A Steam-Powered Tale of Tragedy and Triumph

[CaffeineBoy]

Well, I own both (IKCG and Dragonmech), so maybe I can shed some light.

Dragonmech is a very different book from the IKCG; it's a campaign guide, providing all sorts of fluffy connective tissue that is simply missing in the Iron Kingdoms book. And yes, as much as I wanted to dislike Dragonmech (because I thought it would steal the thunder of the IKCG), it does have some *very* redeeming qualities (including, but not limited to, it's post-apocalyptic setting, the whole gear-world environment inside the mech-cities, balanced and original classes and PrCs, STEAMBORGS!, etc.). It is perhaps too high-magic for my tastes, and maybe too dark (post-apocalyptic, after all), but overall a very good effort. I will feast on the bones of this product for years to come.

But that said, I think the IKCG has gotten a bad rap here. It wasn't what Gospog was looking for, but it's far from a bad book. Admittedly the typos are annoying, as are the references to other sources. And honestly, given the brevity of Lock and Load, I don't see why they didn't just reprint *everything* in the IKCG. L&L was a 3.0 product anyway, and maybe 20% of it is useful information at this point (except for the gorgeous full-color map).

At the risk of sounding like a frothing fanboy, I have nothing else but praise for the book. It did *exactly* what I was looking for: it gave me 3.5 updates to all of the racial and base-class stuff in L&L (the basis of my Iron Kingdoms campaign up to this point). It provided 4 new character classes and I think seven new PrCs, drew out the religions of the world in gorgeous detail, introduced an insanely cool (if somewhat mind-numbing) Mechanika-building mechanic, provided some very colorful spells, and over all supplied everything I need to build and run characters in the Iron Kingdoms.

Now, take that with a whole shaker of salt. I have been snapping up pretty much everything Privateer Press has ever published. I own and have run my group through the Witchfire Trilogy, I use the Monsternomicon weekly, and i'm even a confirmed Warmachine junkie (so I have Warmachine: PRIME, the mini rulebook, chock FULL of fluffy goodness!). I think the IKCG is brilliant. It has made me stick Dragonmech back on the shelf for a while, whilst I digest the massive 400 page tome of steam-punky goodness that is the IKCG. And it has made my IK game better. I can't praise it more highly than that.

CaffeineBoy!

 

[Ashrum the Black]

CaffineBoy: I guess you've just hit the nail on the head of what i was attmepting to get across. The IKCG is not a stand alone setting book by any stretch of the world. It does have a wonderful amount of new fluffy information in it, but not enough for somebody that was expecting the Iron Kingdoms version of the the Eberron Campaign Book.

That I suppose is why I asked for clarification on what he found bad about the book. A differing expectation of the book I find valid and worth while in its own right. But if he had issues about playability and balance then I'd love to hear them so I can consider them in light of my own campaign and experiences.

-Ashrum

 

[CaffeineBoy]

Ashrum, you're right. It's all about expectations. Take the recent Van Helsing movie as an example. I went in expecting a puddle of warm vomit, and my friend went in expecting some brilliant rendition of Citizen Kane with monsters; I was pleasantly surprised and satisfied, he felt deeply ripped off.

So, I think, goes the IKCG. How much you like it will depend on what you come to it looking for. As a Warmachine addict, I loved-loved-loved how well they translated the Iron Kingdoms goodness that is Warmachine into d20. The classes and PrCs totally support the IK look-and-feel I have come to expect from Privateer. I love the translation of the Warcaster, and the Bodger and Arcane Mechanik base classes. What I really needed from this book, I got. Heck, even just reading the color text they sprinkled throughout, in context of what I knew from Prime and the Monsternomicon and L&L and even the WFT, I had months worth of adventures dancing in my head. But, if you come to the table without that background, I think the book will be disappointing. At least until the IKWG comes out.

 

[Gundark]

Yeah I really have enjoyed the IKCG, and would recommend it to others. PP is pretty good about returning emails about rules and questions. Also there is supposed to be an errata coming soon, so hopfully typos won't be much of a problem either.