I said:
>> There's no character creation involved, IMO, since
>> they will have already done that using the
full-blown
>> rules of the source system, whatever that is.
>>
>> Sound like a problem?
Brad replied:
>Hmmm, yes. That is an end-run around the 'no
>character creation'
>prohibitation. You could convert the third-party
>rules into d20 system
>rules, I think the conversion guide itself would have
>to be strictly OGL and
>not bear the d20 System logo. That doesn't mean you
>can't use the d20
>System source document, (the SRD), it just means you
>can't identify it as
>d20.
>I'm a bit confused, because you seem to be talking
>about two different
>things here- a conversion FROM some third party
>system TO d20, and a
>conversion of d20 material to some third party
>system. The first might have
>the character creation problem, but the second one
>seems easier.
This would do either one. I see several potential
uses for the utility and/or set of instructions.
For example, a person who _doesn't_ play D&D sees a
bunch of these neat new modules in the gaming store,
and he wonders if it's gonna be a pain to convert them
to his native system. This conversion would allow him
to type in the NPC data and quickly convert it to the
appropriate power level in his system. This is a
"from d20 to some other system" type of conversion.
We're not telling him how to create the characters or
how to advance them in levels, just how to make them
available to another system. This increases the
market for all the new d20 products that are coming
out.
An example of going back the other way would be when a
person buys a non-D20 product and wants to use it in
his D&D game. I know D&D players and DMs who buy
boatloads of sourcebooks from SJGames, Columbia Games,
Hogshead, etc. An easy conversion would make it
easier for them to use non-D20 products in their
games.
>> I'm really hoping this is possible, because I know
a
>> lot of people who use non-d20 systems who would
love
>> to buy all these cool d20 modules and source books
>> we're seeing in stores nowadays but are put off by
>>the
>> idea of having to convert them.
>This sounds legal, but be aware that Wizards' stated
>intent of the d20
>System is to drive people AWAY from other systems and
>TOWARDS d20. They
>probably won't care about it unless you turn out to
>be very successful, in
>which case they can modify the d20 System license to
>prohibit you from doing
>the conversion guides.
>From doing further ones, you mean? Once the genie's
out of the bottle, so to speak, we can't exactly put
it back in, can we? Maybe there are people out there
who feel that the market is best served by having
every system in lockstep with d20, but I wouldn't be
one of them. I think _some_ amount of diversity is
healthy. Several non-D&D DMs I know have said that
they'd love to buy some of the new mini-modules and
even whole campaign settings that are coming out, but
they're procrastinating because they don't know how
much effort would be involved in converting them. I
run D&D games, myself, and I buy all kinds of source
books and modules from companies like Atlas, SJGames,
Columbia, Hogshead, Chaosium, White Wolf, just to name
a few. I have usually had to re-create the NPCs and
whatever critters from scratch in D&D because it's too
much trouble to do an actual conversion. For quite a
few years, I've regularly spent anywhere from $50 to
$500 a month on gaming, and I've bought just about
everything TSR/WOTC has ever published. [My
bookshelves overfloweth.] It's only natural that I'd
branch out to other publishers, especially when my
extremely experienced players have already played or
DMed many of the modules in the WOTC catalog. Drawing
from so many sources keeps me inspired, and I think
it's a good thing.
I think there will be a lot of people trying to write
conversion docs and applications. I am definitely not
the first person to have thought of this, nor will I
be the last. I really hope that WOTC won't see it as
something that is hostile to them, because it truly is
not meant that way. I personally am _tickled to
death_ at so many new adventures and campaign settings
being published, and if there's a way to make them
more accessible to a greater and more diverse number
of gamers, then I think that's a very, very good
thing. In my opinion, this hobby suffers from a
shortage of good DMs. The more we can support
fledgling DMs with good source material, the more
players we can attract to (and keep interested in) the
hobby.
Neal
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