Getting More out of the Fudge Ladder

I will readily admit that one of the things that first drew me to Fudge was the Ladder. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Ladder is a set of adjectives used to describe the various outcome possibilities in Fudge. Fudge dice have a range of outcomes from -4 to +4. Fudge uses an adjective to describe each possible outcome, like this:

Fudge Result = Ladder Adjective

+4 = Legendary

+3 = Superb

+2 = Great

+1 = Good

  0 = Fair

-1 = Mediocre

-2 = Poor

-3 = Terrible

-4 = Abysmal

What drew me to this idea was the concept of using words to describe things instead of numbers. After playing D&D 3.5 for 5 years, I think I was ready for a game where the mechanics weren't so prevalent in play. Using words to describe outcomes instead of numbers seemed like a great way to reduce "metaspeak"; using game jargon during roleplaying.

Fudge primarily uses the Ladder to describe Attribute levels, Skill levels, and outcomes. I thought it might be interesting to try and implement the Ladder in more ways. My hope is that using the Ladder more will both make the Ladder easier to remember, and make the game easier to play. Just to be clear, there are many people who dislike the Ladder concept and play Fudge without it. It's not for everyone. But for those who like the Ladder, it makes sense to me to try and use it as much as possible. By applying the Ladder to more aspects of the game, I think it will give the game a better overall foundation, making elements in the game more relatable while also making the game easier to learn and play.

In addition to using the Ladder for Attributes, Skills and outcomes, I have also incorporated it into a few other areas as well.

Scale

In Fudge, Scale primarily refers to the differences in strength and mass, although some groups also use Scale for speed or strength without mass. The general idea is that, the bigger and stronger it is, the easier it is for smaller creatures to hit it, the harder it is for the larger creature to hit the smaller creature, the more damage the larger/stronger creature can deliver, while being able to absorb more damage it receives due to being bigger/stronger.

I find Scale to be a brilliant, but very crunchy and overly complicated part of the Fudge rules. The idea is that each step in Scale is 1.5 times higher or lower than the previous step. Using Scale effectively in Fudge requires tables and math, so I've always found it difficult to use during play.

My idea was to apply the concept of Scale to the Fudge Ladder in order to make it quicker and easier to use in play. While I was reading about how other games handle size and mass differences, it occurred to me that a certain, popular RPG has 9 different sizes in it. What a coincidence! Fudge has 9 levels from Legendary [+4] to Abysmal [-4]! By applying the same concept while tweaking the numbers, I came up with this table to represent Scale in Blood, Sweat & Steel.

Table 1: Size/Mass Scale Table

Size Category	Height/Length	Weight
Legendary [+4]	64’ or more	125 tons +
Superb [+3]	32’-64’	16-125 tons
Great [+2]	16’-32’	2-16 tons
Good [+1]	8’-16’	500 lbs – 2 tons
Fair [0]	4’-8’	60-500 lbs.
Mediocre [-1]	2’-4’	8-60 lbs.
Poor [-2]	1’-2’	1-8 lbs.
Terrible [-3]	6”-1’	2 oz. – 1 lb.
Abysmal [-4]	Less than 6”	Less than 2 oz.

Using this table, it's very quick and easy to determine any role size/mass has in a particular situation.  For example Grognor the Barbarian is fighting a dire ape. The dire ape is a Good [+1] sized creature. Right away, this tells me that the dire ape needs a minimum of Mediocre [-1] to hit Grognor (the default is normally Poor [-2], the dire ape will do an additional point of damage if it hits Grognor, and that Grognor will do one less point of damage if he strikes the dire ape.

Trade and Money

One of the things I've never much cared for in RPG's is accounting and bookkeeping. While finding treasure and buying exotic weapons and armor can be a lot of fun, keeping track of every copper, silver and gold coin was never much fun for me. Fortunately, I came across an article in the sadly now defunct, "Fudge Factor" by Duke York,entitled, "Abstract Funds". Duke's idea was to take the entire concept of buying, selling and trading and make it more of an abstract part of the game. Rather than keep track of every coin and bauble, you could assign a value to both liquid and fixed assets, using the Fudge Ladder. I fell in love with this concept at first read. I had to make a few changes in order to make it fit my game.

One of my design goals was to avoid making a game about acquisition. I've always felt that sword & sorcery fiction heroes relied on their skill on wits, not on their particular choice of armor and weapons. It never mattered whether Conan had a giant ax or a turkey leg, he was still going to destroy you. Another popular trope of many sword & sorcery tales is that entire fortunes are gained and lost overnight. Accumulating wealth always seemed to be a much easier task than holding onto it.

This system uses the Fudge Ladder and an abstract value system to make the buying, selling and trading that occurs in the game to be much more simple, and quick. Once you have the table, and you know 3 rules, you can make any kind of transaction you like in a fantasy game.

First, the Abstract Value Ladder:

Ladder	Silver coins
+4 (Legendary)	11001-33000
+3 (Superb)	3651-11000
+2 (Great)	1201-3650
+1 (Good)	401-1200
0 (Fair)	151-400
-1 (Mediocre)	51-150
-2 (Poor)	16-50
-3 (Terrible)	6-15
-4 (Abysmal)	1-5

Use the following 3 rules to handle any type of transaction:

1. If the value of the item is higher than your available cash on hand, and you don't have a similarly priced item to trade, it's impossible to buy it.

Grognor wants to buy a sword, but the Sword is at a Good [+1] value and his bag of coins only has a Fair [0] value, so he doesn't have enough money to buy the sword.

2. If the value of the thing you want to buy is the same as the amount of money you have, ytou can buy the thing, and you simply lower your money by one level.

After getting his buddy to pay up on some gambling debt, Grognor now has a Good [+1] amount of coins. The sword costs a Good [+1] amount, so Grognor can now buy the sword, and he lowers the value of his bag of coins from Good [+1] to Fair [0].

3. If the thing you want to buy is of a lower value than your money, you will then make a simple Check against the value of your money, using the value of the thing you want to buy as the modifier to your roll. If the Check is equal to or higher than the value of your money, your money is lowered by one level. If the Check is lower than the value of your money, you buy the item and the value of your money remains the same.

On second thought, Grognor decides to save a little cash to get his armor fixed, so he picks a smaller sword that has a Fair [0] value. Grognor's bag of coins is of Good [+1] value, so he has more than enough. Following rule #3, Grognor will roll 4dF and add that to the value of the sword he wants to purchase, which is Fair [0]. Grognor rolls Mediocre [-1], which is added to the Fair [0] value of the sword, giving him a Total of Medicore [-1]. Grognors Mediocre [-1] Total is less than the Good [+1] value of Grognor's coins, so Grognor buys the sword and his coins remain at Good [+1].

Summoned Entities

One of the things you can do with the Sorcery Skill is summoning supernatural Entities. There are 3 types of Entities which can be summoned; Elementals, Spirits and Demons. Entities have a base power rating represented on the Fudge Ladder, and this base level determines how powerful the demon is. Their power rating determines the baseline for Skills and Attributes, and it also determines how many Qualities, Talents and Supernatural Abilities they have as well.. While I really liked the idea of summoned Entities being unique, I didn't want a system that required the PC statting out an Entity every time they summoned one. So in this system, whenever an Entity needs to make a Check that requires an Attribute or Skill, the GM makes a Fudge roll and adds the base power level of the Demon. In other words, Attributes and Skills are figured out "on the fly". So for example, a sorcerer has summoned a succubus for the purpose of seducing an enemy in order to gain some secret information, but the enemy figures out that he's dealing with a demon, and he attacks the succubus. The succubus now needs to defend itself with the Brawling Skill. This is a Good [+1] level Demon, so the GM rolls 4dF. in this example, the GM rolls Poor [-2], which means the succubus has a Mediocre [-1] Brawling Skill.

Here is the basic table for Entities:

Entity Power Base Difficulty Base Skill/Attribute Level	Summon Base Time	Mental Stress	Number of Qualities	Number of Talents	Number of Special Abilities (Demons)
Poor [-2]	30 Seconds	1	0	0	0
Mediocre [-1]	A Minute	2	0	0	0
Fair [0]	A Few Minutes	3	1	1	1
Good [+1]	15 Minutes	4	1	2	2
Great [+2]	Half an Hour	5	2	3	3
Superb [+3]	An Hour	6	2	4	4
Legendary [+4]	A Few Hours	7	3	5	5

It is my hope that finding more ways in which to use the Fudge Ladder will make the game more cohesive and easier to learn and understand, while helping the game to run more quickly and smoothly at the table.

There are games that use the Fudge Ladder in a variety of ways. Before this game goes to layout, I may even find another way or two to incorporate the Ladder.