Index Card RPG Core: Second Edition

Product Information

The RPG is popular and has spawned numerous supplements and fan-made resources as you will see below and is published by Runehammer. ICRPG Character Sheets on DriveThruRPG Warp Shell is a science fantasy setting inspired by Warhammer 40,000 and, as with Alfheim it has been significantly expanded with new races, classes and abilities.

This is where the Index Card RPG (ICRPG) comes into play (pun intended). An easy to learn game in its own right, what I love most about ICRPG is just how relevant it’s become in ALL of the RPGs I play. Miniatures!!! 48 heroes and all 23 monsters, all compiled on 'army sheets' so you can print and cut hordes in minutes. The perfect addition to your massive ICRPG collection! Index Card RPG is a light but complete D20 roll-over rules system with simple character creation, fast-playing combat, and all the timers, targets, monsters, and miniatures you need to play right away. More interestingly, ICRPG is a toolkit of do-it-yourself techniques to streamline any game. It’s a mentality, a philosophy. You can easily adapt ICRPG’s videogame-style ideas to any other RPG: Hearts ( Zelda-inspired hit points), Effort (a way of pacing a scene), universal Targets (every roll in a given scene is rolled against the same Target number), and “banana movement.” (On your turn, your miniature can move across the playfield the length of a banana and still take another action. Move banana-length-plus, that’s your whole turn.) Designer Hankerin Ferinale outlines key concepts in his May 2018 video “ ICRPG: Core Mechanics” (link starts at 0:25). RuneJammer 2023 welcomes complete newcomers to the RPG hobby as well as gamers of any experience level who want to discover ICRPG’s fast, flexible system, and it features all five adventure settings included in Master Edition—Alfheim, Warp Shell, Ghost Mountain, Blood and Snow, and Vigilante City—offering a wide variety of unique roleplaying adventures presented the Runehammer way.

Currently Running

Heroes of the Hammer: 20 color-illustrated pregenerated characters. I think these are cool. I’ve used the illustrations for character tokens more than anything.

Personally, my favorite might be the prehistoric Blood and Snow. Exploring a precursor world where cities don't exist and megafauna roam the ice is a compelling idea we don't get all that often in the tabletop space. Should you buy Index Card RPG? Magic is slightly more powerful in Master Edition, using a d10, and guns are granted the d8 position to make them more effective then swords or bows. Tools now Grant a d6 of effort to make using tools better than trying to accomplish a task with one's bare hands, which still does a d4 worth of effort. Thanks to its emphasis on flexibility, accessibility, and empowering players, Index Card RPG is an excellent place to start your tabletop journey - or continue it. I've never seen a system that's easier to get into, and it's surprisingly robust in spite of this. If you want to do something, you use the tried and true d20 approach of rolling a d20 and adding all your modifiers and hope to beat the Target. Along with index cards, one of the new-old things in ICRPG is the idea of the Target. It’s basically the DC you need to meet or beat. The difference here is that it is universal, either for a card or even for the whole adventure. It’s publicly visible and the GM can adjust it — for reasons. […] You can write your own epic narrative on how each [character] uses the thing they are good at to overcome the obstacle. You can have all the detail you want without lots of exception-based rules. And your Effort is applied to the Encounter’s Hearts. Hearts are used to judge the amount of Effort, and therefore time, you’ll need to get through the Encounter. While one Heart equates to 10 points of Effort and therefore 10 traditional hit points, it’s also a judge of how long it will take you or your party to get past it. […]These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher. Altered State: I think without a doubt the most important aspect of this cyberpunk supplement is the smattering of cool game mechanics that it comes with. Those were heavily playtested and stood the test of time. Vigilante City: Here’s my video review of this supplement. This supers supplement also brings some new mechanics to the table, most importantly a point pool that allows you to use any of a number of superpowers. This was some of the most fun I’ve had with any supers RPG play, mostly because it doesn’t try to be anything other than fast superhero action.