I haven't run a game using the core rules yet, but have been implementing some of the mechanics I thought would benefit my game over time. I implemented a turn order even out of combat with a D4 timer that counts down the rounds to a big event. This sped up play dramatically. Each turn might represent 10 minutes while exploring, or days if in town. I would recommend trying if you want to reduce slog at your table.
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I like the standees. Which reminds me, I need to buy ink.
I read it and I didn't immediately hate it so it's probably alright. Seems like the kind of game a significant audience is looking for - Very pared down D&D style combat mechanics with explicitly narrative adventure mechanics.
Link to rules?
Here's a quickstart
https://rollingboxcars.com/2022/07/12/simply-free-index-card-rpg-free-quickstart/
Full PDFs are floating around and it's A5 format so a good candidate for POD. The books don't seem worth what they sell for but that tells you that the game is in demand.
Thanks, I'll check it out. Stationary store's like right next to the bank and I need to make a deposit later. Might pick up some cards and frick around.
There's some kinda standalone board game implementation called Xeno Dead Zone you can play by yourself with simpler rules. I think it's like $5 for the print and play PDF - or just pirate it
I run a Hard Suits campaign at the moment and it does the job.
It is a little bit all over the place and feels like it was not proof read and edited professionally enough.
but again, it works.
I'm curious to know roughly how much content is pulled from the book vs made up by you. I assume much more than typical for something like 5e, but is it almost entirely your creation?
I'm also curious on how you might manage progression. Any tips from your experience?
Idk about that anon, but the book is like 400 pages for some reason and I don't understand what makes it an "index card" RPG. The character sheet just looks normal. The stats are all d&d stats and you roll 1d20+a die of various sizes up to a d12 to represent your situation/equipment trying to hit a target difficulty number. It's incredibly simple and terribly derivative without any spark of originality or interesting systems. 400 pages of bologna for what should be a one page game at best. I'd suggest almost literally anything else because this game is a bust.
It's an index card RPG because it is assuming you USE index cards and such for reference and slap dash adventure building when playing instead of just using the rulebook constantly at the table.
To be fair, I've been using reference cards for over a decade. Hell, back in the Warhammer Fantasy 3e days, all those cards were a fricking god send for fast as hell adventure creation. Essentially just in-universe writing prompts for smashing out a reasonably well made adventure in less than 30 minutes. WF3e had a shitload of good ideas I still use to this day in the GM sections.
The book itself (Hard Suits) is great for the way that I run games, which is "play to find out what happens". Except for the primer at the very beginning and the first few steps to take your players through in Atria it is very open to interpretation and only gives you ideas/evocative inspiration on locations, plots, and people that you and your players fill out. Especially with its tables for items and events. So I say it is up to you and your players to create the world of Atria. Listen to what players speculate about stuff and use it. Progression in Hard Suits is about the Origin of the characters. since they start out as blank slates you and the players discover who their character is during gameplay.
e. g. all my four player characters started out with the same roll on the equipment table. So all of them had a sack and a strange staff. Immediately everyone at the table was like:"Holy shit! Those staffs must mean something" and from thereon out the mystery of the staffs began. And then, as the book states, if they ace a roll or succeed in a very important situation they can take a point in that attribute. if they feel like they discovered something about themself they take an ability.
what the frick are you talking about? the bulk of that 400 pages are the different settings you dumbass. there are like 4 settings in there all with different loot tables, rules, setting descriptions and such.
it's basically 30 pages of basic rules and the rest is setting rules and info and GM guide.
it is not THE BEST game ever, but it is solid enough to run fun games or a whole campaign with it.
read the book before you write about it.
>e frick are you talking about? the bulk of that 400 pages are the different settings you dumbass.
No shit. I don't know why you're suddenly so hostile and defensive over this shit game, but there's no reason for this not to be a core book and a set of setting splat books other than to pad page count and charge a higher price. They clearly want to try and hook people for as much cash as possible up front by offering this giant tome with a deceptive name because if they sold it peacemeal i'd be shocked if any of the setting books sold and they wouldn't be able to charge the price they do for the core rules.
>there's no reason for this game to be a $40 book when it could be 6x$10 books
It should be, but they wouldn't be making 60 per customer. Also those prices are lmao tier. At best the core book I can imagine moving at $20 maybe. But they think it's financially better to get people for the biggest one lump that they can because the system is shit and they have no confidence that they'll have any customers returning for other books. I can't imagine using this system over other ones that are far cheaper and better designed, but I will say two things:
The settings part of the book is decent, I didn't obsessively comb through it, but it had good art and decent ideas.
If you or anyone else in this thread enjoys this system and has a good time with it, more power to them. Sometimes you just come across something that works for you and there's no reason to change if you're happy.
You can't get the hardcover for under $35 so the demand is there, Anon.
You can get the rules for $0, too. You're going to look at the state of TRPGs for the last 20 years say and tell me that when something is more expensive that means people are buying/going to buy it? I'm sure Anima sold very well lmao. Wish Cadwallon had stuck around, though.
I can't even say everything I've bought or played was necessarily good. People buy and play shit things sometimes and don't care as long as they're having fun.
Pathfinder 1 didn't become a giant in its niche because of a well crafted ruleset.
Technically Pathfinder 1 did become a giant because it was the best ruleset for its exact niche.
Its only real competition had just shot itself so it was the only game in that niche, but still. People wanting spreadsheets the game have never been better served.
>Technically Pathfinder 1 did become a giant because it was the best ruleset for its exact niche.
Haha, okay I'll give you that. Technically you can say their niche was people who wanted more fricked up 3.5 rules and don't want to play anything else ever and that is exactly what they provided. Good for a laugh. I'm actually surprised at how much better pf2 is (though it still has major maths issues) given how bad Starfinder was.
>Technically Pathfinder 1 did become a giant because it was the best ruleset for its exact niche
That's only correct if the niche is "being 3. X"
Exactly. "technically" correct, but not really in the context of the conversation.
Yes, if something is selling for a certain price that means someone is buying it at that price obviously. Exactly what that price is, is a factor of both demand and supply. How do you not know this? Are you a commie or something?
>Yes, if something is selling for a certain price that means someone is buying it at that price obviously.
No it doesn't. Those books up on Amazon for 5million aren't because people are buying at that price. You can look up items on eBay that are jacked up which is why you look at successful auctions to get a better idea of what those things sell for. Plus this entirely sidesteps the issue if you sell one book for $60 to one person but 10 people would've bought it at $10, not only have you lost money* you also are not building a community around your product.
*this ignores cost of producing the product by unit, though you could say that's factored into the sale price anyway, but given the quality of your post you are either an idiot or you're arguing in bad faith AND an idiot.
>you look at successful auctions to get a better idea of what those things sell for
wow you must be some kind of fricking genius to think of that
When did I ever say they never sold a single unit? Also this sidesteps the other issues like keeping entry costs low and instead packaging it all into one big purchase to catch the largest amount of money. You must really have brain damage because I know all you're posting is in bad faith, you certainly know or you're even more of a moron, and you're certainly not going to fool anyone reading this conversation. I guess I accept your concession because you're not even refuting what I've posted at this point.
I said from the beginning that I don't personally think it's worth the price it sells for but the fact that it regularly sells above it's cover price says that people are buying it and playing it. I'm not entirely sure exactly what little sub-point you're clinging to, that they should have published it as a bunch of cheap pamphlets? I disagree but there's not really any way to argue that objectively.
It's a rules lite d20 based RPG. There's thousands of the things and you can just swap them out for eachother on the fly if you've got half a brain.
There's an implicit assumption that people who play this sort of game are hacking together their favorite rules from the last couple decades of game releases anyway.
The settings, tables and so on are a big part of their value proposition of almost any RPG product targeting that market.
As for why its "Index Card" RPG, its a tie in to their original product, which was decks of index cards with different monsters, locations, items, and scenery on them. The RPG was built to support a playstyle around the loose game maps and encounters you'd naturally end up with if using the cards.
Did.... did you just buy the book without knowing that? Its very much made to play in a very specific style, you're pretty frickin dumb of you spent money on it without already knowing what it was going to be.
>Did.... did you just buy the book without knowing that? Its very much made to play in a very specific style, you're pretty frickin dumb of you spent money on it without already knowing what it was going to be.
Lmao no of course I didn't. I am definitely a try before buy type of person. There are enough shills on this site trying to astroturf the shit out of crap like the new marvel TRPG that you can't just blind buy anything. You have to read for yourself and if it's good, then you buy it. Take the car for a trip around the block and open the hood. Know what you're paying for first.
So... is the original index card product good? Yet another d20 system doesn't hold any interest for me whatsoever but the index card thing sounds like a useful tool.
AFAIK the index cards in the product are simple drawings that help you lay out points of interest or creatures in an environment. ICRPG uses a simple range system of close (melee distance), near (a bit of movement, or a spear poke away), far (A full turn of movement away), and Out of Range. The cards help lay out a dungeon in an improvised way without a grid, though despite the name, they are entirely optional.
The system of ICRPG is simple enough that any NPC, creature, or environments details could fit on a single index card, and I run even my current 5e game just using a compendium of index cards. For me, that makes more sense why it is named after them. Ultimately, I think the author named it so because he really like index cards as a tool.
So it's literally just a pointcrawl map with a different name and using a very specific medium for the points?
Not that guy, but anyway:
Yes, pretty much.
In all honesty, the cards seem to be more of an inspiration tool for the author. In the GM section he describes the way he plans his adventures which is to put down a structure of nodes, establish the way they are connected, then shuffle the deck and flop cards onto the nodes. Then fly by the seat of his pants from there.
Also, they don't look bad, he certainly has some artistic talent, though probably no formal training.
That sounds awesome. I will have to check out the hard suits setting. I love the unfolding narrative game style, and making up a lot of my won stuff.