AD&D 2E 2E to 4E?

[Sharky316]

Does anyone know a way to convert old 2E stuff into 4E. Someone just gave me a whole bunch of 2E stuff but all my group runs is 4E.

 

[Zaran]

If it was me , I would use the monster builder and build all of the encounters from scratch using the ones listed for ideas. Most of the monsters should be able to be found somewhere. Remember most monsters only have one or two attacks. When you build the encounter you should more worry about the level of the PCs more than the level of the monsters. So you might have to downgrade a monster's level to be more in line with the party.

I redid the Red Hand of Hand of Doom for 4e. It did get to the point though that the module slipped into paragon level ideas while the PCs were still Heroic so I only did half the module.

 

[vagabundo]

What kind of stuff did you get?

Use the 2e stuff as fluff, there is a not a lot of mechanics anyway. And add 4e mechanics to it.

 

[Sanzuo]

Does anyone know a way to convert old 2E stuff into 4E. Someone just gave me a whole bunch of 2E stuff but all my group runs is 4E.

What kind of stuff did you get?

Use the 2e stuff as fluff, there is a not a lot of mechanics anyway. And add 4e mechanics to it.

Exactly, you are playing a different game. Pretend you have just switched from 2nd edition to Warhammer, or Shadowrun, or Monopoly. Just learn 4e by itself. Borrowing story ideas from 2e is fine. The mechanics are incompatible.

 

[LuckyAdrastus]

As others are saying: 2e and 4e are sufficiently different games, that you cannot do a direct point-to-point mechancial conversion. It would be like trying to convert checkers to Scrabble. However, 2e and 4e have nearly identical flavor, so all you would need to do is keep nearly the same events and encounters, but replace the 2e mechanics with comparable 4e mechanics.

Note that 4e generally uses a new design ethos built around "encounters" and "skill challenges" which generally group a bunch of similar challenges (monsters/traps in encounters, skill checks into skill challenges) whereas earlier editions tended to give the party one challenge at a time (there is a trapped chest, here is an ooze, there is a diplomacy check, here is a medusa).

 

[Herschel]

Yeah, the moster builder is nifty. A lot you can also take right out of the monster manual with little adjustment. Common sense works pretty well, just watch out for the lethality of a few traps and you should be good.

Basically, run the adventure from text as presented and adjust the encounters. Skill challenges are pretty easy to add, IME, and I can do them off the cuff.

 

[Sharky316]

Thanks alot that makes sense. I was mostly thinking about the difference in xp and gold. The modules I have list xp for enemies and treasure. They also don't really detail the lvl of the magic items.

 

[Celestian]

Thanks alot that makes sense. I was mostly thinking about the difference in xp and gold. The modules I have list xp for enemies and treasure. They also don't really detail the lvl of the magic items.

Yes, that's because magic items had no levels Just look at the name of the item and use the 4e version of it if it exists. Find something similar you'd like to use if it doesn't exist.

One thing I find lacking in 4e is the magic items and spells compared to 1/2e.

 

[LuckyAdrastus]

Thanks alot that makes sense. I was mostly thinking about the difference in xp and gold. The modules I have list xp for enemies and treasure. They also don't really detail the lvl of the magic items.

Xp and gold will not directly translate. Actually, gold can kinda translate, but the gold system in 4e isn't strictly realistic or balanced with gold economies in earlier editions.

Again, when translating 2e to 4e, you need to throw out most of the mechanical stuff (xp, hp, specific spell or magic item mechanics) and instead just focus on using the new 4e rules to express your 2e flavor idea. As discussed before, it is like translating a character from Dragon Age to World of Warcraft -- you can keep the concept, but have to build the mechanics from the ground up.

 

[pemerton]

I was mostly thinking about the difference in xp and gold. The modules I have list xp for enemies and treasure. They also don't really detail the lvl of the magic items.

I've converted Basic D&D encounters to 4e - this is fairly similar to converting 2nd ed AD&D.

My advice would be: (i) definitely use 4e XP rules, both for rewards and for encounter building; (ii) this will mean that sometimes you have to change the original encounter a bit, especially if its XP value would make it too dangerous for the level of party you will be GMing; (iii) like someone said upthread, look for opportunities to change parts of the old adventure into a skill challenge, or to join little encounters into larger, more dynamic 4e-style encounters; (iv) adjust the treasures to 4e standard, maybe using the original as a bit of a flavour guide - normally this will mean less gold and less magic, at least in a low-level module.