Converting D&D Modules to TFT...

[Jpot]

That's funny I'm converting Keep on the Borderlands right now for TFT.
My players are all new to the system. I have personally never run TFT but it's been a long-time wish of mine. A few months ago we played a few nights of Melee/Wizard, and they all had a blast, then we did a short intro one-shot.

We lost 2 players who moved away so now I am down to 3 PCs and trying to find a 4th. They may need to hire some muscle. I want to retain the feel of those early days of D&D Moldvay for them, yet on the TFT engine so I hope I can pull it off. HCobb I will certainly look at your efforts thanks.

[Jabberwock]

Originally Posted by Jpot

That's funny I'm converting Keep on the Borderlands right now for TFT.
My players are all new to the system. I have personally never run TFT but it's been a long-time wish of mine. A few months ago we played a few nights of Melee/Wizard, and they all had a blast, then we did a short intro one-shot.

We lost 2 players who moved away so now I am down to 3 PCs and trying to find a 4th. They may need to hire some muscle. I want to retain the feel of those early days of D&D Moldvay for them, yet on the TFT engine so I hope I can pull it off. HCobb I will certainly look at your efforts thanks.

I recently purchased ItL and read how SJ suggested for it to be played like the early days of D&D, with a one or more GMs running a large group in an evolving hexcrawl. After having run a few one-off scenarios, and getting the feel for how the game flows, that inspired me to try out TFT for some old school gaming and led to my trying to see how it would work for the classic B2, which I've run quite a bit over 4 decades.

Henchmen and Hirelings are, indeed, a vital part of that experience and that is something else to consider: henchmen would obviously be 32 point characters, but what about hirelings? Normal humans with 30 points and a specific talent set?

When I get a chance I'm going to use the SJ conversion rules to whip up some initial encounters (maybe the Kobolds or Goblins), to test out with a 'typical' party of adventures with a few henchmen and hirlings.

[TippetsTX]

For a 'nuisance' opponent comparable to D&D goblins or kobolds (bearing in mind that even low-level threats in sufficient quantity can overcome a veteran TFT party), I recommend 24 TAP for the baseline.

Stat profiles (ST/DX/IQ) would be 7/10/7, 8/9/7, 6/10/8, etc.

[tomc]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

For a 'nuisance' opponent comparable to D&D goblins or kobolds (bearing in mind that even low-level threats in sufficient quantity can overcome a veteran TFT party), I recommend 24 TAP for the baseline.

Stat profiles (ST/DX/IQ) would be 7/10/7, 8/9/7, 6/10/8, etc.

The handy thing about giving "horde" creatures a DX of 10 is that they hit 50 percent of the time, so you can roll a handful of dice (one die for each creature) and they hit on 1-3 and miss on 4-6, or whatever is easiest to remember.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by Jabberwock

Henchmen and Hirelings are, indeed, a vital part of that experience

I recommend use Fear Factors for henchmen and hireling morale. See Hexagram #8. You can set a target based on how frightening the basic situation is and tack on modifiers for things like seeing comrades go down or run.

[Jpot]

All good ideas.

I picked up the TSG issue that was recommended and Steve gives pretty good guidelines for converting.
I like the rule of thumb of “24” given in this thread. Simple and to the point. Much of B2 is humanoid danger so not too complex (I’ll keep the orcs D&D classic style thank you - does anyone present TFT orcs as described in ITL??).
The main baddies at the end are evil clerics with a lot of plate and magical weaponry. So that may be the thing I have to think through the most. Clerical spells and power “level”.

In my introductory scenario, the PCs tracked a cadre of grave-robbing goblins (like literally taking the corpses) to a small cave complex that culminated in a higher large open air terrace where the shaman was preparing a pile of corpses for transport - nice battle that had the characters racing to intercept a goblin from running, opening a cage hosting 2 large Dire wolves while also fending off the shaman and his minions. Throughout the battle the wolves are howling and snapping between the bars and the characters fighting backs to it as the Goblins worked for a chance to open it or retreat the characters up against it. I want to say there were 9 baddies I’ll have to check my notes but it was 9 on 4 at this point but it was simple, exciting and fun for them.
In the aftermath they learn of of peril involving the Keep, leading into B2.

[Shostak]

Just be sure to give the evil clerics silver plate armor, to avoid the huge DX penalty for casting magic while wearing (or wielding) a lot of iron.

[Jabberwock]

All great ideas!

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

For a 'nuisance' opponent comparable to D&D goblins or kobolds (bearing in mind that even low-level threats in sufficient quantity can overcome a veteran TFT party), I recommend 24 TAP for the baseline.

Stat profiles (ST/DX/IQ) would be 7/10/7, 8/9/7, 6/10/8, etc.

I have been learning Python, and I created a converter based on that article last night, with some minor modifications. But, more on that below...

The handy thing about giving "horde" creatures a DX of 10 is that they hit 50 percent of the time, so you can roll a handful of dice (one die for each creature) and they hit on 1-3 and miss on 4-6, or whatever is easiest to remember.

What about criticals? Do you just ignore those for mooks?

Just be sure to give the evil clerics silver plate armor, to avoid the huge DX penalty for casting magic while wearing (or wielding) a lot of iron.

I thought about that, but then I wondered if I might treat Clerical magic as different, in the way DCC does it, with critical failures leading to the displeasure of the deity. I'm still noodling on that one.

[Jabberwock]

As I mentioned above, I've been working on learning Python and created a short, rudimentary script for translating AD&D or B/X monsters to TFT. I used the Space Gamer #56 article as a starting point but made some tweaks as I got results, including losing the variable ST modifiers, and adding a section that allows you to add points to the individual monsters to make them full-blown characters.

The IQ is manual input for now, but I might work on that later.

Here is the result for a Goblin, with no additional points added, based on the MM:

ST 6, DX 8 IQ 8 Armor: 3 (Leather and Small Shield)


Just for fun, throw me an AD&D monster that you want to see translated and I'll run it through the program. Then you can critique the results and help me tighten the program up.

[tomc]

Originally Posted by Jabberwock

What about criticals? Do you just ignore those for mooks?

Yep. I don't like having the adventure randomly derailed, or characters we're invested in drop dead because some random goblin got very lucky.

Some people enjoy the tension brought on by the possibility of death in every encounter, some folks see it as anticlimactic. To each his own.