Hey all : ),
I’m going to be running my first ICRPG game this Sunday and I was wondering if people who have experience have any common mistakes they’ve seen or done with someone coming from GMing 5e and how to avoid them. Any insight is appreciated
EDIT: Hey all : ), we all had a blast yesterday and I wanted to thank ya’ll for the advice! It really did end up helping
From my experience when I have players who join in from 5E backgrounds they have a mindset of “if I don’t have an item or skill that says I can do X thing then I can’t do it”
In ICRPG skills and loot are very rules lite and therefore you can do a lot with your imagination.
Try and have 1 sentence descriptions for loot and skills which will get the PC’s to ask “Can I do X or Y with this?”
That the GM is playing the same game as the players.
The Target Number (TN)for the GM is the armor class or defense of the player character, not the TN of the room.
(Except in special situations).
Higher TN is not the only way to make things harder…throw extra monsters their way!!! Leave the TN at 10~12 most of the time.
Always have a timer going…it might be when the Ninja attack, or simply when the bugbear might notice the Party. Or anything you want a timer on.
One of the big ones is Effort and second is Loot.
Effort replaces all die rolls and players gripe at first (at least in my xp) but they soon see the simplicity in it…(at least the non cromag types do)
Loot has its own challenges as they replace skills and feats for the most part…and are destroy-able (if thats an word).
Do NOT prep your games like 5e. Don’t think about numeric balance and just let your intuition guide you through the dificulty adjustments. Yoy don’t have a list of preset options, but rather you’re expected to imagine places, people, situations and challenges and bring them to life using ICRPG’s mechanichs.
My players struggled with the no-levels/no-classes approach of gameplay. With LOOT as progression, classes don’t really define your character, or more accurately, restrict them.
Have a few examples on hand of games that show character progression but don’t rely on levels/classes to define roles. Also, have a few LOOT-based progression games on hand to show how much fun they can be. The main point of this is to show players how successful games like this can be, and how much of a crutch leveling up can be for designers. Here are a couple examples:
Link from Legend of Zelda, Snake from Metal Gear, Master Chief from Halo: name-brand characters that don’t require levels to feel great progression. In Zelda LOOT empowers player options and expands their verb set. In Metal Gear the environment tests players to remain undetected, while an ever burgeoning arsenal gives more tactical options in those environments. In Halo understanding weapon strengths and enemy strengths/weaknesses shows a player’s mastery. Each of these examples gives great lessons for ICRPG GMs of how to build engaging games too!
Dark Souls: character “builds” focus around a few core stats to reflect big changes in play according to LOOT. Make cool LOOT, make builds that make better use of the LOOT. Also, changes from one play style feels concretely different from another. I try to make those styles of play feel as different as I can to make a build feel tangible to players.
Dead Cells and other Roguelikes/Rogue-lites: The Character is a constant and players make use of LOOT they acquire to make it further into the games. Players have a limited verb set that is expanded by LOOT they acquire to make them stand out on each run. Those games are fast, furious, and are all about experimenting to find the sweet spot of each player’s preference.
I hope that helps get your imagination going and gives a way to communicate the new way to play to your players. Best of luck!