Actual interest in conversion of old adventures

[caudor]

Mass conversions. This is one thing that I expected to happen (once d20 took off) that never really happened. I figured that by now, most of the 1st Ed./2nd Ed. edition adventures would have been converted to 3e. Permission was granted, after all.

While it appears a dozen or so adventures have been converted (and assuming I've found most of them), there still remains a huge mass of material that probably never will be converted, including those offered as free .pdf downloads.

So...what do you speculate might be the cause of this? Too much work versus little reward? Lack of interest? Perception of risk in doing so?

My guess: It appears that many conversions efforts got off to a good start, but somehow got derailed (or just ran out of steam) with the release of the 3.5 revised rules. I think many folks might have gotten frustrated by the rule changes coming sooner than expected.

Just a final question for those that wish to reply---what single adventure or sourcebook would you most want to see converted to 3.5? (assuming you didn't have to do it yourself)

Cheers!

 

[Crothian]

I have many old modules, but any of them I use I perfer to do the conversations then getting them from the web. Many of them need altered more then converted as certain creatures gained huge amounts of power.

 

[MarauderX]

I will be posting some OD&D to 3.5 conversions... once I am done with the naughty bits I am using with my players now. Can't have them getting too curious.
I have some other OD&D modules that I have started, but decided it was too much time once I got to DMing.

 

[caudor]

I have many old modules, but any of them I use I perfer to do the conversations then getting them from the web. Many of them need altered more then converted as certain creatures gained huge amounts of power.

Thanks for the reply...perhaps the limitations placed on 'how' a module can be converted were too strict then. Let's say you did alter the adventure enough to balance it, perhaps that represents enough change to risk of getting in hot water with Wotc? Hum.

MarauderX...I'm looking forward to reading your conversion! Thanks.

 

[EricNoah]

I got lots of conversions of various kits, classes, spells, and so forth back in the day, and a fair number of adventures too. But they weren't always of a consistently high quality, plus WotC came up with the new conversion guidelines that really restricted what you could include in the conversion document. I think a lot of folks didn't want to go back and do that work all over again.

I thought there would be a lot more interest too, at first -- but it turned out people were as interested (if not more interested) in what D&D's future was going to be (i.e. new products).

The OGL and d20 STL agreements really blew open the marketplace -- if we didn't have that, we'd have WotC's paltry dozen-or-so adventures plus Dungeon Magazine, and that's it, so conversions of old adventures would have been a lot more necessary and valuable.

 

[Kyramus]

one of my players took the time and did the tome of magic in 3.0. I look at it once in awhile when i have the chance. Most things look just as balanced as they were in 2e.

 

[caudor]

The OGL and d20 STL agreements really blew open the marketplace -- if we didn't have that, we'd have WotC's paltry dozen-or-so adventures plus Dungeon Magazine, and that's it, so conversions of old adventures would have been a lot more necessary and valuable.

I certainly agree with you there. Thank goodness for the OGL & d20 agreements! By the way, to whom do we owe credit for coming up with these agreements? Does anyone know? That person or group did a good thing for all of us

 

[Erratic K]

I certainly agree with you there. Thank goodness for the OGL & d20 agreements! By the way, to whom do we owe credit for coming up with these agreements? Does anyone know? That person or group did a good thing for all of us

Ryan S. Dancey is the OGL and d20 prime mover (he couldn't have done it without Peter Adkinson buying TSR).

The license is based on the GNU license by Richard M Stallman (iconoclast, genius, however you want to see him, Stallman is a very important idealist in the world of software).

You can find info about both OGL and GNU public license on the web.

-E

 

[Sir Whiskers]

I got lots of conversions of various kits, classes, spells, and so forth back in the day, and a fair number of adventures too. But they weren't always of a consistently high quality, plus WotC came up with the new conversion guidelines that really restricted what you could include in the conversion document. I think a lot of folks didn't want to go back and do that work all over again.

I thought there would be a lot more interest too, at first -- but it turned out people were as interested (if not more interested) in what D&D's future was going to be (i.e. new products).

Yep, that's how I remember it too. When 3E was first released, we saw quite a few old modules converted. Unfortunately, for a couple good reasons, WOTC felt it was necessary to step in and impose rather severe restrictions on how conversions are done. WOTC gave fans some time to bring their conversions up to date, then Eric was asked to remove all conversions which did not adhere to the new guidelines. Voila! - almost every conversion was gone.

Given that WOTC still cannot promise not to change the guidelines (or forbid conversions altogether), I can understand why fans would not want to put in the effort to do more conversions. In this environment, 3.5 just becomes yet another reason not to bother. And as Eric mentioned, most of us are gaming in new adventures, not the old ones.

BTW - To all who did so much work with the conversions, especially the Giant modules - THANKS! I have an entire gaming group that never went through those, but they will...

 

[johnsemlak]

Just a final question for those that wish to reply---what single adventure or sourcebook would you most want to see converted to 3.5? (assuming you didn't have to do it yourself)

Cheers!

I 3-5: Desert of Desolation (there was a conversion, but it got removed.)
X4-5 Desert Nomads
X2 Castle Amber

Soem of the better 2e modules as well. (3.5e Undermountain would be great).