D&D 4E Pre-4e adventures ripe for conversion?

[Cam Banks]

I was a playtester for that module and it is certainly the best adventure I have ever played in. Its got everything and would IMHO make a fantastic 4e conversion.

When I ran it back in the day, I found only one problem with its set-up: all the PCs had been to Threshold already (it's kind of the default starting location for them in Basic D&D) and I'd taken them through B1-9, so going back to Threshold halfway through B10 was kind of odd.

I wonder if the best plan is simply to kick this off as the heroes' first adventure, telling them they're all from Kelven. 1st level 4e characters should have no problems with the challenges inside, and they're most likely to go up to 2nd or even 3rd during the course of it.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Cam Banks]

Oh, and I am definitely a GAZ1 Duchy kind of guy, not a Karameikos: Kingdom sort of guy. I really couldn't stand the update to the Duke Stephan's realm, or the kicking out of the Black Eagle.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[lockdar]

I've converted the Labyrinth of Madness to 3e for my players and we've had a blast playing it. It has all sorts of nasty things in it that make it very challenging and fun to do.
Since 4th eition will use more rooms and larger areas per encounter I see the Worlds Biggest Dungeon as a good candidate although it would probably have to be a joint venture with other DM's. The Dungeon is fairly empty when you compare the number of rooms and the number of critters inside, seems ideal for converting.

 

[Danzauker]

I really hope WotC considers converting and re-releasing old classic adventures to the new edition.

After a whole edition gap, I'm sure there are lots of players that just heard of some all time classics everybody talks about but never played them.

I, myself, never played the original Dragonlance modules. I'd be really glad to try them in 4e.

Mind you, what I'd like are not SEQUELS, but complete REMAKES of the original adventures. Where they keep the original premises and backdrop stories, and just update monsters and encounters to the new ruleset.

I don't think it should be too difficult to do this.

 

[Qualidar]

I think the Lost Temple of Tharizdun (do I have that right?) would be a good one to convert.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

I'm really looking at Rahasia, and Castle Amber, two classic DnD adventures.

Castle Amber is looking so much better with the 4E rules as well.

I bet.

Do you have any thoughts yet on the conversion for Rahasia?

Then there are the old Slaver's modules and the original Temple of Elemental Evil...I need more time dag nam it.

Every time I read "Temple of Elemental Evil", I want to scrap the campaign I'm thinking about and just run that. Sigh. Maybe I'll hold out until there are rules for half-orc monks and for druids, so my Hommlet can be complete.

 

[Cam Banks]

I, myself, never played the original Dragonlance modules. I'd be really glad to try them in 4e.

Mind you, what I'd like are not SEQUELS, but complete REMAKES of the original adventures. Where they keep the original premises and backdrop stories, and just update monsters and encounters to the new ruleset.

I don't think it should be too difficult to do this.

Margaret Weis Productions remade the original Dragonlance modules as Dragons of Autumn, Dragons of Winter, and Dragons of Spring. I was the developer for all three (and handled half the design work on the middle one.) They're all for 3.5, but there's a ton of updated material that incorporates Margaret and Tracy's later books, cosmology updates, a newer understanding of adventure design and goals, and so forth. It wasn't particularly easy, actually, since you'd think updating a series of short 16 and 32 page adventure modules would be a piece of cake. Dragons of Spring ended up being the second-largest Dragonlance adventure module ever made (with Price of Courage being the largest). A great deal of that was stat block creation, which is something I'm hoping is a lot easier in 4e.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[mearls]

But, when are you planning on publishing this stuff?

It all depends on how much arm twisting I have apply to Dungeon's editor, Chris Youngs. Believe me, we're very much aware of the number of people who would like to see 4e takes on classic adventures.

 

[Xorn]

Isle of Dread

I'll be doing this one. It was the first "big" adventure I ever ran, and I ran it over and over for various play groups over the years. Even did a Conan-esque Palladium Fantasy game in this adventure. Love the Isle of Dread. It feels like... apple pie.

 

[mearls]

Have you ever read Team From Hommlet? It was a guy from my online circle of friends circa 1995 running his group through ToEE using only 1st edition core rules. Hilarious. Systematic deconstruction of the Temple and everything within it. They even ripped off the doors and took them back to Nulb to sell. Anyway...



I think it's an unabashed classic. It's also British. The guys responsible went on to do wonderful, crazy things for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. If I can inject even a little of that British awesome into my 4e campaign, it'll be worth it.

It's also my opinion that 4e owes a lot to Basic/Expert/Companion, but I can't really pin down why. It's why I think those older OD&D adventures will be a piece of cake to convert over.

I'll have to google Team from Hommlett and check it out.

I think the British D&D adventures are almost all forgotten classics. They had an inventive bent, combined with good stories, that you don't often see in American designs. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it was just the talent they gathered, but their work was consistently a cut above.

Stuff like Drums on Fire Mountain or Blade of Vengeance are forgotten classics, IMO.

I hope that the BXCM feel comes through in two ways:

1. The game has a tone that encourages creativity. A lot of the feedback we received on the DMG touched on this, that the game seems to unfetter DMs and say, "You are in control of this game, not the rules." It's something that's hard to put your finger on, but the tone, attitude, and approach of the DMG really supports this.

2. Most groups quickly reach a point with the game where they rarely, if ever, consult the rulebook to play. I really, really hope that the structure of defenses, the baseline DCs and damage we've established, and the logical connections between stuff makes it really easy for groups to run the game without books. If you write down the full text of your spells/prayers/exploits, you have almost everything you need right on your character sheet.