Using older Adventures for new RPG systems

Hi! Probably an old question with an answer in a FAQ somewhere that I've missed, but... Can I use an older Adventure (e.g. Rise of the Runelords) for a game running a new system? I'm thinking of converting either a Pathfinder 1e or D&D 5e adventure to the Pathfinder 2 ruleset, and was wondering if Roll 20 supports this. Notes: I pretty much just want the maps, tokens, creature placement, and hand-outs / guide material. I understand that the original character sheets wouldn't work in the new system, but will Roll20's interface let me load a module into an unsupported game (ie not the original character sheet)? Regarding the character sheets themselves, I'm happy to redo all the monster/character rules myself in the new system (ie do a total conversion), but I do want to know if the portraits / tokens / backgrounds, etc, will come across. Thanks! Assuming this works at all, any finer details you can give me / experiences people have had would be much appreciated.

Roll20 makes no assumptions about what game is played.  When you get a module for a particular game, the characters will (usually) be configured for that game.  You can freely change the character sheet to anything you like though.  It's not much different than choosing a different character sheet for the intended module (say, using the 5e Shaped sheet instead of the OGL sheet a module is targeted to).  You'll likely end up with some erroneous fields in the characters on the new sheet where something happens to line up (say, if the DnD5e or PF1e sheet uses an attribute named Strength, and so does the PF2e sheet), but it won't prevent you from editing it to fix it.   Hitting your bullets: maps, tokens, creature placement, and hand-outs /guide material will all still be there.  The only issue you might end up with is the tokens are likely going to be linked to bars on character sheets that don't exist anymore, though that will be a minor issue with Mooks, if at all.  That's pretty easy to fix with the API, or you can manually update them as needed. As mentioned above, you can freely change to another system's character sheet on the Game Settings page. Portraits and tokens, as well as Bio and GM Notes (on character and token) will all remain untouched.  The Default Token will be configured for whatever was the character before you update it, which will just require dragging it out, fixing the bar values and links (it will still be linked to the right character), and setting it as the default token again. My only finer detail experience suggestion would be looking into using the API (if only for a month) to automate some of the fixing of tokens, and possibly cleaning up of the other system's attributes.  Not required, but possibly a serious time saver.  Investigate doing it before you buy the Pro, just so you know that it will actually help you out.

Thanks! That's really helpful. Sounds like this could be pretty achievable, then - now all have I have to figure out is which adventure to run... : )

One thing to be aware of: if you are intending to rely on the stats of the creatures and characters in those adventures, you wont be able to see them all if you are using a different character sheet.  It would be a good idea to create two campaigns: one with the system you intend to use, and one using the sheet the module is designed for. Then if any stats dont show up in the campaign you intend to use, you can refer to the other one for them and copy them over. This could be a lot of tedious work, but it's do-able.

What if attribute names are identical, as Aaron points out above? Or is that what you are saying? I couldn't quite parse it.

GiGs said: One thing to be aware of: if you are intending to rely on the stats of the creatures and characters in those adventures, you wont be able to see them all if you are using a different character sheet.  It would be a good idea to create two campaigns: one with the system you intend to use, and one using the sheet the module is designed for. Then if any stats dont show up in the campaign you intend to use, you can refer to the other one for them and copy them over. This could be a lot of tedious work, but it's do-able. Yeah, that sounds like a good plan - I was thinking about sourcing the PDFs of the camp. as well, but this could save me some time, especially if the folder structure is the same in the journals.

keithcurtis  said: What if attribute names are identical, as Aaron points out above? Or is that what you are saying? I couldn't quite parse it. I mean if stats are not named the same, they'll be essentially invisible. They wont show up on the character sheet at all, and you'll have no way of telling if they even exist. For those not in repeating sections, you can find them in the attributes and abilities tab, but that's a horrible way to look over so many stats. Its better to have a second campaign with the sheet the adventure was meant for, so you can see the characters as the designer intended them to be seen. Then copy over anything you need from it to the game system you are actually playing.

selfconfessedcynic said: Yeah, that sounds like a good plan - I was thinking about sourcing the PDFs of the camp. as well, but this could save me some time, especially if the folder structure is the same in the journals. the folder structure should be the same. and you'll get any journals, maps, and so on perfectly, it's just the specific details on characters you'll need to check. I also wholeheartedly endorse Aaron's API suggestion: it can help fix a lot of stuff with MUCH  less work than that it would take to do manually.

GiGs said: selfconfessedcynic said: Yeah, that sounds like a good plan - I was thinking about sourcing the PDFs of the camp. as well, but this could save me some time, especially if the folder structure is the same in the journals. the folder structure should be the same. and you'll get any journals, maps, and so on perfectly, it's just the specific details on characters you'll need to check. I also wholeheartedly endorse Aaron's API suggestion: it can help fix a lot of stuff with MUCH  less work than that it would take to do manually. Easy! Slightly off-topic in this subforum, but does anyone here have any recommendations of an adventure that works particularly well on Roll 20? I've been having a good time with Fall of Plaguestone, and am considering converting "Curse of Strahd", "Tomb of Annihilation", or "Rise of the Runelords". Will be my first time seeing any of them, but I'm an old hat w/ game systems, so the mechanics of converting them shouldn't be too bad - it's just the quality of the adventure and maps I'm concerned about.

You can see Tomb of Annihilation in the Roll20 YouTube channel or the DND Twitch channel.