D&D General Conversion question.

[Gorg]

How difficult is it to convert 3e material to 5e?

can I simply substitute the 5e version of monsters for those in a written adventure and call it good? I presume some individuals will take some work- like advanced versions or those with PC classes. And treasures will need some rework, since this version went a totally different direction with magic items- in an effort to rein in out of control power creep.

Some spells will likely need exchanging, too.

But for those like me, who have loads of 3e adventures, suppliments etc still lurking on our shelves- many of which I never got to play/run before our groups disappeared- how much work is it?

I'm currently looking at Forge of Fury, which would fit nicely in the area around Phandalin, and the sandbox style of mini adventures therein to choose from. Also, just found a forgotten stack o' stuff that includes the Forgotten Realms adventure : The Twilight Tomb. (which I didn't even know I had!) Which looks REALLY interesting.

My game group includes 3 old school grognards, and up to 4 younguns , 3 are their kids, 1 is kid's fiancee.

 

[JEB]

How difficult is it to convert 3e material to 5e?

can I simply substitute the 5e version of monsters for those in a written adventure and call it good? I presume some individuals will take some work- like advanced versions or those with PC classes. And treasures will need some rework, since this version went a totally different direction with magic items- in an effort to rein in out of control power creep.

Some spells will likely need exchanging, too.

But for those like me, who have loads of 3e adventures, suppliments etc still lurking on our shelves- many of which I never got to play/run before our groups disappeared- how much work is it?

I'm currently looking at Forge of Fury, which would fit nicely in the area around Phandalin, and the sandbox style of mini adventures therein to choose from. Also, just found a forgotten stack o' stuff that includes the Forgotten Realms adventure : The Twilight Tomb. (which I didn't even know I had!) Which looks REALLY interesting.

My game group includes 3 old school grognards, and up to 4 younguns , 3 are their kids, 1 is kid's fiancee.

Fortunately for you, The Forge of Fury was converted to (2014) 5e rules in Tales from the Yawning Portal. So no work required there!

As for the general question, there are official conversion guidelines from 3e to (2014) 5e that aren't too bad: https://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/DnD_Conversions_1.0.pdf These include both detailed "careful" and simpler "quick" guidelines.

I also wrote my own 3e to 5e conversion guide (included among other editions here), though I should warn that it was very early in the edition (basically only factoring in the 2014 core rules and the original Starter Set). I'm sure there are other conversion guides out there as well.

 

[abirdcall]

How difficult is it to convert 3e material to 5e?

can I simply substitute the 5e version of monsters for those in a written adventure and call it good? I presume some individuals will take some work- like advanced versions or those with PC classes. And treasures will need some rework, since this version went a totally different direction with magic items- in an effort to rein in out of control power creep.

Some spells will likely need exchanging, too.

But for those like me, who have loads of 3e adventures, suppliments etc still lurking on our shelves- many of which I never got to play/run before our groups disappeared- how much work is it?

I'm currently looking at Forge of Fury, which would fit nicely in the area around Phandalin, and the sandbox style of mini adventures therein to choose from. Also, just found a forgotten stack o' stuff that includes the Forgotten Realms adventure : The Twilight Tomb. (which I didn't even know I had!) Which looks REALLY interesting.

My game group includes 3 old school grognards, and up to 4 younguns , 3 are their kids, 1 is kid's fiancee.

I would assume it is not entirely difficult.

It's basically a matter of making judgment calls. NPCs no longer need to follow PC rules so you can just make the ones with class levels be whatever you want.

The biggest trouble you're going to have I think is having 7 players. It's going to be imbalanced no matter what you do so just winging it is the way to go.

 

[Gorg]

I would assume it is not entirely difficult.

It's basically a matter of making judgment calls. NPCs no longer need to follow PC rules so you can just make the ones with class levels be whatever you want.

The biggest trouble you're going to have I think is having 7 players. It's going to be imbalanced no matter what you do so just winging it is the way to go.

true. I'm the 7th player, though so six, but yeah- I see what you mean. It will likely be less.

Low level adventures, I can simply adjust the # of bad guys.

 

[abirdcall]

My rule of thumb is that 6 PCs are twice as strong as 4.

Even then, with so many in the party there will likely be at least 1 or 2 who will have just the right thing for any given challenge. With a smaller party there will be some challenges that the party will need to be creative to deal with.

Even though group checks are not as much of a thing in 2024 I would still use them to avoid just having 1 success get through each encounter.

 

[GMMichael]

But for those like me, who have loads of 3e adventures, suppliments etc still lurking on our shelves- many of which I never got to play/run before our groups disappeared- how much work is it?

You'll probably encounter a good amount of gear-grinding because of action-type differences. Opportunity attacks are no longer a science in 5e. And there are probably broad-stroke differences in attack and damage bonuses, but those are just tinkering issues.

So converting all the rules would be a lot of work. Using the adventure fluff and dropping in 5e equivalents should be pretty easy.

 

[Distracted DM]

I use a lot of non-5e adventures for 5e, using equivalent or stronger monsters. 5e parties are powerful, but the a big thing is treasure. If you give out treasures' 5e equivalent from older adventures, you're going to find your party is likely to get too powerful too quickly.
Overall it's an art or a science, I favor art because it's less work and I like improvisation and am very comfortable with designing stuff on the fly. If you want conversions, there are some DMsGuild authors that do conversions of old adventures for 5e!