Index Card RPG [A TTRPG Review]

ICRPG is a easy to pick up and play game with a great amount of flexibility. There’s a lot both old hats and new players can enjoy with this system!
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TIMESTAMPS ##
00:09 Book Construction
01:34 Layout and Design
03:23 Building a Character
10:30 Core Mechanic
16:04 GM’s Guide
20:18 Conclusion
21:48 Coming Up

[@antoniusmaximus3174]

Literally the best version of D&D on the market. My only recommendation is Instead of use standard initiative, use d6 group initiative it makes it so much faster its not even funny. It also adds a bunch of drama and excitement when the players roll first initiative multiple times and the tension when the GM rolls first initiative a few times getting the drop on the players. Or my personal favourite you roll a tie and you go back and forth in a chaotic melee. Very fun version of D&D I highly recommend it.

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

I am a fan of group style initiative.

[@antoniusmaximus3174]

@@DMTalesTTRPG Its the best way to go in my opinion, its just faster. I also enjoyed listening to them plot and scheme lol it was awesome.

[@AJBernard]

Great video! Thank you! I really can't wait to start playing ICRPG.

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

It is a very cool system with a lot going for it!

[@SeanFranchise]

I use timers and effort for pretty much every system I run - theyre so versatile and useful when you need to draw things out or put the players on the clock. I'm running a wilderness exploration game of PF2e right now, and thr players are racing a rival party to their destination, and opposing effort rolls for progress make tracking it all a breeze. Such a great system and so many great little mechanics and tips to spice up pretty much any game!

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

Yah. I am going to be using a TON more timers!!!

[@TinyTactician]

can you expand on how you use effort in other systems? do you lift the rules as written?

[@SeanFranchise]

@@TinyTactician most often I use it when the players need to make incremental progress toward a goal like overland travel, knocking down a steel door, translating a spell from a scroll/book/runes, or attacking a part of a large monster or machine. I determine how much Effort (usually 10, add 10 per extra level of difficulty/delay) is needed, and players who are successful in their checks roll an effort die per the ICRPG framework (1d4 for basic > 1d10 for magic). It's important to note that this doesn't need to be used for everything - I only use it when the scenario needs something to delay the players against impending doom, or to track slow progress against dwindling supplies. There should always be some kind of pressure or timer working against the players, otherwise you can resolve the situation with a simple check or two.

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

I do love the effort concept.

[@daddyrolleda1]

Great video and great review! Really helped me to understand the differences between the Master Edition and the one I have (a soft-cover book; I think it's the "CORE" Edition). I'm a big fan of the Timer Die as well, and it was fun to see it explained more in depth in the book. I don't play ICRPG "as is" but basically borrow bits and pieces to use for my B/X game. Thanks!

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

Thanks! I think it’s pretty cool.

[@earlgrayman982]

I really like some of the video game style mechanics in ICRPG hearts, room numbers to roll against, even the stats as modifiers but the loot thing doesn't work for me. It makes it too gamey unless you're playing casually. It basically becomes a video game with that mechanic and sometimes it works for a campaign but most of the time its just weird. I much prefer classes with modifiers. Other than that its a great universal system that almsot anyone can learn. The index card thing really sold me on it since I got covid a while back and I've had massive 'brain fog' from it. I leaned heavily into that for game prep.

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

Covid brain fog is horrid, sorry you’re struggling with it. I’m interested in exploring the loot concept. It’s video-game like, but in a different way than hit point and power bloat of other games. But I’ve not played with it long term so I don’t know if I’d like it for that kind of game. We shall see! Thanks for the comment!

[@Joshuadmathews]

Cool showing off of Gamma World's box in the background. Played with family over cmas break and it was great. Have since took the deep dive into 4e. Both ICRPG 2e and Iron Falcon 75 came in the mail this week from Amazon. I think for our family game night this summer I'm going to choose IF'75 and run it more stranger things esque. Originally got ICRPG to toolbox some of 4e/GW so far can only think of streamlining difficulty class for encounters since Gamma already streamlined a lot of 4e's mechanics anyway. I have both Maser Edition and 2e, so itd be cool if I could conglomerate that somehow with GW's streamline of 4e's rules. I also have found that GW 4e ruleset makes for a really good supers ruleset and have modified some of the TSR Marvel stuff for it removing squares/tiles for how the TSR maps used basically zones- which I guess is very ICRPG to begin with, very quickly I figured out that 4e isn't dependent on squares and tiles - one combat took place vertically on the side of the a building with Thing occasionally chucking up cars from city street bellow. Milestones reminds of Cortex's Marvel Heroic RPG and that had a LOT of ideas on how you could handle milestones. One session I played is that if character unlocked certain milestones or earned them I guess they unlocked certain things inside the story itself and in a way there is a sort of player choosing aspect, do you unlock this for "character advancement" in the future for your character or do you unlock some cool thing within the narrative to make the story cooler or better. So there were two types, personal milestones (which technically don't have to be prewritten and therefore ie railroaded you could technically treat these all organically through roleplay and character arcs) OR mission milestones and/or easter egg milestone (kind of like the concept of finding a secret door in an old school ttrpg but this time because you found cool easter egg narratively that will help make X later on in the mission easier). Overall, instead of thinking of "advancement" as leveling up OR empowering your hero via equipment and treasure OR shaping narrative unlocking storybeats, one concept to try is just maybe let the player choose what "leveling up" looks like for them, lay out all options on the table, metaphorically, and make it all viable and then let them perhaps organically choose what seems cool for them to represent their character advancing through their story-arch and growing and changing from where they started out in "chapter 1" of their story.

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

You know, I picked up that box set YEARS ago. Long before I got back into the hobby during the pandemic. I’d hoped to run a game for my son and his friends, but didn’t like the collectible card mechanic so I kinda forgot about it. I keep meaning to review for the channel but it keeps getting bumped! And I used to LOVE FASRIP Marvel’s area movement concept! Thanks for your thoughts on advancement , too. I do like how growing the character is opened ended in ICRPG.

[@nabra97]

I ran it recently as the first game I ever hosted. I like that there is significantly less stuff to worry about for me as a GM, but the whole "I don't know, it's your game" thing is a bit hard when you have no experience; also, it is confusing to me how progression works as well (it wasn't an issue in a one-shot, but I want to run a short campaign at some point, and I'll need to figure it out before). PS: I own a PDF that I got for $5 during some sale (I didn't even intend to run it at that point, just grabbed it with "I may need it later" logic). Ordering a copy from the US to where I live could become a logistic nightmare.

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

Ugh: sorry shipping is a pain. I did find progression a tad confusing at first. Basically you have the progression attached to the class and the different paths. You can choose either as progression rewards when they become available.

[@nabra97]

@@DMTalesTTRPG I mean, I live between two cities (it's a long story), and I don't want to move my stuff from place to place a lot, so I would probably stick to a pdf anyway. What confuses me about the progression paths is "you can choose any object of a tier available to you from any path" and "you get tier one object every session, their two objects every couple of sessions, and so on, with their 6 objects appearing once in a campaign" being parts of the same mechanic. Perhaps these are two different ways of doing it, but it's not really clear from the book.

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

@@nabra97 yah. It’s mostly two different ways. But it doesn’t have to be.

[@TheIoPC]

Hmm... I think I'd like to try this for a someshot. Not sure if I'd like it for a full campaign though.🤔 ~ Adam

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

I think it can work for either, but a one shot is a great way to kick the tires!

[@kingerikthegreatest.ofall.7860]

How does it compare to dewey decimal rpg?

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

I can always count on you!

[@blazeesq2000]

The great thing about ICPRG is that you can't min/max or power game. The worst thing about ICRPG is that you cannot min/max or power game. I want to run it, because it is easy to run. But really the scaling is just a matter of raising the difficulty level. It was as a 12 -15 DC. Next it is 13-16 DC and so on. It works when the minions are 12 DC but the characters have +6 or because of loot or milestones. But that is what it is. How do you all create a sense of progression for the PC's other than a session zero about it?

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

What do you mean by “progression” here? Loot and milestones are how characters progress in game, are you talking about adversaries?

[@PhilipDudley3]

I would say if you "want crunch" I could make an arbitrary mini-game to add unnecessary complexity that won't drive the player-driven narrative or world. I could do something in Base-3 or Base-16 if you want.

[@PhilipDudley3]

This is coming from me who is just struggling with understanding why I need to play Pathfinder 2e to have fun. I enjoy Microlite20, Index Card RPG, and EZD6, or D6 System.

[@PhilipDudley3]

You can also get other settings built with and for ICRPG that add more crunch or other styles of play to keep things fresh. The Waste Is Not Kind (WINK), or Altered State, or Xeno Dead Zone.

[@PhilipDudley3]

Or Black Light for ICRPG Core 2e

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

I love this.

[@DMTalesTTRPG]

Someone is saying you need to play Pathfinder 2e to have fun?