Producing PF 2e Monster Conversions to PF 1e

[Barachiel Shina]

There are some monsters I am seeing in PF2e I really wish had PF1e conversions.

Judging from the entirely new (and unwanted, but that's another topic) system, it's not possible to convert PF2e spells and feats and such to PF1e.

However, the monster stats seem like they could convert half of it PF1e at least, but there're some things that need some judgment calls.

Since the material is open source, is there a 3rd party publisher we can request to write "Monster Conversion" PDFs from PF2e to PF1e? Since Paizo doesn't care to do both systems, as I believe they should because if I owned an RPG company I sure as heck would, someone else could do it.

[CrystalSeas]

Monsters in the PF2 Bestiary are not "open source". If it's different from the original material that Wizards Of The Coast released as part of the Open Gaming License [OGL]in 2000, then it's likely to be Paizo intellectual property.

Some Paizo material is available under the Community Use license, but not everything.

Here's a good explanation from Vic Wertz about the Community Use Policies

Vic Wertz wrote:

When it comes to the Pathfinder or Starfinder RPGs, our intellectual property generally falls into two categories: Open Game Content (generally game mechanics) and Product Identity (generally setting material, trademarks, and other non-mechanical stuff, including our artwork.

Anything we've declared as Open Game Content in our products is available for use under the Open Game License; anything we've declared as Product Identity is not available under the OGL. In most of our products, you'll find the statements of OGC and PI on the title or credits page at the front of the book.

Note that these statements occasionally vary from product to product, so you'll need to check the individual statements in each product you wish to draw from.

If you are a noncommercial user, you may be able to use some of our PI by way of our Community Use Policy, which you can find at https://paizo.com/paizo/about/communityuse. (That page tells you what art is and isn't available for use under the Policy.) If you are a commercial user, our PI is not available for your use without a specific license.

To use Open Game Content in your own projects, you need to use the OGL, which you can find in any OGL product. The OGL itself tells you how to use it. Please note that the OGL is Wizards of the Coast's license, not Paizo's, and so I can't provide any advice about its suitability for your use. You may wish to consider speaking with an intellectual properties legal specialist.

Note that the OGL specifically restricts you from using "any ... trademark or registered trademark clearly identified as Product Identity by the owner of the Product Identity", or from "indicat[ing] compatibility or co-adaptability with any Trademark or Registered Trademark in conjunction with a work containing Open Game Content except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of such Trademark or Registered Trademark."

So to indicate that your OGL project is compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, you'll need to follow our free Pathfinder RPG Compatibility License, which you can find at https://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/compatibility; the equivalent license for the Starfinder RPG is at https://paizo.com/starfinder/compatibility.

Note that these Compatibility Licenses are applicable only to books, electronic books, and freely available websites. You can still use Open Game Content in a OGL product that's not a book, ebook, or free website, but you can't say it's compatible with the Pathfinder RPG or the Starfinder RPG or use trademarks like Pathfinder, Starfinder, or Paizo in any way; you may, however, use the non-trademarked terms “PFRPG” or “SFRPG.”

It's far more complicated than you are suggesting, and it may not even be profitable.

You could probably do the conversions and offer them on a free website, if you were careful to follow all the licensing/Community Use/OGL rules if you wanted to do that.

But don't expect someone else to do them for you.

[Dasrak]

I've been working on and off on a Age of Ashes Conversion Guide which, of course, converts all PF2 monsters to an equivalent PF1 statblock. I've finished converting book 1 and have already converted all the monsters for book (although nothing else as of yet; working on the NPC's currently, then I'll get around to specific conversion notes for events and areas in the adventure).

I'm doubtful that anything like this would be a viable commercial endeavor, and it's much more realistic as just something that fans can do and post conversions. The conversion process itself isn't too hard if you have the system mastery to know how to do it, but it is time consuming if you want to do a good job of it).

[Quixote]

I don't see what's so hard about it. You find a monster you like from PF2 or 5E or ancient mythology or Thundercats. Then you assign it some numbers that make sense.

I don't even use the Bestiary- or Monster Manual-type books anymore, except for the most common of creatures. If I want some big, crazy monster, you can bet I'll spend the 10 minutes it takes to make it myself, so it's what I want.

[Barachiel Shina]

Bringing this back. Has anyone made or found a site that converts PF 2e monsters back to 1e? If not, I guess I can slowly do that myself.

By PF2 monsters I mean the ones that are brand new and never appeared in PF1.

[Gorbacz]

No.

[PFRPGrognard]

You have to use the guide in the first edition Bestiary to just recreate it and eyeball it until it looks right.

[Artofregicide]

A couple of things:

1) Just because you didn't want PF2e doesn't mean everyone doesn't want it. I want PF2e, even if I actually like 1e better. We've beaten this dead horse into dust, and honestly it's really negative and unhelpful.

2) As pointed out above, there would be legal ramifications for trying to sell PF1e versions of PF2e stuff.

3) PF2e and PF1e are as different as they are to D&D5e, so there isn't any 1 to 1 conversion. Meaning each item will have to be converted manually. Due to the complex nature of PF1e vs. the lighter and more streamlined nature of PF2e, it's generally easier to convert monsters to PF2e than the other way around.

4) I'd be interested in seeing what conversations people come up with all the same, but it'll likely be fan based.

[ErichAD]

It's been months since I've looked at anything PF2 related, but I remember thinking at the time that I'd convert PF2 monsters by making them kineticist npcs if I needed them.

But without a list of which monsters are PF2 exclusive, and what someone would want out of them, it's hard to know if that would work at all.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

I would just remake them using the Genius Guide to the Talented Bestiary.

[Dragon78]

So what are the monsters that you want to convert?

[glass]

CrystalSeas wrote:

Monsters in the PF2 Bestiary are not "open source". If it's different from the original material that Wizards Of The Coast released as part of the Open Gaming License [OGL]in 2000, then it's likely to be Paizo intellectual property.

Of course if Paizo created it, then it is their intelectual property. If it wasn't, then they could not make it open content, and they do make a whole bunch of stuff open content. The PF1 and PF2 bestiaries declarations of Open Content and Product Identity, that are pretty much identical so if you could do it with a PF1 monster you can do it with a PF2 monster. "Open source" is not really the right word for it, but when it comes to the OGL PF1 and PF2 are as open as each other.

IANAL, TINLA.

_
glass.

[finnallen]

It's been a while since I came across something like PF2 related, and now I'm thinking to convert PF2 monsters. The actual problem is without a list of which monsters are PF2 exclusive, it's really hard.

[RicoDetroit]

The Creature Codex blog on Tumblr has recently converted quite a few P2 monsters back to PFRPG. Definitely worth checking out... Creature Codex

[Freehold DM]

Thats good to know!