One of my favourite all-time roleplay game settings is the Iron Kingdoms, by Privateer Press. The Iron Kingdoms burst onto the scene 20 years ago with The Witchfire Trilogy, which introduced the setting using the then D20 system for Dungeons and Dragons. A whole new world was portrayed where steam power and magic had merged, with a world on the cusp of an industrial revolution powered by magic. It was steampunk meets Sharpe, with the fantasy tropes we expect from Tolkein and derivative settings.
Not only was the Iron Kingdoms a roleplay setting, but soon after a wargame, known as Warmachine, and following it the parallel game, Hordes. Both wargames portrayed in miniatures form the factions and denizens of the Iron Kingdoms and the wilderness around them in the world of Caen and the continent of Immoren. Miniatures consisted of magically imbued Warcaster who controlled the magic steam-powered golems - Warjacks. There were riflemen, armoured warriors, galvanic weapons, and Warlocks, who like Warcasters, controlled through their rage a host of Warbeasts. It was quite the brash wargame, with 'Jacks and Beasts headbutting, slamming, and throwing opponents around, and unleashing devastating attacks.
It was inevitable that a new edition of the roleplaying game was needed, as the world had evolved and expanded far past what had been written for the D20 system, and so Privateer Press released Iron Kingdom: Full Metal Fantasy - an rpg that now used the same core mechanics of the wargame, and to my mind greatly simplifying the game, and speeding it up. I'm a sucker for maths, and I like bell curves in games as they are easier to gauge how well a character improves - typically you are shifting, widening or contracting bell curves in games based upon the summation of multiple dice of the same type. IKRPG:FMF also changed the career system for the game to something more akin to Warhammer Fantasy RPG (a game I write for). What I distinctly dislike about DnD games it the complexity around cross classing, and how attributes are tied to the character class, rather than their race. IKRPG:FMF to my mind fixed that. Now characters were built around their race first, and then two careers. But mixing and matching careers you could represent most types of protagonists in the Iron Kingdoms. Do you want to play an Arcane Tempest Rider (basically a mounted gun mage)? Well take the Highwayman and Gun Mage careers. What about some noble commander of an army? Well, noble is a career, and so is a military officer. It had easy and great flexibility, plus many of the monsters, spells, and weapons could be ported wholesale from the wargames.
So why am I banging on about the Iron Kingdoms RPG? Isn't a third edition coming out? Well the answer is a) I love the setting, b) I love the 2nd edition, c) the new edition uses DnD 5th edition (like every other rpg right now - yawn). And I will be running a new campaign on the Darker Days Radio Twitch channel. If you want to support the campaigns being run on the Darker Days Radio Twitch, then think about backing my Patreon, and tuning in the campaigns run there, and other content we will be putting out there and on the podcast in future.
- Chris
Comments