Your table rules

Tell me about how you use the rules in master edition in your games. Looking inspiration for my games.

How does magic work, can anyone cast spells?

How do classes work/Do you have your own classes?

Do conditions like charmed or prone exist?

Any other rules you use?

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I don’t even know where to start, if I’m honest. I use Mighty Deeds inspired by Surge dice from Altered State, I use the Phase system from Crown & Skull, I’m sure I’m missing some other major hacks.

Class wise, I use a format inspired by Playbooks from Blade In The Dark. They provide 3 Stat Boosts, 2 Effort Bonuses, a core skill, and a single secondary skill from a list of three. Some playbooks provide a Starting Loot, some just provide a bigger pool of Basic Loot.

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I’m similar, it’s hard to remember them all. I think i forget some stuff. But it stays simple and moddable. Running fast is my goal and then player options. We can get through double or more the material with this than we could in dnd.

Coming back and editing after writing the below… I guess at this point i have my own game.

We are playing in a fantasy setting, but our own, not in aelfheim. It has European and Asian elements. A lot of the rules we use are integrated into our new classes, see below.

I added BIG and SMALL and MORE and LESS to checks and effort from kanes kiln.
I added FATIGUE from Cairn.
I added the SLOT INVENTORY from evilbaboons.
I added the “Shields shall be broken” rule and i also let characters sacrifice a RANDOM PIECE of loot if they don’t want to take damage from a hit and thier shield is gone. Sometimes we go through a lot of loot! Everyone only has 1 heart after all! So…
I added Wierd Weapons and Wierd Chems from Prismatic Wasteland.
I added CORRUPTION from Monolith (a sci-fi Cairn hack).
I added a FEAR mechanic which makes checks roll small or efforts roll less.
I added Kane’s charisma spells.

I added a simple system for fights from the wuxia game Rivers and Lakes where not every fight is deadly. You can have a friendly fight which stops at 3 “touches” or a serous fight which runs as normal but stops at 1 HP. Or you can have standard icrpg combat referred to in my rules as “a deadly fight”. We have already a recurring rival party and a recurring villan because of these mechanics.

I have about 24 character races. (To be completed is actually adding race
-as-class as well, i only have 2 so far. So if you want to play a Dwarf race and be the dwarf class you can be a dwarfy-dwarf. We need to play more and discover our setting for me to be able to do this. Maybe next year.)

I did all the above so that i could do this:
I used Altered State surges mechanic to create a PSIONICS system with good, neutral, and evil powers. Evil powers use bigger dice but cause corruption checks.

Then i rewrote or created 20+ classes (including most of Kane’s) so that they have a few milestones that are more powerful but cause FATIGUE to start filling up thier inventory. These include gunslinges and youxia.

I added interactions with CORRUPTION to the mystic, the witch, and some others, although all characters can get it if they reach for easy power.

I added a bunch of psionic classes like Swordmage, Cultivator, we have a psionic guardian knight and templar (read: legally distinct jedi).

We are working on a faith system and rewriting priests, paladins, and have an EXORCIST (read: legally distinct abhorsen).

It sounds like a lot, and it is i guess. I have a welcome packet in the works for beginners. (We are running this at an open table). Every. Single. Player. So far, has come from only playing 5e, so this seems “rules lite” to them. (I’m old enough to remember a time when everyone who played rpgs had all played many different ones, so it’s odd to me) Anyway… the main rules are 1 page. Combat is page 2. And character creation is page 3. Lots of room for pictures. People make characters in 10 min and we are ready to go. Beginners choose from a class list that is a bit more basic. People only deal with magic, psionics, and corruption if they opt into the systems by making an advanced character, for the most part.

Once i have everything neater i will share more of it if people are interested. I started sharing my rough draft classes here a while ago.

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You have made a new game, but it uses icrpg as its heart

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100%

I have a ton of games i have not gotten to the table yet, but icrpg seems to be what i actuality wanted to PLAY the most. I just wanted to add a few things.

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Few things :joy:

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I know right LOL

I have attention surplus disorder. :sweat_smile::rofl:

Didn’t answer one of your questions. I have people use the simple magic rules unless they want more. Then they can use the advanced rules from the magic section with the benefits and drawbacks of more power.

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Classes: you get a random class perk during character creation as a “background”.

Magic: noone can cast magic from start, but you can find spells like in call of Cthulhu. Cleric miracles must benefit someone else, pagan spells are always self-serving.

Prone etc: +d4 when flanking; +d10 when attacking from behind. Large creatures get +d8 for each size increment. Characters knocked down fight as one size smaller.

class perk?

Yeah, I didn’t know what to call it. But concretely, it’s a random table with things like
“Healthy: +1d4 hp” or “knows heraldry” (nobility) or “+1 on ranged attacks” (hunter). Minor bonuses or skills to differentiate characters, framed as backgrounds or classes.

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My group and are running Fantasy Alfheim setting decided to make a Minor but for us a cool feeling update to the way we treat the Effort Dice.

As Gun Effort has no real use to us we went for following.

D4 - Basic Effort, the way we all know it

D6 - Tool Effort and Small inconspicuous weapons like knives, knuckle dusters, slingshot and so on

D8 - Weapon Effort, here we placed all your classic one handed and standard ranged weapons

D10 - Magic Effort, we also decided that large two handed weapons have their place here.

D12 - Ultimate Effort, as is

Would you mind sharing some of this in written/more details?

So far a converted Dark Sun to ICRPG and now working on Savage Worlds Deadlands conversion to ICRPG.

  1. Added the forum’s classes and spells
  2. WIS for ranged attacks
  3. Prescient Supply: INT+1 amount of generic supply that can be anything needed within reason.
  4. Exhaustion/Bad Luck/Anguish/Fear: -1 to D20 rolls per level
  5. Crits do Max Effort + Ultimate
  6. Surge Dice, Battle Fury, Spell Burn
  7. Reload crossbows or guns by skipping your move or attack portion of your turn
  8. Battle Tactics from the old forum

Could you elaborate on 1 and 8 also what is a surge die?

Hey 1 is just all of the classes that Kane and others add. Like the Paladin, Mystic, etc. He’s also recently added Charisma spells.

Battle tactics is from the old forum, no idea whose it was.

Surge Dice:
Each player gets 1D6 at the start of each session. They can be used to assist with any other rolls, they can’t be traded or replenished.
• Add to a D20 Roll
• Add to a Damage Roll
• Subtract from an incoming attack

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Those combat tactics are cool! How do you do prone condition, is there a common way of doing it?

Someone on Reddit posted some conditions, I use “knocked down”

• Blinded - you can’t see. It is EASY for you to be hit and HARD for you to hit others
• Burning - you are on fire, use an action to fix this or take damage
• Charmed - you can’t harm or try to harm the charmer and are easily persuaded to do what they ask
• Deafened - you can’t hear
• Frightened - run away from the fear or random direction if the source is not obvious. WIS check to break the effect at the start of your next turn or keep running
• Frozen - you are unable to move or take actions this round. Attacks against you are EASY
• Grappled/Restrained - pinned down, attacks against you are EASY. STR contest to escape
• Invisible - you are invisible it is HARD for you to be hit and EASY for you to hit others
• Knocked Down - use half of your movement to stand up, if you don’t, all actions are HARD and you are EASY to attack
• Petrified - you are literally stone
• Poisoned - while poisoned, it is HARD for you to do anything until you are cured, you may also take ongoing damage (CON check to end effect)
• Stunned - you can barely move or speak and everything is HARD
• Unconscious/Paralyzed - you are super vulnerable, all attacks against you are CRITICAL

We are using the following modifications:

  1. A simple Parry system to fasten combat a bit further and to reward players and enemies in combat using only an ACTION.

PARRY
When a creature stays in place just taking its ACTION, it is able to defend itself by parrying incoming blows from enemies.
Everytime a creature is attacked and missed by an enemy, it can automatically deal minimum WEAPON EFFORT damage once to that enemy, according to its main weapon/attack.
A creature can parry with ranged weapons, but only deals BASIC EFFORT damage.
Ranged attacks can never be parried.

  1. A modified version of the Magic system from TINY DUNGEON.

  2. Removing classes, each player can choose freely from all abilities to create its character.

  3. A Tag-system, mainly weapons and armor

  4. A combination of Usage Dice from TINY DUNGEON and BLACK SWORD HACK

  5. WEAPON EFFORT upgraded to D8

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Could you tell me about 4. more