Realism
From D20advanced
Just how far from real-world physics and ability is your game? Do explosions send characters flying through the air to land miles away? Does magic allow its wielder to reshape mountains, or just move molehills? Can an ordinary human being take a direct hit from a Sherman tank and keep coming, or does a tank shell promise a swift and messy end?
These are questions of realism, which address just how extreme an effect characters can have on the world around them and on one another. Note, however, that it doesn't address whether strange things can happen (as magic and other FX are independent of this notion of realism), but how fantastic those FX can be.
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FX in Your Game
FX represent supernatural abilities of one flavor or another. They could represent magic, mutant powers, psionic potential, divine power, or the products of super-science. The fundamental point is that they allow characters to do things which ordinary people simply cannot.
How FX fit into your game is, in some way, a statement on the realism of your game. Can any character have fantastic powers in your game, or are FX more limited to only a few members of the group based on their choice of role in the world? Or are PCs all but banned from using the FX which enemies and monsters might use against them, relying entirely on equipment to provide abilities they wouldn't normally have? In answering this question, you'll be addressing just how much influence the supernatural or the fantastic has on your game, and how much of it is in the hands of the PCs.
High-FX
In High-FX games, supernatural abilities are common enough that every PC is assumed to be able to use them (and indeed, the ones who can't are the ones who stand out). Most of their important enemies will have wide access to potent FX as well, and many of these characters will be quite dependent on these FX to contribute (and often just survive!) in combat.
High-FX games can be explained in numerous ways. One of the most common is for superheroes-style gaming, where the heroes and villains of note all have access to superpowers of some form or another. But this is also possible in fantasy games where magic is something that anyone can learn, and every adventurer knows at least some magic to help them in their chosen role. This also works for games where supernatural abilities themselves aren't widespread or well-known in the world (such as urban fantasy or modern supernatural, where creatures like vampires or werewolves might lurk in the shadows of our cities, or in "black-ops" games featuring government-engineered psychics doing battle with other government-engineered psychics). Descriptors for FX are likely to be very varied, but can be limited as well, if the GM decides that it would be more appropriate for the game.
Moderate-FX
Moderate-FX games are ones in which supernatural FX might exist, but their role will be largely secondary to the characters' mundane gear and FX. Some characters will indeed still focus on supernatural FX, but these characters will be fewer and far between. In a group of PCs, maybe half of the characters would have access to varying degrees of supernatural FX. The others might be able to use FX, but only through special gear, like super high-tech guns or magical swords.
In moderate-FX games, FX are usually limited to a single main type of "source" for the descriptors (such as "magic", "psioncs", "cybernetics", etc.). FX are still likely to be in the hands of enemies (especially supernatural ones), and they are likely to be more powerful than the FX which the PCs have access to. FX are not common at all, and they certainly aren't something which would be prevalent in society. Those who have access to supernatural FX are more likely to distance themselves from the public, whether for safety (of the public or themselves or possibly both) or for privacy away from curious onlookers or just out of needs which normal society simply can no longer fulfill.
Restricted-FX
In a game with a Restricted-FX world, supernatural FX are relegated entirely to a secondary importance for the PCs by the rules themselves. Under this option, the power level limits for FX are cut in half, so FX are almost always going to be a less-potent option for the PCs than using their on whits and physical prowess and good old fashioned steel.
The intent of such a restricted-FX game is to make FX available as a secondary ability, a sort of back-up, but not necessarily an especially attractive one, especially during battle. For utility purposes, FX can be extremely useful (usually less-showy ones, like ESP or Concealment), but they're likely only relegated to that. FX become a useful extra that very special characters like the PCs might have limited access to, but they still aren't a good substitute for mundane abilities. FX become a tool, not a crutch.
Gear-FX Only
When FX simply are not available to the PCs, and the closest they can get to FX is what comes in the form of gear. This option is common for realistic games, such as those in the war or action movie genres, where characters may be larger than life, but they aren't outside of the realm of human possibility. A Gear-FX Only game is meant to still allow characters to make use of equipment without necessarily giving them strange powers too.
In such a game, this doesn't mean that the NPCs are similarly barred from having FX. This is especially true in many types of swords & sorcery games, where the PCs might be simple thieves or warriors who must do battle against wielders of dark forces beyond and mere human comprehension. It's also quite true for occult Lovecraftian-horror games, where the PCs often take the role of investigators who are learning about terrible monsters of pure insanity and That Which Man Was Not Meant to Know. It leads to a feeling of desperation when the PCs are faced with someone doing the impossible and they are just ordinary people (who might have some extraordinary talent, of course), which is something games of these genres attempt to recreate.
Excising Specific FX
And of course, the GM always has the option of simply saying that certain FX just aren't accessible for a given world. For example, in a fantasy world where trafficking in and dealing with summoned creatures is the most common means for magic, the GM might decide that these summons are also what mages use for spying (replacing the ESP FX) and for attempts at deception (allowing him to remove the Illusion FX too). You can remove FX for balance reasons as well as world-specific reasons. Just be sure to let your players know.
Realism Level
Realism can be assigned to three rough levels: mundane, cinematic, and epic, with each level moving further and further from "real" towards the fantastic. Each entry includes a way to handle some of the more reality-bending abilities abilities available to characters to help make the game just as realistic as the group wants.
Power Level Suggestions
What power level range the a game at this realism level will best function in.
Might, Recovery & Toughness
How to handle skills which enable the characters to move mountains or survive blasts from tanks.
Time & Value Progression
How potent certain FX will be in the game.
Hero Dice
Just how much control over the narrative the PCs should enjoy.
Mundane
At a mundane level of realism, there isn't much to separate the PCs from the ordinary people you might know. They might be a little more capable and skilled than you or I (especially in areas of combat, if that's where their expertise lies), and they might have more amazing stories to tell than the rest of us (thanks to being the protagonists in a story). Certainly mundane PCs are capable enough to have some adventures, but they aren't action heroes. Mundane PCs are mostly ordinary joes who get into extraordinary situations (whether by choice or circumstance).
Mundane Power Level Suggestions
Mundane games tend to take place around the lower tiers of power level, usually ranging from about PL 3 to PL 8. Below PL 3, you tend to get characters who simply don't have the points they need to distinguish themselves well without sacrificing capabilities in areas which could be critical to the game (such as combat skills if the game is going to feature fighting in any significant amount). Above PL 8, you start moving away from the street-level and towards the truly superhuman levels. PL 8 is appropriate for highly-skilled (but still realistically-talented) mundane professionals (such as decorated veteran special-ops soldiers or world-famous martial artists). If you plan to increase PL as the game goes on, you should consider starting the game around PL 4 or 5, as that allows a fair amount of room for growth.
Mundane Might, Recovery & Toughness
Since mundane games involve PCs who are definitely not superhuman, might, recovery and toughness can become problematic skills. After all, it will start to raise eyebrows when the heroes are regularly taking hits from sawed-off shotguns and then jumping right back up into the fray. To that end, it's suggested that these two skills in particular be limited in mundane games. Might should probably be restricted to a number of ranks equal to a character's strength score, and really should only be taken by characters who really are supposed to be big, strong bruisers. Similarly, Toughness should be limited to a character's ranks in Constitution (though unlike Might, shouldn't be as intensely-monitored for appropriate levels). Emphasize that most characters will probably be getting their Toughness resistance from armor, not from their skill itself (which will serve to help them conserve character points for their other abilities while simultaneously making the game more genre-appropriate). Recovery should really only be available through Enhanced (Trait).
Mundane Time & Value Progression
| TABLE 11.3: MUNDAE TIME AND VALUE PROGRESSION | ||
| Rank | Mundane Time | Mundane Value |
| 1 | 3 seconds (1 action) | 1 |
| 2 | 6 seconds (1 round) | 2 |
| 3 | 30 seconds (5 rounds) | 3 |
| 4 | 1 minute (10 rounds) | 5 |
| 5 | 5 minutes | 10 |
| 6 | 10 minutes | 15 |
| 7 | 30 minutes | 20 |
| 8 | 1 hour | 30 |
| 9 | 6 hours | 40 |
| 10 | 12 hours | 60 |
| 11 | 1 day | 100 |
| 12 | 3 days | 150 |
| 13 | 1 week | 200 |
| 14 | 1 month | 300 |
| 15 | 3 months | 500 |
| 16 | 6 months | 750 |
| 17 | 1 year | 1,000 |
| 18 | 2 years | 1,500 |
| 19 | 5 years | 2,500 |
| 20 | 10 years (decade) | 3,500 |
Mundane Hero Dice
Hero Dice in mundane things present a curious option. On one hand, large numbers of hero dice allow for gameplay where the ordinary protagonists can bungle through an adventure and survive entirely thanks to blind, dumb luck. On the other hand, you can run into the problem conceptually of seemingly unskilled PCs at lower power levels who begin to dominate in combat or in difficult situations thanks entirely to their large hero dice pools, which make their low skill ranks almost irrelevant. You have two main options when it comes to hero dice with mundane games:
Blind, Dumb Luck
Appropriate for more light-hearted games, hero dice represent especially lucky heroes, not especially crafty or capable ones. The PCs enjoy a little extra luck, enabling them to survive even when facing more capable foes or dangerous situations. Make sure to describe uses of hero dice along the lines of "slipping at the last second under the sword-stroke" or "the clumsy shot ricocheting off a rock and into the villain's chest". These aren't skilled characters, so more often than not, a good result is thanks to being extremely lucky.
No Remorse
On the other end of the scale, where the characters are supposed to feel helpless and vulnerable, hero dice represent a control over the narrative that might not be appropriate for the players to have. An unlucky roll could mean death for a PC, but in grim, mundane games, death isn't an uncommon thing. If you do choose to allow hero dice in such a game, keep hero dice in short enough supply that the players aren't going to use them on something trivial. When they do spend hero dice, be sure to emphasize that they succeed by only a hair's breadth, sweaty and terrified and always right on the edge of oblivion. If the PCs think that hero dice are the only thing allowing them to cling to life, they'll be very judicious in their use of the resource.
Cinematic
Moving up a notch, cinematic realism tries to keep one foot planted in recognizable reality, but has no problem stretching the definition of "real" to make it more "cool". Sure, real people might not be able to fight their way through a building full of terrorists with nothing but a pistol and a hunting knife, but cinematic action heroes do it all the time. And they do it in such a way that only bends expectations about "reality" in minor enough ways that we still believe that all of this is possible. Explosions are bigger, the fights are wilder, and the action is more intense. The goal behind this level of realism is to encourage the PCs to do cool things, to be larger than life but not so much so that they no longer seem to be a part of the world.
Cinematic Power Level Suggestions
Most cinematic games have a power level range from about 5 to 14. Within this range, you start to move towards the superhuman levels of play at the middle of the scale, with the bottom of the scale tending towards "pretty good ordinary human" and the top of the scale tending towards "one of the most powerful creatures on Earth". This is a good scale as well for high-action games, especially traditional fantasy games where the heroes rise from "average" nobodies to renown champions over the course of the game. It's also an idea range for superhero games, with less powerful supers fitting in around PL 7-8 and really powerful ones topping out around PL 14.
Cinematic Might, Recovery & Toughness
Once you start getting into cinematic realism, how to handle these skills becomes troublesome. On one hand, when you start getting decidedly superhuman areas, using Might to represent super-strength and toughness to represent superhuman durability is practically a no-brainer. Further, recovery is useful for representing super-regeneration. To that end, it is recommended that you stick to the guidelines given under mundane realism, where purely human characters have their toughness and might capped at their Constitution and Strength scores, respectively. Allow superhuman characters to purchase additional ranks, perhaps only through the Enhanced (Trait) FX. In this way, you can ensure that ordinary people have limits to just how much punishment they can take while simultaneously encouraging high-power level "regular" PCs to improve their defense higher than their toughness to capture the cinematic trope of heroes being really mobile and good at dodging attacks.
Alternatively, you might simply allow everyone to improve their toughness skill normally, to keep with the notion of how health scales with level in other sorts of games (especially if your players are more comfortable with this notion, having experience with those other games already).
Cinematic Time & Value Progression
| TABLE 11.4: CINEMATIC TIME AND VALUE PROGRESSION | ||
| Rank | Cinematic Time | Cinematic Value |
| 1 | 3 seconds (1 action) | 1 |
| 2 | 6 seconds (1 round) | 2 |
| 3 | 1 minute (10 rounds) | 5 |
| 4 | 5 minutes | 10 |
| 5 | 30 minutes | 25 |
| 6 | 1 hour | 50 |
| 7 | 6 hours | 100 |
| 8 | 1 day | 250 |
| 9 | 1 week | 500 |
| 10 | 1 month | 1,000 |
| 11 | 3 months | 2,500 |
| 12 | 1 year | 5,000 |
| 13 | 5 years | 10,000 |
| 14 | 10 years (decade) | 25,000 |
| 15 | 50 years | 50,000 |
| 16 | 100 years (century) | 100,000 |
| 17 | 500 years | 250,000 |
| 18 | 1,000 years (millennium) | 500,000 |
| 19 | 5,000 years | 1 million |
| 20 | 10,000 years | 2.5 million |
Cinematic Hero Dice
The standard rules and guidelines given for Hero Dice underscore how cinematic characters work and interact with their world quite nicely. The players will tend to earn more hero dice as the adventure goes on, and by the end of the adventure, they'll probably have the dice on hand that they need to really turn the tables on a tough enemy, even when they seem outmatched. In this way, hero dice can build normally and help bring the adventure to an exciting climax.
Epic
Once you reach the level of epic realism, you've decided that there's nothing wrong with tossing reality out of the window and letting the dog bury it in the yard if it means that things will be cooler. One man swinging his sword and sending a dozen lesser men flying with each stroke? Epic. A metahuman champion lifting up a planet and hurling it at another one? Epic. A space pilot with lasers blasting full-bore flies straight through the heart of a battle cruiser, blasting his way through bulkheads with absolutely zero room for error? Epic. Supernatural FX are going to be huge and earth-shattering, able to reach billions of years and miles through time and space.
Epic Power Level Suggestions
When you're talking about epic gameplay, you're really looking at the top half of the power scale. PCs are likely to scale from about PL 10 to PL 18 or so. They're the best of the best, and they're only going to fight the best of the best. They're going to be able to do almost anything, so they're going to be very high power level with lots of Character Points to spend on abilities. These heroes are on the levels of mythic heroes like Gilgamesh, Hercules, and Achilles: only someone on their level is going to even come close to being a match for them. Lesser enemies might as well be fleas.
Epic Might, Recovery & Toughness
Once you reach epic levels of realism, the line between human and superhuman is so blurred that there is no real need for a difference between human and superhuman. Can your epic PCs survive being slashed with a dozen sword strokes or a hail of gunfire from a machine gun and keep on coming? Perfect! That's what you should expect from epic PCs. They're going to be able to wrestle lions to the ground and be crushed under trucks without missing a beat. At epic realism levels, you can just go ahead and let the players put points directly into their toughness, recovery and might skills.
Epic Time & Value Progression
| TABLE 11.5: EPIC TIME AND VALUE PROGRESSION | ||
| Rank | Epic Time | Epic Value |
| 1 | 3 seconds (1 action) | 1 |
| 2 | 6 seconds (1 round) | 5 |
| 3 | 1 minute (10 rounds) | 10 |
| 4 | 10 minutes | 50 |
| 5 | 1 hour | 100 |
| 6 | 6 hours | 500 |
| 7 | 12 hours | 1,000 |
| 8 | 1 week | 5,000 |
| 9 | 1 month | 10,000 |
| 10 | 1 year | 50,000 |
| 11 | 10 years | 100,000 |
| 12 | 50 years | 500,000 |
| 13 | 500 years | 1 million |
| 14 | 1,000 years (millennium) | 5 million |
| 15 | 10,000 years | 10 million |
| 16 | 50,000 years | 50 million |
| 17 | 100,000 years | 100 million |
| 18 | 1 million years | 500 million |
| 19 | 1 billion years | 1 billion |
| 20 | 5 billion years (age of the earth) | 5 billion |
Epic Hero Dice
At epic levels of realism, Hero Dice are going to be plentiful. Epic PCs can do nearly anything, with tremendous control over the world around them. As such, the players will likely want (and will be using) lots of hero dice, especially in huge battles against their equally-epic foes. Of course, their complications are going to be just as epic as they are, often involving whole countries or planets at a time. The scale at epic level is absolutely cosmic, so be sure to keep it that way when you're running things if you want to keep the game suitably epic.
