Abstract Vistas

A little thing I've been working on. I love writing RPG scenarios, and some of my stories come from them, but my muse runs screaming when I stat things. So wanting to make some filthy lucre, i've been considering systemless modules. And here is the first part, how to "genericize" any conflicts and characters:

Welcome to Abstract Vistas, a series of system agnostic settings and adventures.  From the stars to the spooky castle on the hill, the sky is the limit—and you don’t have to worry about a wonderful setting that is hyperfocused on another game system. Character stats , magic, and technology,  are designed in such a way that you can easily port them over to your favorite system without needing to whip out a scientific calculator.

So, without further adieu, let us begin!

A note on the art.

My art budget is low, or rather, non-existent. For that reason, a good chunk of the art here either uses generative art assistance or is purely generative art. The plan is, as I accumulate money from the millions of products I sell, to gradually replace the art with the product of artists, who are both better than I, and also for some reason want real money for their labor. If you’re buying this product, be assured that new art will be rolled into updated copies that you can download, and I’m not gonna make you pay twice for the same writing.

As a note,  all written material is mine, with machine assistance limited to grammar and spell checkers. Whether or not that’s a good thing, I leave to you.

Chapter I:  The Generic Rating System.

This explains how characters, monsters, and threats are rated, using a generic 1-10 rating system. If you have another product in this series, you can just skip this part, because it’s the same from book to book.

Chapter II: The setting.

This is our setting, including special considerations for converting it to your own favored rules system. Settings will generally include the primary location (city/world/galaxy/alternate plane), any specific descriptive systems (magic/tech/variant rules for football),  and a selection of NPCs and possible adventure seeds.

Chapter III: Game advice.

How to use the setting, whether as a stand alone setting or a plug-in to a currently running game.

Sidebar:

Author’s rantings

I’ve always wanted to write rpg’s. Loved playing them, and some of my first really fun times in college came from trying to do a Shadowrun adventured that turned into a TPK. The problem is, getting down to the nuts and bolts of numbercrunching, creating a system or hell, creating the characters for a system, and making certain they were balanced…

My muse sort of ran away screaming.

Then I read Flying Buffalo’s Citybooks and was struck by the fact that not only did they do a great job of fleshing out a city, the way of statting out characters was a mixture between enough detail to let you know what they could do, and not so much as to become a noose around the GM’s creative neck. And so, here I am, trying to put forth a series of rules agnostic settings and adventures. I hope ya’ll enjoy them!

The problem with any rules agnostic setting is to provide a framework to show how characters rate against each other in that setting. It’s possible to use purely descriptive terms, but easier to provide a numeric framework. Because of this any characters are defined by their traits and gifts.

Keep in mind that this is NOT a game system in any way, shape or form. It’s a way of rating abilities and challenges to make it easier to convert them to whatever system you intend to use.

Since things like strength, dexterity, and such can often be very system-specific, with some systems making them the core of various mechanisms while others ignore them, for that reason NPCs and monsters will be rated on relevant abilities on a 1-10 scale.

Level:

 (evidently patreon doesn't like tables).

1-2:   Poor.

3-5: Average.

6-7: Above Average

8: Very good

9: Superb.

10: Peak setting.

How many people are better than the NPC:

Rating

Percentage of population better than the NPC

1

90 %

2

80 %

3

70%

4

60%

5

50%

6

40%

7

30%

8

20%

9

10%

10

Top ‘o the heap. (at best any competitors are equal to the NPC’s abilities in this area).

Keep in mind that these ratings are relative to the setting. A person with ‘science: 10’ in a superhero setting would be akin to Reed Richards or Tony Stark—someone with a 10 in science in a medieval or post apocalyptic setting might have far less in the way of learning than they would but still be the absolute best in the setting.  These ratings are not intended to be some kind of universal constant between settings.

Note that depending on the rules system used, traits may be broad, (fighting) or Narrow (fighting with knives).  In general, in these cases the NPC would have the broad trait, followed by a list of specialities they have practiced in. The opposite can also occur— a powered armor trooper, who is nonetheless very frail, might have Fighting 7 (in armor)/fighting 3 (bare handed).

Gifts:

Not all abilities are based on a sliding scale. Some you either have or don’t. Nightvision, the ability to fly, etc, are all examples of Gifts.

Drawbacks:

The dark mirror of gifts, drawbacks are places where the NPC or character has a notable and dramatic weakness. For example a vampire might have: Vulnerable to sunlight/blessed weapons.

Notably both gifts and drawbacks are something unique to the NPC or a specific group. While it is true that (needs air) is a drawback mankind shares, in most cases, it really doesn’t come up as something you can use in a fight, especially since outside of sci-fi or fantasy, it’s sort of a universal issue. You might specifically call it out in a setting where most characters don’t need to breath air, on the other hand.

Magic:

Or psionics, or mysterious alien tech, or what have you. Because magic is so varied in both RPGs and fiction, any rating system has to be generic. In general, every character will have a magic rating, using the 1-10 system, applied to specific areas of magic. In some cases, the magic system may be very rigid, with individual spells being the only way to work magic, which would see the user only having one magic rating, and a list of spells chosen by the GM.

Magic tends to be divided into an umber of schools, or more specifically types of effect, so the following categories could be used to rate mages:

Conjuration (objects): The ability to create matter, usually from nothing. Depending on the setting, such objects may be permament, only endure for a short period of time, or only endure so long as the mage is focusing on them.

Conjuration (minions): the ability to create or summon minions to serve the mage. This can range from a necromancers skeletal bodyguards, to a druidic ritual to summon a spirit of nature. In many cases, this school has a number of limiters to it, such as being forced to bargain with the summponed beings or only being able to summon them via lengthy rituals.

Polymorph: The ability to change shape, either on the part of the mage or by casting spells on other beings. Such transformations may or may not include transforming the mind of the victim.

Clairvoyance: From  seeing through a door, to scrying the fate of nations, clairvoyance magic focuses on perceptions behind the norm.

Illusion: Pink elephants are the least of what a skilled illusionist can do. From cloaking minions in impenetrable disguises to making a hovel look like a mansion, illusionists are masters of making others see what they want. Depending on the setting, illusion magic may be purely “in the head” of the victim or may have a greater or lesser “real” component.

Combat magic: Turning someone inside out might be excessive, but it would fit here, as would fireballs, icebolts, and for psychics, gamma-ray lasers.

Manipulation: Telekinesis, magic tentacles, controlling the air—anything that helps move stuff or  manipulate stuff.

Travel: Running faster than the wind, teleporting from leyline to leyline, flying with the eagles, travel magic is where you’re at.

Sidebar: Do I have to list everything? 

Unless it’s really unusual for people to have skill in more than one field, probably not.  For most NPCs listed in the product, the assumption can be made, unless the setting specifically states otherwise, that most mages or psi’s will have some skill in other fields.

This doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be some abilities that are limited; a common feature of fantasy settings, for example, is to make magical healing rarer than other forms of sorcery.

Obstacles:

Obstacles are things that get in the way of the heroes. A locked door, drooling monster, you name it. As with the NPC skills, obstacles are rated on a 1-10 level.  In general, an individual with a relevant skill equal to the level of the challenge should be able to beat it about half the time with no preparation, and most of the time if they have time to prepare to beat it. A mismatch of two levels in either direction should make the challenge trivial (if exceeded) or impossible (if it higher than the relevant skill), without some degree of outside interference. For example, a skilled safe cracker (lockpicking: 6) should have no problem with a high school locker (obstacle: 3)… unless they are trying to pick said lock in the middle of a firefight.