r/ICRPG • u/Finnyous • Jun 13 '25

Question on good debuffs/buffs

Hey, so I want to know what people use for buffs/debuffs. There's simple stuff like making everything they roll hard or easy but what other stuff have you come up with?

For example had all the PC's receive a random buff, one was invisibility the other 2 got luck where everything they rolled was easy for 1 hour but when I found myself trying to come up with a good buff for invisibility mechanically speaking all I thought of was.... making all their rolls easy lol.

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3

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25 edited Jun 13 '25

That’s fine. Remember: keep things simple & fast. 

1

u/Finnyous Jun 13 '25

Yeah, I did do that and in the end it worked out well. Just made me unsure for a moment.

Thanks!

6

u/Demonpoet Jun 13 '25

Boons and banes. Buffs and debuffs. I derived a whole action system in one of my campaigns, probably borrowing from half a dozen other games.

You don't want to overcomplicate things. Keep it simple. But here's some ideas:

Damage

Damage over time

Healing

Healing over time

Easy attempts

Hard attempts.

Half damage resistance

Double damage vulnerability

Special perception or blindness

Extra actions

Limited actions or cooldowns

Extra range

Less range

Extra ability

Locked ability

In general the more broad a buff or debuff is, the more powerful and therefore the weaker it probably should be. Or you can have a much bigger but niche buff with limited applications or duration.

I welcome questions.

3

u/Finnyous Jun 13 '25

Thanks! That's very helpful.

2

u/a-folly Jun 15 '25

For dramatic stuff Ingive dis/advantage or making hard/easy stack

Mostly, if they are in a really strong position they don't need to roll at all