ICRPG How to Play - Target, Hearts and Effort (plus mods).

Getting into the core mechanics of how to play ICRPG, you'll immediately come to the concepts of Target, Hearts and Effort. Target is probably the most unique differentiator of ICRPG over DnD 5e, Pathfinder, and other role playing games. Hearts are essentially 'hit points' for us old schoolers. And Effort is a streamlined way to handle dealing damage. These core mechanics keep ICRPG moving smoothly at the table. Of course, I've added some modifications, most notably the concept of incorporating percentage into the target mix. This is a mechanism commonly used in Call of Cthulhu and other Lovecraft games.
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[@cbcb7524]

You can totally still track HP per digit while using the heart system. You can write the remainder or damage inside the heart and strike them out at ten, carrying the remainder over to the next. Just think of the hearts as tier classifications or a much better system of "rating challenges". I explain it to my players that it's action movie HP. Minions take one, or possibly two weapon hits if players roll low damage, and are out of the fight. Next step up can take several hits, trade insults, and possibly have enough time to put players at a disadvantage before they're dealt with. I will strike out a whole enemy heart if 7 points of damage was done per action, half a heart if 6 or less was done. Love the video series so far, it's gonna be my go to recommendation for players new to the system. Keep up the good work.

[@Alloyed-RPG]

Thanks! I will certainly give the heart system a fair try before giving up on it. I just need to see how the fractions play out on my table. Sounds like you have a pretty good system- I’ll give that a go first!

[@cbcb7524]

@@Alloyed-RPG draw out a group of hearts on several index cards then put packing tape over them to quickly laminate the cards. You can use dry/wet erase makers or charcoal pencils to shade or write the numbers. Players can also track health with these.

[@Alloyed-RPG]

@@cbcb7524 - makes sense (and I have the odd benefit of owning a lamination machine :)).

[@jeanMvang]

For the longest time I've never really understood the percentile die. I cannot thank you so much for giving the traget example. 😮

[@Alloyed-RPG]

Excellent! I think you’ll really like % once you start using it. Happy rolling :)

[@macoppy6571]

Precision breeds complexity. Complexity demands time. Time spent on calculation takes away from storytelling, character development, and cinematic action. ICRPG streamlines the game accounting to maximize the EPIC ADVENTURE 😎

[@Alloyed-RPG]

Yup. There has to be the right balance for sure.

[@frontendchaos]

Percentages: 1d20 is just a percentile in steps of 5. If someone has a 10% chance of success, make the target 19+. I never have a need for 72% vs 70% (15+). (Nothing wrong with percentages, they're just often too fiddly for me.) Target works pretty well as-is, but there are variants. In Bastard Sword by Scott Myers (hard to find now), the Target is 12 + Enemy's Hearts. I've considered changing EASY to be "roll with advantage", HARD is "roll with disadvantage". Depends on whether you want the percent bonus to be a flat 15% (+/-3), or variable based on the target. (Advantage/disadvantage ends up being b/t 3 and 5 modifier.) One house rule I used for a while is that crits lowered the target by 1, and fumbles increased it by 1. Effort: I don't care for how it's categorized; a small caliber holdout pistol and a plasma pistol shouldn't do the same damage just because they're both guns. I also don't feel it should be a "first class citizen" on the character sheet. I go with something more traditional: 1d4 is impaired/minor damage, 1d6 is average (longsword or bow or flintlock or magic missile), 1d8 or 1d10 is rarer, heavy damage. (Ultimate is still saved for crits.) Special abilities and loot can roll multiple dice if it makes sense (the spell system opens the door for this with spells like Lightning Lash), or even give loot that lets you roll damage with advantage. I think it's fine that a trained martial artist does 1d6 unarmed damage, because he's as effective with his fists as a warrior is with a longsword, and a caster might have a mystic bolt cantrip that lets them do 1d4 damage without any power expenditure. Once you switch to this model, it makes more sense to give a piece of loot like "The Identity of Baron Smith's illegitimate son" that applies 1d8+1 effort (a major effect) towards getting him to free his political prisoners (a 1 or 2 heart project). Hearts is only useful as a shorthand if you're okay with it, but 10 HP per heart isn't granular enough for me; 5 HP *is* granular enough though, so I prefer using 1 HEART = 5 HP (hit dice in OSR games tend to be d8s, so each HD is 4.5 HP). Start most characters with 2 HEARTS, maybe mystics start with 1 HEART and a barbarian starts with 3. For enemies though, 10 HP per HEART is fine, but for rabble I halve it (or even 1 HP per HEART), and for champions and bosses I double or triple it. I run for my wife, she rolls terribly *all* the time. Dice superstition is a big deal at our table.

[@Alloyed-RPG]

I definitely like the idea of recategorizing the effort to replace the actual items with more of a relevant scale according to what you know intuitively about a character’s ability - I’ll definitely be using that! Great example on the “freeing political prisoners.” My brain thinks in increments of 1%, so I really do give people 72% odds. I think a 100-sided is in my future 😂

[@ChrisChapmanIAm]

Nice quick reference of the Quintessential One Page Dungeon, perfect for ICRPG.

[@Alloyed-RPG]

It certainly seems like a great match!

[@VanDavis]

I've just taken the Hearts thing as a simplified way to quickly assess something's toughness...I think Hank just considered it easier to look at a monster's stats and say, "Okay...this is a ❤️❤️❤️ monster. This one's gonna take a few turns for them to bring down," instead of rolling for each monster to see if they have 26 HP or 34 HP. I still track the actual points, during combat and challenges. I just mark through the last ❤️ and write the remainder underneath it, continuing down the ❤️ s until they're gone. And I like rounding to 10s instead of worrying about the extra 4 HP in either direction, up or down. I HAVE toyed with the 0.5 ❤️ idea, though...maybe for Kobolds and rats, and other really easy challenges. Then again, it's easier to just say, "One hit, and you've killed them." 🤷🏻

[@Alloyed-RPG]

Maybe I’m more of a bar graph guy (like power meters in video games rather than hearts). I know the hearts work for a lot of people but they’re just too chunky for me personally. Again, though, it comes down to whatever makes your table run smoothly.

[@MillerSean]

Having a hard time wrapping my head around the "Hearts" concept. If you have to apply 10 total "Effort" to remove 1 "Heart"... you're still tallying points. Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't seem to really simplify anything. I already round HP to the nearest 5 on all my monsters/NPCs, which seems to be the biggest benefit they're going for here.

[@Alloyed-RPG]

I think I'll always be a straight HP guy - can't really do the hearts thing, but I get how they're going for the video game "lives" feel.

[@skiffyjoes8586]

the reason i like icrpg hearts! luke gygax did an interview on dungeon craft, he talked about the games with his father as a young man and believes that there may have been a time when gary gygax the father of dnd fudged a dice roll or two so his son could enjoy a victory, a heart warming story of father and son. professor dungeon master has admitted to changing the hp of a monster on the fly for difficulty and story reasons if a monster has 4d6+3 hp there is a lot of wiggle room and i find it tempting to insert my judgement for the same reasons the heart system keeps me honest, if you beat the target ill tell you the hearts of everything in the room ironically the very simple heart system is seen by my group as the more hardcore option now you could do the same thing with traditional hp it would just take a little longer and I'm lazy

[@Alloyed-RPG]

Good explanation. I’m still old school in that I like straight HP. With Alloyed RPG, we streamlined HP and also added an ‘aging’ mechanism for PCs by which their HP declines after reaching 100.

[@coalcreekdefense8106]

The heart system is something I'm torn on. I love the idea behind it, which is simplifying HP. The problem is that you still actually track damage by single digits. It's only MAX HP that's simplified. A more pure implementation of Hankerin's idea is the hit system used in EZD6 and Viking Death Squad. I'm tempted to switch to that, but I have more studying to do on it before deciding.

[@Alloyed-RPG]

We stripped a bunch of things down for Alloyed RPG - check out the rules set at www.AlloyedRPG.com and let us know what you think. Have a great weekend!

[@kyrnsword72]

Like myself it sounds like you would gravitate to a TTRPG system that I love called: D100 Dungeon by MK Games and developed by Martin Knight!

[@Alloyed-RPG]

Thanks - I'll check it out! We ended up creating the Alloyed RPG system. I have to say (biased) it's pretty cool :). You can check that out at www.AlloyedRPG.com

[@GlenHallstrom]

I also use half hearts (AKA 5 HP) in my sessions. If it's good enough for video games...

[@Alloyed-RPG]

I still like my 1hp increments- just can’t get to the hearts but I understand the appeal.

[@andrewcavanagh3946]

I use percentages but I just use one ten sided die to roll for it. So I calculate all percentages in segments of 10%. So a 10% chance you need to roll a 1 on a single ten sided die. A 70% chance you need to roll a 7 or less. You can also do opposing rolls this way. So if two people were arm wrestling, each is given a percentage chance and each rolls a ten sided die. Whoever makes their roll AND has the lowest number wins. Opposing rolls can be great fun.

[@Alloyed-RPG]

That does put a fun spin on it!

[@TrairFrair]

Throwing this out there: in Unknown Armies, opposing rolls are done in a similar fashion. Opponents need to roll below their skill, but the winner is the one who rolls HIGHER while doing so. A more skilled opponent has a smaller chance to fail, and can afford to roll higher. Whether that's at all useful, your mileage may vary!

[@Xplora213]

On the subject of mods, one problem the ICRPG approach of rolling above the target is that we lose the ability to change dice. If we roll below (target 5 instead of target 16) then we miss the chance to adjust the die to a d12 or even d10/d8 to dramatically improve the odds without having the use modifiers. It’s effectively a large plus but for some reason it still FEELS unlikely. Still gotta overcome the target. I suspect Hankerin has considered it already. This idea violates a few principles of ICRPG. But it feels good. We are so locked into the polyhedral relationship!!

[@Alloyed-RPG]

I hear ya. I’d say the overall principle(s) in ICRPG is to do whatever makes game play most fluid and quick at your table. As long as you can get those dice moving fairly fast without a lot of brain noodling, polyhedral as much as you wish! Personally, like Frontendchaos commented, I’m an “advantage/disadvantage” guy (hence the tagline at the end of my videos).

[@Xplora213]

@@Alloyed-RPG advantage is definitely a clever game design element 👌

[@mavfan21]

I never got into hearts. Too limiting. I use old school d8 hit dice. It's easier to make diverse opponents and I have a leveling system for PCs based on the same concept. I also allow for customized effort dice.

[@Alloyed-RPG]

Sounds like a lot of us (myself included) still like good old HP

[@mykediemart]

I would not use percentages in ICRPG. The slight nuance isn't worth it. The great thing about ICRPG is you can tinker around with the system

[@Alloyed-RPG]

I LOVE percentages - but, everyone has their own preferences. Ultimately, that's why we codified ours into Alloyed RPG (kind of a compendium of our homebrew). Happy rolling!