Furious & Ferocious

Hi dear reader! I wrote this little pdf to present you a hack using my two favorite systems, Space Aces
and Index Card RPG. I hope you enjoy the hack, and if you find it cool enough, let me know about it.

Taking good parts from Space Aces...

Space Aces is a really great system, with great mechanics. Because of this greatness, I absolutely want
to keep some parts of SA:
● Rolling a d6 with the d20 to create random partial success
● The Heat Level, which come naturally with the previous d6
● The Grit, because failure happens all the time
● Ask the AI, a way to add some direction to the storytelling

d20&d6, perfect combo

The great idea, 1-2 and there’s a cost, 5-6 and there’s a benefit. Simple, efficient, narratively awesome.
Some little things to take of when using the d6:
- No crit on the d20, or use double crit, but it isn’t a good idea as ICRPG is already quite deadly
- On a success, a cost can halves the effort (see ICRPG), and a benefit switch the effort dice to
ULTIMATE
- Even if applied on a effort, cost and benefit is better if they have an impact on the story
- A cost/benefit can affect the next roll, by applying HARD/EASY to the Target (see ICRPG)
- Don’t forget to raise the Heat Level by one with every cost, it’s important

Feel the Heat

Also really simple, but truly powerful. Raised by the cost (all players raise it, so it can be fast), every
multiple of 5 a bad event occurs. Maybe the ground collapses, or maybe it’s a new monster, it’s up to the
table. And higher is the heat, worse (for the table) is the event.

Through bruises and beyond

Grit, a little 5-tick player track, filled with failure (on the d20, not the d6). When full, the player can use it
to turn a failure to a success (again, only the d20, not the d6). Will you keep it for a really bad roll, or just
the next failure? No stacked tracks, just one!

Always listen the little voice

“Ask the AI” is a very simple mechanic:
1. Build a yes/no question, like “is there something to find here?”, or “Does the guard sleep?”
2. Choose a probability, “Likely” (5), “Possibly” (10), “Unlikely” (15), the number in parenthesis is the
target
3. Roll d20&d6, like for a classic roll
4. If the d20 is over the target number, it’s a “yes”, otherwise it’s a “no”
5. Like with a classic roll, a 1-2 on the d6 is a “but…”, and a 5-6 is a “and…”
Lots of questions can be answered this way, even Heat Events (“does it come from the ground?”).
 … And apply them to ICRPG!
More than a system, ICRPG is a core which can include everywhere, a toolbox full of neat mechanics.
What is used from this system in F&F?
● The 6 Stats, but as professions, + Defense
● The Effort and Heart concept
● The Room Target
● And the loot system

I will defend myself, as the diplomat I am

ICRPG uses the classic STR/DEX/CON/INT/WIS/CHA stats, legacy of D&D, but it’s easy to switch this
with FAE approaches, or professions like in JadePunk and suggested in the Fate toolkit. I prefer
professions, because I can add a nice trick to the loot system with it:
- Warrior, for everything fight-related
- Traveller, to explore new horizons
- Thief, when it comes to avoid detection
- Scholar, stocking useful, and useless, knowledges
- Craftsman, to build everything
- Diplomat, when a character want to speak wisely
The interesting part with this alternative is to help building specialisation loot, like this:
- marksman: +2 to Warrior with guns
- pickpocket: +2 to Thief when trying to rob something on someone unnoticed
- noble: +2 to Diplomat when in front of a queen and her court

About Defense, I kept it as it fits nicely like described in the quickstart, not the core book, working like a
stat, with the player rolling to avoid harm. Also, it’s the player’s duty to roll effort if it’s a failure (with no
modifiers, it’s already hard enough). Less GM rolls, more player’s investment.
For the character’s creation, the player has 10 points to distribute between stats, defense, and effort.

You can break my heart, I’ve got two left

Heart, everytime and everywhere! A pack of goblins? 2 Hearts! A long tunnel full of traps? 2 Hearts (and
a clock)! An exhausting negotiation with the Earl? 12 Hearts! Everything is Effort!
Seriously, one of the most efficient ways to handle everything that can’t be done with a single game
mechanic, the same for exploring, combat, social interactions, everything.
I prefer the 6 effort dice from the quickstart book, just a matter of taste, but the 5 dice from the core work
well too.
For the details of how effort works the best way to learn it is the ICRPG book.

Everything in that room want to kill you

The floor, the door, the carpet, the chandelier, everything can have a difficulty, but it’s tedious to keep
track of everything. One number to bind them all, that’s the Great Eye moto. But don’t forget
HARD/EASY, it’s a great tool to add depth (narratively and mechanically).

What’s in this chest?

Everything can be a loot, a super power, an ability, a special skill, a feat, an augment, a weapon, a trap, a
curse, a specialisation, literally everything. And the best? You can write your loots on cards, and build
your character like a deck (even the character’s sheet in this doc can be set on a poker card, I swear, I
did it). Ironsworn did it, you can do it too.
 Plus some special spices
My own ideas, from my own plays, because like every player, sometimes I think about a better way to do
it. Doesn’t mean it’s better for everyone, just that it works for me, so maybe it can be interesting for you.
● A XP progress track
● Keeping benefit for later use, the Unused Benefit Pools

About XP
For people who prefer characters who slowly evolve, keeping their starting stats for a long time, this is
the rule. The concept is very simple: like effort’s heart, a character stack up XP points from each
session/scene/whatsoever, and when the track reaches 10, a new XP heart is added. This Heart can be
used to raise by one a stat, an effort, or to add another Heart, and only one of these.
How many XP for which game length, it’s up to the table. For a mission/quest game style, 1 XP point is
good enough per mission/quest for a slow but logic progression.

Unused Benefit
Sometimes it’s the emptiness, no idea pops out for cost & benefit. A cost is better consumed
immediately, because if it’s delayed it’s easy to forget, and harder to apply bad things later in the game.
Benefit however can be turned into a token, and stock for later use, as accepting not having any
improvement right now to have something good later is a common mechanism.
So, “Unused Benefit” is a special rule to turn a classic Space Aces benefit into a token (with no limit on
how many tokens). When a cost is rolled (just the cost, not the d20 result) a player can use an Unused
Benefit to cancel it.
Another possibility is to transform a classic d6 (ie. no cost and no benefit) into a benefit, but never a cost
into a benefit by using two tokens, it’s a bit too much. Also, Unused Benefits disappear at the end of a
scene (can be changed by the table, but it helps alot and avoids a good load of trouble).

Special note
Solo Play / GM-Less with ICRPG
It’s the way it’s used by me, and my own table. It can fit your own!
With the Space Aces parts this hack already shows how to go without a GM, but with ICRPG, and mostly
with the Effort and loot concepts, it’s a bit foggy to move forward, especially with monsters. Here some
tips.
Both Effort and loot parts are concerned here, as the latter affect the former. If a creature has a special
ability, like a death ray or an area attack, it’s in the loot. In the same time, the loot/ability determines if the
attack is magic, or a weapon, or if it’s a gun, or raw strength. By writing this, I already gave the tip: nearly
everything about monsters are parts of the Effort, so AFTER the player’s defense roll. It’s about how the
monster handles the outcome, not how it manages to hit first. One thing to keep in mind, as the
monster’s Effort affects the player’s character, it’s the player who rolls the Effort (think “how does the
character handle the monster’s Effort?”).
But what about an area attack? It’s the “nearly”, as it obviously affects the defense roll, and that’s why
EASY/HARD is so important in the ICRPG mechanics. If an attack is very HARD to avoid, like a zone
attack, it’s HARD. Also, if an attack can’t be dodge, maybe the defense roll is all about halving the
outcome.
About difficulty and Solo Play
With low power character, deadly mechanics, and no one to help, solo play can quickly be turned to a
one mission character. It can be fun to play like that, but sooner or later a player wants a character who
survives more than 2 or 3 missions. Here 2 pieces of advice to help you achieve this goal.

First um up stats (defense included) and effort, divide by 12 (or 13, but it’s less convenient), round up.
The result is the Difficulty Step. An Easy Global Target is 9.
- Easy: 9
- Normal: Easy + Difficulty Step
- Hard: Normal + Difficulty Step
- Nightmare: Hard + Difficulty Step
Don’t underestimate the difficulty, a magic trap can kill a character in one strike. The system is already
deadly enough to add more ways to fail.

Second, with a brand new character, don’t go further than 2 Hearts, or even a single Heart. If it’s too
easy, fine, it’s time to add another one, or more, but keep in mind adversity has power to easily cripple
the character, a single WEAPON can cut a Heart in two, and if a opponent has loots, a single Heart is
already an unbalanced battle.

Character example: Gustave sheet

It’s often better if there’s a character example, so let me introduce Gustave, a brave soldier who executes
missions for his master. He spent his time in sewers, or dealing with gangs, or secretly infiltrating
barracks. He’s not particularly handsome, but he’s efficient in his job.
Note: the +X are from loot, Gustave gained enough XP to have 2 XP Heart, and used one spent in Thief.
If you count 12 Points instead of 11, don’t forget to remove 1 HEART as it’s a default value, not a stat.

Warrior 2 Defense 2 +1 (+1shield)

Traveller 2 BASIC (d4) 1

Thief 1 WEAPONS & TOOLS (d6) 2 +1(sword)/+2(axe)

Scholar 0 GUNS (d8) 0

Craftsman 1 MAGIC & ENERGY (d10) 0

Diplomat 0 ULTIMATE (d12) 0

XP 1/2(8) HEART 1

Thanks
I want to thank the Holy Goat, who implicitly pushed me to write this hack and play with them, my wife
and her incredible support while I dive into my hobby, P0rthos47, space bunnies will come back,
Brandish Gilhelm and his fluid fundamentals, Ryan M. Danks, Jacob Possin, Mike Olson, Fred Hicks,
and Rob Donoghue, for all their work who inspired me and helped me build this hack.

v0.2