Converting 2ed AD&D stuff to Sword and Wizardry

[AlaskaOOTSFan]

Pretty much what it sounds like.

I plan on running a Sword and Wizardry (S&W) campaign later this year, and I have the main book and the Tome of Horrors Complete (ToHC). I plan to run the game in the Planescape setting, due to me reading all the fluff in my teens, loving it, and my friend asking me to run it. So.....

There's a few monsters/NPCs...etc....that don't exist in the ToHC book due to copyright issues which I totally respect, but I still want in my game.

The NPCs are relatively easy to convert, and the unique additions Planescape brings I can handle myself, but is there a rule of thumb for changing 2ed AD&D non-NPC/PC stats to S&W stats?

Just looking at a few of the Yugoloth->Daemons, (in this case the Hydroloth->Hydrodaemon) besides the name changes, XP is cut in almost a 5th, slightly worse AC, slightly worse MR, slightly easier to hit them, and a removal of a few spell-like powers.

But if I wanted some of the other 'Loths that aren't in the ToHC, does my description above sound right? I know there's a table to derive CL and XP, but for trimming the special abilities, the AC...etc...any other advice?

[Yora]

I've only really got into C&C and OSRIC and looked a bit in ACKS, but there really isn't much converting to be done. Since monster strength in D&D/AD&D is always more eyeballing than anything else, I would simply keep everything the way it is in 2nd Edition. The only thing that needs adjusting is XP, because 2nd Edition handles XP quite different than older ones. At least AD&D has guidelines to calculate XP for monsters, I would assume S&W has something similar somewhere.

[Rhynn]

All editions of D&D have rules/instructions/formulas to calculate XP. Always recalculate XP if the edition you're converting to uses a different system than the one you're converting from! "Cut in half" does not work, because the base assumptions are frequently different (AD&D 1E, AD&D 2E, and Basic, for instance, use different XP calculations).

I'm not familiar with S&W off-hand. Does it use ascending or descending AC (starting at 10 or 9 or 0 or what?), decreasing THAC0/attack throw values or increasing attack bonuses, etc. ? I can help come up with the formulas for converting these things if they're mismatched - usually it's easy.

[AlaskaOOTSFan]

I've only really got into C&C and OSRIC and looked a bit in ACKS, but there really isn't much converting to be done. Since monster strength in D&D/AD&D is always more eyeballing than anything else, I would simply keep everything the way it is in 2nd Edition. The only thing that needs adjusting is XP, because 2nd Edition handles XP quite different than older ones. At least AD&D has guidelines to calculate XP for monsters, I would assume S&W has something similar somewhere.

XP - S&W has XP based on CL, and CL can be easily found based on a table, so that's the relatively easy part.


All editions of D&D have rules/instructions/formulas to calculate XP. Always recalculate XP if the edition you're converting to uses a different system than the one you're converting from! "Cut in half" does not work, because the base assumptions are frequently different (AD&D 1E, AD&D 2E, and Basic, for instance, use different XP calculations).


Agreed!



I'm not familiar with S&W off-hand. Does it use ascending or descending AC (starting at 10 or 9 or 0 or what?), decreasing THAC0/attack throw values or increasing attack bonuses, etc. ? I can help come up with the formulas for converting these things if they're mismatched - usually it's easy.

AC - The S&W system is set up to use either ascending or descending AC, but we use the ascending rules.

THAC0 - There are tables to determine roll required to hit AC, based on level/HD.

Saving throws - same as THAC0.

http://www.d20swsrd.com/swords-and-wizardry-srd/for-the-referee/monsters

Huh. It appears "all" i need to do is calc the CL (which gives me XP), and convert the AC to the Ascending version. Thier at-will abilities, spells...etc....that I can do on a case-by-case basis.

I think I answered my own dilemma - thanks for the helping!

[Rhynn]

Cool!

Possible point of interest: Table: Challenge Level Modifications roughly approximates a table in the AD&D 2E DMG, but Table: Experience Point Values by Challenge Level is very different from the equivalent table in AD&D 2E, and gets you very different results (in AD&D 2E, the "+N XP per +1 HD" value is +1000, not +300).

[AlaskaOOTSFan]

Cool!

Possible point of interest: (in AD&D 2E, the "+N XP per +1 HD" value is +1000, not +300).

Hummm.....very interesting note.....thanks for pointing that out!