Converting 4e adventures / books to Pathfinder?


Conversions


Hi,

I found a store that is selling used 4e stuff for a very low price (No Pathfinder :( ) and I was wondering if it is possible to somehow convert it to Pathfinder system?

I recently started GMing and I am completely new to RPG so I am looking for some more material I can use.

Thanks!


Completely new to GMing and RPGs, I would not attempt to undertake a conversion project. It sucks to let a deal pass by, but the systems have enough differences that a conversion would be a significant undertaking requiring pretty deep knowledge of both. There are enough mechanics that operate on just totally different scales in the two systems that not much besides maybe things like larger plot structure would be portable. In your position, I would focus on honing my skills first before undertaking something like that. (I have extensive experience with and really enjoy both systems, and the notion of trying to convert material from one to the other still makes me feel a little bit queasy.)


The only thing from 4E you could reasonably convert to Pathfinder (and it would still take a bit of work) would be adventures, I think. The main reason you can do that would be because you could lift the plot of the adventure and change all of the monsters, traps, skills, and that sort of stuff to Pathfinder. Not something I'd recommend for a beginner GM, but if you don't want to let the deal pass you by, pick them up and come back to them later.


I play both games and use bits of each in either.

Like others have mentioned, I think converting the adventures is going to be a fair bit of work - plus adventures are what Paizo does best (imo) so I dont know that I'd bother, personally. One advantage of WoTC adventures is that they come with battlemats. If the module were cheap enough, that might make it worth a look.

In general I'd steer clear of any of the rules supplements (Anything called "XYZ Power", "Player's Handbook 1,2 or 3" or "Heroes of...").

You might find some value in things like The Shadowfell, The Neverwinter Campaign Setting, Underdark, Planes Above/Below, Manual of the Planes or the various Eberron/Forgotten Realms/Dark Sun books, however there's going to be a fair amount of unusable mechanical stuff in them. I'd make sure to browse the book thoroughly before buying to make sure the flavor material gave you enough inspiration to come up with your own numbers and/or dig through pathfinder sources for corresponding mechanics. The way monsters and PCs are built is philosophically quite different - so direct ports are rarely as simple as a one-to-one conversion (4E generally includes multiple foes as the default assumption rather than a single opponent, for example. When I convert PF adventures to 4E I usually increase the number of enemies markedly. I would presume that going the other direction would involve a substantial reduction in the number of foes faced, as a general rule).

All in all, barring a serious budget and time commitment, I think you'd be better off with one Pathfinder book than two or three 4E books at the same price (if you plan on playing Pathfinder).


Depending on just HOW chep things are selling, there may be some useable maps. One can never have enough map to begin with, and the scale is the same in both 4e and Pathfinder.

Steve Geddes hit the nail on the head, though, in recomending the more useable campaign setting books. I would personally go so far as to say that the 4e DM's guide is one of the handier guides for beginner GMs. Less for the technical data than the authors put in a number of person experience stories and examples in the ... well, pretty much in the margins. Okay, okay, it's about three specific stories from one of the authors' personal experiences, but I still think it's a fine reference on the art of GMing successfully. That being said, there is a lot of 4e specific stuff to sort through, most of which appears in the Pathfinder Game Mastery guide in Pathfinder format.


Thanks for the feedback. I was really tempted since I saw several adventures for 5 dollars each and a couple of the campaign settings and other books for about 10 dollars.
It is sad that I can't find as many pathfinder modules on my area :(. I know I can buy the PDF but there is something about having the physical thing that calls out to me. I could order them online, but the shipping is too high from the places I have tried :(.


i would presume that you could use the dungeon maps for your campaigns, maybe some encounters would even work if you just took their equivalents from the Bestiaries, but you might run into problems quickly, since the 4e Monster Manuals tend to present several variations of most monsters, which the PF bestiaries don't offer, or there are clear CR discrepancies. (a monster might be appropriate for a completely different level of PC than its PF equivalent)

Other than the overarching story and maybe the dungeon maps it would probably be easier to completely write up your own adventure than to convert one from 4e DnD to Pathfinder.


deltas wrote:

Thanks for the feedback. I was really tempted since I saw several adventures for 5 dollars each and a couple of the campaign settings and other books for about 10 dollars.

It is sad that I can't find as many pathfinder modules on my area :(. I know I can buy the PDF but there is something about having the physical thing that calls out to me. I could order them online, but the shipping is too high from the places I have tried :(.

have you tried talking to the owner or manager of your flgs? If you have more than just yourself, perhaps two or three more interested players and GMs, you might be able to convince a store owner to pick up a few pathfinder products on a trial basis, or maybe even more permanantly.

Then again, if the 4e stuff is in the discount bin it could be a tough sell. (or it could be the whole 5e coming soon I've heard vague rumors about)...

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Deltas,
I find myself more or less in your position. I have a wife who likes 4e and wont change for the moment. I am going to be running a AP Jade Regent with her, so for my conversion what I am planning on doing is trying to swap out the monsters based on the roles. When you look at the Monster Vault, it talks about roles of the monsters. I would use minions for any creatures that serve the roll of fodder, make the big guy a solo. Also if you have a DDI account you could always look at the PF NPC's and try find match powers. The Systems are very different but remember as the GM the Ultimate rule should be fun, I think Gary..said that once in his DM guide!

keep on Rolling dice!!
Ash

Liberty's Edge

Scott Betts did some really nice RotRL conversions somewhere around here. I'd check the archives in this subforum and the 4e subforum.


Trailjava wrote:

Deltas,

I find myself more or less in your position. I have a wife who likes 4e and wont change for the moment. I am going to be running a AP Jade Regent with her, so for my conversion what I am planning on doing is trying to swap out the monsters based on the roles. When you look at the Monster Vault, it talks about roles of the monsters. I would use minions for any creatures that serve the roll of fodder, make the big guy a solo. Also if you have a DDI account you could always look at the PF NPC's and try find match powers. The Systems are very different but remember as the GM the Ultimate rule should be fun, I think Gary..said that once in his DM guide!

keep on Rolling dice!!
Ash

Converting PF to 4E is a piece of cake, especially with access to the monster builder. FWIW, I've found it works relatively smoothly if you assume a 4E PC advances 2 levels for every 1 a PF PC advances up until 11th level, then 1:1 after that. (So if the PF module is for 8th level characters, I'd build the encounters for 15th level 4E characters). Those monsters common to both systems generally end up in the ballpark using that rule of thumb.

.
Heroic tier corresponds to 1-5, Paragon 6-10 and Epic 11-20 via that method which feels about right to me in terms of power level and scope of the PF adventures I've converted.

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