Copyright (c) 1995 by David P. Summers Permission granted for strictly non-comercial use and distribution. ADnD is a reference to AD&D which is a trademark of TSR, inc. OK, Here is how I converted my AD&D campaign to GURPS. What you do is the GM creates a "base character" which the players get to spend addtionaly points on. Note: be flexible. The power of the characters will be limited by the points you give them and the point of this exercise is to create GURPS character similar to the AD&D ones. Stats - values are computed by chosing the value that gives the same probability against 3d6 as the AD&D value does against a d20. To wit.. AD&D Stat GURPS Stat 3 7 4 7 5 8 6 8 7 9 8 9 9 10 10 10 11 10 12 11 13 11 14 12 15 12 16 13 17 13 18 14 (for higher values you might give a 15 but this is a _very_ high stat in a GURPS game with 100-150 point characters). HT - Converted from Con. Each 10 hitpoits also give the character an additional hitpoint (see split health). Thus a barbarian with Con 17 and 15 hitpoints gets HT 13/14 ST - Converted from Str. DX - Converted from Dex. IQ - Converted from either Wis or Int. (I let the players choose) Charisma and Comliness convert to the advantages Charisma and Appearance. Charisma 3 -> -3 levels Charisma Charisma 4-5 -> -2 levels Charisma Charisma 6-7 -> -1 levels Charisma Charisma 8-12 -> No Advantage/Disadvantage Charisma 13-14 -> 1 levels Charisma Charisma 15-16 -> 2 levels Charisma Charisma 17 -> 3 levels Charisma Charisma 18 -> 4 levels Charisma Comliness is converted similarly to Appearance. Class ablities - Basically you go though the abilities of each class and assign the neccesary skills and advantages to give the characters similar ablities. For example a ranger would get skill in Tracking and skills to let him use the same weapons that the characters could and would also get the advantage Alertness. Note: just ignore things that don't tranlate (like just drop bonuses agains Giant Class mosnters and other silly things). Characters can only get skill in weapons they could use before but, with a few exceptions, weapons restrictions are dropped for future development. I generally just give the base character 0.5 point in the skill so players can raise them to levels that suit them. Some notes on specific classes (not by anymeans complete)... Mages - Get the advantage Magery based on their Int Int < 14 -> Magery 1 Int 14 - 16 -> Magery 2 Int 17 - 18 -> Magery 3 The Mage is then given skill in spells similar to those he has in his/her spell book (along with the prerequisites). Alternately, you can let the player choose spells as long as they choose ones similar to ones they could cast before. Paladins - I didn't have to do any of these. You could just give them a short spell list as outlined for Clerics below. They might also be given knacks for some of their holy abilities (if you have Magic, if not I would just put the spell that gives them that ablitity in their list). Rangers - Didn't have to do any of these but you could give them Tracking, Stealth, Alertness, and Vow, own no more than your horse can carry. I would just drop the spell ability you could give them a short list. Clerics & Druids - (see page 84-84 of Magic if you have it). The distinction between Clerics and Druids is dropped except Druids should take Naturalist and Animal Handling (and such). For each Cleric you need to come up with a list of the spells that they can learn (a subset of the total list) based on what seems appropriate for their religion. For example a Druid would probably get the whole Animal and Plant Colleges. A Cleric of a god of light and darkness would get the Light & Darkness College. Others might have to get spells form scattered colleges as appropriate. I gave all Clerics at least Minor Healing (since AD&D Clerics can all heal) and Recover Strenght. The cost is cheaper than Magery 2 (the closest anology) because the spell list is limited but it has to be established for each list (since they may vary in power). All Clerics get a +2 to cast spells and pay 10 points for that. A spell list consisting of one college would cost 10 points, two colleges 12 points, and three colleges 15 points. For spells from scattered locations would cost 15 points for 40 spells but GM discression has be use for all this. The ablity to turn undead is a spell that you may allow clerics to buy (Turn Zombie) but I just dropped it. I also allowed Clerics to buy Magery also (ie they have an native ability to cast magic in addition to that given buy their god). The bonus is cumulative with that for their clerical ablities for spells on their list (maximum, +3). They can cast other spells off of just magery. The Cleric is then given skill in spells similar to those he has in his/her spell book (along with the prerequisites). Alternately, you can let the player choose spells as long as they choose ones similar to ones they could cast before. I made all Clerics take Theology at IQ +2 and made other skills manditory based on Religion. They may also get disadvantages such as pacifism. Alignments - Lawful Good characters should take Honesty and perhaps truthfulness. Lawful Neutral should take Honesty. Lawful Evil might want Bully. Good characters in general should consider; Sense of Duty (SOD) Innocents, SOD Humanity, or Pacifism. Evil characters should consider Bully and/or Sadism. Otherwise Alignments are dropped. Races - Just apply the appropriate racial packages. Base Characters - This gives you a base character which you give to the players. Players compute the point value of the base character and you give them the number of character points they earned (see below) and they spend the difference as they want (though you may apply the rules on raising stats and adding advantages after character creation if you wish). Note: in some cases (especially with the more high powered classes) the base value may be above the earned value. (This only happened to me by a few points). In such a case you might reduce some of their ablities/stats (esp ones they haven't used a lot) or let them go into debt and pay you off of future earned points at some rate (say 1/2 or 3/4 of points earned). Experience - AD&D experience points are traslated to GURPS character points according to the following equation... GURPS char. points = 100 + (factor) x (AD&D experience points) What you need to do is come up with "factor". To do this take the average experience of your characters and decide what you want to be the average number of character points of the party in GURPS and use that to come up with "factor". I used 15 character points / level but opinions differ (ie I had mostly 3rd level characters and I aimed for 145 point characters. ****************************** LATER UNTRIED ADDITIONS Monsters... For monsters, I would recommend that you just make up a GURPS animal that fits the description (all intelligent beings are NPC in GURPS). For example, to make up a blink dog, take that stats for a Wolf and add that ability to use teleport once a second (up to 100 yards) and the ability to use the blink spell once a round on a 12 or less. If you want conversion notes... (Warning, these are off the top of my head. I haven't actually tried any of them or even given the subject extended considerations :-)... [HD = number of hit dice] - DX (which is what animals use to attack with) is 10+HD/2 (up to a max of 18). - Damage = 1d6+HD*(2/3) (convert every 4 points of damage to 1d6, eg. 1d6+5 is really 2d6+1) - Hit Points and HT: HT = 10 + HD/3, Hit points = 8 + HD