Do you find the IK hard to write adventures for?

[Pants]

Hm, I kinda agree.
I was really, really overwhelmed by the amount of information present in just the IKCG alone. So overwhelmed, in fact, that I have no current intentions of running an IK game, but I'd love to play in one.

Just one of the reasons why I dislike the current trend of releasing huge, huge books nowadays.

 

[Banshee16]

And some can be handled by converting them to another type of critter. Barghests for example are closer to fey in their origins than they are to outsiders, convert hit dice and skills, and poof! instant grymkin.

The Auld Grump

I've thought of using Ravenloft's Shadow Fey for Iron Kingdoms...

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

I had a similar problem with Swashbuckling Adventures, because 95% of your opponents are human. It was actually difficult at first, because I had to draft up all these stats for different types of opponents etc. But once you've got a base to work from, it gets easier....lvl 3 warrior with rapier? Check. Lvl 2 warrior with halberd? Check.

I'd imagine Iron Kingdoms would be the same way. And I'll admit that focusing on humans and/or humanoids for opponents creates a far different style of play. The players aren't so eager to have their PCs butcher enemies and steal their stuff when many of their opponents are simply sometimes misguided shmucks trying to make a living themselves. Sure, there are villains, but it's not the same thing knocking of a pack of goblins as it is a bunch of ruffians on a dock. Made for some interesting scenarios, and a more "honourable" playing style.

Haven't tried with Iron Kingdoms to see if it works there also.

Banshee

 

[Geron Raveneye]

My main problem is that the biggest cohesive theme of the setting is WAR. In capitalized letters, even. Nearly every big nation is at each other's throat, and the smaller ones are either occupied, or sitting on the sidelines hedging their bets. Nearly 50% of the descriptions in the World Guide revolve around the most recent war, its effects on most communities, industry, military presence and commerce.

Now I realize that IK is the background the Privateers have their Warmachine game taking place in, but I'd so have preferred to get that separate from the roleplaying background. The way it looks, it goes the same way L5R went...at least for me. Plenty of background information I have no use for, and actually have to work around, because I don't like the "official" timeline of the setting, which in turn makes much of the material published less valuable for the € I spend for it. Not that I consider stopping to buy it, especially as there is not that much new stuff out for the RPG setting every month.

With this overarching war motif that pervades every level of the game, it simply becomes harder to work something different into the IK. One simply gets sucked into this "heavily industrialized war" feeling. The only other easy-to-see alternative is playing spy vs. spy games around...you guessed it...war secrets. I mean, come on, even when I read that little blurb about the Khadorans unearthing ancient orgothian weaponry and secrets, I had to think about Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the Nazis trying to gain mystical weapons for their war efforts. That kind of game can be fun, when you want to play it, but it makes it hard to play something else. Apart from the fact that the tech level has risen exponentially since the first Witchfire adventures.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I have to disagree pretty thoroughly - having the war going on in the background does not mean that all the adventures have to center around the wars. Out of eight adventures that I have run only one of them deals with the war as anything other than an inconvenience and distant threat.

I was actually a bit stronger in my terms when reading that 'The only other easy-to-see alternative is playing spy vs. spy games around...you guessed it...war secrets.' This is just utter nonsense.

And much less than 50% of the book centers around the war, much closer to 10%.

The Auld Grump

 

[Michelle Lyons]

I disagree as well. My game is set in northern Cygnar/Ord. Most of the fighting is elsewhere. Battlefields are commonly found, as are ruined bits, but going through the countryside is just going through the countryside -- admittedly, a scary, spooky, full of icky things countryside, but that's part of its charm. Five Fingers and Corvis are more industrialized, but that's not really indicative of the nation as a whole.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

I have to disagree pretty thoroughly - having the war going on in the background does not mean that all the adventures have to center around the wars. Out of eight adventures that I have run only one of them deals with the war as anything other than an inconvenience and distant threat.

And if you go back to my post and read it again, you might see that I wasn't saying that every adventure has to be around the war, but that, in my opinion, the war is THE first topic for any adventure in a jump-in-your-face kind of way. If you manage to create completely unrelated adventures, more power to you. The question was if "we" find it hard to create adventures for the IK. I do, and stated why....

I was actually a bit stronger in my terms when reading that 'The only other easy-to-see alternative is playing spy vs. spy games around...you guessed it...war secrets.' This is just utter nonsense.

...and there's no call to label an individual point of view as nonsense on the sole base of "I'm of a different opinion" either.

And much less than 50% of the book centers around the war, much closer to 10%.

The Auld Grump

And now I'm wondering if we're talking about the same book...the Iron Kingdoms World Guide? Where there's an entry for nearly every part of the human empires about how they are affected, preparing or trying to avoid the ongoing war? Where only the non-human parts are somewhat exempt from that, and even there you get a good view of whatever conflicts are cooking there? Of course, our mileage may vary, and maybe you're simply reading in spots I haven't looked at...but to me it's a lot more than 10% dealing with war, be it historical ones, or the current one.
But, as always...just my opinion.

And just for the record, I love the setting to bits, and I admire it for the detail, the flair and the fresh ideas it brought to the game. The Witchfire Triogy was what brought me in, and I still think they are great adventures. Just that the close ties to the Warmachine game don't do anything for me.

 

[Gundark]

IAnd much less than 50% of the book centers around the war, much closer to 10%.

Hmm I'd have to disagree with that. Either the war or the impact of the war is described extensivly through the world book. much more than 10%. The whole war thing is something that I took out of my campaign totally, I liked the treat of the war, but not the war itself. The IK with the human focus doesn't have a D&D feel to it, maybe that's what makes it hard. I don't know, I've been trying to puit my finger on it.

 

[Gundark]

Just that the close ties to the Warmachine game don't do anything for me.

This bothers me too maybe the war thing was what they had in mind all along, but the setting does come off as being powered by Warmachine.

 

[Hanuman]

I fail to see the problem, recently I ran a four session IK adventure and wanted to use a plauge blight from libris mortis. So hey presto I changed the description to include implanted membrane bottles and strange pipes spewing foul diseased pus and my players loved it.They decided that it was some new type of thrall created by an Iron Lich.
At the end day the restictions are just guidelines........old monsters - new skins.