GURPS101: GURPS, Justice, and the Dungeon Fantasy Way

My buddy +Douglas Cole just tossed up a kickstarter for his 5e adventure “Lost Hall of Tyr.” I have been one of the lucky few he’s shown the thing to pretty much from the beginning and despite my lack of comments on anything but the most surface of observations he’s continued to let me see this thing grow and form. Overall, it’s one of the better adventures I’ve had a chance to read in the last couple of years. While I am working my way through DnD 5e – it’s taking me longer than I would like because I’m still working on my other projects at the same time.

So I thought “Self, what could you do to help out Doug?” and the first thing that came to mind was “Don’t ever let him handle gasoline” and then I thought “Hey, maybe I can show that his adventure could be Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game material with a few tweaks?” So here they are:

When Gravity Attacks
Using the rules on p. 6 of the Lost Hall just treat this as a ST vs. ST Quick Contest using the listed ST. For control damage find the average roll of the listed die and then add 5 to determine what the listed ST would be.

DnD 5e coinage vs. DFRPG coinage
As a general rule of thumb, 1 gold piece is worth about $10 in DFRPG coinage. This isn’t exact! Some things cost more (most armor), while others cost less (some hand weapons.


Monsters
The monsters listed in the adventure are converted as follows

Awakened Tree: Use the stats for crushrooms in Monsters (p. 19).
Bear: Monsters (p. 16).
Bandit: No DFRPG equivalent. Consider using GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 15: Henchman – specifically the Brute template (p. 9).
Boar: No DFRPG equivalent.
Crushing Worm: Use the Frost Snake Monsters (p. 28), but increase it a poison follow-up attack on its bite to 3d instead of chill breath.
Dire Wolf: Monsters (p. 21).
Elk: No DFRPG equivalent.
Goblinoids: Monsters, p. 33.
Mountain Cats Use the stats for obsidian jaguars in Monsters (p. 19), but reduce DR to 1, and remove all traits making it a construct to turn it into a living thing.
Thurs: Use the stats for trolls in Monsters (p. 57).

There are some other critters in there, but they are obvious analogs.

Difficulty Levels
In general, “DC 10” is an average degree of hardness for a roll. Working from there we can assume that about every 1.5 to 2 steps up or down from there translates as a -1 or +1 to rolls for the DFRPG. So a “DC 14” roll would give you a -2 to -3 to rolls. Alternatively, if something makes sense as an opposed roll convert as a above and then add 10 to figure the resulting skill roll. For example, an opposed roll with a DC 8 would result in a DFRPG skill of about 9.

The Adventure Itself
I don’t have any advice for converting stuff here – it’s all pretty obvious to me in just about every case and fits very nicely in the “world” of the DFRPG – it works perfectly for adventures set in the “North” where the barbarians hail from.


Picking Over the Bones
If I were to ever run the DFRPG it would probably be something of my own making for a “serious campaign” but this adventurer is just perfect as a jumping off point or as a way to do demos that pack in a lot of flavor. Basically, go back the kickstarter, get your copy, and convert it. It’s worth the price and GURPS has very few adventures as is – this would be a perfect thing to drop into your game for your players.