Hey, friends who play D&D, question for you: Has anyone developed a system that can adapt existing D&D settings and characters with radically simplified rules?

I've been DMing for a quarter century now, and I'm getting increasingly exhausted by the complexity of the rules and the time I have to devote to them. I'm increasingly drawn to games like Dread with very simple rules. But my current campaign has been going for well over a decade, so my players have a lot invested in their characters--spells, gear, all of that--that I don't want to take away for them. Also I'm not done with the story yet so I don't want to just end the game.

Some kind of "instead of this, do that" rules document would be brilliant, if it exists.

Boosts welcome.

#dnd

@morganth Maybe this one by @Seba fits your bill? Or any number of OSR retroclones...
https://sebahahn.itch.io/mini-d20-easy-osr
MINI D20 - easy OSR RPG by Seba

Very easy OSR/NSR fully compatible with OSR-games

itch.io
@Rackhir @Seba Thanks! Not familiar but I’ll check it out.
@morganth I haven't done anything with a separate system, but have you looked to using an earlier version? Something like 1974 D&D/0e - or one of the retroclones like Swords & Wizardry? Much more simple rules, but I think would be able to lift/shift their gear and stuff to the simpler rules and be able to DM-rule on how things work.
@ToweroftheArchmage @morganth That would work for mechanics for sure, but not as much support for the gear/items/spells in microlite20. It all depends on how simple you want to get and how much houseruling on effects of spells/items you'd want to do, vs the rules giving you that.
@ToweroftheArchmage @chgowiz Thanks! Not familiar but I’ll check it out.
@chgowiz Thanks for the suggestions! Intriguing idea.

@morganth

Switching TTRPG systems is notoriously difficult due to the different gameplay philosophies inherent to different systems. This might not be what you're looking for, but it's worth considering. Here are two nice pieces on converting 5e to the Cypher system:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/26232673

https://angelscitadel.com/2021/05/10/converting-to-the-cypher-system/

What could work is a plot device of going to an alternate reality, like after defeating a boss, his final revenge is to cast the PCs to a world familiar, but different. And then, in agreement with your players, you do the transition to a different system governed by different incentives.

@zenbeater Thanks for the links! I don't know the Cypher system, but after reading those it sounds like something that might work for me, so I'm going to dig farther into it.

@morganth

Happy to help if I can!