D&D 5E [+] Converting WFRP to 5e

[Aldarc]

I picked up SotDL and found the feel of it just didn't work for me - playing as goblins, robots, etc. I was instantly turned off and have never given it a consideration for play.

That's fair, but SotDL has a fairly large list of other ancestries by this point.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I've actually created a WFRP retroclone using 5e base mechanics; Raven's Beak. It takes the base resolution mechanics from 5e and some version of the careers, wounds, and a few others from WFRP. Plus the funnel from DCC, something based on the Chaos Gods, and a few other things from elsewhere.

 

[Retreater]

We're slated to have our first big combat tonight, so we'll see how it goes. My guess is that tonight will be the make-or-break session for the system. So I might be on here tomorrow trying to convert the campaign to D&D. Haha.

 

[TheSword]

Good luck with the combat. There are very good house rules for Magic on the WFRP discord forums you could maybe discuss with your wizard player. Don’t be afraid liberally give access to magic ingredients as treasure to your wizard character either. Magic becomes lot more stable with them.

 

[TheSword]

This thread has gone completely off the actual topic with dozen or so posts arguing not to bother and suggesting using other systems. Which kind of defies the point and totally ignores the premise of the + thread. It might serve as a useful guide for someone giving it a go

 

[Retreater]

This thread has gone completely off the actual topic with dozen or so posts arguing not to bother and suggesting using other systems. Which kind of defies the point and totally ignores the premise of the + thread. It might serve as a useful guide for someone giving it a go

Sorry for my role in getting it off topic. That's just been on my mind lately with the current game.
I'll be fresh with relevant ideas if things don't go well tonight.

 

[Ancalagon]

This thread has gone completely off the actual topic with dozen or so posts arguing not to bother and suggesting using other systems. Which kind of defies the point and totally ignores the premise of the + thread. It might serve as a useful guide for someone giving it a go

I'm sorry I wasn't able to give you the advice you needed (I still think that the GLOG might do it), but from my long experience with both systems, I don't see how it can be done.

perhaps if basic career was level 1, advanced level 2, and the "2nd advanced" career was level 3? But would the players accept that at all?

 

[CapnZapp]

This thread has gone completely off the actual topic with dozen or so posts arguing not to bother and suggesting using other systems. Which kind of defies the point and totally ignores the premise of the + thread. It might serve as a useful guide for someone giving it a go

I too tried being constructive.

What's constructive here, I think, is to interpret the thread's direction as not very many people being interested in merely a light veneer of WFRP on top of a regular game of D&D. I do understand that someone new to The Old World might consider such an idea alluring (you're far from the first!) but as you learn what makes WFRP tick you realize how it was truly designed as a reaction to D&D; it tries really hard to be everything D&D isn't (and succeeds phenomenally if you ask me!)

I mean, the alternative would be for your thread to remain totally empty. Not sure if you would have preferred that. In the meantime, at least the thread now contains a fair amount of useful pointers for those readers that do want WFRP but not using the current 4th edition.

A worthwhile goal, even if it wasn't your original intention with the thread - especially since I think the 4th edition ruleset is truly broken and very much not the improvement on 2nd edition it was sold as.

But that's a subject for another day...

Cheers

 

[CapnZapp]

I've actually created a WFRP retroclone using 5e base mechanics; Raven's Beak. It takes the base resolution mechanics from 5e and some version of the careers, wounds, and a few others from WFRP. Plus the funnel from DCC, something based on the Chaos Gods, and a few other things from elsewhere.

"Changes are extensive, with the class system and magic system entirely replaced, and the skill and damage systems both overhauled"

This is the crucial point. (Talking to the thread in general now)

While I completely agree such major change is needed, for the context of this thread, the question that needs to be asked: is it even 5E at that point?

I genuinely mean no slight to Neon's project, but for me (and presumably Sword) the draw of 5E isn't the basic concept of rolling a d20 (instead of say 3d6 or d100), it is the classes and spells and monsters etc

Since all that needs to go to "properly" experience the Old World, why not jump to another game entirely? (That's a rhetorical question. I do fully understand rebuilding WFRP on top of the d20 engine can be a fun design challenge, and I really hope and wish you had the best of fun writing it Neon, but I think it is best seen as a curiosity with limited utility.) Everything in D&D (hit points, armor class, saves, a very limited skill system...) is geared for streamlined fun monster combat and once that is no longer the point or one of the main points of the game, I think all of D&D's advantages fall away.

You could totally use D&D for Warhammer Fantasy Battle heroic combat between larger-than-life army heroes, though! (Of course that has nothing to do with the Raven's Beak project. I'm just trying to be constructive by painting a picture of a D&D conversion that actually uses the strengths of the system!)

But nice link anyway. I'll read it more closely for ideas and inspiration!

Cheers

 

[TheSword]

I too tried being constructive.

What's constructive here, I think, is to interpret the thread's direction as not very many people being interested in merely a light veneer of WFRP on top of a regular game of D&D. I do understand that someone new to The Old World might consider such an idea alluring (you're far from the first!) but as you learn what makes WFRP tick you realize how it was truly designed as a reaction to D&D; it tries really hard to be everything D&D isn't (and succeeds phenomenally if you ask me!)

I mean, the alternative would be for your thread to remain totally empty. Not sure if you would have preferred that. In the meantime, at least the thread now contains a fair amount of useful pointers for those readers that do want WFRP but not using the current 4th edition.

A worthwhile goal, even if it wasn't your original intention with the thread - especially since I think the 4th edition ruleset is truly broken and very much not the improvement on 2nd edition it was sold as.

But that's a subject for another day...

Cheers

I’m not not new to the old world, I’ve ran the original Enemy Within in two previous editions and I still have my White Dwarf magazines. Bringing elements of WFRP to 5e still appeals to me because it could bring the world to a new audience that currently only knows 5e and is reluctant to try other systems.

This was not about creating an exact replica, but about bringing 5e to the point where you can convert an adventure as I said in my OP. Plenty of people commented constructively on the topic and I was more than happy. No doubt it would have been added to in time. I was also intending to post some 5e conversion work of some of those adventures.

You yourself acknowledged that it was a + thread. It just gets wearing in a thread designed to explore a topic when 5 or 6 people jump on to say something can’t be done, because it wouldn’t be to their liking.