Close
Close
Advanced Search

Al-Qadim: Land of Fate (2e)Click to magnify
Quick Preview
/gs_flipbook/flip.php?xml=/demo_xml/16869.xml&w=500&h=334
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.drivethrurpg.com/pdf_previews/16869-sample.pdf

Al-Qadim: Land of Fate (2e)

ADD TO WISHLIST >

Ride a magic carpet to a land of a thousand and one adventures! Visit spired cities, lush oases, and mysterious isles set in glittering seas. Meet sultans and sheikhs. See genies and giants. Discover a trove of new magical treasures! Whether your character starts from the compatible Forgotten Realms game setting or begins the journey elsewhere, this product contains everything a bold adventurer needs to explore the exotic AL-Qadim campaign world.

Recommended for use with the Arabian Adventures rulebook.

Product History

Al-Qadim: Land of Fate (1992), by Jeff Grubb, was the setting book that filled out the world of Al-Qadim. It was released in August 1992.

Continuing the Al-Qadim Line. Al-Qadim was one of the most carefully planned settings that TSR had produced to that date, and it showed in the product line's initial rollout in 1992: it started with Arabian Adventures (1992), a rulebook for the setting and continued with a new release in TSR's Monstrous Compendium series, MC13: Monstrous Compendium Al-Qadim Appendix (1992). Land of Fate was the third and final of the initial core books for Al-Qadim.

Land of Fate claims that it contains "everything a bold adventurer needs to explore the exotic Al-Qadim campaign world"; as that suggests Land of Fate is largely a player's guide: a 128-page book details the setting, its culture, and many of its cities. However, there's a bit of GM information here, including secrets of the setting, magic items, and even some rules for higher-level PCs. The result isn't quite fish or fowl, but is best described as a player's setting book.

Land of Fate is also notable for being Al-Qadim's first boxed supplement. Unlike most of TSR's boxes at the time, the Al-Qadim boxes were shallow, presumably keeping prices down. The majority of Al-Qadim's supplements would ship in this boxed format, starting with ALQ1: Golden Voyages (1992), the final Al-Qadim supplement for the year.

Graphic Design Tropes. As the second book using the Al-Qadim trade dress, Land of Fate confirmed that beautiful endpapers and gold-foil borders would be a regular part of the line. Similarly, Karl Waller continued with the interior artwork.

However, Land of Fate also had some rather unique graphical design of its own. The "Power Groups" section of the DM book rather uniquely shows members of each group as they might appear from 1st to 12th level. The result is graphically appealing, and a neat reference for DMs and players.

What's in a Name? Al-Qadim, the Land of Fate, could have been called many other things. It had the working title of "The Burning Lands" from 1990-1992, but that was ultimately deemed too generic to copyright.

Expanding AD&D. The Dark Sun Boxed Set (1991) was the first AD&D setting to really think about high-level play. Al-Qadim followed in its footsteps in a minor way: it provided unique titles and followers appropriate to the setting for higher level characters.

Expanding Al-Qadim. Arabian Adventures was mostly focused on rules; it had just 8 pages detailing the Land of Fate. Land of Fate was thus the book that really revealed the setting. Though there's material on culture and religion, it's the cities of the setting and the desert tribes that get the most attention in this book. In all, over two dozen cities are detailed!

Monsters of Note. Land of Fate includes stats for many unique genies, but most importantly, it reveals the yak-men!

About the Creators. Grubb was the creator of Al-Qadim and the author of Arabian Adventures. However this was his last major work for the setting; his next big project would be the Buck Rogers Adventure Game (1993).

About the Product Historian

The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (3)
Discussions (15)
Customer avatar
Sam S July 30, 2023 6:00 pm UTC
POD please!
Customer avatar
Stefan B January 27, 2023 5:33 pm UTC
This book needs a POD option.
Customer avatar
Jakob S November 20, 2022 10:59 pm UTC
POD please
Customer avatar
Damian F August 24, 2021 11:59 am UTC
PURCHASER
Reading through it at the moment, it's absolutely great. TSR really knew how to make a good campaign setting book. WOTC should learn a thing or two from these old books, the level of care and detail put into them is absolutely spectacular! The chapter on the legal system alone puts the laws listed in Waterdeep Dragon heist to shame.

The disclaimer's also really, really dumb. Everything about this book I've shown my players, they've all agreed- this is a really good book. If anything it tells me WOTC doesn't stand for quality writing!
Customer avatar
Kenneth Ian V July 26, 2021 9:51 pm UTC
In February of this year I sent an email to Wizards of the Coast asking if they had any plans for a POD version of one of their books and got a reply telling me 'Thank you for showing interest in our products but it is our policy to never reply to emails'. I did this because DriveThruRPG told me that the decision is completely out of their hands and is up to WotC.
Since then WotC has tightened up their contact information to the extent that I can't even find their 'contact us' email address anymore.
However, I did find some contact information which I listed below. So, try contacting WotC. If enough people do this maybe they will get the idea that a POD is wanted. One can hope.
Facebook lists their phone number as 1 425-226-6500
Facebook also has a "Contact Wizards of the Coast on Messenger" link in the About section.
https://www.facebook.com/Wizards-of-the-Coast-540208589333239/
Customer avatar
Reid H April 12, 2021 11:48 pm UTC
Print on Demand, please!
Customer avatar
Joseph S March 07, 2021 2:54 am UTC
Why no POD?
Customer avatar
Nicholas P January 28, 2021 8:24 pm UTC
POD please
Customer avatar
Keith B January 20, 2021 12:45 pm UTC
Id like a hardback option of this as well please
Customer avatar
Nathan F November 30, 2020 9:59 pm UTC
POD please!! Hardback option!
Customer avatar
Michael A November 29, 2020 11:44 am UTC
Please include a POD option!
Customer avatar
Wolfgang W July 10, 2020 4:07 am UTC
POD please~!
Customer avatar
Tim K May 21, 2019 5:41 pm UTC
PURCHASER
A very clean, nice scan of all aspects (books, maps, cards) of this product except one: the clear plastic sheet that has a hex grid printed on it that gives the maps a scale is not included. There are many, many written descriptions of distances, so you should be able to replicate the original 18-mile per hex grid (6 mile hex grid on the smaller / more detailed maps) or otherwise generate a fairly accurate scale. I happened to know someone with the product and they took photos of the grid on each map that allowed me to replicate the grid fairly accurately.
Customer avatar
Konstantinos P January 16, 2018 9:03 am UTC
Is there any chance for PoD in the near future?
Customer avatar
Andrew B July 29, 2014 1:48 pm UTC
This setting was always my favorite of the classic Dungeons and Dragons line. I had trouble running it. No one in my group wanted to play in a desert for fear we may break out in a psychosomatic sweat or something, but the material is dazzaling to read and imagine the interactions with.

Many times the old European D&D model is stale, unless Tolken is being directly invoked. Its very structured had become over done to a mind numbing degree. Every game seems to become a parody the one before. "Here we go meeting at the Inn again. I wonder who will be looking for us there this time?" Then you fight some goblin/kobold thing a few times before finally lining up against the wizard or dragon which awaits at the end of the dungeon.

Imagine breaking all the conventions and then adding a beautiful shimmer of color and spice onto everything. That is how I would describe this setting. Instead of going to a tavern to lean about anything anywhere you might overhear something...See more
Narrow Results
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!
 Recent History















Product Information
Platinum seller
Author(s)
Artist(s)
Pages
265
Edition
1.0
ISBN
1-56076-329-9
Publisher Stock #
TSR 1077
File Size:
98.9 MB
Format
Scanned image Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Information
Watermarked PDF Click for more information
Watermarked PDF

These PDF files are digitally watermarked to signify that you are the owner. A small message is added to the bottom of each page of the PDF containing your name and the order number of your purchase.

Warning: If any files bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.

Here is a sample of a page from a watermarked title:

File Last Updated:
July 28, 2014
This title was added to our catalog on July 29, 2014.