Classic 1E Mods in 4E?

[Chainsaw]

Does anyone know which classic 1E modules have 4E conversions out there - official or no? Seems like I have heard about one official for T1. Are there any others? I've got a group that really only plays 4E, but I want to DM through some of the older stuff. Before I start doing my own conversions, I thought I'd see what was already out there..

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

IMO, the T1 conversion is really uninspired. In particular, many of the encounters end up being really boring or bad 4th ed encounters, at least based on my experiences with them. We abandoned it uncompleted so that the PCs could go elsewhere and have more fun in a different dungeon. One of the issues is that 4e often plays better with larger rooms than were necessary in 1e.

I'm not aware of any other official direct conversions. There is the Giants supermodule, which is clearly inspired by G1-2-3, and several parts of the main adventure path are I believe inspired by other classic modules, but they aren't really conversions. I would suggest DIY is likely to not be too hard, though.

 

[mearls]

I'm running the original Temple of Elemental Evil, and here are a few things I've learned:

1. In AD&D, three characters were supposed to be able to fight abreast in a 10-foot wide square, so I tend to convert each 10 foot square into a 3 by 3 square in 4e terms.

2. You can get around the issue of fights taking place in doorways by combining multiple encounter areas into one, especially narrow, twisty areas. For instance, the PCs kick down a door, and the orcs in the chamber call for help from their allies down the hall. That gives the encounter a couple of different "fronts" and makes things more interesting.

3. Don't shy away from fights that are way below the PCs level if something more interesting than a fight is going on. Example: The PCs bump into a squad of 5 orcs patrolling the dungeon. The orcs are all minions, but the PCs need to cut them down before they sound an alarm or whatever. I've found this is a useful approach for wandering monsters.

4. Look at the monsters in the original as a suggestion, not a canonical proclamation. In ToEE, I replaced some of the ghouls with wights, turned a few of the various NPC clerics into gnolls, and added genasi villains/cannon fodder because they fit the theme. It gave me more flexibility in creating monster combinations that were more mechanically interesting.

5. Finally, one of the tricks I learned with classic modules is that they are a lot more fun if the PCs take a strategic approach to them. Give the players a chance to come up with plans, interact with NPCs, and so on. A big dungeon is a lot more fun if the players can interact with it on a level other than clear room A, clear room B, and so on.

In my ToEE campaign, I gave the characters an obvious way to sneak in. They met a recruiter looking for mercenaries to aid the temple of earth. I made it obvious the guy was so desperate that any reasonable ploy would trick him and get the PCs into the temple.

That helped make things interesting, because the characters have swapped between clearing out rooms, allying with the different factions, and learning about the dynamic within the temple. They had more decisions than heading east or west, like debating which two temples to pit against each other, or the best way to trick a high priest into allying with them.

 

[mearls]

One other thing: hit the characters over the head with roleplaying opportunities. And when I say hit, I mean with the subtle approach of a tac nuke.

Earlier in the campaign, I twice had the PCs use an NPCs attempt to parlay as an excuse to start the killing with a one round edge in actions. I don't think my players are particularly bloodthirsty. Rather, I think they tend to see the drawback of trying to talk (it's a trick, and we'll regret it) as much worse than attacking (if they know anything useful, we'll just knock them out and interrogate them).

 

[Nebulous]

Well, i ran a 2e conversion of Tallow's Deep from Dungeon magazine that took 12 sessions to complete. It worked great, it just requires knowledge of 4e encounter design and how to mod that to fit 4e standards. And as others said, look at the encounters as suggestions and just use your best judgment to modify them, especially in regard of interesting terrain features.

 

[ashockney]

I've done a few conversions for 4e. I love the classics.

I ran Keep on the Borderlands for Origins 2008.
I ran White Plume Mountain, Ravenloft, and Halls of the Fire Giant King for Origins 2009.

I'd say my favorite of all of these was Ravenloft. That was SUCH a great module anyway, and it plays beautifully, albeit a bit HUGE, with 4e.

In my experience looking at these conversions, worry less about the "exactness" and look to capture the very brilliant encounters and feel. The other fun part of converting 1e to 4e is to combine lots of encounters together (four or five rooms) to be one "longer" encounter which will move through multiple rooms, which 4e accomodates well. My last favorite tactic is to insert skill challenges "in between" the encounters to determine if a couple simple encounters combine to become one, extended "hard" encounter.

Enjoy!

 

[Spatula]

I converted B4 for 4e... I guess that's OD&D rather than 1e, though. The one big lesson I learned from that is that the old maps don't have enough space in them - you need to increase the dimensions.

Currently working on converting I1 for 4e.

 

[The Little Raven]

I'm converting the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun to 4e for the second part of my upcoming campaign arc.

In ToEE, I replaced some of the ghouls with wights, turned a few of the various NPC clerics into gnolls, and added genasi villains/cannon fodder because they fit the theme.

The first part of my adventure features a genasi city, which is ruled by a usurper prince, who has changed himself and his inner circle into Abyssal genasi. The end of the arc has the PCs and the original prince driving the Abyssals out of the city and into the hills. After retaking the city fully, they learn that the usurper had an archaelogical site in the mountains, where they had discovered the temple of Tharizdun and found one of the seven keys to his prison.

With Tharizdun's role in 4e as the creator of the Abyss as well as the traditional Elder Elemental Eye, the use of genasi and Abyssal genasi was a no-brainer.

 

[TylerDurden]

Do you have any of the materials available or did you wing it as you go? I would be interested in running these oldies in 4e but dont know where to begin. Also, interested in running 4e Age of Worms.

 

[Stormonu]

Someone converted S1 - Tomb of Horrors to 4E and made it a downloadable PDF. I don't have a direct link to the thread on the 4E forums however.

I was doing a conversion of the 2E module Night of the Walking Dead for Ravenloft for 2nd level characters. Unfortunately, lack of player interest and some problems with the blog (it ate one of my posts - twice) have prevented me from completing it. If you feel like finishing it before I can get to it, the encounters I still had planned were:

1) Defending the Church from attack until Shaman Brucius can set up the Lantern of Holy Light to keep the church and the villagers who fled here protected from the rampaging undead outside.

2) Flight to the Graveyard where the characters attempt to get to the Tarascon tomb (skill challenge, with a combat against the guardians of the tomb on a failure).

3) Facing Marcel, where the characters fight Marcel and hopefully defeat him

4) The True Menace, after a "rest", where the Hexad reveals that the "Master of Sourange" is about to be freed; this is a skill challenge that is a chase with the imprisoned master striking at the PCs

5) The Final Rites, where the characters mix a skill challenge to complete a ritual to bind the master while fighting an aspect of the dread lord and his minions who attempt to prevent the characters from succeeding.

Link to the incomplete adventure:

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