[Ar-list] Conversion rules

[Carter Butts]

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By popular demand, here are the conversion rules for SLA Industries 
which I mentioned previously.  Since the rules are contained in a very 
small text file, I will try including them as an attachment; I'm not 
sure if the list allows this, but we shall find out....

-Carter

PS. I had mentioned conversion rules for CoC earlier, but am at a loss 
to find them.  :-(  If I do, I will post them to the list....

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Converting SLA Industries to the Alternate Realities System
[v0.01a, 1/25/1998, by Carter Butts]

Introduction

	SLA Industries is an roleplaying game of dark horror in a
supernatural science fiction setting.  Originally developed by Nightfall
Games, SLA Industries was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, Inc., who
currently own the game; unfortunately, SLA Industries has been out of
print for a number of years, as of the time of this writing.  This last
has at least two important consequences: first, official SLA game material
is fairly hard to come by, and second, development of the game has moved
from the original designers to (almost exclusively) the efforts of fans in
the online community.  For both of these reasons, some players and GMs may
wish to seek to draw upon other rule systems in order to roleplay in the
SLA world.  By utilizing systems with continuing development, players and
GMs have easy access to numerous mechanisms for expanding game
possibilities, and can take advantage of newer innovations in game design.
Also, systems which are currently in distribution possess the pragmatic
advantage of having books and other player material which is readily
available...thus, if only one player within a group actually owns a SLA
sourcebook, conversion allows for all players to still have copies of the
actual rule set.
	Given these incentives for pursuing a rule conversion project, there
are numerous candidates - commercial and otherwise - which might be
considered.  Here, the system which will be used is the Alternate
Realities Roleplaying System, a generic copylefted RPG which is both
freely available online and which has been designed around the principle
of expandability.  In the text which follows, some suggestions for
converting SLA rules and attributes into AR mechanics are given, as well
as some ideas for expanding characters once they have been converted to
AR.  Players and GMs may wish to consider alternative mechanisms for
conversion, and are encouraged to develop their own approaches to
roleplaying in the SLA Industries universe using AR rules.

Requirements and Assumptions
 
	In order to make use of this document, it is necessary to have
access to the original SLA Industries game, as well as one or more copies
of the Alternate Realities Primary Reality Guide.  The Alternate Realities
Player Pack is recommended as well, and both are freely available online.
	Throughout this document, it will be assumed that players and GMs
have access to standard SLA characters, and to the AR rule set.  Unless
specified otherwise, players and GMs should assume that AR rules should be
used in play...thus, this document is intended to be used in the
conversion process itself, after which standard mechanisms take over.

Attribute Conversions

	Alternate Realities functions almost entirely through tests of
attributes at various levels of complexity (skills being one such class of
attributes); in this respect, it is not unlike the SLA Industries core
rules.  In order to utilize SLA characters in AR, however, it is necessary
to map the statistics used in SLA Industries to those of AR.  These
mappings are given via the following table:

SLA Statistic   AR Attribute
----------------------------
Strength        STR
Dexterity       DEX
Diagnose        VRB, QNT, SPL
Concentration   MEM
Charisma        PRS
Physique        BOD
Knowledge       INT
Flux            Flux*
Cool            EGO

	Generally, it is recommended that the rating of the relevant AR
attribute be set to IDRF(S/20), where IRDF is the inverse DRF (see the
table in the the Player Pack) and S is the equivalent SLA Statistic.
Because SLA does not utilize a diminishing returns system, this method may
not be optimal for obtaining statistics for powerful characters...an
alternative method is thus to set the AR attributes equal to 10*(S-10),
where again S is the SLA equivalent.   One exception to both rules is
FLux, which should be considered a Supplemental Attribute in AR (see the
PRG).  A character's Flux in AR is equal to his or her Flux in SLA
Industries.
	Once a SLA character's attributes have been mapped into AR using
the above transformations, the astute AR player will see the need to flesh
out the character, setting attributes such as HITs, WIL, etc.  In these
cases, standard AR rules on character generation should be used, holding
the above attributes constant.  It is recommended that SLA under AR use
Level 1 attributes save for Sensory attributes, which should be kept to
Level 0; players and GMs are obviously welcome to deviate from this as
needed.  SLA advantages and disadvantages should either be incorporated
into the standard attributes above or used as supplemental attributes, as
per the guidelines in the PRG.

Skills

	Although considered to be attributes in AR, skills are treated
entirely seperately in SLA Industries, and as such are given a seperate
section here.  While players and GMs may seek to utilize equivalent skills
from the PRG when converting characters, it will often be easier to keep
the skills more or less as they are and set the skill rating to 10*S,
where S is the SLA skill rank in question.  Base skill difficulty, and
skill prerequisites, must be assessed by the GM at this time; in general,
one may look to the PRG for similar examples for most SLA skills.

Body Hit Locations

	It is recommended that AR Level 1 hit locations be used when
playing in the SLA Industries reality; this corresponds to the hit
locations system used in the SLA Industries core rules.  HITs per
location should be derived from main body HITs using the standard AR
rules as specified in the Primary Reality Guide.  Because SLA aliens
are all essentially humanoid, standard target webs for humanoid
creatures are applicable for all SLA races.  If they desire more (or less)
detail regarding hit locations in combat, players and GMs should feel free
to utilize level 2 or level 0 hit location systems (respectively); in
all such cases, standard AR procedures should apply.

Weapons and Damage

	While a full conversion of all SLA weaposn and armor is not
possible at this time (or perhaps ever, given the nature of copyright
restrictions), some general rules will suffice for translating most SLA
weapons and armor to Alternate Realities.  In general, one point of SLA ID
is equal to about 300 HITs of AR damage; this is true both for weapons,
and for armor (whose locational HITs should be derived using the
appropriate target web).  While AR does not have the notion of PV per se,
it does have both DEMs and DTMs, which provide a somewhat more detailed
system for accomplishing a similar goal.  In AR, the DTMs of SLA armor for
ballistic damage should be assumed to be 0, and the armor's ballistic DEM
should be 1/PV (where PV is the armor's SLA PV).  DEMs for other types of
damage cannot be easily inferred from the SLA text, but may be drawn from
other material and armor DEMs both in the PRG and elsewhere.  Other
guidelines vis a vis weapons and combat in AR may be found in these
volumes as well.

Ebb Powers

	While a full conversion of Ebb powers to AR would seem to be a
logical goal, the aforementioned concerns vis a vis copyright prevent a
systematic effort to reconstitute the Ebb system within the AR framework.
This does not mean, however, that Ebb users are left out in the cold with
respect to the SLA to AR conversion.  In general, Ebb powers are presumed
to behave more or less as they do under SLA rules, subject to the
guidelines in the Strange Powers section of the Primary Reality Guide.
The most important difference, in fact, concerns the performance of Ebb
abilities themselves: though they consume Flux as normal, they are here
considered to be skills, with the following general template...

	Ebb Use (MEM+Formulae, Very Hard)
		Ebb Ability (Ebb Use, Hard)
		...

	(See the PRG for more information on templates, including
prerequisites and base difficulties.)

	In general, use of a SLA Ebb power requires a test of the relevant
Ebb ability with a bonus of MEM and a penalty of the relevant rank*10.
Ebons, Brain Wasters, and Necanthropes may attempt to use their Ebb Use
skill directly with the usual specializing penalty (see the PRG) if
permitted by the GM.  GMs may also want to avoid using Formulae as a
component of the prerequisite for Ebb Use; this is a matter of GM
discretion, as it does reflect something of a departure from the
conventional SLA rules.

Alternate Realities Resources

	The Alternate Realities Primary Reality Guide and other AR
material is available via the following online sources:

	AR Web Site
		http://www.etymon.com/AR
	AR Mailing List
		ar-list@delfax.net
	AR List Archives
		http://ar-list.delfax.net/


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