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ALQ4 Secrets of the Lamp (2e)

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Exciting Adventures in the City of Brass and Other Genie Lands!

Revealed within are the greatest secrets of the genies: their magics, their rulers, and heir homelands. From the Citadel of Ice and Steel to the Great Dismal Delve, the works of geniekind are as wondrous as they are magnificent.

Tour the City of Brass, from its golden towers to its brazen streets, foil the evil yak men and their dao servants, travel on the desert whirlwinds of the jann. Learn the legends and secret history of the genies, their cities, their foibles, and their feuds. Secrets of the Lamp includes a 64-page sourcebook about genies, a 32-page booklet of adventures set in Zakhara and the City of Brass, a full-color map, six cards showing details of the City, and four Monstrous Compendium pages that introduce new genies and other elemental creatures.

Recommended for use with the Arabian Adventures rulebook.

Product History

ALQ4: Secrets of the Lamp (1993), by Wolfgang Baur, is the fourth in the series of "ALQ" supplements for Al-Qadim. It was published in November 1993.

Origins. The assignment for Secrets of the Lamp requested that Baur write about genies and also describe the City of Brass. From there, he had a free hand to figure out the details of genie culture & society.

Continuing the ALQ Series. Secrets of the Lamp was the last official supplement in the "ALQ" series, which had started with ALQ1: Golden Voyages (1992). Like its predecessors, it combined source material and adventure in a boxed set.

TSR stopped using module codes in 1994, but afterward it put out four more boxed Al-Qadim sets that would have fit right in with the "ALQ" series, from Ruined Kingdoms (1994) to Caravans (1994).

Mapping Tropes. The map of the City of Brass in Secrets of the Lamp was drawn by David Sutherland — the very person who had drawn the City of Brass on the back cover of the original Dungeon Masters Guide (1979).

Expanding Al Qadim. Because genies are an important element of Al-Qadim, all of the source material in Secrets of the Lamp is relevant to the setting. There are also some Zakhara-specific details desribing tribes of nomadic Jann, how genies take part in Zakharan court, and what they've done in Zakharan history.

Expanding the Inner Planes. However, Secrets of the Lamp reveals even more detail on the Elemental Planes. They'd been an important part of D&D's cosmology since the earliest days, but they'd never received a lot of attention in published modules because they were fairly hostile environments for adventuring. The elemental nodes of T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil (1985) were one of the few exceptions — and fairly limited at that.

In Secrets of the Lamp, all of the elemental planes gets some nice attention because there's a genie race linked to each of them: the dao of the elemental plane of earth; the djinn of the elemental plane of air; the efreet of the elemental plane of fire; and the marid of the elemental plane of water. Of all the elemental planes, the plane of fire gets the most attention because its the home of the City of Brass. As promised, it's extensively detailed (and mapped).

Monsters of Note. Elemental kin, genies, and grue all appear in Secrets of the Lamp. The azer elemental kin and the grue were making return appearances, having appeared originally in Monster Manual II (1983) for AD&D 1e.

About the Creators. Secrets of the Lamp was Baur's second solo project for TSR, following ALQ2: Assassin Mountain (1993). It let him explore the more light-hearted side of fantasy, as opposed to some of the grittier work he was doing at the time.

Recently, Baur has become better known as the founder of Kobold Press. One of its first projects, Six Arabian Nights (2008), returned to Baur to his professional writing origins in the world of Scheherazade's stories.

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.

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Discussions (3)
Customer avatar
Jamie B December 29, 2022 5:05 pm UTC
PODs of the entire al-Qadim product line, please. It’s just silly to have a few random box sets available for purchase as PODs, and I will, but not the core book or box. Thank you for what you have done; please do more.
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Kenneth Ian V July 26, 2021 9:56 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
Nicholas P July 15, 2021 4:11 pm UTC
POD please
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Product Information
Gold seller
Author(s)
Pages
131
Edition
1.0
ISBN
1-56076-647-6
Publisher Stock #
TSR 9433
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