Into the Odd and Cairn Creature Conversion for Boundless

After my post about MB creature conversion to boundless, its now time to update my guide about converting creatures from Cairn, Into the Odd, Mausritter, and other ItO hacks to Boundless.

Into the Odd and Cairn to Boundless creature conversion

Hit Points: A creature has the same number of Hit Points in Boundless as it does in Cairn or Into the Odd. E.g. A creature with 4 Hit Points in those games has 4 Hit Points in Boundless.

Armor: In Into the Odd and Cairn, Armor reduces Damage by a fixed amount, and Boundless works the same. Keep a creature’s Armor score as written, or use 1 for light protection up to 3 for heavier protection.

Weapons: In Cairn and Into the Odd, weapon Damage dice range from d4 to d12. Because Boundless uses d6s only, weapon Damage ranges from 1D-1 to 1D+3.

When I designed this mechanic, the average Damage values aligned one to one, with the average rolls of a d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12. To convert a creature’s Damage die, use the following ratings:

• d4: 1D-1 Damage

• d6: 1D Damage

• d8: 1D+1 Damage

• d10: 1D+2 Damage

• d12: 1D+3 Damage

Dual weapon attacks (e.g. d8+d12) use this syntax: 1D+1 || 1D+3 Damage but work the same way where you roll both expression and keep the single highest result.

Attack tags: Tags like “Blast”, “Ranged” or “Ignored Armor” work as written. That being said, Boundless handles advantage and disadvantage through Position, so convert impaired attacks to a Bad Position and enhanced attacks to a Good Position.

Saves: Enemies in Boundless don’t have Attribute scores, but the player character do. When a creature forces a STR, DEX, or WIL save, convert it to the closest Boundless Attribute Check:

• STR: Strength

• DEX: Agility

• WIL: Willpower, or Presence.

Critical Damage: Into the Odd and Cairn use Critical Damage to represent a wound that takes out a character. In Boundless, this is handled via the Critical Save mechanic. Convert Critical Damage and other severe effects into a Critical Save trigger using the most relevant Attribute; if the save fails, the listed effect happens.

And that’s pretty much it. If you want ready-made examples, the Boundless bestiary is already a full conversion of the Cairn 2e Bestiary.

Enjoy!

Oh BTW, stay tuned as I have 2 exciting announcements planned for later this week. One concerning Voidlight’s (upcoming) print edition AND one concerning the release (finally!) of Boundless’ full PDF!