Do you have a favorite adventure for another TTRPG? Do you wish you could run that same adventure in There's Glory in the Rip? This series is for you! In Converting the Rip, I'll be going through how to transform NPCs, encounters, and challenges from big-name systems so you can run them with a party of Closers. They won't work exactly the same way, but I'll try to get them as close as possible.

Today's system: D&D 5th Edition

Skill Checks

The good news for converting a D&D 5e adventure into TGitR is that D&D numbers are already fairly constrained. Yeah, sure, characters are still expected to level up over 20 levels, with enemies scaling accordingly, but the DCs never grow that far, that fast. If you've got a module that covers a small range of levels, like 1 to 4, the DCs aren't likely going to be changing much from the beginning of the module to the end.

So let's start there. How would you translate skill check DCs to TVs? Something like this:

Note: Table assumes the D&D character has advantage (common enough with the Help action) and a +7 total modifier, and the TGitR character has a single advantage (from a title or something similar). This should be about right for low level characters in each system. D&D characters have more ways to bump the modifier up higher, but TGitR characters can keep rolling a check until they run out of dice, so I'm calling it a wash.

Note: it's a happy coincidence that the "gold standard" medium check in both systems line up; 15 for D&D and 4 for TGitR. I wish I could hand-wave the spike in difficulty around DC 20, but if I did then a DC 30 would line up with a TV 7, which feels unreasonable to me.

Any situational bonus in D&D that'd provide advantage should also provide one advantage in TGitR. Advantage doesn't stack in D&D, but you tend to only want to award one advantage total for environmental factors in TGitR anyway, so that one-to-one kind of works out.

Any situational factors that'd give a +1 or +2 flat modifier to a roll, or an additional 1d4, should be ignored. TGitR has a much more course-grained difficulty curve, so small bonuses don't translate well. Bigger flat bonuses (like a +5) can be treated like being granted advantage.

Monsters and NPCs

D&D is a system primarily about combat, and it shows. Monster (and player) stat blocks have numbers everywhere. Raw ability scores, AC, save DCs, skill proficiencies, attack modifiers, damage rolls, the works. Every single number can vary from a formulaic baseline based on the particularities of the monster in question. Meanwhile, both monster AND player abilities can add a whole layer of complexity for how tough the monster is to fight.

A monster in TGitR, meanwhile, has 3 numbers: the base TV, the max strike count, and the base strikes dealt. Converting between the two systems is going to require throwing out or handwaving a bunch of stuff.

Base TV

Since monsters in D&D can be so complicated, it's a bit hopeless to try to use its stats in some formula to convert into a TV. TGitR encounters are primarily balanced around action economy, so it can actually better to assign TVs to monsters based on how many of them are recommended for a particular encounter! This also means you shouldn't have to change the encounter from a pre-written module, you can just use the number and type of each monster as written.

Specifically, add up the total number of attacks/actions this monster type has in a hypothetical "balanced" encounter made up of only that monster. For example, for 4 level 1 characters, you can use 2 to 4 CR 1/4 monsters based on how deadly you want it. If you went with 4, and each one has 1 attack, that'd be 4 monster actions. However, if each has multi-attack and can attack twice per turn, that'd be 8 total monster actions.

Note: the above chart assumes a balanced encounter for 4 D&D players. If you have a different number of TGitR players, use the above TVs but change the encounter sizes using the TGitR encounter budgeting rules.

Encounters in TGitR are likely going to be less deadly overall than a D&D encounter, especially for encounters in a pre-written module and especially for 1st level characters. Modules in D&D are notoriously deadly. The thing to keep in mind, though, is that healing is far more limited in TGitR than in D&D. So while an individual encounter may not do much damage to your players, every point of damage dealt is much more impactful.

If the D&D encounter you're converting is meant to be an especially difficult encounter for higher level characters, consider bumping up the calculated TV by 1 or 2. Just make sure that when you're calculating that monster's max strike count (see the next section), you use the original TV for the lookup.

Max Strike Count

Max strike counts are basically a monster's health, though players can be a bit more creative in how they deal strikes. Intimidation to scare off an enemy from a fight, for example, is best handled by dealing a strike rather than having the enemy just run away on success. Health is also balanced mainly off of TV, so you won't need to look at the D&D HP value here. However, you will need to multiply the table values by the number of actions the monster has available to them.

Note: Above numbers assume at least one monster should survive for 3 rounds for standard enemies, or 5 rounds for boss enemies in a full encounter

Base Strikes Dealt

Damage in D&D scales with level, but health doesn't scale in TGitR. So when you're assigning damage to your monster, you'll need to judge it a bit more by vibes.

Damage matters in TGitR, but not quite as much as you'd think. Mainly, high damage serves to make players devote more dice to defenses and focus on the heavier hitters. It's basically impossible to one-shot a player unless something narratively happens that would guarantee death (like swan-diving into a volcano with no magical protection). In D&D modules, especially at 1st level, it's really common to be able to randomly one-shot a player with a crit or with an over-leveled monster.

Randomly one-shotting a first-level player with a stray crit in a suposedly on-level encounter is generally considered a bad thing. So it's probably good that it won't happen.

Monster Abilities

Now we get to the truly vibes-based part, and the one where no look-up table is really possible. Most of the actually interesting monster properties in D&D are expressed in actions, resistances, skill proficiencies, and spell casting. Not only does TGitR have none of those, but it also is far more free-form in its action economy than D&D could ever hope to be.

To truly convert the essence of a monster, therefore, you're going to have to have a pretty descent understanding for how the monster should be run. What is it good at? What is it weak to? What is the intention behind its abilities? What should it be doing on each turn? Ultimately, you can go far by just narrating what the monster should be able to do based on the summation of its abilities, and perhaps adding advantages or disadvantages for its strengths and weaknesses.

One other complication here is that NPCs don't actually take full turns in TGitR the way they do in D&D. Instead, they telegraph their actions so players can actively respond to them. Which really just emphasizes even more how you should just narrate the monster acting the way it should act based on its D&D stat block, and don't fret too much about the specifics. If a monster bite grants the Poisoned condition to a target, give the target a disadvantages on their actions. If a monster has a spell that puts people to sleep, have the target fall asleep if they fail to resist or avoid it. Think of the monster in terms of what they actually do in the game world and narrate accordingly.

Important Note: In TGitR, monsters are balanced around the number of targets they can affect each round, which is closely related to how many D&D attacks they can make. Spell casters, or monsters with AOE abilities, should be treated as if they can affect 3 targets on average. 

Loot

Items and currency are mostly not tracked in TGitR. Any mundane weapons and armor, as well as gold, are handwaved. Players and monsters just have the equipment they should have, and can use them as part of actions.

As for magical loot, essentially you're treating them the same as monster abilities. Think about what the item is meant to do conceptually, and simply narrate what it does when used. If it makes the user better (or worse) at an action, make it grant an advantage (or disadvantage) to rolls (but only 1, regardless of the size of the bonus). If it can do something funky (like summon a ghost horse), just make it do so.

One possibly complicated thing to think about is how long an effect should last, as well as limited uses:

• If it lasts for one action or one round, try to make it last until the next refresh instead
• If it lasts for a minute or longer, make it last for the rest of the scene
• If it has limited uses per long or short rest, try to invent a different trigger for recharging (such as a small ritual that needs to be done in a safe location or under the light of the moon), or use the Charges system to limit its use per scene
  • Consider that, based on how Charges work in TGitR, each Charge equates to around 6 uses on average
• If it interacts specifically with a D&D class ability (like Smite or Flurry of Blows), either make it grant something like that class ability or just don't use it

TGitR has less tracking overall, so when converting magical items, you should largely be trying to retain the flavor and narrative intention of the item rather than the exact mechanics.

Examples

As an example for converting an encounter from D&D to TGitR, let's take one of the most famous first combat encounters in D&D: the goblin ambush in Lost Mines of Phandelver.

As a short summary, this is an ambush encounter. The party is escorting a wagon along a road when they are blocked by some dead horses. 4 goblins hide in the woods, waiting for the players to approach the horses before revealing themselves. If the players win and keep some of the goblins alive, they can question the survivors for information on the goblin's hideout.

First up, the goblins themselves.

Goblins are a CR 1/4 monster with 1 attack. The module is for characters level 1-4. For a party of 4 characters in that level range, you could use anywhere from 3 to 13 goblins for a "hard" encounter. This is quite a big range, so we'll need to make a judgement call. Goblins are meant to be a bit weaker, but not completely frail, so let's go on the lower end and call them a TV 3. You can go with TV 4 if you want them deadlier. This TV would given each Goblin 5 maximum strikes. Since the Goblins aren't meant to be particularly strong, they should deal 1 strike with their attacks.

As for their abilities, goblins overall are meant to be nimble and sneaky, but a little weak and ugly. This is exemplified by their high Stealth skill, lower strength, and their Nimble Escape ability. So give them an advantage to running around and hiding, a disadvantage to actions needing brute strength, and let them be impossible to prevent from moving if they aren't tied up or their path isn't completely blocked.

Narratively, they're equipped with bows, swords, and shields, which is important to know for running them but doesn't necessarily change their mechanics in any way.

Next, let's think about skill checks in the ambush.

There's no listed DC for interrogating surviving Goblins after the ambush. So you wouldn't necessarily even ask for a roll here. But if you wanted to, TGitR generally has you roll against an NPC's TV for all actions against them. So here, you'd use a TV 3, but with an advantage due to them being beaten. This'd put the check roughly equal to a DC 5 or so. Considering the situation, that's probably fine. If you don't grant the advantage from them being beaten (or think it should be balanced by the Goblins wanting to keep their hideout a secret), that's closer to a DC 10.

For detecting the ambush in the first place, players would be rolling against the Goblins with a disadvantage due to goblins being extra sneaky. That'd make the check roughly equal to a DC 15.

Finally, let's try converting a bit of loot.

One magical item players can find is Lightbringer, a +1 mace that can light up like a torch and deal extra damage to undead enemies. For the converted version, we can make it give an advantage on attacks, deal +1 strikes to the undead, and narratively allow it to glow. Another is a Wand of Magic Missiles, which unerringly hits a target. That's a bit strong in this system, so instead lets give it 1 charge, and make it deal 1 strike to a target within sight via a magical dart that follows a target exactly and pierces mundane barriers. This would still allow for magical protection, but that's fine.

As a bonus, let's consider one more creature, the boss Bugbear Klarg.

Klarg is a CR 1 creature. For the module's level range, that means being able to use 2 to 4 of him in a combat. This puts him squarely at TV 5. Since Klarg is meant to be an important character to fight, we can treat him like a boss monster and give him 10 max strikes. He's medium sized, but the Bugbear's Brute trait emphasize how much extra damage he does, so give him 2 base strikes dealt. For abilities, give him an advantage on sneaking around and tracking (from the +6 stealth and +2 survival), a disadvantage on his ability to think through complex topics (from his -1 Int), and allow him to deal an additional +1 strike  to a target he ambushes (from the Surprise Attack trait).

In summary, we have two monsters and two items:

• Goblin: TV 3, 5 max strike count, 1 strike dealt on attacks
  • Advantage on sneaking around and dodging
  • Disadvantage on brute strength
  • Can't be stopped from running around if it isn't tied down and the path isn't fully blocked
• Bugbear (Klarg): TV 5, 10 max strike count, 2 strikes dealt on attacks
  • Advantage on sneaking around and tracking
  • Disadvantage on thinking through complicated topics
  • Deals +1 strikes when catching a target by surprise
• Lightbringer: mace that glows like a torch, grants an advantage to its use, and deals +1 strikes to undead
• Wand of Magic Missile: 1 charge that returns at the end of each scene, used to generate a magical dart that unerringly tracks a target within sight and pierces non-magical barriers

Caveats

There's Glory in the Rip is a fundamentally different system from D&D. Where D&D is full of mechanics and detailed rules meant for a zero-to-hero character progression, TGitR is mechanics light and extremely narratively focused, with an overall much smaller chance of death and more flexibility in what characters can do. Converting from one system to the other is never going to be perfect, and a lot of the deadliness that comes from low level pre-written adventures won't translate well.

However, the conversion itself is fairly straightforward, and can even likely be done on the fly (once you get the hang of it). Plus the narrative nature of TGitR should mean that scenarios can play out much differently they might in D&D. For example, since Klarg deals extra damage to targets he catches "by surprise," he could use hit-and-run tactics in a dark network of tunnels to try to keep dealing surprise attacks after the first round. For another example, consider a character with Lightbringer using its magical nature to bat away the missile from the Wand of Magic Missile. Fun, right?

If you happen to try out TGitR and use these conversion rules, let me know! I'd love to hear about how things turn out!