Crossing Borders, Part 1

I’ve been contemplating starting a new blog or newsletter for a while now, and recently I got the impetus I needed when Diana “of the Rose” Fay, a popular TikToker who once said something nice about my book The Monsters Know What They’re Doing, posted the following on Bluesky: “We should consider getting more comfortable importing and exporting characters between different TTRPG systems.”

I’m willing to bet that a lot of us do exactly that already with the computer games we play. Nearly every time I play a CRPG, given the opportunity to do so, sooner or later I end up creating some version of myself in the game. I did it in the Mass Effect trilogy, in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Inquisition, in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, in Fallout 3, in Baldur’s Gate 3, in Starfield, even in XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Crusader Kings III. I also have my Dungeons & Dragons characters who show up in various places, such as Garregwen, an elf fighter, whom I’ve played not just as a non-player character in my longest-running D&D game but also in Pillars of Eternity, DAI and BG3.

But if I understand her correctly, Diana was talking about porting PCs not just from tabletop to digital but from one tabletop system to another: taking a character created in, say, D&D and respeccing them for Pathfinder, 13th Age or Dungeon World.

It’s a lot of fun to do. It’s also hard.

RPGs are systems of rules, and when we say we’re “creating characters,” what we’re doing is working within those rules to express a certain idea of a certain person: their personality, their experiences, what they’re good at and what they’re not good at. We’re modeling those characters to whatever extent a given system allows. Going through this exercise tells us a lot about what a system assumes, what it’s designed to handle … and what you’ll never be able to make it do, no matter how you try to force it.

Interestingly, sometimes it’s harder to translate a character from one edition of a game to another than it is to translate that same character to an entirely different game. In our Curse of Strahd campaign, for instance, my wife played an Undying warlock who turned out to be one of the most fascinating and well-developed characters I’ve ever seen. As an exercise, I recently tried re-creating that character in the Cypher System, with a pretty decent degree of success. (In a future post, I’ll describe how I did so.) Yet this character, created under D&D 5E’s 2014 rules, can’t be created under the 2024 rules without turning her into someone else entirely. In its revised rules, the D&D design team has decided to tell a different story about what warlocks do and where they get their power from—and under these rules, my wife’s warlock, and the path she took from level 1, no longer make any sense.

Translating PCs between systems can be hard even when a system is designed to accommodate it. After CoS, I ran the party (dubbed “the Spoop Troop”) through Monte Cook Games’ The Darkest House. That adventure contains guidelines for converting PCs from other game systems to its own House System, and following them was a piece of cake. At least, that’s how it seemed at first. When we got into combat situations, however, questions arose that we couldn’t easily answer.

The party comprised my wife’s warlock, two bards, a ranger and a monk. The bards got one attack each on their turn. The monk got three or four. The ranger got two. The warlock got one, but it consisted of three individually targetable bolts. How many attacks was each one of them supposed to get in the House System, in which damage per attack is largely constant between PCs and based on level? If we gave each PC one attack in the House System per D&D attack roll, the monk and warlock would end up dealing loads of damage, while the bards would hit like wet noodles. If we gave them one per target, the warlock's damage output would be anemic when she attacked just one opponent but explode when she attacked three. If we gave them one per character, it would kill the fun for the monk, whose action-hero vibe came from the number of attacks she made each turn. Bringing the vibes, story and goals of a PC from one system into another is easy. Faithfully translating the core gameplay of that PC is another matter altogether—one that can undermine everything else about the character if you don’t handle the translation with care.

As it happens, I’ve been engaging in exactly this sort of exercise for the better part of this year. I’ve been working on a new book on monster design, and rather than confine myself to D&D 5E, I’m going system-ecumenical, showing how the same ideas can be implemented in Pathfinder, Shadowdark, the Cypher System and Call of Cthulhu as well. And what the exercise has taught me is that sometimes a good idea translates seamlessly across systems, and other times a system can’t express an idea no matter how you try to shoehorn it in—even if it’s totally genre-compatible.

I intend to explore a variety of TTRPG-adjacent topics in this newsletter, but I’m going to start by doing exactly what Diana recommended: exporting some D&D characters into other systems and seeing what happens.

First up is my elf fighter, Garregwen. Garregwen is a character I originally created for someone else to play, but when she decided to create her own character instead, I decided I liked Garregwen too much to just ditch her. She became an NPC, then a substitute PC when one of our group’s regular PCs was out of the picture for a while, and eventually a PC of mine in a few CRPGs. I considered playing her in Adventurers’ League, but then COVID-19 hit, and, well, you know.

Garregwen is a wood elf ex-soldier and current Harper agent. In my campaigns, wood elves are more than slightly feral. Trespass on high elf territory, and they’ll capture you, blindfold you, escort you to the border and tell you never to come back, but trespass on wood elf territory, and they’ll kill you. Maybe eat you. Maybe not. That might be just a rumor.

I designed her as a toe-to-toe fighter rather than an archer. Inspired by the “Union Guard,” the elf pike units of Age of Wonders III, I armed her with a glaive, which became her signature weapon. She showed up as a level 3 character, on par with the rest of the party at the time, but she didn’t really come into her own until level 4, when she picked up the Polearm Master feat. I made her a Battle Master, because that subclass is the only thing that ever made me want to play a fighter. I chose her Maneuvers—Distracting Strike and Trip Attack, along with Commander’s Strike—based on actual glaive fighting techniques.

Personality-wise, she’s fearless, feisty and foul-mouthed (I couldn’t resist subverting the prim elf trope; she was a former soldier, after all), with a low opinion of blind obedience. After the last of many disagreements with an asinine lieutenant, she “went out on patrol” and hasn’t gotten around to reporting back yet. D&D 5E14 reflects these aspects of her character in Personality, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws.

Here’s how she looks in D&D (2014 rules):

Garregwen

Wood elf Battle Master fighter (level 4), soldier background, chaotic good

Armor Class 17 (chain mail)
Hit Points 36
Speed 35 ft.

Str 14 (+2) Dex 14 (+2) Con 14 (+2) Int 12 (+1) Wis 12 (+1) Cha 10 (+0)

Saving Throws Str +4, Con +4
Skills Athletics +4, Intimidation +2, Perception +3, Stealth +4, Survival +3
Tools dice set, leatherworker’s tools, vehicles (land)
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Common, Elvish

Action Surge (1/Short or Long Rest). Garregwen can take one additional action on her turn.

Combat Superiority (4/Short or Long Rest). Garregwen can use a Maneuver fueled by a d8 superiority die.

Fey Ancestry (Wood Elf). Garregwen has advantage on saves against being charmed, and magic can’t put her to sleep.

Fighting Style (Defense). While wearing armor, Garregwen gains +1 to AC.

Maneuvers. Garregwen can spend a superiority die to use one of the following maneuvers:

• Commander’s Strike. When Garregwen takes the Attack action on her turn, she can forgo one of her attacks and use a bonus action to direct an ally that can see or hear her to strike using their reaction, adding the superiority die to the damage roll.
• Distracting Strike. When Garregwen hits with a weapon attack, she can expend one superiority die to add the total to the damage roll, and the next attack roll against the target by an attacker other than her has advantage if the attack is made before the start of her next turn.
• Trip Attack. When Garregwen hits with a weapon attack, she can expend one superiority die to add the total to the damage roll, and if the target is Large or smaller, it must make a DC 12 Strength saving throw. On a failure, the target is knocked prone.

Mask of the Wild (Wood Elf). Garregwen can attempt to hide even when only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist or other natural phenomena.

Trance (Wood Elf). Garregwen doesn’t need to sleep, but must meditate semiconsciously for 4 hours a day. After resting in this way, she gains the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.

Actions

Glaive. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 10 ft., 1d10 + 2 slashing damage.

Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., 1d6 + 2 slashing damage.

Handaxe. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., 1d6 + 2 slashing damage.

Bonus Actions

Polearm Strike (Polearm Master). When Garregwen takes the Attack action and attacks with only a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff or spear, she can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. The weapon’s damage die for this attack is a d4, and it deals bludgeoning damage.

Second Wind (1/Short or Long Rest). Garregwen can regain 1d10 + 4 hp.

Reactions

Reactive Strike (Polearm Master). While Garregwen is wielding a glaive, halberd, pike, quarterstaff or spear, other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from her when they enter that weapon’s reach.

Characteristics

Personality Traits. I can stare down a hell hound without flinching. I face problems head-on; a simple, direct solution is the best path to success.

Ideals. Independence. When people follow orders blindly, they embrace a kind of tyranny.

Bonds. Those who fight beside me are those worth dying for.

Flaws. I have little respect for anyone who is not a proven warrior.

D&D is so much the substrate of our lives as roleplaying gamers that I think we may be prone to overlook what an incredibly detailed portrait these game stats paint of this character. We see where she comes from, what she cares about, how she dresses (even more clearly if I’d included an equipment list), what her strengths are (and aren’t), what activities she’s good at, how she passes her time, how she performs under pressure and, yes, how she fights. Most RPGs allow us to discover and develop our PCs over the course of gameplay, but D&D (in 5E14, at least) allows us to do so over the course of character creation, giving us someone we can care about and live through right off the bat. We should never sell that gift short.

It so happens that I’ve already created Garregwen for the Cypher System, so I’ll share that version next.

One thing about using Cypher to play the fantasy genre is that it allows players to use their species as an alternative, or even second, descriptor. However, one of the characteristics given under the Elf descriptor in the Cypher System Rulebook is Fragile: “When you fail a Might defense roll to avoid damage, you take 1 extra point of damage.” Garregwen is many things, but she’s not fragile. I could potentially swap that characteristic away in exchange for also giving up another characteristic, being practiced with a bow, since she doesn’t use one, but would that be an equal trade?

Doing so would leave her with Agile (+2 to Speed Pool), Long-Lived (a ribbon feature), specialization in perception and training in stealth tasks (specialization in areas of natural woodland). “Customizing Descriptors” in CSR chapter 7 states, “Some descriptors … offer +2 to one stat Pool and either three narrow skills or one narrow skill and one broad skill. … You can add an additional skill if it is balanced by an inability.” Well, I took away an inability and a skill, but that skill wasn’t trained, it was only practiced. On the other hand, “Customizing Descriptors” also says, “If the descriptor seems lacking, add a moderately priced item as additional equipment to balance things out.” The Elf descriptor does also include a bow and a quiver of arrows; there’s a moderately priced item, which implies that without it, the descriptor is subpar. So maybe getting rid of everything bow-related is enough to balance out losing Fragile after all.

Still, Elf may not be the most ideal descriptor for Garregwen. In D&D, after Polearm Master, the next feat I gave her was Alert. Cypher has the descriptor Sharp-Eyed, which also suits her well. It doesn’t provide as much of a boost to perception as Elf does, nor does it add to her Speed Pool, but it does give her training in initiative actions and the Find the Flaw characteristic. Comparing the two descriptors directly, we can infer that Find the Flaw is calculated to be worth as much as an additional level of training in perception plus 2 points of Speed Pool. If that calculation’s accurate, that’s a wicked good ability to have.

“Species as Descriptor” (CSR, chapter 7) maintains, “The differences between a Mysterious character and a Virtuous one are probably greater than those between an Alpha Centauran and an Earthling.” So if I had to choose one descriptor or the other, I think I’d probably choose Sharp-Eyed over Elf. But let’s imagine here that I’m playing in a campaign using the “Two Descriptors” variant rule from Godsforsaken, Cypher’s white book for fantasy, allowing me to choose both.

There’s one other wrinkle that needs to be ironed out before I finish importing Garregwen into Cypher: the nature of her glaive, which is central to her concept. Is it a heavy weapon or a medium weapon? The CSR (chapter 10) suggests heavy: Medium weapons can be wielded one-handed, while heavy weapons require two. In fact, the halberd, another polearm, is given as a specific example of a heavy weapon. But Godsforsaken (chapter 4) lists “polearm,” the entire category, as a medium weapon. Is there really no difference between a glaive and a scimitar? I’ve come up with a homebrew compromise that I think is fairly elegant, if I do say so myself: A glaive is a medium weapon, but one that provides an asset to melee defense by virtue of its length.

The rest is easy: She’s a Warrior, and she Masters Weaponry. And I’m going to shamelessly exploit a loophole in the rules: The Warrior ability Practiced in Armor allows a character to start the game with a type of armor of their choice. One of the types of armor available under “Additional Fantasy Equipment” (CSR, chapter 13)? Elven chainmail (medium armor, encumbers as no armor). Hey, she’s an elf, and an elf soldier at that. It’s standard issue.

Garregwen

Sharp-Eyed Elf Warrior who Masters Weaponry

Tier 2
Effort 2
Might 14 (1 Edge) Speed 14 (2 Edge) Intellect 12

Skills

Light weapons
Medium weapons (trained w/medium bladed weapons)
Heavy weapons
Initiative (specialized)
Perception (specialized)
Stealth (trained; specialized in natural woodlands)
Speed defense (trained; specialized w/glaive)

Special Abilities

Combat Prowess (melee)
Find the Flaw
Improved Edge (Speed)
Long-Lived
Practiced in Armor
Skill With Attacks (medium bladed)
Skill With Defense (Speed)
Swipe (1 Speed point)
Weapon Master (glaive)
Weapon Crafter (polearm crafting/maintenance)
Weapon Defense

Attacks

Glaive (medium bladed melee, asset to melee defense, 6 damage)
Shortsword (medium bladed melee, 5 damage)
Hand axe (light bladed melee, 3 damage)
Punch (light, 2 damage)

These stats give me a playable character with interesting choices to make, but one who’s not quite as three-dimensional as her D&D incarnation. What I have instead is a clearly drawn two-dimensional character, summed up by her defining statement: She’s a sharp-eyed elf warrior who masters weaponry. Because Cypher descriptors are necessarily narrowly focused, defining her this way sacrifices a bit of her character. Her fearlessness, for instance, is nowhere to be seen. That’s something I’d have to decide on through roleplaying, and it would never have a mechanical effect the way the Sharp-Eyed descriptor does. Only one personality trait per character can do that.

Next: Importing Garregwen into Shadowdark and Pathfinder.