kitsune9
Adventurer
Adembroski,
You're probably better off to strip the Pathfinder system down than to completely rebuild a rpg from scratch.
From what I gathered in your post, you need:
1. A few classes
2. Low-magic
The first step is to break the project into manageable chunks, let's say levels 1-5, levels 6-10, and so on.
For levels 1-5, look at the classes that you think fit in the Arthurian Legend, keep those, toss the ones that definitely don't fit, and the ones you're iffy about, set those aside because we'll come back to them later.
Now, onto magic. For levels up to 5th, we only need to look at the magic system up to 3rd level spells. Now all we need to do is go through the list and toss out all the spells that don't fit your concept. For the spells that do, we'll set those aside, because we'll be looking at them.
Now that we've done some magic cutting, we'll go back to the classes that we're keeping and the ones that are iffy. For the ones that are iffy, ask yourself the question "If I was to keep this class, what are the abilities about it that needs to go or be changed?" For example, if you want your bard to be a non-spellcaster type, eliminate his spells. Work on any of the iffy classes as you see fit, because you may find that you have to just toss that class.
Now, that you've gone through and either tossed the iffy classes or fixed them to your AL, we now have a framework of classes and spells from which our AL game is derived.
The next step is Skills, Feats, and Traits. Go through the Skills and toss out the ones that don't fit the AL, For feats, ignore the ones that require a 6th level or higher committment and look at all the others and go through them as you would the spells and classes. For traits, same thing.
The next step is adventuring gear. What armors existed in the AL? What weapons were around. What about magic items? Alchemical items?
So now we've defined what's essentially allowed; however have we finished? Nope, not yet.
Now, we go back to magic spells and look at them in terms of using them. Are magic spells in AL performed by rituals? Are sacrifices required to be made? Or do are they simply longer to cast or require more exotic and expensive components? You'll need to decide on these kinds of mechanics for the spells that you're keeping. If you're happy with the one standard action approach to cast a spell, then you can skip this step altogether.
So now we have our classes at levels 1-5, our spells, available equipment, skills, and feats. Whew, are we done yet? Nope--next up is monsters.
Monsters are designed with the current game model that players will get oodles of gold, use gold to buy magic items to buff themselves up, and go slay tougher monsters for more gold. Rinse, cycle, and repeat. However, once we take away fundamental mechanics like magic and magic weapons away, monsters at their current CRs because super tough and some are practically impossible to kill from their high DR, ACs or spell-like abilities.
Again, we're going to focus on a handful of monsters that will be a challenge for our a "standard" 1st-5th level party. To be fair, you'll want to look for things like DR, high ACs, and magical abilties. If for example, you banned fireball from your game, your monsters shouldn't have access to it either. Remember, all the stuff that gives the players bonuses to hit the monsters if that they are taken away, the monsters should be brought down a notch so that they are still killable.
Now we have a framework in which you can playtest your game system. Over the course of the game, you may find yourself tweaking or introducing the mechanics as you see fit.
Once you got that down, then it's time to work on levels 6 -10 and higher until you feel that you have a full and complete AL game system based off of Pathfinder.
Of you can just say, "To hell with it" and grab some low-magic grim and gritty rpg and get some characters rolling!
Happy Gaming!
You're probably better off to strip the Pathfinder system down than to completely rebuild a rpg from scratch.
From what I gathered in your post, you need:
1. A few classes
2. Low-magic
The first step is to break the project into manageable chunks, let's say levels 1-5, levels 6-10, and so on.
For levels 1-5, look at the classes that you think fit in the Arthurian Legend, keep those, toss the ones that definitely don't fit, and the ones you're iffy about, set those aside because we'll come back to them later.
Now, onto magic. For levels up to 5th, we only need to look at the magic system up to 3rd level spells. Now all we need to do is go through the list and toss out all the spells that don't fit your concept. For the spells that do, we'll set those aside, because we'll be looking at them.
Now that we've done some magic cutting, we'll go back to the classes that we're keeping and the ones that are iffy. For the ones that are iffy, ask yourself the question "If I was to keep this class, what are the abilities about it that needs to go or be changed?" For example, if you want your bard to be a non-spellcaster type, eliminate his spells. Work on any of the iffy classes as you see fit, because you may find that you have to just toss that class.
Now, that you've gone through and either tossed the iffy classes or fixed them to your AL, we now have a framework of classes and spells from which our AL game is derived.
The next step is Skills, Feats, and Traits. Go through the Skills and toss out the ones that don't fit the AL, For feats, ignore the ones that require a 6th level or higher committment and look at all the others and go through them as you would the spells and classes. For traits, same thing.
The next step is adventuring gear. What armors existed in the AL? What weapons were around. What about magic items? Alchemical items?
So now we've defined what's essentially allowed; however have we finished? Nope, not yet.
Now, we go back to magic spells and look at them in terms of using them. Are magic spells in AL performed by rituals? Are sacrifices required to be made? Or do are they simply longer to cast or require more exotic and expensive components? You'll need to decide on these kinds of mechanics for the spells that you're keeping. If you're happy with the one standard action approach to cast a spell, then you can skip this step altogether.
So now we have our classes at levels 1-5, our spells, available equipment, skills, and feats. Whew, are we done yet? Nope--next up is monsters.
Monsters are designed with the current game model that players will get oodles of gold, use gold to buy magic items to buff themselves up, and go slay tougher monsters for more gold. Rinse, cycle, and repeat. However, once we take away fundamental mechanics like magic and magic weapons away, monsters at their current CRs because super tough and some are practically impossible to kill from their high DR, ACs or spell-like abilities.
Again, we're going to focus on a handful of monsters that will be a challenge for our a "standard" 1st-5th level party. To be fair, you'll want to look for things like DR, high ACs, and magical abilties. If for example, you banned fireball from your game, your monsters shouldn't have access to it either. Remember, all the stuff that gives the players bonuses to hit the monsters if that they are taken away, the monsters should be brought down a notch so that they are still killable.
Now we have a framework in which you can playtest your game system. Over the course of the game, you may find yourself tweaking or introducing the mechanics as you see fit.
Once you got that down, then it's time to work on levels 6 -10 and higher until you feel that you have a full and complete AL game system based off of Pathfinder.
Of you can just say, "To hell with it" and grab some low-magic grim and gritty rpg and get some characters rolling!
Happy Gaming!
