Was thinking of porting over some of EZD6 mechanics to ICRPG….
Was tinkering around with a Freeform Magic System for Arcane and Divine Casters…
And using Karma Points and Hero Dice …
So that is like 80% of the EZD6 System…might need to tinker with these a bit…
It should be fun to play with…
Any of fellow members of the Shield Wall want to help tinker and ponder some these curious notions i have?
Instead of Karma points for +1, you can add +d6 to an Attempt
Freeform magic is already built in to ICRPG, just that everyone loves the spell list. You can use the spell list as a SCROLL LIST instead.
I don’t have EZD6 (yet) but the concepts and the perspective just from watching a couple of YouTube videos have been very inspiring. I just started a couple of coworkers on a game of ICRPG over lunch breaks and we’re running a priestess and an alchemist with no spells. I’ve been having a blast with it and I think everyone else has been as well.
If you’re doing a lunch-time game at work or an office game, EZD6 as is would work really well for your players!
Although, if you have them on ICRPG with Freeform magics, I think you’re on the right path! Rock ON!
I can’t wait to grab a copy! The mechanics sound really cool, but just stealing the mentality from DM Scotty’s vids has already changed my life 
I don’t have EZD6 yet but have seen some great reviews. I love the idea of Free Form magic and ICRPG is well set up to support it. Using the Advanced Magic rules where you boost powers with HP makes for a smooth transition to Free Form Magic. A simple base rule could be a spell with d6 damage, casted at close range at one target doe costs no HP. Adding to any of those parameters or adding a special effect can be done by spending HP. So you can turn your shocking grasp into a lightning blast that hits 1d4 targets at Near range for 1d6 damage at a cost of 2 HP.
Key words would be another system that would would work. PCs can pick 2-3 keywords at character generation and then limit their spells to those. Gain more as quests/Loot.
I started looking at doing this and then stopped… Here’s why:
ICRPG and EZD6 are two sides of the same coin IMO. ICRPG is a bit more crunchy, but that’s only in comparison to how slim EZD6 is.
If you really want to combine them, then best bet IMO is to drop effort, stick with TN and Stats from ICRPG, and use BOONS and BANES instead of EASY and HARD. Hero Coin stays put, no need for the Hero Die as it’s most likely inspired by the Hero Coin anyhow, and they accomplish the same mechanical benefits. Karma becomes +3 to a roll for each used for a quick and dirty math conversion from a d6 scale to a d20. Change Hearts like this: 1 Heart = 3 Strikes, again a quick and dirty conversion.
Magic you can use Free Form magic as is in ICRPG already, just use the circles from EZD6 as the basis to limit it a bit like it is done there.
As far as Types vs Paths, this can either be a manual conversion, leave it as is and only convert EASY bonuses for ICRPG types to BOONS, or use EZ Paths and leave out the miraculous saves and armor saves and use Defense as is in ICRPG.
Hope some of this helps in your endeavors!
This is pretty much exactly what I did to get the lunch break group started. Once they got the base mechanics we added in effort. Now we’re running full-on ICRPG with formless magic. I’ll probably rip off an idea I ran into on here and use the Spell Lists as Scroll Lists, reserving true formless magic for players who start as Mage/Priest or who earn it through serious RP.
I can’t get over how inspirational the thinking in that system is, and I’m so excited to buy a copy of the book.
I’m considering formless magic, how you finding it? Do you use any kind of “take damage to succeed on the spell” like there is in ezd6 when you roll a 1?
I’m not super familiar with the actual EZD6 System, but what we’re doing is on a Nat 1 something bad happens. Maybe something thematic to the spell, maybe just taking damage from the miscast.
I just now saw the house rules that @BigGrump uses (used? The post is from 3 years ago) and he uses HP as stamina. You can burn it to make any roll a success. I’ll probably be stealing that.
I tried to steal the basic idea of “Resistance Dice” when casting. If I think a caster is really pushing their boundaries, I’ll roll a d10 as they cast and if they roll lower than my d10 on their d20, there are consequences.
Another thing we’ve done several times is just used the magic to justify making another roll EASY (Transmute the table, EASY CHA to convince the mercs to switch sides). The caveat is that now failure is a CASTING failure, so you don’t want to fail.
There has been a lot of questions that I have to say “No” to, but I think the questions are all really good, and I think they will end up driving the narrative and character leveling, versus driving us to study spell text.
For magic I did this and it was super fun:
I did away with spell lists and instead made caster types have access to MAGIC. They then created whatever the heck they wanted to do within the above parameters and rolled to try to do it. If the thing they were attempting was above and beyond the list, the roll was HARD or would take extra rounds to complete the spell. If it was somewhat basic, I would say it is a simple action (no roll required) and it just happens. You have to make a caster feel like a caster sometimes.
They ultimately preferred more structure and we went back to the spell lists but this method allows a player to create narratively over a repeating structure of one-off spells. I personally hate playing a caster and doing the same spells over and over again. Warlock eldritch blast for example.
Even though free form magic is very cool, I don’t like it simply because 1) it invites arguments and negotiations with the GM during the game to create an effect a player wants and that takes me out of the moment, and 2) casters become too flexible and that pisses off non-magic users.
I’d disagree, it actually makes magic users as flexible as fighters now, instead of being tied to a spell list or spell slots, in my experience it often works faster because players aren’t checking their character sheets to see what spells they can cast or at what level, they just describe what effect they want to create.
Why switch to a d4 for some effects? We have d10 magic effort, so we just use that for all efforts, ie:
Blast spell does 1d10 magic damage
Restore spell heals 1d10 hp
Entangle spell holds enemy for 1d10 turns
Turn undead affects 1d10 undead
Inspire spell grants 1d10 to next roll
What you say are the upsides, what I say are the downsides.
Which side you lean depends on the table. Freeform magic causes trouble with my group. They like structure and spell lists to choose from.
I get tired of their insistence of pushing their freeform spells more and more. Sometimes it becomes a fight between me and a player and that’s a no-no for me.
Khan’s actually right. I’m sharing what was done in the past as an option but we did switch back to more structured spells. Switching back had nothing to do with abuse though – the two players were disinterested in always changing up their stuff or being creative with their turns. I personally would love that as a caster but to each their own. Since ICRPG is roll-to-cast instead of spell slots, and D4 durations are applied to any lasting effects they could come up with, it tended to balance out with whatever they wanted to try.
Also the D4 is the timer for how long something lasts – not the effort it deals. Timers traditionally have always been the D4.
So last night my “Healing and Protection” Priestess decided to stay making blood-runes to cover the retreat of the party. After she successfully cast a couple of them I told her that in the future, for blood-runes she can sacrifice HP to boost her roll to cast.
So there we are
I agree with Khan. I do, however, have some example situations where freeform works better then prescribed spell lists.