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Message: <blockquote data-quote="xnosipjpqmhd" data-source="post: 3487847">Ok, I (and to a differing extent, my players) think D&D is full of cheese. It's gotten hokey. (Ok, it's been hokey for quite some time...) This hasn't been a problem in the past, as I usually write my own adventures, but now I want to run an Adventure Path, so I'm embracing cheesiness in my current campaign 'cause I'm lazy, but I wish I could run a more toned down and believable game using published modules. Whenever I read a published module, I still get a strong desire to take a knife and cut out large hunks of cheesiness out of it.Does anyone have a set of guidelines for un-cheesing published D&D adventures?This thread assumes you believe aspects of D&D are cheesy, and published adventures need some level of changing. (If you don't agree, don't respond. This is not intended to be a debate about whether D&D is cheesy, or even specifically what is cheesy. I am not saying any specific way to play D&D is wrong. )Here are some ideas I've considered:- Replace every other magic item listed with mundane items/valuables. This reduces the overall abundance of magic in the game. Careful consideration needs to be made in each case, because some modules are written with the intent that some of the items will be useful to the players later in the adventure.- Replace renaissance technology with medieval technology. Rapiers become short sword, hand crossbows become short bows, etc.- Replaced any exotic weapons (spiked chains included!) with the closest non-exotic fit for the milieu. (With only a few exceptions, I think spiked chains are pure cheese.)- Wherever feasible, replace alchemical items with mundane items. Tindertwigs become bundles of oiled torches, or bullseye lanterns and spare oil flasks, etc. Again care is needed to take into account specific assumptions in the module, such as creature tactics.- Replace any templated creature that seems pointless or over-the-top (i.e. a pack of fiendish werebadgers on a wandering monster table) with more reasonable creatures of equivalent CR.- Personally, I think the default economic system is way out of whack. I like to replace all references to "gp" with "sp" in all rules used, which returns a feel of value to gold pieces. I would prefer some easy way to redo the whole wealth-by-level system so that it doesn't rise so quickly... and possibly unhooking prices from magic items.- Replacing magic traps with believable mundane ones, wherever appropriate and/or possible.What I would love is to have a set of variants just like those presented in Unearthed Arcana, except all focused on converting "standard D&D" to "slightly more mundane D&D." Anyone got any ideas?</blockquote>

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