This booklet provides the necessary instructions to help convert system-agnostic game statistics expressed in the Calidar books. It also gives an introductory overview of the Calidar Universe and its "known world," the Great Caldera.

In a fantasy setting designed without core rules from a specific role-playing game, there lies a challenge in describing creatures, spells, and game effects so everyone can understand and easily express them in their chosen system. Much of this is abstracted in Calidar books, leaving referees at liberty to interpret the author’s intent in ways that best suit their purposes. However, mechanics need to be suggested more explicitly at times. The following pages list terms and concepts describing game effects and abilities. In most cases, scores allocated to character or monster statistics are expressed in Calidar books as percentages of customary ranges used in the players’ chosen game systems.

You are welcome to pay whatever you want for this digital file, should you decide to help support the Calidar series, or nothing at all. A printed version should become availabe in the coming weeks.

Thanks!

Review on "The Other Side" blog by Timothy S. Brannan

12 pages. PDF and Softcover format. Full-color covers, color, and black & white interior. PWYW



Ok, this book is punching WAY above its weight in terms of value to page count. There are some obvious benefits, that I'll talk about and one or two not-so-obvious that also make this a must-have. I'll get to those as well. Let's start with the explicit value.

This book is designed to allow any GM or player to use the Calidar shorthand stats I have talked about all week and then convert them to any game system. The game mechanics used are detailed first. By doing this Calidar is free to depict stats in any way that works best for the world and not necessarily the game system. There is an obvious "D&D-bias" here but that is fine really, and expected. Inbetween the text is the numbers conversion chart. Ranked by percentages the numbers are grouped by ranges you can convert say Level to a Calidar %. So let's say your game goes from 1 to 14 (like say B/X or OSE) then you can convert a Calidar character statblock using this. Or maybe 1 to 30 (D&D4) or 1 to 20 (most D&D). Spend some time with this chart and the translations begin to happen easily.

The game mechanics continue and include a "Philosophy" stat which is a stand in for Alignment. AND it might actually be a better alignment system. Now I have never had any issues with Alignment myself. Maybe because I spent so much time with things like the MMPI and other tests that I naturally gave alignment more subtle gradations. Actually, I think it was more chemistry come to think of it. Take the "alignment chart" in the old PHB or D&DG and think of an electron cloud where a character can move up or down in the shells. There is also a map of Calidar and the Great Caldera and some brief descriptions of the lands.

Now what else do you get? Well this conversion table is fantastic for conversions to all sorts of games. Not just D&D based ones. Yes, the math is not difficult, actually, it is pretty easy. But I teach math all damn day. I like having something like this. Secondly, I want to get back to the new Philosophy system. It works GREAT in CA2 How to Train Your Wizard. It would be great for someone that doesn't like the Law-Chaos, Good-Evil axes.

So grab this. Throw a couple of bucks at Bruce and have fun!

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