Stained Glass

Low Fantasy Roleplaying for The Window

What It Is
Stained Glass is a short supplement for Scott Liningers The Window written with Low Fantasy roleplay in mind. In order to use Stained Glass you will also need a copy of The Window, which is made available for free at: www.mimgames.com

Freebie Points
Finally, the Storyteller can award players up to three freebie points to flesh out characters. Players may allocate these points amongst the five basic traits and skills of their characters as they see fit.

Creating Characters
The Window uses a freeform character creation system by default, but this approach can often confuse and bewilder those players who are familiar with more traditional methods of creating characters. An optional point-buy system for creating Low Fantasy characters is presented here.

Skill List
The following is a list of skills that represent the specific areas of knowledge likely to be studied and the trades likely to be practiced by characters in a typical Low Fantasy setting. This is, by no means, an exhaustive list of skills, though it should suffice for most games. If you feel that your own game would benefit from more skills (or fewer skills), feel free to alter this list. Appraisal Archery Bluffing Brawling Dancing Disguise Forgery History* Intimidation Interrogation Language (Spoken)* Language (Written)* Law* Medicine Oration Musical Instrument* Picking Locks Picking Pockets Riding Religion* Singing Smithing Swimming Swordplay

The Five Basic Traits

Using this system, players begin with 15 points that they may use to purchase competency ratings for their characters five basic traits. Each point spent in this manner increases the characters competency rating in the basic trait by one die type. For example: Spending one point will grant a character a competency rating of d30, spending two points will grant a character a competency rating of d20, and so on. The maximum number of points that a player can use to purchase any given basic trait rating is five. This means that the highest competency rating a given character may possess in any given basic trait, at any given time, is d8 (High Competency).

Skill Selection
Players using this system begin with 30 points to purchase competency ratings for their characters skills (as outlined on the Skill List). As was the case with points spent on the five basic traits, a point spent to purchase a competency rating in a skill increases the competency rating of that skill by one die type. The maximum number of points that can be spent on any given skill rating using this system is six. This means that the highest competency rating that a character may possess in any given basic trait at any given time is d6 (Very High Competency).

Those skills marked with an asterisk must be further defined by the player who chooses to purchase them. For example, if the skill Language (Spoken) is purchased, a given language must be specified by the player. Likewise, if the skill History is taken, a specific type of history (e.g., world history, regional history, local history, etc) must be specified by the player.

Damage Rules
Adjudicating damage in The Window is pretty handwave-y by default. This does not suit some people and, in particular, can be said not to suit the oftentimes gritty nature of Low Fantasy settings. This being the case, the following optional damage rules are presented for your edification.

Handling Magic
Magic and unreality is, as a general rule, much less pervasive in Low Fantasy settings than it is in High Fantasy settings. This being the case, rules are presented here to limit the scope of magic in games that are run using the Stained Glass rule set. What is not provided here is an entire magic system. Why? There are, quite literally, thousands of different RPG magic systems in existence. Indeed, it is probably not much of an exaggeration to say that there are as many RPG magic systems in existence as there are RPGs in existence (or, at least, fantasy RPGs). Rather than add another system to the pile, the rules presented herein will allow you to quickly adapt spells from other published RPG magic systems to The Window with a bare minimum of work.

Revised Health Rolls

Using these rules, damage is still a result of a failed Health roll against a target number, but the degree by which that roll fails matters more and, in turn, impacts the amount of damage that an injured character sustains. Heres how it works, in a nutshell:

Roll Missed By
1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21+

Dice Removed
1 2 3 4 5

Spells As Skills
Spells are treated as additional skills in Stained Glass, their competency ratings being purchased with the same pool of 30 points that a player uses to buy their characters competency ratings in other skills. This has the effect of both limiting the number of spells that a character can learn and making the study of spells come at the cost of being less proficient in other skills, thus ensuring that magic is not widespread.

As is the case in the standard Window rules, if a characters Health competency rating is reduced to less than d30 in this manner, they are shuffled off of the mortal coil (i.e., they die).

Spells From Other Sources

There is no 1:1 formula for converting spells from other sources to these rules. Spells conversions will be approximate, not precise. This is simply the nature of a generic system like The Window. The key to successful conversions is to focus on spell effects, rather than on any mechanics of spell casting. For example, lets say we have a spell that looks like this:

Disenchant (Level 1)
This spell removes magical enchantments. Disenchant cannot counter a spell process being cast, only existing magical enchantments/effects. Only temporary enchantments can be dispelled. The success roll is modified by X times the level of the target spell. This is in addition to the regular TN penalty of Y for a low level spell. Bonus effects can be earned at higher levels of mastery.

In the process of converting this spell, you can safely ignore the second paragraph in its entirely. This has absolutely no bearing on how the spell will function in Stained Glass. The first paragraph, on the other hand, can be taken in its entirety and be used as-is to describe the effects of the spell in Stained Glass. Converting spells in this manner does require that the Storyteller exercise a certain degree of common sense and it will take some practice before you get the hang of it (although not much, as the process is pretty simple when you get down to brass tacks). Some spells that incorporate mechanics directly into their effects will require slightly more effort on the part of the Storyteller to convert to these rules, but the same basic principles apply. For example, lets take a look at a basic healing spell as one might expect to find in a number of popular fantasy RPGs:

A good place to start is that, for every increment of ten points of damage (or portion thereof) that a spell may inflict in another game system, it lowers the target number for a Health roll by one (starting from a base of six). For example, if a damage-causing spell in another system can cause up to 4d8 (maximum 32) points of damage, it will lower the target number for a Health roll in Stained Glass from six to two (6-4=2). As you can see, converting spells from another system to Stained Glass is not an exact science - but it also doesnt have to be a real chore. These guidelines should make converting spells from other RPG sources a relatively painless endeavor (though some work is still required on your part).

Lesser Heal (Rank 2)

Lesser Heal allows you to use magical energy to cure injuries and afflictions. It immediately relieves confused, diseased, fatigued, or insane characters and immediately restores ten health points to the spell target (up to their maximum health points). Converting the effects of this spell that removes or cures afflictions is pretty straightforward and should not present any obstacle but how about that allusion to health points? The Window doesnt use health points or anything like them! Well, the short answer is to use your best judgement but be consistent. In this particular case, I would rule that ten health points is equal to a single level of competency (i.e., one die type). So, if a character successfully casts Lesser Heal on another, injured, character in a game of Stained Glass, they would restore one die of Health to the target of the spell up to that targets maximum Health competency rating. Finally, damage-causing spells tend to do X amount of damage in other fantasy games, where X is equal to a static or dynamic value (typically determined by the roll of a die or use of some other randomizer). Damage doesnt work that way in The Window or, as a result, in Stained Glass (for the specifics on how damage does work in Stained Glass, see the section of this document entitled Damage Rules). When converting damage-causing spells for use with Stained Glass, although the aforementioned values of X have no meaning in the context of these rules, they can be used to determine a target number for a Health roll after a character is hit by such a spell.

Legalese and Credits

This document contains original drawn artwork by Maciej Zagorski, provided by The Forge Studios and used with permission, as well as original drawn artwork by Kiss Marton Gyula, also used with permission. The Window is Copyright Scott Lininger and is used here without express written permission. Stained Glass is not intended to challenge such ownership and will be withdrawn from circulation upon request. James D. Hargrove is solely responsible for the writing, design, and editing of Stained Glass.