D&D General Inspiration vs Conversion? Old Settings

Converting some old settings to 5E can be a pain and often requires to much work vs expected payoff. For example I find Darksun to be easier to run in 2E adding in things you like from modern D&D vs trying to adapt it to 5E.

Now back in 3.5 I ran a Darksun inspired campaign basically without psionics in a desert wasteland and the Sorcerer Kings were roughly on par with archfiends.

Reading the Guild Masters Guide to Ravnica the inspiration would be Planescape but Ravnica would probably replace Sigil.

I also have been playing Fallout 4. A post apocalyptic setting that is influenced by Darksun but you can have plenty of water, it's just Poisonous.

Another idea is the dead and wild magic zones from 2E and 3E D&D. Most players likely won't recognize what they are but you could even mic them with the post apocalyptic idea.

Or you could having some global effect that halves healing rates makes things a lot more gritty as well and you could compensate by reducing the encounter numbers. Tomb of Annihilation had a similar idea but you might want no time limit or non jungle campaign.

Anyway thoughts on the pros and cons of inspiration vs conversion?

What would be ALOT harder than conversion/inspiration would be to get either my 5e or PF group to play another system.

Waste of time here. I can get another version if D&D played and occasionally Star Wars using the old legends material.

Zardnaar said:

Converting some old settings to 5E can be a pain and often requires to much work vs expected payoff. ...(snip)... Anyway thoughts on the pros and cons of inspiration vs conversion?

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It seems like you may go to a lot of trouble. I generally thumbsuck the numbers, even for old modules, it is easier enough in 5e and it is not like I have to prepare the entire module for a session. You generally know how far your group will get, 90% of the cases I overplan.

Yesterday I ran a mini-session (2 hours) online, 30-40 minutes of preparation time inspired by an idea in the DMG. I jotted down a few creative notes I could think up and on the spot in-game I gave the wight BBEG +1 bonus to hit, +15 hit points and thematic Legendary Actions. Absolutely no hassle.

Sadras said:

It seems like you may go to a lot of trouble. I generally thumbsuck the numbers, even for old modules, it is easier enough in 5e and it is not like I have to prepare the entire module for a session. You generally know how far your group will get, 90% of the cases I overplan.

Yesterday I ran a mini-session (2 hours) online from the 30-40 minutes I prepared before inspired from an idea in the DMG. I jotted down a few neat ideas I could think up and on the spot in-game I gave the BBEG +1 bonus to hit, +15 hit points and thematic Legendary Actions. Absolutely no hassle.

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Some setting don't convert well. Darksun and Spelljammer had extensive rules for those settings.

I think a lot of the old 2E setting would convert fairly well, but some had a lot of special rules that just don't exist in 5E, requiring you to homebrew them. Dark Sun would be really hard, because psionics is integral to the setting, and 5E lacks it, not to mention how to do Conservation/Defiling. I've converted Greyhawk with only a little bit of effort (reskinning a few unusual races and outright banning others), and I think Dragonlance and Birthright would also be fairly easy.