Strathos Setting Update: part tres

Playtested last weekend. Here is the skinny:

Ran the players through Tower of the Stargazer. A quick, 1st level adventure by Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
Got the players to try out the new Wizard, Fool, and Yon classes.
The Wizard died after losing a game of Blackjack with a ghost.
They took to the three-save system immediately.
Flesh and Grit took a little bit longer to understand, but I used Palladium’s HP/SDC system as guide – they are old Palladium players, so it made more sense to them with that example.
Didn’t get to try out the new firearms rules, as no one had a gun.
Didn’t get to use Shields Will Be Broken, although we’ve used that in the past, so no big deal.
I got good feedback on my rules document and character creation document. By “good,” I mean I now have more ideas on how to improve those documents. I play with people who ask a lot of questions and aren’t afraid to tell me what they don’t like. Which is great! It’s refreshing to receive constructive criticism instead of just hearing that everything is wonderful.
Didn’t get to playtest the Muscarn Mushroom Men, as I’m still working the kinks out of the class. There was a nice amount of interest in them though, so that makes me happy.
Looking back, I think the player who used the Fool class didn’t fully read the Level Up section, because I don’t think they rolled on the table at level 1. Which I should have noticed while playing, but didn’t think about until afterwards. I’m rewriting and reorganizing the Fool class to make it easier to read AND make it more in tune with the setting, and less like the source material I took it from.

Next up, I’m going to publish the Three-Save rules I came up with, and how to convert LotFP classes to it. I’m also going to publish the firearms rules I’m using. And yet another write up of the Yon class, Wizards, the Fool, Shaman, Barbarians, and maybe more setting specific stuff.

New Class: Shaman

Shaman are the spiritual leaders of the Picts of Strathos. They are a combination of warrior and magic user, in other realms called a Cleric.

In fact, there isn’t any fundamental difference between a Strathos shaman and a cleric from elsewhere other than faith.

Speaking of faith, all Shaman have a totem animal, which is the same totem animal as their tribe. By praying while holding or wearing the skin of that animal, the shaman can polymorph into that animal for a short period of time.

New spells:

1st Rank (I use the term Rank, rather than level, as I find it is less confusing)
Skin Change
For one 1 minute Turn per level of experience, the shaman can polymorph themself into their totem animal. The skin of the totem animal must be held or worn at the time of casting. The shaman retains their reasoning capability and may end the spell before the duration at will. Otherwise, the shaman loses all other powers while the spell is in effect, but gains the natural abilities of the totem animal.

3rd Rank
Group Skin Change
Same as Skin Change but affects a number of participants equal to the shaman’s experience level. The duration is a single ten minute Turn. Same effects and rules as the 1st Rank spell.

6th Rank
Superior Skin Change
Same as the first level spell, but duration is 1 hour per level of experience and the shaman can speak and cast other spells as normal while polymorphed.

Strathos Update Part Dos

So, what exactly is Strathos and who lives there and what do they do and what game system is this and why should you care?

I’ll answer those questions in no particular order.

Strathos is the name of a recently discovered continent on a world based on Lamentations of the Flame Princess type source material.

By “recently discovered,” I mean by the standards of Europeans “discovering” the Americas, as there are already people living on Strathos. More on those people later.

Using LotFP rules as a base, some aspects of those rules have been altered to better fit the setting, or are simply fun additions; Shields Will Be Splintered and the d30 rule, for example.

Back to the setting;

Nations/Kingdoms from the European-stand-in continent discover a new continent in the Southern Hemisphere and send colonists to settle there and send back any silver and gold they find. The colonists discover little in the way of material goods, but do discover the natives.

The colonies are founded by members of several nations, so they each have distinct cultures and languages of their own. Proximity to the other colonies and the natives, as well as being more or less cut-off from their homelands, has had some effect of cultural homogenization among the colonies.

Not wanting to send their best and brightest to this far off and dangerous land, the European nations send their undesirables; wizards, religious zealots and heretics, convicted criminals, and trouble makers. These people are given the promise of self-government with the caveat of sending a portion of their wealth back home, in exchange for limited supplies and support.

The colonists are technologically advanced, with access to large multi-masted ships, firearms, and advanced agricultural techniques. They also have horses and cattle, which are not native to Strathos.

Classes available to the colonists include; Fighter, Magic User, Inquisitor, Specialist, and Innocent (Alice).

The natives of Strathos include the human Picts, the ape-like Yon, the fungus-based Muscarians, the plant-like Moss Dwarfs, Goblins, and Hobgoblins.

Picts are humans who live in nomadic tribes in the wilderness. Each tribe has a totem animal they revere for its survival abilities. Physically, they are generally larger, more muscular, and more physically imposing than the colonists. They are low tech, practicing a more hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and use the gigantic prehistoric beasts native to Strathos as work animals.

Classes available to the Picts include; Warrior and Shaman.

The Yon are intelligent apes who dominate a particular region of Strathos. Their culture is almost hive-minded, with each village centered around a large Giant Bee hive, and all aspects of society working in some way to build and protect that hive. Yon found elsewhere are outcasts who were driven away.

Muscarians are mushroom people who emerged from the Mushroom Forest which borders Yon territory. Muscarians have special powers derived from spores they can release. They have no technology or society to speak of, but are considered friendly and helpful by every other native species, even the hive-minded Yon and militaristic Hobgoblins.

Moss Dwarfs are creatures who live in the deep forests either by themselves or in small communities. They tend to keep to themselves, but do have an innate curiosity that sends them off to adventure and explore the world. Moss Dwarfs are renown for the alcohol they brew.

Goblins are essentially the same as the goblins of most fantasy games. Sneaky, conniving, not particularly bright, backstabby. They aren’t liked by anyone, but are tolerated if they behave themselves. Some of the colonists employ goblins as scouts or laborers.

Hobgoblins are all from an empire to the North, that recently began expanding southward. The Pict tribes that first encountered them named them “Hobgoblins,” as they drove the goblins south before them, and “hob” in pict means, “hearth,” to show that the hobgoblins are civilized unlike the goblins. The Hobgoblin Empire is the single largest and most powerful political entity on the continent, although its expansion is stymied by the seemingly bizarre and chaotic nature of hobgoblin society. Hobgoblin society is based on a beaurocratic social structure based on family caste and personal status. To outsiders, it appears chaotic, but to hobgoblins, it is the pinnacle of order and law. In fact, they believe themselves to be the sole arbiters of law and order in a chaotic world, and expansion of the empire grants this order to the poor souls who they conquer. Hobgoblin “gods,” if they can be called that, are more like mathematical formulas than the typical gods worshiped by other peoples.

Why should you care? Well, you probably shouldn’t. Unless any of this sounds interesting to you.

Strathos Update

Strathos is the name of the continent/setting I’ve been working on for a year. The whole process has been up and down with too many rewrites, edits, and complete deletions to count. It’s been a lot of fun! I love writing. Even if it never comes to anything, it still keeps my brain working.

Anyway, I drew a new map rough and of course it is completely different from previous maps I published here.

Even the background info is vastly different than what I’ve previously written. For me, this whole thing is almost like a living entity; changing, growing, evolving, devolving, morphing into new shapes and forms.

Basically what I have now is this:

Fantasy stand-in for Europe sent explorers and undesirables to a New World; a newly discovered continent across a vast ocean.
Strathos is located within the southern hemisphere of the planet, so South gets colder and North gets warmer.
Colonists are Wizards, religious fanatics, criminals, and people who want to settle a new area free from the control of the government back in the homeland.
The colonies are generally left alone by the founding nations due to distance and lack of profitability and/or strategic value.
Strathos is already populated by humans and a couple other sentients, including Ape People, Moss Dwarves, Muscarians (Mushroom men), Goblins, and Hobgoblins.
Animal life is mostly giant-sized; giant weasels, giant lynx, Mastadons, Saber Tooth Tigers, Wooly Rhinos, and other prehistoric beasts.
Colonists have firearms, including cannon. This is really the only thing keeping them from being wiped out by beasts and barbarians. Well, this and the wizards they pay for protection.
Wizards have created a closed community among themselves and do not allow non-magical beings to enter. There is a password (Wizards Rule) to get in.
Most wizards maintain homes/towers/laboratories outside of the bubble, only visiting the community to trade for or purchase supplies or socialize.
Some of the colonies were founded for the express purpose of supplying the wizards. These communities are under the protection of, and governed by, wizards.
Where the colonies end, the Pictlands begin. Picts are the native humans who wear little clothing and ride on the backs of Mammoths and drive sleighs pulled by polar bears. They are bad ass barbarians who don’t give a fuck.
Beyond the Pictlands are the Goblin Forests and beyond those is the Hobgoblin Empire. The Hobgoblins are socially and technologically advanced almost to the point of the colonies, but lack gunpowder and the know-how to make firearms.
The Ape People, Yon, live in an isolated rainforest within a crater valley on a high plateau overlooking the ocean. Trees, animals, and insects are all especially large in the valley.
Within the crater is a section of few trees, but thousands of collosal mushrooms and other fungus. The Muscarians emerged from this area and spread out over the continent.
The Moss Dwarves are a plant based people and not actually dwarves. They live in the forests and are generally peaceful people who brew beer and talk to birds and smell rather bad.

Leveling Up and Bonus Abilities

Each of the classes I’ve posted on this blog has something in common; they receive abilities as they level up.

I added that feature to each class because, lets face it, standard classes in LotFP are lackluster and boring. However, that dullness serves a purpose; to keep the game gritty, keep the players on their toes, and to avoid the super heroics of other similar games.

I lost sight of all that, especially the third one.

So I’ve been thinking; I don’t want to completely get rid of level up abilities. I also don’t want to turn the game into a bloated feat-fest of super heroes who can never die.

So I came up with the following;

If your character class has level up abilities, you only gain an ability on a 1 in 20 die roll. This is cumulative, so that the higher in level you go, the better the chance of getting something cool. The reasons for this are as follows:

To reward the players for surviving.
To keep cool, special abilities without overpowering the game mechanics.
To keep things gritty.
To help differentiate characters from each other.

I will be including this in the Strathos player’s guide I’ve been writing.

Language and Language Skill

Today’s post isn’t a rule change or new class. Instead it’s just my brief thoughts on a particular aspect of role playing games.

In my getting-near 30 years of gaming, something that has always fascinated me in RPGs is language.

For me, language (including literacy) is a big part of what I think of when I think about good role playing.

In the real world, there are hundreds of current languages, and thousands of dead languages. There are codes and cyphers that act as languages. There are fictional languages. Language is everywhere and without it, we wouldn’t be able to effectively communicate. We’d still be living under rocks and grunting at each other.

So using language in a game is not only a great thing to do, but I think increases the enjoyability of the game. Language adds tension, adds background flavor, adds complications, can escalate or de-escalate conflict.

Some games deal with language by not dealing with it; everyone can understand each other. Either by default or because of babelfish or universal translators or whatever. It’s an uninteresting cop-out.

Other games provide a “common” language, with other languages existing in the world to a lesser degree. Many of these games provide a set number of languages a character “knows” from the begining of the game. Or a maximum number of languages a character can know in their lifetime.

So when they roll up their character, and have Common and 4 other languages to fill in, what do they do? Scratch in Elvish, Dwarvish, Goblin might come in handy, and uh… whatever demons speak.

The problem with this is A) why the hell does your first level fighter know the language of demons, and B) If you never have an opportunity to speak with demons, or elves, or dwarves, or goblins, you wasted those language slots.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess utilizes a skill mechanic for languages that fits my needs as a GM and my wants as a player. Namely, simplicity.

In LotFP, Language, as with all skills, are rated on a scale of 1 to 6, with success determined by rolling under the value with a d6. Intelligence modifiers add to your skill score. So a INT mod of +1 would add 1 to your skill, making your Language skill 2 in 6. Got it?

With the Language skill in LotFP, you start play speaking whatever language you want, although speaking the dominant language of wherever you are is a good idea. There isn’t a list of additional languages. You don’t start play with additional languages. Instead, whenever your character encounters another language, whether it be from the foreign trader, the ancient religious text, or the kingdom next door, you roll your language skill. If successful, you know the language and can utilize it from then on. If you fail, you don’t know the language.

That’s it.

It’s quick, it’s simple, it’s intuitive, and it doesn’t tie anyone’s hands with poor decisions at character creation.

And it can be used in most other games with little modification.

That’s it. Go read something else now.

Playable Species: Goblins for LotFP

Goblins

Goblins are tiny, crazed, insane, chaotic, murdering, backstabbing, comical, curious, silly, monstrous, evil, cute, criminal, cowardly, conniving, deadly, sneaky, scheming, little people who have few friends but are sometimes generally loyal to those friends for at least some of the time.

Goblins are considered a plague by most other sentient species, much like locusts, but this mostly unfair propaganda and hearsay.

Goblins are a type of Faerie, and as such, tend to be treated as “special” cousins to other faerie folk. While goblins may be invited to faerie parties as individuals, faeries will always politely decline invitations to goblin parties. They are more tied to this world than most other faerie, and so do not have the innate magical powers enjoyed by most other types of faerie.

Goblins will eat just about anything, having stomachs capable of breaking down the most rotten and vile organic matter. They are also often the carriers of disease, due to their scavenging and lack of hygiene habits.

Goblins procreate at every given opportunity, and female gestation periods are very short; only a few months, and they usually produce d4 children at a time.

Goblins aren’t particularly interested in building things, unless they directly help the goblin achieve an immediate goal. Like, goblins won’t build catapults to defend their villages from possible future attack, but will build them to launch themselves over fortifications that get in their way.

Lastly, goblins are mostly nocturnal creatures, who live in the darkest forests and in natural cave systems, or mines they’ve taken over from other beings.

Hit Die: d6

Alignment: Chaotic (while most non-magical sentients are Neutral in alignment, goblins exist

Saves: Fortitude: 16, Reflex: 15, Willpower: 18, and these decrease by 2 every four levels. Or use the saves as an LotFP Specialist.

Abilities: +1 To Hit at first level. Can see in the dark, but is -1 on all rolls in daylight.

Experience: As LotFP Halfling

Level Up: Roll once on the table at first level and every level afterwards. Young, inexperienced goblins tend to be more level-headed and easier to get along with than older goblins. This table is based on the work of Joseph Manola and his blog post:

http://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2016/03/new-bx-class-goblin.html

Tinkerer: You love fiddling with things, especially when you have a specific goal in mind. Whether it is deactivating a trap, cracking a safe, designing a hot air balloon made from hundreds of giant spider bladders… you get a +1 to Tinker skill.
Beast Affinity: Pick one of the following creatures: giant bat, giant rat, giant spider, or wolf. You have an intuitive rapport with such creatures, and they won’t attack you except in self-defence or when really, really hungry. If you encounter such a creature with a number of hit dice equal to or less than your own, you can try to press it into service as a mount by spending 1d6 hours ‘taming’ it and making a Charisma roll. If you succeed, it will let you ride it for as long as you keep it well fed, but if you fail then it attacks you once and then runs off. Receive a +1 to your Charisma Mod useable only for this ability, when this is re-rolled.
Biter: All those hours spent filing your teeth has finally paid off! You have a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, which you can use to chew through wood, ropes, etc. Instead of making a weapon attack, you can bite for 1d4 damage. Add a +1 to bite damage when this is re-rolled.
Bouncer: You can jump a distance equal to your full height straight up from a standing start. You take half damage from falling. Add a foot to jump height whenever this is re-rolled.
Coward: You know how to serpentine. You gain a +1 bonus to AC and whilst running away screaming.
Crazy Reflexes: Your body constantly jerks around in unpredictable ways, giving you a +1 AC bonus.
Filth Eater: You can survive on a diet of just about any kind of organic matter. You gain a +1 bonus to saves against poison and disease.
Survivalist: Having spent so much time in the wilderness, you have developed a certain awareness and knowledge of the wild. You know which worms are safe to eat, and which tracks belong to scary monsters you don’t want to cross paths with. +1 to Bushcraft skill.
Hyperactivity: Once per day you can go completely hyper for 1d6 rounds, moving at twice your normal speed and attacking twice per round. However, you are -1 To Hit.
Lunatic: Your mind is so warped that it’s very difficult for other people to control. You gain a +1 bonus to saves against mind-affecting powers and spells. Also you are crazy, but frankly you were probably crazy already.
Mimic: You can perfectly mimic the voice of anyone you have heard in the last 24 hours, but can only maintain this mimicry for a maximum of 1d6 rounds before breaking down into fits of hysterical giggling. Add 1 round every time this is rolled again.
Mushroom Mystic: Pick one first-level Magic-User or Cleric spell. You can cast this spell once per day, but only while feeling the effects of a hallucinogenic drug. Rolling this result again allows you to pick a second first-level spell.
Poison Spit: Your saliva is so bacteria-laden that you can envenom any edged weapon by licking the blade. The next person stabbed with it must save vs. poison or suffer 1d6 days of horrible, incapacitating sickness, which begins 1d3 hours after they are stabbed. Rolling this again makes the victim -1 to save.
Rat Head: You’re a rubbery little freak, and as long as you’re not wearing inflexible armour you can squeeze your whole body through a the width of your own head.
Sneak: As long as you’re not heavily burdened, you can move as soundlessly as a cat. Receive a +1 to Stealth skill. When this is re-rolled, you keep getting a +1 to Stealth, until you have 6 points in the skill. After that, you get a +1 to Sneak Attack.
Spider Climb: You are a nimble climber, able to scale surfaces and angles that seem impossible to others. +1 to your Climb skill.
Desecration: You love to smash things and smear your own feces all over other people’s stuff. Given 1 turn, you can permanently lower the value of everything in a 10ft square area by 10%. Rolling this again means 20%, then 30%, etc.
Swarm King: You have a swarm of pet vermin of some kind (rats, spiders, centipedes, etc), which either follow you around or are carried with you in a sack. On your command they can be ordered to swarm people, who then suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls, damage, and AC for as long as they’re covered in swarming vermin. (They don’t get a save against this, but the effect ends if they find a way of getting the swarm off them: jumping in water, for example.) You can also use them for anything else you think a swarm of vermin would be useful for, but you can’t give them any command more complex than ‘go over there’ and ‘come back’. Your swarm is big enough to engulf up to one person per level. If this is rolled again, then re-roll for a different result.
Twitchy: You only sleep 1d4 hours per night, but never seem to suffer any ill effects as a result. Because of this, you are only surprised on a 1 in 6, and receive a +1 bonus to Reflex saves.
Stab Frenzy: When you successfully hit someone in melee with a small or tiny weapon, you may immediately attempt to stab them again, with a -1 penalty to hit and damage; if you hit then you may attack a third time (with an additional -1 to hit and damage, for -2 total), and so on until you either miss, hit but inflict 0 damage, or kill them. You can only use this ability while screaming and gibbering incoherently. If this is rolled again, then re-roll for a different result.

Class: Yon Ape People v3

Yon Ape People

The Yon are a species of highly intelligent ape. Their society is very close-knit and orderly, with each village based around two industries; cultivating the flowering fruits their diet is based on, and tending the giant honeybee hives that form the center of each village. As village populations grow, members take a queen bee and hive materials and set out to create a new village and hive complex.

Every member of Yon society reveres bees, in fact, they worship them. The huge hive at the center of the village is also a temple where the Yon gather to pray, exchange news, and organize for work projects. The hum of the giant bees in and around the hive is soothing to the Yon and gives them a clear-headed that can’t be found away from the hive. Tending and protecting the hive, and glorifying the queen, gives the Yon purpose. It is everything to them.

But not all of them.

Some Yon do not hear the call of the bee queen. They find the hum of the hive distracting. They may have an uncharacteristic fondness for violence. They may discover that other people value gold and jewels and money, and with those things, they can become powerful in their own right. They think they’re crazy, or maybe everyone else is crazy. Either way, they leave their village as an outcast. An outcast free to adventure and make their fortune in the world. Many find quick work as warriors for hire due to their great strength and intimidating visage.

Yon Ape Adventurer

Hit Die: d8

Bonuses: +1 melee damage, +1 To Hit. Open Doors, Bushcraft, and Climb skills start at 2 in 6.

Saves: Fortitude: 16, Reflex: 17, Willpower: 16. At levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 all saves receive a +2 bonus. If using the regular LotFP saves, then the Yon saves as a Fighter.

Experience: As Dwarf

Level Up: Roll once on the following table every level after 1^st.

No need for armor: You have a +1 to AC in melee when you are not wearing armor, other than a helmet and/or shield.
Favored Enemy: Choose an animal, monster, or sentient species. You get a +1 to hit and +1 to damage against that specific type of creature, every time this is rolled. You are also -2 on Reaction rolls with creatures of that type. You can pick anything from mosquitoes to bears to dragons to humans.
Intimidate: +1 to Charisma checks to instill fear against others. Opposed check: your Charisma mod + d20 vs their Wisdom mod + d20. High roll wins. If they lose, they are immediately put in a defensive stance for d4 rounds. If they lose by 10 or more, they immediately flee.
Save Bonus: +1 to all saves.
Attribute Bonus: +1 to any attribute.
Bonus of +1 to a skill.
To Hit bonus: +1.
Use two-handed weapon one handed. If re-rolled, you can wield a two-handed weapon in your off hand, as well.
Defensive Stance: +1 to Armor Class, -2 to hit.
Offensive Stance: +1 to hit, -2 AC.

Setting Notes: Strathos

I’ve been working on and off on a setting for a year now. Figure I should share some of what that is.


Very rough map

This is a rough map of the continent of Strathos. It is located in the southern hemisphere of the world. The map is mainly to show a rough geographical positioning of nations and regions in relation to each other. Notice no actual geographical features like mountains, rivers, lakes, or swamps.


Geographic relations to other lands

I will describe in more detail each region on the map in later posts. For now I’ll give a brief summary. The names are all working names until I think of something better, so yeah, I know some of them are stupid.

Pretonia: Pretons are the oldest of the human races on Strathos. They are descendents of slaves of the Serpent Men from long ago. They still worship the Serpent Men, who they believe have ascended to the stars. Essentially stone age cave men. Pretons are monsters, essentially, who live to destroy the works of humanity. As the Nords and Hobgoblins swept through Pictland, pushing the Picts South and East, Pretonia was split in two. Pretons are based on pre-Anglo-Saxon invasion Celts.
Pictland: Picts are descendents of the Pretons, and are a bit more advanced culturally and technologically. They were poised to be the dominant people on the continent until two major invasions occurred. The Pict language is considered the Common tongue of the continent, and peoples and places are named in the Pict way. Pictland is a huge expanse of mostly unexplored wilderness filled with gigantic prehistoric beasts. It is much like Canada or Siberia: a vast, cold, forest with numerous rivers and lakes and mountains.
Yonwood is a large, forested region of impossibly tall trees. The Yon Ape Men are the dominant society here. The place is crawling with giant-sized insects, carnivorous apes, and deadly plants. The weather conditions are similar to the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest.
Mushroom Forest is an area of the Yonwood were the trees are supplanted by colossal varieties of fungus. This is where the fungoids and Needlemen come from.
Nordheim: Home of the Nords, a piratical people who conquered the area a few hundred years ago. The Picts living there became serfs and slaves of the invaders. Nords are based on Vikings, with magnified stereotypes.
Hobland: I feel like hobgoblins have always gotten shafted in DnD; they’re described as being organized and technologically advanced, but they only appear in ragtag groups with other monsters that share nothing of their culture. Makes no sense. So this is the Great Hobgoblin Empire. Or, at least, part of it. Picts and goblins make up the lower castes of this advanced feudal society, although there is at least one human-ruled member-state of the Empire. Based on the Holy Roman Empire.
Icefields: The Icefields are the permafrost areas. The few people who live here hunt seals and whales. Populated by Frostmen (Fiend Folio, yo) pushed down to the bottom of the world eons ago by the pretons. There isn’t much in the way of easily exploitable natural resources, so everyone else tends to stay away.

Four Save Model instead of Archaic Model

First, what is the Archaic Model of saves? That’s what I’m calling the Save vs Poison, Death Ray, Breath Weapon, Wands, Spells, etc. Where you’re supposed to use Breath Weapon for area effects and dodging stuff, and Poison or Death Ray is for save vs Death. It’s convoluted, new players constantly have to have it explained to them, then they spend 5 minutes trying to find it on their character sheet, and it just sucks and I don’t like it.

The three save model was popularized by corporate Dungeons and Dragons, and works pretty well by simplifiying saves and therefore speeds things up. I think so, anyway.

Instead of a bunch of sort of random yet arbitrary saving throws with arbitrary values based on… what? I don’t know. My Four Save Model goes like this…

I’ve never played 3/3.5 DnD, so I don’t know how saves work in that game. I’ve played 4th, which honestly is the inspiration for this. Don’t judge me too quickly! 4th was a fun fantasy tactical game, but was marketed incorrectly.

Willpower – Anything that requires a save like resisting delicious ice cream, trying to ignore terrible sounds like Alanis Moressette songs, working through a fear of darkness without a night light, etc
Fortitude – eating a three day old, room temperature Taco Bell Taco Supreme (yes, with sour cream) without getting food poisoning, beer bonging a handle of cheap vodka without puking, seeing your grandparents having sex, etc
Agility – dodging out of the way of a thrown wrench, dodging fireballs shooting up from the floor as you cross a bridge only to discover your princess is in another castle, running and leaping away from the big climactic explosion even though you’re getting too old for this shit, etc
Magic – Pretty much anything not covered by the other three saves.

These are roll-over values on a d20. In layman’s terms: roll a d20 and get a high number.

The value you must roll above is not arbitrarily chosen by some unpaid game designer with a chip on their shoulder. Instead, it is determined by YOU, the player! Cool, huh?

Willpower is your character’s Wisdom modifier + Charisma modifier, subtracted from 17.
Fortitude is your character’s Strength modifier + Constitution modifier, subtracted from 17.
Agility is (you guessed it) your character’s Intelligence modifier + Dexterity modifier, subtracted from 17.
Magic is your character’s Intelligence modifier + Wisdom modifier, subtracted from 17.

So, there is an arbitrary bit in there; why 17, and not 20? Because some characters will have no modifiers, and they’ll have to save by rolling over 20.

If you have a negative modifier, like from having a really terrible attribute, that modifier is added to 17. So it IS possible to have to roll a 20 (or higher) for a save.

So at first level, you’ll have a save range of 12-18. Since your modifiers have already been used to determine this value, they are not added to subsequent saving throw rolls. Sorry.

This model is used the same for all classes. So your clericky character should have a decent Willpower, your Fighter-type should have a decent Fortitude, and your Wizardy or Thieving types will have decent Agility.

Other bonuses apply to your roll; like if your character has a +3 vs Poison for whatever reason, then you would add +3 to your Fortitude rolls when dealing with poisons. If your character has a +1 to balance because they have a background as a child acrobat, then you add +1 to Agility rolls when you’re trying to walk on a tight rope.

Easy peasy.

Example:

Tim the first level Fast Talking Specialist has the following attributes:
Charisma:15 (+2 mod)
Constitution: 5 (-2 mod)
Dexterity: 17 (+3 mod)
Intelligence: 9
Strength: 11
Wisdom: 11

So, his Saves are as follows:
Agility: 17-3 = 14
Fortitude: 17 – (0-2) = 19
Willpower: 17 – 2 = 15
Magic: 17 -0 = 17

Yeah, that’s a really shitty Fortitude.

Fortunately, saves can improve! Each class will have an experience progression table which will include improving saving throws.

I haven’t play tested this yet; it is in the thinking about stage right now.