Off the Shelf: Index Card RPG

Index Card RPG is still such a good game. It is up there with Shadowdark, EZD6, Old School Essentials, and my other "small book games" as one of the perfect "travel RPGs," and this one just does anything.

This is like a miniature version of Cypher System mixed with Savage Worlds without the narrative mechanics. Still, it leans heavily into a few 8-bit video game design theories to create a fantastic game. We are still in d20-land, but effort totals up against hearts, and we focus on "beating rooms" of varied challenges with our characters.

Progression is milestone-based, and gear plays a huge role in character power. This game changes the way you look at OSR games and simplifies the nature of challenges and encounters to an abstract method of resolution, without losing granular detail. The game will also make you a professional encounter designer, and your thoughts on encounter structure will become more fluid and dynamic.

This is a great "toolbox game" that can handle most any setting you throw at it, using the sample settings provided in the book. It is a d20 system without any of the d20 baggage.

It is not a highly detailed game. If you are looking for realistic and gritty combat, this isn't the game for you. If you want deep 5E progression trees (and tons of paid support), this is not the game for you. If you're interested in narrative mechanics, this game might be for you, but it feels more like an 8-bit adventure video game condensed into a digest-sized book.

It feels a lot like the old Legend of Zelda, Neutopia, Metal Gear, Metroid, Castlevania, or other adventure RPG games on the NES or Turbografix-16, but in a pen-and-paper game form. This game features a unique blend of fantasy, space, superhero, western, and other genres, all in a retro, d20, clear-the-board, gather-upgrades, Metroidvania style, built for fun and 8-bit charm.

This sits alongside Old School Essentials on my shelf, and this is a serious Shadowdark competitor as a "pick up and play" fun-first game.

Entirely Social

So I did an entirely social game of Cypher System last night, a sort of 'running around town' session that would be a stretch to call 'an adventure.' Any game would struggle to make this enjoyable, but I had a few things going for me outside of the typical "town session" I was beta-testing.

I created a list of locations and gave them "levels" to represent the venue's general difficulty in challenges. Let's say you have a bar where you can find a seat 90% of the time. I rate that bar a 1 since that is a 90% success level. How about a club that always has a line, and is how to some rough customers? That may warrant a 3; you fail the roll, are stuck in the line, and miss the fun. Maybe you still get in, but it is probably late, you missed the cool thing that happened, and the entire visit was meh.

This is the wonderful shortcut Cypher System gives you, throw a level on it and be done. The level can be used for everything from drinking games, games of darts, the level of people in a bar fight, the difficulty of finding a person of information in there, finding a romantic interest, and many other things. The more popular club generally attracts higher skilled people, since it is popular, then it is the place to be seen.

The OSR doesn't do this type of mechanic or relies heavily on 3rd party random charts. Many OSR referees will just "invent what happens" and not need anything in the way of a base challenge-level concept for anything unless you are playing the Cypher System adjacent Index Card RPG, which uses a similar "scene challenge level" mechanic. I would do the same thing there, give a bar a target number and some hearts, and whatever the players did, drink the bar under the table, start a fight, play darts or cards, arm wrestle - target number is the difficulty, hearts are what you knock down, and the special dice are used to gain progress. Reduce the scene to zero and move on to the next story part.

Some like the extreme GM fiat of the OSR, and I appreciate that when running games for others. When I play solo I like a few more mechanics to guide me in these situations. Being able to zero-to-ten anything in Cypher and whittle away with hits with effort is a nice way of resolving actions that may have back and forth. Otherwise, I use pass-fail atomic rolls and let the chips fall where they may.

You can do that with Cypher System, too, since you can derive hits by multiplying the challenge by three and find creative ways to do "damage" to the scene's "hits." Count most levels of effort as medium 4-point attacks unless you're doing something cool or special, then rate it a heavy, 6-point level of effort. Easy things that mirror light weapon attacks ease the difficulty but only apply 2 effort points.

Also, depending on the character's skills, being able to do a medium or heavy "attack" to a scene's hits may have an inability. Going for the bullseye would net a 6-point heavy attack in a game of darts, but I would increase the difficulty by one for most characters. Lose, and that 6-points goes to your "hits" (likely SPD pool here) since you took a big chance and blew it. Use whatever pool as a temporary "hit value" but don't deal actual damage (unless effort is used and points spent).

So if you are in a drinking game, play out the rounds as a defense, and if you win, knock effort of the scene's hits. Drinking that level one bar under the table will be easier than the level three one.

The one thing my setting lacked was any sort of conflict, so it was all very plain and boring. I had lists of GM Intrusions for each location, but all the game became was "visit and intrusion" which felt sort of silly. What my social town setting needs are factions and conflicts to take this to the next level. I need to be giving the characters missions and providing the opposition in their daily activities.

It is too easy to see fail in a playtest and then declare, "The whole game system sucks and I suck!" You need to step back analyze, figure out where you went wrong, and make adjustments. A list of locations with levels and GM intrusions is a great resource, but it isn't a game or a compelling setting. And it certainly isn't a story. After the session, I stepped back and asked myself, "Why did this feel lacking?" My characters were not burning their pools, no combat happened, and nothing felt particularly dangerous or risky.

I realized, no story to drive conflict, and no conflict to define factions. yes, I came at this setting from a low-level and defined a great collection of interesting places in a town setting, but the next step is to "do the homework" and approach this same setting from a high level and write the story, define the conflict, and craft the factions to give the players something to work against. Then I would need NPCs and goals so the players can go on "missions" and feel like they are progressing the story.

A setting is not a story, and it isn't fun by itself.

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.

Index Card RPG and Savage Worlds

Index Card RPG (ICRPG) is replacing some of my Savage Worlds gaming, especially the more d20 oriented stuff. Now, I love the mechanics of Savage Worlds and how the game plays and works, and I have a huge collection I love. But there are times I want the more d20 feel, roll high, knock down the enemies hits (or the problem's difficulty number), and collect cool equipment to level up.

For those times, when I want a quick-and-easy d20 alternative that still feels d20, I feel Index Card RPG is a perfect fit. I say "this room is a 13!" and off we go. Everything in there, goblins, pit traps to jump, runes to decipher, the swinging buckets of lava, it is all a 13 to me and the players. There are simple actions (auto succeed), checks (pass./fail), and the other dice are used for effort and knocking down those "attempts" where you need effort (10 points per heart). The room almost plays like a "Legend of Zelda" game no matter what is in there, and no matter the genre, and that is cool.

Savage Worlds fits a need, almost a GURPS level of character design where you can get into a cool build and spend a long time picking skills, advantages, and disadvantages. The characters feel unique and have a good amount of depth and complexity to them. There is a great initiative system. There is a bennies system. There are a lot of mechanical rules for when you need them. There are times when I love my character builds and rules complexity, and Savage Worlds is still my go-to game for those times.

But there are times I don't want all that structure. With Index Card RPG, I pick up a d20 and roll. I don't want to worry about all those rules, and I trust my skills as a referee and my player's ingenuity that it will all work out. It almost feels like an "anti d20" system that rejects the Pathfinder-level of rules structure and complexity for gameplay. I feel playing ICRPG makes you a better referee, since you are being trained in new ways to think about encounters, difficulty, tasks, and boiling down a situation into "what's fun."

Again, I didn't want to title this article "versus" since "and" is a better comparison, and both are great and fun games, and I am a fan of both. But I am finding ICRPG fills a need for those "pick up the dice and play" games where Savage Worlds is built for a more longer-term game with depth and rules options. With ICRPG, character advancement is done with gear rewords and milestone rewards, which do not fill my "detailed character advancement needs" that Savage Worlds satisfies nicely, but it sticks with that "fast and simple" design goal of ICRPG and works for these types of games well.

And there are times where I do not have the time to dive in that deep. I just want to play something, especially ICRPG solo which is very easy to do, and play something that feels like d20 without all the d20 complexity. Yes, there is also B/X for that need, but ICRPG is even more streamlined than that, and handles anything you can throw at it without the need for the standard B/X structural requirements: classes, genre equipment, genre spells and powers, monsters, and the basic B/X things you need to play.

ICRPG for horror or gritty games? Sure, make some checks "pass or die." Limit recovery. Add a rule for gaining "hinderances" such as a leg wound slowing movement and applying a -3 to any movement based check, or a terrified hinderance that forces the character to flee until it is removed. Just make it up, and these "hinderances" can be thought of as "negative equipment" that needs to be removed in special ways, such as healing, rest, specific checks, or other actions.

I just made that rule up and it works perfectly. Use it for some games, and not for others. Or make up a new rule and do that instead.

That is ICRPG. With Savage Worlds, yes, special rules are needed to make the character choices, skills, and game structure matter. There are times I want that, and this sort of "role protection" for character builds is desired. This is the same in B/X games, though the structure is simpler and defined along the traditional B/X roles and powers.

With ICRPG, you need none of this structure to play d20; you can steal, swap, or make up classes; the gear is easy enough to crib from one of the book's setting or make up on the spot; and you don't need special rules for the flaming pit you jump, the goblins shooting bows, versus a giant rolling boulder chasing you.

Just pick a number for the scene and go.

Index Card RPG: US Orders Shipping Soon!

Just a note, I got this email earlier today and it looks like the US orders for Index Card RPG will be shipping soon to the US! This is one of those orders I have been wondering what happened to the books, I have printed out the PDF and been playing with that, but I love my physical copies and consider this one of my top-shelf games.

We do live in an upside-down world these days, and shipping delays happen. I am not faulting the company at all and I know they feel just as bad as everyone about this. I am patient, and I have the PDF and a printer, so I am only inconvenienced a little. This is the price we pay for the non-POD high quality books that we love.

It is great Modiphius is up-front and got this message out on a Saturday, and they are a great company I trust to make things right. This company and Free League are quickly becoming my favorite non-OSR publishers, and I am happy to support them both during these tough times.

Index Card RPG: Equipment Tags

One of the things removed from the Master Edition of Index Card RPG from the 2nd Edition are the equipment tags. Part of me thought they were cool, and another part of me thought they were a lot of record keeping for little benefit. You get a piece of gear and all of a sudden you are responsible for writing down 3-4 tags along with it?

In a way it added a lot of tracking and tedium.

I mean, I could see this is all your gear was printed on cards, then that extra detail and information had a home and it was easily used and referenced. As a game played off of character sheets? I am feeling it got to be a chore so the system was scrapped. The judgment of the referee is a better tool. Want to fire a rifle in a confined space? That is a simple ruling, make it a hard roll. Does a piece of equipment make a task easier?

Just like in the OSR, leave it up to the referee to grant that and the player to possibly suggest.

If a player felt strongly about his dagger being an ideal tool to cut himself free from a mess of sticky webs and something that would make the job easier, the player could suggest that this tool is ideal, and the task should be easy. There is no rule for this. It is common sense and the referee listening, understanding the player's point of view, considering the situation, and saying yes or no. The task may be a step more difficult due to being caught in a stick mass of webs, but that dagger may lower the difficulty from hard (using a sword) to normal.

The OSR = How Life Works

The OSR is how real life works. You have strong feelings and argue a case. Someone else listens and says yes, no, or maybe. They make their case. You make yours. You come to an agreement that makes sense.

And you keep arguments out of the game because it hurts everyone else. Both sides may have strong feelings, but in the end it is a game and one bad ruling in one place doesn't ruin the game because we love the game more than we love a single ruling on a situation. It all works out because I bet there are many more decisions in the game that give the players the benefit of the doubt due to their heroism and epic coolness.

In comparison, games with more rules feel like they force the players and referee apart on the issues they should be discussing and coming up with common sense rulings on. I feel you risk losing touch with reality with these heavily-ruled games because the internal physics of the game become more important than just talking it out and coming up with a decision that works for the story and situation.

Equipment Tags in B/X?

I had an example recently about a character breaking down a door in a White Box B/X game (where weapons all do a d6 damage), and then ruling a battle axe would be a better tool for the job than a dagger. In the above example, a dagger is a better tool for cutting yourself free from webs than a sword, or even the battle axe.

I am still in a way using the equipment tag system in my head to make these rulings, but I don't need the tags to do it. I have a situation, the player presents a solution using a tool, and I make a ruling on how well that would work given the situation, actions taken, and tools.

Someone in a game with more rules may sit there and argue since the weapons do the same damage and there is no "rule" saying one is better than the other for a given task, then both should have the same chance of breaking down a door. This is where a lot of games start falling apart and becoming more about "the rules as reality" instead of "common sense is reality."

Invisible Tags

B/X weapons and gear do have "equipment tags" built into them, they just are not written down. I would still use this same logic with the Master Edition of Index Card RPG, but one could argue this is just the rule, "Having a tool that makes a task easy gives you the bonus." This also applies in the reverse though with tools unsuited to the job, which I haven't found written down (yet, my book is still MIA in the mail somewhere), but it should be obvious.

Equipment tags in a sense are there for us to use and apply in our rulings. Got a bucket of water? Automatic success at dousing a small fire. I can rule no roll needed and we move on. In a dramatic movie sense it works. Put a roll on there and have it fail three times before the fourth douses the fire and you risk using dice rolls to enforce tedium, needless repetition, and punishing the player. What are you doing? Did a rulebook say you needed to roll for that? Is this even important?

Want to knock a patrolling goblin guard unconscious? A sap or blackjack makes the task easy, a club or staff is normal, and most other things are hard or even impossible (a whip or flail).

So while the written-down concept of an equipment tag may be tedium, the mental concept of applying  these "invisible tags" based on common sense and how the item functions can actually be a useful tool in an OSR referee's toolbox.

The best tool for the job makes it an easier task.

Index Card RPG: Differences Between 2e and Master Edition

I am still waiting for the delivery of my Master Edition (collectors) of Index Card RPG Master Edition, but I found this great post on the differences between 2e (which I have and likely many others since it is still up on Amazon), and the newer addition, check it out:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ICRPG/comments/prey8s/an_extensive_comparison_of_icrpg_2e_and_icme/

There seems to be an item missing from the above list, equipment tags have been removed from the game. I suppose it is easy enough to say, "you are using a long weapon in an airshaft, the roll is hard" without a tag needing to guide you. I did like the tag system, but I can see how it was very subjective, may or may not apply in different situations, and makes you feel your rulings should be forced in some situations when ultimately it is up to the referee to decide.

Many of the "in play" rules are the same, and many around character creation and progression have been streamlined and better and more consistent options given no matter the genre.

I wish the book would come so I can give it a look over, as I am not a huge fan of playing from PDFs. I could print a copy of the core rules and player's section out, but the book should be close to shipping so I don't feel like printing 70 pages for little use.

The new edition looks like a fun, streamlined, and internally consistent version and I am looking forward to giving it a look.