D&D 5E Using older adventures as is (sort of)

[fjw70]

Is anyone using older edition (1-2e) adventures with only converting ACs and attack bonus but leaving hp and damage expressions as is? Or using 3/3.5 monsters as is? I believe this hat the conversion guide recommended.

If so how is it working? When I use older adventures I just replace the monster stats with 5e stats.

 

[Uchawi]

The biggest barrier I have found with conversions are mechanics that have no resolution in the current system. So you have to look at things like magic resistance for monsters and convert it to legendary actions, or the 5E equivalent. With that stated most of the previous edition monsters will need hit points and damaged increased to be relative in a 5E context for the appropriate challenge rating.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I imagine the ease of using old adventures really just comes down to the type of DM you are. If we reference back to the "do you fudge your rolls as a DM?" thread several months ago... those of us who do it (fudge rolls, adjust HP on the fly to make the fights more exciting/interesting etc.) probably have a much easier time running the modules because we don't really have to spend much time "converting" at all. We will just have the 1E/2E stats in front of us and just eyeball any adjustments we feel need to be made at the time the battle happens. For those mechanics they have that don't exist in 5E... we'll just quickly adapt a 5E equivalent.

For those players who need set stats for everything and don't adjust on the fly, I imagine it takes much, much longer to convert modules because every monster statblock has to be set up ahead of time in case the adventurers happen to encounter them.

Which type of DM you are probably determined whether using the modules is really worth your time.

 

[Bupp]

I agree with DEFCON1. I've run both 1e, BD&D and 3e adventures and mostly have replaced stat blocks for existing monsters. When they don't have 5e stats I've eyeballed it and done a full conversion after the fact.

 

[Li Shenron]

Is anyone using older edition (1-2e) adventures with only converting ACs and attack bonus but leaving hp and damage expressions as is? Or using 3/3.5 monsters as is? I believe this hat the conversion guide recommended.

If so how is it working? When I use older adventures I just replace the monster stats with 5e stats.

I have run a few adventures from those old editions, and I did just like what you did: I used 5e monsters instead of the original ones in the adventures.

I must say that those adventures had fairly normal monsters, nothing 'unique', so there was always a 5e version of that monster, so no conversion needed.

As for out-of-combat challenges, the guidelines for setting DCs are enough.

 

[Li Shenron]

The biggest barrier I have found with conversions are mechanics that have no resolution in the current system. So you have to look at things like magic resistance for monsters and convert it to legendary actions, or the 5E equivalent. With that stated most of the previous edition monsters will need hit points and damaged increased to be relative in a 5E context for the appropriate challenge rating.

I don't remember how magic resistance worked, but you can also try to just use it as-is.

In 3e IIRC spell resistance meant that the caster needed a caster level check vs monster's SR. But this is just a chance of failure. I'd eyeball it with either advantage or a bonus on ST, or with an additional flat % of ignoring the effects of the spell.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Is anyone using older edition (1-2e) adventures with only converting ACs and attack bonus but leaving hp and damage expressions as is? Or using 3/3.5 monsters as is? I believe this hat the conversion guide recommended.

If so how is it working? When I use older adventures I just replace the monster stats with 5e stats.

My current campaign started out using the old Thunder Rift modules from the tail end of the Basic D&D era. After the first adventure, I didn't even bother swapping out the BECMI version of the monsters for 5e equivalents because the 5e versions are generally so much more powerful/dangerous. Since I use a "signpost" method of advancing characters, instead of awarding XP, I have had no issues whatsoever. Though I will say that a very firm grasp of how the older systems worked is pretty important for this style of adaptation.

 

[Shiroiken]

I'm running an entire campaign using 1E adventures. I try to make a full conversion, when I have time, but I also run a lot of stuff on the fly. Monsters don't have to be difficult, because most old adventures use classic monsters which are in the MM, and you can often find an equivalent for the occasional odd monster. Sometimes you need to make up a specific monster, but that's kinda rare.

As a side note, I drop all gp by a factor of 10 and only give out about half the magic items listed.

 

[Ath'kethin]

As a side note, I drop all go by a factor of 10 and only give out about half the magic items listed.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that part. I basically removed all non story-relevant magic items (and replaced them as necessary) and grossly reduced he amount of treasure. This turned out to be a particularly good move since I relocated the Thunder Rift to the Primeval Thule campaign setting, which is very low-magic.

 

[S'mon]

Is anyone using older edition (1-2e) adventures with only converting ACs and attack bonus but leaving hp and damage expressions as is? Or using 3/3.5 monsters as is? I believe this hat the conversion guide recommended.

If so how is it working?

Working well for me - been using OSR, 1e, 3.5e adventures among many others in my 5e game. But I usually add a stat mod to listed old edition damage dice, eg d8+1 (STR 13) for a bandit instead of d8.
And for many monsters it works best to double their 1e-2e hit points.
3e ACs need to be capped at 22, and I recalculate NPC ACs for 5e, usually this means deduct 2-3 points.