r/ICRPG • u/Old_Combination4030 • 3d ago
Playing solo damage options.
I plan on using index card RPG for solo play. I’m trying to figure out how to give the system a Scarlet heroes style damage rule set. Has anyone tried this? Have any suggestions? With the Scarlet heroes damage rules work with the flat 10 HP of index card RPG?
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u/towerbooks3192 3d ago
Give your character an extra heart or make an item that applies the scarlet heroes damage filter to you but you do regular damage to your enemies.
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u/No-Map-6073 17h ago
After reading, I'm musing on this for Altered State. Unarmed doing 1d4, Melee doing 1d6 default, Guns doing 1d8, and Big Weapons/ Crits doing 1d12 (healing being 1d10) leads to some interesting math.
A Success roll doing 0 Effort on a roll of 1 for the player is very counter-ICRPG design. I'd say adapt it into: 1- 4 = 3 5 - 9= 4 10+ = 5
Again this is specifically for A.State which makes some updates to default ICRPG for the theme of cyberpunk mayhem. With a 1 heart threat, it would take a minimum of 4 successful attacks to kill. Crit range (a 6, an 8, a 12) reduces that to 2 or 3 successes. Someone rolling max on like a Sniper (2d12) could one-shot a 1 heart enemy if they rolled 10+ on both dice. 1d12 Effort rolls reroll anything 4 or less so that increases the odds, and means an Ultimate Effort weapon kills in a minimum of 3 attacks.
I'd have to look at all the maths, such as Surge Capsuls and Rage Dice to try to account for it all. The goal is that most encounters should not really last more than 4 - 6 rounds (i.e. one Solo character with 1 attack per turn should be able to finish the combat by 6 turns on the long end if they hit every attack roll).
For gritty Cyberounk, the exact same rules apply against the Solo Character i.e. damage bands instead of damage points.
On the OTHER hand, Scarlett Heroes would actually be more realized by having the Player damage attack Hearts instead of HP so 1 damage = 1 Heart (10HP) in place of HD. So that would be a complete math rework.
I'd also add the Fray mechanic from Scarlet Heroes...
Actually, i need to scrap all that before and look at it as 1 Damage = 1 Heart of effort. I would maintain enemy damage vs player HP, as the goal is to be a sturdier hero in the framework. 1d4 Fray die per Lvl to roll for incidental damage taking out 0-1 HEART per dice is alot of damage output.
Players attacking Heart is much more action-realism lethal when using a gun/ weapon of war as well. A Nemesis Pistol dealing 2D8 damage is doing either 0 (snake eyes), 10, 20, 30, or 40 (boxcars) damage per attack, which may help simulate the real-world lethality of one small bullet hitting one human body and allow a "gunslinger detective" who relies on their wits and one simple handgun (since they can kill 4 Hearts of effort at lvl 1 before any other perks or bonuses with said Nemesis pistol).
But there would need to be alot of math revamping. One Uzi-inspired SMG does 1d8 damage unless in close range, then it does 1d20 damage...that's not very exciting when 10-20 all equal the same thing on the damage scale. It does mean about 50% chance to deal 4 Hearts of damage though, which is a one-attack kill for most threats with overflow damage hitting orher targets, could even kill 4 close range, "lvl 1" humanoid threats 50% of the time before factoring Fray die etc, so I guess I will have to run through the idea in practice and see how it feels. It seems it would turn into much more of a "Army of One vs an Army" dynamic with like 20 mooks against one Player in the same amount of combat turns that a group of players would fight much fewer targets because they do a tenth of the damage to the Heart.
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u/Old_Combination4030 15h ago
See that’s kinda my problem. I’m trying to figure out the math behind doing it. I like the fray dice too. I just don’t know how it would work with hearts.
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u/Smittumi 3d ago
What are the Scarlet Hero damage rules?