SYSTEM-NEUTRAL PROCEDURESection 5 of 5

Worked Conversions and Calibration

Six full worked examples plus calibration questions to check whether a converted element still feels like Mar de Oro.

Use this page when

You have finished the ladder and want examples of how it lands in practice.
You need a template for a specific class of conversion (character, threat, vessel, faction).
Your conversion works mechanically but does not feel like Mar de Oro.
You are training another GM on how to adapt Mar de Oro material.

Each of the following examples uses the same structure: source fiction, neutral profile, mechanical priorities, possible implementation, removed mechanics, assumptions, and calibration questions. None reproduce third-party rules text.

A character

Source fiction: Teniente Ilaria de Vega, a Valdegracian former air-navy officer who now serves as a compañeros contract officer.
Neutral profile: Expert navigator, Trained in naval protocol, Familiar with duelling. Personal to Crew scale. Bond: a former wingmate now serving as an air-navy captain. Burden: an unresolved naval enquiry.
Mechanical priorities: Her authority over other officers must remain legible.
Her Bond and Burden must both create pressure in play, not just flavour.
Her duelling skill must not eclipse her navigational identity.
Possible implementation: In a class-and-level game: a martial officer archetype with a naval feature and a background contact. In a skill-based game: skill pools for Pilot, Command, and Etiquette. In a narrative crew game: an officer playbook with named Bond and Burden fields.
Removed mechanics: Any spellcasting or supernatural resource pool.
Any assumption of dungeon-scale loot or hoard-based progression.
Any morality alignment axis that would flatten her divided loyalties.
Assumptions: The campaign uses letters, favours, and travel time as tempo, not fast travel.
The naval enquiry can be reactivated by GM decision, not by player choice alone.
Calibration questions: Does she still feel Valdegracian in speech, appearance, and priorities?
Is her authority earned through fiction rather than by stat modifier?
Does at least one Bond or Burden move in every session she appears?

A moon-affected threat

Source fiction: A fisherman who has begun to speak in another voice at the turning of the moons and cannot remember it afterwards.
Neutral profile: Personal scale, Trained in fishing, Familiar with the coast, but under moon influence becomes Expert at things he never learned. Sources of pressure: environmental, social, and moral.
Mechanical priorities: The condition is a natural anomaly of Aeon, not a possession or a curse.
The threat is what happens around him, not what he does directly.
Warning signs must appear well before the danger becomes acute.
Possible implementation: A short NPC profile with two modes, a lunar clock that fills as the moons align, and consequences that spill onto the community, not onto a single combat exchange.
Removed mechanics: Any framing as demonic possession, divine punishment, or exorcism.
Any dungeon-monster stat block that would let players 'solve' him with damage.
Assumptions: The community is aware something is happening but disagrees on what.
A local scholar, an academy correspondent, or a faith healer will each offer a different theory.
Calibration questions: Does the situation still feel scientific and unresolved, not resolved by magic?
Is there a non-violent path to change what happens next?
Do the moons matter, not just as flavour but as tempo?

A Fortera anomaly

Source fiction: A stretch of coast where instruments behave inconsistently on days of high tidal pressure.
Neutral profile: Regional scale. Pressure comes from navigation, weather, and cargo insurance. Consequences include harm, delay, resource loss, and political cost if a ship is lost.
Mechanical priorities: The anomaly must remain a phenomenon, not a supernatural artefact.
Study and instrumentation must be a viable route of engagement.
The crown, the academies, and the merchant houses each have different interests here.
Possible implementation: A location entry with an environmental clock, a small number of navigational checks under weather load, and named investigators as social contacts.
Removed mechanics: Any 'ley line' or planar rift framing.
Any single 'boss' at the heart of the anomaly.
Any once-per-adventure magical fix.
Assumptions: The anomaly has been studied for decades and remains partly understood.
The relevant academy will share findings only in return for a favour.
Calibration questions: Does it still read as an unexplained natural phenomenon?
Can players make progress by observation, not just by combat?
Do political consequences follow from what the crew publishes, or hides?

An airship

Source fiction: A mid-sized Heller air frigate operating on convoy escort duty in contested lanes.
Neutral profile: Vessel scale. Trained crew under a Trained captain, Expert master gunner, Familiar Éterlumin engineer. Pressures include position, weather, boarding risk, and Éterlumin reserves.
Mechanical priorities: Position, weather, and command cohesion must all matter.
Éterlumin reserves must be a resource that runs out, not a background number.
The ship must be more than a single hit-point track.
Possible implementation: A ship profile with several named systems (guns, regulator, magazine, bridge), each with its own status; boarding and chase clocks; and a small number of named officers as social contacts.
Removed mechanics: Any one-line vessel stat block that reduces the ship to hit points and armour.
Any assumption of steampunk or magical propulsion.
Assumptions: The convoy commander has orders the frigate captain will not fully share.
The lane has a Heller diplomatic escort clause the crew can invoke or violate.
Calibration questions: Would losing the regulator matter differently from losing the guns?
Can the players negotiate, evade, or sabotage as well as fight?
Does the Duchy of Heller feel present in how the ship behaves?

A faction

Source fiction: A trading house operating between Luminore and Valdegracia with quiet ties to a naval intelligence office.
Neutral profile: Faction to Regional scale. Reach into two capitals, resources of ships and letters of credit, authority through licence and reputation.
Mechanical priorities: Its objective this season must be specific and pressurable.
Its internal divisions must be reachable by player action.
Its escalation path must feel proportionate.
Possible implementation: A faction sheet using the nine standard fields, a public reputation summary, and one hidden vulnerability the crew can uncover with sustained work.
Removed mechanics: Any monolithic 'evil corporation' framing.
Any single leader who, if defeated, ends the faction.
Assumptions: The house has legal cover for most of what it does.
The intelligence office denies the connection publicly.
Calibration questions: Does the faction act between sessions, not only when the crew appears?
Are its methods consistent with its reputation?
Does a player win against it feel like a change in the world, not a scene victory?

An extended investigation or hazard

Source fiction: A slow leak of falsified Éterlumin grade certificates through a provincial harbour.
Neutral profile: Regional scale. Pressures include time, political, and moral. Consequences include harm from an eventual failure, exposure of officials, and changed relationships with the shipping trade.
Mechanical priorities: Progress must be measurable across sessions, not resolved in one scene.
The consequences must escalate if nobody intervenes.
The scientific framing of grade must be preserved throughout.
Possible implementation: A campaign clock ladder with investigation, exposure, and disaster tracks; a small cast of named officials and inspectors; and a fixed timetable of harbour events tied to the calendar.
Removed mechanics: Any 'mystery to be solved by a single check'.
Any single villain whose confession collapses the investigation.
Assumptions: The players will not uncover the whole truth in one arc.
Some of the officials involved are sympathetic and will help off the record.
Calibration questions: Does progress feel like uncovering, not like triggering scripted beats?
Do the clocks move even in sessions where the crew is elsewhere?
Would the disaster, if it happens, feel like an authored consequence rather than a punishment?

Before you finish

Does the result preserve the original fictional role?
Is the scale appropriate?
Does it create the intended pressure?
Are the consequences meaningful?
Have system-specific assumptions accidentally changed the setting?