I’m going to try to keep this to the point haha. After homebrewing FF:ICRPG I’ve gotten to have a bit of experience playing in other’s one shots and learn more about running the game (watched a few Kane videos too).This forum has been a great. All that to say my next project is trying to hone the home brew i made to feel more in line with ICRPG. I feel like I was making it with to much DND 5E on my mind. So how do People run close near far exactly? As in if you were to homebrew a spell from dnd that was 60ft range. In ICRPG would that be far or double far? would you even let a spell have that much range? Also any tips when it comes to trying to homebrew something from a game or other table top into Icrpg in general. I really appreciate the shared wisdom.
Homebrewing media into ICRPG(spell distance into Close,Near,Far)
Hey @DryScythe,
Everyone’s ICRPG is different, but here is how I generally run things with regards to your questions.
If a spell had a range of 60 feet, I would call that FAR. In my games, that means the spell can affect pretty much any target in the scene. The exception to this is scenes with larger scale - a 300x300 foot cavern for example.
You could argue that 60 feet is “double far”, that wouldn’t break your game. So long as you are consistent and those words (near, close, far, double far) mean the same thing each time you say them, you’re good.
I might use a spell range of that sort. I don’t usually worry too much about that though, to be honest. I usually categorize spells as touch, near, far, within sight. Effect shapes might be added (a near cone, a far cone), and rarely I will add other things (“that crawls outward”, “that erupts from this point and radiates outward”, “that contracts inward”, “that creates an impassible ring”, etc.).
Just wing it man, you got this! There is nothing wrong with your ICRPG having a particularly 5E flavor.
AC
If no grid I use the “banana rule” in the book; for miniatures on the table close is touching, near is within the length of a banana and far is past a banana. Everyone knows the average length of a banana but its not precise enough to cause arguing at the table. We also use double far within some reason: a bow can shoot far, a long bow can shoot double far at HARD. As for your 60 ft range I would look at what the spell does and try to find it’s “intent”, I would probably do double far for 60ft in D&D but use my gut to tell me if it should only be Far.
For classes we use a grid and its with kids so close is adjacent, near is 3 squares, far is 6 squares and double far is 7-12 but not much can shoot that far. I like to keep that tight so the kids are focused in and work more as a group. I would most likely adjust this for playing with adults if they wanted me to.
Woot for projects! Better share what you come up with 
As for your questions, here are my takes on it.
How to run CLOSE, NEAR, and FAR?
Most of the time it’s just a rough guess-timate, taking into account the scale of the room. Close to me is always anything that you can reach without moving. NEAR is whatever I can reach (or reach me) with a few steps. If you would have to casually say, “Hey, come over here” to someone they would be within NEAR. Far is anything I’d have to make a concerted effort to reach in a single go or need to run to reach. If I have to yell, “Hey, come over here!” Then that’s within FAR.
As for spells specifically, I wouldn’t sweat equating 60 ft to DOUBLE FAR or FAR exactly. Try to just capture the essence. “Oh, this spell feels like something I can cast from far away. I’ll say it can reach FAR.” Also don’t feel like you’re limited to CLOSE/NEAR/FAR. All visible, all in earshot, within a mile, etc… are all acceptable options. Just other tools for your toolbox.
Homebrewing tips in general
My main philosophy when homebrewing or converting something is just to capture the essence with ICRPG mechanics. Don’t worry about every specific, nitty-gritty element. That worked for the source material. Let it be it’s own thing in ICRPG.
I’ve never played 5e but here’s a random spell: Hunter’s Mark
Hunter’s Mark (WIS): Mystically mark a single creature within FAR. Add 1d6 to all damage dealt to the marked creature for 1D4 Rounds.
Left out all the extra bits and just capture the essence of the spell or whatever.
Hopefully, that helps!
I run the ranges like this:
CLOSE: Directly adjacent (with a grid it would be any 5’ space next to the character/target/etc)
NEAR: Up to 25’ away or in diameter from the point of origin
FAR: Up to 50’ away or in diameter from the point of origin
DOUBLE FAR: Up to 100’ away or in diameter from the point of origin
That being said I run games exclusively on VTT and this measurement seems to work out really well scaled to maps in Roll20 (but it is honestly a little loose at the NEAR/FAR ranges to contribute to fun factor). Double far can often be far enough to go off screen and it is not used much. Were I to run this on tabletop I might lengthen the measurements a bit but keep it “in the ballpark” so to speak.
I think most of the spells from 5e could could probably be converted into the range setup in ICRPG simply enough (not that I know the ins and outs of those spells though).
Where I have it in mind to do some converting of some games/comcepts at some point (that may quite possibly never happen) I have converted a lot of D&D 5e monsters into ICRPG and I follow this setup process:
- Select HEARTS based on overall strength that I am after for the game loosely based on the HP
- Choose a single STAT number based on the stat block (sometimes I will have an extra stat number if there is a standout value but this is rare and usually only done with big baddies or NPC’s)
- Choose the number of actions roughly based on the power level of the monster
- Write down 3 standout actions/powers/abilities based on the descriptions in the book (sometimes I make up my own if there are none listed or if I want to make them more interesting)
- Make up a couple basic gear items that the creature would have if they can use gear
- Write down either an appropriate LOOT table or a LOOT item that goes with it
Hope that helps!
I do nearly the same except…
- CLOSE=5 feet (adjacent square or within one figure base if gridless)
- NEAR=30 feet/10 yards (or approx. 10 meters)
- FAR=60 feet/20 yards (or approx. 20 meters)
- DOUBLE FAR=120 feet/40 yards (or approx. 40 meters)
Since my dungeon tiles are 10’ square (and most of my terrain buildings are multiples of 10’) this works slightly better in my case.
Once again, Jeremy has it spot on; like most things in 5e, converting directly to ICRPG from 5e hit points works fairly well at low levels but does not scale well at all at high levels, so powerful creatures like giants and dragons at my table tend to have 5-8 hearts HP.
Example spell port using ICRPG ranges, etc. — Sleep
Soooooooooooooo this is what I figured after years of running ICRPG… YMMV
I use a large eraser to measure CLOSE.
I use a pencil to measure NEAR.
Anything further than a pencil is FAR.
An unsharpened pencil is about 7 inches. at 5 feet per inch being the standard square, 35 feet range is NEAR.
An Eraser is 2.5 inches long, so that is about 12 feet… I rounded it down to 10ft is CLOSE.
The rest is FAR.
I hope this helps and doesn’t confuse you more.
Game On!
~Ezz
Short answer: your trust level was 0 in the system.
I don’t know why. I think, @Ezzerharden, and this is just a guess, when you went crazy with links everywhere a while back, discourse flagged your account and lowered your trust level. Or maybe it’s from where you attempted to deactivate your account a while back.
In any event, I have reset you to trust level 3, which is “regular member.” See if that makes a difference and let me know.
I’ve just run it as:
CLOSE: arm’s reach-ish, maybe with a few steps. Boxers and fencers are both CLOSE when they fight.
NEAR: in the same room or general vicinity; too far to punch, but you could poke 'em with a pole/spear.
FAR: beyond near; arrow range; in another room
I’ve never felt compelled to measure these distances with any household items. I also try to keep things off a grid or board as much as possible, since I think it adds to the artificiality of movement in RPGs, with the “you move, then I move” paradigm, when in reality, we’re all moving at the same time, and reacting to how each other are moving. So, if the PC is approaching a person who wants to stay away, they’ll be moving away as the PC approaches, not after. That probably doesn’t help, and I don’t have a system to resolve it; I just try to think about it, and hope you will, too.