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View Full Version : Iron kingdoms relaunch!



TheThan
2012-04-04, 03:50 PM
Check it out.
Privateer press is relaunching their Iron kingdoms (http://privateerpress.com/iron-kingdoms) RPG.

They've ditched D20 system and are now using their own custom system. it's apparently rather similar to their hordes and war machine miniatures games.

I'm truly stoked at hearing this. I love the Iron Kingdoms universe and I love playing warmachine/hordes. So I've always been interested in it. This is the first news in RPGs i've heard that's really gotten me very enthused about it. So anyone else think this is awesome news?

The Glyphstone
2012-04-04, 04:20 PM
Fantastariffic. IK is amazing.

Archtypes and careers makes me think of the FFRPG systems, which are excellent.

Fatebreaker
2012-04-04, 04:37 PM
No way! I just picked up a steampunk (http://steampunkrpg.com/) rpg system to prep for running an Iron Kingdoms game! But this is even better!

Warjacks and steampunk and WWI! BOOSH!

Best news I've had all month.

Ravens_cry
2012-04-04, 04:52 PM
Hmm, I wonder if the system has enough granularity for a full on RPG. If 2d6 plus modifiers is the default, each modifier has that much higher value. It's great for a Wargame, where speed of play is vitally important, especially with higher point games, but for a RPG? I'm not sure if it would work.
Still, the setting is awesome and definitely among my "Want to play" list.

dsmiles
2012-04-04, 05:09 PM
If 2d6 plus modifiers is the default, each modifier has that much higher value. It's great for a Wargame, where speed of play is vitally important, especially with higher point games, but for a RPG?

Two words:

Dungeon
World


:smallwink:

Ravens_cry
2012-04-04, 05:26 PM
One word:


¿Que?*

*What?

dsmiles
2012-04-04, 05:38 PM
Enjoy.

Dungeon World (http://www.dungeon-world.com/) :smallsmile:

See Also. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=235444)

Knaight
2012-04-04, 06:26 PM
One word:


¿Que?*

*What?

Given that we are looking at a finite number of possible interpretations:
¿Cual?

In any case, 2d6 is plenty for an RPG, and a whole bunch of RPGs use that system, or others with similar or even less granularity (e.g 4d3, 1d4-1d12 without modifiers, dice pool systems in general).

Hiro Protagonest
2012-04-04, 06:43 PM
If anyone's willing to run an online game after it comes out, I'll buy it.

Roxxy
2012-04-04, 07:28 PM
**** YES!!!

ShadowFighter15
2012-04-05, 02:07 AM
Yeah, that video went up a month or two ago. Latest issue of No Quarter went over character creation for a dwarf mercenary. Long story, but some aspects of the combat system were revealed. Namely that, like in their wargames, characters have a MAT, representing their skill with melee weapons, and RAT, which does the same for ranged weapons. How you get those values is by combining the rating for the relevant weapon skill (so One-Handed Weapon for swords and such, or Pistol for Exactly What It Says On The Tin) with their Agility (for MAT) or Poise (for RAT).

The merc in the article had the Mercenary and Military Officer classes, so he could get both Pistol and One-Handed Weapon each to 2 (since the skill was on the lists for both of his careers) and his Agility and Poise both started at 3, but the article's writer spent two of the five points you get for boosting your stats to get them both up to 4, meaning both his MAT and RAT were 6.

Anyway, it'll take too long to go through the article (all the info's probably over on the PP forums by now if you don't want to buy the magazine) but it looks interesting so far. Oh, and if anyone was wanting to be a 'Jack Marshall - one of the careers that grants that ability is Military Officer. So if you wanted to recreate The Dude (that's the Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer for Cygnar armies for those who aren't familiar with the nick-name) you'd use the Gun Mage and Military Officer careers, giving you magic bullets and the ability to order around a multi-ton, steam-driven robot!

Scowling Dragon
2012-04-05, 02:10 AM
Eh, looks OK.

dsmiles
2012-04-05, 05:35 AM
@ShadowFighter15:

**** YES!!!
Hell yeah, I want to play a Jack Marshal!! Who wouldn't??

Ravens_cry
2012-04-05, 05:38 AM
Part of me wants to play a Warjack, but that might be too Eberron.

The Glyphstone
2012-04-05, 06:13 AM
Well, if you're the sort of person who gets a kick out of playing the Druid's Animal Companion in D&D, you might be able to pull off a Warjack. Their relationship to their 'Caster is functionally close enough, though they're slightly more intelligent.

dsmiles
2012-04-05, 09:22 AM
Well, if you're the sort of person who gets a kick out of playing the Druid's Animal Companion in D&D, you might be able to pull off a Warjack. Their relationship to their 'Caster is functionally close enough, though they're slightly more intelligent.Wouldn't that be a bear with a druid companion? :smalltongue:

Morph Bark
2012-04-05, 11:38 AM
Wouldn't that be a bear with a druid companion? :smalltongue:

You mean a bear with a bear companion?

Cieyrin
2012-04-05, 01:02 PM
You mean a bear with a bear companion?

It's a bear riding a bear shooting bears!

TheThan
2012-04-05, 08:06 PM
Yeah, that video went up a month or two ago. Latest issue of No Quarter went over character creation for a dwarf mercenary. Long story, but some aspects of the combat system were revealed. Namely that, like in their wargames, characters have a MAT, representing their skill with melee weapons, and RAT, which does the same for ranged weapons. How you get those values is by combining the rating for the relevant weapon skill (so One-Handed Weapon for swords and such, or Pistol for Exactly What It Says On The Tin) with their Agility (for MAT) or Poise (for RAT).

The merc in the article had the Mercenary and Military Officer classes, so he could get both Pistol and One-Handed Weapon each to 2 (since the skill was on the lists for both of his careers) and his Agility and Poise both started at 3, but the article's writer spent two of the five points you get for boosting your stats to get them both up to 4, meaning both his MAT and RAT were 6.

Anyway, it'll take too long to go through the article (all the info's probably over on the PP forums by now if you don't want to buy the magazine) but it looks interesting so far. Oh, and if anyone was wanting to be a 'Jack Marshall - one of the careers that grants that ability is Military Officer. So if you wanted to recreate The Dude (that's the Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer for Cygnar armies for those who aren't familiar with the nick-name) you'd use the Gun Mage and Military Officer careers, giving you magic bullets and the ability to order around a multi-ton, steam-driven robot!


Wait, you've known this for a whole month and you haven't informed anyone? Shame on you!
:smallbiggrin:

The Glyphstone
2012-04-05, 09:19 PM
It's a bear riding a bear shooting bears!

Unless you go to Khador. There, the bears will also be robots.

ShadowFighter15
2012-04-05, 09:50 PM
Wait, you've known this for a whole month and you haven't informed anyone? Shame on you!
:smallbiggrin:

I thought someone else would've been quicker on the ball! Shame on you, internet community!:smalltongue:

Seriously, though - the system's looking pretty cool and character-creation seems straight-forward.

1) Pick a race, this determines starting stats (you don't roll for them) and certain abilities. Core book will have humans, Iosans, Nyss, dwarves, gobbers, ogrun and trollkin.

2) Boost stats. You get five points to spend on your stats, either spending one point to boost a skill by one or three points to boost it by two. You've got four primary stats and six secondary stats. Physique, Speed, Strength, Prowess, Agility, Poise, Intellect, Knowledge, Perception and Power (bold ones are the primary stats). Aside from Power, each primary stat governs two secondary ones - so Physique governs Strength and Speed, etc.

A secondary stat can't be higher than it's primary stat. So a dwarf, for instance, gets the following stats (same order I mentioned above): 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 4, 3, 3. Since it wasn't mentioned at all in the No Quarter article, I assume Power is only used for magic-users and you don't get it til the next step. Anyway, if a dwarf character wanted to boost their Agility or Poise, they'd have to first spend one of those five points to raise Prowess to 4.

3) Choose Archetype. There are four Archetypes to choose from - Gifted, Intellectual, Mighty and Skilled. If you want to make a character who uses magic (arcane mechanik, gun mage, warcaster, etc) you have to take the Gifted Archetype. Each Archetype provides a list of benefits to choose from and most of them share names and effects with stuff from the wargames. The character being made in the article went with the Mighty Archetype and chose Critical: Brutal Damage. Just like the version in Warmachine (which anyone who's used or been on the wrong end of a squad of Gun Mages should recognise); if the character rolls a double on his attack roll, he deals an extra die of damage. Other abilities mentioned for Mighty are Berserker, Countercharge and Unyielding.

4) Choose Careers. Mentioned this one before - pick the two careers that best reflect the character you want. So if Lt Caine was trying to recreate himself with this system, he'd use the Gun Mage and Warcaster careers, while Stryker would've combined Knight and Warcaster. Presumably there's a berserker career or similar for melee monsters like the Butcher. Each career has its own list of skills and how many from that list you can pick. The character in the article went with Mercenary and Military Officer - you can pick five skills from the Mercenary list and three from the Military Officer list (it has fewer choices since you can also take an ability and get an advantage called Connections (mercenary company or kingdom's military)).

You can only take a skill once from a career's list (at character-creation at least) so any overlap between the two is good, since you can take the same skill from both careers and it starts at level 2 instead of 1. Can't get higher than two at character-creation, though. The only ability mentioned for Military Officer is, as I mentioned in my last post, 'Jack Marshall. I think I read somewhere (and this may've just been a rumour) that 'Jack Marshalls can control warjacks better than warcasters at lower levels. Presumably, warcaster characters fresh out of the gate are only about as powerful as the Journeyman Warcaster (a Cygnar solo) but at higher-levels will be rivalling the likes of Sebastian Nemo.

5) Buy Equipment. Pretty straight-forward - each career provides a certain amount of funds so you add the two together for your careers and that's your starting gold. So both Mercenary and Military Officer give 100 gold crowns each, so the dwarf merc in the article had 200 crowns to spend on gear. You also get any gear necessary for your class for free - so the problems that magelock pistols had in the old IKRPG are gone since gun mages now get those for free during character creation.


And that's pretty much it. Obviously, the article does a better job explaining but that should give you an idea of the bare-bones. Oh yes, almost forgot - it seems that the Iron Kingdoms' weapon tech is a little further along than I thought. Up til this article, I thought most guns in the setting (with some exceptions, like Cygnar Long Gunners, Trencher Commando carbines and Caine's Spellstorm Pistols) were single-shot breach-loaders, but the dwarf in the article started with a repeating pistol (costing 35 gc if you're wondering) that can hold five shots before needing to be reloaded. Then again, this could just be a pepperbox-style gun with five small-calibre barrels, the article doesn't say.