Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

▼

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Converting Between OGL Systems - On the Fly or Prior Prep?

To a certain extent, everything from OD&D through 3.5e (and quite possibly 5e) are somewhat compatible. Back in my early gaming I was using D&D adventures in my AD&D game without batting an eye.

These days, I've used LL, C&C and S&W adventures and supplements in my ACKS campaign. Most of the conversion work I can do on the fly, but there are times I wish I had spent a few minutes ahead of time making sure things were ready for ACKS.

I've also grabbed some stuff from 3x and Pathfinder with minimal effort in converting, but I suspect the reverse would be more time consuming if not downright frustrating.

So, do you mix and match OSR/OGL rules in your games? Convert on the fly or scratch it out ahead of time?
at

6 comments:

  1. joseph browningAugust 29, 2012 at 3:04 PM

    I generally convert on the fly, but if something seems particularly odd or unusual, I'll work on it beforehand.

    ReplyDelete
  2. R.J. ThompsonAugust 29, 2012 at 3:26 PM

    Anything OD&D, BECMI, 1E, 2E & their respective clones I convert on the fly. It's especially easy if the system that I'm running happens to be C&C due to it's "plug & play" style. I have also been converting the Necromancer Games stuff from 3E pretty easily to C&C, to create the Rappan Athuk C&C campaign. Converting "up" from the OSR material to D20 and 4E is a different story, however.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ADD GrognardAugust 29, 2012 at 5:31 PM

    I've found this to be helpful:

    http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/03/on-osr-rosetta-stone.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kelvin GreenAugust 29, 2012 at 6:05 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kelvin GreenAugust 29, 2012 at 6:34 PM

    I've dropped D&D3 stuff into LotFP without any major issues. I suspect it's probably easier than it might first appear; trying to do exact conversions is more trouble than it's worth, but a more loose approach seems to work well.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Slatz GrubnikAugust 29, 2012 at 11:57 PM

    I follow a lot of OSR blogs, and tend to gravitate to a rules-lite style of play, despite Pathfinder being my go-to game at the moment. I typically find a lot of really nasty traps, magic weapons, and cool ideas that were intended for S&W, LL, or OSRIC, and use them in my Pathfinder games.

    I also house-rule the hell out of the game too. This is usually done for two reasons: As an enhancing effect to support the setting, and to simplify the game for myself and some players.

    ReplyDelete