D&D General World building: MIx and Match Editions

[DnD Warlord]

WIth a big shout out to @AmandaBarbarian I have one to add.

Please don't edition war here... although I fear that is what this will end up getting this locked

So @AmandaBarbarian started this whole world building threads idea, and I wanted to ask about one. Do you, and if you do how do you transfer an idea from 1 edition to an edition that doesn't have it?

 

[AmandaBarbarian]

Cool idea, I JUST posted my next one I will try to remember to add this one in on my "last time on" part of my thread.

I never played other editions, although I totally know people who have. I even played a homebrew warrior based on older editions, and I played in a game where someone made a ranger that had wizard spells and druid/cleric spells both but didn't get them until higher level... it was weird and didn't really fit with the way magic worked in 5e, but was fun to see. I think it was based on an edition from the 50s or 60s maybe basic, or the M one that came after basic.

However to answer more or less in line with what you want I want to take an idea from another game system entirely. Exploding damage dice. Not everything mind you (although that would be cool too) but I am making a magic weapon that if you roll the max damage on the damage die roll you can roll again and add it to it. SO my answer is by making it a unique magic artifact.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Okay this is like a thread built for me.

I ran a 5e game that brought in ideas from every edition. I did it as a multiverses game and had a 2e wizard as a main NPC. From monster/NPC stand it was easy to just make new cross over rules... the problem with players getting it was a bit more.

However I also have tried to homebrew your name sake, a warlord, with little luck and ran a middle earth book as a "martial only" "no magic class" campaign and brought a bunch of 3e Bo9S maneuvers over, and some 4e martial exploits and made them tresure "trained rewards"

I am right now trying to homebrew a 2e style spellfire for a friend to play in someone elses campaign, and I am making it a warlock pact.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

WIth a big shout out to @AmandaBarbarian I have one to add.

Please don't edition war here... although I fear that is what this will end up getting this locked

So @AmandaBarbarian started this whole world building threads idea, and I wanted to ask about one. Do you, and if you do how do you transfer an idea from 1 edition to an edition that doesn't have it?

Going a little bit outside of the limits of a single edition, I love some of the thematic elements of 13th Age, and if I do a new game (Jewel of the Desert does not really work for this idea unfortunately), I am 100% stealing the idea of "Overworld."

We've had the idea of a terrifying and alien, underground darkness full of grotesqueries for ages. While I can't strictly say it's "played out" (Morrowind is clearly inspired by it, for instance), it's well-trodden ground.

But the idea of a dilapidated sky-realm, a place of light and glory but also decay and creations gone awry? A place simultaneously beautiful and broken? A place where broken arcane experiments rest alongside half-vanished Biblically accurate angels? Sign me the heck up.

 

[Oofta]

I've been running the same campaign world for multiple editions so some of the ideas and lore are inherited from previous editions. While I use Norse mythology as a basis for deities for humans, other deities come from really old books like Greyhawk deities. Things like the underdark still have a place, but I put my own spin on it - the underdark is actually a separate realm Svartlheim.

Actual rules are rarely brought in, although I do use my own version of skill challenges I used and modified from 4E. For the most part, 5E feels like an evolution of previous editions so there's not really much to bring in.

 

[billd91]

I think it depends on what the idea is. Something like 4e's bloodied term is easy, at least in using it as a metric of progress in a fight. Character classes may take a bit of design, build, and tweaking.

 

[Incenjucar]

2nd edition informs a lot of my DMing, and I've been using 2E material for design inspiration via RPG Drivethrough, specifically the Planescape books I don't own copies of. Now that I've finally gotten my 78 books and box sets out of storage after 20 years I'll be flipping through them to refresh myself and see what can be brought forward.

 

[Voadam]

When I was running Pathfinder 1e at one point the party entered a fey gate and entered the First World/Feywild which is a more primal reality that looks chaotic but is ruled by obscure arcane laws that are not clear or really fully understood by mortals.

So while they were there I converted everybody to 1e AD&D, switched our minis to lego figs, and ran the game using 1e rules.

Even the players who generally hate 1e were fine with it being for a short defined time knowing it was not a permanent switch and were able to enjoy it.

It worked out fantastically well and added an extra layer of flavor to the feywild as a different reality.

 

[HammerMan]

Tree of Life.

It was a basic d&d idea I stole and used in world building in both 2e and 4e and it has evolved a bit since both. I am now working on bringing it over to 5e.

Clans of elves must protect a tree that gives them power and long life… if the tree dies they die.

Mix in some 3e sunless citadel Gulthias tree for a great “us vs them” atmospher

As for how, I just make up and port mechanics as needed.

 

[cbwjm]

I have converted a lot of monsters, spells, and magical items for my games. These tend to be pretty easy to do though. I've also run old modules but using 5e rules, just replaced everything with a 5e equivalent (i.e., replaced goblins with goblins), though some unique items required me to build them and I did buff up some boss monsters a bit by making them unique monsters with my elite template.