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 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.
@chgowiz Thanks for the suggestions! Intriguing idea.