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Forgive me if this has come up before, but does anyone know of an easy way to convert old first edition modules to 3.5? A table or chart? I just got rid of most of my TSR stuff, but still have one or two modules plus a few from Polyhedron magazines in the mid 80's. I recently started playing again (started in '78, stopped playing after high school). I prefer the new game, but don't see much in the way of adventures (compared to the old days...). Any advice? The prospect of going through stat by stat is a bit daunting.
Thanks for any help.
You might try posting this over on the D&D General area of the WoTC board.
I have been playing since about 82, with a brief break in the 90's. Just got back into D&D again shortly before 3.0 went to 3.5.
I have no easy way to convert the old mods short of just about rewriting them yourself.
There is just too much that has changed.
Some of the older modules have been fan converted at
Some are better than others but you get what you pay for.
I would recommend converting the module yourself especially if you are dming after a long break. There is no better way to learn the rules than trying to capture with feel of 1st edition with 3.5 rules.
Wizards created a booklet to help convert characters. You will find this useful if you want to do the conversion yourself.
If you are just looking for good adventures, I highly recommend picking up a few Dungeon magazines. They just completed an adventure path campaign that took characters from 1st to 20th level.
Thanks for the pointers, I haven't gotten into the WoTC boards yet. Thought it might be more 'non-denominational' here. Just bought my first copy of Dungeon; a shame since I've read Dragon off and on since the 40's but never bought into the spinoff.
The best part of using Dungeon are.
1) Web Enhancements - Paizo provides a pdf file online for every issue with the maps, npc images, etc... in a nice format for printing extra copies.
2) The Community here on the boards - If you are interested in a specific adventure or have questions the boards here provide other DMs who have run or are going to run the same adventure. Sharing hints, tips and experiences is the best part.
I feel the boards do a great job of capturing the feel of running 1st edition modules. Since there were so few 1st edition modules everyone ran Keep on the Borderlands therefore everyone can relate to your experiences in the same module. The board provides the same feeling, if you decide to run the Istivin campaign arc (Dungeon 117-119) it is easy to find people who ran it as well. Even the author is on the boards to answer any questions.
You might also try www.rpgplanet.com/dnd3e, they have 1st edition monsters converted to 3e, and a downloadable conversion guide.
Loughon, this happens to be one of my pet projects when I'm not writing my own. It looks like a real pain in the ass at first glance, but it's not really that hard. I won't go over every step I go through, but here's somewhere to start to actually get you going.
1. Compare the monsters in the older module with their current counterparts (if they have one) in the current Monster Manual and find their CRs. After you have their CRs listed, you should be able to figure out the average Encounter Levels of each encounter in the module and determine what level of characters it translates to in 3.5. A bunch of encounters that have an average EL of 5 is best suited for 5th-level PCs. And so on.
2. Replace the existing treasures with one from the current DMG using pg. 51 of the Dungeon Master's Guide to determine the total value based on the EL of each encounter.
3. For NPCs, just find out what their HD is and give them class levels from the current version of the game equal to their HD. It can get a little more complicated case by case, but that's the simplest catchall answer to that issue.
4. Just iron out the wrinkles. Turns and 1 minute rounds obviously don't mean the same thing anymore, but they equate pretty much the same way in the spirit of what the writers intended. Other little details are pretty easy to hammer out.
Once you have these basic points covered, its simply a matter of inserting a page reference to the Monster Manual or other applicable source book and maybe writing up a few NPCs. It gets easier as you go.
Hope that helps.