ICRPG: A Few Months Along

#1

It’s been a few months since I stumbled onto ICRPG and became enamored with its direct, streamlined approach – an approach that preserved all that I love about tabletop RPGs while letting go of much of the complexity I had grown to despise.

I could write a volume about the benefits ICRPG brings to the table, but for me and my group the biggest of them all is that the system allows us to sit down (often on very short notice) and play a fun, story-driven adventure without having to consult a rule book every other turn.

I’ve never experienced a tabletop RPG where the rule book is consulted fewer times during a session than it is with ICRPG. I haven’t actually kept track, but I’m fairly certain we’ve had entire sessions go by where the Core Book is never opened.

Bravo and thank you for the fun! (Hero Coin)

#2

Great post and comments about the system. Your comments echo exactly the magic that now happens when I play.

#3

Well said, my dude. I couldn’t agree more. :heart:

#4

Glad to hear that ICRPG changed the way you and you group play RPGs. It is always nice to hear so called success stories from other people to know that we are not alone in our madness.

My love for ICRPG knows no bounds. Apparently I somehow managed to roll a 1 for my save and keep blundering my save continuously.

:heart:

#5

Just out of curiosity - you come up with any neat or interesting house rules during the journey? I find when the book is away, the “rule of cool” comes into play :slight_smile:

#6

I printed out the loot tables, milestone rewards paths and spells as a separate book and don’t take anything else to the table. If we have an issue about rules then we agree what is fair and logical (DM has final say) in that situation and just do that.

After a session I might read what ICRPG recommended we did, but if I like what we did instead then that’s the new rule.

I don’t think there should ever be a time when rules are looked at during session.

#7

I agree and that’s what I do too - printing only what’s necessary like LOOT tables, spells and such and not keeping the book at the table.

#8

So true, OldSchoolGM! ICRPG is a wonderfully modular system (which I openly admit to gutting, rebuilding, and reskinning regularly)! It’s the only reason I can run as many games as I do, as often as I do. Prepping for something like 5e takes significantly longer so you don’t… break something…

Anyway, long live RPGs. :smiley:

#9

Well said. I remember my D&D 5E preps that lasted for 8-10 hours. Madness, I tell you.

It sucked me dry.

#10

We’ve house-ruled a few things in the heat of the moment and have adopted a few house rules as permanent fixtures for our campaign.

One of our permanent house rules is that if a melee or ranged attack is a natural 20, the PC can choose to either add ultimate to the damage roll or get an easy attack roll on another enemy. The other enemy must be within “close” range of the PC for a melee attack or within “near” range of the first enemy target for a ranged attack.

A second house rule we’ve adopted relates to magic. All of the magic in our campaign is in the form of mystical energy that’s directly channeled/summoned by the mage from an otherworldly realm through an imbued physical object (we call it a medium) and is thus WIS based. We use 11 distinct magical disciplines that are free-form in nature and PCs describe what effect they’re attempting to achieve and then roll.

Applying an area of effect (beyond close) or extending an effect for multiple rounds usually makes the magic attempt hard. Mages can choose to sacrifice 3 hit points (before rolling) to make a hard magic attempt normal or to make a normal magic attempt easy. They can also choose to sacrifice hit points (after rolling) to add an extra die of magic effort to either damage or duration or another effect at a cost of 3 hit points per added die.

A natural “1” has a 50/50 chance of turning the spell effect back on the mage, though they’re sometimes (based on the situation) allowed a check (stat selected based on its appropriateness) to take only half the effect.

A critical fumble (a followup “1” to the natural “1”) means that their magical medium object has been damaged. A damaged magical medium must have 1 heart of basic effort applied to it (following a sucessful INT roll by the mage whose medium it is) for it to be able to again channel magic. We’ve allowed a hero coin to be used to add d12 effort to a successful INT roll for repair.

We’re always evaluating and tweaking as we go!

That’s about all I can think of off the top of my head and sorry for the long-winded reply! ICRPG has been such a breath of fresh air for our table and has unchained the creativity of players and DM alike.

Excellent, excellent stuff.

Onward into dark and dangerous places!

#11

We are here for long winded — like all of us are. Never worry about that part with this group.

I like the magic — 3 point cost is a good idea!

I’ve been toying with the concept of (+1) to the STAT you rolled a nat 20 with to give immediate gratification and a sense of advancement at the table or possibly saying that action you performed is now always EASY. Not sure yet.

I am working on shadowrun / cyberpunk for ICRPG and transitioning to TAGS.

Street Samurai — kill an enemy on your turn and take another complete turn

Katana Master - when using a katana your base TN is always 10

Hacker - roll ULTIMATE when dealing with technology of any kind

Face - social interactions are always EASY

TAGS let you punish the player with gear loss without really jacking up the character they want to be.

I also like the black hack’s take on armor - burn a point to absorb a full hit but then the armor is gone for the rest of the day. So armor 3 means absorbing 3 full hits. On a nat 20 you suffer 1/2 the damage and that point of armor is gone for good - you can never repair it. Each armor point is 10 effort to fix during down times or you have to buy replacement gear.

This allows you to be more aggressive as a GM in a system where players only have 10 hp and let’s them decide — take the damage or burn a piece of armor?

Everyone rolls against the room TN. Makes for a faster time. Armor is not a stat; it only comes from worm gear.

Also working on a system for “leg work” before a run (mission) where you can directly influence the difficulty of the rooms :slight_smile:

Thanks for sharing!

#12

Nice mechanics @OldSchoolGM and @BigGrump. I put them in my house rules document. :heavy_heart_exclamation: