NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveC" data-source="post: 2231934" data-attributes="member: 9053">Interesting discussion. It seems to me from what we've been shown that IL is Mike's attempt to bring high-action Feng-Shui esque combat to D20. That's an idea that appeals to me a lot, but it will require some fundamental shifts in the D&D mindset. From what we've seen, it looks like Mike is trying to make characters more versitile and give them abilities that would typically be available only with magic items, and, again, that's a major shift in the mindset of the game. Here's an example: the Hunter's ability to give characters bonuses to hit or negate cover involves the players describing things about the gameworld that are typically left up to the gm. "Look to your left, there's a break in the wall where you can shoot through" is par for the course in a game like feng shui. In fact, not saying things like that actually gives your character a penalty in combat! In typical D&D terms, the GM is well within his rights to say "no, actually there's nothing there" in response to that comment, or they might also say, "well there might be something there, but you need to take a standard action to make a search check to find it." I think the big issue for whether or not you're going to like Iron Lore is whether or not you like more of the free-wheeling off-the-cuffness of some of the more cinematic games. I've also seen a number of comments that this style of play leads to an over-emphasis on combat. That may be so, but if you look at it in context of the stories that use these sorts of characters, the good ones are every bit as much about character as they are about combat. Look at The Killer. Chow Yun Fat is playing an archer in Iron Lore terms, but so much of the film is about what his skills and choices in life bring him to. Sure he's a killer, but some of the most important scenes in the movie are about the repurcussions that come out of that fact. I guess what I'm saying is that if Iron Lore lets me tell some fast-paced exciting stories about combat, I'll leave it up to myself to tie them together in ways that make it all mean something. If none of that sounds like fun to you, perhaps Iron Lore isn't the game for you. --Steve</blockquote>

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