Hank's CR in ICRPG

#1

Hey shields,

I’ve been adapting Hank’s CR mod (5E HC, OSE Mod) to my ICRPG games for quite a while now and I feel like sharing my exact implementation of it.

icrpg_monsters

CR as HEARTS
Just like HP=CRx10 in Hank’s OSE CR, using CR as an indicator for the number of HEARTS works pretty intiutive. So, a CR of 3 leads to 3 HEARTS.

CR as STATS
Similar to Hank’s STATS=CR+10 I like to use CR as a roll-bonus. So a CR of 3 leads to +3 to checks.

Plain Effort
I don’t use CR as an effort mod, because I feel it’s already deadly enough. Sure it could be added for special monsters or bosses.

Here are some examples using monster bullets with tags (which indicate actions and associated effort)

  • Banshee: CR2, spectral, howling, blink
  • Ogre: CR4, club, roar, primitive
  • Dragon: CR5, bite, tail, breath, wings

Basically, that’s enough to run the monsters. But it also works great with NPC companions like

  • John the Hireling: CR1, dagger, clothes
  • Town Guard: CR2, chainmail, sword, crossbow
  • Animated Tree: CR4, branches, bark

Greetings,
glocke

#2

I like this, using the CR as hearts… and a while back we discuss using monster hearts also as room target modifiers, so you could tie that in add more narrative results to the dice rolls instead of binary pass/fail.

Target + Hearts Difficulty

#3

ICRPG vs D&D5E is hard. But using CR vs TN is entertaining.

Furthermore using Easy/Hard Vs. Advantage/Disadvantage with damage/effort engages the players.

#4

You could also use the CR to determine how many tags the creature might have, or how many actions it can take on a turn. Great stuff!