D&D 5E (2014) Using older adventures as is (sort of)

[S'mon]

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.

Sounds a bit like me; I may well set the stats only when a monster enters combat, but I don't
fudge - I don't adjust the stats mid battle to make a monster harder or easier, just as I don't
"adjust" the results of dice rolls.

 

[Wuzzard]

I eyeball and adjust the stats of 5E monsters all the time. So if I used modules (mostly I don't), I'd certainly be fine with using old 1e modules, and just translating on the fly, though I'd probably lookup 5e versions of monsters if available just to get a comparison.. However, the most important part of using a module to me (again, if I used one) is borrowing the set up, the goal, the places and the characters, not the rules for how the monsters work.

 

[Pauln6]

I just paste stat blocks and trap dcs onto a separate word doc. I did the saltmarsh trilogy, age if worms, frost giant jarl, and some living greyhawk. 2e fluff plus 3e stats are useful as are comparisons of similar monsters. The 3e sea devils are more interesting so I kept some of those elements. For big fights or larger monsters just check the xp budget (base xp on similar monsters) because they tend to have better attack rolls and deal higher damage so I'm nervous about piling too much into one fight.

 

[Ben Kurido]

I tend toward the "on the fly" conversion method. I have been spending a lot of time familiarizing myself with the conversion rules for all the previous edition because I feel it is important not to completely scrap what has come before just because it is a new edition of the game. I started playing in the '80's, so I have had to do this a couple of times as the editions changed. Excellent topic, fjw70! Thank you for posting this!

 

[slaughterj]

I ran Keep on the Borderlands and used the 5e stats as-is for the bulk of the monsters. For the leaders of Orcs, Hobgoblins, I used various equivalent higher power monsters, the 5e MM captains, etc. That worked for most things. Then there were the priests, which I separately built using the DMG evil/death priest oath, and made them like PCs.

For treasure, I did not change the gold/jewelry etc. at all, and the amounts ended up working out fine. For magic items, I only changed a little, e.g., I left the miscellaneous items as-is (except for the wand of paralyzation, which has a broken mechanic in 5e and I would restructure as a wand with hold person / hold monster and some charges like other 5e wands), adjusted a few magic weapons wielded by monsters to be the type that they wield under 5e, and adjusted maybe one of the several shield+1s to something else as those were a bit repetitive in the module.

 

[slaughterj]

I started running Isle of Dread, and again used 5e monster stats, but had to do a bit more tweaking, especially since there are some exotic monsters only found in that module, and instead of making the effort to convert, I just switched them to other monsters appropriate for the location that were statted in 5e. And I tweaked a few other things, like the crocodile encounter changed from 4 crocs to 3 crocs plus 1 giant croc, to make the encounters more suitable for the party.

I did not adjust treasure, and only slightly modified magic items.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

But if both. Found full conversion tough as hell on the PCs but just adjusting AC and to hit while leaving HP alone too easy for them (think pile of corpses in three rounds that wouldve been 2 if there hadn't been a double Wheaton from one of the PCs).

This is an Ad&d module using FF monsters. Derro in 5e are nasty, but the lamia surprisingly a pushover (both fully converted).

 

[Connorsrpg]

I have run a lot of early adventures in different editions. I have never bothered with massive conversion documents. I have read some and, wow. No need at all. DCs are easy to adapt to anything on the fly and I simply substitute in monsters from current edition.

Currently running "Rise of the Runelords", but recently ran A1 Slavers module for 5E. I wrote up a lot of half-orc stats, mostly by slightly modifying the NPCs at the back of the MM with a feat thrown in here or there. I did up a G sundew plant and aspis and the rest just used 5E existing stats.

Someone mentioned the drop in treasure. I have pretty much always done this anyway. I usually drop things to around 10% and for every magic item listed I roll a 50% chance of them having it.

Basically, I take little notice of XP/CR budgets etc. I just sub monsters straight in. If the module says 12 orcs, I use 12 orcs from 5E. It sounds like there are a lot of DMs spending a lot of time 'converting' and calculating CRs/ELs etc. I don't do it and I doubt players would have any idea. But, our group has never been a stickler for 'balance'.

 

[ccs]

Yeah, I run old edition stuff this way all the time.
1) If a listed monster has a 5e version I just use that.
2) If there is no 5e version I run the Monster as is. AC, HP, Damage, etc.
The only thing I need to bother converting is its base to - hit bonus & any special abilities it has get eyeballed.
So far I've used the following modules this way:
The Forest Oracle (1e)
The Lost Isle of Castanimir (1e)
Souls for Smugglers Shiv (PF)
Keep on the Borderlands (Basic)