Monte's The Book of Iron Might is a surprise

[Charles Dunwoody]

I was really surprised by The Book of Iron Might coming out from Malhavoc Press. The Ironborn are a new race--constructs. New stunt system allows for exciting action.

To me, Eberron has elements very similar to these "new" rules. Warforged and action points sound really close to Ironborn and stunts.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Yes. Seems odd at first glance. However, since Monte Cook has realised that the old PDFs are his best-sellers (e.g The Book of Eldritch Might) it stands to reason that he wants to build a library of PDFs from which he can live on for years (or at least add to his income). Seems like a good plan to me. That library simply won't be complete unless it caters to the majority of players; the fighters.

It is also known that Monte Cook has fingerspitzgefühl when it comes to the industry and is not above publishing something for poularity's sake. I mean Arcana Unearthed - what's up with that? (Good product - lousy name.)

 

[JoeGKushner]

I look forward to it. Don't get me wrong. I don't like some of the things Monte's done with the company in terms of PDF books on sale forever and 3.5 updates that well, don't update anything but skill names and add a few spells that were made open during the 3.5 event, but his writing is solid, he has a good editor, his ideas are usually sound and work in the game well and are well illustrated and good reading.

 

[Shallown]

I'm wondering if not too far down the line is a rogue book.

I think Iron Might comes along later than the rest becuase Monte owns the company. Meaning, if I remember correctly, that Monte said he liked creating magic and such finding it the exciting part of game creation. He therefore focused on the arcane and divine to start with that being his preference. Now he has some other associates such as Mearls to flesh out his catalouge. I think he'll maintain his standards and I'll probably pick up a copy as I am a Fan if not a fanbow.

Later

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

I actually like the idea of a book of feats for fighters. Fighters simply don't have enough feats and I think a complete warrior book should concentrate on feats rather than prestige classes. I'm looking forward to the book.

Still, the Ironborn seems unnecessary. Many people don't like the "robots" of Eberron and this choice for a new race seems odd. I was hoping for a lion-like or weren like race with honor.

 

[Nightfall]

I'm looking forward to this, Iron born or not.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Still, the Ironborn seems unnecessary. Many people don't like the "robots" of Eberron and this choice for a new race seems odd. I was hoping for a lion-like or weren like race with honor.

OTOH, I've seen a number of people mention that they disliked (or at least, expected to dislike) Eberron, but thought the warforged look interesting. This would be right up their alley.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

It is also known that Monte Cook has fingerspitzgefühl

Did you use that on a whim or is it another of these words? Shouldn't it be fingerspitzengefuhl? I mean, uber's lacking the umlaut as well.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

What I like about Monte's books is that they let me turn my campaign world into Disneyland.

... no ... not like that.

What I mean is that I can use the sourcebooks as a kind of a meta-template to throw on a dungeon. For example, I can generate a random dungeon of core rules monsters and then change each room to use Chaostech and suddenly I have a spooky theme for the dungeon. It's a dramatic change and yet very simple to do. And it gets the players saying things like "remember that one time when we were in the chaos dungon!?!?"

So I can get lazy and use Monte's books to turn generic dungeons into "theme parks". One where a minor god died, one where chaos runs amok, one populated by constructs, etc. It's pretty cool.

 

[JohnRTroy]

OTOH, I've seen a number of people mention that they disliked (or at least, expected to dislike) Eberron, but thought the warforged look interesting. This would be right up their alley.

I believe this is Mike Mearls doing. Mike was bitching about the rules for Warforged as previewed in Dragon somewhere in this forum a while back, stating it was too restrictive or something like that, so I guess he created his own version of them for Monte's book.