D&D 5E Converting Old Adventures

[Paul Farquhar]

We had two DMs who switched off with the adventures. One of them has a more modern storytelling approach to gaming, even though he started back gaming back as a kid in the late 70s (this was a nostalgia trip for him), while the other one, while young (early 20s at the time), had been raised by grognard parents and who went very much by the 1e book. We did manage to do things like teaming up with the slaves, but that was mostly, I think, because it was the older DM running at the time. And as I said, if we had been told this was out of character for the giants, it wasn't said in a way to make much of an impression.

The younger one is actually the one who stopped gaming with us first, since he had an opportunity to go play in more old-school games and there would be a schedule conflict. When that happened, the rest of us, older DM included, decided that was a good point to stop playing in the series.

So the issue here isn’t converting the adventure from one edition to another, but converting the adventure to suit the group and DM(s). Whose idea was it to run G series anyway?

 

[Faolyn]

As a note, I have converted a few

So the issue here isn’t converting the adventure from one edition to another, but converting the adventure to suit the group and DM(s). Whose idea was it to run G series anyway?

We all wanted to give it a try and see what they were like. I'd previously converted adventures from 2e Dungeon mags to GURPS Dungeon Fantasy with a minimum of mechanical problems and, AFAICT, made it so the players enjoyed it. It's because these adventures were run from the book--vast acres of treasure included--that we had issues.

(This sub-thread started with one person saying that the 1e method of dungeon crawling was better all around, at least in their opinion, and I pointed out it really depended on the table.)

 

[Ancalagon]

One thing to mention is the number of minions has to be re-calibrated.

In 2e, goblins had a thaco of 20, ie a +0 attack bonus. A dozen globlin archers were a minor nuisance. In 5e those goblins have +4 to hit, and the dozen goblin archers can inflict serious damage.

In 2e orcs had 1 hit dice 1-8 hp. A 5e average orc has 15 hp.

 

[James Gasik]

One thing to mention is the number of minions has to be re-calibrated.

In 2e, goblins had a thaco of 20, ie a +0 attack bonus. A dozen globlin archers were a minor nuisance. In 5e those goblins have +4 to hit, and the dozen goblin archers can inflict serious damage.

In 2e orcs had 1 hit dice 1-8 hp. A 5e average orc has 15 hp.

Yeah, it's true, even though 5e characters are stronger and tougher on average than their 2e counterparts at level 1, you should be fighting 3 goblins at level 1, not a dozen. OTOH, when even a so-called "squishy" wizard can easily have a 15 AC with a Dex of 14 compared to his 2e counterpart's AC of 10 (sure you could cast Armor or Shield, but there goes your Sleep spell!), and your cleric and fighter could sit comfortably at AC 18 with starting gear (or even 19 in some cases!), I don't know if goblins have the same punch.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You don’t really want to be fighting a dozen anything in 5e, that’s an effect of the changed combat pacing. You will sometimes see as many as 40 in 1st edition stuff, a holdover from wargaming.

But you do need to rebalance each combat encounter. Some monsters are tougher, some are easier. That’s something you can do on the fly with a bit of experience though.

Most humanoids have had “leader” and “caster” versions since 3rd edition, you will likely want to add those if adapting from 1st edition.

 

[James Gasik]

You don’t really want to be fighting a dozen anything in 5e, that’s an effect of the changed combat pacing. You will sometimes see as many as 40 in 1st edition stuff, a holdover from wargaming.

But you do need to rebalance each combat encounter. Some monsters are tougher, some are easier. That’s something you can do on the fly with a bit of experience though.

Most humanoids have had “leader” and “caster” versions since 3rd edition, you will likely want to add those if adapting from 1st edition.

Well for this adventure, there are a few fights where there's large numbers, but the weirdest thing so far is how the challenge of monsters has changed since 2e. One of the sidequests has you face a werewolf and a vampire, and the encounter builder I'm using laughed at me when I put it in! Still, I'm hoping that with some nerfs, the encounter will play out alright, given the superior action economy of the players.

Once, you could have a vampire as a low-level foe (Night of the Vampire was made for characters of levels 1-3), but in 5e, it's a legendary CR 13! Obviously mine will be quite non-legendary, among other nerfs.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

They usually convert to vampire spawn. You see this in at least one Yawning Portal conversion. But don’t let the printed CR fool you, 5e vamps aint that tough!

Watch out for things that go the other direction. In 1st edition mind flayers were almost unkillable without psionics, but they are only CR7 in 5e. Also spectres.

 

[cbwjm]

Well for this adventure, there are a few fights where there's large numbers, but the weirdest thing so far is how the challenge of monsters has changed since 2e. One of the sidequests has you face a werewolf and a vampire, and the encounter builder I'm using laughed at me when I put it in! Still, I'm hoping that with some nerfs, the encounter will play out alright, given the superior action economy of the players.

Once, you could have a vampire as a low-level foe (Night of the Vampire was made for characters of levels 1-3), but in 5e, it's a legendary CR 13! Obviously mine will be quite non-legendary, among other nerfs.

I don't change any of the encounters when converting old adventures, had my players swarmed by 20ish giant rats at one point, it was great. Another encounter was a water elemental at level 1, didn't change a thing, it was up to the players to decide if they wanted to fight it.

 

[Voadam]

When I ran the 5e White Plume Mountain out of Tales of the Yawning Portal the vampire fight was an overwhelming TPK.

I would second vampire spawn for use against lower level groups. I used one in my gothic horror Carrion Crown AP conversion game around level 4 or so and it worked out really well.

For conversion purposes it is unfortunate that specters went from the old editions' tougher than wraiths Nazgul to the 5e low level incorporeal zombie equivalent with the same name. Probably best to just use wraiths.

 

[James Gasik]

I'm going to try the nerfed vampire- I gave him a vulnerability to force and a weakness that silver weapons deal force damage to him (AD&D vampires are weak to silver, and there's some story reasons for this as well; also force turns off his regeneration) and I already know one of the players will stock magic missile, and another is a warlock with Eldritch Blast, plus there are silver weapons in the adventure. He's not particularly keen on fighting to the death either, so I can always have him dip out early. Plus there's a few things that he can do that will turn his daughter against him.

I've been trying to make damage types matter more, so I've been adding vulnerabilities and the occasional resistance to reward people who have different damage types available to them.