In this scenario, the GM is helping some new players for a second campaign convert some of their favourite characters to NGR.
GM OK:, so Owen, lets look at converting your character to an NGR character. Who are you playing?
Owen: I am playing Paladriel, Guardian of the Sacred Spruce, an Elf
GM: Ok, so for species we will put you down as Elf, and what class?
Owen: Elf.
GM: Race as class eh? Elves are magic-user slash fighter right?
Owen: Yes, equally good at both
The GM thinks, he could be either 1 part mystic, 1 part warrior, and 1 part fool.. OR... could be 2 parts wizard, 2 parts warrior, and take the Mary Sue trait.
GM: OK, so being equally good at magic and fighting, would you say that Paladriel is more a laissez faire adventuring sort, or the type who hones his skills constantly, training harder and harder, if you had to pick one.
Owen: He is guardian of the sacred spruce, he trains constantly
GM: Ok, so your class build up is 2 parts warrior, 2 parts mystic, and you have the Mary Sue trait.
Owen: OK, not sure what that all means
GM: You are more skilled than most first level characters, but you have less luck.. which is hitpoints but also used for hiding and resisting things like demonic possession.
Owen: But I have a lot of hitpoints
GM: which is a good segue into the next portion. You get three warrior and three mystic powers. Lets start with warrior. You have a lot of hitpoints you said so we will give you "Veteran" which means pretty much what you would think.
Owen: Ok, whats that do?
GM: your luck points for fighting count 2 for 1, so instead of having "low HP" when fighting, you actually have high HP , but its still low for things like hiding.
Owen: Ok, two more?
GM: So your character isn't martial artist of any sort I take it?
Owen: No?
GM: Ok, do you usually fight with a shield or in the front rank protecting others?
Owen: Yes, unless I am taking on a magic-user role
GM: I'll count that as a yes, so a second power is "Guard" this lets you protect other people in combat.
Owen Ok
GM: Do you usually fight with two weapons?
Owen: No
GM: This is a bit more arbitrary, would you say you focus more on avoiding being hit or on killing opponents as fast as possible?
Owen: I do have a Dex bonus, but I also have a Strength bonus and I usually tank so I'd say killing opponents as fast as possible.
GM: Ok, your third warrior power is Fighter. This lets you re-roll damage and choose the better result.
Owen: Ok, then mystic?
GM: So would you consider your character a learned sage who studies things?
Owen: He's educated
GM: would you ever see him in a lab or in a library full of ancient tomes?
Owen: Not a lab I guess, be he is a herbalist.
GM: I'll pencil in Sage then, it lets you study things to know if they are under the effects of a spell, to identify magic items, and even to reverse engineer magic items to learn new spells.
Owen: I do have Identify as one of my spells.
GM: Perfect then, so we move to the next question, are you a Medium?
Owen: Only halflings are small.
GM: We really doing this bit?
Owen: I am not a psionic
GM: its more, "do you have your own internal wellspring of magic power", as an elf you do even without this extra power, though not as much. It is psychic in a new age sense, not a 1e psionic subgame sense.
Owen Eh...
GM: skip it for now. Pellar, does your character ever counter spells?
Owen: Way too low level for dispel magic
GM: Put that as a no for now, so Thaumaturge.. You said Sacred Spruce, is there a somewhat divine nature to your elven magic? Not full on cleric but more as a patron?
Owen: Ya, I could see that. The Sacred Spruce are servants of the light.
GM: Ok, so Thaumaturge is getting penciled in. This lets you turn prior deeds in service of the sacred spruce into extra magical power when you need it. When we go through spell casting we'll run through it.
Owen: Ok
GM: So exorcist most easily maps to turning undead in OSR games..
Owen: I am not a cleric..
GM: Got that, but it also means a resistance to supernatural horrors
Owen: I mean, I guess I am immune to ghoul touch and sleep
GM: It isn't perfect but we can pencil it in
Owen: so thats all three then
GM: Just to confirm for the last option of Warlock, is your elf a mad scientist type?
Owen: No
GM: Ok, then the last one wouldn't apply, so that's your three.
Owen: Do my stats matter?
GM: Yes, we will take your stats and map them over. Were these 3d6 straight down?
Owen: Yes
GM: Ok so map Strength to Strength
Owen: Oh man, that is so counter-intuitive, thankfully you are here to guide me
GM: Uh huh, Dexterity to Agility, Constitution to Health..
Owen: wait, I think I am getting this, does Intelligence map to Intelligence?
GM: Yes
Owen: and Charisma to Charisma!
GM: You done? So map Wisdom to Will ,and either throw down 10 for perception or roll 3d6.
Owen: I have a bonus to find secret doors, elves have great vision and hearing
GM: Yep, we'll get to that.
Owen: Ok, I roll 3d6 and get 15!
GM: Oh, well the dice seem to have solved that then.
Owen: this is tied for my best stat!
GM: But, had you rolled low, the stats go from 1-20 so there is some variance. You have 10 points to spread around. The 3d6 represents your natural abilities and the 10 points what you chose to focus on in your childhood. Mix it between your stats as you see fit. You can play a bit to see where you want to put them.
Owen: Heck with that, I am rolling randomly... oh wait you have 7 stats.. I don't suppose you have a d7?
The GM is ecstatic that he can now justify having bought that novelty d7 for $10 six years ago. 10 dice rolls later the process continues.
GM: Ok, so skills. You have a number of skills equal to your intelligence. This includes languages, reading and writing, backgrounds, and the like.
Owen: My intelligence is 13
GM: So you start with Elven as a free language, what other languages do you know?
Owen: Common, Orcish, and Chaotic
GM: Ok so that take up 3 of your 13 skills. Can you read and write?
Owen: yes?
GM: Put literacy as a skill, leaving you 9 left. Some basic questions, can you ride a horse? Swim?
Owen: yes to both
GM: so put down Riding and Swimming, leaving you 7. I assume you had some sort of military training? Maybe as a guard or a squire or something?
Owen: I guess I would have been a man-at-arms when joining the order
GM: Skills represent about 3 months of training, if you want a full on career those can be thought of as a broader basket of skills and count as four. Is this a background or a simple skill like basic training?
Owen: I think it was just the boot camp equivalent
GM: So put down man-at-arms training or something, leaving you six
Owen: No! Elf-at-arms training!
GM: Nice.
Owen: Ok, what about being a herbalist?
GM: Well you could throw herbalism down as a skill, but you were a herbalist of a while right?
Owen yes
GM Well, we can count this as a background and take up 4 of your points.
Owen so I have two left?
GM: Yes, so do you have anything you would want to throw in there? Theology or religious practices maybe?
Owen: I guess I should put one down for that, my character has a pan flute
GM: Of course you do, use the last skill for that
Owen: Do I get more skills as I level?
GM: No, but you can get more from just spending time learning them. A season of training or study.
Owen: so we are done?
GM: We have spells and inventory left to go. So spells, what spells do you have?
Owen: I have Magic Missile, Light, Detect Magic, Identify, and Find Familiar
GM: So Identify became one of your mystic powers and familiars can be bound with a Thaumaturge miracle, ignore them. Magic Missile can use the "Volley" and "Damage" templates from the NGR main rules, and Light can use "Conjure" and "Glow", and Detect Magic is "Self" and "View Veil".
Owen: Ok, whats this mean?
GM: we'll cover it when we go over spell casting. But as an elf you also get an innate spell, we can either grant you a new one or select one of your existing ones.
Owen: lets use an existing one, should I roll randomly?
GM: Sure
Owen: rolls a d6 and gets a 5
Owen: Detect Magic is my innate spell
GM: So inventory
Owen: can I not just use the inventory the same?
GM: Oh totally, but there is a pretty strict inventory mechanism in NGR
Owen: We kind of just hand waived it
GM: Which means its likely going to involve you leaving a bunch of stuff behind..
The GM then explains the dot system and containers
Owen: uh oh..do I lose the rest of it?
GM: No, you just are either going to be over-encumbered or are leaving stuff at home.
The GM turns to the next player
GM: So Sally, you have a 5e monk right?
To be continued..