In this scenario, the GM is helping some new players for a second campaign convert some of their favourite characters to NGR.
GM: Ok Sally, so who are you playing?
Sally: Tarnakia, Third Level Tiefling Monk of the Open Hand
GM: Ok.. lets start with stats
Sally: 12, 15, 13, 11, 14 and 10.
GM: Those are in what order?
Sally: Strength, Dex, Con, Int, Wis and Charisma.
GM: Ok, Strength to Strength, Dex to Agility, Con to Health, Int to Intelligence and Charisma to Charisma. Will and Perception are the other two
Sally: in 5e Wisdom is the basis of the Perception skill and Insight.
The GM is now reading the 5e book
GM: Its specifically not willpower and does seem to be perception and intuition. So your Wis becomes Perception. So whats willpower in 5e?
Sally: Probably Charisma. Charisma saves are what are used for things like zone of truth or charm. Its self confidence and the like.
GM: Ok, use Charisma for Will as well then, or just roll for it.
Sally: Charisma is fine. Do they map over 1 to 1?
GM: I believe 5e has stats up to 20, which is what the NGR attribute range is. A direct mapping makes sense.
Sally: ok, whats next?
GM: So what does being a Tiefling get you?
Sally: I have darkvision, I resist fire, and I have Infernal legacy that gives me a cantrip and Rebuke once per long rest.
GM: Ok, easiest way to handle that is to treat you as an elf equivalent... though maybe weak to silver instead of Iron? That would give you a default mana pool and your cantrip as an innate spell. I'll have to look up how to mirror it. Darkvision is just gutted because light management is a huge part of the game.
Sally: What about my other spell and my fire resistance?
GM: Those I am going to suggest are other spells you'd have memorized as skills. But we will cover skills later. Let figure out your class. Monk you said?
Sally: I have better than average unarmed and some ki powers. I can easily disengage or take an extra move action. I can also deflect arrows and unleash a flurry of blows like Chun-Li and take an extra dodge action.
The GM thinks about it. Being an "elf" already gives her some mana, so she would definitely be mostly warrior and maybe a little rogue for the acrobat power to represent dashing and disengaging.
GM: Ok, so you'd probably be two parts warrior and one part rogue.
Sally: I do have the Stealth Proficiency
GM: So your warrior powers would be martial artist so you'd have a lot of combat tricks, Fighter to represent your ability to do damage, and Duelist for dodging. Your Rogue power would be Acrobat.
Sally: what are combat tricks?
GM: Warrior special abilities. The Chun-Li ability would probably make the most sense as Combo Attack, and to parry an arrow with your hand would take Defensive Fighting and then Whirling Parry. We'll go over what they do when it comes up.
Sally: Ok, are these more skills?
GM: No, because you have Martial Artist. You can just keep learning new techniques.
Sally: Are skills like proficiencies then?
GM: A bit. You have a number of skills equal to your intelligence score.
Sally: Ok, so 11.
GM: So lets knock off 2 for the two spells you'll have. Fire Resistance and Rebuke
Sally: So 9 left.
GM: Your native tongue is a free language, each other one takes a skill.
Sally: I have Infernal as a native tongue and Common would then be a skill?
GM: Ok 8 left now. What proficiencies do you have?
Sally: Acrobatics, Athletics, Performance, and Stealth
GM: Mark those down as skills, if a bit broad, except for Stealth. That is a modifier and well handled by you being part Rogue.
Sally: so 5 left. Do tool proficiencies count?
GM: Sure, what do you have?
Sally: Disguise Kit, Gambling Dice, and Calligraphy.
GM: Ok, Mark down "Disguise" , "Dice Games" and "Literacy" as three more skills.
Sally: two left, but I suppose weapons and armour come out of that
GM: Armour doesn't really, but for weapons maybe just think of a skill to explain how you know the basics of the weapons you use
Sally ponders a moment
Sally: Monk?
GM: Ok sure, I would have maybe gone for like "Student of Wu-Tang" or something, but that works
Sally: What does a band have to do with martial arts?
There is an awkward silence followed by a series of youtube links being texted and viewed
Sally: So all these Wu-Tang Presents movies are free?
GM: Oh ya, its amazing.
Sally: These kind of remind me of some of the choreography from old cyberpunk movies
A second silence forms
GM: You know what? later. That leaves you with one more skill. Put whatever you want in there.
Sally: Does my background matter?
GM: Whats your background?
Sally: Gladiator
The GM sighs
GM: Ok this is on me, one of the warrior powers is Gladiator, which does allow you to attack with your off hand, even if unarmed. So we will switch out Fighter with Gladiator. If you didn't become a monk through monastic training then maybe swap out "Monk" for "Pit Fighter" or whatever type of gladiator you were and then still give yourself another skill. Just something your character does in his off time
Sally: My flaw is takes dangerous drugs, so maybe drug use?
GM : Uh, sure.. that works. We'll move to traits next. They are optional, but you can take up to 2.
Sally: My trait is a stubborn nature and my ideal is to be the greatest ever.
GM: Ok, so those might line up well to "Zealot" and "Egotist"
Sally: Egotist sounds good, not sure about Zealot. what do they do?
GM: Zealot gives you a negative re-roll on Intelligence Dice and Checks, but a positive re-roll on Will Dice and Checks. Egotist makes it harder to score a social critical against you.. or more often a critical in a possession attempt, but if you fumble in those circumstances it worse.
Sally: What's a negative and positive re-roll. Is that like advantage and disadvantage?
GM: Yes. They are pretty much the same.
Sally: Why not just call them that then?
GM: The author didn't have a time machine to know those mechanics were coming into the big name game in the future and is too stubborn to change it now.
Sally: Seems like he needs to get off his high horse.
GM: It does doesn't it.
Sally: Is Inventory the same?
GM: Yes, but its much more stringent about carrying capacity. Though you are a monk I doubt it matters. What are you carrying?
Sally: A short sword, backpack, and 10 darts.
GM: Yes, but you'll want to get a quiver to hold most of the darts, or store them in the backpack. It is hard to get things from a backpack in combat though.
Sally: How do these spells convert to NGR?
GM: Let me take a look at the book
The GM converts the spells, taking careful note to read out loud their exact mechanics and explain the conversion process
Sally: That makes sense, especially the way you broke down each element of that copyrighted text in great detail.
GM: Yes, but I can't post this conversion guide online, you know the rumours about that company's lawyers.
Sally: Yes, you pretty much have to talk about them in vague yet obvious allusions.