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Author Topic: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?  (Read 5811 times)

TobiasP

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Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« on: March 04, 2021, 11:34:27 PM »
Just curious: anyone out there are using D&D 5th edition rules to run Old School Revival modules or games like Star Wars Without Number? What modifications did you have to make and how did it work out? Thanks in advance!

Omega

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #1 on: March 05, 2021, 01:15:53 AM »
There was never any "old school" in need of revival as it never went away.

On topic...

I've used 5e to run BX modules. Not too hard really most if not all by now of the monsters are statted in one of the books.
One had most fun with was Keep on the Borderlands. It required no alterations that can recall. Went fairly well. We had been in the process of starting Isle of Dread when things fell apart for various reasons. Isle was a little trickier till one of the MM-esque expansions came out with more dinos in it.

S'mon

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #2 on: March 05, 2021, 03:45:39 AM »
Yeah, I do this all the time - I've used more OSR modules in 5e than stuff actually written for 5e.

It works great, no problems at all. Remember the 5e default DC range is 10-15-20 for easy-medium-hard. Replace 0e-2e stats with 5e stats, or do a swift conversion if necessary (flip AC to ascending, to-hit number based off Challenge, usually double hp & net damage).

S'mon

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #3 on: March 05, 2021, 03:51:45 AM »
I've not used 5e D&D for a genre-shift like Stars Without Number. I thought about it, but probably better to use Esper Genesis if I wanted a full-on SF game. Esper Genesis is a nice conversion of 5e D&D to space opera (in the tone of Farscape or Guardians of the Galaxy, not so much military SF or Star Trek), the free quickstart alone has plenty of material for years of play.

I have idly thought about using core 5e D&D rules for an Urban Fantasy setting, Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Dark Conspiracy  8) - probably just Human Tiefling & Half-Elf PCs to begin with, with a default activity of monster-hunt-of-the-week.  It might not take much more work than setting up a regular D&D sandbox game, and I could use plenty of published D&D scenarios - especially those with a more horror tone - but right now I'm fully focused on Faerun Adventures.   

JeffB

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #4 on: March 05, 2021, 08:48:19 AM »
When I ran 5E, other than the adventure in the Starter Set, I always used O/TSR modules-most of the 5E "Adventure path" rehash material is pretty piss-poor. ToA is OK, but they even screwed up Saltmarsh.

 

S'mon

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #5 on: March 05, 2021, 10:58:15 AM »
When I ran 5E, other than the adventure in the Starter Set, I always used O/TSR modules-most of the 5E "Adventure path" rehash material is pretty piss-poor. ToA is OK, but they even screwed up Saltmarsh.

It's bad enough that I prefer using Pathfinder stuff converted to 5e, over most of the official 5e stuff. The official Roll20 conversion of 5e Forge of Fury I'm running is decent though, finally got nice maps - the maps in Tales from the Yawning Portal are godawful.

Eric Diaz

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #6 on: March 05, 2021, 01:47:19 PM »
Not exactly (I did the opposite lol), but I did some monster conversion.

https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2018/07/o5r-converting-tsr-d-monsters-to-5e-d.html

There is an even easier route... If the original module has goblins, just google "5e SRD goblin", and so on.

The main difference is HP; 5e creatures have about twice the amount of HP when compared to old school games. That is a very rough estimative, of course.
Chaos Factory Books  - Dark fantasy RPGs and more!

Methods & Madness - my  D&D 5e / Old School / Game design blog.

Omega

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #7 on: March 05, 2021, 04:44:01 PM »
I've done that too. Converted Tomb of Annihilation to AD&D play. Also pretty easy really.

TobiasP

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #8 on: March 06, 2021, 01:59:18 AM »
Thanks for the tips. I've started a 5th Campaign using the Storm Kind's Thunder adventure path and am finding it to be very railroady. Thinking of maneuvering the players elsewhere.




S'mon

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #9 on: March 06, 2021, 04:23:04 AM »
Thanks for the tips. I've started a 5th Campaign using the Storm Kind's Thunder adventure path and am finding it to be very railroady. Thinking of maneuvering the players elsewhere.

Yeah, just get a dozen or so OSR (etc) adventures and plop them down around your hexmap. Spend a bit of time to detail a home base (WoTC never do this right). Et voila!


SHARK

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #10 on: March 06, 2021, 05:34:01 AM »
When I ran 5E, other than the adventure in the Starter Set, I always used O/TSR modules-most of the 5E "Adventure path" rehash material is pretty piss-poor. ToA is OK, but they even screwed up Saltmarsh.

Greetings!

Hi there, Jeff! I'm interested in your perspective on the 5E "Adventure Path" rehash. How are these materials piss-poor in your view? What aspects have disappointed you so thoroughly?

Secondly, what do you think WOTC did so poorly with Saltmarsh? What should they have done to improve and make a better Saltmarsh?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK
"It is the Marine Corps that will strip away the façade so easily confused with self. It is the Corps that will offer the pain needed to buy the truth. And at last, each will own the privilege of looking inside himself  to discover what truly resides there. Comfort is an illusion. A false security b

SHARK

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #11 on: March 06, 2021, 05:38:18 AM »
Thanks for the tips. I've started a 5th Campaign using the Storm Kind's Thunder adventure path and am finding it to be very railroady. Thinking of maneuvering the players elsewhere.

Yeah, just get a dozen or so OSR (etc) adventures and plop them down around your hexmap. Spend a bit of time to detail a home base (WoTC never do this right). Et voila!

Greetings!

Hey there, my friend! S'mon, I am definitely on the same page as you are in regards to how WOTC goes about developing "Home Bases" for adventurers. How do you think they so consistently fail at providing and developing such Home Base locations for adventurers?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK
"It is the Marine Corps that will strip away the façade so easily confused with self. It is the Corps that will offer the pain needed to buy the truth. And at last, each will own the privilege of looking inside himself  to discover what truly resides there. Comfort is an illusion. A false security b

JeffB

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #12 on: March 06, 2021, 10:48:01 AM »
When I ran 5E, other than the adventure in the Starter Set, I always used O/TSR modules-most of the 5E "Adventure path" rehash material is pretty piss-poor. ToA is OK, but they even screwed up Saltmarsh.

Greetings!

Hi there, Jeff! I'm interested in your perspective on the 5E "Adventure Path" rehash. How are these materials piss-poor in your view? What aspects have disappointed you so thoroughly?

Secondly, what do you think WOTC did so poorly with Saltmarsh? What should they have done to improve and make a better Saltmarsh?

Semper Fidelis,
SHARK

Put simply, most of the 5E APs,are previous ideas (already done to death through the editions) with a twist and planted into the Forgotten Realms. Dragonlance. Giants series. Ravenloft. Temple of Elemental Evil.  Vault of the Drow, etc.   Same old villains and tropes, up the Epic-ness.

As for Saltmarsh i particular- essentially they have decided to ignore a  bunch of GH canon and moreso than cannon, just verisimilitude based on the "laws of the setting" I discussed this at length elsewhere, so I'll just C&P something from the discussion I had over at ODD74, when someone said  the book was focused on Saltmarsh itself, and not necc GH proper.


Quote
This is absolutely true, but the book is very much about a town in the world of GH, and talks quite a bit things that are uniquely Greyhawk


Keoland (where Saltmarsh is located) and it's King.
The Scarlet Brotherhood.
The Sea Princes
The Greyhawk Wars
Greyahwk Deities like Obad-Hai
Many major geographical areas (hool marshes for example)


As an example of bad- we have this gem

We have a Tiefling running around town. Wait, what?

Hard stop.

A Tiefling running around Saltmarsh?

In a setting that fought a horrific major war against an Evil demigod and his legions of demons.

Demons which another major NPC of the setting had banished through the use of a major artifact. This drastically reduced the power of the evil demi god's hold in a large chunk of the setting Which allowed the good nations of the setting to re-take and re-settle areas. Millions of innocents died in just this part of entire world conflict and these nations pledged eternal war on the evil demigod.

Keoland (where Saltmarsh is located), a good nation was allied against that Demigod through it's pact with other nations. And fought it's own battles in the war.

This Tiefling is in Saltmarsh, selling (cursed) magic items and in turn buying FISH for the Demigod.

FISH To send back to the Demigod's nation.

Even if we totally ignore the fact that the evil demigod's nation is 1000s of miles away and not easily and directly reached by land or waterway.... we'll also have to ignore that the evil demi god's capital lies upon the 2nd largest body of freshwater on the continent..

Oh, we will also have to ignore that the evil demigod's northern border is a vast ocean...

So ignoring all those irrelevant facts...

How would a Tiefling, especially one who is depicted as very demonic, manage to get all that fish back and forth navigating the waterways through 1000s of miles through the good nations that fought against her master without getting her flipping head chopped off by any number of people who have pledged to destroy that demigod and all involved?

Crap design work.

It's the same type of idiocy that placed a Tiefling in Hommlett hanging around in the open and up to no good in the 4E conversion. WTF.


Yes it's just a stupid game about make believe elves and faeries. But at least have some respect for verisimilitude of the creator's own god bless-ed setting. It's as bad as Disney Star Wars. I can't tell if WOTC is stupid, lazy, ignorant or all three combined when it comes to campaign settings.

Hope that helps explain my feelings.

JeffB

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #13 on: March 06, 2021, 11:03:03 AM »
When I ran 5E, other than the adventure in the Starter Set, I always used O/TSR modules-most of the 5E "Adventure path" rehash material is pretty piss-poor. ToA is OK, but they even screwed up Saltmarsh.

It's bad enough that I prefer using Pathfinder stuff converted to 5e, over most of the official 5e stuff. The official Roll20 conversion of 5e Forge of Fury I'm running is decent though, finally got nice maps - the maps in Tales from the Yawning Portal are godawful.

I've run FoF in a few games- 3.0, 13th Age, and S&W. It's probably the best of the standalone 3.X adventures from WOTC. Rich Baker (also the designer of the 5E Starter Set adventures) is one of the few WOTC (and late TSR) adventure writers whom I ever thought was worth a damn

Omega

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Re: Running OSR Modules/Campaigns with 5th Edition?
« Reply #14 on: March 06, 2021, 10:32:42 PM »
Thanks for the tips. I've started a 5th Campaign using the Storm Kind's Thunder adventure path and am finding it to be very railroady. Thinking of maneuvering the players elsewhere.

Alot of people say that of the Tyranny of Dragons set too. But its fairly open to how you approach it. Problem is it presents alot of stuff as if they should or even will happen. Jettison that and just use the stuff as a guide in case the party does follow the course, or adapt as they veer off.

Example. The PCs are "supposed" to join a merchant trek and spy on the cult. Instead my players continued theur guise from before of pretending to be cult members and followed this through all the way to the cults swamp base, and then beyond. If things happened that were "supposed to happen" then that was only because the players themselves veered the course that way before promptly going back off and proceeding in their own way.

Do that with any of the 5e modues when they start to sound too linear.