How To Play Trapped In An Endless Ikrala

How to play Ikrala

 

Hi everyone, this is a special how to play episode of Firebreathing Kittens podcast. I’m the game master for an upcoming session using the rules for Ikrala. This episode is a summary of what I learned after reading the rule book. Hopefully this will be a handy guide for how to play for my players, will help me organize myself, and will be useful for you listeners, too, who are looking to play your own Ikrala game at home.

 

I’ll organize this how to play guide into sections.

1. Game category

2. Abilities: STR, DEX, CTRL

3. Combat rules

4. Zero hit points

5. Building a character

 

 

Game category. Ikrala is a fantasy survival horror procedural dungeon crawl through a massive artificial constructed place, resembling something like a mall, a casino, an airport, or a furniture store. On the one hand, there is a horror to a place with no natural light where every square foot has been planned to slow you down, lure you into forgetting what time it is, and not realize you are spending forever there. On the other hand, there is a fantasy aspect to being in the store overnight, jumping onto the display bed, picking up any container off the shelf and eating out of it. Ikrala melds the horror and fantasy together into a massive nearly endless store where everything is yours for the taking, but everything is also out to kill you. Like the movie Beauty and the Beast where the furniture and cutlery has a mind of its own, or like a mimic treasure chest that eats the adventurers who open it, players will fight floor after floor in their quest to find the item they’re shopping for, and then find the elusive parking garage exit.

 

How to play. Players roll a 20 sided dice, also called a d20, and compare the result to their ability score. If the dice is equal to or lower than their ability, they succeed. For example, a dice roll of 10 and an ability of 11 would mean the player succeeded on what they were trying to do. If the dice is higher than the ability, they failed. For example a dice roll of 20, which is often a critical success in other tabletop role playing games, is always a failure in Ikrala. In Ikrala, a 1 is always a success.

 

Here is an example of a strength ability roll. Vera is trying to lift a dresser to block the door she and her party just came through. The dresser is heavy, and will be a good barricade for the door. But, being heavy, it is not trivial to move it. Vera’s strength ability is 11. Vera’s player rolls a d20 and gets a 6. This is a success. Vera successfully moves the dresser to barricade the door.

 

Here is an example of a dexterity ability roll. William is trying to sneak past a display couch that has ominously opened up to reveal a giant mouth with sharp teeth. His dexterity ability is 8. He rolls a 10, which is higher than an 8, so he fails to sneak past and the couch notices him. It licks its couch cushion lips in anticipation.

 

Here is an example of a control ability roll. Rut is walking along looking at items for sale when she spots a lava lamp. Its fluid motions are mesmerizing. Her player is asked to roll a control saving roll. Rut’s control is 13. Her player rolls a 13, which meets it to beat it, and Rut is able to pull her eyes away from the very interesting lava lamp motions and keep walking.

 

Combat rules. At the start of combat, players roll against their dexterity ability to see if they go before or after the enemies. If their dice is lower than or equal to their dexterity, they go before the enemies. If the dice is higher than their dexterity, they go after the enemies. A dexterity challenge is also used to determine if the players successfully retreat from an enemy, which is something to keep in mind. Players can make one movement and one action on their turn.

 

All attacks hit in Ikrala. There are no missed swings of a sword or arrows flying past the target. Attacks can deal either physical damage or stress damage. Physical damage is reduced by armor. Stress damage is reduced by stability. To make an attack, roll the weapon dice. For example you roll a d6 and get a 4 on the dice. Then subtract the target’s armor or stability. For example if the target has 1 armor or stability, a 4 on the dice minus 1 armor or stability equals 3 damage.

 

It is possible to be impaired or enhanced by combat scenarios. Examples of being impaired are when your character is trying to swing a sword while prone on the ground, or is attacking an enemy protected by partial cover, or if your character’s in a mental fog. When impaired, use a four sided dice, called a d4, for your damage dice instead of your weapon’s normal d6, d8, etc dice. If your weapon breaks and you’re suddenly unarmed, an unarmed strike also deals a d4 of damage, an impaired blow. An attack can also be enhanced. An example of an enhanced attack is, if your character is unaware they were in a combat scenario and a giant spider waits until the perfect moment to drop down from the ceiling and drive its fangs into you, that first sneak attack would be enhanced. You weren’t aware enough of the danger to make any motions to defend yourself, so their enhanced attack deals a twelve sided dice, a d12, of damage, instead of their normal d6, d8, etc.

 

When an enemy is reduced to 0 HP, it makes a morale check. If there is a group of enemies, when the first one reaches 0 HP, they must make a moral check as a group. Roll a dice and compare it to their control. If the dice number is higher than their control ability score, the enemy flees.

 

Reaching zero hit points. In Ikrala, when you run out of hit points, the damage starts to affect your ability stats. Damage in Ikrala is either physical type damage or stress type damage. Players have three ability scores: strength, dexterity, and control. After hitting 0 HP, excess physical damage carries over to and reduces your strength ability. Excess stress damage carries over to and reduces your control ability. After subtracting the excess damage, you then make a saving throw. If the dice result is lower than your remaining ability score, then you succeeded and don’t gain a critical injury. If the dice result is higher than your remaining ability score then you fail your saving throw, and gain a critical wound, a lasting injury, from the table on page 38. Suffering a critical injury leaves your character crawling and gasping for life. Future attacks will continue to reduce either your strength or control ability scores. If a character’s strength goes down to zero, the character falls unconscious or dies. If their control goes down to zero, the character is lost in their own mind and unresponsive.

 

It should be noted that in the Liminal Horror rules, which are a free rule book by Goblin Archives that the Ikrala rule book assumes you have read, the authors emphasize that although a character can die, a player should not be excluded from the table. The game master should have the player create a new character or take control of an allied non player character to immediately rejoin play.

 

As long as you have food, water, and proper rest, HP recovers back to full when combat ends and the characters are safe. Ability loss recovers after one week’s rest, or from taking medicine, or from receiving healing magic. If your character is without food, water, or rest, they are considered deprived, and they don’t recover HP after combat. If your character stays deprived for a full day, add one fatigue, which takes up an inventory spot.

 

Here is an example of a round of combat. Astrid is a teacher out to buy some school supplies for her classroom when she becomes trapped in an infinite shopping center. A nefarious floor lamp is hopping on its one leg up to her, menace in its three shaded light bulbs. First, Astrid rolls for turn order. Her dexterity is 12 and she rolls a 7, so she goes before the floor lamp. She picks up a spare television remote from the display living room and throws it at the lamp. All attacks automatically hit in Ikrala. She rolls for damage, a d4, getting a 4 on the damage dice. The floor lamp has one physical armor from the lamp shade protecting the bulb, softening the blow. The 4 on the dice minus 1 armor from the lamp shade equals 3 physical damage dealt overall. The floor lamp started with 5 HP, so it has 2 HP left. It whips its electrical cord at Astrid and makes a ranged attack. Astrid doesn’t have any armor, so she takes all 2 physical damage from the electrical cord. Then it’s back to Astrid’s turn. She pulls a bookshelf down on the lamp, dealing a d8 of damage. Even with the light shade protecting the bulbs for 1 armor, the 4 physical damage minus 1 armor is still 3 physical damage overall, eliminating the floor lamp’s remaining 2 HP. Yay, she has defeated the floor lamp! After combat, because she recently ate, drank water, and slept, Astrid heals back up to her full HP.

What if the combat didn’t go so well for our hero? Here’s an example situation where Astrid only had 1 HP left at the start of the round because she was deprived of water and, thirsty, didn’t recover from a previous combat. Instead of shrugging off the electrical cord attack’s 2 physical damage, her HP goes from 1, to 0, and then the remaining carryover damage reduces her strength ability score. Her strength score was a 9, so it is now reduced by the carryover of 1 from 9 to 8. She then makes a strength saving throw to see if she gets a lasting injury. If she rolls an 8, 7, 6, 5, etc, she will succeed. If she rolls a 9, 10, 11, 12, etc number higher than her score, then she will fail the saving roll and get critically injured. There’s a table on page 38 with injuries. It includes, for example, that Astrid would gain a leg injury that slows her down for a day, but when recovered she would gain +1 to her maximum dexterity. Another table option is that she might gain a permanent gnarly facial scar, but gain +1 to her maximum HP. The injuries each come with something a little bit positive to them in the long term.

 

Building a character in Ikrala involves rolling for three ability scores, rolling for HP, and listing some character details. Players roll three six sided dice, also called d6, and add them together. The first roll’s sum is your strength. Roll three more dice and add them together to get your dexterity. Roll three last dice and add them together to get your control. You can then look at them and swap any two results you think fit your character better.

 

Let’s roll an example character, Frida. The first roll, for strength, is a 6, a 3, and a 4, totaling 13. Frida has 13 strength. Our second roll is a 4, a 5, and a 2, totaling 11 for Frida’s dexterity. The third roll is a 6, a 2, and a 1, totaling 9 for Frida’s control. We the player know that Frida is an ice magic user. She is going to need her control ability, which is used for willpower, charm, and doing weird things, to be her highest ability. So we use our one swap to swap her strength of 13 with her control of 9. That leaves Frida’s stats at a 9 in strength, an 11 in dexterity, and a 13 in control. Next, we roll a d6 for Frida’s hit protection, abbreviated HP. We roll a 4, so Frida has 4 HP. Lastly, we list some character details for Frida. Her name is Frida. Her average background is that she’s an office manager. She manages a worker named Edith. The next detail is her style of dress, which we’ll describe as upscale. We are asked to name what it is our character is shopping for, and if they were alone. Frida was shopping for a gift for her brother, Jack, and she was alone at the time and quite confused about what to buy him because they don’t have the best relationship. Lastly, her age is that she’s quite old, but looks like a middle aged adult. And that’s how you make a character in Ikrala. All characters start with whatever items they would normally be carrying inside a store. They have 4 default inventory spots, which can increase to 10 if they get a bag. We list a few things that Frida was carrying, such as for her, a spare diamond tiara she has been working on recently and is carrying around with her because she planned to drop it off with Edith after shopping. She also has her ice magic, which we will stat like a weapon from page 35’s list of equipment. The wrench, which deals 1 d6 of damage, looks like a good analogy, because it can open and shut water pipes, and if you’ve ever had a frozen pipe in the winter, ice can certainly do that. Because she is carrying a tiara and the metaphorical wrench weapon item spot, Frida has two inventory spots left. If she finds a bag, she can increase her inventory spots from 4 to 10. Optionally, characters might start with armor or stability, it depends on your game master. Frida rolls a d3 for each, which is a d6 divided by two. The dice results say she gets 1 point of armor and 2 points of stability.

 

For players in my upcoming Ikrala game, please follow the rules as written for making your character, stat your weapon like a weapon on the equipment table on page 35, and then also use the optional rules to start with stability and armor. Roll a d3, which is a d6 divided by two. For example a 1 and a 2 mean 1, a 3 and a 4 mean 2, and a 5 and a 6 mean 3. The result is how much stability you have. Do that again, and this second result is your armor protection. Describe what your armor looks like, such as a helmet, a shield, a thick coat, etc.

 

Hopefully this little rules chat helps my players build their characters and understand how to play. For everyone listening, if you’d like to hear an example adventure, the episode of Firebreathing Kittens podcast right after this is a demonstration of us playing Ikrala in a oneshot game session. We invite you to listen to it to hear an example of Ikrala in action. We encourage you to find the Ikrala rule book yourself, and play a game with friends.