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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
Are all my 2E books worthless now?
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<blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 6650253" data-attributes="member: 40177"><p>I recently converted a 2e adventure from Dungeon ("Keep for Sale") to 5th. I probably took more steps than absolutely necessary, but decided to be studious. </p><p></p><p>1. First, I rolled on the treasure hoards table. I rolled twenty random individual treasures for level 1 monsters, and then rolled up a treasure horde for a low level big monster. I wrote all this down on a scrap piece of paper. I on the spot added about 10% to that, because I was using this list for ALL of the treasure to be given out in this module. </p><p></p><p>2. I figured out, using the XP tables in the DMG, what the xp budget was for "easy", "medium", and "hard" encounters. Since "keep for sale" is for 1st level characters, and I was running it for 2nd level characters, I expected the monster amounts in the module would about mesh with these XP budgets. I kept in mind the idea that the more monsters you have, the more the monsters' XP should "Scale" (that whole "3-5 monsters are worth twice as much for budget purposes bit), but I didn't follow it religiously. </p><p></p><p>3. For every encounter in the module, I tried to convert it to that standard. A LOT of monsters in the module were only 25 XP or 50 XP encounters. I kept them in as written. Often, I just used the monster numbers listed in the module, but as a general rule, I had to add more monsters to fit my budget. </p><p></p><p>4. I created statblocks for any monster that had a name or seemed like it should be more than just a plain jane goblin. In the original module, the goblin was described as being good with a sling (he got +2 to attack rolls with it!). I thought that was lame, and so gave him a special sling with alchemical sling pots. Other monsters got similar conversions. </p><p></p><p>5. I read the monster descriptions for some of the weirder monsters in the module, both the 2e version and the 5e version. The kenku, for exampe, has changed quite a bit. Stranger still, the module's original writer must have been using a different version of the kenku, because it did things they were unable to do. Anyways, realizing that "modern" kenku are different, I made a few changes to that NPC so that it'd fit. </p><p></p><p>6. As I did all this, I'd siphon off treasure from my master list, trying to keep the areas where there were "big scores" to still have similar large scores. Generally, this worked out fairly well. </p><p></p><p>7. Wherever I thought DCs for skill checks were needed, I wrote them in red ink in the margins. Generally, I go with the 10/15/20 rule. 10 is average, 15 is hard, and 20 is very hard. I try to figure out what the original module was intending - with the old 2e standard of ability or proficiency checks, I assume a DC of around 13, and go from there. </p><p></p><p>8. Wandering monster tables got scrapped and replaced with my own - assuming about 75% of the encounters were "easy", 20% were "medium", and 5% were "hard". </p><p></p><p>anyways, that's my down and dirty basic conversion of the module. It ran very smoothly, and I can't wait to do it again! (though the next module I'm converting is from the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, so who knows when the next 2e one is?)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Wik, post: 6650253, member: 40177"] I recently converted a 2e adventure from Dungeon ("Keep for Sale") to 5th. I probably took more steps than absolutely necessary, but decided to be studious. 1. First, I rolled on the treasure hoards table. I rolled twenty random individual treasures for level 1 monsters, and then rolled up a treasure horde for a low level big monster. I wrote all this down on a scrap piece of paper. I on the spot added about 10% to that, because I was using this list for ALL of the treasure to be given out in this module. 2. I figured out, using the XP tables in the DMG, what the xp budget was for "easy", "medium", and "hard" encounters. Since "keep for sale" is for 1st level characters, and I was running it for 2nd level characters, I expected the monster amounts in the module would about mesh with these XP budgets. I kept in mind the idea that the more monsters you have, the more the monsters' XP should "Scale" (that whole "3-5 monsters are worth twice as much for budget purposes bit), but I didn't follow it religiously. 3. For every encounter in the module, I tried to convert it to that standard. A LOT of monsters in the module were only 25 XP or 50 XP encounters. I kept them in as written. Often, I just used the monster numbers listed in the module, but as a general rule, I had to add more monsters to fit my budget. 4. I created statblocks for any monster that had a name or seemed like it should be more than just a plain jane goblin. In the original module, the goblin was described as being good with a sling (he got +2 to attack rolls with it!). I thought that was lame, and so gave him a special sling with alchemical sling pots. Other monsters got similar conversions. 5. I read the monster descriptions for some of the weirder monsters in the module, both the 2e version and the 5e version. The kenku, for exampe, has changed quite a bit. Stranger still, the module's original writer must have been using a different version of the kenku, because it did things they were unable to do. Anyways, realizing that "modern" kenku are different, I made a few changes to that NPC so that it'd fit. 6. As I did all this, I'd siphon off treasure from my master list, trying to keep the areas where there were "big scores" to still have similar large scores. Generally, this worked out fairly well. 7. Wherever I thought DCs for skill checks were needed, I wrote them in red ink in the margins. Generally, I go with the 10/15/20 rule. 10 is average, 15 is hard, and 20 is very hard. I try to figure out what the original module was intending - with the old 2e standard of ability or proficiency checks, I assume a DC of around 13, and go from there. 8. Wandering monster tables got scrapped and replaced with my own - assuming about 75% of the encounters were "easy", 20% were "medium", and 5% were "hard". anyways, that's my down and dirty basic conversion of the module. It ran very smoothly, and I can't wait to do it again! (though the next module I'm converting is from the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, so who knows when the next 2e one is?) [/QUOTE]
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