Hello Everyone, im Nettaros, i found about ICRPG a month ago, and im in love, i think that is the system that i feel most comfortable with, but i need help understanding how to give the Milestone rewards to my players.
*) How do i do it?, the Milestone Reward just materializes out of nowhere and the PC grabs it?
*) Is just in a Chest that the party loots and they found the item and say “It’s for you Vorgraden, you are the Guardian that has this item listed in your Milestone Rewards”?
*) Or it can be like a blueprint that the PC creates in his head and that means that they have to make a quest to craft it, but if for each PC they have to make an adventure for their Milestone Reward, sounds crazy to me!
This is the thing that i don’t understand fully, i made it so the Milestone Rewards are permanent skills the PCs have and they learn or improve in the Milestone Moments, but i feel like im missing something.
So that’s it, i apreciate any answer , and thank you for reading this far.
See ya!.
Help me understand the Milestone Rewards
First answer, milestones can be whatever you want…this is a DYI game…so totally up to you…
Second answer. They are the D&D equivalent of a level up. In most cases, the player chooses From a few choices. But see first answer.
Third answer…something that makes the character a more efficient version of themselves.
Are they treated as loot, where they can be destroyed, lost, stolen, given away? Up to you and your players. ICRPG has evolved a lot since second edition and third edition will include these possibilities in plain language, sometime between now and 2 years from now I am guessing.
Tags, originally just for loot, can be attributed to characters…sharp sighted, shaman, sneaky, strong.
Altered State, is the current game world, that takes most advantage of this, allowing players to take 3 or 4 tags that each offer their own choices.
The hard thing to wrap your head around is damage potential and or survivability are not the point, but fun characters are.
Knowing your players wants/motivations and what keeps them engaged with the narrative you are running is most important.
So, in summary, as written, Milestones can be loot, but they can be anything. They are a level up, in a game that 5 levels is pretty much where you are going to max out on.
Hey! I’m glad you enjoy the system. This is my favorite set of mechanics too! The good news here is that milestones can work however you want them to. Unlike DND where leveling up is tied to experience, and takes way too much time, icrpg is great because it encourages rewards in the moment and sporadically through the night.
A couple cool ways to do milestones could include getting a “shopping list” of loot items your players want and sprinkling them on enemies for them to find during battle. The best part here is that you learn what the items they want are capable of and can test drive them on the party before they earn them to show them what they could do.
Another way could be in treasure chests, which would allow for a reward in the aftermath of a battle, or during one if the rogue wants to spend time picking locks during a stressful situation. Who knows the milestone in the chest may even make the difference between life and death. This way of handing out milestones is also a way to hand out treasure from both a shopping list like before mentioned, or random loot rolls, which can be super fun and even have the players switching around the focus of their character… maybe the tank finds a spellbook and now wants to become some sort of eldritch knight?
The last way, which I use most often, even if it’s the most boring way… is to let them choose a milestone at the end of a session where they achieved something cool (basically every session). this could happen any number of ways,
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the party ends the session in an abandoned tower, they find ancient relics strangely themed towards their character archetype hidden in the area while they are camped out, before they hit the road again.
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Perhaps they finished the session by defeating a boss type enemy, they loot the lair and choose something thematic to that bad guy.
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They could even finish their night of gameplay by returning triumphant to the local lord who bestows gifts upon the brave adventurers.
I suppose in summary, there are a ton of fun and interesting ways to hand out the milestones, but as an undoubtedly badass GM, only you truly know what will feel right in the moment at your particular table. I hope this helps, as always feel free to use, modify, or ignore anything I just said…after all who am I, but some lumpy headed stranger from the internet 
STRENGTH, HONOR, and Milestones!
Addendum: I totally forgot about tags and non loot items! (Thanks @Paxx for the reminder in your comment above) these cool abilities/ character quirks/ thematic cool nuggets of role play inspiration are first outlined in blood and snow, which if you haven’t gotten, I highly recommend throwing a dollar in ole hank’s bucket (Patreon) and scooping up that rules supplement, along with all the other awesome stuff he has posted there! Tags can be given similarly to the methods I outlined above, perhaps at the end of the session they pleased the local lord who grants a boon (knighthood or some other social rank) upon them which grants them esteem in the community which can be instrumental in gaining aid from townsfolk… or the lord pays a master to train the PCs in a skill of their choosing, or something (queue the montage music!). Maybe they earn a tag by doing something cool during a scene (defeating a particular enemy, surviving a devastating blow, or coming up with an unusual but awesome solution to a problem). The only way to hand out a tag as a reward that wouldn’t really work is the “find it in a treasure chest” option. Again, I hope this was helpful!
@TheWunderLich as always incredible thought process!!!
There is so much flexibility in the system that we forget more than we remember.
I guess @Nettaros we get into questions of setting and where you want to go? Samples of our ideas can take you far, but knowing importance of narrative vs mechanics vs playability vs player interests can help focus our stupidity into a finely sharpened knife that allows you to cut the game you want your players to experience.
From my experience, let your players experience ICRPG as written. Then at the end of a story, explore where you and your players go…then come back with retrospective knowledge and ask for advice. ICRPG can take you anywhere.
As can D&D 5E. Or any game system. ICRPG can just get you there in a more elegant way with less adjustments than any system I know to exist at the moment.
ICRPG’s modularity is the coolest and most daunting part of it. But if not trying to be incredibly particular and specific you can play most anything.
May I also suggest the characters get a lead on where to find a particular milestone? It might not be for all groups, but some teams might feel that if they all participate in gaining one person’s milestone, it would help with group cohesion. It becomes an improvement 'for us because we all quested to get it for one team member.
Thank you guys for your answers, you are giving me ideas and i can understand the idea behind Milestone Rewards.
It’s a cool idea , i guess i want to make the Milestone Reward more important to the character.
With Milestone “Skills”, your character grows stronger from the inside, is like they are improving, with Milestone “Items” i feel like they just found one randomly, and these items just happen to improve what they do with the other ones they have. Maybe i have to think a cool way of giving them, that makes the players feel like “This is especially for you”
This sounds really cool, im using it for sure!.
Thank you again guys!.
I was thinking in the kids game I run that I would do something like in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, where a DM npc walks out from behind a rock or tree and says “Hey adventurers I see you may need some items to help you on your adventure. Here Fred, for you I have a magical axe…”
Rereading the original question… I realized I never really answered it.
“It depends”
Assuming the milestone Is chosen by the player…I recommend whatever is convenient. if loot, he has a feeling something important is buried just under this tree…next loot box he opens, if more nebulous, after a dream with a deity, after a revelation had while doing his morning forms…
There are millions of ways, but I would recommend for a long story, make the milestones a downtime activity and let the players describe what they did to get them, after they earned them through heroic actions you supervised.
Or have a trainer type, where you describe how it feels to have the new ability and they have a safe way to test their new capabilities with a few rolls and such, while not risking the death of their character.
I would only recommend you keep it consistent to the narrative. Some characters may have a trainer, some have dreams, some a minor quest, some gain deeper understanding through everyday actions, and others by sudden instinct.
But if a character usually has the trainer and a different character has dreams…don’t switch things up just be cause ‘reasons’ (you want to change things up) you need to add depth there. Keep the world real for the players.
Sounds really cool, all the answers gave me a lot of ideas, and now i can think many ways of doing it, Thank you!.
Had a similar idea, but the PCs are like Champions of the Gods, every PC has one God that guides him, and every Milestone Moment is just the God Creating a Magical Reward that appears in front of the Character, like helping him in the journey, maybe with a few words from the God and you keep going.
Thank you all again for answering the question!
@Paxx @TheWunderLich Thank you so much for your insight. This was one of my main “peeves” of ICRPG, that advancement is based on loot and its refreshing to learn I looked at it too literally. My mind often confines me to think literally and I have a hard time “breaking” rules so this helps me greatly.
No worries homie. I used to be the same way. Thankfully, the other lumpy heads here on the forums helped me get a more flexible outlook on the way games work and break my rigid way of thinking
Exactly! In our games we use item loot as treasure usually found during the adventure and as tags/stat bonus/heartstone, as milestones rewards at the end of a session, depending on the role playing during that session.
For example, if a player has crafted several items during a session of play, they may gain the tag “tinker” or “blacksmith” and future rolls are easy when crafting the same category of item. Or if they have made several successful stealth rolls they gain the tag “sneaky” or obviously “stealthy” and something like they make no sound when sneaking.