I'm slated to start DMing again in four weeks and I've run into a very odd thing. How very different 5e and AD&D are!
The adventure is HHQ1, Fighter's Challenge. I've always admired how it sets up a region to be a hub of adventures, and rather liked it's plot overall. It was designed for one character of levels 2-4, but quickly you realize if you don't get all the hirelings you're probably going to get murdered, lol.
The one time I ran it imploded because my players, annoyed that a shopkeeper dared to raise his prices, decided to break into his shop at night to rob him. Yeah.
Anyways, I started converting it, and I ran into a few problems. But the most immediate one was...holy Gygax, what's with all the magic items?
Like, ok, I know published adventures have tons of magic items. It's been the main source of a lot of arguments with other AD&D players who go on about how rare and wonderful magic items are, and all of my PC's are lugging around excess +1 long swords and rings of protection from all the published adventures they've gone on. But this one, yikes.
Even nerfing the items (there's a Duergar chief you fight with a +3 Warhammer!) a bit, this adventure is positively dripping with them! Most NPC's are running around with magic weapons, armor, and protective items. The adventure even has the option to find two Manuals (the +1 Con one and the +1 Fighter level one)!
Cool swag was a huge part of my AD&D experience, and I'm nostalgic for that, but it occurs to me that 5e really isn't the game where finding 5 magic items in every treasure hoard is going to be much fun for long.
So I'm wondering how other people have approached converting old adventures. Do you just cut out most of the magic items? Something else?