Fuzion <-> Black Gate Conversion Notes

Character Design

The game system used in Legacy: War of Ages and Warlock: Black Spiral has little in common with the Fuzion, but it is possible to find points of correlation between the two. For example, the basic method of creating a character in each game consists of describing a character's advantages, disadvantages, and abilities. The terminology is different, but roughly equivalent:

In some Fuzion games, such as the delightful Usagi Yojimbo Role-playing Game, the word "Attributes" is used instead of "Characteristics", while "Talents" and "Complications" are grouped together under "Special Abilities".

Health and Damage Capacity

Some of the basic descriptors require more explanation. In Fuzion, a character's general health and hardiness is measured by her Hits and Stun. In Legacy, this is measured by a character's Health Points -- those ten little boxes on the character sheet. Note that Fuzion allows a much greater range in Hits and Stun than Legacy allows in Health Points. In Legacy, human beings basically all have ten Health Points: the human body can take a certain amount of damage before it dies, no matter how well-trained the character may be. However, rare Legacy characters may have the Negative Accent "Frail" (nine Health points) or the Positive Accent "Robust" (eleven Health Points). A Fuzion character with a Body (or Physical) value of 1 or 2 would be considered "Frail" (9 HP) in Legacy, while a Fuzion character with a Body (or Physical) value of 5 or 6 would be "Robust" (11 HP) in Legacy. A Fuzion character with a Body (or Physical) score in the 3 to 4 range would be typical by Legacy standards (10 HP).

Statistics and Attributes

It's more difficult to equate specific Attributes/Statistics between the two games, because Fuzion's character descriptors change names from game to game. Generally, the following Statistics are equivalent:

* The Madness Statistic is introduced in Warlock: Black Spiral, the sequel to Legacy: War of Ages. Most non-Warlocks have a Madness Rank of zero.

Skills and Abilities

Skills and Abilities between the two games are roughly equivalent. Converting a Fuzion character to Legacy requires only that a character's Skills be converted to whatever Legacy Ability is most appropriate. Since Fuzion generally has no set skill list, no changes usually need to be made when converting skills from Legacy to Fuzion.

Ranks and Levels

The "Rank" of Legacy Statistics and Abilities are roughly equal to the numerical value of Fuzion Characteristics and Skills.

Game Systems

Source material for Legacy and Fuzion can converted fairly easily back and forth. A matter that may pose some difficulty (no pun intended) is the conversion of Fuzion's "Difficulty Value" (or "Task Number") to Legacy's "Task Modifier" (and vice versa).

Generally speaking, the Legacy Task Modifier is subtracted from 18 to find the equivalent Fuzion Difficulty Value (or Task Number). (Note: this means that negative Task Modifiers, which indicate difficult Tasks, are actually added to 18 to find the equivalent Fuzion Difficulty Value.) Conversely, the Fuzion Difficulty Value (or Task Number) of a given Task is subtracted from 18 to find the equivalent Legacy Task Modifier. (Note: this means that very difficult Fuzion Task Numbers, such 24, would actually result in a negative number when subtracted from 18 -- which is as it should be, since negative Task Modifiers indicate more difficult Tasks in Legacy's system.)

Psychic Abilities and Magick

There is no direct correspondence between the way Legacy and Warlock handle supernatural powers and the way Fuzion handles superpowers. A definitive translation would likely be as long as one of the rule books being translated!

For Psychic Abilities, the following rough translation is a good place to start. Use the Rank/Level Conversions above to translate between Legacy Ranks and Fuzion point values.

For Magick Abilities, each Warlock Magick Ability is more or less equivalent to a Fuzion Power Pool. A Power Pool is basically a Multipower with an infinite number of slots, and the unifying special effect of the Power Pool is the specific Magick Ability that the Power Pool simulates. This particular type of Power Pool requires a skill roll to change the Pool from one power to another, just as Warlockrequires a character to make a Task Roll . To find the Fuzion skill value equivalent to the Warlock Ability Rank, use the Rank/Level Conversions, above.

The Power Pool itself is a bit more complex. The cost of a Fuzion Power Pool has two parts, the "Control Cost" and the "Pool Cost". The Control Cost for this type of Power Pool is 20 points. The Pool Cost is the maximum number of points that may be used in any Fuzion Power, or in all active Powers combined. The larger the Pool Cost, the more potent the Power Pool. To find the Pool Cost equivalent to the Warlock's Magick Ability Rank, simply double the Magick Ability Rank.

For example, a Warlock Earth Magick Ability at Rank 4 is equivalent to the following in Fuzion: