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
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.
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).
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).