How does IH actually play?

[Ry]

Yeah, that's a fair sight more complex than I'm looking for. I might try to get the most modular rules and bolt them onto something much lighter.

 

[Pbartender]

Yeah, that's a fair sight more complex than I'm looking for. I might try to get the most modular rules and bolt them onto something much lighter.

Out of curiosity, do you have the Iron Heroes rulebook?

If not, I'd suggest grabbing the pdf from RPGNow... It's only $5, and a flip through will give you a really good idea of whether or not it's too complex for your tastes. Plus, you'll be able to cut and paste anything you want to use later as a house rule.

I'm not positive, but I think the currently offered PDF also has all the errata included. I'd have to double check to be certain, though.

 

[Ry]

I've got the pdf, and I've browsed it more than reading it. This thread was really in hopes that there was some core thing I could learn that would make it all click... or at least make it click enough that an all-Master-at-arms and Warlocks game would be easy to run (by my admittedly very picky standards).

 

[Gundark]

Hmmm I'm sorry to hear that IH takes about the same time as 3.5 as far as play time goes. The play length is why we stoped playing our AoW game (stopped at 17th level)

I would have thought that not looking up spells, remembering spell durations, buffs, etc would make the game go smoother/faster

 

[JohnSnow]

Well, the distinction to me is that a lot of 3.5 play is looking things up, checking rules, and waiting to find out what happens next. Except for the spellcasters, most actions devolve, in description, to "I whack (shoot) the bad guy."

The difference is that in Iron Heroes, what takes time is figuring out what happens. Essentially, you burn game time as you burn "screen time." A simple action is simple. A complex action, such as taking a stunt, setting up a challenge, or using tokens, takes time to use.

The best example I can give is that Iron Heroes reads a bit like a matrix movie, or any other good action movie, where in the really intense action sequences, the film slows down so you can watch it, or you get to see it from several angles in succession. So that the FUN factor for the time spent is MUCH higher.

But that's my take.

 

[Ry]

Wait, I don't understand at all.

What's the difference between these two?

looking things up, checking rules, and waiting to find out what happens next

figuring out what happens

Isn't figuring out what happens (stunts, unusual skill checks) still basically looking things up and checking rules and waiting to find out what happens next?

 

[iwatt]

Wait, I don't understand at all.

What's the difference between these two?



Isn't figuring out what happens (stunts, unusual skill checks) still basically looking things up and checking rules and waiting to find out what happens next?

What he means is in IH what takes time during your action is actually doing things(rolling to lower active defense, attacking, rolling sneak attack dice), while in D&D it involves sitting down with your calculator and figuring out what bonuses stack and which don't.

 

[Ry]

Thanks iwatt. That clears it up, but I don't think I'll be using IH.

I'm starting to get an idea for a microlite sword & sorcery game...

 

[ruleslawyer]

I've got the pdf, and I've browsed it more than reading it. This thread was really in hopes that there was some core thing I could learn that would make it all click... or at least make it click enough that an all-Master-at-arms and Warlocks game would be easy to run (by my admittedly very picky standards).

Y'know, if you explain what you want, we might be able to help. I know I've spent a fair amount of time with one of my less rules-happy players discussing how to engender a happy medium between IH's functionality and a simpler ruleset.

 

[Ry]

OK - I have 3 competing interests, as I see it:

1) I want REALLY fast action resolution mechanics & players roll all the dice per Unearthed Arcana. Along with this, I want action point mechanics so the players can say "Hey, it's important that I succeed at THIS action, so I'll spend a point and if I fail it's tragic and if I succeed I'm being awesome."

2) I want combat maneuver mechancis that spice things up give my players ideas for cool things they can do, and which make it easeir for some characters to do certain cool maneuvers than it is for other characters, but don't imply that there are cool things they CAN'T do because they haven't purcahsed the maneuver.

3) I want magic mechanics that are basically similar to the combat ones.

In my mind, there's a system kind of like D&D except:

1) Everybody has 1 class that gives the basics like IH (Attack, Defense, hp, saves)

2) Feats are the main mechanic for everything else (+ magic feats, which is why I like Warlocks, because Invocations are swappable with feats without too much difficulty)

3) There is very little coupling/stacking between feats and other feats.

4) Some kind of tokens or action points are used, and there's connections between the feat system and the action point system.