Conversion Principles

TIME
▶ Add a Random Encounters
table for dungeon-delving
segments

▶ Identify opportunities to
present time-based trade-offs
to the characters (i.e. characters
can perform some optional
action for a potential benefit,
but at the cost of time)

▶ Identify opportunities to
increase the Danger Level (rate
of random encounter checks) as
a result of character failure (i.e.
setting off a trap)
▶ Identify opportunities to
decrease the Danger Level as a
result of character success (i.e.
disabling a trap, defeating a
boss monster)
DARKNESS
▶ Add explicit Light/Darkness
notation to dungeon-delving
areas
▶ Identify opportunities to
diminish or extinguish light
sources as a result of character
failure (i.e. setting off a trap or
failing a check against a
monster power)
▶ Identify and remove effects
that grant characters
darkvision, infravision, low-light
vision, or infinite light
▶ Note glowing items and adjust
description so that they can’t be
interpreted as light sources

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GEAR
▶ Note particularly large items
and give them a # slots value
▶ Identify opportunities where
larger caches of items or
treasure can be reduced, with
an eye toward reducing
“mundane” items given as
treasure
▶ Identify opportunities to
damage or destroy characters’
equipment as a result of failure
(i.e. triggering a trap or hazard,
failing a check against a
monster power)
▶ Identify opportunities to
present characters with choices
that put their limited-use
equipment at risk
▶ Identify opportunities to
challenge characters to leave
items behind (i.e. narrow
spaces, weak floor, weight-
sensitive trap)
DANGER
▶ Identify opportunities to more
clearly telegraph danger to the
characters, both to heighten
tension and provide an
opportunity for them to
deliberate how to approach
dangers
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▶ Identify opportunities to
present risk-reward choices to
the players
▶ Identify opportunities to
present characters with limited
resources they might use to
avoid, mitigate, or transfer
certain risks, with these
resources themselves often
having their own cost or risk
▶ Identify opportunities to
increase the deadliness of the
module’s dangers, while
applying my moment-driven
and death-first design
principles to make character
death engaging, spectacular,
and rewarding
▶ Identify opportunities to put
the characters in the partial
failure margin and keep them
there as long as possible to
maximize tension. Game states
in the partial failure margin
represent a degree of failure
but not yet total failure (death).
Such partial failure states are
adventure-specific and can
include ongoing conditions (i.e.
cursed) or the ratcheting up
(permanently or temporarily) of
some threat in the dungeon (i.e.
environment changed, new
dangers unleashed, increased
risk from certain dangers).
▶ Apply the techniques in my
traps course to enhance traps
featured in the module (or
create new traps if needed) to
heighten the feeling of danger,
with an emphasis on making
their effects more engaging and
spectacular beyond damage/
stock conditions
STAT CHECKS AND
INFORMATION
▶ Identify opportunities to
eliminate knowledge-based
checks in favor of telling the
characters information outright
(or if they ask the right
questions)
▶ Identify opportunities to
eliminate perception- and
investigation-style checks in
favor of telling the characters
information outright if they ask
the right questions/search the
right areas
▶ Identify opportunities to
eliminate checks with low
stakes or little drama
▶ Identify opportunities to
heighten the tension of checks
by presenting more explicit
trade-offs (mutually exclusive
options, risk-vs-reward, now-
vs-later, dilemma), increasing
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risk, and using failure to push
the characters further into the
tense partial failure margin (see
previous section)
HONOR CHARACTER
INVESTMENT
▶ Identify spells available at the
adventure level and find ways
to reward/encourage use of
such spells
▶ Identify prohibitions against the
use of certain spells (teleport,
augury, etc) and instead make
the use of those spells
beneficial and/or risky
▶ Identify opportunities to play
into specific abilities of
Shadowdark core classes
▶ Identify opportunities to
spotlight specific ancestries or
backgrounds
BE UNPREDICTABLE
▶ Identify one opportunity to
place an “out of depth” danger
protecting an optional reward
▶ Identify one opportunity to
place an “over-leveled” reward
with some interesting risk or
cost associated with its use
OTHER
CONSIDERATIONS
▶ Favor simplicity when possible—
streamline complex interactions
▶ Convert bonuses and penalties
where appropriate to ADV and
DISADV
▶ Identify opportunities to use
luck token system, including
granting luck tokens for bold/
smart actions or giving
characters opportunities to
spend luck tokens for
adventure-specific benefits
besides re-roll
▶ Add variety to existing random
encounter tables by giving
monsters/NPCs behaviors
▶ Identify opportunities to tie
Shadowdark’s unique
mechanics and tables into
obstacles, game effects,
rewards, or punishments: class
talents, spell mishaps, rival
crawlers, treasure XP value, etc
CREDITS
Design (v0.1)
Sersa Victory
Warrior Illustration
© santerabos / Adobe Stock
Ruins Illustration
Pixabay