OSR publishers converting their own content

[ldvhl]

It can be easy to convert thing between editions/forks, but it would be nice to see more conversions in order to help save time.

 

[Bill Zebub]

It can be easy to convert thing between editions/forks, but it would be nice to see more conversions in order to help save time.

Yeah, that's basically my point. A conversion would be more appealing to those who play adjacent systems, so if the work required is so minimal I'm wondering why it happens so rarely.

Perhaps I'm an outlier, but I am far more likely to buy something if it is already written for my system.

 

[ldvhl]

The authors probably don't want to spend the time on it either and don't think it would increase their sales as much by putting the work in.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think it's pretty rare that OSR games need conversions. Everything I'm familiar with except for Shadowdark and Mork Borg can run as-is, and even those just need a little bit of practice to be able to do it on the fly.

Shadowdark wants monsters to have the six ability scores, which can be handled by giving them all a flat 10 except when the critter would be more potent, and the DM can just give them a 16 at that point.

And Mork Borg needs a morale stat (which many OSR games include already) and possibly an armor die, which can probably be determined, most of the time, from a monster's armor class.

But for games that are more directly built off of TSR D&D -- the vast bulk of OSR games, in other words -- at most, one just has to flip ascending AC to descending AC, depending on which ruleset something is being published for or used.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I think it's pretty rare that OSR games need conversions. Everything I'm familiar with except for Shadowdark and Mork Borg can run as-is, and even those just need a little bit of practice to be able to do it on the fly.

Shadowdark wants monsters to have the six ability scores, which can be handled by giving them all a flat 10 except when the critter would be more potent, and the DM can just give them a 16 at that point.

And Mork Borg needs a morale stat (which many OSR games include already) and possibly an armor die, which can probably be determined, most of the time, from a monster's armor class.

But for games that are more directly built off of TSR D&D -- the vast bulk of OSR games, in other words -- at most, one just has to flip ascending AC to descending AC, depending on which ruleset something is being published for or used.

That's a fair point. I'm looking at this from a Shadowdark perspective, which doesn't map as directly as the various retroclones.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's a fair point. I'm looking at this from a Shadowdark perspective, which doesn't map as directly as the various retroclones.

Yeah, there does need to be a quick and dirty rule for converting monsters to Shadowdark (which mostly boils down to giving the six stats to all monsters). I would ask Kelsey on either the Discord or Facebook for her advice, if you haven't already done so.

But if there's ever a specific monster you need help with, let me know, and I'll be happy to create/convert it for you.