Note: Use of titles Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D), Vampire: the Masquerade, World of Darkness/Storyteller System (Wod), and terms and concepts relating to these publications is not intended as challenge to existing copyrights, trademarks or other protection. In other words, I'm not making any money off of this, so please don't sue me - I don't own anything valuable anyway...

The following highly unofficial guidelines may be useful to those wishing to convert characters from AD&D Campaigns to World of Darkness Chronicles. With the publication of Vampire: the Dark Ages, why not? If you've already got Vampires and Mages, why not Ogres and Half-elves?

Basic Attributes

WoD Rating (1-5 for mortals) ----------AD&D Score (3-18 for humans)

----------1 ------------------------------------------3-6

----------2 ------------------------------------------7-11

----------3 -----------------------------------------12-15

----------4 -----------------------------------------16-17

----------5 -----------------------------------------18-19

----------6 -----------------------------------------20-21

----------7 -------------------------------------------22

----------8------------------------------------------- 23

----------9 -------------------------------------------24

---------10------------------------------------------ 25

Hit points do not appear at first to translate well into WoD terms, but I suggest the following explaination. Hit points in AD&D are considered to be a combination of skill, willpower, with very few of the HP considered to be actual "physical damage capacity". In WoD terms, this translates into Stamina, Fortitude (for Vampires and other "monsters"), and skills like Evade, Combat skills using shields, parrying, dodging, etc. and soak rolls.

For AD&D Characters, I have players start out by converting their characters' scores into WoD Attribute as shown above. Then Ability points are distributed according to the standard templates for mortal characters. In addition to these, I give a number of freebie points equal to the character's AD&D level. For example, a 10th level AD&D Magic-User is designed as a standard WoD mortal character (more details on this below), including the standard number of freebie points. The character then receives 10 more freebie points.

Converting "skills" is rather straightforward.

Magic-Users should choose Abilities like Occult, various Lores, etc. (Spell casters may be allowed to choose the Vampiric Discipline of Thaumaturgy, along with allocation of dots in Paths if the Storyteller wishes to use only WoD terms and systems).

Thieves might choose Streetwise, Combat, Firearms/Missile Weapons, etc. (however, see Thieves and Assassins, below).

Fighters, Rangers and the like would concentrate on combat-related skills. For AD&D 2nd Edition (with which I only vaguely familiar) non-weapon proficiencies should equate to no more than 1, at the most 2, dots in the equivalent WoD Ability. This is because, as I see it, the AD&D adventurer is not a professional in anything beyond the abilities inherent in his, her or its class or monster description.

For AD&D Saving Throws (again, based on the character's level, or levels if multi-classed) I recommend the following conversions, all of which are covered in the WoD rule system. Spells, mental Roll against Willpower or the appropriate Virtue Spells, area effect Roll against Evade, Dodge, Flee, whatever... Spells, touch Roll against Evade or Parry Poisons Roll against Stamina Magical Items as with spells Paralysis and the like Roll against Stamina, Dogdge, Evade, whatever, as appropriate to the situation.

Spell effects should be based on the level of the spell involved, the description of its effects in the AD&D rules descriptions, and the "level" of the spellcaster which is now represented by skill levels in Occult, Intelligence, various Lores, etc.

I tend to let AD&D characters keep their learned spells, and translate the effects of such spells as described here. Purists may wish to restrict spellcasters to the WoD Thaumaturgy Paths. As I tend to ignore rules in favor of interactive storytelling with a fast-paced plot, I suggest the following conversions:

AD&D Spell Level-----------------------------WoD Difficulty to cast, avoid, whatever...

----------1-2 ------------------------------------------------------6

-----------3 -------------------------------------------------------7

----------4-6 ------------------------------------------------------8

----------7-8 ------------------------------------------------------9

-----------9 -------------------------------------------------------10

(don't ask me about Dark Sun 10th level spells - I know nothing about them!)

Damage should be based on the closest WoD effect to the AD&D spell description. For example, Fireball (3rd level spell) seems remarakbly like the Hellfire portion of Dark Thaumaturgy (Path of Evil Revelations, Sabbat Storytellers' Guide), but with a larger area of effect. Other spells effects should be based on equivalent Vampiric Disciplines or Garrou Gifts (no, I don't use Wraith, Mage or Changeling rules - Sorry!). For example, Invisibility equates in AD&D terms to Obfuscate, while the various Phantasmal Force spells equate to Chermistry. The idea is to work the concept of the AD&D spell into WoD. For example, Prismatic Sphere and Rory's Mnemonic Enhancer have no clear cut equivalents in WoD of which I am aware. I simply look at the intended AD&D effect and translate it into WoD context. Dizziness? Make a Willpower Check. Stunning attack? Stamina roll. Distintegration? Dodge it or die. Monster Summoning? How many levels of Stamina and Fortitude does an otyugh have, anyway? Various Charm and friend-ship-type spells might be descibed in terms of the Vampiric disciplines of Presence, Domination or even the Blood Bond.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Which brings us the the next points...

Q: What about converting AD&D Monsters into WoD rules? A: That is something I tend to make up as I go along, depending on the situation. Or which I would make up as I go along if I needed to. Never had an angry mage summon a dragon in the City Under the Roof (see the Gehenna Chronicles posted elsewhere on this website)...thank the powers!

Q: What about Infravision?

A: Use Protean 1 (Gleam of Red Eyes)

Q: How about all those thieves and assassins 1st Edition AD&D Bards?

A: There are several ways to handle this.

• 1. Use their abilites as are (you've already got a bazillion d10's laying on the table - use 'em as percentile dice!
• 2. Divide the thief's skill % by 20 and round to the nearest number. This yields a result between 1 and 5 which can then be used with the appropriate Attribute or Ability for standard WoD test resolution.
• 3. Make the criminals/honest guilde members/whatever allocate points into Abilities like everyone else. This results in thieves who are substantially less, ah, competent.
• 4. Assassins? Never used 'em personally. My Campaigns run like Braveheart or Indian Jones on PCP*. The only assassins are the knaves sent by the evil NPCs to slay the vallient player characters. You're on your own on this one. Never once in 15 out of 18 years gaming used the Assassination Chart from the 1st Edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. The first three years? Don't ask.

*When the average character is my Campaign is named Quasi-mortus, Hadeus Corpus, Asgrodeus, Nasty Gravault, Axebitch, Cronn the Accuser,or Baalzebuddy, do you really think the Assassins have a chance? *L* - Think about it...

Q: Okay, so how about all those Gnomes and Dwarves and their innate abilities?

A: I've used three methods:

• 1. Using them as is (7 in 10 chance, 80% this or that, etc.).
• 2. Convert the chances to percentile, divide by twenty, and pair it with some other appropriate Attribute (Miner, Dwarfness, Gnome Lore, etc.).
• 3. The same thing can be done with the abilities of elves and half-elves in regard to secret and hidden doors. Convert to %, divide by 20, and you get the WoD rating that that ability.

Q: Fine. Now how about the Elves and Halflings and all those damned longswords, slings and longbows?

A: Two methods here too:

• 1. Easy. +1 = +5% in AD&D terms. Give 'em a +1 on one dice when they make a roll using the WoD task resolution system.
• 2. Don't worry about it. If you've got a Dexterity of 18-21 (WoD 4 or 5), you don't need anymore help to shoot, stick or whack something.

Q: Divine Intervention?

A: Don't even think about it - you'll just end up with a sleepy, angry Antediluvian on your butt.

Q: But wait! Aren't elves 90% resistant to Sleep and Charm spells?

A: You betcha. Try one of these methods:

• 1. Leave it as is. Or throw one d10: 2-10 = didn't work. 1 is a blotch.
• 2. Divide it by 20 and round up. This means a level 5 default Ability of Resistant to Sleep and Charm Spells (or a level 2 if you're a half-elf).

Q: So, that means that those Constitution based Saving Throw bonuses for Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings...?

A: Yep. Do it like this:

• 1. Take the character's saving throw bonus, for example Ragnarly the Dwarf with a +5 vs. Spells. +5 in AD&D = +25%. Divide this by 20 and you end up with an extra dot in resistance to the applicable attacks.
• 2. Or just let the short lil' buggers have an extra die to roll when resisting applicable attacks.

Q: Magical items?

A: Same thing, but with more possibilities. For a magical weapon, I like to consider each + in AD&D terms to equal an extra attack or defense die in WoD. This does, however, result in incredibly powerful attacks if someone has a +4 long sword. Another possibility is to allow each + to add 1 to a die roll. In this case, the +4 longsword-wielding player rolls, say, eight dice (4 for Dexterity, 4 for skill level in sword) and gets 3, 4, 6, 5, 7, 4, 9, 1. Any four dice at this point can receive a +1 bonus. That raises the 1 to a 2, negating the botch, then, if the player was smart, gives 3, 4, 7, 5, 8, 4, 10 and 2: a much better dice pool for attacking. Armor is handled the same way, with either an extra die per +, meaning a potentially invincible character, or instead allows +1 per + on the soak/damage resistance roll.

By the way, medievil armor and weapons are covered to a small degree in Vampire: the Masquerade, and to a larger extent in the Players Guide and Vampire: the Dark Ages.

ULTIMATELY, if these ideas do not suit the reader, games such as Palladium's Rifts or FASA's Shadow Run offer more possibilities for creative rules conversions and cross-over scenarios. There is ( or at least there used to be) a publication by a company called the Armory that covered conversions between various rules systems. The various ICE sourcebooks and adventure modules include (or at least used to include) conversion rules between systems using 2-12, 3-18 and d100 ratings. Might look at that too.

AND (finally) THE INFAMOUS (and much shorter) SECTION ON CONVERTING CYBERPUNK AND MEKTON CHARACTERS TO WORLD OF DARKNESS

This one is real easy. Translate the Cyberpunk/Mekton descriptions of scores and skills into World of Darkness terms that suit you. Then divide by two. Natch!

Humanity works the same in both games. The only score that doesn't translate well is Tech. Use this as a default rating in the highly-technological Cyber/Mecha campaigns.

You might also check out the "Cyberfang" system from one of the old White Wolf gaming magazines that converted Cyberpunk's cybernetic enhancements into WoD terms. Plus it had that really weird Clan (Cyberpunk) and its discipline Technica. Really nasssssty stuff.

Hope this helps.

Feel free to email questions and comments to cybercelt@geocities.com. I'll make up an answer. If you have any other suggestions, comments, ideas or requests, feel free to toss 'em this way. Emails will be answered as quickly as possible...

Unless my Tzimisces are being eaten by an otyugh...

Enjoy!