Welcome!
Icar is a free Science Fiction Roleplaying game by Rob Lang
Set in the far future, Icar is a space opera where you can
fly between the stars, fight a race of robots
or subvert the benevolent Imperium
SHODDY WARNING!
It's taken me a few years to get into a state that's releasable: the Alpha of the Icar Version 4 book is now ready for download (there's no preview for big PDFs on Google just yet, you have to download it). It's far from finished and the Alpha tag is there to warn you that it's still in a shoddy state but there is something to review.
What sort of feedback I would like?
If you are keen to read Icar and give a little feedback, please come over to the forum on 1km1kt. There you will find a thread to feedback on. Don't worry about reading everyone else's feedback, I will sort through it all together. There is a load of things I know to be missing, so check that out first.
By Rob Lang on 2010/06/05
I've been beavering away on Version 4 now for what seems like an age and it is coming together very nicely indeed. I might even go as far as to say I'm proud of it. Before I launch Version 4, I will be putting out an 'Alpha' version, which will contain most of the text and some (but not all of the images). Hopefully you can get a feel for the game from that.
For those hankering for a sneeky peek, the best place to check is the forum. I have posted examples of Tools for Sandbox Gaming from the GM Guide, changes to the horrifically out of date Scavenger Setting and a big To Do list that acts scope for what I am creating. I post new art into my Picasaweb Art folder and also the the scraps folder too.
I am proud to say that there is a player group on the forum now too. They are playing Version 3.5 (that you download now) and the feedback I am getting is pure gold. I love feedback of this kind because I can go straight to the Version 4 document and change it there and then.
By Rob Lang on 2010/04/09
I have moved the Icar forum over to One Thousand Monkeys, One Thousand Typewriters (1KM1KT) to bring Icar into the Free RPG community a little more and to generate more traffic. It also gives me one less place to Administer. The 1KM1KTers are a friendly bunch and the forum ebbs and flows like any other. I have already posted up a WIP example of a page of the new Equipment Index. The old forum link should redirect you. Please update your bookmarks.
I have not lost any of the content from the old forum, I have backed it up locally and have copied it all into a big XML file that I can use for reference. Thank you to everyone who posted there, I hope you find the new Icar Forum home as agreeable as I do.
By Rob Lang on 2009/10/11
Version 4 is cutting along at a pace. It's grown, shrank and grown again. I have dumped the Hacking and Space Combat rules (hated them), replaced hacking with a series of action that can be performed in and out of combat with Skill rolls and a new Space Combat system. The look of the book is slightly changing, I will be using a full border image a little like I did for Cloudship Atlantis The background section (formerly Society book) is expanding at a huge rate too. I am taking a lot of the detail I generated from my last campaign about societies drop outs and including them too. The Scavenger Setting has been fleshed out and I'm including a series of example adventures. The book is going to be massive.
Due to the rule changes and changing of the discs into easier-to-read discs, I will be releasing a new high resolution equipment index at the same time. It's absolutely necessary to do so as the sections of the rules that refer to items in the equipment index need to be in high resolution too. If I didn't, it would ruin the book - most pictures being sharp and then some being fuzzy. This means I will also have to remodel some items because the 3D models were lost in the great deletion balls up! The work never stops.
I am not sure if a preview is a good idea as I am likely to change things again before release. When I get some new renders, I will post those up.
When's it all going to be ready? I have no idea. My son is due today (and is late, typically) and being our first child, he's bound to suck up a lot of time.
By Rob Lang on 2009/10/11
My apologies for blatting your feedreaders with two updates today but I've had a stupidly productive time and I thought I'd share it with you all. This is the new character sheet three (or body/armour sheet in old language). In beautiful high resolution (in Version 4, where this shot was taken from). When folded down the middle, armour appears on the backside. For each section, the Armour Rating (AR) is in the smaller disc and Hit Points (HP) in the larger disc with original value above the line and current value below it. When printed on A4, I've found that the HP discs are fine for writing up to 99,999 and as AR is only two digits so there is plenty of room. Psychotheatrics have disappeared off the sheet because there was never really enough room. I will state in the rules that they can be put at the bottom of the Character sheet two on the equipment side. Some (noteably one of my players, Fish) likes to put images from the web in his character. For that, I will provide a massive PSD (which is a layered graphics format made famous by Photoshop but usable with GIMP) template without the outlines or lines-with-spots. That way anyone can put whoever they like in the background.
No doubt there will be people who prefer a grid, and I appreciate that more than most but this sheet must be in keeping with the game itself, which is important. If you're using it a lot, you'll soon get used to it. If you don't, then it won't bother you. I don't think it's so very new that it will act as a barrier to entry (as the dials were) but instead a worthy improvement.
No doubt, I'll keep fiddling with this and the other character sheet but I doubt the layouts will change much. The only addition in the rules will be specially prepared pages that can be printed onto the back of the character sheets that have a rule quick reference. This will be like those pictures and lists in the back of the book but compressed into more helpful sheets. Not needed for everyone but might help the newer players.
By Rob Lang on 2009/01/27
Italiano
Slovenské pravidlá