Silver Age Sentinels d20 RPG to DC Heroes RPG

Context

This is a technical article about converting one set of tabletop role-playing game stats to another. In this case the source system is Silver Age Sentinels .

Jargon note

“Bump”: To simplify this discussion, I’m going to define “bump” in a special way. It means to increase the APs of something in order to meet a reasonable benchmark. However, if multiple “bumps” are suggested, use only the largest, possibly +1 if there are several.

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Converting Stats to Attributes

The Tri-Stat scale treats 4 as average and 12 as (fairly realistic) known maximum human potential. In the absence of any other benchmark, the simplest thing to do is chop Body, Mind, and Spirit in half, rounding up, and applying them to the Physical, Mental, and Mystical attributes respectively.

For instance, Mind 8 would yield INT: 04, WILL: 04, MIND: 04. Note these values for later, in case they change, because these original base values may be needed later for skills and so forth.

Strength, however, is a special case. Lifting capacity in SAS is given as a linear progression, so the easiest thing is to use Body as a proportion. Essentially,

Body (SAS) → STR
1 to 2 → 1
3 to 4 → 2
5 to 8 → 3
9 to 16 → 4

If, however, a character has at least one rank of Powerlifting, bump this STR value by +1, to a maximum of 4. If they have a Body stat of 12+ and at least two ranks on Powerlifting, they can have a STR of 5.

Very high stats require a modification, as the Tri-Stat scale squishes quickly, with 20 being “cosmic.”. A stat of 12 is equivalent to 6 APs, but add +1 to the base attribute for every +1 stat beyond that.

Stat (Tri-Stat) → Base APs (MEGS)
1 to 2 → 1
3 to 4 → 2
5 to 6 → 3
7 to 8 → 4
9 to 10 → 5
11 to 12 → 6
13 → 7
14 → 8
15 → 9
16 → 10
17 → 11
18 → 12
19 → 13
20 → 14+

Superstrength

Superstrength indicates a maximum weight limit, giving a clear equivalent in APs.

Superstrength (Tri-Stat) → APs of Strength
1 (2 tonnes) → 6 to 7
2 (4 tonnes) → 7 to 8
3 (8 tonnes) → 8 to 9
4 (16 tonnes) → 9 to 10
5 (30 tonnes) → 10 to 11
6 (60 tonnes) → 12
7 (100 tonnes) → 13
8 (1000 tonnes) → 16
9 (10,000 tonnes) → 19
10 (100,000 tonnes) → 22

Well, that escalated rather quickly. That works out to about 5 + (1.3 * Superstrength), blowing up quickly at the high end.

Noting that each level is equivalent to +10 damage, that implies a rough damage to APs of EV chart. Damage (Tri-Stat) → EV
10 → 6
20 → 7
30 → 8
40 → 9
50 → 10
60 → 12
70 → 13 to 15
80 → 16 to 18
90 →19 to 21
100 → 22

Note that the quirks of Superstrength make this a little iffy, so a good estimate is probably 5 + (damage/8), which yields a smoother:
10 → 6
20 → 7
30 → 8 to 9
40 → 10
50 → 11
60 → 13
70 → 14
80 → 15
90 → 16
100 → 18
110 → 19
120 → 20

Adjust according to how preferable a given attack should be to a punch, if Superstrength is present.

Selected Attributes

• Armor: Armor protects against physical and energy, so the most straightforward way is to compare your protection from Armor to the base damage conversion chart. The result should be considered as a possible floor for your APs of BODY. Some level of Skin Armor can be considered, but you’ll have to figure out what to do about energy attacks.
• Attack Combat Mastery: Considering adding the lower of Attack Combat Mastery or Defense Combat Master to DEX (which doesn’t affect skill estimates). A higher ACV can be substituted for Dex to estimate APs in an appropriate skill such as Accuracy, Martial Arts, or Weaponry.
• Combat Techniques: There is a lot of weird stuff going on here, but consider increasing DEX by +1 for Accuracy and Steady Hand, or increasing affected skills (if that’s problematic). Lighting Reflexes is the Lightning Reflexes Advantage.
• Defense Combat Mastery: See Attack Combat Mastery, above, and consider substituting DCV for Dex to estimate APs in appropriate Acrobatics subskills.
• Divine Relationship: This is a quirky attribute that gives you lucky re-rolls. Because Tri-Stat doesn’t have anything like Hero Points, Divine Relationship is used to make characters particularly heroic. 1 or 2 ranks of DR can be considered a signal to give a character a large number of starting Hero Points.
  Higher levels might (maybe) indicate Luck. Characters with explicit good fortune might also rate Ultra Luck.
  Divine Relationship also implies some kind of personal reserves and mystical connection, so it’s inline to give a character a bump to their AURA equal to their ranks in Divine Relationship.
• Extra Attacks: This is an expensive and powerful Attribute that benefits virtually all attack abilities. Consider a bump of +1 DEX for every rank of Extra Attacks.
• Extra Defenses: Less expensive and overwhelming as Extra Attacks, this still gives a character a lof of defensive power. Consider a bump of +1 DEX for every two ranks of Extra Defense.
• Heightened Awareness: Add the ranks to the Mind stat before estimating INT and WILL, but it obviously won’t boost skill estimates. Alternatively, you can just roll it up into some heightened sense Powers or Accuracy (Perception); use the Superstrength to STR chart to give some idea of what level might be appropriate.
• Heightened Senses: Any AP level is going to be somewhat arbitrary, but when dealing with Type I senses, each boost is worth about +2 APs, and for Type II, it’s not a bad idea to start with APs equal to the linking attribute, rolling up any bonus from Heightened Awareness.
• Mind Shield: Add it to the Mind stat before estimating MIND and SPIRIT.
• Special Attack: Any level of Inaccurate implies No AV. If that doesn’t do the trick, go with Lack of Control instead.
• Tough: Probably the best way to handle Tough is by figuring out the proportion of extra Health you receive (you can roll up the other assumed benefits into the Body increase). Generally, this means an increase of +1 BODY, or +2 if Tough more than doubles your Health, or +3 for quadrupling it. However, Tough shouldn’t increase a “normal” person past BODY: 6, unless they are some kind of freakshow that makes Batman looks like a wuss.

Skills

This is a whole topic unto itself, but as a guideline: 1 rank is equivalent to APs of the (base) link attribute, with each additional rank being +1. So, a character with a Body stat of 12 and two ranks in Stealth would have Thief (Stealth): 7.

• Etiquette maps pretty well to Charisma (Persuasion).
• Unarmed Combat and Unarmed Defense implies Martial Arts. Ranged Combat might be Accuracy or Weaponry.
• If a skill looks like it would work better as an Advantage, 1 rank is good enough for an Expertise or an Advantage like Connoisseur. Two or more ranks might imply Scholar; four ranks definitely does.

By Pawsplay.