The Doctor is IN (an introduction and a question)

[Dr. Screampunk]

Hello, everyone. Dr. Screampunk here. I've been lurking for a long time at enworld and finally decided to take the plunge and post. Zis is my farst poost. Muah ha ha ha!

First of all, let me just say that I am incredibly impressed with the community here. Not to be catty or anything, but I've been lurking at rec.games.frp.dnd and continuously shaking my head at the childishness and lack of civility that ensues there on a regular basis (typical of Usenet as a whole, I know, I know ). Here, by contrast, is a place where I truly feel "at home." (Pauses to wipe away tears, bites trembling lip, continues).

Anyway, there I am. Introduced.

Now a question: how many of you use 1e or 2e materials in your 3e campaigns? My game of choice at the moment is 3.0. I have little or no interest in 3.$ (they took away my Alchemy, dammit! Craft just isn't the same! ). I also have a slew of 2e materials, including:

Ravenloft Boxed Set + adventures
Planescape Boxed Set + adventures
Several "Complete" books
Player's Guide to Greyhawk

I'm currently thinking about starting up a Planescape campaign using 3.0. I'm also thinking of converting some of the monsters in the Monstrous Compendiums over to 3.0.

Does anyone else do this?
And are there conversion formulas/guidelines somewhere online?

Oh, by the way, I'm getting back into RPGs after a long layoff, so forgive me if these seem like newbie questions.

Back to the lab. The brains are getting brittle.

 

[Mark]

Welcome, Dr. Screampunk!

(Check here about creature conversions - http://www.enworld.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=26 )

 

[Len]

What's the average distance that someone has to travel to a game up there north of 60?

Now a question: how many of you use 1e or 2e materials in your 3e campaigns?

Most of our campaign has been adventures that our DM converted from old Dungeon magazines. He's run most of them before, sometimes in more than one edition. It's worked great so far.

And are there conversion formulas/guidelines somewhere online?

Check out the ENWorld Creature Catalog if you haven't already.
Edit: I guess you have already since Mark beat me to the post.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Hello and welcome aboard.

I love the DMG tables and charts from 1e. Never had anything to do with 2e.

 

[Henry]

Hello, and Welcome!

Now a question: how many of you use 1e or 2e materials in your 3e campaigns?

...I'm currently thinking about starting up a Planescape campaign using 3.0. I'm also thinking of converting some of the monsters in the Monstrous Compendiums over to 3.0.

Does anyone else do this?
And are there conversion formulas/guidelines somewhere online?

Others have answered the monster questions; as for converting things like traps, magic items, etc., the conversions should be pretty easy, since most plusses map out from one edition to another. On the whole, though two things to look out for: Any item that gave a +1 attribute bonus in 1e/2e should probably give a +2 in 3e, a +2 should be +4, etc. Because of the way attributes are scaled.

Any item with a random chance of something occurring (backfire, etc.) should be looked at carefully to see if it needs to be converted to a d20 roll of some kind. If it's modifiable, then it should be a d20 roll. If you don't want it modifiable, then leave it a percentage chance.

There are no hard rules to item and trap conversions - the guiding principle is "don't screw the players with random happenings where possible."

Good luck, and see you around the boards!

 

[Buttercup]

Weclome aboard, Doc!

I'll use anything that interests me, in my quest to terrorize, I mean entertain my players. Having said that, I don't have much in the way of materials for prior editions.

 

[billd91]

When it comes to conversions of adventures, things can get pretty tricky. Picking the number of humanoids or other creatures to use in an encounter, when you're used to 1st/2nd editions can be tough.
Humanoids are probably a little bit tougher than they used to be, at least when it comes to damage output. They still can't take much. If you have more players than the "typical" 4 players that the CRs are designed to reflect, you can pretty much use the same number of humanoids as in the earlier sources. But if you only have 4 players, tone it down a little.
3E has shifted more fully back to a tactical game like the earliest editions of D&D. Well, technically, it supports it better than 1st/2nd editions because a DM can always elect not to have such a tactical focus. But anyway, I have found that the traditional 10' dungeon corridors can really reduce the danger basic humanoids can pose if the party has one or two characters with good ACs like breastplates. In 2nd edition, because it was typically more abstract on the gameboard, it was easier to say that the orcs could deploy and more could be a threat.
Giants, on the other hand, are a bit nastier and the same numbers of giants in an encounter will much through most 3E parties.

Expect to be a bit surprised at how fast characters advance in levels if you use the same encounter structure in adventures as 1st/2nd edition had. For extended adventures, expect the PCs will level out of the module before they reach the end of it. Either adjust the challenges accordingly or think about using story awards based on goals in the adventure rather than monster kills.

 

[RFisher]

Now a question: how many of you use 1e or 2e materials in your 3e campaigns?

My group is currently going through T1-4 in a D&D 3.5 campaign. It's really only building us up to tackle the G series, and hopefully beyond. Since I've never really played many modules, I begged one of the guys to run the G series so I could finally experience it.

And are there conversion formulas/guidelines somewhere online?

I dunno. I typically find conversion on the fly pretty easy with any system. Just pick something similar out of the rulebook & tweak it. Admittedly, its a bit easier to convert from 3e to 1e than the other way around.

You have to watch things, though, because the power curve is quite different. It may not be enough to replace that 1e ogre with a 3e ogre because the PCs are more powerful at that point than would've been typical in a 1e campaign. So you might need to beef up encounters. Or maybe the monster got a boost relative to the PCs in 3e, so you have to tone an encounter down a bit.

But, heck, I've done that kind of adjusting when running 3e characters in 3e modules, 1e characters in 1e modules, &c. Just make a best initial guess & then adjust as you go on.

While ours may technically be a 3.5 campaign, it has a lot of 1e style. (e.g. We've been doing group initiative.) That may help some.