Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Xalxika 07-26-03, 09:11 PM	Anyone know where I can get the stats for Ali Baba and his gang of thieves? I had this wild and crazy idea for a campaign where the PC's make friends with a group of retired adventurers that robbed Ali Baba years ago, and now they have been found with the PC's getting right into the frey as cohorts to the bandits of his treasure.
krichaiushii 07-26-03, 10:25 PM	I imagine that for Ali Baba's name to be known across the multiverse, he would almost have to be an epic-level character - likely rogue or fighter/rogue. His band of 40 thieves should range from levels 10-20, with appropriate PrCs (assassins and the like)... definitely keep things unpredictable with a mix of straight rogues and rogue/others. Spellcasting can be covered by either a dedicated arcanist OR high UMD for all involved. And lots of wands... I recommend reading up on the tales of Ali Baba, to get a better grasp of the magic items he has readily available, and likely a better breakdown of his thieves' abilities. Perhaps some inspiration may be found here: http://www.arabianadventures.org/ Not only will the above site be able to answer questions about Ali Baba, it may help with the proper... atmosphere for that happy gang. Cheers.
Dash Branaghan 07-27-03, 03:10 AM	Uhm, last time I checked, Ali Baba stole from the 40 thieves...they weren't his band. And the thieves were killed when they hid in jars and the servant poured boiling hot oil into each one and sealed the lids. Mind you it's been some time since I read it, but I wouldn't exactly call the 40 thieves "his" since he was enemies with them for stealing their treasure, not allied.
MinusInnocence 07-27-03, 03:34 AM	Way to burst his bubble, Dash. What are you going to say next, there's no Santa Claus? OH YES THERE IS! HE HAS DRUID LEVELS, I SAW HIS STATS LAST YEAR!
Dash Branaghan 07-27-03, 01:34 PM	Originally posted by MinusInnocence Way to burst his bubble, Dash. What are you going to say next, there's no Santa Claus? OH YES THERE IS! HE HAS DRUID LEVELS, I SAW HIS STATS LAST YEAR! Yeah, I think the guys at WoTC who decided that had been dipping in the eggnog a wee bit too much. Next thing you know, they'll have an awakened Creature of Legend rabbit for the Easter Bunny. With levels of druid. :D
krichaiushii 07-27-03, 01:37 PM	I'll take your word for it, Dash, as I have never actually read the tale(s?) - only heard the phrase and jumped to a conclusion. I guess that would make all the thieves very low int/wis rogues or Ali Baba a very high int/wis person, indeed! ;)
Xalxika 07-27-03, 03:34 PM	Well, thanks for pointing out my mistake. I haven't read the tales either, but hey, maybe I can change the stories a bit where the 40 thieves steal from Ali Baba and the PC's get caught in the middle of it. Then the story would end the way the PC's make it end.
Fable 07-27-03, 11:56 PM	In case you were interested: http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/arabian/bl-arabian-alibaba.htm :)
Xalxika 07-28-03, 01:30 AM	Thanks Fable, an interesting tale indeed.
Dash Branaghan 07-28-03, 02:05 AM	Since we're sort of on the topic, has anyone actually used the 1001 Arabian Nights for D&D inspiration? I've never gotten around to dealing with the Ali Baba & the 40 Thieves or Aladdin campaign concepts, but I was wondering if anyone else tried it? Being familiar with it myself, I tend to stay away from it in the event my players think I'm being trite or, possible, bored with the predicatability of the session.
Fable 07-28-03, 10:56 AM	Well, the real Arabian Nights takes a great deal of sifting to actually get the good stories out. There is a great deal of "Wife runs off with slave and husband kills her and the slave" which is sort of less heroic. I am using an Arabian setting now and it has its plusses and minuses. The upside is that you get some excellent role playing possibilities. The cultural rules are very different and your typical swaggering PC might offend someone around every corner. I am having some struggles with genies so I have been watching every Arabian movie I can find to get a better grasp on them. I bought a mini-series on dvd called, not surprisingly, Arabian Nights (2000), which was very good for getting the flavor of the tales although it skips the fact that the Caliph had killed several wives before Scheherazade married him and beguiled him with her tales. I probably went to the desert to get away from the arctic where we had been playing for too long and I am very happy with it so far. There are many more gaming opportunities in the setting beyond Ali Baba. If you were interested in reading the stories themselves I would probably recommend you go for a modern translation - my hubby read 50% of the book to me out loud a few years ago and sometimes the stilted language is difficult to wade through if you are more interested in the story than the language. Desert riders have a very romantic appeal and if you are in an Arabian setting you can have Arabian horses, desert riders, desert monsters and I have thrown in some dark sun creatures because none of my happy little players have seen them before so it has added some flavor. They have been running around in this one city for a couple weeks now (you can see my previous post about the plot arc they are coping with - all intrigue with some crypt walking with help from the boards.) Anyway, as you can see I am pretty enthusiastic about this setting and I have learned bunches in the process. I have worked in some of the tales themselves into the game – the party has stopped to listen to storytellers in the market and I have relayed some of the more interesting ones to them in that manner. Let me know if you head down this road!
Xalxika 07-28-03, 11:26 AM	Well, I do like Arabian horses and all, and Ali Baba is an interesting character, but I tend to create my own little world where everything is mixed in. My Pantheon consists of the deities from Sword and Sorcery, but it's a Greek story of the Titans vs. the Gods with some plot changes. I have my own time setting, and the world has 3 suns: purple, red, and blue. They work in perfect correlation moving around the planet Scarn. I don't have any special things about the suns yet, but I'm going to add that later. As you can see I have chosen to add historical people such as Ali Baba, Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, and so on and so forth. I took the Devil May Cry class of Devil Hunter and added it with some twists, and gave their class a story-line where they were the first to create hadnguns (they were just lost for centuries). I have created my own province-styled world, eventually making a continent, and then the entire world. And the world will forever stand as it is, so no matter how many characters my players play after the next (if I choose to move time as they go when a character dies of age) the world will always be filled with magic, beasts, and ancient civilization. The world is at its peak in technology, though new governments may come in and go, new races, etc. Don't get me wrong, though, I'm going to read the Ali Baba tales I can find because I don't want to RP him wrong or anything, and I need to get a better grasp of the desert setting. I'm not good at the open plane type stuff where the PC's can see creatures way before they can attack, so I decided to wait on such places for now.
Qualidar 07-28-03, 05:45 PM	I can't recommend Al-Quadim enough. In my 20 years of role-playing, the best campaign I ran was the one in Al-Quadim. You should get the original Arabian Adventures sourcebook and all the related modules. Now!! ~Qualidar~