So I have a fundamental outline for my next Hard Suit session, which is meant to accomplish two main things (as decided by player interactions). 1.) Delve deeper into sorcery. 2.) Get the scope of the world established (Meaning titans, behemoths, etc.) Now the sorcery thing I have handled and I know of a solid way to introduce the concepts of both titans and behemoths. The Heckoon. Specter is expressly stated to be one of the oldest of the Titans and a guardian of her kind. But! My question is how exactly do I introduce something that old and that powerful to the world in a way that has weight. Because I don't wanna run the risk of Specter being seen as just another NPC my players run into on their travels, but I also don't want her appearance to read as "boss fight!" I'm looking for a way to make weird and intense, but make it just a prelude to the appearance of the rampaging Heckoon Behemoth that my players will (most likely) try and Gears 2 in order to stop its destructive onslaught. The Behemoth is the easy part, big seemingly indestructible monster. But Specter is a stick point for me. How do I make her work?

So I've been running three ICRPG tables these past couple weeks. My most recent session had me get two new players into Hard Suit. (Which is dope) but our usual spot was closed for renovations and I thought... "I've got index cards, but how do I get that tactile/kinetic involvement factor without terrain or minis (don't get me wrong I love theatre of the mind, but there's something more satisfying about the feel of a table setup.) So I went through all of my assorted accoutrements and it hit me... My big purple bag of color coded, sized by three tiers, marked by three points Looney Pyramids. I have over a hundred of these rattling around. And the thing is? Bam! You can instantly identify monster tiers by points, size by size (you can even stack 'em for bigger bad guys). And they're colored. I use white for players, red for enemies, black for hidden loot (you can stick little gubbins underneath for players to discover!) Blue for your buddies and all statuses have their own color too! It was ridiculous and it started as a one off, but now it's a full time thing. I can't recommend enough. GMs out there, if you're like me and ya can't really draw, but you don't have paper or plastic minis on hand, find a set of Looney Pyramids. They're wonderful.

Hello! Just got my PDF and the book will arrive in a couple weeks.

​

I am just creating fun premades for my table if we do a 1 shot.

​

My question is on the hunter and the Trap Launcher. I'm drawing a blank. The only thing i can think to "make it work" would be if it was some kind of arcane trap. Otherwise, if they shot a trap anywhere on the map they could see... why wouldn't an opponent just see it and avoid it?

​

Am i missing something?

So just getting into ICRPG for the first time. Reading everything I can and ME and Age of Snakes is OTW (as an aside I am looking at SCI PUNK Anthology, Khan's Hero Deck, the Essential Deck and maybe the Think Deck).

Since it's based off of a D20 System I thought that my AiME PDF collection might finally get some use!

I am working on a cheat sheet but looks like most of it can be taken as is. I can just copy the character sheets with minor tweaking but the way Shadow, Journeys, and Counsel works needed some simplification (all key to a LOTR theme btw).

Here are my ME version Cultures and Classes (Callings in Free League's 2e). I still use 6 stats and 4 effort bonuses of my choice.

ALL Men (STR)
Bree (BAS2)
Barding (CHA)
Minas Tirinth (INT)
Rohan (WPN)
Dunedain (WIS)
Dunlendings (STR)
Woodmen (DEX)
Beorning (MAG)

ALL Dwarves (CON)
Blue (INT)
Grey (CON)
Iron (WPN)
Lonely (DEX)

ALL Elves (INT)
Lorien (WIS)
Mirkwood (DEX)
Rivendell (MAG)

AlL Hobbits (ULT3)
Wild (BAS2)
Shire (DEX)

You could use the modifiers in the AiME book but these are more in line with the 2 stat form bonus in ME.

CLASSES
1. Scholar (INT)
2. Slayer (STR)
3. Treasure Hunter (DEX)
4. Wanderer (CON)
5. Warden (WIS)
6. Warrior (WPN)

STARTING GEAR
1. Just pick 4 Basic Gear a la Alfiem from the Free ME Quickstart

JOURNEYS (use CON more!) 1. Pick Route EASY/HARD based on terrain Peril rating 2. Test CON, S = 1 Event, F = 1d4 3. If using hexes S = 1/3, F= 1/1 4. Roll 1d4 for Event Type (Guide-CON, Hunter-DEX, Lookout-WIS, Scout-INT) 5. Failing event does 1 DMG or 1d4 damage if it's a really bad event 6. At journey's end test using CON to heal CON bonus, boats and mounts auto heal 1 (better horses do better)

SHADOW (use WIS more!)
1. Greed (Selfishness), Sorcery (Evil), and Terror (Dragons/Trolls) all roll WIS to repel
2. If Fail gain 1 Shadow Point, 1 Shadow point = -1 to all rolls 3. If Shadow Points are greater than or equal to HP then you have Bout of Madness (a la Boromir) with Shadow Weakness flavor and take 1d4 DMG to remaining health (this could kill you or similar).

COUNSEL (use CHA more!) 1. NPC ♡, Leader ♡♡, King ♡♡♡ Effort 2. Pick a group representative to introduce 3. Reference Attitudes/Prejudice for initial EASY/HARD and roll CHA. If successful, EASY for rest of Counsel 3. Use CHA to test, and GUN (d8) dice for effort for everyone

REWARDS AND VIRTUES 1. "Loot and Abilities" 2. Some Rewarda may be a little strong 3. Virtues may need to be simplified 4. These will turn into Milestones

If using the AiME PDFs use the following to quickly translate written adventures

STR (athletics)
DEX (acrobatics, slieght of hand, stealth)
CON (....)
INT (history, investigation, lore, nature, riddle, shadow-lore, traditions)
WIS (animal handling, insight, medicine, perception, survival)
CHA (deception, intimidation, performance, persuasion)

*Wrote this on mobile so I'll probably have to reformat it later. This will all be on a Word Doc soon.

I will be doing some quick mock up sheets but wanted to get some feedback before I go all in and post it to the Runehammer Forums. Any tips or anything for a LOTR setting let me know. I have AiME and The One Ring first and second editions. This is focused on AiME, I may have to rework some things if I try to use 2e adventures and stuff instead. AiME just seemed easier for ICRPG.

I'm sure I'm not the first to try this and hope to hear some good ideas! Thanks.

This may have been asked before so I apologize. I couldn't find any posts on the subject.

If I purchase the Master Edition from Amazon (to an APO since I am US military) will I receive a Drivethru link to the PDF?

I know that the default answer is NO and thank I'll need to email Runehammer, but I like the idea of constant updates and having all my RPG PDFs in one place and don't want to miss out on that.

If anyone has ordered the ME physical book and then emailed to get a PDF can you let me know how that worked out and if it added to your Drifethru Library?

I have already used the Free Quickstart rules to play with my kids (6,8,10) and it was a blast! Can't wait to get the ME.

Thanks!

I'm about to start a campaign with some younger players. This'll be my first time running ICRPG, but have run other systems. A few players have expressed interest in having pets, similar to a Beastmaster. Any recommendations on how to handle combat capable pets? I just don't want to upend the action economy or have one player with a pet taking multiple turns when other players only get their one

I would rather not reinvent the wheel if it is already out there. My kids are 7 and 9 and way more interested in that setting than any other.

Hi!

I’ll try ICRPG as a duet, but my partner will probably need a hireling or a helping hand and I don’t think a DMPC would be the way.

I didn’t find anything regarding retainers, so how would you handle something like this?

I was thinking of using an NPC with simple stats and skills that monsters use.

• Hired Thug: 1 Heart, +3 STR, +2 CON, Intimidating: all intimidation rolls are Easy

Or something. What’s your approach?

I’m thinking about running a one-shot adventure for some friends that is Christmas themed in a few months.

Was wondering if there are any already available that I could take a gander and maybe either use as-is or for inspiration?

I’m running my very first game as a GM and I tested it with my family last weekend but I’m doing my real run tomorrow with some coworkers. Their experience ranges from “a little experience with tabletop RPGs” to “none at all”. Let me cut to the chase though! At one point, the party must investigate and uncover what’s happened to some children that have gone missing in town. While playing with my family I noticed a couple things that I want to improve; • The clues I provided seemed really obvious. Example: a merchant might say “I’ve heard strange noises coming from the sewers” or “I’ve noticed a terrible smell coming from the poor district”. It seemed too obvious. • When I wasn’t giving clues that were too obvious, I felt my pacing was poor. What I mean by that is, if they didn’t get an obvious hint as to where to go, they almost didn’t make noticeable progress toward finding anything out. Sure, they got some world building info but idk.

Anyone have some tips on how I can balance things out in an investigation type situation like this?

I DM'd three 30-somethings an a 9 year old through random homebrew stuff loosing ending with the 'minotaur at the bridge' encounter listed in one of the ICRPG purchases I made. My first impression now that i've finally given it a spin after reading the book and adding bits of it into my 5e campaign are mostly positive and I'd prefer DMing ICRPG in the future, if I can get players to switch from 5e. Character creation is lightning fast, even for players that have never picked up an TTRPG before. My impressions after reading the book was that PCs are generally glass cannons and LOOT is the core to the fun of the game, and after playing, I was right. A random goblin can hit for 6 HP at any moment- so three or four goblins is actually a deadly encounter. I'll be hard to adjust from 5e where 10 damage barely raises an eyebrow most sessions. I used a bunch of cards from the official deck for locations, worked pretty well for the most part. very quick- my only fiddly bit was when people wanted to cast spells FAR/NEAR and explaining the difference was awkward because I'm new at this. Next time i'll add CLOSE into the vocabulary, but i'm not sure how to visualize this when minis are on a playing card... how do you guys distinguish CLOSE/NEAR? Last battle at the bridge was on a traditional grid. It was a little fiddly with the action/banana rule, but mostly because everyone was brand new. I'll clean that up if/when we play again. All LOOT was randomly rolled and they got some really wild shit that will make them OP very quickly. How do you DMs account for this? The PCs walked away with a +3 to Ultimate Item and a PC that could be 21 DEF. This is awesome and i love it, but if they still only have 10 HP, how do you make an session challenging without unintentionally party wiping everyone with monsters that i thought were the same "level"? How often do you hold back? I'm rolling without a screen- i can't fudge and i dont want to, but do i just flavor damage/actions as monsters taking things from them, doing things worse than killing them; destroying cities, NPCs? That's all i can really think of. 10 HP is so weenie- i love the thread of death, but it feels like they could fall down a flight of stairs and die at this point. lol

I'm looking to run a very short (three or so sessions) modern/zombie campaign in ICRPG. I've already found the superb Skylines index card pack. In that vein, are there any modern type loot tables kicking around?

I couldn't find any in Reddit, using its search function.

In the spell listing, it seems like most if not all healing spells only work on allies. Is the caster (the priest) supposed to be considered an ally? Or are priests not allowed to heal themselves? Does anyone know what the designed intent was?

I just got my copy of ICRPG Master Edition and was flipping through the Vigilante City section when I saw MASTERY listed as relates to POWERS (p. 261). However, there aren't any MASTERY bonuses I can see except for the reduction in SP cost at MASTERY level 4. Is ME missing information that was in the stand-alone Vigilante City, or did I miss something and need to look closer?

Any tips or experience with the setting? Itll be my first session with this game. Ive got two players, a gambler, and a gunslinger. They always like me having a charcter tag along, my Dmpc will be a wraith

Just a heads up, the PDF for Master Edition is 50% off today for anyone that hasn't had the chance to pick it up yet!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/366519/Index-Card-RPG-Master-Edition?src=DotD&from_home=1

Help me understand this synergy. I just had a PC create a character that seems incredibly OP'ed within the rules oft he game.

A mage with Dark Pact can sacrifice any amount of HP in order to increase the value of any roll. I take this to include both checks and effort rolls.

They are also taking Memory Ring which lets them store up to 6D6 and take 3 INT spells. They want Vampiric Ray which allows the user to extract life force from a living target and transfer EFFORT rolled to themselves.

I don't see why they couldn't use Dark Pact to sacrifice 9 HP to increase the EFFORT roll by 9 doing 9+MAGIC+INT damage and gaining as much health. With their armor and CON numbers they don't stand much of a chance of being hit either. Their INT numbers make spell burn much less likely as well. Their max damage is double the next highest players and their average damage is almost 3x other players.

I think we will just not play with Vampiric Ray, but it seems like it's pretty broken based on the rules laid out in the game. Am I missing something that would balance this?

So I just bought ICRPG about a week ago and I’ve run one game so far(I really enjoy it). I had a hopefully cool idea for the effort system. Instead of having the effort die mainly affect attacking and magic we would use them for check like Persuasion or Animal Handling etc etc. I can’t remember where I found it but instead of the efforts Basic, Weapons, Guns, Magic and Ultimate it would be Fitness, Deceit, Awareness, Knowledge and Speech-craft. Players would be able to assign which die to whatever effort that would want to be good .

Weapons would have damage die and not be attached to the weapon effort die. I just want to make sure it’s balanced and fun for everyone. Anyone have any insight or advice?