D&D 5E 5e Conversion of White Plume Mountain & other AD&D classic adventures

[Zaruthustran]

I picked up the Dungeons of Dread compilation of Tomb of Horror, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, White Plume Mountain, and Lost Caverns of Tjojcanth. I've been playing D&D since 1981 yet have never played those legendary adventures. Thing is, I (and my group) all want to play 5e.

Does anyone know of any quality 5e conversion of those classics? Or, have general advice on AD&D --> 5e conversion?

 

[Boarstorm]

I'm also interested in seeing some guidelines.

There are supposed to be some coming out around the time of the DMG's release, so if we're patient maybe we'll get a cookie.

(Hell, I've had to resist the temptation to harass [MENTION=1288]Mouseferatu[/MENTION] for his take on converting several of his 3.5E adventures. )

 

[Wrathamon]

The D&D Next Playtest rules had conversions for Dungeons of Dread. Google dungeons of dread bestiary D&D next.

then I would check out http://surfarcher.blogspot.com/2014/07/d-5e-monsters-master-index.html

D&D next monsters I think are a bit on the weaker end so this might help you adjust the HPs and attacks a bit. You also can just run it using the Next monsters and if you find it too easy for your players you can adjust the numbers of things that they are facing.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Thanks, Wrathamon! Found DL links for those bestiaries. I'll encourage the DM to use stats from MM if available, now that it's out.

I've heard these adventures are trap-heavy, so I'm very curious how that'd be converted from AD&D to 5E. From what I recall AD&D required a thief, with a static % based on the thief's level (rather than based on the trap's complexity). Anyone have any tips on how to handle?

 

[Wrathamon]

I am guessing the DCs for the traps are set to be at appropriate DCs 15 to 20 on average, maybe some are at 10 based on the complexity of the trap.

Tomb of Horrors probably doesnt have DCs cause you need to figure out the trap or die. No dice rolls for you!

 

[KarinsDad]

I picked up the Dungeons of Dread compilation of Tomb of Horror, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, White Plume Mountain, and Lost Caverns of Tjojcanth. I've been playing D&D since 1981 yet have never played those legendary adventures. Thing is, I (and my group) all want to play 5e.

Does anyone know of any quality 5e conversion of those classics? Or, have general advice on AD&D --> 5e conversion?

The toughest part will probably be the Tome of Horrors trap DCs.

My suggestion is to run them in original order of easiest to hardest (don't know what that is, but Tome of Horrors should probably be last), and just replace the monsters with the same ones from the MM. For monsters that are not in the MM (like the lobsters in WPM), just approximate AC, init, hit points, and attacks based on other creatures in the adventure (or find similar level ones in the MM and fluff). Also, you might want to give your PCs a few magic items ahead of time (course, that's a bit harder to do with no DMG).

Waiting for the DMG to come out would help a lot as well (for traps, magic items, conversions, etc.).

 

[Sacrosanct]

The Playtest monsters will be too weak. I'd use the MM monsters and you'll be fine with just a straight replacement. I've played 5e with lots of 1e modules, and they are super easy to convert. I had also done a several monsters conversions for those monsters that don't appear in the 5e MM here

 

[practicalm]

Definitely find the MM stats for the creatures as the playtest bestiary will be weaker in general at least in my experience. I remember the vampire in the bestiary more like the vampire spawn in power. The MM Vampire will be much harder especially if you give it fighter ability. You may have to go with Vampire Spawn stats and some character levels.

White Plume Mountain, most of the traps are something you'd have to perceive as even being a trap so I don't remember a lot of roll to disable. There are a lot of ability check rolls for some areas and I tried to bring them down to bounded accuracy.

My guideline for converting 3.5 DC to 5 DC was (((3.5 DC) - 10) / 2) + 10. I think this came from some of the monster conversions of 3.5 to 5 monsters and it worked okay for me.

My group only was able to recover Blackrazor. Whelm is still held by the vampire and he's after the party. Wave was grabbed first by another group that was hired to recover the weapons and almost got the party killed doing it.

 

[Bumamgar]

I've converted White Plume Mountain to 5e. Since I did it for personal use only, I basically copied the entire module and then edited it to conform to 5e so I didn't need to have both the module + notes at my game table. I'm happy to edit it down to conversion notes only if folks are interested. I also converted Ghost Tower of Inverness.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I've converted White Plume Mountain to 5e. Since I did it for personal use only, I basically copied the entire module and then edited it to conform to 5e so I didn't need to have both the module + notes at my game table. I'm happy to edit it down to conversion notes only if folks are interested. I also converted Ghost Tower of Inverness.

I'm interested. It may come up in my campaign.