It's not often that I talk about specific products here on the news page. To be honest, I rarely buy them these days - I have so many, most of which I've never had chance to use. Occasionally, though, something will intrigue me enough that I'll buy it, and this is one of those occasions. This isn't a review - more like some random musings having just read it.
I picked up Monte Cook's Iron Heroes (written by Mike Mearls) from DriveThruRPG in PDF format. I'm not sure when the hardcover version will appear over here in the UK, and this was an itch that needed scratching. You've probably heard about it - if you haven't, check out all the info over at Malhavoc Press. Iron Heroes is pretty much an alternate version of D&D which gets rid of the thing that has always bugged me about 3E - the necessity of carrying around a king's ransom in magical items, trinkets, weapons and armour. As you know, 3E is balanced to assume that a character of a given level has x-GP worth of equipment, and "x" in this case is a lot. If you haven't got that equipment, your character is woefully underpowered and the whole system gets thrown out of whack.
Iron Heroes replaces the magic items with abilities - and we're not talking wacky, flashy spell-like abilities, either: we're talking combat maneuvers and skills. These maneuvers, combined with the "stunt" system, make for an entirely different flavour of combat. The combat looks a little more complex, but, to me at least, it looks more fun.
The book is heavily combat oriented. There are 8 combat classes (ranging from the heavy, armoured fighter, to the fast finesse-fighter to the archer), one thief class and one spellcasting class. The magic system makes spellcasting more dangerous and unpredictable; the majority of PCs, though, will be fighters of some description.
I'm not really sure what else to say - you can read so much about the game at Monte's website. I haven't had chance to play it yet, so I couldn't tell you offhand how well it runs. There's a whole bunch of people talking about the book on the messageboards, though, so drop by and see what they have to say: Iron Heroes - I have it in my hands!, My first Iron Heroes... er, umm... Hero!, Iron Heroes is available on DriveThruRPG now, and Questions about Iron Heroes?.
I picked up Monte Cook's Iron Heroes (written by Mike Mearls) from DriveThruRPG in PDF format. I'm not sure when the hardcover version will appear over here in the UK, and this was an itch that needed scratching. You've probably heard about it - if you haven't, check out all the info over at Malhavoc Press. Iron Heroes is pretty much an alternate version of D&D which gets rid of the thing that has always bugged me about 3E - the necessity of carrying around a king's ransom in magical items, trinkets, weapons and armour. As you know, 3E is balanced to assume that a character of a given level has x-GP worth of equipment, and "x" in this case is a lot. If you haven't got that equipment, your character is woefully underpowered and the whole system gets thrown out of whack.
Iron Heroes replaces the magic items with abilities - and we're not talking wacky, flashy spell-like abilities, either: we're talking combat maneuvers and skills. These maneuvers, combined with the "stunt" system, make for an entirely different flavour of combat. The combat looks a little more complex, but, to me at least, it looks more fun.
The book is heavily combat oriented. There are 8 combat classes (ranging from the heavy, armoured fighter, to the fast finesse-fighter to the archer), one thief class and one spellcasting class. The magic system makes spellcasting more dangerous and unpredictable; the majority of PCs, though, will be fighters of some description.
I'm not really sure what else to say - you can read so much about the game at Monte's website. I haven't had chance to play it yet, so I couldn't tell you offhand how well it runs. There's a whole bunch of people talking about the book on the messageboards, though, so drop by and see what they have to say: Iron Heroes - I have it in my hands!, My first Iron Heroes... er, umm... Hero!, Iron Heroes is available on DriveThruRPG now, and Questions about Iron Heroes?.
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