Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Dwarf_Supreme 07-31-07, 04:46 PM	Sorry if this has been asked before. I'm taking over the DMing reins for my gaming group and I have a ton of 2nd edition AD&D adventures that I would like to use and I was wondering how close characters levels compare between editions. For example, if an AD&D adventure is written for levels 6-8, how close is to somehting written now? Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time and I was hoping the adventures would be close enough that they would only require major overhauls.
Escef 07-31-07, 05:07 PM	Sorry, Dwarf, but it won't be easy. You'll basically have to rework most of the combat encounters. Even if you just straight substitute 3.5 monsters for their 2e cousins, you will have to evaluate what the Encounter Level for each fight is, compare with your PCs' capabilities and make a judgement call to tweak or not to tweak.
Stormonu 07-31-07, 05:09 PM	My only experience so far comes from tweaking Lost Shrine of Tamoachan to 3E. A straight-up conversion can be wonky; some creatures are tougher in 3E (or weaker) than they used to be. The good thing is, with the CR system you can usually tweak the encounters up or down fairly easy to match whatever level you're hitting for. A couple of times I found myself either increasing the number of monsters or switching to another creature that was appropriate to the character's level. The biggest pain is leveled NPCs - they'll have to be restatted from scratch; nothing about the 1E/2E stats for NPCs is salvagable in my opinion. Another pain is treasure - I had to multiply treasure values by 10 in Tamoachan to get the "expected" values in 3E. Also, there tends to be 2-3 custom magic items in an adventure that need real work. What's great is a lot of the "custom mechanics" in the adventures can plain be ignored because they're already covered in 3E rules. Just a little work to pick the appropriate DCs for skill checks.
aotrscommander 07-31-07, 05:31 PM	I've done several now, at various levels. You have to decide how close you want to go to the original. Many of the AD&D modules are pretty heavy with treasure, so unless you want to re-work everything, you can forget about wealth by level. Some modules may require more adjustment than others (Dragon Mountain, for example, kind of falls apart even for it's intended level in 3.5). Really, the best option is to play it a hit by ear; aim at the original intended level and see how it pans out. Also be aware of the newer nonstandard classes, because they can trhough a wrench in the works of some encounters (you'd be surprised how useful a semi-infinite supply of skeletons from your party's Pale Master can resolve some situtations without ever breaking a sweat). Somewhere around is the 2nd to 3.0 conversion booklet (I think on the downloads section of te main D&D site. That at least will give you a place to start on the nonstandard monsters - as far as the conversion goes, it makes little difference between 3.0 and 3.5.)
Diamondfist 07-31-07, 11:08 PM	Link to the Conversion Manual: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/conversionbook.zip If this doesn't work for you, go to the Game Rule FAQ update page on the D&D site. This was also included on the Character Generator Demo CD included in the 3rd Ed PHB.
Dwarf_Supreme 08-02-07, 12:45 PM	Thanks for the info everyone. I think I still have the conversion booklet somehwere. I'll have to see if I can find it. My intent is to wing it and see how close it comes to the published levels. I'm not too worried about swapping monsters. I already figured that the CR system would be very helpful in tweaking the number of monsters. The main difficulty I'm going to have will come from the fact that I would like envetually to introduce my players to Spelljammer. :D
Stormonu 08-02-07, 03:45 PM	The main difficulty I'm going to have will come from the fact that I would like envetually to introduce my players to Spelljammer. And why should that be difficult? Neogi (and great Old Masters) have already been statted out, and Shadow of the Spider Moon provided a sort of updated Spelljammer. If you want an introduction, there is an adventure with a wreck of a Mindspider in Stormwrack (I think its in Stormwrack, at least) and http://www.spelljammer.org/ is the official home of 3E spelljammer...
Dwarf_Supreme 08-07-07, 12:29 PM	And why should that be difficult? Neogi (and great Old Masters) have already been statted out, and Shadow of the Spider Moon provided a sort of updated Spelljammer. If you want an introduction, there is an adventure with a wreck of a Mindspider in Stormwrack (I think its in Stormwrack, at least) and http://www.spelljammer.org/ is the official home of 3E spelljammer... I'm not implying that it would be difficult. Time consuming, yes; difficult, no.