Sell me on the iron Kingdoms Players Handbook

ironmani · Aug 16, 2004

I came into forty extra dollars this week end and my friend who runs my FLGS told me he is getting a copy of the Iron Kingdoms Players Handbook. So the challenge is....sell me on it. It looks intresting, but 40 bucks is a hefty price to pay. Tell me the good and the bad.....I want to know all about it.

John Q. Mayhem · Aug 16, 2004

The Bad:A couple references to non-existant things. Some of the tables refer to ogrun battle cannons, firebox pistols, and scatter rifles; these were either cut or re-named. A couple things are obviously overpowered, for example, and armored greatcoat costs (IIRC) 75 gp, gives a +1 AC bonus that stacks with light armor, and DR 5/bludgeoning. Also, a lot of the IK fluff will be coming out in the World Guide sometime in 2005. Some of that'll be in the Character Primer that came out a while back, though, so if you have that you're OK.

The Good: Everything else

Seriously, I love the IK firearms, but you'll have to download the free preview from the site to get cannons. The prestige classes seem nice, except for the blackclad. It's a druid prestige class that for some reason or another has it own little spells/day and spell list (I think; I haven't looked at it in detail.). The PRCs I remember are Pistoleer, Rifleman, Blackclad, and Warcaster. Warcasters are military mages that control steamjacks on the battlefield.

The core classes are Gunmage, Fell Caller, Arcane Mechanik, and Bodger. Arcane mechaniks are kinda like wizard/experts focused on mechanika (magic/technology fusion), Bodgers are improvisers and battlefield mechaniks, Fell Callers are trollkin combat bard-types, and Gunmages are pistol-combat focused sorcerors +coolness.

The section on Mechanika is very cool, but kinda hard to understand. Basically, you run the risk of permanently losing HP when you create a permanent or charged item with an XP cost of 200 or greater. Mechanika uses some mechanical parts combined with magic to circumvent this; you build various parts of the magic item and then fuse them and add a power source. Because you're making a bunch of little things instead of one big thing, it's not likely that any individual component will have a large XP cost.

I highly recomend it, with the caveat that I'm fairly easy to impress

Desdichado · Aug 16, 2004

I also highly recommend it; it's got a lot of flavor, and for the most part, the rules are pretty fun and work well within the milieu; a self-described fusion of classic steampunk and classic D&D. The new classes and prestige classes are especially well done, and useful and few as opposed to setting books that go overboard with such things. The feats are great; I really like the idea of a social feat being used to indicate membership in a group rather than whipping up a prestige class just so you can belong to the Iron Workers Union, or somesuch. Great economy of mechanics there. Well and elegantly done, IMO.

I also have just a few negative points, though, which I probably shouldn't bring up on a "sell me" thread, but here they are anyway:

The Mage Hunter prestige class has one class ability repeated, and another one not described at all. A fairly simple editing error, but I don't know if there's an errata out yet.
I agree that the mechanika section is too detailed and too dry. Rather than writing up an arcane technical manual, some simpler rules should have been used and the remaining space could have been used to give some examples of sample steamjacks.
I actually prefer older Privateer products for the art. The collection of freelance artists takes away from the unified feel of earlier products, and I actually don't like the murkier grayscale approach of this book compared with the pure black and white line drawings of, say, the Monsternomicon, Lock and Load or The Witchfire Trilogy. But that's a very subjective valuation.

John Q. Mayhem · Aug 16, 2004

Joshua Dyal said:
I agree that the mechanika section is too detailed and too dry. Rather than writing up an arcane technical manual, some simpler rules should have been used and the remaining space could have been used to give some examples of sample steamjacks.

Yes! More steamjack-y goodness would have been awesome. I wanted more details on how to determine the price of steamjacks, but oh well.

Gundark · Aug 16, 2004

well I bought the book too and I think it's well worth the money. Lots of pages have these little "rumor has it" boxes that contain fluff and plot hooks. I lot of work went into the background, you can sense the dedication they have to the setting. The new core classes are new and inventive (the gun mage is my favorite). What I like about this setting is that it's different, it's unlike any other DnD setting out there, if you're tired of the same old, same old then pick up this setting, it is a breath of fresh air.

And now the bad. There are some bad typos (the ranger class), some of the prestige classes are broken (the warcaster). As mentioned the mechanika section is a lot to bite off and chew. As well the world book comes out supposedly later this year (don't hold your breath), so that's another book with all the world info in it that is going to cost just as much as the IKCG.

Desdichado · Aug 16, 2004

Gundark said:
There are some bad typos (the ranger class), some of the prestige classes are broken (the warcaster).

Funny, I'd say the Warcaster would be very unlikely to actually be used in a game. Same with the arcane mechanik and the bodger, I think -- both are too much of a support class to be really enticing to play. Maybe for a large group that can afford some "luxuries"? I dunno.

Gundark · Aug 16, 2004

Joshua Dyal said:
Funny, I'd say the Warcaster would be very unlikely to actually be used in a game. Same with the arcane mechanik and the bodger, I think -- both are too much of a support class to be really enticing to play. Maybe for a large group that can afford some "luxuries"? I dunno.

I agree that the Warcaster wouldn't see much play, as they are a military class and wouldn't fit well into your standard adventuring party. There are rogue warcasters though, but then again getting warjacks to control are not easy either. I'm just saying that the warcaster is a powerful Prc.