The desert resounds with the hoofbeats of raiders as they descend upon a lonely outpost. Sails snap and unfurl as explorers journey toward treasure and treachery on the Crowded Sea. In the Grand Bazaar of golden Huzuz, merchants haggle over silks and spices and rings of silver, their words merging with the din of the crowd. Then the gongs of the mosques begin to sound. A hush passes over the city as the priests call the faithful to prayer. While the enlightened masses bow their heads, miles away—among the ruins of the Haunted Lands—a whirlwind rises, shifting the sand to reveal another idol, another tribute to some nameless, forgotten god.

Welcome to Zakhara, the Land of Fate...

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Al-Qadim has been a long-time favorite of mine. With the imminent release of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and the genie-patron warlock becoming official, it's got me thinking of the Land of Fate once more.

In this game I hope we'd get to travel well-worn trade routes, discover lost crypts, sail on the Crowded Sea, explore long-forgotten cities buried beneath the sand, engage in the courtly politics of the Grand Caliph, visit the House of the Loregiver, and make treacherous journeys across the desert wastes.

The game would be a character-driven sandbox that will hopefully be roughly balanced between interaction, character development, exploration, and combat.

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Would there be any interest?

I would be interested in exploring some of the Zakhara specific flavor for 5e, I have no doubt there are others.

All D&D 5 games are fairly popular on their own, particularly the ones that can stand out from the pack, even if a lot of players don't notice this sort of thread.

I'd definitely be interested!

I'd be interested in something like this.

Oh how I miss Al-Qadim! And it hasn't really been revisited since like 2nd Edition, not in a meaningful way. Depending on the rules and flavor, I'd be interested.

I've never played in Al-Qadim, but was always intrigued.  I'd be interested!

Same, I'm not familiar with the background, but I'm always down for exploration and 5E.

Long time Al-Qadim fan here, so I'm always interested.

What questions do you have about the rules and flavor?

It’s one of the few settings that I’ve heard about, but never played. I’d  love experiencing that land!

I support it. I'm not sure how much trouble it would be to convert to 5th edition, but I don't think it would be too bad.

I have seen a few things on DMsGuild doing convertions- explaining classes and such. I think even adding archetypes... I'd have to look again.

Will you be converting the rules on station for use?

I would be interested in revisiting Al-Qadim after so many years away.

Mainly what you will be using for 5E to get the classes and flavor from Al-Qadim as others have asked about. I mean, obviously, in 2E there were a lot of classes and sublcasses, and not all of them need to exist outside of 'flavor' for a character (like if someone wanted to play one of the Barbers, that would be a Rogue and flavor). But like, say the Sha'ir? That is a full-on Al-Qadim class that would need to be represented, in my opinion.

Would you be using the Genie Patron Warlock from the UA until Tasha's comes out - or are you waiting to start the game until it comes out? Etc.
This message was last edited by the user at 15:49, Tue 08 Sept 2020.

This is going to be straight 5th Edition in Al-Qadim. I'm not using or permitting anything unofficial. The only exception is the genie warlock. As that's a first level choice, if a PC is a genie warlock then they can use the UA version of the class until Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is released, then we'll convert over. Every other subclass should be a second- or third-level choice. Considering this is PBP, we probably won't hit 2nd level by early November.



I hadn't planned on it. As described it's mostly a roleplaying tool for NPCs. PCs are explicitly exempt from conforming to it. Social standing will definitely be a part of the game, but more likely in rough chunks like underclass, lower class, middle class, upper class, rather than a full subsystem of 0-20 with detailed rules.



With the exception of the Sha'ir (genie warlock), I think most of the Al-Qadim kits are most easily seen as background plus class. Most of the kit flavor is roleplaying specific rather than mechanical, so a background feature would work. It might not be perfect, but I have no interest in converting 2E kits over to 5E.



I answered that bit earlier in this post.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the user at 16:12, Tue 08 Sept 2020.

Would the Hakima be comparable with the Druid class in 5e?

In reply to smokinbarrel (msg # 17):

That was the kahin, as I recall. Desert terrain Land druid,  of course.

Maybe a Shepard druid for the Hakima. I don't recall them as being spirit oriented, so much as Sighted. One of the Bard paths might be a better fit. Or I could be misremembering them. I might be well seved to digging out the old book.

I think they were a type of cleric, with mostly cultural bonuses rather than mechanical ones.

You could probably represent a Hakima with either the Knowledge or Unity domain subclass of cleric and a creative custom background.

They were a cleric with limited weapons and no Turn ability. Back then "cleric" was a broad term. Spell access, weapons, armor, and assorted special abilities changed by diety.

Most of what they could do would be a high wisdom and Insight or Perception (well, as close as this editions comes to it, anyhow). Bard allows Expertise to be added to that, and keeps the healing spells and weapon limitations.

Frankly, like much of the game after 3 and a half editions have passed, not everything translates perfectly. Spelljammer has similar translation issues. You just have to get close enough.

The hakima (wise woman) strikes me as a knowledge cleric with the sage, scholar, or a custom background. But I’m open.

The kahin (idol priest) is closest to druids, I think, but could also be a nature cleric.

Wow, I would be very interested in this!

How do Elemental Mages fit? Normal wizards with a thematic spell choice (ie. a Sand Mage might just focus a lot on earth type spells)?

How about Sorcerers (in the 5E sense - I assume what Al-Qadim calls 'Sorcerers' are just normal wizards)?

2nd edition didn't have sorcerers or warlocks.

Many of the Sha'ir from 2nd edition are just warlocks and sorcerers by a different name. Some could use custom rules but very few actually need them.

Really the fix is the same everywhere.  Just build a character that operates in the role of the Al-Qadim thing you want, and change it's name.

Okay, so clearly there’s enough interest. Good.

Al-Qadim 5th Edition D&D over here:
This message was last edited by the user at 15:48, Fri 18 Sept 2020.