Indian Ocean, not in the Mediterranean. Fair point.

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Mainstream D&D is centered on England and Tolkien - but pulls in lots of English, Irish, Germanic, and Nordic mythology with a smattering of others. Oriental Adventures mixes together Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and a bit of others.

I'm imagining something that's similarly broad and eclectic but centered in the Mediterranean and Arabia. There was a ton of travel and trade - and exchange of stories - around this region, so I feel like there's a lot of potential for a broad fantasy setting like mainstream D&D or Oriental Adventures, rather than historical or semi-historical in a specific country.

Could be a fun concept. I would just call it "Golden Voyages" or something without much emphasis on specific region, and base it around the Sinbad films, Odysseus, and even a bit Ibn Batutta or other Muslim travelers. Perhaps the Sandokan stories by Emilio Salgari could also be a source? I've been planning to read those. 

Interesting topic. But if one were to create player characters races to replace the Germanic dwarves, elves, and halflings, where would one turn? Would we see different cultures used instead like Lankhmar's Nehwon races?

Quote from: JasperAK on Today at 02:09:23 PMInteresting topic. But if one were to create player characters races to replace the Germanic dwarves, elves, and halflings, where would one turn? Would we see different cultures used instead like Lankhmar's Nehwon races?

Great question. I just bought "The Thousand Year Sandglass" that JeremyR recommended. So looking over races of some products recommended:

Odyssey of the Dragonlords (Ancient Greek)

Centaurs / Medusae / Minotaurs / Nymphs / Satyr / Sirens

Brancalonia (Italian "spaghetti fantasy")

Gifted(magical human) / Morgant(demi-giants) / Sylvan(satyr-blooded) / Marionettes / Malebranche(mortal devils)

Al Qadim (AD&D Arabian)

standard D&D races

The Thousand Year Sandglass (OSR Arabian)

Jann(djinn-blooded) / Kedai(leopard-folk) / Largomani(lizard-folk)

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Imitation of Tolkien set the idea of an adventuring party being a mix of human, halfling, elf, dwarf, etc. However, I don't see that as a norm in something like Sinbad and similar stories. With due respect to the above products, in Greek myth, you wouldn't have a party of mixed humans, minotaurs, satyrs, etc. However, there were heroes like Zetes and Calaïs who had wings because of their descent from the winds.

I'd lean towards toss out the notion of "race" as a standard character choice, with all characters being nominally human - and instead have different sorts of traits to add, including some special inborn traits like gifted, satyr blooded, djinn blooded, wind blooded, etc.

Greetings!

It is always nice to find some actual products that feature some particular world region or era in history. Generally, for myself, aside from the more popular Western/Northern European focus, that I would otherwise be waiting in vain. Thus, I just create my own for whatever world region or time setting that I want.

A very long time ago, I waited and searched and waited on companies. There was nothing, or very little. I got tired of waiting and typically being hugely disappointed with any scraps I finally did find, whether it was for the Mediterranean, Africa, Ancient China, Ancient India, or whatever. I always encourage other gamers and fellow DM's to read for themselves. Build up and expand their personal libraries, and jump into whatever topical region that interests you. Chances are good that your sources are at least as good as anything any game company is likely to ever be using--and there's a good chance that you can build a far stronger library of resources and expertise.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK