Ikrpg

[arcticintel]

Anyone going to be playing the new Iron Kingdoms RPG thats coming out?

[GenericFighter]

Yes! I'm really burned out on medieval fantasy settings where 90% of the population should be illiterate, dirt stupid turnip farmers(but aren't) and 'adventuring' is little more than a string of grave robbings and racist banditry/pillaging. An early industrial setting is a nice relief from shutting down the part of your brain that knows stuff about history and human ecology.

'A wizard did it' can only keep you from rolling your eyes so long.

[Pilo]

Well i already have the old one, I do not think that I would swap.

[The Glyphstone]

The old one was just an Iron Kingdoms campaign setting using D&D 3.0 rules via the OGL. This is an in-house ruleset specifically designed by PP for the IK world, quite different.

I'm looking forward to it like crazy.

[UserClone]

Where are we reading this news? Links?

[arcticintel]

Here's the link.
http://privateerpress.com/iron-kingdoms

From what I can tell it plays very similar to their miniatures game. Essentially you're creating a "solo model" for that game in combat circumstances.

[Leon]

Looking forward to it ~ despite that fact that i'd be likely the one running it when i want to play it

[DropsonExistanc]

Our groups' ninjas failed to acquire it, with how bloody fast the prereleases sold out at Gencon, so we're starting as soon as it's actually released (which is thankfully sooner since they moved the release date up).

Now, to think of a witty name for my character's labourjack...

[lyko555]

i cant wait for it to come out we snagged a copy at gencon but the gm wants everyone to have there own copy before we play as its a complicated system

[Knaight]

It looks pretty cool, but I doubt that I'll get the opportunity.

[caden_varn]

Just received my copy - only had a quick glance at it as I am at work. I'll need to go through it in more detail tonight, but I've got a few initial impressions of it. (OK, a slightly longer glance since I started typing )

I've not played or even seen any of their minis wargames rules (Warmachine or Hordes), but the RPG feels very much like it is using this kind of system (which I think was already known).
The combat system looks to be entirely mini based (not surprising), using measurement of distance instead of squares or hexes. I'm not sure about this, probably mainly due to my experiences with an old edition of Mechwarrior which used the same system for combat as BattleTech, which ended up very clunky IMO. Hopefully this won't have the same issue, and if it does, hopefully it won't be too hard to use the combat system without minis and battlemaps.

I'm not entirely sure about the character generation system either - I'll need to create a few characters to see how customisable the characters feel. There is no random element (no complaints from me there), but you don;t get a whole load of choices to try to make your character distinct. I'll have to see, it may well be fine.

One perhaps slightly odd point, the index seems decent - 6 sides of paper for an ~350 page manual. (This may seem a trivial thing, but RPGs with poor indexes really annoy me - you NEED to be able to look things up quickly in these manuals - put a proper index in!)

Anyone had a chance to look through it in more detail and can give more informed comment?

[Lost Demiurge]

The "pick two careers" system seems to actually be a pretty good way to make your characters distinct! Though I admit that the set "pseudo-levelling-up" chart seems a little restrictive.

Still, while some of the more powerful starting careers have pretty strict rules on what you can and can't pick, the more generic ones allow for a lot of variety, I think.

Mind you, this is all speculation. I'll have to try it out a few times to make sure...

[IthroZada]

I'm not entirely sure about the character generation system either - I'll need to create a few characters to see how customisable the characters feel. There is no random element (no complaints from me there), but you don;t get a whole load of choices to try to make your character distinct. I'll have to see, it may well be fine.

The Race/Archetype/Career/Career combo (with 28 careers to choose from) seems like it can make some really distinct characters. And as you gain experience, you can increase the potency of your current careers or get new careers up to a max of 5.

It seems to me that a Mighty Human Man-at-Arms/Knight is going to be quite different from an Intellectual Human Priest/Knight. Maybe not quite stat wise, but very much in play style.

[caden_varn]

Yeah, now I have read it in more detail, I'm reasonably happy with the 2 careers system. The level up system does seem a bit restrictive though.

Although its a bit of a case of horses for courses I guess. I'll happily play Warhammer, which is much more restrictive on the career (although I'd argue the level up is a bit more open). I'll have to play a bit to find out.

[IthroZada]

It is rather fun taking a d30 and rolling it twice to pick out your careers, you get some combinations you usually don't consider.

In one instance I rolled an Intellectual Human Man-At-Arms/Thief, which practically makes him Kingpin. He just needs a Daredevil to constantly be annoyed by.

[caden_varn]

BTW, does anyone know what happens if both your starting careers give you the same starting skill by RAW? Could not find anything myself, so I am assuming you get it at level 2. I haven't read large portions of the game as yet though

[lyko555]

BTW, does anyone know what happens if both your starting careers give you the same starting skill by RAW? Could not find anything myself, so I am assuming you get it at level 2. I haven't read large portions of the game as yet though

yes it does go to lvl 2 pg 117 bottom right under perfect career



My group has had 2 sessions so far there are a few inter-party balance issue when it comes to how tough your character is. for instance a warcaster can get up at armor 17 easily enough while camping focus. meanwhile the rest of your group has trouble getting above a 14. hell if you make a fell caller sorcerer with the stone casting you can hit 20.

this does cause challenge issues as something that can actually hurt arm 20 will obliterate an arm 12 duder. let alone my high defense arm 9 alchemist

[Hybban]

I bought the book and I'm very happy with it. Can't wait to find players for this one.

For the encounter issue, it's not becaus eit hits easily that it do always a lot of dammage. That could be a way to balance it. We had an issue in a 4E campaign where I was playing a Dwarven tin can. The DM had to put the proper menace to hit me, but then the other characters were dead meat because they became easy target every time they got hit. Creatures taht hit often for low damage can be interesting in an attrition war.

Just my 0.02€

[lyko555]

I bought the book and I'm very happy with it. Can't wait to find players for this one.

For the encounter issue, it's not because it hits easily that it do always a lot of damage. That could be a way to balance it. We had an issue in a 4E campaign where I was playing a Dwarven tin can. The DM had to put the proper menace to hit me, but then the other characters were dead meat because they became easy target every time they got hit. Creatures that hit often for low damage can be interesting in an attrition war.

Just my 0.02€

Its not hitting that's a problem players have 3 stats that relate to combat and getting hit you have your defense value which is normally between 10-16 that gauges how hard it is to hit you. then if they hit the compare their p&s score versus your arm stat. ( for instance a pistol is pow 10) so if your armor 12 damage rolled is 2d6 +10 - 12 so on average 5. now if your a pimped out arm 20 that's 2d6 +10 - 20 so -3 is average.

its very hard to balance if you have a team built with both high arm and high def builds as if the heavy hitters do roll high enough to score a hit on high armor its gonna leave a smear whereas hitting high armored people doesn't matter if you cant hurt them.

[Hybban]

Of course, if they have high def & arm...

[lyko555]

Of course, if they have high def & arm...

im sorry i meant it to be read if some players have a high defense low arm build and others have a low defense high arm build,
for example in my group the majority of players have def 14 arm 12 no compare that to our warcaster/ stone sorcerer who has defense 13 arm 20 any attack that is straight dice on the caster is dice +8 on every one else in the party.
Its even worse against my gobber whose def 16 but arm 9 dice +11 is horrible when your average character has about 12 points of life spiral.

[Hybban]

Don't be sorry :)
And my statement about D&D stands. If you can hit the higher defense, you can hit anybody. This is a recurring problem in many games. The players must use strategy and you have to build encounters so that you can hit them all.

[Knaight]

This is a recurring problem in many games. The players must use strategy and you have to build encounters so that you can hit them all.

However, the steps needed to hit them all can vary. It's completely fine if one can be hit simply by firing in their general direction, and others require pincer movements or similar. You don't have to build encounters so that the highest defense character can be easily targeted, even if you accept the idea that you have to build challenging encounters specifically for the players at all.

[lyko555]

However, the steps needed to hit them all can vary. It's completely fine if one can be hit simply by firing in their general direction, and others require pincer movements or similar. You don't have to build encounters so that the highest defense character can be easily targeted, even if you accept the idea that you have to build challenging encounters specifically for the players at all.

the biggest differences bout this game than most is that defense is not tied to your armor. hitting people doesn't seem to be the problem its that fact that some people in the party have ( in dnd terms) dr 20- so if you make something that can do enough damage to bypass the dr it crushes the guys with dr 1.


second biggest is its impossible to reveres engineer the bestiary. as most of the npc threats are taken copy pasted from the tabletop game stat wise.
its kinda hard to explain why these low lvl mooks we keep destroying seem to be wearing tailored platemail in order to justify their armor and stats.

[Knaight]

the biggest differences bout this game than most is that defense is not tied to your armor. hitting people doesn't seem to be the problem its that fact that some people in the party have ( in dnd terms) dr 20- so if you make something that can do enough damage to bypass the dr it crushes the guys with dr 1.

I'm pretty sure that absorption of damage is the standard for armor and D&D style AC is the exception. In any case, diversified enemies cover this issue: Some can be better at hitting and worse at damage, who would naturally go against the lightly armored high defense, others can be worse at hitting and better at damage, who would naturally go against the heavily armored poor defense characters. Similarly, my points made regarding improving attacks can also be made regarding damage, and things in between, that are more dangerous to the lightly armored but need to take special steps to deal with the heavily armored can also be used.