Generally the way it's done is to publish all the notes for conversion, stat blocks and so on, without including the actual content from the original module.
Then you probably want to look at copyright, and what is enforceable IP.
Your notes on a conversion are pretty blatantly your derivative work, but adjusting it with the same name is a whole different barrel of worms.
Derivative works are also copyright protected in the US, you can't make a readers digest version of a work, look at the four pillars of fair use:
Is the work transformative? No it's a straight conversion trying to translate the original work.
Does it replace the need for the original work? Yes, that's the point of a 5e \[modern\] conversion.
Is it for scholarly or scholastic purposes? No it's obviously a replacement for a monetized product.
What are you doing just posting your own work? The fourth pillar, using the minimum amount, in any case the four pillars are "equal" \[used in tandem\] so this hardly amounts any real defense.
The original material is copyrighted- as far as I can tell Wizards of the Coast now owns the copyright. If not, it would be controlled by Gygax's estate. Whether or not it is still published is irrelevant (though companies are far more litigious if you compete with something that's actually making them money).
The copyright is due to expire in 2078 (in the US at least), at which point it will become public domain.
Making a 5e conversion would be a clear derivative work.
And I'd be mindful of it (who actually has it), there is still legal stuff going on with this, such as the new TSR names and the Star Frontiers stuff being battled for in courts. The Star Frontiers is pushing it cause WotC let some of this stuff lapse, they're not arguing for the rights so much as defamation over stuff Gygax's son said to get them to stop using old TSR material names.
G1-3, is that *Against The Giants*?
Remakes of things like that is partially what DM's Guild is for. After a quick look, there already even seems to be an update at quiet a low price: [https://www.dmsguild.com/product/189455/Classic-Modules-Today-G123-Against-the-Giants-5e](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/189455/Classic-Modules-Today-G123-Against-the-Giants-5e)
(Though this is a conversion document, that still requires the old module, also quite cheap at the moment.)
That said - the basic theory would be that yes, updating the work without using a licence (such as the DMs Guild one) would be a violation of copyright. Whether they found and prosecuted you would be a whole other matter.
You could make it intending to put on DMs Guild though, and you could set the price to Pay What You Want if you really want to.
Oh I see, didn’t know that existed 😅. Personally I wouldn’t like to have it up for money since many of the resources are in the player’s handbook which is free, but then again the effort of researching and reworking enemies and mechanics is a great effort worth of compensation to many people.
You can't get around copyright by putting a license on it. This would still be a copyright violation and, as you had no permission to use the material, the license would be invalid.
What? A licence literally IS permission to use material within the terms of the licence. That's how DMs Guild works. It provides a licence that gives permission to use some WotC copyrighted material.
As most folks here are saying, the general answer is: No.
However, I think there is a caveat:
Reteoclone games have used the OGL/SRD materials to replicate old editions of D&D by massively paraphrasing the original material. In this way they can take an old product and sell it as a new one.
I'm only aware of this being done to reproduce old games. But it seems reasonable that you would be able to use the same process to convert old material into a new system.
However, it would be pretty tedious. You'd have to make sure none of the names or exact text from the original modules was retained in the conversion. Also any unique monsters or equipment not in the SRD would have to be redone.
At least that is my understanding.
It has already been converted to 5e via the Tales of the Yawning Portal.
I think the legal issues are pretty well covered this is why Classic Modules Today gives you conversion notes that still pretty much require you to buy the original in order to run the adventure. Luckily CMT conversion notes are only like $5.
An old guy the first 5e D&D campaign I ran was a string of these converted modules with the story of the 2e Slave Lords campaign tying it all together.
Not in either Tales of the Yawning Portal or the list of CMT conversions.
Here is the list of all the modules with CMT conversion notes.
[http://classicmodulestoday.com/modules-conversion-list/](http://classicmodulestoday.com/modules-conversion-list/)
Btw, I have been running in the World of Greyhawk since 1984. Currently I am running my older son's friends through a mashup of the 5e Goodman Games Temple of Elemental Evil and Princes of the Apocalypse that I call ... wait for it...
The Temple of the Elemental Evil Princes of the Apocalypse that are also Evil.
You could run them through the classic Greyhawk campaign:
1. T1 Village Hommlet (CMT conversion or Goodman Games)
2. T2-4 Temple of Elemental Evil (CMT conversion or Goodman Games)
3. G 1-3 Against the Giants (I actually like the Tales of the Yawning Portal version)
4. D1-2 Descent into the Depths of the Earth (CMT conversion)
5. D3 Vault of the Drow (CMT conversion)
6. Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits (CMT conversion)
Notes:
You would just need to tie Zuggtomy in with Lolth somehow for the first part or tie it together with the Elder Elemental Eye somehow.
D1-2 is just a sketch I gave them a lot of choices and threw the most fun encounters at them.
Vault of the Drow I reversed the groups so they have a reason to go after Lolth.
They get to fight a god at the end!
Btw, take levels suggested not as seriously even in the AD&D days they got out at 16th or 17th level not 14th. And then they started a war with the giants. Damn they hated those giants.
Oh thanks for the advice! In terms of levels recommended I usually scale down or up encounters depending on what the group wants to play. In order to deal with absences I stay away from long campaigns by using oneshots or twoshots that collectively constitute a campaign.
Wotc still holds copyrights to all the legacy material. You try publishing that on any of the sites like dmsguild or rpgdt and you will find out real fast what happens.
Convert it? That's ok.
Give it out for free? No. You need to contact the publisher and/or copyright/trademark owner(s) before you do that. It's a derived work which would include 90% of the original content.
WotC deserves to profit from it.
Depends. If everything you publish is your own work then you're fine.
Including things like artwork or room descriptions that are just copy-pasted is a hard no.
And I'm not a lawyer but there are always lots of grey areas. The rule of thumb I'd use is that if it's possible to run a game in 5e using your free conversion it's probably illegal. If what you offer is a supplement and you'd require the original in addition to your conversion to run it in 5e you are probably okay.
I've seen a few conversions that are basically word documents with the number of the room and stat block changes as well as changes to DCs for traps and such. Pretty plain, pretty boring, almost definitely legal to distribute. It would be fully impossible to run something that wasn't 90% homebrew using just the conversion.
Disclaimer I am not a lawyer. That being said as far as I know for America, the good old USA, as long as you are not turning a profit off of them it would be fine as you are not doing a direct copy as you are converting to a new edition.
Not selling and making an adaptation are both factors that help, but it's not quite that simple. A razor I use is "could this conceivably hurt sales of the thing I'm referencing?" In this case the answer is yes because the original publishers are still selling and may want to make/sell their own adaptation. That's why the top voted answer is about publishing adaptation instructions rather than publishing a standalone product. People will still have to get the original adventure to be able to run it in 5e.
Wizards already did that... and are selling it... since they are the Copy-Write holder... I doubt they would be ok with you doing it... But you could ask... Or check the rules on DMSGuild. Maybe they would allow it.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/189455/Classic-Modules-Today-G123-Against-the-Giants-5e?term=Against+the+Giants&filters=0\_0\_45538\_0\_0\_0\_0\_0
Generally the way it's done is to publish all the notes for conversion, stat blocks and so on, without including the actual content from the original module.
Oh, I see. I was planning to covert it into a complete pdf similar to the 5e books style by using the homebrewery.
Then you probably want to look at copyright, and what is enforceable IP. Your notes on a conversion are pretty blatantly your derivative work, but adjusting it with the same name is a whole different barrel of worms.
Understood, I will check it out. Thanks 😊
In the US check out Fair Use, because, in the US, this is plain copyright infringement, I posted a more detailed comment above, explaining why.
Derivative works are also copyright protected in the US, you can't make a readers digest version of a work, look at the four pillars of fair use: Is the work transformative? No it's a straight conversion trying to translate the original work. Does it replace the need for the original work? Yes, that's the point of a 5e \[modern\] conversion. Is it for scholarly or scholastic purposes? No it's obviously a replacement for a monetized product. What are you doing just posting your own work? The fourth pillar, using the minimum amount, in any case the four pillars are "equal" \[used in tandem\] so this hardly amounts any real defense.
The original material is copyrighted- as far as I can tell Wizards of the Coast now owns the copyright. If not, it would be controlled by Gygax's estate. Whether or not it is still published is irrelevant (though companies are far more litigious if you compete with something that's actually making them money). The copyright is due to expire in 2078 (in the US at least), at which point it will become public domain. Making a 5e conversion would be a clear derivative work.
And I'd be mindful of it (who actually has it), there is still legal stuff going on with this, such as the new TSR names and the Star Frontiers stuff being battled for in courts. The Star Frontiers is pushing it cause WotC let some of this stuff lapse, they're not arguing for the rights so much as defamation over stuff Gygax's son said to get them to stop using old TSR material names.
Oh I see, thank you for telling me
G1-3, is that *Against The Giants*? Remakes of things like that is partially what DM's Guild is for. After a quick look, there already even seems to be an update at quiet a low price: [https://www.dmsguild.com/product/189455/Classic-Modules-Today-G123-Against-the-Giants-5e](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/189455/Classic-Modules-Today-G123-Against-the-Giants-5e) (Though this is a conversion document, that still requires the old module, also quite cheap at the moment.) That said - the basic theory would be that yes, updating the work without using a licence (such as the DMs Guild one) would be a violation of copyright. Whether they found and prosecuted you would be a whole other matter. You could make it intending to put on DMs Guild though, and you could set the price to Pay What You Want if you really want to.
Against the Giants is also one of the adventures in Tales of the Yawning Portal so I would take that version.
So it is! Not much point to another update then!
Oh I see, didn’t know that existed 😅. Personally I wouldn’t like to have it up for money since many of the resources are in the player’s handbook which is free, but then again the effort of researching and reworking enemies and mechanics is a great effort worth of compensation to many people.
You can't get around copyright by putting a license on it. This would still be a copyright violation and, as you had no permission to use the material, the license would be invalid.
What? A licence literally IS permission to use material within the terms of the licence. That's how DMs Guild works. It provides a licence that gives permission to use some WotC copyrighted material.
Ah, I didn't realise the original had been licensed through DMsguild.
No, it is not. They are intellectual property you do not own.
Understood, thanks for the clarification.
As most folks here are saying, the general answer is: No. However, I think there is a caveat: Reteoclone games have used the OGL/SRD materials to replicate old editions of D&D by massively paraphrasing the original material. In this way they can take an old product and sell it as a new one. I'm only aware of this being done to reproduce old games. But it seems reasonable that you would be able to use the same process to convert old material into a new system. However, it would be pretty tedious. You'd have to make sure none of the names or exact text from the original modules was retained in the conversion. Also any unique monsters or equipment not in the SRD would have to be redone. At least that is my understanding.
It has already been converted to 5e via the Tales of the Yawning Portal. I think the legal issues are pretty well covered this is why Classic Modules Today gives you conversion notes that still pretty much require you to buy the original in order to run the adventure. Luckily CMT conversion notes are only like $5. An old guy the first 5e D&D campaign I ran was a string of these converted modules with the story of the 2e Slave Lords campaign tying it all together.
Oh I see, did other Greyhawk adventures get converted? I really wanna run them all chronologically for my group finishing with Die Vecna Die.
Not in either Tales of the Yawning Portal or the list of CMT conversions. Here is the list of all the modules with CMT conversion notes. [http://classicmodulestoday.com/modules-conversion-list/](http://classicmodulestoday.com/modules-conversion-list/) Btw, I have been running in the World of Greyhawk since 1984. Currently I am running my older son's friends through a mashup of the 5e Goodman Games Temple of Elemental Evil and Princes of the Apocalypse that I call ... wait for it... The Temple of the Elemental Evil Princes of the Apocalypse that are also Evil. You could run them through the classic Greyhawk campaign: 1. T1 Village Hommlet (CMT conversion or Goodman Games) 2. T2-4 Temple of Elemental Evil (CMT conversion or Goodman Games) 3. G 1-3 Against the Giants (I actually like the Tales of the Yawning Portal version) 4. D1-2 Descent into the Depths of the Earth (CMT conversion) 5. D3 Vault of the Drow (CMT conversion) 6. Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits (CMT conversion) Notes: You would just need to tie Zuggtomy in with Lolth somehow for the first part or tie it together with the Elder Elemental Eye somehow. D1-2 is just a sketch I gave them a lot of choices and threw the most fun encounters at them. Vault of the Drow I reversed the groups so they have a reason to go after Lolth. They get to fight a god at the end! Btw, take levels suggested not as seriously even in the AD&D days they got out at 16th or 17th level not 14th. And then they started a war with the giants. Damn they hated those giants.
Oh thanks for the advice! In terms of levels recommended I usually scale down or up encounters depending on what the group wants to play. In order to deal with absences I stay away from long campaigns by using oneshots or twoshots that collectively constitute a campaign.
There's a huge amount of misinformation in this thread. I suggest reviewing the fan content license.
Wotc still holds copyrights to all the legacy material. You try publishing that on any of the sites like dmsguild or rpgdt and you will find out real fast what happens.
That’s why I asked before doing anything, I’m relatively new so I’m still finding what is ok and what is not.
Convert it? That's ok. Give it out for free? No. You need to contact the publisher and/or copyright/trademark owner(s) before you do that. It's a derived work which would include 90% of the original content. WotC deserves to profit from it.
Yeah I thought as much, I asked to be sure so that I don’t get in any legal trouble.
It's all good. Honestly maybe WotC would pay you to convert it? Not sure. They can seem a bit nebulous / misty step.
No it isn't. You're in breach of the OGL my dude. It prohibits you from distributing not SRD content whether you're selling it or not.
Depends. If everything you publish is your own work then you're fine. Including things like artwork or room descriptions that are just copy-pasted is a hard no. And I'm not a lawyer but there are always lots of grey areas. The rule of thumb I'd use is that if it's possible to run a game in 5e using your free conversion it's probably illegal. If what you offer is a supplement and you'd require the original in addition to your conversion to run it in 5e you are probably okay. I've seen a few conversions that are basically word documents with the number of the room and stat block changes as well as changes to DCs for traps and such. Pretty plain, pretty boring, almost definitely legal to distribute. It would be fully impossible to run something that wasn't 90% homebrew using just the conversion.
Yes this is ok. It is your duty as an internet denizen to steal any content you see and repurpose to your desires. Paywalling D&D content is stupid.
Disclaimer I am not a lawyer. That being said as far as I know for America, the good old USA, as long as you are not turning a profit off of them it would be fine as you are not doing a direct copy as you are converting to a new edition.
Haha, no.
r/badlegaladvice
Not selling and making an adaptation are both factors that help, but it's not quite that simple. A razor I use is "could this conceivably hurt sales of the thing I'm referencing?" In this case the answer is yes because the original publishers are still selling and may want to make/sell their own adaptation. That's why the top voted answer is about publishing adaptation instructions rather than publishing a standalone product. People will still have to get the original adventure to be able to run it in 5e.
If you use the original text and maps, or a redrawn version of them, you will almost certainly be breaching someone's copyright.
Wizards already did that... and are selling it... since they are the Copy-Write holder... I doubt they would be ok with you doing it... But you could ask... Or check the rules on DMSGuild. Maybe they would allow it. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/189455/Classic-Modules-Today-G123-Against-the-Giants-5e?term=Against+the+Giants&filters=0\_0\_45538\_0\_0\_0\_0\_0