Having been an avid player and dungeon master for Al Qadim, I began researching what conversions had already been done. I found two attempts at conversion. Unfortunately, one tried to fit Al Qadim into the backgrounds D&D had in place. The other created a couple of new classes, but kept the abilities it carried over identical to the original Al Qadim text. And some conversions were strange. For example, one tried to use the Draconic Sorcerer bloodlines for Elemental mages, which were always wizards and with almost all elemental ties relating to the genie planes, I don't see a good way of following that without losing the close tie between the elements and their genie counterparts. I am trying to gradually recreate the Al Qadim setting, staying true to the spirit of the setting, while keeping it within the conceptual framework of 5.0. I began with arguable the easiest groups - the fighters. Almost every fighter template in Al Qadim converts nicely to a background in 5.0. Although many of the items I saw, simply recommended using one background or another for these, I took the existing backgrounds and tweaked them just a little. It will probably not be terribly difficult to see the classes I varied or combined to get these. I have not yet prepared the Faris (holy warrior) and I need to go back with each and create background charts. This is a first attempt at seeing how well these rules will flow. I am optimistic that it will convert without too much difficulty.
Click on the Backgrounds link above to begin viewing the new fighter backgrounds.
