# ICON: Legacy of the Arkenlords tags: #game/rpg/icon ![[ICON (cover).jpg|600]] **ICON: Legacy of the Arkenlords** is the free playtest fantasy RPG by Tom "Abbadon" Bloom at Massif Press — of **[[Lancer]]** and *Kill Six Billion Demons* fame. The hobby's favorite ritual is to squeeze you for a Kickstarter pledge and deliver a half-baked skeleton; Bloom flips it, dumping the "content-complete" game on you for nothing and asking for money later, once it's actually published. It's a model the rest of the industry could stand to swipe. Mechanically it's a two-headed beast: a deliberately stripped-down **[[Blades in the Dark]]** action system for the talking, scrounging, and exploring, mashed flat against a Final-Fantasy-style d20 tactical combat grid for the fighting. Use either, use both, or amputate the half you don't care about — the book hands you the scalpel. ## Setting Arden Eld is old, wild, and untamed, a post-post-apocalyptic world where civilization has regrown as green pastures and tight-knit city-states over the buried skeleton of a cruel technomagical empire. Long ago the **Arken Imperium** crushed the nations, slew the Titans who held up the four pillars of the world with its blend of advanced technology and etheric sorcery, and proclaimed itself eternal — until its swollen power soured into a sudden, inevitable **Doom** that shattered it and scoured the land. A thousand years of healing followed: the **Green Age**, idyllic and peaceable, towns nested among ruins that occasionally disgorge monsters, mystery, and the **Relict**, the undead remains of old servitors and sorcerers. The dead empire's vaults hold **Arkentech** and **Dust**, condensed raw magic the wrights of the surface covet. Now the world edges into the **Churning Age**. Adventurers plumb the ruins for treasure; etheric airships soar off to plunder crumbling spires; trade guilds and city councils eye Arkentech greedily. The ruins themselves stir — surfacing from the earth, bubbling over into **Blights**, poisonous wastelands that warp the land and spew monsters. The age asks its question of the player characters, who are **Icons** — people "cursed to wield great power" and tied to the world's fate. Will you defend the Green Age, help usher in the Churning Age, or turn the great wheel of history entirely? ## Mechanics ICON runs two modes with almost no overlap, and the book is happy for you to live entirely in one. Narrative play is the stripped-down blades-style conversation; tactical combat is the structured d20 grid. ### Narrative Play The default mode. When an outcome is unclear, risky, or contested, a player states an intent, picks one of the **action ratings** (Sneak, Traverse, Sense, Study, Charm, Command, Tinker, Excel, Smash, Endure — each rated 0–4 dots), and rolls **1d6 per dot**, keeping the highest. The GM sets the roll's risk and effect up front. Read the result: **1–3** fails the goal and brings the consequences; **4–5** succeeds but at a cost or with reduced effect; **6** succeeds clean; a **double 6** is a critical with increased effect. Roll with **0** dots and you fling 2d6 and take the lowest. **Boons** and **Curses** add or strip a d6 each and cancel one-to-one. Every narrative character carries a **Bond** — their narrative class, one of twelve (Pathfinder, Seeker, Mighty, Wolf, Harlequin, Highborn, Mender, Brave, Broker, Elder, Outsider, Dreamer) — granting bond powers, a gear kit, **Ideals**, and **Effort** and **Strain** economy. The same twelve bonds shipped as a free printable handout, the **Narrative Bonds** play-sheet supplement (see Editions). ### Tactical Combat When only violence and drama will settle a point, the game drops onto a grid. Characters pick one of sixteen **Jobs** across four **Classes** — **Stalwart** (Bastion, Demon Slayer, Colossus, Knave), **Vagabond** (Fool, Freelancer, Shade, Warden), **Mendicant** (Chanter, Harvester, Seer), and **Wright** (Enochian, Geomancer, Spellblade, Stormbender). Attack rolls pit a d20 against a target's defense (with optional d6 **boon**/**curse** bonuses), while **saves** roll a d20 and succeed on 10+, to avoid or end harmful ongoing effects. Characters build abilities, unlock **relics** and **Limit Breaks**, and camp to recover. ### Character Creation & Advancement Make a character by choosing a **Kintype** and a **Culture** (from the Six Great Cultures), then a **Bond** and action dots for narrative play; pick a **Job** and two abilities if you're using tactical combat. Everything is measured in levels from **0 to 12**, split across **three chapters** of four levels apiece (1–4, 5–8, 9–12) — each chapter a different scale of power, and characters can't out-level the current chapter. XP comes from end-of-session triggers; hitting **15 xp** banks a level-up spent at an interlude or session's end. ## Editions ICON is a free playtest in perpetual motion, and the book versions trace its evolution — the devlog is the edition history. *In the library* marks what's held. - **1.2 playtest** (Aug 2021) - **1.3 playtest** (Feb 2022) - **1.4 playtest** (Jul 2022) — *In the library.* A mid-development playtest, now superseded. - **1.45 playtest** (Aug 2022) - **1.5 playtest** (Jun 2023) — *In the library.* The current, content-complete playtest; essentially the full game bar some minor changes. - **Final edition** — announced but not yet released; the commercial version Bloom intends to publish (free player-facing content, per the forecast). - **ICON – Narrative Bonds** — *In the library.* The official "quick bond sheet printout" bundled with 1.5: the twelve Bonds as a printable play sheet each, with powers, gear, Ideals, Burdens/Ambitions clocks, Effort/Strain, and the narrative advancement table. - **ICON – Quick Combat Sheet** — *In the library.* The other official play aid bundled with 1.5: a condensed tactical-combat quick reference — the grid, turns and rounds, movement, abilities, triggered and area effects, the `[D]` job damage die, boons/curses, statuses, and a compact combat glossary. ## References The free playtest, its devlog, and the publisher behind it. - [ICON playtest — official itch.io page (Massif Press)](https://massif-press.itch.io/icon) - [Icon 1.5 playtest released — devlog, 8 Jun 2023](https://massif-press.itch.io/icon/devlog/542899/icon-15-playtest-released) - [Massif Press — official site](https://massifpress.com/)