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Hi everybody,
[u]since I am[/u] :
1- going to be a father soon (less than a week),
2- a little bit lazy,
I would like to know if any of you has converted old AD&D or D&D adventures to the 3.5 rules ?
If some of you had done this conversion, I would be interested to get a copy of the new monsters or NPCs characteristics, traps' DCs and so on, and I am pretty sure that I am not the only one.
It is not about sharing PDF files (with maps descriptions, etc...), since there are copyrights laws, but sharing word/excel files with only "technical stuff & rules" (the self-made conversion work or notes).
If there was no problem about copyrights, maybe (and I am asking you, Lilith !) those conversion notes could be hosted on Lilith's site ?!?
BTW, I do know WOTC did this with 3 adventures :
- tomb of horror
- white plume mountain
- temple of the frog
Thanks to everybody.
Sharing could be great, since (I have tried it), converting old adventures is time-consuming...
Did you have a look at enworld.com? There is a download section of converted old adventures, and the guidelines you have to observe if doing conversions yourself. Basically, you can "only" convert the game mechanics part, not any other content - and it is a lot of work!
There are 34 (at the moment) classics there on this page, the "A" series, some "B" adventures, the "S" series, the "G" series, X2 Castle Amber (I love it still!), the "U" series and several more.
Stefan
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Thanks Stefan !
This is the kind of stuff I was looking for.
I do own "castle amber", the A1-4 series, the GDQ1-7, etc...
but converting that old material is very time-consuming (I did it for half of "night below" in 3.0, and had to create my 3.0 hook horrors and quaggoths, since only the 1st MM was published).
I'm going to have a look...
No, but we convert 3.5 stuff to 2ed all the time.
I ran the Dungeon of Death in my 3.0 campaign and did the mildly heretical thing of not really translating much.
I ran the monsters straight from the 3.0 monster manual and found downloads for the ones that weren't there on the above-mentioned conversion site. I also read the charts in the DMG for what kind of CR to assign to a particular lethality of trap and otherwise just ran it straight as a 1st edition module.
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I'm in the middle of a 'Return' to the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan for the STAP. It's more than a conversion, though. I'm modernizing things a bit by going with what I thought was implied in SWW, where a large portion of the ziggurat has collapsed.
When I'm done, I'd be happy to share, but the maps are huge, and like you, I don't want to be guilty of any TM or Copyright infringement. And I wouldn't want to share until I play-tested it to see what needs to be adjusted. Unfortunately, we're just about 1/3 of the way through 'There is no honor', so that may be awhile.
And yes, it is a TON of work! The battlemaps themselves took weeks.
I've done conversions of
Vulture Point
and
Return to the Keep on the Borderlands
Both are not perfect conversions however. In some cases elements from my homebrew have creeped in and I might have changed some odd encounters here and there to suite my own tastes but they are mostly true to the original.
Anyway if your interested drop me a line at streax@sympatico.ca
Hey,
Stefan, the enworld section you told me about...
I can't seem to find where downloading updated old-school adventures is possible ?!Could anyone give me the complete link ?
EDIT : I just re-read your message : the adventures don't come converted, then ???
This is the direct link
http://www.enworld.org/downloads/index.php?cid=8You have to create an account first before downloading anything.
This are conversions of the "technical data" only, so to speak. SO, they won´t do you any good if you don´t own the original adventures. For example, in the Slavelords series conversions there are the 3.0 (I think) for the stats of the slave lords given, but nothing about their tactics or any other text beyond number crunching. To do otherwise would violate the copyright.
Stefan
You can do whatever you want in the privacy of your home but if you want to distribute your work, what other posters have said is correct: limit your conversion to raw mechanics only and do not include any other material from the original product. Changing the flavor or intent of the adventure is specifically an infringement (you'd be distributing a derived work, which you don't have the right to do).
Which really makes distribution a non-option, because often more than mechanics need to be "tweaked"-- there were no ELs in 1e, so could you end up (with straight number-crunching conversions) with an adventure for 5th level characters that has encounters ranging from EL 0 to EL 15.
At the WoTC Dungeons and Dragons home website, they've posted conversions of Tomb of Horrors, a sequel to Temple of the Frog and I believe they've attempted something with White Plume Mountain. They're probably still up as free downloads.
I can't think of a case where an encounter that would have been appropriate for a 5th-level party in 1st edition became a 15th-level challenge in 3rd edition (or a similar change in difficulty). I'm not doubting you, but did you have an example in mind or were you being hyperbolic?
A possible example would be this: In OD&D X2 Castle Amber, there is Father Simon, a chaotic cleric of Level 14. While this is a stiff challenge in the original module (which is written for 6-10 characters of level 3-6, IIRC), it technically constitutes a CR 14 in 3.x D&D. I don´t have the table from the 3.x DMG handy, but I think that a level 14 encounter is way beyond what a group of, say, level 6, should be able to handle, according to the guidelines given for XP and such in the DMG. (And, if you take a closer look at it, he only is level 14 as this is the highest level the rules (expert set) would provide materials for.)
But then, at higher levels the CR system is not that good. Remember, a Balor, a 20th level human barbarian and a 21st level commoner have the same CR...
Stefan
I am currently running my group through an adventure set on "Barrier Island" which is very mountainous and even contains a range called the "Barrier Peaks". They are searching for a mysterious crash site replete with key cards, defensive droids (Clockwork Horrors in this case) and strange alien plant creatures (anyone know where to find stats for vegepygmies?) who come from a mysterious ancient vessel capable of traveling between the stars.
If that ain't a 3.5 update of a classic, I don't know what is...But I ain't naming names, as I wouldn't want to be guilty of anything unseemly. *g*
-Syl
Edit: P.S.: Congrats to the OP on fatherhood!
Of course, I think more adventures should feature a wider range of ELs. It's a little fake and artificial for the PCs to only ever have encounters around their level. It's more "realistic" (again, in as much as that word can be used in this sense) to have ELs be whatever they are, and sometimes the PCs have an encounter way below them, and sometimes they have one way above.
One of the things I liked about Forge of Fury was the encounter with the roper -- a monster way above the level PCs should be at to play the adventure -- to show them that sometimes discretion (or fleeing in terror) is the better part of valor.