Rules Conversions

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In the context of tabletop Role Playing Games, a Rules Conversion is an attempt to run a game built for one roleplaying system in another roleplaying system. In some cases, this is supported officially, with conversion guides or sourcebooks published with the original game creators' approval. Some of these works only provide the converted material from the original game, while others may include rules and guidelines to help players convert material to the new system themselves - and some do both. Numerous official conversions from other games have been released as GURPS or D20 System sourcebooks.

In other cases, conversion guides are written by other players who have done this before. Rifts and other Palladium games are usually played in converted form, since the Palladium system is unpopular (although doing so publicly often leads to cease-and-desist orders from Palladium, who do not take kindly to the practice at all). When players convert games, they often use the GURPS, Hero System, and Fudge roleplaying systems, since these systems are specifically built to accommodate conversions.

Rules conversions fall into two broad categories:

  • "Counts As" conversions. For each item or character trait in your game, find an equivalent one that is already present in the target system.
  • "Remake" conversions. Modify the rules of your target system so they can accommodate the material you're converting to it.

Most rules conversions contain some elements of both.

Examples of Rules Conversions include: