What's Different Between ICRPG CORE and ICRPG Master Edition?

I get a little too excited and flip through every single page of ICRPG Core and Master Edition to talk about what's in each and a few of the differences. I don't go into great detail on any of them but just wanted to highlight how amazing these two tomes are. By the end of the video, I think I'm talking a mile per minute haha!
Index Card RPG Master Edition by Runehammer Games (B&W SOFTCOVER)
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
Index Card RPG Master Edition by Runehammer Games (PREMIUM HARDCOVER)
modiphius.us/collections/rune...
FREE ICRPG Quickstart
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
ICRPG CORE
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...

[@Coco.B.]

I'm really enjoying this channel and your take on ICRPG as a GM and a fan. Keep up the good work..

[@KanesKiln]

Thanks! I really appreciate that. I'm just glad people are enjoying the videos and hopefully finding them useful :D

[@TechStrickland]

Great flip thru and comparison !

[@KanesKiln]

Thanks! Hopefully it proves helpful for anyone curious about the two versions.

[@gamewrit0058]

Excellent overview and encouragement, Kane.👍

[@jonpeacock3016]

I’m moments away from pulling the trigger on ICRPG. This video is helping me decide which one to get. TY for this.

[@KanesKiln]

Excellent! Just let me know if you have any questions about it :D

[@slickblueskin5852]

Just ordered Master Edition. Moving on from 5e because of personal reasons. Think I'm going to like ICRPG!!!!!!!!

[@KanesKiln]

Epic! I think you’re going to like it and let me know if you have any questions or ever want to get into a game!

[@scottamelville]

Ghost Mountain looks awesome. Thanks for the video!

[@KanesKiln]

I know, right!? Got to get back to Ghost Mountain more often

[@bonbondurjdr6553]

@@KanesKiln I'm a coffee boiler, I stay in Warp Shell and fantasy. XP

[@KanesKiln]

I find myself in Alfheim and Warp Shell most of the time too but every now and then I'll have an itch to go exploring the rest of the Runiverse.

[@bonbondurjdr6553]

@@KanesKiln perhaps it's because I don't know enough about the wild west that I don't feel like playing in Ghost Mountain. I would have to explore that setting with Americans! :D

[@crowgoblin]

Still preferred the cover of 2e with the wizard lock, ME edition is too geometric with the dice shapes.

[@KanesKiln]

Definitely. The Wizard Lock was such a pop of that iconic ICRPG red on the black background. So good.

[@deathbare5306]

My favorite is the core 2e with worlds and magic, I just port over the stun point system.

[@fchrisb804]

Useful!

[@fchrisb804]

One of my Questions is why do Wizard Characters, from either of the Magic Expansion get 10 point for attributes where as other characters get 6 in 2E and 6/4 in ME? Are they merging the 6/4 split or are you giving them 10/4 or what is going on with 2E? Thanks. What I'm having happen is some players see making a Wizard get more points to create characters. What are other people doing? Thanks.

[@KanesKiln]

So CORE was building with 6 points and but this started getting bumped up to 10 in things like Vigilante City and Magic, and it got bumped up in Master Edition to make starting characters a little beefier. They split the 10 between 6 STATs and 4 EFFORT and Magic just doesn't specify that specific split/ratio. So whether I was making a MAGIC character or a something from the Player's Guide, I would build with 10 points. A question though that you'd have to answer for your table is if there are any limits to how those points get split up. Can they dump all 10 into one? Is it a 6/4 split? 5/5 split? That's your call as a GM. I know that there are community members who don't allow any stat to ever get above a +10 or even a +5 regardless of whether that came from stats or loot.

[@fchrisb804]

@@KanesKiln Dude, you are so fantastic. Thanks for your insight on this. It's helpful to me!

[@DylanBFishkeeper]

I ran 1E and 2E myself, but have yet to run ME officially. Some things I have noticed, though, that separate Core from Masters is the player power sources shifting from gear to innate. What I mean by that is the Core edition tends to put the power more on the gear than the character. This has pros and cons, such as supporting homebrew to customize classes by tweaking gear or picking class milestone rewards. If a tweak is too strong, you can (usually) easily work with the player to change the problematic gear, since it's the loot and not *them* that is getting tweaked. The flipside to that is without their gear, they're level 0 commoners, which is not exactly the greatest system to support power fantasy. Master Edition ties more power to the character itself, such as Crit Mastery, integrated core class Abilities, and a higher base stat total. This doesn't mean loot and gear is unimportant, not by a longshot, but it definitely is less critical for giving your character an archetype. I'm a fan of the Core method of progression while some of my players are more fond of the ME method, but the best part is how you can blend the systems together with what you like and what you don't. The monsters, the GM notes, the primers, the homebrew: these all work fantastically regardless of which edition you pick up. My personal go-to setting is a 2E Warp Shell campaign with a custom Warp Shell ship that beams in crews from all manner of backstory, which lets my players easily make custom races and use any class (including Ghost Mountain/Alfheim) and it blends into the story seamlessly. I had a player make a race of bipedal armadillos that live in space-western planets for his character (which promptly became integrated into my campaign), another made a giant beetle mechanic (which created another planet and culture in the setting), and yet another that made a wraith assassin from the realm of death that got sucked into the space distortion caused by the Warp Drive and used a soul harness to manifest physically (altered the Ghost class' starting Stealth Module). All easily supported and modified from the existing Core rules, and the same could be done in ME. Props to Runehammer for making such a great and flexible system!

[@KanesKiln]

Well said! And I agree. I've noticed the same kind of transition between very LOOT focused to a mix between LOOT and innate Abilities. Even though I'm playing ME, I still lean towards loot and will hand that more often than a new ability. For me, as soon as more abilities come out the fluctuating power levels start to even out.

[@DylanBFishkeeper]

@@KanesKiln one of the things I let my players do in my 2E game is to modify or even create unique gear during downtime between missions. I also allowed for training, which did increase the character's base abilities: one player spent time learning to treat wounds from the onboard doctor, gaining an innate +2 to rolls involving burns. Another spent their downtime making a hard-light greatsword with the onboard technosmiths (ogre blacksmiths in spaaaaaaace). Finally, yet another modified her Titan starting class loot to be able to pass healing to a NEAR ally instead of only giving it to herself. Each gave a specific goal, which allowed me to give them a target and total effort to get the bonus. If they did it within the allotted down time, they got it, otherwise it went on hold between missions. Players seemed to love that balance, and it also gave great opportunity for custom quests ("to make this modification, you need an ingredient from this hostile planet/to recruit a knowledgeableNPC to the ship/make a deal with smugglers that have key info/etc."). ME seems to have taken all that and put it into a codified and innate structure for character classes, all of which still readily supports homebrew. Once an ability is given, though, it's definitely harder to explain any tweaks or (worst case) "reset" the homebrew with item destruction/modification.

[@KanesKiln]

Nice! I love how these examples show the utility baked into the system. You should definitely write some of what you're doing on the forums. Sounds like you've got a good process going on for how you handle these kind of things.

[@chameleon83]

You mention that the Adventures from core are still available but where can we get them? Are they on drivethrurpg?

[@KanesKiln]

So you can get the CORE adventures in core which is available on DrivethruRPG. I believe that also comes with the adventure book, but ill need to check. Your other option is grabbing them on Patreon for $1. There is a bunch of extra cool stuff on there and the whole MAINFRAME podcast which is pure gold haha. Either way, if you need more help tracking stuff down just let me know! www.patreon.com/RUNEHAMMER/posts

[@chameleon83]

@@KanesKiln thanks for the info. Should also say that I'm loving all the content so far. Keep up the great work! I'm slowly twisting the arms of some 5e "cultists" I know to give ICRPG a chance 🤣

[@KanesKiln]

Happy to help! And you're doing good work. Got to get more ICRPG into everyone's games ;)

[@AngryPict]

The PDFs that you get when ordering from Drivethurpg or Modiphius are: Character Sheet (2 versions) Print and Play resources (paper minis) Master Edition PDF Adventures (150+ pages of scenario/adventure goodness) Also, while the deluxe or hardback editions are indeed lovely, the Drivethrurpg paperback is very good too (and currently incredibly well priced). Excellent for having at the table and getting pizza and beer stains on while keeping the hardback in the GM library.

[@chameleon83]

@@AngryPict now that you mention the hardbacks. Other retailers in UK now have copies, selling the a little cheaper than Modiphious. Any idea if buying them elsewhere will still gain access to the pdf versions?

[@LeMayJoseph]

Is there anywhere to still find the Collector's Edition?

[@KanesKiln]

Hard to say. Runehammer gets updates from them directly and I haven't heard of any new runs for Collector's edition or if/when that would happen. My fingers are crossed that we'll hear something eventually, but unfortunately that's all we can really do. The Master Edition version does appear to be in stock on Modiphious' website if you're set on the hard cover.

[@LeMayJoseph]

@@KanesKiln it is, just not the extra/-nice collector’s Ed.

[@KanesKiln]

Exactly. Collector's edition is super slick so I don't blame you for hunting after it.

[@user-pc5ww8fh6d]

The difference is one is ugly font lite and one is ugly font large. The design is ok, the format is ugly. They could have created a 100 page and a 200 page product, and they didn't. Someone needs to reformat the books, keep the design, and lose the wretched comic book looking appearance. Otherwise calling it Index Card is bad joke. If you insist on liking them though, get the Master.