Review of fRáGiL (Part 5)

In this fifth part of the series about the post-apocalyptic game fRáGiL I will give you some guidelines to use the CdB Engine ruleset, created by Pablo Jaime “Zonk-PJ” Conill Querol (Web | Patreon) | DriveThruRPG) which is used in the game Walküre and its supplemnt Sturm und Drang (the crowdfunding of which ended successfully last November), created by Grupo Creativo Aventureros Errantes de la Marca del Este.

To read the previous installments you may follow these links: #1 #2 #3 #4.

Walküre | Sturm und Drang | Cdb Engine

Rust texture by
NaamaYMStock on DeviantArt

The ruleset in which is based fRáGiL, the Sistema Táctico Espada Negra (STEN) 2.0 and the ruleset CdB Engine, which is the base of Walküre and Sturm und Drang, have many similarities, so it's worth studying their connection points (the fact both rulesets having CC BY-SA 4.0 license it's also interesting in order to create your own projects, even commercial ones, offering the chance of using both rulesets or creating your own with characteristics from both).

Consider these notes a preliminary study that could lead to other developments in the future.

Difficulty scale

First of all both STEN and CdB Engine are based in a 9-range difficulty scale as can be seen in the following table:

Equivalence of difficulty ranges
fRáGiL | STEN 2.0		Walküre | Sturm und Drang | Cdb Engine
Difficulty	Task	Difficulty level	Outcome to obtain
1	Easiest	Easy	5
2	Easy	Trivial	7
3	Moderated	Average	9
4	Complicated	Challenging	11
5	Sophisticated	Difficult	13
6	Crappy	Very difficult	15
7	Very crappy	Amazing	17
8	Seriously?	Legendary	19
9	WTF, guy	Impossible	21

Although both numerical scales are different the difficulty degree can be easily indicated if we are creating a product with dual stats, like this: Sophisticated [5] | Difficult [13] (first STEN and then cdB Engine).

Attribute and skill ranges

Another interesting fact of both rulesets is that they use pretty similar attribute and skill ranks, so it's easy to have both getting along when having to prepare dual stats (you only need to remember that STEN don't contemplate the chance of having not trained skills or skills at level 0).

Equivalence of attribute and skill ranges
fRáGiL | STEN 2.0	Walküre | Sturm und Drang | Cdb Engine
Skill level	Skill level
N / A	Not trained
N / A	0
1	1
2	2
3	3
4	4
5	5
6	6
7	7
8	8
N / A : Not applicable

As I did with my article about Crossovers and Shared Universes when talking about possible compatibilities between Walküre and La Puerta de Ishtar a correspondence between STEN attributes and CdB Engine skills can also be carried out (it's necessary to remember that CdB Engine don't have attributes as other games have so it could be necessary to create a skill to measure characters' cunning).

Attributes equivalence
fRáGiL | STEN 2.0	Walküre | Sturm und Drang | Cdb Engine
Attribute	Skill
Strength	Stamina
Agility	Agility
Resistance	Stamina
Will	Will
Intelligence	Intellect (1)
Leadership	Leadership
Power	W / D (2)
Defense	W / D (2)
Extension	W / D (2)
W / D : Without direct correspondence (1) CdB Engine don't have a skill to directly measure character's intelligence and cunning, it could be necessary to create a new skill for this stat. (2) CdB Engine uses Gifts to manage psionic powers.

Death and Stamina | Endurance, Toughness and Fatigue

One of the issues to be considered is how both systems treat life points and character's fatigue.

Regarding how many damage can suffer a character before dying STEN estimates character's Death when injures suffered amount Strength x 10 and CdB Engine with a system taking into account different wound levels, to see a comparison between both systems you can consult the following tables:

Comparison of Death (=10xS) with Life Points
fRáGiL | STEN 2.0		Walküre | Sturm und Drang | Cdb Engine
Strength	Death	Stamina	Total Life Points
N /A	N / A	0	8
1	10	1	11
2	20	2	14
3	30	3	17
4	40	4	20
5	50	5	23
6	60	6	26
7	70	7	29
8	80	8	31

Life Points and and Wound Categories
Walküre | Sturm und Drang | Cdb Engine
Stamina	Scratch (Stamina+4)	Wound (Stamina+1)	Serious Wound (Stamina+2)/2	Disabled (Stamina+4)/4	Dying (Stamina+8)/8
		[-1](1)	[-2](1)	[-3](1)	[Unconscious PC]
0	4	1	1	1	1
1	5	2	2	1	1
2	6	3	2	2	1
3	7	4	3	2	1
4	8	5	3	2	2
5	9	6	4	2	2
6	10	7	4	3	2
7	11	8	5	3	2
8	12	9	5	3	2
(1) Cumulative modifier (2) A Stamina roll with Difficulty 9 is needed to survive

Regarding fatigue characters can experiment we see that both systems diverge, because CdB Engine have only one Fatigue scale divided in different levels based in the Will skill, while in STEN we have two score to take into account: Endurance Points (based in Toughness attribute), measuring character tiredness which is used to roll double dice, and Will Points (based in Will attribute), measuring character's resistance to pain and how he can endure before becoming unconscious in combat.

Comparison of Endurance (=5xR) and Unconscioussness (=5xW) with Fatigue Points
fRáGiL | STEN 2.0		Walküre | Sturm und Drang | Cdb Engine
Will	Total Endurance Unconscioussness	Will	Total Fatigue Points
N /A	N / A	0	8
1	5	1	11
2	10	2	14
3	15	3	17
4	20	4	20
5	25	5	23
6	30	6	26
7	35	7	29
8	40	8	31

Fatigue Points and Fatigue Categories
Walküre | Sturm und Drang | Cdb Engine
Will	Tired (Will+4)	Stunned (Will+1)	Seriously stunned (Will+2)/2	Disabled (Will+4)/4	Exhausted (Will+8)/8
0	4	1	1	1	1
1	5	2	2	1	1
2	6	3	2	2	1
3	7	4	3	2	1
4	8	5	3	2	2
5	9	6	4	2	2
6	10	7	4	3	2
7	11	8	5	3	2
8	12	9	5	3	2

If you want to create a product with dual statistics the previous tables may be useful to see how to translate numerical values between both systems, alternatively you can also create a variant that combines both options, such as the following:

Life points and Wound Categories (STEN version)
Strength	Total LP	Scratch (Sx2)+1	Wound (Sx2)+1	Serious Wound Sx2	Disable S	Exhausted S
			[-1](1)	[-2](1)	[-3](1)	[Unconscious PC]
1	10	3	3	2	1	1
2	20	5	5	4	3	3
3	30	7	7	6	5	5
4	40	9	9	8	7	7
5	50	11	11	10	9	9
6	60	13	13	12	11	11
7	70	15	15	14	13	13
8	80	17	17	16	15	15
9	90	19	19	18	17	17
10	100	21	21	20	19	19
(1) Cumulative modifier (2) A Strength roll with Difficulty 9 is needed to survive

Aspects, Talents and Limitations

Other Walküre and CdB Engine mechanisms which may be interesting to use in fRáGiL are Aspects, Talents and Limitations.

Aspects are personality traits working at narrative level and which can complicate characters' lives or help them to get ahead in what they propose, can be used in the following way:

• Applying them: The playing character uses it in a positive manner spending a Destiny Point and adding +3 to the dice roll.
• Invoking them: The playing character use it to deliberately fail a roll or the referee use it to complicate character's life (something which can be avoided spending 1 Destiny Point), in both cases the character target of the invocation receives 1 Destiny Point if it is carried out.

Some examples of its use could be the following (I take as examples Walküre Aspects):

• Criminal background (Fleeing the Nazis):
  • Aplying it can give a +3 to any negotiation attempt with resistance groups opposing Nazi occupant plans.
  • Invoking it can make the character be identified thanks to a wanted poster issued by Gestapo.
• Duty (Hold until the end):
  • Aplying it can give the character +3 to rolls of all actions allowing him to stay at his position and endure everything that comes up.
  • Invoking it can cause the character to be immersed in problems, since by staying in his position it may be more difficult for him to escape or be evacuated.
• Secret (Being a spy):
  • Aplying it can give a +3 to activities of his profession, like deciphering a secret code.
  • Invoking it can cause his identity to be discovered to the enemy by any double agent who has worked with him before.

In fRáGiL Aspects could be used straight as I had described replacing Destiny Points with Motivation Points (used in the game as experience points).

Talents represent specific knowledges, innate capabilities and special trainings which are immediately applied without spending points to activate them, although it will be necessary to have given requisites (like a skill at a certain level) and pay development points to have them.

Some examples (continuing with Walküre) are the following ones:

• Ambidextrous:
  Requisites: To be trained in hand-to-hand weapons or handguns.
  Cost: 9 development points.
  The character can use both hands with the same efficiency. This talent allows to ignore negative points for carrying a weapon in each hand (-1 deft hand, -2 in the other hand), always if these are wapons which can be carried in one hand.
• Concentrated:
  Requisites: None.
  Cost: 6 development points.
  The character is able to concentrate in tasks requiring many time, withdrawing from the world surrounding him. Gains +1 to any extended task, but he isn't aware of what's happening around him, so while he develops the fiven task he will have -2 to attention rolls.
• Eidetic memory:
  Requisites: None.
  Cost: 6 development points.
  The character have a perfect memory. He will remember all he sees and reads during the session. He will never forget a face, a name, how to go to a place, etc.

Talents may be compared to fRáGiL Advantages and can be bought straight as long as the character has a disadvantage for each advantage acquired and he can't have more than two advantages (although perhaps the referee would want to increase this number according to the planning of his gaming sessions).

Limitations are the inverse version of Talents and Gifts, because give Development Points (DP), but impose limitations with consequences at rules' level.

Some examples (also from Walküre) are the following ones:

• Clumsy hands:
  The character can't grab things right (it's possible that a human with a genetic malformation will have this limitation). This limitation gives -1 to all important rolls, including all combat rolls with firearms! It's possible to design specific tools, but it costs a lot of money and, if exist and are used by the subject, the limitation offer half the DP.
  Gives 5 or 10 Development Points.
• Sensitive to ilnesses:
  The character resistance to illnesses is worse than in other people, wether his antibodies are less effective, he creates less, or he had been ill many times during his lifetime and this has shrinked his defenses. When rolling to avoid or getting rid of the illness effects will receive -2 to this roll for each level.
  Gives 6 Development Points each level.
• Vulnerable: This character is specially sensitive to a certain substance, matter, condition or energy, which must be specified once the limitation is acquired, to be approved afterwards by the GM.
  For every 5 minutes of exposition to what we are specially sensitive we will lose 1 life point. A weapon firing the substance, energy or similar object of our vulnerability will ignore the resistance to natural damage we posess.
  Gives 5 to 10 Development Points, depending of how common is the substance which he is vulnerable, at the GM discretion.

In fRáGiL limitations would be equivalent to Disadvantages, the referee only have to think if having them gives Motivation Points or other mechanical effects and under which circumstances.

Gifts

Gifts are racial capabilities, technological developments, implants or even psionic or magical powers based in a given origin (which may need certain requisites and pay Development Points):

• Biomod: Creatures genetically designed to live in symbiosis with the character.
• Implant: Technologies designed to implanted in the character's body.
• Magical: Spells cast by magicians.
• Psionic: Represent the classical Psionic Powers found in many science-fiction novels and films.
• Racial: Used to represent diferent races (or which is the same, different species).
• Religious: Gifts which Gods (in those settings with gods, of course) give to most pious priests and followers.
• Superheroic: Represent mutants, metahumans, cosmic entities and in short all types of origins which can be found in comic books.
• Technological: Those Gifts added to equipment to represent special capabilities from technology.

Comparing psionic powers appearing in fRáGiL to those of CdB Engine may be a little more complicated because in CdB Engine are more developed and it may be the case that their effects have to adapted or calculated again, as can be seen in the following comparative table about how the telekinesis power is treated:

Example: Telekinesis
fRáGiL | STEN 2.0		Walküre | Sturm und Drang | Cdb Engine
Power	Weight	Weight	Difficulty
1	Less than 100 gr.	W / D	5
2	Less than 1 Kg.	1 kg. or less (Encumbrance 0.5 or less)	7
3	Less than 10 kg.	Up to 10 Kg. (Encumbrance 4)	9
4	Less than a 100 Kg.	Up to 50 Kg. (Encumbrance 20)	11
5	Less than 1000 Kg.	Up to 100 Kg. (Encumbrance 40)	13
6	W / D	Up to 500 Kg. (Encumbrance 200)	15
7	W / D	Up to 1 ton	17
8	W / D	Up to 10 ton	19
9	W / D	More than 10 ton	21
W / D : Without direct correspondence

Equipment

All the equipment appearing in books of games using CdB Engine could be a useful resource to increase and diversify fRáGiL. An example of this can be weapons, because in CdB Engine are very detailed and in STEN a bit simplified, as can be seen in the following comparative table:

Comparison of generic weapons and its counterpart in CdB Engine
fRáGiL | STEN 2.0
Name	Impact	Range	Damage	Weight	Damage type	Special
Katana	4	2	5	1.5	Cutting
Pistol	0	6	10	1	Piercing	Magazine (6) Jamming Penetration
Light machinegun	0	7	14	3	Piercing	Magazine (100) Jamming Automatic fire Penetration
Walküre | Sturm und Drang | Cdb Engine
Weapon	Damage	Minimal stamina	Range	RoF	Magazine	Encumbrance
Katana	3	2	-	-	-	1,3
M1911 .45 ACP	3	-	1/150/450	3S,DT	7	1
Machinegun 7,62 x 51 mm	5	-	5/550/1100	15A,3R	100	3,6/1,4

A way to get CdB Engine weapon stats to STEN to be used in fRáGiL could be the following one:

• Cutting weapons: Damage (STEN) = Damage (CdB Engine) + 1
• Firearms: Damage (STEN) = (Damage (CdB Engine) +2) x 2
• Range: Use the abstract range proposed by STEN
• Rate of fire: To simplify the CdB Engine mechanics you may consider the automatic fire option in weapons that need it and forget the other options
• Weight: CdB Engine encumbrance is similar to equipment weight in STEN, so it should be easy to pool numbers appearing in both rulesets (or search for information if it's a real world weapon)

Next installment

Rust texture by
NaamaYMStock on DeviantArt

In the next installment of this series I will show you some guidelines to use fRáGiL with the game Saints & Sinners, dedicated to represent 20th century conflicts.

This entry it's also available in the following languages:
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