Is Iron Kingdoms worth it?

[STARP_JVP]

For a campaign I'm currently working on ("in development" you might say) I'm going to do steampunk. Actually it'll be a combination of a lot of things, including steampunk, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Batman, Raymond Chandler, Thatcherism, Zionism, the Second World War, Terry Pratchett, Harry Turtledove and a lot of others. It's the "Next Generation" of a campaign I ran previously. The action will take place in a very large city (pop: 2.5 million) and will almost entirely be set within the urban environment.

Anyway, I saw some of the Iron Kingdoms books in my local geek shop the other day and I'm curius whether it might be worth purchasing these volumes as campaign fodder. Not all of it looked useful but portions of it did. Does anyone have these books and can they tell me whether the $75 Australian (that's $58 US) each these things will set me back is actually worth it?

 

[STARP_JVP]

Ignore this post. By order.

 

[Soel]

It is a very rich setting, full of detail upon detail. Not so sure how much you could lift from it to fit into your setting, as its all fairly connected, and very suited to political intrigue/war campaigns...

On second thought, looking at your list, you could probably use a lot of it!

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

IK is very much worth it. It is probably the most interesting new campaign out there. It is a little like Eberron but less cinematic which is good or bad depending on what you like. I am currently running an IK campaign and everyone loves it and has single-handedly reinvented my love for D&D.

 

[Hand of Evil]

As a campaign it is fantastic, very detailed and thought out but I don't know if it is good for using in your campaign, the monsters can be dropped in any game without too much issues but IK has rules built on the world and I am not sure how that would work if taken from the setting. You may want to also check out other steampulp options; such as Soccery & Stream.

 

[solkan_uk]

I personally love the IK, ever since its beginnings in the Witchfire Trilogy, but to be honest, the rules are built heavily on the background - so unless your world happens to be very similar I think you'd be better off elsewhere.

The firearms rules are easily transferable, and pretty good - their effectiveness basically comes from them all being 19-20/x3 critical (i.e. breaking the rules for normal weapons).
There are some items that could be of use and the Rifleman & Pistoleer PrCs are fairly generic, beyond that I can't think of that much you could use.

However if you decide to get the books, don't get the worldguide - it has a total of about 1/4 page of rules in the entire 400 page book (which I think is awesome - but absolutely useless if you're not using the world).

 

[GlassJaw]

IK r00lz. Even if you just pillage them for ideas, they are a great additional to any gamers warchest.

However if you decide to get the books, don't get the worldguide - it has a total of about 1/4 page of rules in the entire 400 page book (which I think is awesome - but absolutely useless if you're not using the world).

I disagree. I doubt I will ever use the world as-is and I thought the WG was a great read. It's such a great source of ideas regardless.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Honestly, I would skip the Iron Kingdoms books unless you intend to use their setting, which, awesome as it is, doesn't sound as cool as your homebrew.

The thing about the IK is, Privateer Press writes some of the best fluff in the d20 world, but their grasp of the d20 rules can at best be described as... inconsistent. The IKCG is just full of rules changes or variants that, even when you discard the outright errors, are questionable or downright broken, often in the direction of being pointlessly ineffective.

If you just want to pillage books for rules content and ideas, I'd go for Mongoose's OGL Steampunk (itself not without problems, but a great mechanics-oriented book and the best of the pure steampunk books) and S&S/Goodman Games' Dragonmech, which has a delightful 'steam powers' system to lift. d20 Modern/Past's firearms rules are, IMO, superior to those of the Iron Kingdoms, but it depends on whether you want firearms to be more powerful than melee weapons in some aspect other than range.

On the other hand, if you just want a good read and some idea sources, the IK books are a good buy. They boast a wealth of great ideas and a very cool setting.

 

[Hodgie]

I have long been interested in IK as well, although I don't own any of the books. Would some IK fans be willing to talk more about the problems as Moogle mentioned?

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I have long been interested in IK as well, although I don't own any of the books. Would some IK fans be willing to talk more about the problems as Moogle mentioned?

As an IK fan myself, I'll highlight a few from memory.

Ogrun get a "bonus hit dice" at first level. Not a racial hit dice in humanoid or giant, which would make sense, but, apparently, a bonus class hit dice. Is this bonus hit dice maximized, like the normal one? Does it grant BAB and saves (but not class features)? The book isn't clear. Not only is there no clear interpretation, but, worse, neither would make it terribly playable, and both conflict with other rules. The ogrun is large, despite a female being, at most, 7'11" by the random chart, and only 7'6" on average - smaller than the "medium but with powerful build" goliath. Also, an ogrun has a "+2 natural AC bonus" - which, one assumes, means natural armor?

Humans get bonus skills and even ability score adjustments without losing their human bonus feat and skill points, and without other races being comparably adjusted. Which brings humans in line with dwarves, but well ahead of elves and gobbers.

The Pistoleer PrC has a class feature that is never explained and isn't in another book.

The Rifleman PrC has a "special crit ability" that arbitrarily sets his critical multiplier based on his class level (to x2 at 1st level, which is lower than the rifle's normal crit, to x6 at 10th).

The mechanika rules basically don't work. Oh, if you puzzle them out and fill in the gaps, they'll suffice, but this system is just... bad.