Help with Defense in ICRPG Quickstart

#42

oh good grief. I have proceeded with all previous discussion points of mine from only having seen DnD (obviously) and ICRPG 2e. Since i own a copy of ICRPG 2e i never thought the quickstart would be any different. I saw ya’ll reference CON being part of Defense and assumed it was a new House Rule of Hankerin’s or something. I just downloaded the quickstart and skimmed it because of my confusion. Dang. Who knows what confusion i might have caused by using terms that may not mean the same thing anymore. Dont know for sure unless i go back and read everything I said again ( which i wont do) Sorry guys if i did confuse anyone. (FACEPALM)

#43

Hold on. The most armor a player can have in my games is a 5 and that’s only if they have a 5 in Strength. Say a Dwarf with 5 strength is armored to the gills, then it’s not unrealistic to think the most a gerblin could do to the Dwarf is kill him or her in about 18 seconds.
I mean, I don’t care too much about reality. We are talking about a Dwarf fighting gerblins. But still, 3 rounds for a few pesky gerblins with pointy sticks and rusty knives to take down a full plate covered Dwarf is somewhat realistic. IMO
Explanation: If a round takes 6 seconds, which I don’t really attend to, but is a carry over from 5e that for some reason has stuck with many ICRPG players and GM, then three rounds is 18 seconds.
If a gerblin attack rolls 6+4, that’s 5 damage to the Dwarf. Say the Dwarf has some points in Con. Okay, in three rounds, can four gerblins drop a Dwarf with about 12 hitpoints?
With rolls of (1)=1, (5)+4-5=4, (3)+4-5=2 (7 total). So, maybe it takes them 4-5 rounds, assuming more gerblins don’t swarm the Dwarf, which they would.
Then, I guess it takes four gerblins about a half a minute to kill a Dwarven fighter maxed in both stats and loot.

#44

Using STR as a cap for armor stack is cool! I’ve used it before but dropped it when trimming mechanical fat from my hacks. Might come back to it!

EDIT/extra: I love stats having other uses than just a bonus to-roll.

#45

Why not have constitution block damage like armor points, except instead of repairing armor, your character must rest at night to regain the constitution. It may also be able to be healed in between scenes with magic if you need something to keep your players going for longer missions.

#46

Also a very good option

I still prefer Armor because

  • You have more blocks ( armor can go to 6 , while your constitution will likely be less )
  • Blocking with armor reduces your AC further that day ( so there is lot of strategy in when to use it )
  • There is whole Armor fixing gameplay

It really adds lot to the game. It makes the game easier but with straight forward logic. And it makes it easier for GM to balance. When you as GM go overboard on enemies, players have more options to actually survive :wink:

And Armor STR requirement. That is great idea

#47

so here’s my take

and before i continue, yes i do limit to +10 bonus firstly and i have had a player dump-stat into armor.

One Dimensional Usefulness; When asked to walk a tight rope or balance, they’re screwed, hard rolls in heavy armor, no bonus they will likely fail. They also probably lack attack roll bonuses to hit monsters, so they literally become a brick wall in the game, which is NO FUN to play. (this should be emphasized) Plus if the rest of your party is taken down, what then? you survived, but at what cost.

Spells ; Monsters roll vs Room Target(same with players) in my games, so even if you have amazing AC, the caster only has to roll whatever the room DC is.

Area Effects ; Dex check to keep your footing or you will take 1d4 damage, there is poison smoke in the room, you take damage while in it, etc.

Do i design encounters only when dealing with players like this? no
These are design strategies i keep consistent in most if not all encounters to make sure there is “multiple angles of play” for me as a GM as well as angles the players have to react to. Making scenes dynamic is probably the BIGGEST thing i have had to learn when switching from other games to ICRPG, keep flow moving, keep pressure on.

If your game is a bunch of medieval warriors against another group of medieval warriors, hacking the system is probably best. Reduce base number to 5 armor, or even 0. Loot+Con become your ONLY bonus, adjust bonuses from armor to be less, etc. There are lots of ways to make the change fit the narrative of your game and remember ICRPG is a game that’s designed to be modded by GM’s (and players)

reading this thread i also REALLY love the idea of limiting armor carrying capacity to STR bonus, my simple fix would be 2 STR per piece of “heavy” armor. If my character has 4 con and 2 strength now (base stats) i’m only maxing at 1 piece of “heavy armor loot” otherwise all rolls are hard, or maybe enemies roll easy against me cus i’m blundering about the battlefield.

Anyway, cool discussion loved reading through it, keep hacking!