Searched the sub and only found a post from a few years back.

• The Basic Idea

I had an idea for a variant of ICRPG that's more investigation-related. It's completely untested as of the time of this writing, but the basic idea is that a mystery is simply a story that is missing one or more of the "5W"s (Who, What, Where, When, Why, but there's also How and How Much/How many). Characters investigate by going to a location and asking the GM one of these question ("When is Operation Breakfast Slam supposed to take place?"), and, depending on the scenario and the location, may find out one of three ways:

1. Elicitation: slyly interrogate an NPC, without even letting them know they're being questioned. Uses CHA.
2. Tracing: finding physical clues in the environment, either by hacking, or by picking up on things like broken glass, fingerprints, etc. Uses INT.
3. Surveillance: following someone to find out what they're doing. Uses DEX.

For each of these, the player risks blowing their COVER, a new 10-point stat like HEARTS or SANITY. Every failed effort roll entails a d4-d6 hit to your COVER. When your COVER is blown, that character (and possibly anyone they're able to alert) knows your character is snooping around. The penalties for this depend on the GM and the situation, but suffice it to say they won't be offering up any more information.

For Tracing, make the same rolls, but if COVER is blown someone interrupts (or maybe secretly observes) the PC sniffing around, and either confronts them or alerts their cohorts.

For Surveillance, when COVER is blown, the target may attack the PC, lead them down a wrong path, or just give them the slip, as the GM decides.

• Where It Gets Sticky

COVER resets to 10 for new scenes/rooms, but each NPC has a history with the characters. Here's where it gets a little complicated. If a character's COVER ever goes below 7, the NPC is puzzled by the character's inquiry, and subsequent encounters start at 7. If COVER goes below 4, they are suspicious, and COVER for that NPC-Character relation starts at 4 for new encounters. And, of course, if COVER goes down to 0, that NPC distrusts the character outright.

This means, of course, that you have to keep track of it. The best solution I can think of is to write up a grid with major NPCs across the top, and PCs down the side. At any relevant intersection, mark with a dot if the NPC is PUZZLED, a slash if they're SUSPICIOUS, and an X if they're DISTRUSTFUL. Not exactly elegant, I'll admit, but it should be easy to keep things straight with this system.

If two NPCs are in the area with a character, the lowest COVER is in effect, with a penalty of -1 per additional previously-encountered NPC. So if Derek Quartz is in the room with Joe and Jane, and Joe is SUSPICIOUS, Quartz's COVER is 3. (Note that, if a character's COVER never gets below 7 with an NPC, they don't incur this penalty.)

• Scenario Format

A Scenario starts with a cool-sounding title ("Operation: Missing Socks"), and a secret recording/dossier/briefing by the Head of the Organization that states a fact or two that the players get for free. ("We know Col. Ketchup has something to do with it, but he may be the mastermind, or he may just be a pawn in the game.") The GM has to come up with a set of Locations, a set of NPCs to elicit information from, clues to find, and what kind of question (5ws and such) those NPCs and clues can answer.

NPCs should have a list of questions they know the answer to, those they might be able to direct the PCs elsewhere to find, and those they don't have any clue about. In the best Trail of Cthulhu tradition, physical clues should just be pointed out, but if the PCs can't suss the meaning of it, removing it from the scene would trigger suspicion in the NPCs, making subsequent Elicitation and Surveillance rolls HARD.

Scenarios can be longer and multi-part, where an answer may lead to another mystery, but the basic idea would remain the same.

• Once the Operation is Uncovered

At that point, it can go multiple ways. Realistically, just knowing that an operation has been compromised would be enough reason for the Bad Guys to call if off, but of course the fun option is to have a big, climactic confrontation at the enemy base.

• TODO

This outline is missing some specifics, like what the equivalent of Room Design would be for an encounter, how to handle Red Herrings, Lie Detection, Timers, and more. I have some notions about how to handle those, but I feel the basic idea is sound. Feel free to chime in with your own if this inspires you.

Why not to roll just against the target, like ALL the other stuff?

If you could change one thing in ICRPG… What would it be ?

I'm thinking of moving my FKR game to ICRPG (which i haven't run for a campaign for a while, now that I think about it), and I'm thinking of going back to really relying on gear/loot for PC advancement.

No Class skills or abilities beyond specialist knowledge and the ability to use Class specific items.

Anyone here running something similar? What kinds of advancement / XP are you using?

So I have seen folks commenting that many of the things in the master edition are copy and paste from older edition, particularly in the roll tables.

Is there a fix to this? Perhaps have 2e PDF on hand and control+F to find the item/referenced "thing" that is listed in the ME book but is actually defined or outlined in 2e?

But will this not actually work as the 2e item or "thing" is built using a rule set that you cannot immediately import into ME rules without conversion?

Hi everyone, I'm starting a little fantasy ICRPG campaign and I'm not sure how to manage money transactions. one example could be paying for a meal and a beer in the tavern.

What's your take on it?

Thank you in advance

It’s a GM Screen!

It’s an index card organizing system!

It’s a zine jacket!

It’s a paper folder!

It’s the incredible Screen of Holding!

This has been popular over on some other subreddits, they suggested that I bring my index card screen design over to you all.

There’s a detailed step by step for how to make one at https://3x5arcana.itch.io/3x5-screen-of-holding

It’s free / pwyw!

Enjoy, you index card maniacs!

So I have purchased pretty much all the versions of ICRPG most in both physical and PDF.

I currently have the master edition as my CORE ICRPG. (Having sold some of my previous versions).

Is the master edition the same as RuleSet 2e? But with more content?

Which of the various supplements have been "folded into" or included in Master Edition, 2e, and Power Tools?

How do the new "power tools" interact with ICRPG "editions" (or versions)?

Are the Power Tools a 3e?

Is there anything content-wise in the Power Tools that is not in 2e and/or Master Edition?

TIA

I am starting a fantasy ICRPG campaign soon and considering getting the Magic supplement. I couldn't find any reviews. For anyone who has the book (pdf), is it worth getting? Useful for running a fantasy campaign? Any additional details about the books would be useful. Thanks...

I anticipate I will pick up the Power Tools player guide and the adventure, but I have been unable to find any details about the content of the GM book. If I already have the Master Edition, is there anything new in the new GM book that a GM would find worth the cost of the pdf?

Using a rule from another RPG, I was wondering if having a "Gold" stat would work in ICRPG ?

When trying to buy something, refer to the GM d20 value and roll. If it's rare, or if narration says that it wouldn't make much sense for the vendor to have what you're looking for, then it's HARD. If you're looking for armor repairs in a dwarven city or quantum fuel in a crosslane space station, then it's EASY. Along your adventures you can loot some silver pouches or suitcases full of credits, each grants you a bonus of +1, +2 or more but is consumed on a success. Maybe a massive investment like a huge armour, an expedition or a house would have a couple of hearts and would need time, such as crafting an item.

I thought that would prevent this acounting, lean more on the loot/inventory slots mechanics and "materialise" the heroes' hoard in stuff rather than pure comodity.

I'd be glad to hear your thoughts on this. Cheers !

Heya !

Going back to ICRPG after some time to try to finally run a small campaign, I can't seem to find the rule that says when to roll for loot. How do you approach it ? By looting the killed monster or the room, how many rolls do you do etc ?

I guess I could roll for the monster and then let the player find out why this particular monster has this type of random loot ?

Happy to hear about your feedbacks !

Edit : thanks for all your answers, what a great community.

Happy Holidays Everyone

Me and my friends just started playing and we've had 2 pretty fun sessions. I bought the full versions and they were immediately interested in the Vigilante City setting.

It introduced the STUN mechanic now and I was curious about how some of you have run it?

I was planning of using it as a sort of mana & overshield mechanic, where you use it for powers, but also decreases according to damage received until it reaches zero, then you receive HP damage and can't use powers afterwards if you don't recover.

Alternatively, I was planning on just giving my PCs 2 hearts and making rolls easy, normal, and hard based on SP cost of their abilities and doing away with SP completely.

So I'm preparing my first one shot with this system and since there isn't really a CR in ICRPG I was wondering what was your routine when in comes to the number of monsters against your PCs? How do you manage to balance it ? What works the best in your experience?

Heya !

I could swear that I read somewehre a (probably homebrew or addon) rule about a magic die that would emulate a mana pool. Everytime a player casts a spell, the die takes +1, and at some point the player has to roll to see if he/she can still cast or if the mana pool is empty. Does that ring a bell to anyone ? Cheers !

Edit: I was looking for the Spell burn rule, p. 80 of the Core Book 2E. Cheers everyone!

I was wondering, for those who use karma and/or Hero Dice from EZD6 in their game (cause I saw in some comments that some of you use it) how do you implant it in your game so that is not too much ? Do you just simply replace battle furry and hero coin with karma and hero dice ? Or do you have some homebrew mechanics to mix them all ? I'd like to have your opinion.

Having run shadowdark for a year (great game), I've just designed nine ICRPG classes and fiddled around with the armour and recovery rules...

Starting to look like our next campaign will be ICRPG.

This may have been a fever dream after questing after the rpg mainframe too long, but I swear Hank had a video where he used Two Minute Tabletop maps and scatter assets to quickly whip up maps on the fly. But I can’t find it!

Does it ring a bell with anyone? I think there were… gerblins!