Minimilist ICRPG

#24

how many tags can a PC have?

#25

So, because people have mentioned tags adding numbers I think the raw character creation and loot does this very well. Loot gives characters special abilities so loot already kinda acts like a tag.

I would actually suggest making tags more powerful. I would say each tag allows the character to roll with advantage (roll two d20s and the player chooses what result).

So a character that has a tag of hunter vs. Gambler are very different and very good at what they do.

#26

I think up to 5 is good. That way you have enough variety to cover what a character is doing power variety wise while not getting too unruly. But really what ever the group sets going in.

#27

Dang, you are blowing my mind. This is even simpler (in a very good way).

#28

The problem with this approach is that rolling with advantage is not cumulative. It’s not stackable. You only ever get that one advantaged roll, but you can’t improve it.

Numerical improvements are better for our purpose.

#29

Let me know where you want to try out this minimalist idea. I like to play test it with you to see how it works out. I think it has a lot of potential I’m really excited about to see where it goes.

#30

What about, if using his suggested Advantage rolls, allowing to stack the rolls where by increasing the odds (mechanics) is the flavor to differentiate power levels.

Using your ideas of number of words in the tag but as number of advantage rolls instead of stat increase:

Spider-Man is “Super Strong” so be gets to roll 2 d20 and uses the highest when making a STR attempt .

Hulk is “Strongest One Ever” so he rolls 3 d20 and uses the highest result when making a STR check.

What I like about it is that it keeps the math to a minimum. But rolling more dice and choosing the highest result does “feel” like a character’s tags/powers gets to shine.

#31

My advantage pitch is more aimed at using the rules as written plus tags.

For pure tags, like has been discussed I would maybe do something like this:

Tags do not have word counts but can be improved up to x3.

Each level of tag provides +2/+4/+6.

#32

The problem lies in the mechanism itself. Starting with “double advantage” (roll 3d20, lock best), the returns are diminishing super quick - you don’t really have a significant differentiation any more.

#33

My latest version of the rules is online: Way of the Exploding Sword – action-gaming with ICRPG

#34

That’s the point, as I read it. It’s literally “you have an advantage in having a good roll here” not “you are guaranteed a better final reusult”. The whole point of the roll is variability, and the risk of failure (and the joy of success in tough rolls). The D20 5E “advantage” mechanism satisfies that nicely in my mind: it’s easy to remember, easy to compute, doesn’t slow down the flow (you can roll 2d20 at once, rather than roll one, then decide whether to re-roll it), and still maintains the risk of the dice.

The inverse mechanism, disadvantage, is similar: you roll 2d20 and use the worse of the two for your roll. This is, again, a smooth way to disadvantage a character without making it a foregone conclusion that they’ll lose.

Any appropriate modifiers still apply to dis/advantage rolls, so your loot, abilities, situational bonuses and the like are computed on whichever die you roll. This can still present some super fun “just barely passed/failed” rolls!

#35

I love all these ideas. I’ve also been working on a tag-based system, influenced heavily by ICRPG.

One concern I have with stackable tags is it can suck away real time at the table. I have played games of FU RPG where calculating all the bonuses and penalties applicable to a single roll took as much juggling as D&D 3.5: two minutes at the outside. Not fun.

If I wanted to keep it simple and swift, I’d have each Tag grant +3, and allow up to two tags per roll. I’d keep EASY and HARD exclusively for circumstantial modifiers.

#36

Andreas, above, I’ve linked to the latest version of my rules. Maybe take a look, I’m doing things in quite a similar way.

#37

Have you read thru my KYMERA setting? There are some rules on custom power armor creation that may be adaptable to what you need… here is the excerpt from the book…

Distribute 10 syllables among 3 categories: HEALTH, OFFENSE and DEFENSE. Every syllable in HEALTH adds 5 points to Armor Soak and +1 ARMOR. Every syllable in OFFENSE increase weapon effort 1 die type. Every syllable in DEFENSE absorbs damage by 1 die type. Roll the die to reduce the damage by amount for every attack. Name and Number your power armor.

This is not a new concept in RPG systems. (its been around for many years.) But if you were to adapt it to your needs, it might work something like this…

Distrubute # of syllables among the # of categories/stats/skills/loot you want your character to have. This can be predetermined by the character sheet or freeform… in this case we can use the same example we are working with in previous posts, the HULK.

Each syllable either provides a mechanical bonus/penalty per syllable (+1/-1) or a multiplier bonus/penalty for each syllable (x3). The bonus or multiplier can be used as a power level indicator depending on the needs of your game (fantasy vs supers for example, although they could be interchangeable, but that’s another conversation)…

So lets make an assumption of 10 tags (always 10 max at creation) 15 syllable (max for a supers style game)

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

HULK

  1. Natural Armor (5 syllables, Armor Bonus)
  2. Impenetrable (5 syllables, HP Bonus)
  3. Super Strong (3 syllables, STR bonus)
  4. Dumb (1 Syllable, INT penalty)
  5. Scientist (2 syllables, Skill Check Bonus)

Total Syllable Count = 16 (15 positive syllables, 1 negative syllable [DUMB])

By taking 1 point in a negative syllable, it allowed the player to make a PC with more points than the 15 syllable cap.

Now each syllable can apply a mechanical effort bonus/penatly based on the number of syllables:
BASIC = 1 syllable
WEAPON = 2 syllables
MAGIC = 3 syllables
ULTIMATE = 4 syllables
[more than 4 syllables adds a bonus to the roll.]

Since this is a Super Setting, I would use the multiplier instead of the bonus. So every syllable would allow a +3 bonus mechanically.

so we come up with the following…
HULK: Natural Armor (+15 AC), Impenetrable (+15 HP), Super Strong (+9 STR), Dumb (-3 INT), Scientist (+6 SCIENCE [As Banner Only])

The learning curve is short, but steep. Once mastered, it should be fairly easy to come up with anything you can imagine… I hope that gives you some ideas for getting the game you want to your table.

Game On!

#38

Wow! that was a lot to read through but very interesting! There are a lot of great ideas here.

Just a couple thoughts here:

Perhaps this was already considered but how about allowing characters to have a certain number of words that are used for the tags? For example, a new character would start with something like 10 words to make any number of tags with, for each word in a tag a +1 is given in a roll with a maximum of 3 words per tag.

Personally I think that picking the single best tag to use for a roll would be more streamlined than adding up and using a number of applicable tags. I think this would speed up gameplay by minimizing the amount of possible debate and AP involved in choosing multiple tags for a single roll.

I’ll be thinking on this for a bit.

#39

I agree… My method is more convoluted and your suggestion would keep it simple. Love it…

The only thing I would do is reduce the number of words for character creation to 3-5… maybe giving bonus words for bioform or milestone bonuses. … Game On!

#40

You’re right, 3-5 words is far better than 10 and bonus words for the bioform and milestone bonuses sounds great too!

#41

Hey! Adding on inspiration and references, have you tried SCROLLS & SWORDS! and/or Risus? Those are as barebones (yet genious) as an RPG can actually get. Awesome ideas btw.

#42

This is a great idea! I was planning on running a game later for my young daughter and some friends. I’m gonna give this method a try :+1:

#43

Somewhere in discussing this someone did bring up Risus to me. I like what it’s doing with tags. I just want a little more to the combat (such as the effort & hearts of ICRPG).

I have not heard of Scrolls & Swords but will now that you’ve suggested it as a good option for this idea of gaming. Thanks!