D&D 5E Gun Mages & Warjacks: Iron Kingdoms Coming to 5E

Privateer Press has announced that it's longstanding fantasy steampunk RPG and setting is coming to 5th Edition with Iron Kingdoms: Requiem.

The Iron Kingdoms launched way back in 2001 with a trilogy of d20 System adventures for D&D 3E. Later came a campaign setting, monster book, miniatures game, and more. The RPG later evolved into a d6 system and the full Iron Kingdoms RPG.

This latest iteration, Iron Kingdoms: Requiem, is a new edition of the Iron Kingdoms RPG, powered by the 5E rules.

Delve into the award-winning world of the Iron Kingdoms with the latest edition of the Iron Kingdoms Role Playing Game from Privateer Press. Iron Kingdoms: Requiem combines this fantastic setting with the newest edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game.

Your character can be a human, gobber, trollkin, Rhulic dwarf, ogrun, Iosan, or Nyss elf; and there are new classes such as gun mages, arcane mechanics, combat alchemists, and warcasters. Plus, of course, gets, spells, setting information, and a section on 'arcane technologies'.

It'll be coming to Kickstarter later this year.

 

[Azuresun]

You know, I remembered a game I always wanted to run set in Cryx, where the PC's were agents of an iron lich who....got his skull cracked a bit badly, and was a bit eccentric as a result. Very much a Blackadder-esque dark comedy where the PC's were trying not to attract the wrath of their capricious boss and line their own pockets while making a token effort to conquer the world.

 

[humble minion]

I’ll be interested to see how they handle Warcasters and Warjacks. I tried porting it over to a couple different systems over the years and it’s always a problem. Either they are way overpowered or they’re nerfed down to normal levels and it doesn’t feel like you’re controlling huge war machines. .

Yeah, that's going to be tough. In the Warmachine lore warcasters simply are head and shoulders more powerful than anyone else. It's a bit like the WH40K problem when you're trying to run a game where someone's playing a space marine and someone's playing a guardsman or ganger. You either accept the power imbalance, or limit character choices. There's a few concepts that can potentially keep up - gun mages, spellcasters, etc, but an ordinary infantryman with a gun or a spear? Or a regular thief?

I do like the Iron Kingdoms setting (I tuned out over the last couple of years as they've wilfully trashed it though) but design-wise and in all its world-building choices it's very oriented towards tabletop gaming rather than RPGing, I'm interested in seeing how they square that circle.