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Index Card RPG Core
A fast, fun, friendly RPG for players of all skill levels. This book is comprehensive for your tabletop games, including the very best Game Mastering how-to's, monsters, adventures, maps, characters, and loot! See lots more about ICRPG at www.icrpg.com
218 pages, Paperback
Published April 30, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 2, 2020
ICRPG is a basic universal roleplaying system and the 200 or so pages of the book are pretty densely filled.
ICRPG takes the D20 system to its simplest form. You are given a goal and you roll a 20 sided die with some bonuses to see if you make it. While the game has simplicity at its core, the core rulebook doesn't ramble or carry on more than it needs to. It's an extremely well laid out book that moves logically forward.
The Core Rulebook comes with a stock fantasy setting and stock sci-fi setting replete with locations and cultural notes as well as potential adventure hooks for each location. It also manages to squeeze in rules for vehicles and magic.
If that weren't enough, it also comes with a set of pregenerated adventures to flesh out the two settings as well as to expand your thinking on the system. They've even included mecha and fighter based adventures in case you want to run Star Wars or Gundam-style dogfights.
Combat is usually the most complicated part of any D20 system and ICRPG has taken an almost middle ground approach. The rules still allow for a physical play space and miniatures if you want to use them but ranges have been abstracted into Close, Near, and Far greatly simplifying the process. My favorite part of this is that turn order is dictated by seating placement so if the party wants to shake up their marching order they must physically get up and trade spots at the table. What great fun!
Even though the rulebook is loaded with information, the margins are filled with small sharpie-style art pieces. Though they are black and white and not overly detailed, I really like this art style, especially how it plays with negative space.
All in all, ICRPG is a neat little package and I can't wait to run it.
ICRPG takes the D20 system to its simplest form. You are given a goal and you roll a 20 sided die with some bonuses to see if you make it. While the game has simplicity at its core, the core rulebook doesn't ramble or carry on more than it needs to. It's an extremely well laid out book that moves logically forward.
The Core Rulebook comes with a stock fantasy setting and stock sci-fi setting replete with locations and cultural notes as well as potential adventure hooks for each location. It also manages to squeeze in rules for vehicles and magic.
If that weren't enough, it also comes with a set of pregenerated adventures to flesh out the two settings as well as to expand your thinking on the system. They've even included mecha and fighter based adventures in case you want to run Star Wars or Gundam-style dogfights.
Combat is usually the most complicated part of any D20 system and ICRPG has taken an almost middle ground approach. The rules still allow for a physical play space and miniatures if you want to use them but ranges have been abstracted into Close, Near, and Far greatly simplifying the process. My favorite part of this is that turn order is dictated by seating placement so if the party wants to shake up their marching order they must physically get up and trade spots at the table. What great fun!
Even though the rulebook is loaded with information, the margins are filled with small sharpie-style art pieces. Though they are black and white and not overly detailed, I really like this art style, especially how it plays with negative space.
All in all, ICRPG is a neat little package and I can't wait to run it.
November 13, 2019
This is one of the best Rpg systems I have read in years. Simple. Functional. Adaptable. Create a character literally in five minutes. Rolls are functional, simple. Easy. I need to run her to see how she handles, but I have not been so enthusiastic about a system for years. The designer is a genius. The art is relevant and beautiful. The system can compliment any other system out there. Screw feats, skills, ability scores. Simple, simple, simple but powerful.
February 1, 2023
Dang, I really like this one.
Simple play. Things are near, far, or out of range. Actions are Easy (automatic), a Check (roll vs Target, +/-3), or an Attempt (same as Check, plus an Effort roll). Effort rolls use different dice depending on what you're using to assist you - no weird math, just roll a die. Made a crit success? Still no crazy math, just roll an extra powerful die. Super dead easy to pick up on how this one flows. The bulk of the book is fleshing out smaller rules - dying, levelling, yes everything is loot even your sword, etc.
A lot of this one is about freeform building. A character's background is a single sentence and it's up to the player to make it relevant and actually use it. You were a tragic orphan? Excellent, put those begging skills to use when convincing a shopkeep to hide you from the town guard.
I did find the magic system opaque at best. Still chewing on that part. I'm sad that my group will almost certainly insist on classic fantasy - the sci-fi setting for this system sounds absolutely perfect to me. I want to play a Xill SO BAD.
Simple play. Things are near, far, or out of range. Actions are Easy (automatic), a Check (roll vs Target, +/-3), or an Attempt (same as Check, plus an Effort roll). Effort rolls use different dice depending on what you're using to assist you - no weird math, just roll a die. Made a crit success? Still no crazy math, just roll an extra powerful die. Super dead easy to pick up on how this one flows. The bulk of the book is fleshing out smaller rules - dying, levelling, yes everything is loot even your sword, etc.
A lot of this one is about freeform building. A character's background is a single sentence and it's up to the player to make it relevant and actually use it. You were a tragic orphan? Excellent, put those begging skills to use when convincing a shopkeep to hide you from the town guard.
I did find the magic system opaque at best. Still chewing on that part. I'm sad that my group will almost certainly insist on classic fantasy - the sci-fi setting for this system sounds absolutely perfect to me. I want to play a Xill SO BAD.
July 26, 2023
I’m pretty sure I’ve read this one before. I really like the style of the art and the ‘index RPG’ idea has been a ‘holy grail’ of sorts forever (and so far, not accomplished at all, although I think the OneDice RPG comes as close as possible and as far as d20 goes, Legends & Labyrinths is the cleanest minimalist version I’ve ever read. Of course, I guess you’d have to include TWERPs…).
I remember not having a very good impression of it. Just another half-assed d20 clone that probably works okay with his friends at his home game but would fall apart in the hands of any other group.
But when I ran across a digest-sized hard cover copy at a game convention it still had that art design that I really like and it’s a good looking book. Besides, I read it first on a PDF on the iPhone and that experience is unpleasant enough that I thought a fresh looking with a real live book - could only improve my thoughts on it. Or not. But we’ll see.
“Index Card RPG is just the tool you’ve been looking for.” Jeesh, if I had a nickel for very time I’ve read that in a crappy RPG. Please, let your reader decide that.
And it is indeed a beautiful book. Like felt-tip pen drawings and captions, with a blood red border and occasional splashes of color. It’s like an anarchist cookbook married to a Tim Burton graphic artist.
“Never before have you been so unchained with possibilities!” I really hate this kind of crap. Maybe because it is so often repeated and so often wrong.
“Do it YOUR way.” Yeah, like every rpg ever written.
Don’t get me wrong — I’m ALWAYS hoping that the next RPG I read will truly be ‘different’ and I certainly hope this one is it, but it’s like the guy who brags about being a ‘stable genius’ — no one who has to say that is ever either!
In describing the actions of a turn, under “Move Near, Take Action” it says “This is a lot like real lie, where you often ‘walk to the Asteroids machine, and turn it on’…” Huh? Really? That’s your real life?
So far the same D&D stats (Strength, Dexterity, Charisma, Wisdom and Intelligence) and three Difficulty Classes (Easy, Average and Hard). I can live with this.
Ok, so he’s decided that EVERYTHING has Hit Points that are for some unexplained reason bundled into 10 point “Hearts”. Like a video game! Oh joy. Unless you think video games are mindless and pointless.
He’s also decided that since everything has Hit Points (or Hearts) then he’s changed the word “damage” into EFFORT. And Basic Effort is a d4, weapons are a d6 and magic is a d8. So, two-handed broadsword. Does 1d6. Dagger. Does 1d6. Bleagh. This is easily house-ruled but still seems pretty obviously lame.
For what it’s worth, the problem isn’t the damage - I’d probably fix it the same way I fixed Swords & Six-Siders. Light weapons
1d6-1, Medium
1d6, Heavy
1d6+1 (you could also go with roll 2 an take away the highest/lowest for Light/Heavy).
No, the problem is, you’ll never have a bar-room brawl in your game. A barbarian and a thief walk into a tavern. The say to check your weapons at the door. The barbarian checks his sword and the thief says he has no weapons. They both have daggers stuck in their boots. Why would you fight with d4 EFFORT when you could fight with d6? And then why wouldn’t everyone else?
This is definitely the kind of thing you can hand-wave away in a home game, and some of your players will be okay with that. But most of the players will want to use common sense. And if a dagger and a bastard sword do the same amount of damage there is no reason to ever carry a bastard sword.
Movement continues the bad simplification. As a rule I like simplification. My motto is that RPG rules should be invisible. Only appearing when absolutely necessary and no other time. But here distances are reduced to FAR, NEAR and CLOSE. But FAR is considered 50ft and NEAR is “a few quick steps away. It’s close enough for a spear but not close enough for a dagger.” CLOSE is “face-to-face, toe-to-toe”. See the problem? Now I could be wrong and I’ll correct this if I am, but 50 feet being considered “far” seems really problematic to me. In most games you can throw a knife that far, so you again have that disconnect with reality. A long and a thrown rock can go the same distance (and I’ll bet they do the same damage).
I’ve seen other attempts to simplify to this level and I don’t have any problem with the “idea” (again, both ‘Swords & Six-Siders’ and ‘Treasure Awaits’ have similar ideas). But it’s got to be done in such a way that it doesn’t seem weirdly stupid.
They have briefly mentioned “banana” measurement before but I thought I’d wait until they explained it more thoroughly before I commented on how stupid it is. But really, what can I say?
It appears that the author really expects you to create paper miniatures and play this game like a miniature game. Thus the need for a physical measuring device. Which defeats the whole point of having simplified rules. And having a measuring device that’s not a ruler. And that’s not very accurate.
Is it because he has always played RPGs this way? Or is it because he wants to sell you paper miniatures and index card pictures as well as the rules?
I don’t know. But a banana seems pretty stupid. Nice to know he has fresh fruit at his house all the time though.
Again, not fatal, but not very well thought out either.
Time is interesting in that there are no ‘rounds’. Time is just handled narratively as needed. There is also no initiative, the GM simply goes around the table clockwise regardless. I LOVE this idea. I’ve always wondered if it would work however. I can think of several ways to ‘game’ it and then there’s the person that wants to leave and rummage the refrigerator and then get pissy that you’ve skipped their turn. But I do think this is a nice way to get rid of a lot of geeky unnecessary rules kruft.
The maximum time period it describes is DAYS and by example gives “Build a new wing of the castle, Create a magical item, Travel to a faraway land, Train an army…” Again, not well thought out.
Scoring Loot seems to imply that there are no ‘levels’, but that only acquiring more ‘treasure’ is ‘experience’ or gain for your character. Sometimes the GM just drops kewl stuff on your character and sometimes you have to break open a chest or even a mighty chest to get the stuff.
I don’t honestly get the point of having different chests. So for example, you rescue the princess, defeat the dragon, go to open his Mighty Chest, roll and then fail to open it and the GM says ‘Sucks-bein-you!’. What about the other party members? They roll and some of them get LOOT and some of them don’t?
Also like a video game it appears that food is also LOOT because food heals.
Some good advice about handling player character death in the game, but it is preceded by fuzzy rules.
Stats in this game are all modifiers (rather than 18 Strength, you have a +3) and you have 6 points to divide up among them. This works fine, but with the D&D stats it’s pretty obvious STR, DEX, INT and CON are the most useful ones. The others are dump stats. You also don’t seem to be able to get negative stats. Apparently you can also put points into ARMOR , EFFORT, BASIC WORK, WEAPONS DAMAGE, AND MAGIC EFFECT! WTF?!?!Also introduced without explanation is a “HERO COIN”.
Starting Equipment is Starter Loot (choose 1), Universal Starting Equipment (choose 3) and Weapons (choose up to 3).
This ‘equipment’ follows the video game them. For example “Masterful Boots” just give you a +1 DEX at everything you use DX for.
The Ancient Weapons and High Tech Weapons pages looked quite promising by having a different set of “tags” (keywords) for a wide variety of weapons.
The next page turns it all into a turd by showing that these ‘tags’ don’t have any mechanic meaning, only descriptive. Effectively meaning that there is no difference in the game between a dagger and lightsaber but the GM’s colorful description.
DEADLY for example means ‘Has a tendency to slay its victims with terrible haste’. So, do you want to be the GM arguing with the player about what that REALLY means doing a game? That’s now how I want to spend my ‘fun’ time.
Sure, I guess you could fix this. If you wanted to rewrite this section. But what do you bet that before you do that you have to rewrite vast sections of the game in order to make your rewrite’s work?
For example “EASY TO USE: Any random guy off the street can pick this up and start killing.” Okay, so what does that mean for all the other weapons that DONT have “EASY TO USE” tags? So far I haven’t seen any skill system, so do you just -2 to the use of any other weapon because it’s NOT “Easy to Use”?!
Sure, lots of GM’s can wing one or two of these situations with no problem, but the reality is that after a while these on-the-fly rulings will become really inconsistent, to the point where PCs won’t be able to make decisions based on what they know about their characters and their abilities because they know that the GM may rule differently depending on what mood they are in. Raise your hands if you’ve ever had fun at a game where you were playing the GM’s puppet.
“A SPEAR and a CHAINSAW may both use the D6 Weapon EFFORT roll, but they are vastly different in how they carry and how they are used.” Who the hell is going to play this?
I shouldn’t be surprising that the example character is ‘Krodar the Crusher’ because his player “I’ve always wanted to play a character like Conan!”. In fact, I can’t think of any other character you could play this game with.
“Remember, in ICRPG, all Character progression is done through LOOT, so what you have becomes who you are!” I can only guess that the author was the victim of many horrible D&D games where this was the case and somehow he figured he could make it a whole lot less rule heavy. Which he definitely did. Of course, that’s exactly why I stopped playing D&D in the 70s.
ALFHEIM CLASSES are a pretty typical bunch of fantasy types that have Recommended Gear (meaningless words) and Starter Reward (a magic item, spell or healing power for priests).
“Milestone Awards” appear to be akin to level bonuses and the are all magic items or spells.
The fantasy races (bio-forms they are called) are typical: Elf, Dwarves, Small Folks, Humans and Hill Folk.
The science fiction (Warp Shell) classes are not much different. Tank, Ronin, Ghost, Gunner, Zurin (Jedi I suppose), Blip (Psyker tech), Fragment (wizards), Titan (fighter) and Outsider (aliens). The bio-forms are Mecha, Reptoid, Psycher, Geno (human) and Xill (insects).
Two pages of spells are given next. One of them is WIS spells. Turn Undead is there and Conjure Oak so these are more cleric/druid that psionic/jedi. The Arcane spells are mostly familiar D&D spells. They are all one-line. “Work with your GM to modify anything and everything about…”
Page 48 introduces “Trials are micro scenarios you can play solo or with your group to get accustomed to how the game flows and what makes it unique.” Well, judging by the four example trials, this game is unique in that it’s all combat, all the time.
“So many new questions…” just puts the whole game into perspective. “How do enemies attack me?”, “Does this game run opportunity attacks or penalties to movement for enemies or terrain?”, “Is there a way to subdue the Behemoth without killing it?”, “Who rolls for the monsters?”. The answer? “Find or create the answers, and have fun doing it! That is the essence of every good night at the table with friends.”
So apparently, having rule arguments and fixing a poorly written is the essence of fun with friends.
I have never met or had friends like this. I’ve played games like this however, and no one wound up being friends because of it.
The next example is an ARCHER. The GM gives her a DOUBLE EFFORT against Ape Men cause she says she wants to battle Ape men and a free sword. Fair enough if that’s how you play. If I tried that my players would call favoritism. And they’d be right. Of course, you just give everyone stuff according to the background details they give you but should someone get something better than the others, the players would call favoritism. And they’d be right.
I’ve gone silent because the next bunch of pages are descriptions of their fantasy world ‘Alfheim’ which is so cliche strewn you could replace it without any other D&D style fantasy world of your choosing. Interspersed is scattered ‘adventure seeds’ which are as worthless as any other adventure seeds you might read. NOTE to RPG writers. Unless your world is really unique NO ONE NEEDS IDEAS FOR ADVENTURES. That’s like asking if one has an idea for a movie. EVERYONE HAS AN IDEA FOR A MOVIE. But it’s worthless unless a script is written. And an adventure seed is worthless unless an actual adventure is written!
And don’t give me this bull about a competent GM winging it. These almost always end up as trite paint-by-numbers combat boardgames. If that’s what your group is into, you have fun with that.
“K’toolhu smites many with his silent dread from below the sea. Among these, the most accursed are the wretches of Ynsmuth.” I rest my case.
“A Class Quest is a long tradition in RPG games in which characters embark on a journey to recover, build, or repair a specific item for a specific character to use.” This is complete horseshit. Maybe if you consider “RPG games” to be ‘Monty Haul campaigns’ then it’s slightly possible. But otherwise this is just a munchkin’s wish list.
Now the book gets actually painful to read. After describing the “Alfheim” world - a completely colorless, tasteless, generic fantasy world, we get to the “Warp Shell” galaxy.
This appears to be an amalgamation of the Warhammer 40k world and… oh, guess what? A generic D&D fantasy world.
The phrase “All sizzle, no steak” comes to mind
Example, under ‘ADVENTURE’ is listed this: “You grew up in The Wake, clinging to a micro gravity asteroid and scraping a living on Duranium deposits. That is, until a Warp Shell arrives, announcing that YOU have been chosen to save the universe, and there’s no time to waste.”
What the F is anyone supposed to do with that?!?
“Science Fiction and Fantasy are more similar than it may seem at first. They can even be interchangeable. Try combining all the races, all the classes, and all the worlds you can imagine!”
Especially if you have no imagination other than D&D. So there you have it. “Warp Shell” isn’t the science fiction version of the Index RPG. It’s the fantasy version just called science fiction.
In reading the “Warp Shell World Primer” the way to describe it only comes up with the word ‘blather’.
What is agonizingly boring about reading these “Quests” is that they nearly all lead to weapons which are so mediocre you just wonder if you can’t just buy them instead!?!
The Game Mastery section is next and I’m at least interested in how this crapfest of a system is supposed to be run by actual people in actual games.
Of course, it starts with taking the Oath! Holy crap. The last time I saw this was with Guardians of Order’s BESM system. It was just as pretentious there as it is here.
Okay, it’s a little more pretentious here. First because BESM was actually a playable system and second because “I will be a Terror to Behold” makes it sound like a munchkin fantasy.
Location, Goal, Obstacle (either the page name or chapter name, take your pick) describes how an adventure really only needs these three things and a “few twists to this rudimentary formula..”.
I have a few issues with this. The first is that I’ve personally played many games like this and they have all pretty much sucked as being boring, repetitive and unimaginative.
However, I’m know — cause I’ve left games like this — that many people play games like this and enjoy them. So if it works, it works.
But I keep looking at it like I would be as bored running a game like this as I would be playing it.
Now certainly a great group of great players can overcome a simplistic and boring plot. I play games like that whenever I can. People I enjoy spinning tales with no matter what they are.
But most people don’t find that group of people that easily. And if this is all they are given to run games with they are going to run some very lousy games.
I know people play lousy games. But that’s not what I want to play. So the game needs to bring something more than “Location, Goal, Obstacle” to it. But that’s just me.”
The “Session-End Roll” which is really just a geekier way of saying “End on a Cliffhanger” is not a bad bit of gimmickry. I don’t think it’s as easy to pull off as described — making me think this is probably something ‘thought about’ but never actually done in real life (you’d be surprised how many RPGs are like that) — but it’s an interesting idea.
The “Tribunal” idea seems even more like BS. The basic idea to get feedback on the game and eat with the players sounds good, but at the end of the game, if the game has gone well, is when people are (or should be) drained and ready to go back to the real world.
Certainly there can be some wrap-up XP and maybe ‘how’d you like it?’ But to try to add the social aspect of gaming at the end of a session sounds pretty bogus to me.
The section on Turn Order suggest that it be determined by the seating of the players around the table. It doesn’t bother me all the situations (like playing online) where this doesn’t work. What bothers me is that the examples of how to do this strategically are all about where to place the ROGUE, TANK, MAGE and HEALER.
So ultimately this is all about how to do D&D style combat.
Honestly I don’t know why I’m still reading this book. The “Dynamic Dice” page lists several ways to use dice to keep track of things that benefit the player that rolls badly or punish the spell caster who does too well. The idea being to make “role-playing” a zero sum game that punishes you for succeeding and rewards you for failing. NONE OF THIS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH TELLING A STORY. IT’S JUST DICE GAMES.
And it looks like that’s really all this game has to offer.
“ICRPG AS PLUG-IN” is based on the premise that if the players already have a game system they like then you can use ICRPG to basically dumb-it-down it — players will love it! This game is even stupider than I remember.
“Story Architecture” is notable for two reasons (both bad). First it gives an ‘scenario outline’ that basically only describes one type of scenario - the continuous fight against an enemy.
Second, it suggests “No content left behind” meaning that if players miss an encounter you planned, just move the encounter around until they must hit it!
This has been described as the “Quantum Ogre” (you WILL encounter tha
I remember not having a very good impression of it. Just another half-assed d20 clone that probably works okay with his friends at his home game but would fall apart in the hands of any other group.
But when I ran across a digest-sized hard cover copy at a game convention it still had that art design that I really like and it’s a good looking book. Besides, I read it first on a PDF on the iPhone and that experience is unpleasant enough that I thought a fresh looking with a real live book - could only improve my thoughts on it. Or not. But we’ll see.
“Index Card RPG is just the tool you’ve been looking for.” Jeesh, if I had a nickel for very time I’ve read that in a crappy RPG. Please, let your reader decide that.
And it is indeed a beautiful book. Like felt-tip pen drawings and captions, with a blood red border and occasional splashes of color. It’s like an anarchist cookbook married to a Tim Burton graphic artist.
“Never before have you been so unchained with possibilities!” I really hate this kind of crap. Maybe because it is so often repeated and so often wrong.
“Do it YOUR way.” Yeah, like every rpg ever written.
Don’t get me wrong — I’m ALWAYS hoping that the next RPG I read will truly be ‘different’ and I certainly hope this one is it, but it’s like the guy who brags about being a ‘stable genius’ — no one who has to say that is ever either!
In describing the actions of a turn, under “Move Near, Take Action” it says “This is a lot like real lie, where you often ‘walk to the Asteroids machine, and turn it on’…” Huh? Really? That’s your real life?
So far the same D&D stats (Strength, Dexterity, Charisma, Wisdom and Intelligence) and three Difficulty Classes (Easy, Average and Hard). I can live with this.
Ok, so he’s decided that EVERYTHING has Hit Points that are for some unexplained reason bundled into 10 point “Hearts”. Like a video game! Oh joy. Unless you think video games are mindless and pointless.
He’s also decided that since everything has Hit Points (or Hearts) then he’s changed the word “damage” into EFFORT. And Basic Effort is a d4, weapons are a d6 and magic is a d8. So, two-handed broadsword. Does 1d6. Dagger. Does 1d6. Bleagh. This is easily house-ruled but still seems pretty obviously lame.
For what it’s worth, the problem isn’t the damage - I’d probably fix it the same way I fixed Swords & Six-Siders. Light weapons
1d6-1, Medium
1d6, Heavy
1d6+1 (you could also go with roll 2 an take away the highest/lowest for Light/Heavy).
No, the problem is, you’ll never have a bar-room brawl in your game. A barbarian and a thief walk into a tavern. The say to check your weapons at the door. The barbarian checks his sword and the thief says he has no weapons. They both have daggers stuck in their boots. Why would you fight with d4 EFFORT when you could fight with d6? And then why wouldn’t everyone else?
This is definitely the kind of thing you can hand-wave away in a home game, and some of your players will be okay with that. But most of the players will want to use common sense. And if a dagger and a bastard sword do the same amount of damage there is no reason to ever carry a bastard sword.
Movement continues the bad simplification. As a rule I like simplification. My motto is that RPG rules should be invisible. Only appearing when absolutely necessary and no other time. But here distances are reduced to FAR, NEAR and CLOSE. But FAR is considered 50ft and NEAR is “a few quick steps away. It’s close enough for a spear but not close enough for a dagger.” CLOSE is “face-to-face, toe-to-toe”. See the problem? Now I could be wrong and I’ll correct this if I am, but 50 feet being considered “far” seems really problematic to me. In most games you can throw a knife that far, so you again have that disconnect with reality. A long and a thrown rock can go the same distance (and I’ll bet they do the same damage).
I’ve seen other attempts to simplify to this level and I don’t have any problem with the “idea” (again, both ‘Swords & Six-Siders’ and ‘Treasure Awaits’ have similar ideas). But it’s got to be done in such a way that it doesn’t seem weirdly stupid.
They have briefly mentioned “banana” measurement before but I thought I’d wait until they explained it more thoroughly before I commented on how stupid it is. But really, what can I say?
It appears that the author really expects you to create paper miniatures and play this game like a miniature game. Thus the need for a physical measuring device. Which defeats the whole point of having simplified rules. And having a measuring device that’s not a ruler. And that’s not very accurate.
Is it because he has always played RPGs this way? Or is it because he wants to sell you paper miniatures and index card pictures as well as the rules?
I don’t know. But a banana seems pretty stupid. Nice to know he has fresh fruit at his house all the time though.
Again, not fatal, but not very well thought out either.
Time is interesting in that there are no ‘rounds’. Time is just handled narratively as needed. There is also no initiative, the GM simply goes around the table clockwise regardless. I LOVE this idea. I’ve always wondered if it would work however. I can think of several ways to ‘game’ it and then there’s the person that wants to leave and rummage the refrigerator and then get pissy that you’ve skipped their turn. But I do think this is a nice way to get rid of a lot of geeky unnecessary rules kruft.
The maximum time period it describes is DAYS and by example gives “Build a new wing of the castle, Create a magical item, Travel to a faraway land, Train an army…” Again, not well thought out.
Scoring Loot seems to imply that there are no ‘levels’, but that only acquiring more ‘treasure’ is ‘experience’ or gain for your character. Sometimes the GM just drops kewl stuff on your character and sometimes you have to break open a chest or even a mighty chest to get the stuff.
I don’t honestly get the point of having different chests. So for example, you rescue the princess, defeat the dragon, go to open his Mighty Chest, roll and then fail to open it and the GM says ‘Sucks-bein-you!’. What about the other party members? They roll and some of them get LOOT and some of them don’t?
Also like a video game it appears that food is also LOOT because food heals.
Some good advice about handling player character death in the game, but it is preceded by fuzzy rules.
Stats in this game are all modifiers (rather than 18 Strength, you have a +3) and you have 6 points to divide up among them. This works fine, but with the D&D stats it’s pretty obvious STR, DEX, INT and CON are the most useful ones. The others are dump stats. You also don’t seem to be able to get negative stats. Apparently you can also put points into ARMOR , EFFORT, BASIC WORK, WEAPONS DAMAGE, AND MAGIC EFFECT! WTF?!?!Also introduced without explanation is a “HERO COIN”.
Starting Equipment is Starter Loot (choose 1), Universal Starting Equipment (choose 3) and Weapons (choose up to 3).
This ‘equipment’ follows the video game them. For example “Masterful Boots” just give you a +1 DEX at everything you use DX for.
The Ancient Weapons and High Tech Weapons pages looked quite promising by having a different set of “tags” (keywords) for a wide variety of weapons.
The next page turns it all into a turd by showing that these ‘tags’ don’t have any mechanic meaning, only descriptive. Effectively meaning that there is no difference in the game between a dagger and lightsaber but the GM’s colorful description.
DEADLY for example means ‘Has a tendency to slay its victims with terrible haste’. So, do you want to be the GM arguing with the player about what that REALLY means doing a game? That’s now how I want to spend my ‘fun’ time.
Sure, I guess you could fix this. If you wanted to rewrite this section. But what do you bet that before you do that you have to rewrite vast sections of the game in order to make your rewrite’s work?
For example “EASY TO USE: Any random guy off the street can pick this up and start killing.” Okay, so what does that mean for all the other weapons that DONT have “EASY TO USE” tags? So far I haven’t seen any skill system, so do you just -2 to the use of any other weapon because it’s NOT “Easy to Use”?!
Sure, lots of GM’s can wing one or two of these situations with no problem, but the reality is that after a while these on-the-fly rulings will become really inconsistent, to the point where PCs won’t be able to make decisions based on what they know about their characters and their abilities because they know that the GM may rule differently depending on what mood they are in. Raise your hands if you’ve ever had fun at a game where you were playing the GM’s puppet.
“A SPEAR and a CHAINSAW may both use the D6 Weapon EFFORT roll, but they are vastly different in how they carry and how they are used.” Who the hell is going to play this?
I shouldn’t be surprising that the example character is ‘Krodar the Crusher’ because his player “I’ve always wanted to play a character like Conan!”. In fact, I can’t think of any other character you could play this game with.
“Remember, in ICRPG, all Character progression is done through LOOT, so what you have becomes who you are!” I can only guess that the author was the victim of many horrible D&D games where this was the case and somehow he figured he could make it a whole lot less rule heavy. Which he definitely did. Of course, that’s exactly why I stopped playing D&D in the 70s.
ALFHEIM CLASSES are a pretty typical bunch of fantasy types that have Recommended Gear (meaningless words) and Starter Reward (a magic item, spell or healing power for priests).
“Milestone Awards” appear to be akin to level bonuses and the are all magic items or spells.
The fantasy races (bio-forms they are called) are typical: Elf, Dwarves, Small Folks, Humans and Hill Folk.
The science fiction (Warp Shell) classes are not much different. Tank, Ronin, Ghost, Gunner, Zurin (Jedi I suppose), Blip (Psyker tech), Fragment (wizards), Titan (fighter) and Outsider (aliens). The bio-forms are Mecha, Reptoid, Psycher, Geno (human) and Xill (insects).
Two pages of spells are given next. One of them is WIS spells. Turn Undead is there and Conjure Oak so these are more cleric/druid that psionic/jedi. The Arcane spells are mostly familiar D&D spells. They are all one-line. “Work with your GM to modify anything and everything about…”
Page 48 introduces “Trials are micro scenarios you can play solo or with your group to get accustomed to how the game flows and what makes it unique.” Well, judging by the four example trials, this game is unique in that it’s all combat, all the time.
“So many new questions…” just puts the whole game into perspective. “How do enemies attack me?”, “Does this game run opportunity attacks or penalties to movement for enemies or terrain?”, “Is there a way to subdue the Behemoth without killing it?”, “Who rolls for the monsters?”. The answer? “Find or create the answers, and have fun doing it! That is the essence of every good night at the table with friends.”
So apparently, having rule arguments and fixing a poorly written is the essence of fun with friends.
I have never met or had friends like this. I’ve played games like this however, and no one wound up being friends because of it.
The next example is an ARCHER. The GM gives her a DOUBLE EFFORT against Ape Men cause she says she wants to battle Ape men and a free sword. Fair enough if that’s how you play. If I tried that my players would call favoritism. And they’d be right. Of course, you just give everyone stuff according to the background details they give you but should someone get something better than the others, the players would call favoritism. And they’d be right.
I’ve gone silent because the next bunch of pages are descriptions of their fantasy world ‘Alfheim’ which is so cliche strewn you could replace it without any other D&D style fantasy world of your choosing. Interspersed is scattered ‘adventure seeds’ which are as worthless as any other adventure seeds you might read. NOTE to RPG writers. Unless your world is really unique NO ONE NEEDS IDEAS FOR ADVENTURES. That’s like asking if one has an idea for a movie. EVERYONE HAS AN IDEA FOR A MOVIE. But it’s worthless unless a script is written. And an adventure seed is worthless unless an actual adventure is written!
And don’t give me this bull about a competent GM winging it. These almost always end up as trite paint-by-numbers combat boardgames. If that’s what your group is into, you have fun with that.
“K’toolhu smites many with his silent dread from below the sea. Among these, the most accursed are the wretches of Ynsmuth.” I rest my case.
“A Class Quest is a long tradition in RPG games in which characters embark on a journey to recover, build, or repair a specific item for a specific character to use.” This is complete horseshit. Maybe if you consider “RPG games” to be ‘Monty Haul campaigns’ then it’s slightly possible. But otherwise this is just a munchkin’s wish list.
Now the book gets actually painful to read. After describing the “Alfheim” world - a completely colorless, tasteless, generic fantasy world, we get to the “Warp Shell” galaxy.
This appears to be an amalgamation of the Warhammer 40k world and… oh, guess what? A generic D&D fantasy world.
The phrase “All sizzle, no steak” comes to mind
Example, under ‘ADVENTURE’ is listed this: “You grew up in The Wake, clinging to a micro gravity asteroid and scraping a living on Duranium deposits. That is, until a Warp Shell arrives, announcing that YOU have been chosen to save the universe, and there’s no time to waste.”
What the F is anyone supposed to do with that?!?
“Science Fiction and Fantasy are more similar than it may seem at first. They can even be interchangeable. Try combining all the races, all the classes, and all the worlds you can imagine!”
Especially if you have no imagination other than D&D. So there you have it. “Warp Shell” isn’t the science fiction version of the Index RPG. It’s the fantasy version just called science fiction.
In reading the “Warp Shell World Primer” the way to describe it only comes up with the word ‘blather’.
What is agonizingly boring about reading these “Quests” is that they nearly all lead to weapons which are so mediocre you just wonder if you can’t just buy them instead!?!
The Game Mastery section is next and I’m at least interested in how this crapfest of a system is supposed to be run by actual people in actual games.
Of course, it starts with taking the Oath! Holy crap. The last time I saw this was with Guardians of Order’s BESM system. It was just as pretentious there as it is here.
Okay, it’s a little more pretentious here. First because BESM was actually a playable system and second because “I will be a Terror to Behold” makes it sound like a munchkin fantasy.
Location, Goal, Obstacle (either the page name or chapter name, take your pick) describes how an adventure really only needs these three things and a “few twists to this rudimentary formula..”.
I have a few issues with this. The first is that I’ve personally played many games like this and they have all pretty much sucked as being boring, repetitive and unimaginative.
However, I’m know — cause I’ve left games like this — that many people play games like this and enjoy them. So if it works, it works.
But I keep looking at it like I would be as bored running a game like this as I would be playing it.
Now certainly a great group of great players can overcome a simplistic and boring plot. I play games like that whenever I can. People I enjoy spinning tales with no matter what they are.
But most people don’t find that group of people that easily. And if this is all they are given to run games with they are going to run some very lousy games.
I know people play lousy games. But that’s not what I want to play. So the game needs to bring something more than “Location, Goal, Obstacle” to it. But that’s just me.”
The “Session-End Roll” which is really just a geekier way of saying “End on a Cliffhanger” is not a bad bit of gimmickry. I don’t think it’s as easy to pull off as described — making me think this is probably something ‘thought about’ but never actually done in real life (you’d be surprised how many RPGs are like that) — but it’s an interesting idea.
The “Tribunal” idea seems even more like BS. The basic idea to get feedback on the game and eat with the players sounds good, but at the end of the game, if the game has gone well, is when people are (or should be) drained and ready to go back to the real world.
Certainly there can be some wrap-up XP and maybe ‘how’d you like it?’ But to try to add the social aspect of gaming at the end of a session sounds pretty bogus to me.
The section on Turn Order suggest that it be determined by the seating of the players around the table. It doesn’t bother me all the situations (like playing online) where this doesn’t work. What bothers me is that the examples of how to do this strategically are all about where to place the ROGUE, TANK, MAGE and HEALER.
So ultimately this is all about how to do D&D style combat.
Honestly I don’t know why I’m still reading this book. The “Dynamic Dice” page lists several ways to use dice to keep track of things that benefit the player that rolls badly or punish the spell caster who does too well. The idea being to make “role-playing” a zero sum game that punishes you for succeeding and rewards you for failing. NONE OF THIS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH TELLING A STORY. IT’S JUST DICE GAMES.
And it looks like that’s really all this game has to offer.
“ICRPG AS PLUG-IN” is based on the premise that if the players already have a game system they like then you can use ICRPG to basically dumb-it-down it — players will love it! This game is even stupider than I remember.
“Story Architecture” is notable for two reasons (both bad). First it gives an ‘scenario outline’ that basically only describes one type of scenario - the continuous fight against an enemy.
Second, it suggests “No content left behind” meaning that if players miss an encounter you planned, just move the encounter around until they must hit it!
This has been described as the “Quantum Ogre” (you WILL encounter tha
March 16, 2022
Beautifully simple in its design, Index Card RPG (ICRPG) distills the core of what makes DnD fun while ditching DnD's baggage.
Note: I'm reviewing the newer ICRPG master edition here, not the core edition, but I couldn't find that on this site. Also this is my first time reviewing a game, so this will probably end up feeling totally different from my book reviews.
Ideas: This is where this book shines. Cover to cover, every page of this book is filled with ideas. Many are game-mechanics, others are story hooks or worldbuilding ideas, or just cool pieces of loot. At the heart of this book is the idea of rolling a d20 to meet or beat a target then rolling for effort. Effort is similar to damage in DnD but is more universal. There might be a lock that requires 10 effort to pick, for example. This simplification rolls (pardon the pun) several clunky rules form DnD into one clean process that is easy to teach and fun to use.
Prose: Unfortunately, the prose in this book is acceptable at best. Many sentences are unnecessarily awkward, and there are an uncomfortable number of grammatical mistakes. Normally I wouldn’t complain about this in an independently made game, but this is ICRPG’s third edition. These mistakes should have been ironed out by now. This version also has the habit of referencing something specific from another edition or a supplement without explaining it. For example, piloting rules are referenced but never actually given. This isn’t an issue with how I run ICRPG because I run a pretty loose game, but I could see it being obnoxious to GMs that run a tighter game.
Design and Artwork: I adore the art in this book. The black-on-white pen drawn designs fit perfectly with the DIY theme of the book, while still retaining enough detail to spark the reader’s imagination. Also adding to the DIY theme, the background of all the pages looks like slightly crumpled paper. Sadly, the crumpled paper design is the same on every single page, so it quickly becomes more of an annoyance than a cool artistic choice.
Note: I'm reviewing the newer ICRPG master edition here, not the core edition, but I couldn't find that on this site. Also this is my first time reviewing a game, so this will probably end up feeling totally different from my book reviews.
Ideas: This is where this book shines. Cover to cover, every page of this book is filled with ideas. Many are game-mechanics, others are story hooks or worldbuilding ideas, or just cool pieces of loot. At the heart of this book is the idea of rolling a d20 to meet or beat a target then rolling for effort. Effort is similar to damage in DnD but is more universal. There might be a lock that requires 10 effort to pick, for example. This simplification rolls (pardon the pun) several clunky rules form DnD into one clean process that is easy to teach and fun to use.
Prose: Unfortunately, the prose in this book is acceptable at best. Many sentences are unnecessarily awkward, and there are an uncomfortable number of grammatical mistakes. Normally I wouldn’t complain about this in an independently made game, but this is ICRPG’s third edition. These mistakes should have been ironed out by now. This version also has the habit of referencing something specific from another edition or a supplement without explaining it. For example, piloting rules are referenced but never actually given. This isn’t an issue with how I run ICRPG because I run a pretty loose game, but I could see it being obnoxious to GMs that run a tighter game.
Design and Artwork: I adore the art in this book. The black-on-white pen drawn designs fit perfectly with the DIY theme of the book, while still retaining enough detail to spark the reader’s imagination. Also adding to the DIY theme, the background of all the pages looks like slightly crumpled paper. Sadly, the crumpled paper design is the same on every single page, so it quickly becomes more of an annoyance than a cool artistic choice.
Read
December 19, 2023How? A Bundle of Holding purchase.
What? A semi-minimalist RPG meant to be beginner friendly: every room has a target number, and that's your number for everything you want to do in the room (with plus or minus for certain conditions -- so not _everything_); every type of attack has a die associated with it (using a gun? that's always a d6); character advancement (and death) is sort of videogamey (you advance usually by finding loot, symbolized by treasure chests -- shades of old old Zelda; and health is measured in hearts, which are just 10 hp).
Yeah, so? This bundle includes a lot of standees, that is, little tokens you can print and put in plastic holders to use as miniatures, and they generally are pretty fun/cute to look at. Which is kind of the vibe of the game: fun/cute, a little toyetic. And of course, though there's that idea of there being a core mechanic (and core target number for each room), each setting has its own particularities.
The settings that were also included in this bundle:
* there's a general sorta fantasy setting, along with the post-Snake Men take-over version;
* there's this sf, every planet has a mystical treasure setting;
* there's a superhero setting;
* there's a purgatory torn between Hell and Heaven, but as a Western setting;
* there's an Alien setting;
* there's a Red Dawn, only you're fighting alien invaders (and also for some reason are on a colonized planet?);
* there's the Paleolithic ice age setting;
* there's a cyberpunk setting.
(There's also a D&D-esque adventure for Halflings, called Turnip Knights; and I threw in another game by this company from an indie cornucopia, Viking Death Squad, which is, you know, heavy metal space marines with axes against monsters and does not use the Index Card mechanic.)
Now, I liked a lot of these settings, but I didn't love them; and I liked a lot of the game, but I didn't love it. What I really unabashedly love though is some of the GM advice about how scenes need Danger, Energy, and Wonder; Timers, Threats, and Treats. Honestly, sounds like a lot of fun, cinematic adventure at this person's RPG table.
But honestly, I'm less likely to play this RPG and more likely to borrow some of the presentation here (every realm in the fantasy world has overview, dangers, details, folk to meet, dungeons to delve -- what more do you really need?)
What? A semi-minimalist RPG meant to be beginner friendly: every room has a target number, and that's your number for everything you want to do in the room (with plus or minus for certain conditions -- so not _everything_); every type of attack has a die associated with it (using a gun? that's always a d6); character advancement (and death) is sort of videogamey (you advance usually by finding loot, symbolized by treasure chests -- shades of old old Zelda; and health is measured in hearts, which are just 10 hp).
Yeah, so? This bundle includes a lot of standees, that is, little tokens you can print and put in plastic holders to use as miniatures, and they generally are pretty fun/cute to look at. Which is kind of the vibe of the game: fun/cute, a little toyetic. And of course, though there's that idea of there being a core mechanic (and core target number for each room), each setting has its own particularities.
The settings that were also included in this bundle:
* there's a general sorta fantasy setting, along with the post-Snake Men take-over version;
* there's this sf, every planet has a mystical treasure setting;
* there's a superhero setting;
* there's a purgatory torn between Hell and Heaven, but as a Western setting;
* there's an Alien setting;
* there's a Red Dawn, only you're fighting alien invaders (and also for some reason are on a colonized planet?);
* there's the Paleolithic ice age setting;
* there's a cyberpunk setting.
(There's also a D&D-esque adventure for Halflings, called Turnip Knights; and I threw in another game by this company from an indie cornucopia, Viking Death Squad, which is, you know, heavy metal space marines with axes against monsters and does not use the Index Card mechanic.)
Now, I liked a lot of these settings, but I didn't love them; and I liked a lot of the game, but I didn't love it. What I really unabashedly love though is some of the GM advice about how scenes need Danger, Energy, and Wonder; Timers, Threats, and Treats. Honestly, sounds like a lot of fun, cinematic adventure at this person's RPG table.
But honestly, I'm less likely to play this RPG and more likely to borrow some of the presentation here (every realm in the fantasy world has overview, dangers, details, folk to meet, dungeons to delve -- what more do you really need?)
July 3, 2019
An elegant paring down of the latest iteration of D&D that enables more story with less mechanics. Being more or less a core system with some solid scifi and fantasy anchor settings, it still allows for DIY upscaling for specific types and genres of games, as well as providing examples of some in small adventure outlines (horror with insanity rolls, vehicular combat from bikes to spaceships to mechs). The sections and thoughts on game design and game mastery are worth the price of admission alone, and once you add in all of of the hours and hours of content the creator has online as well, even if you don't play this system you can find something useful to take to yours.
October 15, 2019
Wonderful RPG system, an innovative way to play, great mechanics and wonderful artwork. The system can be easily adapted to most genres, be it fantasy, scifi, modern, etc. The writing is light, to the point, with rules that keeps the action moving and doesn't stop in small details always keeping the action going.
January 12, 2019
Love ICRPG! Index Card RPG is great for spur of the moment game. As a DM it can take some time to plan out a normal game night. But with ICRPG you can get a game going in 30 minutes or less. This is a good way to introduce people to Tabletop RPGs.
April 3, 2021
A mind-blowing way to look at role-playing games and how to streamline and simplify them in order to move combat along to a blistering pace. My brief playtest shows combat taking about half the time of a previous fast system I've used.
October 20, 2018
Nice, fluid system that focussed on story more than mechanisms, but uses mechanisms to enforce the narrative. A system is only as good as the players that use it, so results may vary.
August 6, 2019
The game mechanics here are a revelation for someone who has only really know D&D like me. Simple, yet brilliant. Can't wait to try this out.
January 22, 2021
awesomeness
September 2, 2021
I'm not sure I will play ICRPG per se, maybe have it for playing some one shots with family during the holidays. I will however incorporate a lot of the style of this game.
September 22, 2021
What a fantastic set of brilliant, streamlined rules usable in a variety of different genres and settings. I’m strongly thinking about using these rules at my next game.
May 13, 2022
This is great perspective on way to run a great game that won't take 700 books!
March 19, 2024
Really enjoyed reading this. Gives so many DM recommendations that would help with any system. I love the concepts given here and I have already ordered the Master Edition.
December 15, 2019
Great system in the pages! Not yet tested in the table.
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