Recently, I’ve been updating some ‘classic’ adventures to newer systems. For example, Strike Force Shantipole and Tatooine Manhunt for Outgunned. I’ve got an adaptation of Rainbow Mounds for 13th Age Glorantha to write up, too. In the past, I’ve run Village of Hommlett in 13th Age, and I’ve got a session of Lost Conquistador Mine (a classic Boot Hill tournament module) to adapt for the Index Card RPG to run in a few weeks.

Changing stat blocks and balancing encounters is one thing, but what stands out in these old adventures is the structure of them – and in some cases, the sheer quantity of them. Reading through Tatooine Manhunt, it’s easy to lose track of the many, many fights with bounty hunters the players are meant to have. I’m always a fan of inserting action scenes into investigative or background scenes, but these are relentless.

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So, I’ve taken to using a method heavily inspired by one of my favourite recent games, Trophy Gold. Trophy Gold introduces the concept of Sets. In Trophy, a set is “a discrete location with a clear goal.” Put simply, Sets are sections of the adventure or dungeon that have a defined start and end point. Within them, there are encounters, threats, and treasures – and a flowchart that links them together, giving overall structure to the whole adventure.

My first step is to list out everything that happens in bullet points, and then highlight the interesting stuff. Once that’s laid out in front of me, I can pull them into sets. For a <3hr convention one-shot, I think 3 sets is about right – although 4 could work if one of them is short or easily defined, like a 13th Age Montage. This is what this stage looked like for Tatooine Manhunt:

When I’m adapting a published adventure, I’ll try and make sure that while the set has a clear goal – “Meet the oldster and set off into the wastes” – there are multiple possible ways to get there, all of which are interesting and exciting. Being really clear about the goal also means you can chop and change as time or pace requires to adapt the adventure – when I ran Tatooine Manhunt, I wanted to move them to the wastes, so they found the oldster captured by the bounty hunters, instead of him approaching them later – it’s easy to slide that goal in and move to the next set.

The flowchart linking scenes doesn’t have to be complex, either – it can just be three linked sets, one after another – as long as each one has multiple options and resolutions. You could even make a simple 5-room dungeon out of sets – maybe combining them like this to give more than one option. My adaptation of Rainbow Mounds looks a like this:

A final note on working with older adventures. I think it’s better to go with vibes over specifics, every time. Tatooine Manhunt has a betrayal at the end that lands a bit weakly – it relies on you tracking the pasts of the character your finding and the main antagonist, and caring about them. So, I left it out – there’s just a big gunfight with the Mandalorian bounty hunter and his men at the end, and that’s that. Be prepared to take out the bits that don’t make sense, or just don’t vibe with what you want at the table. Cut liberally!

I’ve got more adaptations of classic adventures to come – I’m in the groove for it now – so watch this space, and feel free to request any – especially if you’re a patreon, which significantly increases the chances of me doing it! And have you adapted or run ‘classic’ adventures – let me know in the comments!