Iron Kingdoms Character Guide
One of the most anticipated setting books, the Iron Kingdoms Character Guide, weighs in at almost 400 pages and runs for $39.99. It boasts some of the best art work in the industry and brings us more details about a fan favorite setting whose former largest support comes in the way of a monster book.
Published by Privateer Press, the art is a bit of a change from previous books. Unlike say the Witchfire Trilogy or the Monsternomicon, the art in this book is less pen and ink and more charcoal. The good news is that the talent of the artists has easily made the transition. The bad news, is that like several other books, sometimes the art is too dark and details are obscured.
Part of this is because this is a fancy book. No white pages here, but rather, gray background and lots of detailson many pages. The lower left page has the chapter section while the lower right has some studs. The bad news is that sometimes the grey pages have some stylistic elements that bleed into the text and make things difficult to read.
In more bad news, despite the length of time it took to get the book out, there are still editing gaffs and errors. Sometimes in a class description, the wrong wording is used or sometimes an ability is listed twice. I almost hate to say it, but it’s something I’ve become used to. Another thing are the sometimes questionable game mechanics pulled in.
For example, one of the new races, the Ogrun, has a bonus hit dice. Now even in 3rd edition before 3.5, characters didn’t get bonus hit dice. You might’ve got Toughness as a feat or something, but that’s it. In 3.5, to represent you’re racial toughness, you might get a level of your race or something. Here, a bonus hit die just seems wrong. A few other game mechanics look suspicious and it’s worth checking out the Iron Kingdoms forum when you have questions and ask for clarification.
Another two nitpicks here. The information isn’t organized in an optimal way and in that same vein, there’s probably information here that shouldn’t be. For example, while I’m sure that some readers will enjoy the details about the constellations and celestial bodies, this is the player’s book and more effort to put player relevant material in an organized matter would’ve been great. Lastly, there’s no removable map. For that, you’ll have to have the old Lock & Load book, download it from the website, or hope that it’s in the next volume.
Okay, so now that I’ve spent almost a page talking about what I didn’t like about the book, how about what I did like? First off, I like some of the design decisions behind it. Having a strong flavor, “Full Metal Fantasy” that is still compatible with D&D. Having a book that’s, well, “Fun to Read”, is a good thing. The book is set up so that there are many sections that have, “Rumor Has It…” as well as fiction sections that give you a good flair for the setting. Sadly, it’s not always as good as the material in their tabletop game and perhaps not written as straight out, but it does give the reader a good grasp of how things are.
See, like several settings, Privateer Press hasn’t just given us the “Human” as a race. Instead, we get numerous human branches with their own background and goals. Sometimes they have some in game benefits at the cost of role playing penalities, and while I’m not certain it’s a mechanically wise decision, it makes sense in the context of the setting and a GM who fails to take advantage of those mechanics is cheating himself.
Let’s start with some of the races. First off, elves here may seem similar to other settings in that they’re cool and aloof, ancient and powerful, dying and isolated, but they’re a bit different. See, there are elves on an island, the Iosans, that have decided that many of their problems are caused by humans messing with magic and so they kill those humans. Their long ago cousins, the Nyss, are masters of winter survival and use vicious claymores as their favored weapons and have a favored class of ranger as opposed to wizard. Yeah, things are different for them.
Some may look at the Ogrun, large powerful creatures, as a half-orc fill in, but they’re on a higher ranking in civilization, allied to dwarves with their own trials. In a similar manner, the trollkin actually bring a trollish race as playable with it’s own civilization. Now if only they can get rid of the Scottish elements we’d be all set.
One thing I’m grateful for are the pages of sample names. See, in a new setting especially, it’s often hard to come up with a name that ‘fits’ with the setting. With the more than two pages of names here, that shouldn’t be a problem. It’s little thing like that making it easier for the GM and players that gets a thumbs up.
Because it’s a different setting, the authors have decided to let us know how core characters are different. Thankfully, unlike say the Black Company and Dark Legacies, they don’t reprint every word when the class is essentially the same, but rather, let you know what’s different. Barbarians are known as berserkers while bards are war bards. They have some different class skills and certainly a different role in this setting, but everything is not reprinted word for word.
Another change, not necessarily to the class, but to the setting, is that clerics aren’t running around raising the dead left and right. Here, Resurrection isn’t a spell and Raise Dead is 9th level spell and in most cases, you’re not going to be able to find someone to cast it. There are some other tweaks, but I’ll get to them latter.
One of the things I like about the changes to the classes, is that their ranger does not cast spells. They have good bab, good fort and ref save, numerous ranger abilities, but don’t have spells or combat styles. Instead, they get bonus feats, starting at 4th level, and then every five levels after that. This allows you to customize your ranger more than a combat style even as it still gives you the Favored Enemy ability.
To represent the setting, there are several new classes: Arcane Mechanik, Bodger, Fell Caller, and Gun Mage. These four give a good showing of some of the differences here. Take the Fell Caller for instance. This is a trollkin that uses their voice as a magical tool. For example, they can use their voice to stay death, allowing those who are at 0 or lower to continue fighting until they reach –10, at which point they die. The Gun Mage is another example of a class bonded to a weapon, a weapon that gains more power and abilities as the Gun Mage gains in level. The nice thing about these classes is that they have a nice introduction of fiction, description, how that class fit’s into the Iron Kingdoms, and game rule information.
Some will be thankful that there aren’t a ton of PrCs in the book. I was a little disappointed in that there weren’t more. As a reader of the tabletop for example, I was surprised to not see an Order of the Wall paladin variant, as they already have a figure in the game and have their own caste in the game and the RPG. Before getting to the new PrCs though, the authors give us a quick break down of which core PrCs, from the DMG, would be appropriate for an Iron Kingdoms campaign.
For the new PrCs, my favorite is probably the Mage Hunter, just for the miniatures that’ve come out for it. See, these are those Iosan elves I mentioned earlier. They’re specialized at resisting magical attacks and assassinating spellcasters. Those looking for more gun-fu, have Pistoleers and Riflemen. One PrC that I thought out of place among the Battle Chaplain’s and Warcasters, is the Second-story Man.
Not because it’s not an interesting PrC, but rather, because it’s so general and perfect for almost any campaign that features a city and features thieves in it. See, the Second-Story Men are those who get to know their client and then rob them. Their professionals.
New skills and feats are included to round out characters. Some of the skills involve the use of clockwork material while others deal with fun stuff like demolitions. It’s a short section but gives the reader enough to base other DC checks on and includes a two-page chart of all the skills.
For feats, there are some new types like Faith and Society. The former deal with the strength of the clergy, in some ways reminding me of Warhammer or Dark Legacies, showcasing the reach of the church. The latter cover membership in various organizations like the Fraternal Brother or Greylord orders.
Now that characters have their internal options done, they still have new equipment and weapons to buy. Some of these like the Caspian Battleblade and Nyss Claymore, are meant to showcase the dangers of combat. Don’t fight people using them. Others like the Clawed Gloves aren’t weapons per say, but can be used as them.
Because it’s the Iron Kingdoms, there’s a generous section handling firearms and rules for them. This includes material cost and DC checks for Gunsmiths as well as rules for shoddy and flawed firearms. Little things to give your gun a personality.
Now when I was mentioning clerics earlier, I mentioned that there are some spells arranged differently here. Part of this goes into the whole “gritty” feel of the system. See, there’s a subsystem for healing, “The Pain of Healing”, and puts a limit of the number of hit points that can be healed in a single day, based on character class, level, alignment, deity worshipped, and the deity of the person being healed worshipped. Yeah, no more paladins healing the foul necromancer, at least not without repercussions. It’s a nice simple system that can add a lot of flavor to any game where the GM is tired of clerics healing people for no good reason.
And by the way, those that do manage to return from the dead? Well, you might not make it back in one piece. See, there’s a nice table for punishing the cleric who did it, as well as effects that can be heaped upon the person being raised. Like I said earlier, little things.
While there are several new domains, and old domains have their Iron Kingdom equivalent gods listed, there aren’t a lot of new spells. Instead, a nice section is devoted to new alchemical and mechanika goods. Now why? Doesn’t the standard 3.5 edition handle the creation of magic items well enough.
Well, it’s the little things again. See here, magic items are difficult to make and require more money and hence, more experience points to craft. Creating things with technology and magic on the other hand, is a much better alternative.
In looking over the book, I like how they’ve taken many elements from different aspects and put them into the D&D system. For example, the religious caste and the countries and wars that erupt due to it. The old faith with it’s stern focus on their god being the cause for man’s ascendance. The elves and their fallen pantheons. The new gods, once human, now leading their followers into an unknown future.
I will note that it’s not for everyone though. Reading though it, you can tell that there’s some meta-plot work going on. You get the hints that there are many ‘named’ characters, and what often happens with such settings, is that the ‘named’ characters get all the attention and love, leaving little for the PC’s to do that’s heroic. There’s also been some grumbling from the on-line community that events in the latest miniature book, Escalation, have changed the default setting of the Character Guide and created a discrepancy, not unlike what happened to Warhammer and it’s FRPG counterpart.
For those looking for an alternative to their standard d20 fantasy games but don’t want a complete low-magic setting like the Black Company, the Iron Kingdoms provides a good alternative. It’s already got a miniature line of support behind it and well, they say there’s a World Book coming down the pipes any day now.
