PDQ#: Scaling Fortes by Genre

One role-playing game that I've run and enjoyed recently is Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies (often abbreviated as S7S). The system that runs the game is called PDQ#, and it's available for free as a pdf. (Though I strongly recommend taking the plunge and buying S7S if you like what you read in the free PDQ# pdf as it has a much more extensive treatment of the rules.)

Also, I'm a big fan of shounen fighting anime shows like Naruto and Bleach. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children qualifies as well. Pretty much any anime that involves characters defying physics, throwing energy bolts, and shouting the names of special attacks while they perform them will probably go over well with me.

Recently, I had a thought on how to make PDQ# more capable of handling the gravity-defying fight scenes of my favorite shows. All you'll need to do is write a short list of genre assumptions with a single reference to game terms for each. I'll give an example here using leaping. In the anime I like, trained characters seem to be capable of easily leaping from the ground to rooftops. Using that, I'll write the following.

"For characters with an appropriate forte (ninja, acrobat, etc.), leaping from the ground to a two-story rooftop is an Average (Target Number 7) task."

Bam! Other than considering the appropriate fortes to be secret, technical, or esoteric (PDQ# p. 16), that's all you really need. Other target numbers can be easily ball-parked from there. For example, let's say that Cloud (of Final Fantasy VII fame), with the Master [+6] Ex-Soldier forte has some leaping to do.

Cloud needs to leap to a rooftop from the ground (TN 7). TN 7.

Cloud needs to leap to a rooftop from the ground (TN 7) in the dark (+2). TN 9.

Cloud needs to leap to a high (+2) rooftop from the ground (TN 7) in the dark (+2). TN 11.

Cloud needs to leap to a very (+2) high (+2) rooftop (TN 7) in the dark (+2) while Sephiroth (+2) slices free chunks of said building and sends them plummeting toward him (+2). TN 17.

And so on. I think this is a lot easier than finding out what kind of astronomical forte modifiers one might need on the normal human scale to achieve the crazy TN you'd have to come up with.