Mandy is going to DM an Arabian Nights-y Middle East Campaign, so I am writing up some "Sandy Box" tools she can use to fill in the gaps when DMing...DISTANCES (approximate)
Capital to capital with a different language
(ex: Baghdad, Iraq to Tehran, Iran)
420 miles
14 days ride
28 days walking
City to nearby big city
(ex. Mecca, Saudi Arabia to Medina, Saudi Arabia
Baghdad, Iraq to Mosul, Iraq)
Cairo, Egypt to Jerusalem, Israel)
250 miles
9 days ride
18 days walking
Going about as far as you can and still be in 1001 Nights territory
(Morocco to Afghanistan)
4500 Miles
150 days ride
300 days walking
Sailing:
(Assuming a small boat with no crew other than the PCs. Larger boats with full crews could sail all night and go twice as fast.)
Sailing to the next decent-sized port along the coast
50 miles
1 day
Sailing from port to port in a different Middle Eastern country
(ex: Beirut to Alexandria, Egypt, or Beirut to Turkey)
300 miles
6 days
Sailing about as far as you can sail and still be in a 1001 Nights-y land
(Morocco to Syria via Mediterranean)
2000 miles
40 days
DESERT ENCOUNTERS
Roll 1 per day riding, 2 per day if walking, 3 per day hunting or searching
1-5 Harmless edible animals worth #of day food for one human = to number shown on dice
6-10 Snake (poisonous)
11-20 Bandits
21-25 Insect swarm
25-30 Sandstorm
31-34 Wild dogs
35-37 Scorpion (normal)
38-39 Oasis
40-44 Mirage
45 Mirage with hag, sand witch, or mind flayer waiting
46 Caravan--merchants
47 Caravan--starving
48 Caravan--pilgrims
49 Lone trader
50 Exiled madman
51 Bad guy disguised as something innocent
52 Half-a-man
53 Abandoned cart
54 Living statue/idol (immobile)
55-57 Sinkhole
58-59 Ogre
60 Ettin
61-62 Wizard with retinue
63-69 Jackal Men
70-78 Sand shark
79-80 Giant snake
80-81 Yak men
82-85 Giant desert lizard
86-87 Skeletons
88-89 Skeletons riding skeletal horses
90 Sphinx (think of a riddle)
91-92 Giant scorpion
93-94 Giant spider
95-97 Sandman
98 Sarlacc (hidden, like a sinkhole)
99-100 Talking animal (small bird, lizard, fox etc.)
We have TSR's Al Qadim stuff, but if anybody out there has any links to useful pseudo-Middle Eastern D&D stuff, let us know in the comments.
Remember: Mandy's relatively new to DMing, so relatively simple, newbie-friendly material is best. System will be the usual lite 3.5/AD&D mash-up so almost any era resource is cool.
