Minimilist ICRPG

#1

I have been on a quest for a massively thematic narrative driven RPG with as close to zero materials as necessary. However, not so much that there is zero mechanics. I don’t want to be merely spit balling a fictional story like you might sitting around a campfire. I want to have distinct PCs and NPCs that will uniquely effect/be affected by the game. That is, I want to keep the idea of classes, character traits and powers.

ICRPG has become my RPG holy grail in regard to an elegant shut up and play system. However, using it as inspiration I’ve been able to take it one step further towards my goal of what I call “minimalist RPGing”.

Consider using nothing but scratch paper, a pen, and some dice. That’s it. No formatted character sheets. We’re just going to take a piece of paper, write down our character name, and then give them an agreed upon amount of tags.

Now play out the game using a room target written down for the table as in ICRPG. When characters attempt anything, they merely role the d20 against the target adding +3 for each tag from their character and/or loot that would apply to the given attempt. Alternatively, you could say if they have an appropriate tag then the attempt for them moves from HARD to NORMAL or from NORMAL to EASY. But as I’ll explain shortly, adding +3 per applicable tag and allowing it to stack is an easy way to further distinguish characters who excel in a given area.

I recently “play tested” it with a Marvel Comics theme and the game went awesome. Here’s Daredevil’s “character sheet”:

Daredevil. Armor 10.Tags: Agile. Combat Reflexes. Super Senses. Stealth.

That’s it! No numbers needed.

With those tags, it’s pretty self-explanatory to the GM and Players that (using ICRPG terms) Daredevil will have easy roles pertaining to attempts having to do with climbing, dodging, range attacks, sensing traps, sneaking and (assuming those involved are familiar with Daredevil) sensing if NPC/Enemies telling the truth. Combat Reflexes we agree means he’s HARD (i.e. +3 to armor) to hit in melee.

Now I want to address the range of a given Superpowers we might see between characters and how we might distinguish them. Here’s how I might make Hulk as a character using these ideas.

Hulk. Armor 15. Tags: Durable. Strong 3. Dumb. Scientist (as Banner).

From here we can easily decide that for Hulk CON attempts are EASY. INT checks are HARD. But if we’re playing that he can revert to Bruce Banner, then as Banner INT attempts are EASY. Finally, because Hulk is “mega” strong compared to other possible characters who are merely “super” strong, we give him STRONG x3 which is a +9 to strength check (you could turn the dial up or down as you see fit). Naturally as GM I could consider other attempt settings based on my character knowledge (i.e. sneaking is HARD for Hulk).

We now have a means to create an entire character using just a handful of tags. Beyond this we just remember BASIC, WEAPON, MAGIC, and ULTIMATE effort as their respective die. But if I want to differentiate a character as dealing more damage than others due to powers, skills or equipment I can add tags like Weapon 1 (d6+1) or Basic 3 (d4+3).

Note that ICRPG stems from the use of index cards for the story/room design, but there is still a recommended full size character sheet. However, with these ideas you can literally make everything an index card including the character sheet (or a corner of scratch paper even).

Clearly this is not for the gamer who wants crunch or is all about specific character stats. But I think for many of us we dig ICRPG in part because we want a fast-moving story driven game. We realize that when throwing d20s around on the table, the difference between a +1 and a +3 isn’t earth shattering.

I’m going to keep play testing this concept, but for me, so far so good.

A big shout out to @DarkwormColt here on the forum who has been on this same path of further simplifying ICRPG as well as @SpicyVikingTofu who’s ideas have helped form some of mine.

Still reading? Thanks, and please share your questions or feedback on this idea of Minimalist ICRPG game play.

Has anyone played ICRPG loot with tags only?
#2

Great stuff!
There IS an index card character sheet in the core book :slight_smile:

#3

Yes, you’re absolutely correct @Runehammer! You’ve given us in the core book full sheet, half sheet and quarter sheet character sheets!

Now thanks to your heavy lifting I’ve further hacked it as outlined here so that I can even fit an ENTIRE PARTY on an index card! :slight_smile:

#4

I really like this distillation. As you identified, it’s not for everyone; but for people who don’t need (or want) mechanics behind their characters, this looks great!

#5

@Wildstar, beautiful ideas! So cool to meet like-minded folks here :slight_smile:

Interestingly enough, the system you’re outlining here is extremely similar to the one I was using. One thing that grabs my attention is your “x3” tag (for instance, “STRONG x3”, equalling a +9 to rolls). I found another notation for my games. The goal was to eliminate all numbers on the sheet:

  • regular tag: STRONG (one word, one +3 to rolls)
  • stronger tag: REALLY STRONG (two words, two times +3 to rolls)
  • extreme tag: REALLY EXTREMELY STRONG or, REALLY FRIGGING STRONG (three words, three times +3 to rolls)

I’m glad you introduced the effort tags because differentiation between output capacity is the one thing I want to keep in my games. We’re freeformers all the way, but as a combatives instructor myself, that’s important in my games :slight_smile:

Please keep us posted – I’ll do the same!

If you’re interested, I wrote a series of blog posts on freeform roleplaying the way people did it before D&D was published. Blog posts on pre-D&D roleplaying:
https://darkwormcolt.blogspot.com/2018/10/play-worlds-not-rules-juggling-ideas.html
https://darkwormcolt.blogspot.com/2019/08/how-grognards-really-played-3rd-edition.html

#6

Very good simplification of rules! Nicely done.

Characters having too much numerical difference makes me uneasy because some tasks become either too hard or too easy but in your example Hulk having +9 to STR is the thematically correct way to handle it. :+1:

Also with such a simple system I see no downsides of using bonuses or penalties that different than +/-3.

Well done. :clap:

#7

I wouldn’t say there are no mechanics – in fact, minimalist ICRPG also uses all the mechanics of the core rules.

  • Stat and effort bonuses are now tags – but the mechanism behind them stays the same (a plus to your roll). If you like a finer granularity, that’s simple: just say “one tag = +1”. Take a tag multiple times to increase the bonus.
  • Classes remain the same
  • Armor remains the same
  • Hearts remain the same
  • Dying remains the same
  • Loots and Spells do change, but their core mechanism remains the same: provide the user with an ability he didn’t have before, or grant a bonus to rolls.
#8

This parallels one of my own side projects minimalizing ICRPG with favorite bits of FATE Accelerated and PbtA.

For me, the OP version is just a hair “too minimal”.

My own speedplay version is taking shape with the power of the “just 10 game mechanic slots per character” and the power of ICRPG “Effort”.

  • 3 Modes (that take the place of Stats, and add +3, +2, and +1 to all attempts in the affected domain: Action, Intrigue, Discovery, Expertise, Social, Resources, Survival)

  • 5 slots for Background Tags (that either add +1 to Effort rolls in their domain (such as Brawling, Gadgets), or permit/unlock a certain type of attempt roll to be made with using an appropriate Mode (such as Expertises like Magic User or Pilot). These can be improved w XP.

  • 2 Custom Gear or Contacts usable for a once per session benefit, possibly from a short menu. (And new menu items can be added via Experience)

#9

I imagine @Runehammer thinking “geez, I’ve already given you the simplest, coolest RPG on the planet! What do you want!? Shrink it down anymore and it’ll disappear!”

The discussion here has given me some more ideas to work with already.

#10

Agreed. I think it should only be reserved for rare cases when a character is largely defined by one thing and are know to be the top of the food chain (Hulk the strongest!!!). It really would be less of an issue in other genres I think. Naturally playing a game you’d need scenarios to hinder them or that they couldn’t answer by their strength alone.

I think one reason I rationalized it as being ok in a blue moon is because a number of the Heroes of the Hammer pre-gens start with +6 stat values. Add a piece of loot and they’re hitting +9.

#11

Beispiel
Beispiel.png607x936 106 KB

This is a sample character, using Tag/minimalist ICRPG. One tag means +1 to your roll. “Pretty tough” is a 2-word tag, thus granting +2 to your roll, “good melee-fighter” is meant to be a +3.

I took @DMChef’s go-to character sheet and changed it. I really like it.

#12

Yes, you are correct. The game and the character have mechanics; but the character doesn’t have a traditional stat block, or the more traditional stat-based increases, which is what I was trying to observe (although it’s rather obvious!). In this way, it’s a lot like Risus, the anything RPG and its characters’ cliches.

I really like this approach, because “crafty” and “graceful” give the player so much more to consider and role play than “WIS 15” or “DEX 12”.

#13

Cool @skippy, I’m going to check out that Risus RPG! After looking at the preview it looks like there’s some meat there to consider!

It never ceases to amaze me how much stuff is “out there”.

#14

I really like the idea of tags at one, two, or three words to determine their power. It’s so simple to remember while offering a player or GM so much creative licensee in describing character traits/powers in cool and fun ways! I admit it beats say, “Durable 1, Durable 2, Durable 3”.

#15

Risus is amazing!
Check out risusiverse.com - you won’t be disappointed!

#16

Didn’t TechNoir use a heavy tags system?

#17

@DarkwormColt, on further reflection, I agree this idea works great for attribute checks (i.e… STR, DEX, WIS etc,) But how would you handle it when being applied to Effort (i.e. BASIC, WEAPON, MAGIC). I’m initially at a loss on this. It seems a little more challenging in this regard, Personally if going the tag route I’d want the the same rule for both attribute checks and effort.

#18

I’m handling it like this:
Every word grants a +1 bonus:

Basic Effort: efficient, very efficient, really really efficient

Weapon Effort: fighter, good fighter, very good fighter

Magic Effort: gifted, very gifted, really very gifted

Ultimate Effort: workhorse, strong workhorse, extremely strong workhorse

You can also work with sentences instead of tags. For instance, Magic Effort +4 could become something like “His/her /its magic is strong”. 4 word-sentence, +4 bonus.

#19

interessting to see how many people try to get more and more minimalistic with game concept. I really like where this is heading

#20

Yah, it feels like the pendulum is swinging back again. I also notice an uptick of minimalist games since the Blackmoor documentary came out a few weeks ago.