Shield wall, I come to you with less a question but more of how would you handle it.
My in person game is no more. I have one player left and I have had to move for work and we decided pbp, for now until my schedule calms down.
We were playing my version of the Keep on the Borderlands with labyrinth lord and he couldn’t get into the bx play style (he had only played 5e until this and it’s tuff learning a new system with play by post )
So I relented and “converted” it to 5e. But I really want to run ICRPG. I am starting to put small bits from ICRPG into the game but I want to slowly make a full conversion.
I am so far doing timers
Kind of doing non combat effort.
And frankly that’s all I have gotten to implement.
Any tips tricks and or how to?
Thanks
Converting an old module and a new player
Dungeon Craft’s Professor Dungeon Master (AKA PDM) did an entire series of YouTube videos on his adaptation of B2 Keep on the Borderlands and the Caves of Chaos a couple of years ago. According to Episode #68 (time index 5:23), he converted and ran the module using ICRPG Core 2.0. IIRC the series begins with Episode #65.
PDM even shows a screen shot of his color-coded isometric 3D map of the Caves, which reveals the target numbers he set for each encounter area. (See.Episode #75 time index 3:36.) I bet if you join his Patreon platform for $2 to $5 a month, you can access all of his maps and notes for Into the Borderlands (the Goodman Games B2 conversion), as well as all the other stuff that makes his contributions to the hobby so useful.
If I were in your shoes, I would rip off the band-aid (assuming the players were on board) and switch straight over to ICRPG. Because virtually all of the NPC and monster encounters are suitable for low character levels, the first thing I would suggest is to come up with a quick, easy, consistent scheme for making hit point conversions (either based on hit dice or average hit points), as you are unlikely to see any scalability issues with this old module. Then I would suggest:
- Assign the ICRPG-style encounter target levels for each area, which will cut a ton of work out because you no longer need to calculate individual DCs and ACs for every encounter in the adventure.
- Calculate and assign the various heart values for the HP for NPCs and monsters according to your scheme.
- Adjust the treasure/loot described in the old module to ICRPG standards so everything feels right.
Hope that helps.
I will watch all of that tonight. I really really want to just plunge right into full on ICRPG but my poor player has been super understanding so far switching systems after us losing the group and all. Then again I might be coddling him. I am getting soft in my old age.
I was hoping that someone else did what I am doing as far as the DM side of things and dropping some more player facing stuff as we go. I think if I send him his character “reimagined” using ICRPG he would be on board for a full change over.
I remember the days of laugh maniacally as the save or die was failed …now I don’t laugh but I do have a premade ready to go. Lol
I think that sounds like an excellent idea, especially if you walk your player through your gamemaster thinking on the translation between systems. Depending upon the 5e class you’re starting with, sometimes the adaptation isn’t immediately intuitive. Fortunately, ICRPG is so flexible and extensible, good conversions are almost always possible! 
(On the bright side, with only one player in the game, right now is a fantastic time to switch systems; when you bring on additional players, they can create characters under ICRPG Master Edition from the start!)
(OOC, what class is the player you have?)
He is running a magic user and a few hirelings. He loves the idea of roll to cast, he hates vancian magic almost as much as I do.
All he knows is 5e.
It is one of those things that you forget when you run games for as long as many of us have changing systems for newer player seems to be tuff.
I will get him over one way or another.
Right on. I think you are set. With a magic-user, I think you have one of the most straightforward instances of character mapping between 5e and ME, going from wizard to mage, and I have yet to see any player, new or experienced, who hasn’t enjoyed roll-to-cast magic (with or without casting costs and/or spell burn rules) as a liberating alternative to the resource management of spell slots as they exist currently In D&D.
You also have the ability to extend the Magic system by cherry-picking anything that was debuted in the rule set from ICRPG Magic, as well as hacks of material from 5e. Add in @Khan’s spellbooks, and there’s more than enough to get an arcane spellcaster excited.
They are an impressive oeuvre. There is so much there from which to pick and choose. I don’t allow my players the option to use every spell in there, and I modify or adjust the spell levels on many of the ones I do permit, but it is such a rich collection of arcane magic neatly organized into a dozen or so thematic schools, any GM can find good stuff to bring to the table that fits the chosen feel and constraints of magic for the specific world the GM is trying to construct.
You are doing things correctly, or at least how I intended spells and everything in the books should be used at the table.
Thanks for the praise!
@SoloSam
If you have any questions about the books, feel free to shoot them my way.
Just use plain old ICRPG, and run it with the Beyond the Borderlands zine/remake instead:
I wanted to run keep in the borderlands with dungeon world a while back and this little module sparked a whole ongoing campaign! Icrpg would fit even better imho.
I would add in close, near, and far ranges, and one line loot and spell descriptions. Hope it’s going well!