Thoughts on ICRPG

 

So, I am not sure what this post is really going to be but I have a feeling that it is going to a pseudo review and just my thoughts on the game in the general. 

I first discovered ICRPG when its 2nd Edition was released years ago. I was really excited for it after reading through the quick start and  I ended up ordering all of the books for it and reading through the book off and on. I ran some demos of it at a local store and then I got involved in some other campaigns and my focus for ICRPG fell to the way side. The books eventually ended up on my bookshelf and I moved on to other personal projects. During this time I forgot how amazing ICRPG was and how much it really did things right in my book. 

To be honest, I forgot about ICRPG until the Master Edition was released in conjunction with Modiphius.  I got excited about the game all over again and I picked up a Master Edition copy as soon as I able to. I spent a lot of time reading through it and then I got connected with the Patreon which quickly led to getting connected with the Shield Wall and the community at large. I also had the opportunity to interview the owner of Runehammer Games Hankerin Ferinale, which was an great opportunity. This also happened to be the first interview I have ever done on my blog and Hankerin Ferinale or Mr. Hank as I have come to refer to him as has been great to communicate with. I also cannot say enough good things about the Shield Wall (the community of ICRPG fans and other Runehammer Games). Everyone has been really welcoming and helpful. There has also been some great off topic conversations and I have met some good people. 

Though, what really made everything click into place for me about ICRPG was the videos from Kane. His Youtube channel is called Kane's Kiln and I cannot recommend his videos enough. As I was watching them, I was taking some notes and nodding my head. 

Anyway, before I go on I should probably talk about the system and a few other things first so everyone has a reference point. One of the many design principals behind ICRPG is that characters, rooms in a dungeon, etc. should be able to fit on an index card. Yep, that is what the IC stands for in ICRPG - Index Card Role Playing Game. 

Creating a character consists of a couple steps.

1. Determine a Concept
2. Choose Your Life Form (Functions as race or heritage)
3. Choose Your Type (Functions has class, archetype, etc)
4. Write a One Line Story
5. Assign 6 points to the core states (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA)
6. Calculate Defense (10 + CON + Loot Bonuses)
7. Assign 4 points to Effort (Basic, Weapon, Gun, Energy/Magic, and Ultimate)
8. Locate Status Information (All heroes start out with 1 heart - 10hp, there is a space for a hero coin, and a mastery track)
9. Record Abilities (these are things that are intrinsic to your character, can't be lost. Characters start off with one and can gain more through progression)
10. Record Powers/Augments (If playing in setting where these are used)
11. Get LOOT! (choose one starting loot from your type and three basic loot from your world)

With everything recorded, you add up the appropriate bonuses and are ready to go on an adventure.

The basic resolution mechanic is 1d20 + modifier vs. a target number. This resolution covers everything. With this core mechanic, it creates three types of actions. Though as usual. GMs can resort to free form percentile chances if a character wants to attempt something. 

And three types of turns once a situation is triggered where play gets broken down into rounds.

I know what you are are thinking, seen one d20 system seen them all right? WRONG! ICRPG takes what you think you know and forges it into something fresh, intuitive, and smooth. The game does this multiple ways.

Target Numbers: So, instead of having different target numbers for different things in the same room or scene, having adversaries with different armor classes, etc. Each room, scene, situation has a single target number. This single target number encompasses all tasks and how hard the adversaries are to hit. If the fiction/ability/loot decides to make a situation or adversary harder or easier, it is a simple +3/-3 modifier to the target number. There are some great resources like target cards out there for quick reference at the table and to show all of the players what the target number is. 

Effort: This aspect of ICRPG really turned on the light bulb in my head and I think it is a part of the ICRPG that really shines. Effort is way for characters to accomplish their goals, especially in extended situations. 

Each character has multiple types of effort they have access to.:

• Basic d4: Efforts with bare hands
• Weapon & Tools d6: Damage with weapons and whatever situations would benefit from tool use
• Guns d8: Damage from firearms
• Energy & Magic d10: Damage and effort from energy based technology or magic
• Ultimate: This is usually reserved for critical effects or very powerful and rare technology or situations. 

This means, that during an attempt (such as an attack, climbing the Cliffs of Insanity, cracking a safe, hacking into a mainframe, arguing a point in court, etc.) if the target number is met you get to roll effort for effect. Adversaries and other situations have hearts. Each heart equals 10hp. Once your total effort meets the heart requirements, you succeed at the task. Whether that be fighting a zombie or trying to break out of jail. Sometimes, like trying to break down a door, once you meet the target number, the GM will not have the character roll again to hit the target number and will just have the player roll effort. 

Hero Coin: The all powerful meta currency. Any player can only have one hero coin at a time. There are a 1,001 ways to earn one and other players can gift you their hero coin if they see fit in your time of need. Spent a hero coin, and reroll. That easy!

Loot: ICRPG is a Loot based system and this idea is something I have never seen before. There is no traditional level based advancement or much of a linear advancement. Everything is loot based. Outside of some type/bio-form abilities, all of the characters abilities and bonuses come from loot. A character can have 10 equipped pieces of loot and 10 stored pieces of loot. Only the equipped loot can provide bonuses and abilities. It is also important to remember that loot can be lost, destroyed, and stolen!

That last statement translates as power and progression is not permanent and the characters power levels can go and up and down depending on what loot they have and what situation they are in. 

This also takes away the need for a currency based experience system and currency focus of a setting or adventure. So, in town situations become reliant on bartering which I find more RP enriching. Though there are optional rules to introduce currency in the game as well Kane's system on using coin in more of the loot based way.   I prefer Kane's system myself but your mileage may vary. 

Some examples of loot are:

• Gilly Cloak: Armor, +1 Defense, a leafy cape, roll EASY stealth in natural surroundings
• Torch: Illuminates NEAR for d8 rounds
• Mithril Vest: Armor, Subtract 2 from all weapon damage against you
• Soldiers Rations: Food, heal 1d4 HP

Movement: Instead of having feet, meters, movement squares, five foot steps, etc. There is near, close and far. That is it - easy to manage movement zones. It makes immersion so much easier and more consistent. 

Recovery and Healing: This game really handles healing well and has an action that any character can take! It is the recover action - take an entire turn to catch your breath, slap a bandage on your arm, gather your resolve, and meet or beat the current target number with a Con roll to recover Con +1 HP instantly. Healing can also happen with magical aid, medical aid, and from various other sources. Honestly, I think the recovery action is pure genius. It really gets rid of the need for a traditional party make up (Healer, Tank, DPS, etc.) and stops healing abilities from being locked behind a certain type. 

The most interesting aspect of this is that it also creates resource management. In a crucial moment do you sacrifice your turn for a second wind and maybe prevent your imminent demise or do you soldier on and help your fellows win the day?

Dying: I have experienced a lot of different mechanics for character death and have written my own. Though, ICRPG takes all of that and throws it out the window. When a character reaches 0 HP, they falls unconscious, all effects that they were doing stop, and a d4 is rolled. You got that many rounds before the character bites the dust. Though there are a few things that can migrate the imminent demise. 

The first one being is that every round after the d4 is rolled, roll a d20 and if it is a 20, you stabilize with 1 HP. The second option is someone else can come to your aid and try to stabilize you with a INT or WIS roll. If all your dying rounds pass, no natural 20 is rolled, and no one comes to help you then that is it! No backdoor, no last chance, no deal with Death or the Devil, and no passing the GM his favorite snacks.

GM Section: This is the Coup de Grace of the whole book! It is THE best GM advice I have ever seen in an RPG book and even dethrones my love for the AD&D 1E DM Guide. The section starts off with the OATH OF THE GAME MASTER!!!

I will let that sink in for minute. Go ahead, take your time. Reread it, light some candles, meditate on it.

Alright, welcome back. So this section covers all kinds of things like:

• Getting Started
• Locations
• Thinking in Sessions
• Sessions Ending/Cliffhangers/Etc
• Easy/Hard Cases
• Using Hearts
• Initiative and Turns
• Giving Rewards
• Dynamic Dice
• ICRPG as Plug-In
• Story Architecture
• Three T's
• Three D's
• Encounter Architecture
• Using Cards as Dice
• Target Numbers
• Timer Damage
• Defense Rolls
• Vehicles
• Horror Mode
• Adventure Building the Index Card Way
• Index Cards
• Wizards Lock

I could write my thesis on this chapter with a healthy dose of game theory but that is for another time. There is a very important section of this chapter that really helps define how a GM runs ICRPG over other games. This is the...

Three T's: These stand for Timer, Threat, and Treat. This basically means that every encounter has a timer (a time table when something will happen), a threat (monster, trap, etc), and a treat (a way for the characters to overcome the threat). 

For the Timer, the GM rolls a d4 and sets it out on the table for everyone to see. At the bottom of every round the timer tics down. When the d4 reaches 0, something happens. This could be a patrolling monster, a trap is activated, high winds pick up, a door locks, etc. The possibilities are endless. Sorry Mr. Hank, but the GM could even use a d6 depending on the situation or the whims of said GM. I think this creates an living environment where nothing is stagnant waiting on the players actions. I do not know about you but I have been in many frustrating situations where the rest of the party spent why to long trying to come up with and arguing about a plan before entering the next room (I am talking about 30 minutes +). I remember one of these instances, I got so fed up that my character jumped up and yelled "Come on you filthy apes, do you want to live forever?" and charged into the next room. But I digress....

The Threat is exactly what you think it is for the encounter. Is it a monster? A trap? A puzzle? A portal opening? Threats do not always have to be obvious and if the characters are in a dungeon/ruins/haunted mansion/warehouse the threats can change from room to room or however you want to section it up. 

Now we are at the Treat. The treat is basically the key to the puzzle, a way to disarm the trap, the missing scale on the dragon, and so on. It could even be items hidden in the room, secret doors, a piece of a map, a way to deactivate the guardian,  or something to eat. These treats could be out in the open or hidden. The treat could be anything and effective treats should get the players to think outside of brute force and be creative about solving problems. Each threat should have a treat, regardless of how minor.

Before I go into my closing thoughts, there is something else I want to mention. In ICRPG you also get multiple worlds that give you plenty of information that makes it feel alive but there is enough room to make it your own. These worlds span space and time and there is a world for every group. I also think these give a design bases for someone to create their own world. This may just be me, but the term worlds over setting brings to mind the adage, “play worlds not rules”. There is five core worlds in ICRPG that make up its own multiverse if you will. These are:

• ALFHEIM: A continent of kingdoms and conflicts millennia old, all held together in some way by the evil of an ageless dragon called Durathrax. The king has gone missing, powers are shifting, and your friends are caught in the middle.

• WARP SHELL: The cosmos hangs in the balance as our heroes get the ride of their lives on a sentient, space-folding starship with an unerring taste for danger, and a talent for saving the universe.

• GHOST MOUNTAIN: Between heaven and hell, the people of Ghost Mountain fight to save their souls, one bullet at a time. Will the devil get his due?

• BLOOD AND SNOW: Long before the age of technology, a frozen planet holds a primal secret. Tribal folk struggle to understand... and survive.

• VIGILANTE CITY: After the mutant crisis, superhumans begin appearing all over this embattled city. It becomes unclear who the good guys really are...that is, until you and your team arrives to clean up the streets.

Alright, I know a went on a rant about my lost love for the d20. This still holds true but ICRPG is an exception. I think this is because of how smooth and seamless it runs. I really don’t feel like it has anything that slows it down. If I am being honest (sorry for the people I am going to be offend with this statement) ICRPG even makes games like Old School Essentials, Swords and Wizardry, Five Torches Deep, OD&D, etc. feel clunky. I think that is the true magic of ICRPG, it just works, works well, and is flexible. As a person who prefers wilderness scapes and city scapes over drawn out dungeon crawls I can attest that ICRPG works with any play style and it can be as combat heavy or RP focused as the group wants. As stated previously, inside the ICRPG Master Edition there are five different worlds that show you how flexible it can be and functions within these worlds without any major adjustments. You so not need an add on to play in any of the worlds or an additional book or supplemental rules.

Another great aspect that I personally find genius is the use of dynamic dice. One is called Battle Fury - place a d6 on your character sheet at 1 and add that number to the next d20 roll. Every miss bump up the d6 by 1 and use the new number. When a d20 roll succeeds then you reset the d6. The logic behind this is it can can be used in moments where the dice are no one’s friends to help stop a whiffing session. The second one is Spellburn - place a d4 on the 1 and for each spell a caster uses increase the die by one. When the die reaches 4, the caster makes a INT or WIS and if he succeeds, it resets to 1 but if the result is a failure, roll the spellburn die and for that many rounds the caster cannot use spells. This is great for world specific “how magic works” to help to keep casters from becoming to transparent and making the same action over and over again. This brings us to the Blunder - it is a critical fail on a 1 on the d20 with any attempt or check. 

One of my biggest surprises with ICRPG was that I did not feel the need to create house rules that affected any of the core mechanics, character creation, etc. I do have some notes that have come as suggestions from the shield wall that I want to include in my game but they are nothing that affect any mechanics. I do not remember the last time I have experienced this. It was surprise but a pleasant one. I think the only things to watch out for is for the GM to abuse the timer and turn it into a way to punish the players instead of using it to keep the world moving and breathing. 

ICRPG sits in a sweet spot of gaming in many aspects. The design choices obviously come from years of gaming experience with first hand knowledge from multiple games and table interactions. All I can say is pick it up and experience it for yourself and join the shield wall! If for nothing else, then for the layout and the GM section. You can find it here:

• Modiphius
  
• Drivethrurpg (PDF AND SOFTBACK!!!)
  
• Forums
  
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• Sci Punk (A collection of three worlds - Bearcats, Altered State, and Xeno Dead Zone)