Index Card RPG

It's a very strange thing, to read the Index Card RPG (ICRPG). Like, what on earth can you say about this book, beyond asking "Is this near the apex of d20 design or is this so darn close it would take a miracle to evolve any further???" And, I mean, I don't really have an answer to that question, but the fact that I have to even ask that question should tell you what this game actually is. Regardless of the answer, ICRPG's mechanics are simple but have significant depth to them, the GMing section is about to close to perfection as you can get, and the hundreds of pages of additional content are beyond what was necessary, in the best way possible

So, first off, mechanics. Anyone reading this blog knows I'm a stickler for them, that games have to be well-designed before anything else. ICRPG took every single d20 innovation I'm aware of and not only iterated on it, but then perfected the mechanics they iterated on. It's really hard to understate how simple this game is to actually run! Difficulty classes are assigned by "room", and can be manipulated very easily to produce a wide range of results. Characters now have multiple "damage dice" to deal with different types of challenges, and so therefore the difference between monsters and complex tasks have been eliminated entirely; it's possible to run the game entirely on the fly to a degree that no other d20 game could possibly match. I'd feel very comfortable handing this game to a beginner and seeing what they did with it, because as long as they were confident in their ability to BS they could do pretty much anything they wanted. Character creation is quick and almost painless, with you just needing to pick some stuff from a few lists, jot a few numbers down, and then start. I mean, maybe others would have difficulty running it completely on the fly, but I sure as hell wouldn't, and I know that when I was a younger GM or a player I would have killed to have these mechanics.

The GMing section is easily the best d20 section I've ever read. No, you're not going to do a better one, sorry! Besides the usual "be confident" and other such nonsense there is actual, good, real advice, like setting up room as set pieces, different tips and tricks that could only be gotten with years and years and years of playing. If you're not going to play the game that's fine, but read the GMing section if nothing else. It's a game written by an incredibly experienced and intelligent GM, who had spent a very long time trying to work out exactly what he wanted to say to newbies. If there is any reason to buy this book, it's the GMing section!!!

... and then there's the extras. Oh man, the extras. There's tons of settings in the back half of the book, along with races, story hooks, classes, stuff that would normally be its own book at 50 bucks, but it's in here in a small $17 book and it's just so wholesome. Looking at this book, at the sheer value of this part of the book alone, I find myself humbled. There's love in the rest of the book, but that's not really what jumps at me in the front half. That's simply a great game and great advice. But here? This section? It absolutely didn't need to be here. There's page after page after page of content that's thrown in practically for free, and only because the author wanted you to have the very best he could possibly give you! As I struggle to make Crescendo, as I bang my head on that engine over and over again, books like this become a beacon of hope for me. I know that sounds odd, but if I'm not even in the same ballpark of ICRPG in terms of love and value, what's the point in making a game at all???

And that, ultimately, is why ICRPG is the d20 RPG. Not because its mechanics are practically perfect. Not because its GMing section is the best d20 GMing section I've read in actual years, somehow beating out 4e's DMG2. It's that this game was made out of a serious love for the pulp genre, a love that pushed at this author so freaking hard that he made the best game he could, simply so others could see what he saw and love it too. I am not saying other designers do not make their products out of love, or that d20 is a soulless field of horrors or something, but in the realm of d20 this is a gem, and even outside of that type of game ICRPG stands out as the definitive text on the d20 pulp genre. Just period.