Would you purchase an expansion, from a different system than you use, to adapt for your preferred system? If yes why?

[Blue]

Would I purchase something from another system (as opposed to generic) to use with my preferred system? Probably not. Just about everything I do is 100% homebrew adventures and setting.

But there are variations on this that are a yes.

Would I purchase something for my preferred system to convert it for a system I happen to be running? Sure, why not.

Would I take something I already own, and convert it to a preferred system? I might.

Would I purchase something generic, like inventive traps (Grimm's I'm looking at you) or spaceship deckplans that I could use in multiple systems to use with my preferred game? That's maybe the most likely yes of these three.

 

[giant.robot]

looks at shelf bowing under the weight of dozens of GURPS books

Yes. I very much have. In fact I'd say about 80% of the game books I own because I wanted to use them as references or adapt ideas to other systems than use them for the system they're published for. Before the Internet was packed to the gills with Wikis for every fandom under the sun game books were very useful references for various fandoms.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I myself can think of a few products I would like to have for my system...Encyclopedia Magica from TSR, the full Undermountain maps and modules come to mind from Forgotten Realms DnD. Can you think of any product where the ideas and creativity of the product you would want to incorporate into running your campaign world? Would you purchase them to do so?

I use Encyclopedia Magica in my Level Up game, and use worldbuilding rules from a variety of other RPGs.

 

[aramis erak]

I myself can think of a few products I would like to have for my system...Encyclopedia Magica from TSR, the full Undermountain maps and modules come to mind from Forgotten Realms DnD. Can you think of any product where the ideas and creativity of the product you would want to incorporate into running your campaign world? Would you purchase them to do so?

I rarely do this. Hell, I seldom use Third Party Products (3PP). I've been using a bunch for Daggerheart... and have been contemplating more... but I consider RightKnightToFight to not really be 3PP, because they're part of the design team for the core rules.

The one series of products I have hapily used was Avalanche Press' stuff. Sure, the cover art was NSFW level lurid objectification of (mostly) women — I, Mordred does similar for the titular character — but the contents were always solid. I've used varying degrees of the setting work of I, Mordred in my Pendragon Campaigns. I have considered using the setting work (not rules) with Cortex Prime, but have yet to do so. And Noble Steeds is an excellent introduction to horses, easily patched to 5E, PF, or Daggerheart.

Oh, and Tabletop Adventures LLC, has rereleased the Avalanche materials, but with plain brown cover art.

 

[Distracted DM]

Have I picked up supplements/stuff from a game for use in a different game? Absolutely, many times. Have I ever actually used it? Ummmm . . . .

This is the way.

But really, I think that's the whole shelfware/collector thing that lots of TTRPG enthusiasts with impulse control problems end up doing... you see a TTRPG product, think it could serve you well in whatever games you run, or tell yourself "hey maybe one day I'll run this!", you buy it... well, whether it gets used or not that's up in the air. But you certainly intended to buy those DCC 3pp adventures to use in DnD, because the adventures look cool!

 

[Bae'zel]

I once bought a Conan 2d20 supplement for my Mythras campaign because it had a really neat scavenging, crafting and base building system. Had no use for the book otherwise.

 

[Morrus]

I can usually convert things on the fly so I often use stuff from different games.

 

[Desdichado]

Only if the "different" system is compatible with one of my preferred systems as I am not one for adapting things mechanically. So, for example, I will generally drop money on stuff that is in the RQ/BRP family as one of my preferred systems is Mythras, so adapting things in quite easy. But I wouldn't spend money on a D&D 5e product as I don't use any D&D or adjacent/derivative systems so adapting things would be just as much work as inventing stuff wholecloth.

If they're both fantasy games with similar basic setting assumptions, you probably don't need to adapt very much anyway. Just take the equivalent from one system in place of what you have in another. I never bother adapting stuff mechanically; I just substitute it for the most part.

 

[GM Lent]

I once bought a Conan 2d20 supplement for my Mythras campaign because it had a really near scavenging, crafting and base building system. Had no use for the book otherwise.

I once backed an entire Conan 2d20 Kickstarter because it looked cool and promised all kinds of neat charts, tables, maps, etc. As a consequence I've have 20+ high-quality PDFs doing whatever the digital equivalent of gathering dust on a shelf is, for like 7 years.

O how I wish that was the only time!

 

[TheHand]

I’ve been doing this since the 90s, taking elements I like from different adventures or settings and adapting them to whatever game engine I happen to be using. And I often utilize materials from older editions of RPGs for newer ones, even if the core engines aren’t very compatible. One particular example was using storyline beats from Rogue Mistress (Stormbringer) in a D&D 4e game that was set in AD&D’s 2nd edition setting of Planescape.