CONVERTING INTERLOCK TO SILHOUETTE
...or vice versa

So maybe you've been playing Cyberpunk (or Mekton) and want to see if the Silhouette system works for your group. Conversion is fairly simple, though I'll warn you from the get-go: There isn't a 1:1 conversion between the two systems. However, the tables herein should give you a good basis for converting a character over. Also, don't expect a "standard" character in Interlock to be equivalent to a "standard" character constructed in Silhouette, the point systems used for Stats and Skills are linear in Interlock, but semi-exponential in Silhouette.

So we'll begin with your STATS.

Interlock stats are based on a 1-10 scale, with 6 being the human average. Silhouette uses a zero average with the "normal" human distribution between +/-2, with especially high or low (+3 or higher, -3 or lower) being extremes. This part is easy... Overall, I'd normally say a "60 point standard" Interlock character will end up a few points ahead of a "30 point standard" Silhouette character.

Let's do a quick review for those just tuning in:

What do the stats really mean?

INTERLOCK

• Attractiveness (ATTR):Pretty obvious. How good looking are you?
• Body Type (BODY or BT): Measure of both physical mass as well as overall physique and fitness.
• Cool (COOL): How well you perform under pressure, fear, pain, torture, intimidation, etc. Pure strength of will, as it were.
• Empathy (EMP): How well you relate to other living beings -- people, pets, etc. Humanity is derived from this stat.
• Intelligence (INT): A measure of general problem-solving ability, noticing things, and memory.
• Luck (LUCK): Pretty obvious... In both CP and Mekton, you could also "burn" Luck points to modify your dierolls.
• Movement Allowance (MA): A measure of your character's speed, how fast they're capable of moving. Also equivalent to how far your character can run, in meters, in a 3.2 second turn.
• Reflexes (REF): Manual dexterity and physical coordination.
• Technical Ability (TECH): How good the character is at technical stuff -- repairs, building things, etc. Artistic skills (music, paint & draw, etc) are also functions of a character's Technical Ability. Go figure...
• Education (EDU): Statistic found in Mekton Zeta. General statistic representing the overall learnedness of your character. Kinda odd, since I thought that was what the General Knowledge skill was for. Go fig... For conversion purposes, you may "average" EDU and INT to determine the Silhouette statistic KNO.

SILHOUETTE

• Agility (AGI): Manual dexterity, reflexes and physical coordination.
• Appearance (APP): Hey, lookit that. How good lookin' you are.
• Build (BLD): Measure of a character's physical mass.
• Creativity (CRE): Creative ability. Also artistic talent, problem-solving ability, as well as improvisational ability.
• Fitness (FIT): A measure of the physical fitness of a character. Averaged with BLD yields a character's strength.
• Influence (INF): How well you relate to others, or manipulate them. Actors, car salesmen, and politicians have high INF stats.
• Knowledge (KNO): Overall intelligence and knowledge. Some aspects of problem solving ability, as well.
• Perception (PER): General perceptiveness of the character. How good they are at noticing things.
• Psyche (PSY): Mental stability, angst, and many other characteristics that are hard to quantify (like luck). Characters with especially low PSY (-2 or lower) will exude "bad vibes". If you're using rules for Anime Existential Angst, you may "burn" a point of PSY for a single-point increase in a stat or skill, but only until whatever problem caused the Angst is solved. Then the bonus disappears, but unless XPs are spent to restore PSY, the point of PSY remains spent.
• Willpower (WIL): Sheer strength of will. High WIL characters will be incredibly stalwart. Equivalent to COOL, if you hadn't already guessed.
• See either the Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles, or Tribe 8 rulebooks to see how to determine Stamina (STA), Health (HEA), Strength (STR), and other "secondary" statistics.

As you can see, the stats don't match up perfectly. Don't worry about it... It's not too difficult to figure out whether or your character's Empathy score of 8 should be either a +1 Influence or a +1 Psyche (Hey, if your GM is really generous, you could get both, but I wouldn't recommend it, as too many bonuses gets out of hand really fast). So this is when you start really thinking hard about how you see the character...

A good rule of thumb for stats is this:

• 1 in 10 people will have a +1 (or -1)
• 1 in 100 will have a +/-2
• 1 in 1000 (or more) will have a +/-3

Examples:

He's got a BODY of 9. Is he physically HUGE (+2 BLD is between 95 and 115kg, 200-250lbs), or is he just incredibly fit, say 180lbs (90kg) and just ripped? In the first case, I'd probably give a +2 BLD and +1 FIT, and for the latter, a +1 BLD and +2 FIT.

Ellie, your netrunner, has a INT of 8. Depending on whether or not you see her as being highly educated and knowledgeable (+1 KNO), or is she more creative (+1 CRE)? Book-learning (KNO), or Improvisation (CRE)?

So now let's try out the SKILLS...

Interlock uses the same 1-10 scale, and Silhouette uses a 0-5 scale. The little listing I've got on the Cyberpunk Skills List explains how Silhouette breaks down the skill levels. A good rough estimate of skill level is to divide the Interlock skill rating by 3 and round up.

Obviously there's some skill overlap between Interlock and Silhouette versions of skills, and other skills are outright missing. There's also some skills that exist in Cyberpunk and not Silhouette and vice versa. Additionally, Silhouette has neither limitations on skills, nor Special Ability skills. Take a gander through the Silhouette Cyberpunk Skills List and see what fits.

At this point, converting the character is almost-but-not-quite like building a whole new character...

Wrapping Up...

Take a look at your character, see how things worked out.

For kicks, add up how many character points and skill points you've spent, and compare that to the book values for a "standard" player character (30 stat points and 40 skill points in Silhouette).

FYI, Silhouette Stat and Skill costs are in the table below: