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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gothmog" data-source="post: 3305583" data-attributes="member: 317">I say yes, it is a good idea, depending on the type of game you want to play/run.D&D/D20 does a good job at cinematic/high fantasy game play, but for less magic intensive settings, its a sub-optimal choice.  Iron Kingdoms is definitely low magic and brutal, and characters with ablative hit points and who are magic item dependent for their powerz don't fit the fluff of the setting at all.  Also, D20 assumes a steady increase in character power (BAB, saves, feats, abilities) that is linear over levels which GREATLY affects probability curves and the chances of character success.  D20 characters start out inept, and quickly progress into superheroes.  This isn't in keeping with the IK setting- in the wargame (which the world IS based on) even a unit of low-power troops is dangerous to a warcaster (as elite as you get in IK)- and this isn't modeled in D&D well.  In addition, the vancian magic system doesn't have the right feel for the IK setting, and talk has been thrown around of redoing the magic system completely- however this also means a revision of the D&D/D20 rules so extensive that there wouldn't be a point to using D&D/D20 anymore.I think IK would benefit greatly from an in-house system that better modeled the flavor of their world.  WHFRP simply wouldn't work with D&D rules, and I"M EXTREMELY happy they didn't jump on the D20 bandwagon and go that route.  Likewise, Pinnacle Entertainment Group (which publishes the excellent Deadlands setting and Savage Worlds) tried their hand at D20 with Deadlands, and Deadlands lost all its appeal in the D20 conversion, while the original and the SW version are excellent games that retain the flavor of the world.So while D&D/D20 works fine for cinematic/heroic games with high power levels, it doesn't work well for lower-powered/less magic intensive games.  The probablity curves and heroic assumptions built into the system undermine trying to establish a different feel in the world.  So while D20 is a fine choice for some games (D&D, Spycraft), its not a universal system, nor was it ever intended to be.  Nobody is saying making another system would be trying to "topple D20" as the 800 lb gorilla, but why try pounding the square D20 peg into a round hole when another system might do the job much better?  The D20 market also isn't what it used to be, and several systems (WW, Savage Worlds, WHFRP to name a few) have become pretty popular- enough so that they are consistent money makers and while not top of the heap, still very profitable for their parent companies, and are supported very well by fan support.</blockquote>

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