Iron Kindoms RPG info [updated]

[Dragonblade]

Well, one of the bullet points is that everyone can be on a comparable level of a warcaster.

The other thing is that while a warcaster is super awesome, some joe blow line trooper charging in and catching a warcaster off guard can take the warcaster out. When potshots start flying in their direction, warcasters find cover.


As for the general 'high magic' vs 'grim' of the IK setting. I actually think it is both. The setting is a world that is just entering into the industrial revolution, except with magitech. The dawn of the industrial revolution was both a dark and grim time, and a time of great wonders. I figure an IK campaign should capture both as they exist side by side.

Nice. I'm really liking the tidbits I've seen so far about the new RPG. I definitely plan on getting it.

 

[Desdichado]

As for the general 'high magic' vs 'grim' of the IK setting. I actually think it is both. The setting is a world that is just entering into the industrial revolution, except with magitech. The dawn of the industrial revolution was both a dark and grim time, and a time of great wonders. I figure an IK campaign should capture both as they exist side by side.

I actually think the setting evolved over time, and changed. Probably in part due to the loss of Brian Snoddy and Matt Staroscik, and the company being left in the hands of Matt Wilson, who had a different vision on his own than the three of them did together (although I admit this is speculative, it fits the evidence, IMO.) You've gotta put IK stuff on a timeline to see the change. For Dragonblade, wanting to play Warmachine the RPG didn't make sense in the early 2000s. Warmachine didn't even come out until more than halfway through 2003, and it was much smaller and less "epic" in scope until the first wave of supplements and revisions to the original game started coming out in 2004 or 2005 and beyond.

The first part of the Witchfire trilogy came out in March of 2001. The whole trilogy was out by November. The Lock & Load character primer came out in January of 2003. The campaign setting was underway and hotly anticipated long before 3.5 was (although Privateer Press were notoriously late with releases, and the campaign setting was anticipated for literally years before it finally was finished. Nonetheless, I think it was in many ways an artifact of an earlier stage of development of the setting and its tone and themes.)

Warmachine came out in latish 2003 (August, I think.) Originally, it was a very small skirmish game, with small groups, and was fairly modest in scope. It was only after considerable time that it became really comparable to 40k in terms of size, scale, and "epicness."

If there's a dissonance in tone between the miniatures game and the RPG setting, it's because the miniatures game has evolved into something very different from its roots as a d20 adventure publishing company. The setting was always originally pretty dark, grim, low magic, and kind of a steampunk horror toned setting. Until Warmachine started selling like crazy, two of the three original owners left, and the remaining one started seeing himself as competing directly with Games Workshop, that is. It wasn't really until the mid-2000s that the setting became one of being, as Dragonlance says, a "big badass" in a high magic setting.

 

[Nork]

I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of No Quarter 40 (Privateer Press' bi-monthly magazine). It has an article with some more details.

The first book will let you play Humans, Gobbers, Trollbloods, Rhulfolk (dwarves), Iosans (elves), and Nyss (frost elves). Even though the first book focuses on the Human lands.

Eventually they say you should be able to play just about any race you can name in the IK.

For character classes, they say it is a two part system. You pick an archetype and then a career. You could be a Forceful Dwarven Mercenary or a Skilled Gobber Mercenary, and they should play differently and want to do different things in combat.

They say that they want to make the characters feel more like real people and less like cookie cuttered classes. The example given is that a professional scientist could learn kung fu, then a professional wizard could learn to fight with a sword. Then again they wouldn't be as good as a dedicated martial artist like Bruce Lee. Of course, not all problems solvable with a fist need you to be Bruce Lee.

The non-warcaster non-warlock magic that is modeled in the miniatures game as Magic Abilities will get their own resource systems. Just like a warcaster or warlock reduces their own survivability by spending their resources casting aggressively, the other magic systems will also make aggressive casting a trade off.


The default time the RPG is set in is right after Legends, so there is currently a general state of cease fire between the various factions. Tensions are high, skirmishes do happen, but it isn't fill tilt total warfare.

They say that not only will the books have plenty of monsters, but that No Quarter Magazine will be a source for new monsters as well. (No Quarter had RPG content back under d20, and it still has a lot of background pieces detailing interesting characters and events in the IK.)

They mention being able to run heavily story based campaigns.


Overall I'm liking what I'm seeing even more. The class system sounds like it could be interesting.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

snip

Oh, if I could only XP you again now. Thanks for the extra info!

(PS: Hooray for gobbers and trollkin!)

 

[JoeGKushner]

I find it, in my mind at least, somewhat ironic that 4e would've probablly been a much better fit for the Iron Kingdom setting than 3e was in terms of making people on equal power levels and having things be more baseline and still have lots of fiddy bits.

 

[Nork]

There was some new info so I updated the first post. Next week Privateer Press will be showing a preview of the combat system as well on their site's blog.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

The "life spiral" seems unpleasantly complex, but otherwise intrigued by what I'm seeing.

 

[Hand of Evil]

The "life spiral" seems unpleasantly complex, but otherwise intrigued by what I'm seeing.

Looks like a way to keep "hit points" from being thrown off by stats, get the vibe it is a balancing tool.

 

[kitsune9]

I'm really digging the previews. They are awesome.