D&D 5E Official conversion guides from ALL editions are coming this fall!

[Werebat]

Again, sorry if you mistook hostility for me calling out to get answers.

I'm pretty sure you meant that the other way around.

 

[werecorpse]

"We’ve already had DMs cook up conversion guides for earlier editions. We’ll be producing official ones that will be freely available in the fall, once we dig ourselves out from beneath the three core rulebooks." - Mike Mearls.

From this interview.

Any word on the conversion guides?

 

[delericho]

Any word on the conversion guides?

I don't think there's been anything since they announced a delay in the spring (due to jury duty - which should have finished by now, but might have run late).

Then again, they have had to reprint the core rulebooks several times. Perhaps each time they do, the truck just dumps the new load on top of the developers, and they have to dig themselves out all over again?

 

[CapnZapp]

I worry about people's expectations here.

When it comes to player characters, you're almost always better off by this three step guide:
1) Write down a textual description of your character and what he's or she's known to be capable of.

Use plain English, use no game term or numbers whatsoever (except possibly class and level). Only include actions you have actually used in play; the capabilities the character actually displays on a semi-regular basis.

2) Throw away or hide your old character sheet. Only look at your notes.

3) Create a completely new character using the new rules, where you use your notes to guide you.

This guide is given to you completely free. It is guaranteed to work between ANY TWO systems in the whole hobby, no exceptions.

What I'm saying is that detailed step-by-step procedures involving a lot of small details and fiddly bits (like http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Pathfinder_Roleplaying_Game_Conversion_Guide) is really only possible for incredibly similar games (such as 3.5 to Pathfinder).

Remember the insult that was WotC's guidelines for converting old characters into 4th ed? (It must really have pissed people off, because I can't even google it!)

The best a conversion guide can do is be a matchmaker. For 1E thru 3E the focus needs to be on things like "the 1E owlbear is much stronger than the 5E one, use monster x instead" (made up example), or "The 3E Wand of Powers has been considerably weakened in 5E, use staff Y instead".

The little things that could otherwise be a trap for DMs in a hurry when they sit at the 5E table with a 2E adventure in their hands.

Problem is: that's a bitch to do right. Intensely time-consuming. And why would WotC do that, especially now, when 5E is a confirmed success. Sure, they made a promise during the dawn of time, but really. Any half-assed copy of my rules above prattled into more pages would fulfil that promise. Let's just say I'm sceptical.

And even then: what will they do about 3E's magic item economy. To me, that's the largest piece missing if I want to run a 3E game with 5th edition. Nothing suggests they will patch this.

For 4E, it's a whole new ball game entirely. If you want to run games with a 4E vibe, you want whole new rules subsystems. You can't really convert between 1/2/3/5E and 4E. You would need pages after pages of DMG inclusion-worthy rules systems to make the game work in the ways 4E adventures assume.

And I would be very much surprised if WotC gave us anything even close to something that would transform 5E into a game with 4E:ish sensibilities.

TL;DR: Have low expectations on these conversion guides. Very low expectations.

 

[delericho]

Remember the insult that was WotC's guidelines for converting old characters into 4th ed? (It must really have pissed people off, because I can't even google it!)

It was, essentially, the same as your three-step process.

Problem is: that's a bitch to do right. Intensely time-consuming. And why would WotC do that, especially now, when 5E is a confirmed success. Sure, they made a promise during the dawn of time, but really.

It's precisely because they made that promise that I expect to see conversion guides. And, indeed, some sort of open license for the game.

(And, for the avoidance of doubt, by "expect" here I mean "I assess the probability at more than 50%", not "I demand, and will bitch and moan until I get it". That I'll do elsewhere. )

But what I'm hoping for from the conversion guides is not "here's how to remake your PC for this edition" - I imagine most people who are going to do that have done it already. Rather, I'm more interested in conversions for the various 'bits' from old editions: use of old spells with the new rules, or monsters, or (especially) conversions from Kits or Prestige Classes to 5e subclasses, backgrounds, or whatever.

And, yes, that's difficult to do well, which is why I'd like the professionals to take a stab at it, and also why I don't have a problem with it taking plenty of time.

 

[Hussar]

Was there ever official 4e conversation docs? I remember the 3e ones that were not terribly useful to me but apparently others got some value from them. I don't recall any actual 4e conversion docs to get insulted about.

 

[delericho]

Was there ever official 4e conversation docs? I remember the 3e ones that were not terribly useful to me but apparently others got some value from them. I don't recall any actual 4e conversion docs to get insulted about.

I don't think so. Indeed, I think it was that that some people did take issue with - the advice from WotC was basically to end your campaign and start over. (With the usual caveat that some people were basically looking for things to get offended over.)

As you say, there were conversion notes both from 1st/2nd -> 3.0e and also from 3.0e -> 3.5e. I found both to be of some use.

But 5e has deliberately (and wisely, IMO) been put forward as a sort of unity edition, where players of all previous editions can find a home. And for that reason I would expect WotC to make their best effort to help people convert material to the new edition - if people are holding back because they're using a specific beloved item that isn't converted, providing that guide might be just the thing they need to move across. And I suspect a non-trivial minority of campaign may be in that position.

 

[CapnZapp]

It was, essentially, the same as your three-step process.

Yes, but with a MUCH larger word count and with much overblown fanfare.

Meaning that if they wanted to avoid the PR disaster, they should have posted my three steps already from the beginning instead of letting people wait for a "guide".

Saying this because it would be misleading to say that their guide was essentially sound. (Not saying you're saying this; but the way your reply is phrased allows this interpretation)

Yes, I believe my three steps are the only real way to do it, but at the time people expected something more along the lines of the 3.5 to PF guide linked to above; something with real crunch, something that would make it a mostly mechanical conversion.

 

[delericho]

Yes, but with a MUCH larger word count and with much overblown fanfare.

Actually, unless I missed something, there was no conversion guide published. Which is why you can't find it with Google - WotC advised that people should end their campaigns and start over. And, yes, that did piss some people off.

(That said, it is entirely possible that they later did reverse that decision and publish a formal conversion guide. I don't recall it, but I stopped tracking 4e developments in detail not long after the edition was released.)

 

[aramis erak]

Man, if WotC had handled the 4E rollout like they are doing with 5E, there'd have been a lot less angst in 2008.

Finally, there's leadership that respects those that play (or heavily bought into) other editions. Kudos to WotC!

There still would have been quite a lot, due to the severely different paradigm of mechanics that 4E had.

Better handling only gets you so far.
Even conversion guides only go so far.