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Rip_Van_Winkle
Jul 21, 2011

"When life gives you ghosts, you make ghost-robots"

I think this is a philosophy we can all aspire to.

Iron Kingdoms



What is this game?
From the Privateer Press website
It is a land like no other, a place where steam power and gunpowder meet sword and sorcery. The Iron Kingdoms possess a rich history—and a tumultuous future—full of unique monsters, deities, heroes, and villains. Immerse yourself in the detailed world of gritty conflict and sorcery with the Iron Kingdoms RPG. Unleash the power of mechanika, the fusion of magic and machine. Take on the persona of unique character classes, like the gun mage who combines powerful magic with a deadly acumen for firearms or the steamjack-commanding warcaster. Travel through a fantastic world that takes classic fantasy concepts and gives them a new twist with a high-octane rush of steam power and industrial engineering. Prepare yourself for an experience like no other. The world of the Iron Kingdoms awaits!

Iron Kingdoms: Full Metal Fantasy and Iron Kingdoms: Unleashed are RPGs by Privateer Press. Iron Kingdoms is fantasy steampunk stuff, IK: Unleashed is fantasy wilds/druid/swamp/runes/swamp magic stuff. They're compatible with one another, even though it seems like they might not be. It's an RPG that I really like, and I need to get better at running it. Therefore, I'm going to run a few one-shots and perhaps a short campaign. I need to run it more to get a more detailed understanding of the parts of the game I haven't seen yet, and I'd also like to be irritating and voice my annoyingly positive opinions about this dumb game. I love this dumb, dumb game. It's got gatormen and meat wizards and boar people and huge robots and blood magic and trolls who can literally shout people apart and it's great. It's quick, snappy, and well-balanced, and to me it's got just the right balance of crunch and accessibility. Most of the time you can play your class the way you want to straight from the start, you don't have to "earn" the ability to do cool and fun things. Characters gain power as they gain XP, but right off the bat you can do all sorts of cool different stuff especially with the archetype/career system.

What's the setting like?
The Iron Kingdoms are fantasy steampunk europe with fantasy steampunk wars happening. It's somewhere between Warhammer Fantasy and Arcanum of Steamworks and Magic Obscura. There's your fantasy steampunk russia, fantasy steampunk religious fanatic desert elves, fantasy steampunk necromancers ruled by dragons. There's a solid writeup of the basics and character creation over here and some good details on the factions and the wargame that originated the setting in the Warmachine/Hordes thread.

Isn't steampunk cringey and terrible?
Some of it is, yeah. This is more "industrial revolution warhammer/shadowrun" steampunk than the standard "monocles, top hats, and airships" steampunk. There's still plenty of goggles but they're actually for something because half the time everyone is covered in grease and soot and the air is terribly polluted in most cities. There's very little in the way of the garbage "classy" affectations you find in a lot of steampunk fiction.

What's the game engine?
It's a 2d6 + modifier system, it's pretty well-constrained - the numbers never get too crazy or that much further away from the early game - leveling is pretty flat/horizontal compared to, say, most D20 systems. There's no massive caster supremacy issues or anything. I've found it to be a nice balance between crunch and "just choose whatever's cool". There's some level of optimization but you're not going to dramatically overshadow any other PCs because there pretty much aren't bad character choices.



What are you running?
I'm going to be running at least a couple one-shots to introduce people to the game and give myself a chance to get better at running it. There's a heist-gone-wrong mission, a pigman murder mission, a train job, a cultist investigation, etc. Plenty of standard fantasy stuff to go around, and it's all solid introductory material. I'm probably going to use mostly premade adventures/modules, but there's plenty of intro material so it depends what the group in question wants to do. Consider this a pick-up game in terms of investment. People can come and go as they want, and I'd love to have new people, experience people, and anyone who's just accidentally clicked the thread. I encourage people to roll up experimental characters or just try interesting things out. Once we're a couple one-shots in, I'll consider running a more long-term campaign.

What are you allowing?
Anything printed by Privateer Press. I've got most of the material but if you've got something from the No Quarter magazine or a book I don't have, just run it by me first so I know what to expect. The game's pretty well-balanced so I don't expect many issues.

Other details
We're going to be using Roll20 for the game, and Discord for voice. I'm in Central Standard Time, GMT - 5. Chicago time. Whatever helps you think about it. EU goons are welcome, I'm open to running it whenever works for whoever's interested.

Okay, sure, why not. What should I do?
Post in this very thread. You don't have to have a character ready or anything, just post for interest or send me a PM if you're embarrassed about your fantasy steampunk enjoyment. Also, I set up a Discord server for signups/discussion/time planning/character creation/whatever else. Pre-generated characters can provided upon request, but I'm also available on Discord for going over character creation with anyone who's new and would like to make their own character.

Rip_Van_Winkle fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Sep 26, 2017

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Megazver
Jan 13, 2006
Post! Also, joined Discord.

Ryuujin
Sep 26, 2007
Dragon God

Megazver posted:

Post! Also, joined Discord.

Same here.

Magnusth
Sep 25, 2014

Hello, Creature! Do You Despise Goat Hating Fascists? So Do We! Join Us at Paradise Lost!


Yeah, i'm joining too, probably playing an ogrun worker in self-made steampunk armor in an attempt to be the swolest communist.

Rip_Van_Winkle
Jul 21, 2011

"When life gives you ghosts, you make ghost-robots"

I think this is a philosophy we can all aspire to.

Alright, first game will be this Saturday at 1 PM CST (6PM GMT)! We're going to be running Hogwash, the Unleashed intro adventure. Expect pigs.

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