Lock & Load: Character Primer

[Messageboard Golem]

Lock & Load: Character Primer features all the essential rules for character generation, letting players and DMs jump into a new Iron Kingdoms campaign. Get the lowdown on the races, character classes and religions of the Iron Kingdoms! The book features a full color map of the realm by Todd Gamble and a fantastic cover by Matt Wilson.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

This is not a playtest review.

Lock and Load is a 58 page soft cover with a cost of12.99. It’s a little larger then 8 1/2 by 11 offhand it’s say it was maybe 9 by 12. The one-inch margins are filled with an illustration of a black-coated rifleman, superbly done by Brain Snoddy. The font is extremely readable and is appropriately sized and the book is beautiful. This is the nicest looking rpg books I’ve seen in awhile, all of the interior art is done by the dynamic duo of Brain Snoddy and Matt Wilson and whoever does Privateer Press’s graphic design really knows their stuff. The art is so good it’s almost worth the price of admission by itself.

A quick overview of the book reveals that it is a basic primer to playing characters in the Iron Kingdom’s setting, a sort of industrial-age fantasy world. Included are variant rules for some of the classes, rangers getting the most noticeable treatment with the removal of spell-casting abilities and two-weapon fighting in exchange for some bonus feats and a Favored Terrain. The new races of the Iron Kingdoms are presented; these include the Ogrun, Trollkin, Gobbers and the Nyss. The Ogrun are a race of large humanoids who prize keeping oaths they swear above all else, Trollkin are distant relatives of trolls who have a weaker version of their ancestors legendary healing ability, Gobbers are basically goblins who have a more savage subrace called boggers who are also available as Pcs finally, the Nyss, or winter elves are reclusive elves who live far to the north and wield massive ceremonial greatswords and are by far the most interesting new race presented. Regional racial statistics for humans are introduced as well; with optional ability score modifiers and a sort of favored class ability that allows members of the regions favored class to gain some small benefit at first level. These seem a little strong to me, and when I run my IK game I’ll probably reduce the stat modifiers to +1, -1. The benefit from the Regions is that they give human characters a real sense of identity, rather then break the regions down by country as in the Forgotten realms the regions are broken down by racial stock, giving the setting a much more real world feel. Khador, a Russia type country is made up of humans of Kardic stock as well as a fair helping of Ryn. This, as well as other factors, such as the pantheon of gods, gives the Iron Kingdoms a sense of history, something that is lacking in most Campaign settings, *cough* Realms *cough*. And speaking of gods, next up is a description of the Iron Kingdoms pantheon. Most of the Faiths are monotheistic, that is they worship one god, given this is a more “modern” fantasy setting this decision to have mainly Monotheistic religions makes perfect sense and is once again much more realistic and believable within the world then most other fantasy religions, which seem to be usually cheap rip-offs of Norse and Greek pantheons. Finally there are a few pages of Iron Kingdoms equipment, including the Ogrun war-cleaver and Nyss Greatswords.

Overall this is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in running an IK or steampunk game. Though most of the other material, particularly the Gods and the Human Region benefits could be inserted into a standard fantasy game without much effort. As stated earlier the book is truly a work of art, easily being the most attractive book released in the last year. There is not one bad or average picture in this whole book. The few problems I have with the book are small, it relies on the forthcoming Iron Kingdoms Campaign setting a little too much, some things seem a little strong, like the regional modifiers for humans and the Ogrun race in General, also some of the rules used seem a tad on the complicated side. For example, Trollkin have a resistance to poison, this is represented by a sort of damage reduction type ability that works but could easly be replaced by a bonus to save against poison. These are minor complaints though and overall this book is a fantastic example o what the D20 system is capable of when put in the hands of the right people.

 

[JoeGKushner]

The Iron Kingdoms continues its slow march forward with Lock & Load, an Iron Kingdoms Character Primer. Done in the same vein as the gazetteers for the Scarred Lands setting, the book provides brief snippets about the land with some character modifications thrown in for good measure. This makes it more akin to the new SL gazetteer with self-contained information on the races, rather than the first, which relied on the GM to have the Scarred Lands Screen.

The book starts off with the races of the Iron Kingdoms and breaks up things by the different Kingdoms. You get racial traits based on where you come from so you have a list of popular stating feats, an automatic class skill and skill bonuses. There are optional modifiers for racial traits with notes on important individuals, and the languages known by the race in question. For example, the people of Morridane prefer to be rangers, gain wilderness lore as a class skill, +2 to climb and hide, +2 to Dex, -2 to Charisma, -2 to several charisma related skills when dealing with non-Morridanes, and have details on the important people like Caine Talbot, Captain Leland Northcliffe, and an old favorite, Julian Helstrom.

The details are provided in the context of the kingdom with additional information found in sidebars. The text starts under an up close map that shows which lands the text is referring to. This makes it easy to see which lands are included when it talks about, for example, Southern Kingdoms, you see the various lands it includes.

In addition to the humans, there are goblins, common gobbers and larger bogrin or boggers, as well as some of the more exotic creatures like the Winter Elves, or ‘Nyss’, and the powerful Ogrun and Trollkin. It’s a nice mix of human and non-human but follows the fairly standard pattern of the humans being the dominant race and some of the standard races, like gnomes, are missing. Those who own the Monsternomicon and have read the web site bonus material, know that not all standard races are present and that basic information should be here as well.

Those not satisfied with racial information also get new weapons. Several are
racial weapons like the Nyss Claymore and the Ogrun Warcleaver with some standard weapons like Collapsing Baton and Gaff Spear thrown in for good measure. Those more interested in the Steam side of things get the Firearms of the Iron Kingdoms with near CAD like precision illustrations for the Breech Loader and its variants and more traditional illustrations of the different style pistols and rifles.

Art is fantastic. Once again the Iron Kingdoms proves to have some of, if not the best, internal art in the RPG community. No secondary pieces, no lesser pieces to detract from it. All top notch. The map is a full color four-page fold up map that doesn’t provide a lot of in detail depth but enough information on the landscape to get a game going. The map quality however seems a little thin and I’m a little worried about continued use. Those who enjoyed the character sheet from the online site now have a hardcopy of it. Layout and formatting is generally good as is the editing.

One of the things I have mixed feelings about is the inclusion of the various racial stats, like the Trollkin’s. They’ve already appeared in the Monsternomicon. Now Lock & Load is a player resource and Monsternomicon is a GM resource with player goods in it so I can see why they did it, but I hate repeated material as it lessens the amount of fresh and new information a book can bring you. In the case of the Iron Kingdoms where releases are few and far between, I’m not the only person looking for all new information. About the only other thing I would’ve liked to see here is the use of the internal covers, perhaps a close up map of one of the cities?

Those who didn’t like the repeated racial stats also aren’t going to want the character sheet hardcopy. Nor are they likely to want the firearm rules. Still, these are minor issues, especially for those without internet connection or the Monsternomicon. As a stand alone book, Lock and Load is a solid starting resource for the Iron Kingdoms.

 

[Psion]

Lock & Load: Iron Kingdoms Character Primer

Privateer Press had an early hit with their d20 adventures for their rich Iron Kingdoms "steampunk" fantasy setting. However, their failure to release anything other than adventures for a long time dampened some of the initial enthusiasm for their intriguing setting.

A while back, Privateer threw a morsel at the tantalized players with the Monsternomicon, and now Lock & Load, the Iron Kingdoms Character Primer has arrived to give the setting some of the attention it has deserved. Lock & Load is basically a character making accessories detailing alterations and new material for making d20 System characters for the Iron Kingdoms setting.

A First Look

Lock & Load is a 64 page perfect bound softcover book priced at $12.99 US. Considering that this price also includes a color pull-out poster map, this is a decent price.

The cover of the book (by Matt Wilson) depicts a woman with a skimpy leather-and-mail outfit that shows her midriff and cleavage in front if a mechanical "steamjack". The art is well done, if the use of female anatomy a little gratuitous.

The interior is black-and-white and features work by Matt Wilson and Brian Snoddy. As with prior installments of Iron Kingdoms books, the interior art and layout is generally attractive.

A Deeper Look

Lock & Load is organized into chapters of races, classes, religion, and gear. The book also includes a languages appendix and a character sheet.

The races chapter would perhaps more properly be called the "races and nations" chapter. The chapter provides the needed mechanical and background material needed to play characters from the nations of western Immoren.

Background details of each nation is provided in sidebars throughout the chapter, close to the more mechanical details of character creation for that nation. Sidebars in later chapters cover miscellaneous topics such as coinage and slang. Fortunately, these little informational nuggets have their own section in the table of contents for those who need quick access to them.

The races are covered in a format somewhat similar to that in the PHB. There are a variety of human "subcultures", as well as other playable races: dwarves, elves of Ios, winter elves, goblins (including common gobbers and bogrin), ogrun, and trollkin. Iron Kingdoms does not use some standard D&D races like halflings and gnomes, and the statistics of the races that do overlap with the core rules vary from the PHB.

The humans are further defined from the basic statistics in the PHB in various ways. First, all human subclasses have a preferred class which is supposed to represent areas of special competency among that culutre. If the character chooses the preferred class at character generation time, the character receives a special benefit from a list of possible benefits which can include such things as an XP kicker, bonus spells (in wizard spellbook), bonus minor magic item, blessed holy symbol, or the like. These are significant boons at 1st level, but would be less of a boon at higher level.

Each human subculture also has a selection of cultural skills. These come in two types: automatic class skills and skill bonuses. Skill bonuses are racial skill bonuses that the character receives. Automatic class skills are always regarded as class skills for that character. If the character already has that skill as a class skill, it is treated as a bonus instead. Overall, I found this a little giving, and it seems as if this is significant enough to slant character race choices towards humans.

Finally, each human subculture has a pair of optional ability adjustments, a +2 adjustment and a -2 adjustment as is normal for PC races. The character does not have to use these adjustments, but if these adjustments are used, for a number of subcultures the character receives a number of penalties to social skills due to common traits in the culture such as jingoism or social isolation. This is an interesting mechanic, both seemingly balance and providing quick role-playing hooks.

The classes chapter describes adjustments to the existing core classes in the Iron Kingdoms setting. This includes cultural roles that the classes play in the Iron Kingdoms, as well as alterations to class skills, weapon proficiencies, available spells, and special abilities. Most notably, resurrection type magic is much scarcer in the Iron Kingdoms, which is a big part of what gives it a decidedly different feel from typical d20 System fantasy settings.

As with any supplement that overhauls the classes, the ranger sees the most modifications. The ranger does not receive the two weapon fighting virtual feats, but does receive alertness at 1st level. In addition, the class receives bonus feats every 4 levels, similar to the Book of Hallowed Might ranger.

As with the races chapter, the classes chapter also is replete with background related material to help fit characters into the game, such as descriptions of the major wizardly orders that control magical knowledge in the Iron Kingdoms.

The religion chapter covers the campaign and mechanical details of the various faiths in the Iron Kingdoms.The Iron Kingdoms actually have a fairly simple set of deities. There is one major deity for each of the four cardinal alignments (LN, NG, CN, and NE) as well as deities of the various nonhuman races.

The NG and NE deities (Morrow and Thamar) have a number of servants, called Ascendants and Scions respectively. A cleric of Morrow or Thamar selects a patron Ascendant or Scion. The patron determines one of the character's domains, as well as granting a "patron bonus" in the form of bonuses to skills, saves, and/or ability checks. These additional abilities are generous, but probably not unbalancingly so.

Of course, this section covers major background details of the religions. For example, the views of various sects and ascendants are covered, creating fertile ground for role-playing in the campaign.

The section on equipment provides game mechanics and illustrations of a few weapons, armors, and other items used in the Iron Kingdoms, including firearms. The section is somewhat brief, and the reader is referred to a future product for more details on guns.

The book also has a language appendix, character sheet, and a map of the Iron Kingdoms. The character sheet is expansive and stylish, with a nice font for characters and a parchment appearance. The map is attractive and done with pale colors, but does appear a bit crowded and is small by way of comparison to most fold-out maps.

Conclusion

The concept of Lock & Load is a nice one. The book provides players with a fairly inexpensive resource that contains most of the details that they will need for an Iron Kingdoms campaign.

The mechanical details are generally fairly solid, and provides a lot of pertinent and interesting background details for characters. I found the social modifiers coupled with optional ability adjustments an interesting method in defining subcultures, but it seems as if the free skill bonuses are perhaps a bit giving and will make the game a bit balanced towards humans.

Overall Grade: B-

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Gengulfus]

I have really enjoyed reading (and soon to be running) the witchfire trilogy (WFT) books and the Monsternomicon. I held back on starting my campaign using the WFT, awaiting the lock and load character primer book.... but in reality needn't have bothered! I was hoping that they would have though a little more about new classes who would have evolved in this unique setting - developments from the 'Swashbuckling Adventures' by AEG. The new class book from Mongoose 'The Artificer' = a mechanomage, a mage who casts spells through devices, who can create constructs faster than the average mage and also graft on robotic arms., eyes, etc - sort of Frankenstein magic, is where I saw magic evolving in an age like this - bio thaumaturgy. China Mieville's 'Perdido Street Station' was a great inspiration I thought for where magic and science would blend together.

PLUS

Politics? In such an advanced setting, one would hope for this to be reflected in political life - by the early industrial period of the UK in the 1600-1700s, we see the emergence of mercantile capitalism, which in popular culture is seen as the age of high adventure, swashbuckling heroes of the high seas, discovering new lands, evil pirates - but in reality was far darker than that. It was a time of slavery, colonial expansion, the extermination of peoples and their cultures - not necessarily a time of the formalised colonialism of the 19th and early 20th centuries (for the UK - though for Spain and Portugal it already was) - but rather a period of colonialism done via mercenary navies and armies on the behalf of the crown... explorers were tomb raiders, thugs, cultural imperialists, etc... eventually whole peoples were wiped out, some quite recently in history (1860-1890 in the USA)..... but all this messiness from politics is absent - which is a shame.

I was hoping for a bit more of a focus on how humans mess things up. The bad guys are the Skorne not humans. Again making the bad guys into an 'other', something other than human, making it easier for us to kill them - just as today, in modern times, we name our enemies with monstrous titles in order to justify killing them by the truckload.

So - all of this has led me to borrow some of their ideas but create my own setting - darker and more political... which I was hoping to avoid!

 

[cnath.rm]

The question comes to mind of why in the world PP would use or refference someone elses book when they are writing the world that they want?

 

[cnath.rm]

Oh, and one good sign is that they are posting errata as problems are found.

 

[cnath.rm]

When the first SL Gaz came out the DM Screen was not yet available. But do agree that L&L is somewhat comparable to the second SL Gaz.

Cool review, thanks.

 

[CaffeineBoy]

I very much enjoy the Iron Kingdoms material. It's like they're writing directly for my own campaign. And as Cnath.rm notes, they have been prompt with errata.

But sadly, they produce at such a snail's pace that I haven't been able to make myself start up a campaign. I bought Lock and Load (and I'm glad I did, BTW), but I have no intention of using it until the Iron Kingdoms book comes out "real soon now". They are distracted, I think, by the Warmachine mini game they're producing. I hear the book finally went to print and the minis are finally hitting the stores, so hopefully they'll get back to the IK D20 stuff.