EZD6 vs. Index Card RPG

What a comparison. Two great games, but which one do I prefer for my rules-light game of choice?

To be honest, these two have wiped out almost every other rules-light game in my collection, including FATE. Savage Worlds is like a rules-moderate game since there are a lot of book-reference and special case rules to make that game engine work.

EZD6 is designed from the top down; what is fun at the table? Index Card feels designed from the bottom up; great mechanics create fun at the table.

ICRPG uses a complete set of polyhedral dice and keeps the incredibly fun d20 as the center of all the action: d20 for success, the rest of the dice for effort. EZD6 is six-sided dice only, and I was stuck in a hotel or airport where all I could get my hands on at a gift shop were a set of Yahtzee dice; EZD6 would be my go-to game. 

EZD6 is, by default, a fantasy game; I would love to see this go multi-genre in a second edition. The game feels easy enough to use for anything, but the default classes and lingo are more for fantasy than any genre. ICRPG is truly any genre, and it goes to town in the rulebook with examples of fantasy, sci-fi, weird west, superhero, and barbaric worlds and game support.

ICRPG is more gear-based and uses a concept of "gear as progression." EZD6 is gear-light, with gear baked into the classes, such as armor.

EZD6's magic is to make it up as you go along. ICRPG is more list-based, with spells as loot, with defined spells you find and select for your mage. This is one of the enormous differences between the games! If you like to make up what your magic does in a given situation, EZD6 is your game. If you like spell lists, collecting spells, and lists of named spells, then ICRPG is your game.

ICRPG has more robust progression with mile-stone abilities and masteries. EZD6 uses story elements as progression and does not track experience.

EZD6 is almost a stat-less game, whereas ICRPG feels more traditional regarding stats and character abilities.

Both of them are revolutionary games.

EZD6 has this "what works at the table" design philosophy, and I think many games could benefit from this design style - especially OSR games. We tend to keep a lot of cruft "because it existed back in 198X" when it might not have been the best rule or way to do things at the table, but we keep it because of nostalgia. Some of those rules were half-thought-through and mistakes back then, not the most fun way to handle something at a table. EZD6 jettisons most tabletop RPG "best guidelines" and goes with what works at a table of excited and engaged players.

EZD6 is like the ultimate party RPG.

Index Card feels born from frustration and disappointment; even the cover has this twisted ball of intense and confusing feelings. ICRPG feels like "every RPG I bought let me down," and the game is a reaction born of mechanics. These solid mechanics will change the way you play other games if you adopt parts of them that rethink every RPG trope into answering the question, "What is the most fun to play with these dice?" Everything is turned into a challenge, gear is essential, and the flow of a game becomes a mechanic. Better yet, game mechanics and player choice are preserved and celebrated - for those who like rules and choices, these are here and beg to be used in games and character designs.

Index Card RPG is like the ultimate role-playing game RPG.

For me, ICRPG hits a lot of my mechanical preferences - especially when playing solo. EZD6 can be played solo, but like a massive stack of pizzas and a table full of soda bottles, it is better shared with friends.