[nWoD/DnD 3.5] Conversion

[Drakevarg]

I'm planning on moving my DnD campaign to the World of Darkness system, since it's opinion of both myself and most of my players that I've basically been running a WoD-toned game the entire time, just with the wrong ruleset.

Other than the issues of changing the setting and era (a matter I'll deal with myself), one concern I've had is the creation of NPCs and the conversion of the DnD PCs to WoD characters. Since the player I've been discussing it with and I have been inconclusive on the matter, I thought I'd ask the Playground how much WoD XP they felt qualified as being functionally equivalent to a DnD level.

For reference, my current thought is that 10 XP is roughly equivalent of 1 Level.

[SiuiS]

It's not linearly comparable. A level 2 wizard would have more WoD XP than a level five fighter.

Take all the characters. Bust them down to effects. Rebuild each character in WoD. Compare the totals of all characters, and raise everyone to the level of the highest XP total. That's... Probably the only way you'll pull it off.

[Morty]

Yes, agreed. There's no way to linearly translate one to the other, because XP means something entirely different in nWoD than level means in D&D. I agree that you should look at the D&D characters and try to recreate their abilities in nWoD, then see how many XP it takes.

[docnessuno]

I'd use the standard character creation (for mortals and/or involved supernatural) and award each character 2 extra XPs for each session your D&D game lasted (no need to be exceedingly precise there). It would be up to the players to recreate their character as close to the original as possible.

[hiryuu]

Pick up Mirrors if you can, check out the Dark Hero template. It has the best, easiest conversion you can make, I think.

[fireinthedust]

What's the event that changes them over? Are they the same people but converted to this "strange new world, with such people in it"? Like, guns and cars and motorcycles, where before there were swords, crossbows and horses? Or are you going to look to games like Vampire: Dark Ages or the nWoD equivalent for help? There's a Rome vampire book.


If the world has changed, they'll have changed, in some ways quite a bit. If you want the mages to do damage with their spells, make sure the non-casters can be just as effective and, more importantly, just as much fun. If the Mages can throw a firebolt wort 5 dice, the "rogue" or "warrior" should be able to shoot a bullet worth 5 dice, or if medieval then hit with a sword for the same. No one should be nerfed so they suck compared to other players; not versus the world, but compared to each other. Just because they could rules-lawyer a 20 foot jump automatically in D&D doesn't mean they should be able to make a 20 foot jump automatically in nWoD.


That's what I'd do.


However: there's also the Monte Cook's World of Darkness d20 book. Easier to port into a 3.5 game than entirely switching things over, but that doesn't sound like what you'd like to do.