Paradigm Concepts News

Is there a preview?
Yes. http://true20.com/files/caliphate_nights_pre.pdf

What is the 'Caliphate'?
Caliph means “successor to the Prophet Muhammad.” It was the title taken on by his Companions and his family who assumed leadership of the emerging Muslim state. This state was called the “caliphate” and the Caliph was its temporal and spiritual leader. The caliphate was the center of philosophical, theological, and scientific discourse and discovery between the 9th and 12th Christian centuries. While Europe was mired in the Dark Ages, Baghdad flourished as scholars and artists from across the world gathered there under the Caliph’s patronage.

Is this a new fantasy setting or a real-world setting?
The answer is both. Caliphate Nights is set in the real-world circa 800 CE (the 184th year of the Hijrah) with a couple twists. For example, Jinnistan, the land of the djinni really does exist, sorcerers really do have magical citadels, and shapeshifting demons really do attack caravans. Sailor's tales are more often than not true - the Atlantic Ocean may really be a sea of darkness filled with dangerous sea serpents and mountains of magnetic rock.

Is the setting strictly tied to the 9th century?
No. While Caliphate Nights is based on the reign of Harun al-Rashid, historical realities have been adapted to make a more entertaining and thought-provoking game. For example, the following elements have been included far earlier than they were historically: House of Wisdom, the Assassins, coffeehouses, and an independent governor of Egypt.

I'm intimidated by all this history that I know nothing about! Can I use this book without being a historian?
Sure you can!  The barebones history presented in the setting brief in the True20 core book is enough for you to run a game with the appearance of authenticity. The setting book expands on the historical backdrop and also gives suggestions about how to stretch the historical realities without breaking the setting's feel. Also, the setting book presents a list of resources (books & films) for you to educate yourself about the fascinating history of Islam and the Near East.

Could the setting be used for children or is it too mature?
Yes, absolutely you could use it for children. Now, there are lots of "real world" mature elements in the game, such as the nature of Prophets, women's rights, race relations, and the rights of a ruler. However, this also pure fantasy. The book has brief guidelines for narrating a game for children, and you can adapt the diceless narrative options presented in the book to simplify the rules for a group of children. Of course, it is up to the individual to be a responsible role-model when running a game for children.

How is Caliphate Nights different from Hollywood?
Hollywood and the Arabian Adventure genre are inseparable. What Caliphate Nights endeavors to do is extract the good things from Hollywood's depictions (e.g. amazing swordfights and witty repartee) while staying more true to the history and folklore of the Near East, and approaching the cultures with deep respect. In addition, Caliphate Nights is intimately bound to faith, in particular Islam (as were the original renditions of the Arabian Nights). The great theme of Caliphate Nights is the absolute mercy and sovereignty of God the Almighty.

How do you define a hero in Caliphate Nights?
One of the most important thing about a hero is their Virtue - the rules from True20 are expanded upon to make this a very tangible part of the game. In addition, Caliphate Nights characters have backgrounds (e.g. Noble in Hiding, Talentless Youth), archetypes (the same as Blue Rose's heroic paths, e.g. Dervish, Hakima, Sha'ir), allegiances (e.g. Ismaili, Sufi, Sovereign), station (a measure of social class and what circles the hero is known in), complications (mandatory problems which can provide you with Conviction, e.g. Persistent Suitor, Wicked Relative), and, of course, a name (great detail is given to constructing an authentic Arabic name).

What archetypes are presented in the setting book?

Adept Archetypes
Astrologer - who divines the future, past, and present from the stars
Dervish - a Sufi who walks the sacred path of surrender to God
Elementalist - who shapes the essential qualities of nature
Hakima - who perceives the truth in word and deed
Natural Philosopher - a pious magician who pratices a nascent science
Saint - holy person whose faith has endowed them with miraculous power
Sha'ir - who summons, consorts with, and bids the djinni

Expert Archetypes
Assassin - who kill for political and religious motives
Barber - rogues who are quick with a razor and a word
Beggar-Thief - who steal in order to stay alive
Explorer - who travel the world in search of something
Hakawati - storytellers who know how to work a crowd
Merchant - who master the marketplace and trade
Mullah - theologians and legal scholars who teach others

Warrior Archetypes
Amir - princely commander who marshals troops in battle
Cherkaji - mounted warriors with an intimate bond to their steed
Corsair - pirates who ply the Mediterranean's waters
Duelist - who collects the blood debts that are owed
Ghazi - holy warrior who tempers wrath with mercy
Guard - who watch over palace, city, harem, and caravan
Mamluk - slave cavalry who also run the civil service

Are there non-human races?
No. All heroes are human, but they can come from any number of cultures (e.g. Chinese, Kurdish, Persian). That said "Djinn-Touched" is offered as a background for those characters with *something* magical about them.

How is magic treated in Caliphate Nights?
I think Caliphate Nights is best described as "middle fantasy." By this I mean most threats are not supernatural, but when fantastic things do appear they are very dangerous, wondrous, and talked about for a long time. However, there are also overtones of magic being persecuted. Powers work as normal, and there are several new powers presented. In addition, all adepts must choose one of a dozen arcane philosophies, which describes their beliefs about the nature of magic; arcane philosophies make minor modifications to the way magic works for that adept.

What about djinni?
The djinni in Caliphate Nights are closer to Arabian lore and fairly removed from their Hollywood status as wish-granters (though there are djinni feats which allow for such things). Rather, the six tribes of djinni (Ghul, Ifreet, Jinn, Jann, Marid, Shaitan), have their own society in the magical world of Jinnistan. According to Islam, djinni were created from smokeless flame thousands of years before the coming of humanity, but when humankind was created from a clot of blood, the djinni were asked to obey humanity's supremacy and renounce their positions as the rulers and gods of humanity. Slowly, fracture lines began to form in djinni society, and the tribes began to form. With the coming of Islam, the growing divide was cemented when the Choice was made. Jinn and Jann sided with God and humanity, while the Ghul, Ifreet, and Shaitan made ready their resistance. The Marid sheikh, not wanting to offend the sensibilities of his proud people, let each marid choose for themselves. While there are wicked jinn and pious ifreet, these are the general trends of allegiance. "Djinni" will appear as a new creature type, and there are guidelines for creating djinni of each of the 6 tribes.

Will adepts be able to summon djinni? Will they be anything like the sha'ir from Al-Qadim?
The fatiguing Djinni Summoning power allows an adept to summon a djinn of a specific tribe or to summon a djinn by name. The power check Difficulty is 10 + twice the djinn's level. Once the djinn is summoned, you must negotiate with it (there are detailed guidelines for negotiating with djinni) to secure its service.

Sha'irs exist as an adept Archetype. They gain other powers like Djinni Binding and Spirit Sense, as well as long-winded feats like Apprehend the Djinni's Hand and Ambassador to the Djinni. A sha'ir doesn't necessarily rely on a spirit messenger to access their powers, though there is an arcane philosophy which a sha'ir may take to do just that!

I'm not interested in playing True20. Can I use Caliphate Nights in a "standard" d20 game?
The short answer is "yes." Basically, the main areas to translate would be feats that reference unique True20 mechanics (there aren't too many of them), powers (some of these are D&D spells like Dispel, Find the Path, or True Seeing, but others are fairly unique), the new uses for Conviction (easy if you're using action points), and the various antagonist/ally stat blocks. Most of the book is about story, the *feel*, language, and setting of the Nights, so it's useful as is.

Our gaming group loves True20, but we really want to play Al-Qadim and aren't as interested in a pseudo-historical setting. Can I use Caliphate Nights to support this style of play?
Yes, you can. TSR/WotC's Al-Qadim is a thoroughly researched setting with strong ties to Arabian custom and folklore, so most of the material from Caliphate Nights should be easy to fit in an Al-Qadim game.

I'm running a non-Caliphate Nights game, but really like the idea of "framing" stories. How could I use this in my own game?
There are many ways a Narrator can use framing, so I'll highlight a couple of these to give you an idea of how flexible the concept is.

1. A spontaneous frame story
All of a sudden, without any planning, a player launches into a framed story. They may be narrating from their character's perspective or be narrating on behalf of a supporting character (an NPC), either way is kosher. Because there's no preparation, diceless rules are used (provided in the book) whereby each character is described with 6 trait points and conflict is handled with sacrifices. The player becomes Narrator temporarily, and everyone else adopts a character in their story: wicked step-mother, talking camel, cowardly soldier, etc. Once the story concludes, the character who was narrating the story (usually the player's character, but not necessarily so) gains a bonus to an interaction check based on how entertaining their story was. Narrative control then returns to the regularly scheduled Narrator.

2. A planned frame story
If a player is planning a framed story they might put some more work into it and design characters for the story that suit each player in the group. These may be standard True20 characters or the may be diceless characters (the player's choice). Such a framed story will probably last for a longer period of time than a spontaneous story but otherwise plays out and is resolved in the same way.

3. Simply tell the story
If the story is short, isn't pivotal to the plot, andthe group wants to keep the action of the current scene moving, you can just let a player tell a story in-character. It is not played out. Once their story is completed, the modifiers listed for framing a story are added to their check.
 

When is the Caliphate Nights setting book going to be released?

It should arrive in time for Origins (June 29 - July 2) and the hit the shelves of your FLGS sometime in July.