Warforged and Ironborn - Room for Both?

[Psion]

In my little River of Worlds game, the variety of characters one might run into is broad indeed. This might include some sort of machine-folk. Warforged in Eberron/MMIII) and Ironborn (from Book of Iron Might) are two recently promulgated takes on this. I wonder if their concepts are far enough apart.

So what do you think? What do or would you run. (I've factored out Eberron in the poll because I imagine that will be a factor.)

PLEASE NOTE

If you don't like the idea of metal men, that's fine, but not really useful input to what this thread is about. Please refrain from posting about such here. Thanks.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Might be a little early to poll this question as the Book of Iron Might hasn't seen it's print release yet.

Having said that, don't forget Phil Reed's Construc Mechanus with it's rules for two different sets of iron men.

 

[Wombat]

Personally, I'm a "neither" individual.

The Tin Woodsman aside, I'm not really in favour of sentient, full-personality mechanical people in my fantasy games. Come to think of it, I'm even kind of leery of them in sci-fi games. I don't see how they can have human-like personalities or go up in rank (barring retooling). Too much suspension of disbelief for my tastes. (No, I don't have Eberron, but I have been reading about them there; yes, I do have the pdf of Iron Might and found I could not accept the concept conceits.)

To each their own, though, and I hope they work out well in other people's games.

 

[Arnwyn]

So what do you think? What do or would you run.

My (big) campaign, for one, would likely have room for both.

In my FR game, warforged have already been placed (being from Halruaa). Depending on the magical vs mechanical aspect of ironborn, they could come from Nimbral or Lantan (or even other places, such as Mulhorand or Unther).

But, because I don't have the Book of Iron Might, I only use warforged right now.

 

[ivocaliban]

I'm with the Wombat on this one. I simply cannot accept the idea of machines as a race in a fantasy setting. If I used either one they would be as one of a kind creations at a PCs request or used as an NPC for flavour. Having two versions of mechanical men walking around in great numbers just seems like the Sorcerer's Apprentice gone awry. If it makes you and your players happy, however, that's all that matters. I'd stick to choosing one version or combining the two if you're set on the idea, though.

 

[Psion]

Okay, guys, that's two now. I'm looking for insight on why you would choose on over the other, or how their attributes are distinctive enought to use both. That you don't like metal races is not really on topic. Forgive me for not being clear, but please don't drag the thread off topic/use it as a sounding board.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Don't forget COGS! (from Mongoose's OGL Steampunk)

I used a Warforged (Juggernaut) as a small, sentient steamjack cohort in an Iron Kingdoms game.

I'd also planned to use the 'forged, possibly with some tweaks, as Romandan constructs in my Ivalice game, but I might just go with COGS instead, since they fit the tech/magic level better.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Don't forget COGS! (from Mongoose's OGL Steampunk)

I used a Warforged (Juggernaut) as a small, sentient steamjack cohort in an Iron Kingdoms game.

I'd also planned to use the 'forged, possibly with some tweaks, as Romandan constructs in my Ivalice game, but I might just go with COGS instead, since they fit the tech/magic level better.

Can you tell me a little about the COGS? How do they stand up to the Warforged? Are they magical in nature or mechanical?

 

[eris404]

To be honest, the only real write-up of the Warforged I have seen is in the MM3, so I am biased towards the Ironborn. I like that they are easily customizable and have some fun feats (again, since I don't own the Eberron book, I have no idea what kind of special feats were created for the Warforged).

I hadn't planned originally on using any construct-like race in my campaign setting. However, I am a fan of China Mieville and lately I've been thinking of making (story-wise, but not rules-wise) the Ironborn similar to his Remade.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

For your purposes, traveling between planes and such, both seem fine. Infinite planes and all that.

Mechanically, they're both sound, and they're different enough to be interesting, but I tend to agree that multiple construct races in one world is a bit much.

There are only a couple ways I see them working at the same time in the same world. For one, they could be the result of a fantasy Mutual Assured Destruction policy. Side A of a big war developed one, and to counter them side B developed the other. They had some espionage and therefore knowledge of eacch other's processes, but they had to cook some things up for themselves, so the resulting species of contruct were rather different.

Alternatively, one could be derived directly from the other. i.e. the Warforged were created by wizards long ago. They are a bit more construct-like, IMO. Over eons, they (or some subset of them) learned to modify themselves to be more like their creators (i.e. more versatile and human-like). These would be the Ironborn.

You could even have a world where the original human inhabitants died in war and their warforged creations lived on. The Ironborn derivatives, considering themselves superior, are now trying to eradicate the remaining regular Warforged.

That might be kind of fun.