Stained GlassLow Fantasy Roleplaying

for The Window

What It IsStained Glass is a short supplement for Scott

Lininger’s The Window written with Low Fantasy roleplayin mind. In order to use Stained Glass you will also needa copy of The Window, which is made available for freeat: www.mimgames.com

Creating CharactersThe Window uses a freeform character creation

system by default, but this approach can often confuseand bewilder those players who are familiar with moretraditional methods of creating characters. An optionalpoint-buy system for creating Low Fantasy characters ispresented here.

The Five Basic Traits

Using this system, players begin with 15 pointsthat they may use to purchase competency ratings fortheir character’s five basic traits. Each point spent in thismanner increases the character’s competency rating inthe basic trait by one die type. For example: Spendingone point will grant a character a competency rating ofd30, spending two points will grant a character acompetency rating of d20, and so on.

The maximum number of points that a playercan use to purchase any given basic trait rating is five.This means that the highest competency rating a givencharacter may possess in any given basic trait, at anygiven time, is d8 (High Competency).

Skill Selection

Players using this system begin with 30 points topurchase competency ratings for their character’s skills(as outlined on the Skill List). As was the case with pointsspent on the five basic traits, a point spent to purchasea competency rating in a skill increases the competencyrating of that skill by one die type.

The maximum number of points that can bespent on any given skill rating using this system is six.This means that the highest competency rating that acharacter may possess in any given basic trait at anygiven time is d6 (Very High Competency).

Freebie Points

Finally, the Storyteller can award players up tothree ‘freebie points’ to flesh out characters. Players mayallocate these points amongst the five basic traits andskills of their characters as they see fit.

Skill ListThe following is a list of skills that represent the

specific areas of knowledge likely to be studied and thetrades likely to be practiced by characters in a typicalLow Fantasy setting. This is, by no means, an exhaustivelist of skills, though it should suffice for most games. Ifyou feel that your own game would benefit from moreskills (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

Those skills marked with an asterisk must befurther defined by the player who chooses to purchasethem. For example, if the skill “Language (Spoken)” ispurchased, a given language must be specified by theplayer. Likewise, if the skill “History” is taken, a specifictype of history (e.g., world history, regional history, localhistory, etc) must be specified by the player.

Disenchant (Level 1)This spell removes magical enchantments.

Disenchant cannot counter a spell process beingcast, only existing magical enchantments/effects.Only temporary enchantments can be dispelled.

The success roll is modified by X times thelevel of the target spell. This is in addition to theregular TN penalty of Y for a low level spell. Bonuseffects can be earned at higher levels of mastery.

Damage RulesAdjudicating damage in The Window is pretty

handwave-y by default. This does not suit some peopleand, in particular, can be said not to suit the oftentimes“gritty” nature of Low Fantasy settings. This being thecase, the following optional damage rules are presentedfor your edification.

Revised Health Rolls

Using these rules, damage is still a result of afailed Health roll against a target number, but thedegree by which that roll fails matters more and, in turn,impacts the amount of damage that an injured charactersustains. Here’s how it works, in a nutshell:

Roll Missed By Dice Removed

1-5 1

6-10 2

11-15 3

16-20 4

21+ 5

As is the case in the standard Window rules, ifa character’s Health competency rating is reduced toless than d30 in this manner, they are shuffled off of themortal coil (i.e., they die).

Handling MagicMagic and unreality is, as a general rule, much

less pervasive in Low Fantasy settings than it is in HighFantasy settings. This being the case, rules are presentedhere to limit the scope of magic in games that are runusing the Stained Glass rule set. What is not providedhere is an entire magic system. Why?

There are, quite literally, thousands of differentRPG magic systems in existence. Indeed, it is probablynot much of an exaggeration to say that there are asmany RPG magic systems in existence as there are RPGsin existence (or, at least, fantasy RPGs).

Rather than add another system to the pile, therules presented herein will allow you to quickly adaptspells from other published RPG magic systems to TheWindow with a bare minimum of work.

Spells As Skills

Spells are treated as additional skills in StainedGlass, their competency ratings being purchased withthe same pool of 30 points that a player uses to buytheir character’s competency ratings in other skills. Thishas the effect of both limiting the number of spells thata character can learn and making the study of spellscome at the cost of being less proficient in other skills,thus ensuring that magic is not widespread.

Spells From Other Sources

There is no 1:1 formula for converting spellsfrom other sources to these rules. Spells conversions willbe approximate, not precise. This is simply the nature ofa generic system like The Window. The key to successfulconversions is to focus on spell effects, rather than onany mechanics of spell casting. For example, let’s say wehave a spell that looks like this:

Lesser Heal (Rank 2)Lesser Heal allows you to use magical energy

to cure injuries and afflictions. It immediately relievesconfused, diseased, fatigued, or insane charactersand immediately restores ten health points to the spelltarget (up to their maximum health points).

In the process of converting this spell, you cansafely ignore the second paragraph in its entirely. Thishas absolutely no bearing on how the spell will functionin Stained Glass. The first paragraph, on the other hand,can be taken in its entirety and be used as-is to describethe effects of the spell in Stained Glass.

Converting spells in this manner does requirethat the Storyteller exercise a certain degree of commonsense and it will take some practice before you get thehang of it (although not much, as the process is prettysimple when you get down to brass tacks).

Some spells that incorporate mechanics directlyinto their effects will require slightly more effort on thepart of the Storyteller to convert to these rules, but thesame basic principles apply. For example, let’s take alook at a basic ‘healing spell’ as one might expect tofind in a number of popular fantasy RPGs:

Converting the effects of this spell that removes or curesafflictions is pretty straightforward and should notpresent any obstacle – but how about that allusion tohealth points? The Window doesn’t use health points oranything like them! Well, the short answer is to use yourbest judgement – but be consistent.

In this particular case, I would rule that tenhealth points is equal to a single level of competency(i.e., one die type). So, if a character successfully castsLesser Heal on another, injured, character in a game ofStained Glass, they would restore one die of Health tothe target of the spell – up to that target’s maximumHealth competency rating.

Finally, damage-causing spells tend to do Xamount of damage in other fantasy games, where X isequal to a static or dynamic value (typically determinedby the roll of a die or use of some other randomizer).Damage doesn’t work that way in The Window or, as aresult, in Stained Glass (for the specifics on how damagedoes work in Stained Glass, see the section of thisdocument entitled Damage Rules).

When converting damage-causing spells for usewith Stained Glass, although the aforementioned valuesof X have no meaning in the context of these rules, theycan be used to determine a target number for a Healthroll after a character is hit by such a spell.

A good place to start is that, for every incrementof ten points of damage (or portion thereof) that a spellmay inflict in another game system, it lowers the targetnumber for a Health roll by one (starting from a base ofsix). For example, if a damage-causing spell in anothersystem can cause up to 4d8 (maximum 32) points ofdamage, it will lower the target number for a Health rollin Stained Glass from six to two (6-4=2).

As you can see, converting spells from anothersystem to Stained Glass is not an exact science - but italso doesn’t have to be a real chore. These guidelinesshould make converting spells from other RPG sourcesa relatively painless endeavor (though some work is stillrequired on your part).

Legalese and CreditsThis document contains original drawn artwork

by Maciej Zagorski, provided by The Forge Studios andused with permission, as well as original drawn artworkby Kiss Marton Gyula, also used with permission.

The Window is Copyright © Scott Lininger andis used here without express written permission. StainedGlass is not intended to challenge such ownership andwill be withdrawn from circulation upon request.

James D. Hargrove is solely responsible for thewriting, design, and editing of Stained Glass.