I've just got the latest source book for the Iron Kingdoms RPG, and boy is it awesome.
This is only going to be a quick overview, as I haven't had enough time to read in depth, but a full review will appear in time.
The book is produced the same way as the core book, being a full colour hardback. While I haven't counted the pages yet, it has roughly the same page count as the core book, while containing much more fluff over rules!
The book is divided into 6 sections, covering the major kingdoms of Western Immorean. Not only does each section have a map and an outline of the kingdom's history, but it also includes geographic information, as well as the major mover's and shakers.
Each section also includes a players section which provides new careers, abilities, spells, gear and warjacks relevant to the nation. Anyone who wanted to play as one of the units from the wargame now has everything they need.
Overall this looks to be another excellent book. Only one gripe so far, and that their is a players section at the end of each nation, which while I understand works well layout wise, but is a pain for referencing. Especially as some of the abilities and spells are available to other careers.
However, I'm really looking forward to devouring the book, and will give a fuller review once I have.
Showing posts with label RPG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RPG. Show all posts
Friday, 20 September 2013
Sunday, 5 May 2013
Iron Kingdoms GMs Kit - Review
I'm a bit behind with this review, but better late than never.
As is traditional in an RPG release schedule, one of the early releases is a GMs kit, containing a GMs screen and some additional content to entice us to hand over our money.
Not ones to break tradition, Privateer Press's second release in the Iron Kingdoms line is a Games Masters toolkit to aid all those hard working GMs in running their games.
The main component of the kit is the 4 pane games masters’ screen. With the panes orientated landscape, the screen is low enough that a GM can comfortably look over while sitting, but will hide notes and dice rolls from players. With a double sized centre panel, you have plenty of width to work with, and don't feel cramped with a pile of notes.
The screen is made from tough card, like the cover to the Iron Kingdoms core book. This means that it will easily stay standing on its own, and even absorb dice impacts without moving. This isn't a 1990's White Wolf screen here!
The outer screen graphics are up to the normal excellent standards of Privateer Press. The double sized pane gives a great opportunity for some metal mangling action, and it doesn't disappoint. You can’t get much more of a representative view of the Iron Kingdoms than a heavy warjack fighting a bionic pig man over a crashed steam engine.
On the inner screen is the real meat of the product, with useful tables and charts for reference in game. While I haven’t road tested the screen, it contains everything I would need to reference quickly during a game. It also includes page references for sections if you want to look at the full rules, which is really handy. The text is a reasonable size, and laid out well, making it easy to read. Use of bold text and inverted text colour for headings means that you can quickly find what you are looking for.
Onto the extras. These vary from company to company, some offering an adventure, others a small booklet of GM related material that didn't make the cut into the core book. In this case there are couple of gaming aids to help run your game.
To start us off, there is a pad of 25 full colour character sheets, like the ones found in the core book. Next, there is a pad of 25 full colour encounter sheets, again like the ones found in the core book. There are also 10 laminated Character health trackers and 10 laminated initiative trackers.
For me, while gorgeous quality, I'm unlikely to ever use the character or encounter sheets. Not that there is anything wrong with them, but I tend to find character sheets get used and abused in a way that doesn’t warrant using better than a black and white printout. Also, the paper is slightly gloss, and I'd imagine writing in pencil may be more difficult, leading to problems when changes needed to be made. It would also make the encounter sheets only usable once. That being said, there is nothing wrong with them, just a matter of personal preference.
The laminated health and initiative trackers though, I will be making use of. The health tracker gives the player an easy way to track life or damage (in the case of a warjack) and their current Feat Points, without having to keep rubbing out a section of the character sheet. The Initiative Tracker card, not only gives the GM a place to record individual initiative scores, but also a character's stats and current Armour and Defense, so they don't need to refer back to the player as often. While not vital to running a game, it certainly makes tracking things much easier.
Finally, perhaps the more difficult aspect is the product’s value for money. At $27.99 rrp, it is actually more expensive than Urban Adventures, and is likely to see less use. Looking at previous GMs screens I’ve bought, it is certainly much better than the screens I have for the FFG 40K RPGs, and just as good as my Eclipse Phase screen. For me, the additional items don’t quite have as much worth as the adventures/GMs books that the other screens provided, but I’m willing to let that go.
If you intend to run a game of Iron Kingdoms, you can’t go wrong by picking up the screen. The information it provides alone makes it a must have, saving time leafing through the rule book. Consider it an investment if nothing else.
As is traditional in an RPG release schedule, one of the early releases is a GMs kit, containing a GMs screen and some additional content to entice us to hand over our money.
Not ones to break tradition, Privateer Press's second release in the Iron Kingdoms line is a Games Masters toolkit to aid all those hard working GMs in running their games.
The main component of the kit is the 4 pane games masters’ screen. With the panes orientated landscape, the screen is low enough that a GM can comfortably look over while sitting, but will hide notes and dice rolls from players. With a double sized centre panel, you have plenty of width to work with, and don't feel cramped with a pile of notes.
The screen is made from tough card, like the cover to the Iron Kingdoms core book. This means that it will easily stay standing on its own, and even absorb dice impacts without moving. This isn't a 1990's White Wolf screen here!
The outer screen graphics are up to the normal excellent standards of Privateer Press. The double sized pane gives a great opportunity for some metal mangling action, and it doesn't disappoint. You can’t get much more of a representative view of the Iron Kingdoms than a heavy warjack fighting a bionic pig man over a crashed steam engine.
On the inner screen is the real meat of the product, with useful tables and charts for reference in game. While I haven’t road tested the screen, it contains everything I would need to reference quickly during a game. It also includes page references for sections if you want to look at the full rules, which is really handy. The text is a reasonable size, and laid out well, making it easy to read. Use of bold text and inverted text colour for headings means that you can quickly find what you are looking for.
Onto the extras. These vary from company to company, some offering an adventure, others a small booklet of GM related material that didn't make the cut into the core book. In this case there are couple of gaming aids to help run your game.
To start us off, there is a pad of 25 full colour character sheets, like the ones found in the core book. Next, there is a pad of 25 full colour encounter sheets, again like the ones found in the core book. There are also 10 laminated Character health trackers and 10 laminated initiative trackers.
For me, while gorgeous quality, I'm unlikely to ever use the character or encounter sheets. Not that there is anything wrong with them, but I tend to find character sheets get used and abused in a way that doesn’t warrant using better than a black and white printout. Also, the paper is slightly gloss, and I'd imagine writing in pencil may be more difficult, leading to problems when changes needed to be made. It would also make the encounter sheets only usable once. That being said, there is nothing wrong with them, just a matter of personal preference.
The laminated health and initiative trackers though, I will be making use of. The health tracker gives the player an easy way to track life or damage (in the case of a warjack) and their current Feat Points, without having to keep rubbing out a section of the character sheet. The Initiative Tracker card, not only gives the GM a place to record individual initiative scores, but also a character's stats and current Armour and Defense, so they don't need to refer back to the player as often. While not vital to running a game, it certainly makes tracking things much easier.
Finally, perhaps the more difficult aspect is the product’s value for money. At $27.99 rrp, it is actually more expensive than Urban Adventures, and is likely to see less use. Looking at previous GMs screens I’ve bought, it is certainly much better than the screens I have for the FFG 40K RPGs, and just as good as my Eclipse Phase screen. For me, the additional items don’t quite have as much worth as the adventures/GMs books that the other screens provided, but I’m willing to let that go.
If you intend to run a game of Iron Kingdoms, you can’t go wrong by picking up the screen. The information it provides alone makes it a must have, saving time leafing through the rule book. Consider it an investment if nothing else.
 |
| Iron Kingdoms Games Masters Tool Kit Contents |
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Looking Ahead–Tabletop Gaming
An attempt at a new start, I'm going to look forward into the new year and talk about some of the things that spark my interest. First up, gaming, primarily tabletop RPGs and war games
Top of my list has to be the new releases from Privateer Press. March sees the anticipated release of Gargantuans source book, where Hordes finally receive their furious counterparts to the Colossals. The previews are looking amazing, I can't wait for an excuse to buy a Mammoth and Archangel. The book promises to bring the Hordes factions closer in model choice to their Warmachine counterparts, and of course move the story forward
Coming next year as well will come further sourcebooks for the Iron Kingdoms RPG and a selection of novels set in the world. I’m a little nervous about the novels, as they are not written by regular PP fluff writers, but I hold out hope. If these go well, we might finally get the fiction anthology from the old rule books that people have been asking for.
2013 looks ready to see the return of a number of new editions of classic RPG lines. Onyx Path prepare to bring back Exalted in a brand new edition. I'm a long standing Exalted fan, but found 2nd edition just a little too broken for my liking. With an overhaul of the mechanics, this promises to be a new start for this game line.
The third 20th Anniversary deluxe edition of Classic World Of Darkness game lines will be Mage, and Vampire and Werewolf will all see further source books released to support their Anniversary editions. I’ve got my Werewolf Deluxe edition sorted, and will be backing Mage for the complete set. Not sure how many of the source books I’ll get, as like most people I have a large supporting collection already.
I’m also frustrated that most of these books will only be available on PoD via DrivethruRPG. While I understand the logic behind why they are publishing this way, I would like to support my LGS by buying from a shop.
Catalyst Labs promise us 5th Edition Shadowrun to celebrate the world surviving the end of the Mayan calendar. Shadowrun was my first RPG, but I have been disappointed with recent editions, or just maybe it's lost it's magic now we've caught up with the future. I'll keep an eye on this one, but it won't be on my purchase on release list.
Games Workshop continue their relentless release schedule as normal. While I'm out of the game, so to speak, I look forward to the pending Dark Angels release. I may even break my embargo on GW products to pick up a few of the models to include in my rather large and dust gathering army. If the rumour mill is correct 2013 will also see a plethora of new Tau releases, thus potentially being an expensive year!
Moving to a less mainstream game, we have been promised new releases to support Dropzone Commander. At the moment I am finding it tough to advance my forces with the limited selection of models available at the moment. Hopefully these releases will give me the tools I feel I need.
Top of my list has to be the new releases from Privateer Press. March sees the anticipated release of Gargantuans source book, where Hordes finally receive their furious counterparts to the Colossals. The previews are looking amazing, I can't wait for an excuse to buy a Mammoth and Archangel. The book promises to bring the Hordes factions closer in model choice to their Warmachine counterparts, and of course move the story forward
Coming next year as well will come further sourcebooks for the Iron Kingdoms RPG and a selection of novels set in the world. I’m a little nervous about the novels, as they are not written by regular PP fluff writers, but I hold out hope. If these go well, we might finally get the fiction anthology from the old rule books that people have been asking for.
2013 looks ready to see the return of a number of new editions of classic RPG lines. Onyx Path prepare to bring back Exalted in a brand new edition. I'm a long standing Exalted fan, but found 2nd edition just a little too broken for my liking. With an overhaul of the mechanics, this promises to be a new start for this game line.
The third 20th Anniversary deluxe edition of Classic World Of Darkness game lines will be Mage, and Vampire and Werewolf will all see further source books released to support their Anniversary editions. I’ve got my Werewolf Deluxe edition sorted, and will be backing Mage for the complete set. Not sure how many of the source books I’ll get, as like most people I have a large supporting collection already.
I’m also frustrated that most of these books will only be available on PoD via DrivethruRPG. While I understand the logic behind why they are publishing this way, I would like to support my LGS by buying from a shop.
Catalyst Labs promise us 5th Edition Shadowrun to celebrate the world surviving the end of the Mayan calendar. Shadowrun was my first RPG, but I have been disappointed with recent editions, or just maybe it's lost it's magic now we've caught up with the future. I'll keep an eye on this one, but it won't be on my purchase on release list.
Games Workshop continue their relentless release schedule as normal. While I'm out of the game, so to speak, I look forward to the pending Dark Angels release. I may even break my embargo on GW products to pick up a few of the models to include in my rather large and dust gathering army. If the rumour mill is correct 2013 will also see a plethora of new Tau releases, thus potentially being an expensive year!
Moving to a less mainstream game, we have been promised new releases to support Dropzone Commander. At the moment I am finding it tough to advance my forces with the limited selection of models available at the moment. Hopefully these releases will give me the tools I feel I need.
Monday, 22 October 2012
Iron Kingdoms RPG Review
It's been a while since I've had a new RPG to review since I've started becoming a lot more selective with my gaming purchases. That, and many of the lines I was buying have slowed down considerably! However, this one is well worth singing its praises.
I don't think it would shock anyone to say I'm a huge Iron Kingdoms fan. I bought the 2 of the original Warmachine battle boxes, despite not having anyone to play against at the time. With the exception of the Force Books for armies I don't play, I have all the rule books from Mk1 Prime. I even bought 2 of the original Hordes Battle Boxes when I still didn't have anyone to play against. (forever the optimist!)
The Iron Kingdoms though, didn't start off in the miniatures game. It originally existed as part of a adventure trilogy for 3rd Edition D&D published under the OGL. The Witchfire Trilogy was so popular that eventually a small RPG line was published alongside the emerging miniatures game. WHile the setting was good, unfortunatley the use of OGL D20 caused some issues meshing gameplay to player's expectations, especially once they saw what the equivilent unit in the miniatures game could do. While I did run the Witchfire Trilogy (its an awesome campaign BTW. Key moment in Iron Kingdoms history, great set peices and classic NPCs) the D20 rules held us back, and Gun Mages and anyone wanting to craft stuff was seriously disadvantaged.
When Privateer Press started work on Mark 2 Warmachine, they put a hold on the entire RPG line, promising to re-visit it with a new system once Mark 2 was up and running.
Roll on a couple of years, and we now have one of the best looking RPG books around.
With production values on par with the Warmachine/Hordes rule books (and light years beyond the original Iron Kingdoms Character Guide), the new Iron Kingdoms RPG is a full colour hardback book, weighing in at 340 pages.
Kicking off the book is an excellent section on the history of Western Immoren. Covering prehistory, all the way up to the "modern" day, this is a great introduction to the world. Much of this history has been covered in various of the miniature books, but it is well written and worth having in one place. Following swiftly afterwards is a section looking at aspects of Western Immoren as it stands, including magic, religion and Mechanika. These two sections total over 100 pages and gives even those completely new to the setting everything they need to know.
Character creation gives you the chance to get into the crunchy parts of the book. Building from a stat line that will look familiar to anyone who's played the miniature game, each character gets to pick a race, archetype and 2 careers to form the backbone of the character. The races feature all the options available in the original RPG, and cover just those living in Western Immoren, later books will open up options to play Skorne and some of the more exotic races. The careers are much like you would expect with classes key to the setting such as the Alchemist, Gunmage and Warcaster represented along with more generic, but equally important careers such as soldier and spy. With each character picking 2, it leads to much more variation and gives much more opportunities for creating interesting characters.
Each career seems balanced, with even the lowly Spy being able to bring something to the table when up against Warcasters and Gunmages.
The conflict resolution system is very similar to the miniatures game, with the combat and magic systems being a pretty straightforward port. While I don't find that a problem, some people may find the overly tactical combat system, which works better with miniatures, to be a problem. Certainly it would not take much to shift to a miniature-less combat, and there is a section in the back that covers this, but otherwise they expect models on the table.
One of the biggest flaws in the D20 version was always the crafting. In the setting, magical items are rare, with most "magical" items actually being Mechanika, a blend or magic and technology. However D20 could never handle this, and so you ended up with much of the fun classes (Alchemist and Arcane Mechanic) being hobbled and unable to be truly awesome. Thankfully the new book presents crafting in a manner that really fits with the setting, and allows crafting classes to be really useful.
My only real gripe is there is not enough in the book. Its a poor gripe, but a valid one, as there is so much crammed in, that some sections are much shorter than I'd have liked. The antagonists section feels especially small, but this is being supported via the No Quarter magazine (and excellent publication for Iron Kingdoms fans) and online. Given the scope of the setting, there is plenty of material and I look forward to an updated Monsternomicon.
Overall, the Iron Kingdoms RPG is an excellent successor to the D20 variant, and continues the tradition of excellent products that started all those years ago with the Witchfire Trilogy.
I don't think it would shock anyone to say I'm a huge Iron Kingdoms fan. I bought the 2 of the original Warmachine battle boxes, despite not having anyone to play against at the time. With the exception of the Force Books for armies I don't play, I have all the rule books from Mk1 Prime. I even bought 2 of the original Hordes Battle Boxes when I still didn't have anyone to play against. (forever the optimist!)
The Iron Kingdoms though, didn't start off in the miniatures game. It originally existed as part of a adventure trilogy for 3rd Edition D&D published under the OGL. The Witchfire Trilogy was so popular that eventually a small RPG line was published alongside the emerging miniatures game. WHile the setting was good, unfortunatley the use of OGL D20 caused some issues meshing gameplay to player's expectations, especially once they saw what the equivilent unit in the miniatures game could do. While I did run the Witchfire Trilogy (its an awesome campaign BTW. Key moment in Iron Kingdoms history, great set peices and classic NPCs) the D20 rules held us back, and Gun Mages and anyone wanting to craft stuff was seriously disadvantaged.
When Privateer Press started work on Mark 2 Warmachine, they put a hold on the entire RPG line, promising to re-visit it with a new system once Mark 2 was up and running.
Roll on a couple of years, and we now have one of the best looking RPG books around.
With production values on par with the Warmachine/Hordes rule books (and light years beyond the original Iron Kingdoms Character Guide), the new Iron Kingdoms RPG is a full colour hardback book, weighing in at 340 pages. Kicking off the book is an excellent section on the history of Western Immoren. Covering prehistory, all the way up to the "modern" day, this is a great introduction to the world. Much of this history has been covered in various of the miniature books, but it is well written and worth having in one place. Following swiftly afterwards is a section looking at aspects of Western Immoren as it stands, including magic, religion and Mechanika. These two sections total over 100 pages and gives even those completely new to the setting everything they need to know.
Character creation gives you the chance to get into the crunchy parts of the book. Building from a stat line that will look familiar to anyone who's played the miniature game, each character gets to pick a race, archetype and 2 careers to form the backbone of the character. The races feature all the options available in the original RPG, and cover just those living in Western Immoren, later books will open up options to play Skorne and some of the more exotic races. The careers are much like you would expect with classes key to the setting such as the Alchemist, Gunmage and Warcaster represented along with more generic, but equally important careers such as soldier and spy. With each character picking 2, it leads to much more variation and gives much more opportunities for creating interesting characters.
Each career seems balanced, with even the lowly Spy being able to bring something to the table when up against Warcasters and Gunmages.
The conflict resolution system is very similar to the miniatures game, with the combat and magic systems being a pretty straightforward port. While I don't find that a problem, some people may find the overly tactical combat system, which works better with miniatures, to be a problem. Certainly it would not take much to shift to a miniature-less combat, and there is a section in the back that covers this, but otherwise they expect models on the table.
One of the biggest flaws in the D20 version was always the crafting. In the setting, magical items are rare, with most "magical" items actually being Mechanika, a blend or magic and technology. However D20 could never handle this, and so you ended up with much of the fun classes (Alchemist and Arcane Mechanic) being hobbled and unable to be truly awesome. Thankfully the new book presents crafting in a manner that really fits with the setting, and allows crafting classes to be really useful.
My only real gripe is there is not enough in the book. Its a poor gripe, but a valid one, as there is so much crammed in, that some sections are much shorter than I'd have liked. The antagonists section feels especially small, but this is being supported via the No Quarter magazine (and excellent publication for Iron Kingdoms fans) and online. Given the scope of the setting, there is plenty of material and I look forward to an updated Monsternomicon.
Overall, the Iron Kingdoms RPG is an excellent successor to the D20 variant, and continues the tradition of excellent products that started all those years ago with the Witchfire Trilogy.
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Getting Started - 40k RPGs
There is nothing worse than being interested in starting a new RPG, but not know where to start. These days, most of us don't have the spare cash to risk buying a book that won't be useful to us.
So, I'm going to try and give you all an idea of the books to avoid, books that you must get, and those you can leave till later for Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader and Deathwatch.
So, I'm going to try and give you all an idea of the books to avoid, books that you must get, and those you can leave till later for Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader and Deathwatch.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
RPG Review: Pathfinder: Ultimate Magic
Time to get back into the swing of writing reviews for the RPG books I buy!
Review: Pathfinder Ultimate Magic
I've been a big fan of what Paizo have been doing with Pathfinder. While I don't buy the setting specific books, the basic core rules have all been excellent books, high quality and avoiding the rules bloat that afflicted 3.5 and seems to be continuing in 4th Edition.
Review: Pathfinder Ultimate Magic
I've been a big fan of what Paizo have been doing with Pathfinder. While I don't buy the setting specific books, the basic core rules have all been excellent books, high quality and avoiding the rules bloat that afflicted 3.5 and seems to be continuing in 4th Edition.
Sunday, 20 March 2011
20th Aniversary Vampire
On Thursday, White Wolf announced they were going to release a 20th Anniversary Edition of Vampire: The Masquerade. The book will be the ultimate rule book for VtM, containing all 13 clans and bloodlines, discipline powers from level one to level nine, full colour art work, updated rules, and an open playtest design where the fans can contribute to the final product.
This sounds amazing. The only problem, currently it is only being offered for sale to attendies of The Grand Masquerade event in Atlanta. While they have commented that it should be available to the rest of the world, they have yet to confirm it.
To me, this is one of the stupidest mistakes White Wolf could have made. Vampire the Masquerade is massively popular, despite there being no new books being printed for it since 2004 when they destroyed the world.
When it was first released Vampire the Masquerade was something new and something very different to the RPGs that were around at the time. It took from the horror of Cthulhu, the grit and edge that stylised the cyberpunk movement, let you play super-powered unearthly heroes, and it was very, very Gothic. V:tM helped push the idea of vampires out of the dark (so to speak) and made them anti-heroes. Without it the entire supernatural genre would simply not be the same.
To limit this 20th Anniversary Edition to those that can make it to Atlanta would be a travesty. I hope that White Wolf reconsider, and make it available via normal distribution methods. The day they announce that, I'll be putting in my pre-order!
This sounds amazing. The only problem, currently it is only being offered for sale to attendies of The Grand Masquerade event in Atlanta. While they have commented that it should be available to the rest of the world, they have yet to confirm it.
To me, this is one of the stupidest mistakes White Wolf could have made. Vampire the Masquerade is massively popular, despite there being no new books being printed for it since 2004 when they destroyed the world.
When it was first released Vampire the Masquerade was something new and something very different to the RPGs that were around at the time. It took from the horror of Cthulhu, the grit and edge that stylised the cyberpunk movement, let you play super-powered unearthly heroes, and it was very, very Gothic. V:tM helped push the idea of vampires out of the dark (so to speak) and made them anti-heroes. Without it the entire supernatural genre would simply not be the same.
To limit this 20th Anniversary Edition to those that can make it to Atlanta would be a travesty. I hope that White Wolf reconsider, and make it available via normal distribution methods. The day they announce that, I'll be putting in my pre-order!
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Dave's D&D Musings
For my next review I'll be looking at Pathfinder: Beastiary 2, however before that I thought I'd muse on Dungeons and Dragons, and my angle on it.
Unusually, I didn't start role playing with D&D. My first game was Shadowrun, and perhaps that's why my perceptions are rather different to others. In fact, to date, I don't own a core D&D book.
I knew of D&D, and even played 1 session, but my initial perceptions were not overly favourable. The class system felt way too controlling after coming from an open game like Shadowrun, and the fact that my rogue couldn't seem to hit anything, and when he did never managed to do more than 2 points of damage, kinda put me off! So, I was playing Shadowrun and Legend of the Five Rings, with a bit of old World of Darkness.
I got a better look at D&D when 3rd Edition was released, but I never really had an opportunity to play in a decent game, so my perceptions were coloured by what I could read about it. It bemused me that Spot, Listen and Search were different skills. Surely just because I'm a rogue does not mean my eyesight is amazing, but I have poor hearing. Why do I have to kill things to get XP? I have these social skills, why can't I just ask them to give me the gold rather than killing them.
It was oddities like that, that stopped me persuing D&D any further. I was quite happy with the other games I was playing, and branching out into more oWoD and looking forward to Exalted. D&D just wasn't a game that inspired me.
It wasn't until my 3rd year at Uni did I take an opportunity to play in a D&D campaign. Starting off during a pause in my Exalted campaign this was my first good look at D&D 3.5 from a player's point of view.
If this was a fictional story, this would be the point where I changed my mind and became the world's biggest D&D fan. I'm sorry to say that didn't happen. But, I got a much better appreciation for it than before. Sure, most of my issues with the system still existed, and given the stupid number of books that were around I wasn't about to go and buy into it, but I was willing to give associated systems ago.
So, when it was released I got Arcana Evolved, and I was ok with the Iron Kingdoms RPG being D20 based.
When 4th Edition was announced, I wasn't taken with what I saw, but Pathfinder, for some reason, I didn't mind. It has fixed some of the odd things (finally a Perception skill) and with so many less books to worry about, I was willing to buy into it. All in all, I've been very happy with the books so far, and am even trying to convert Iron Kingdoms to Pathfinder.
Perhaps I have a problem when the setting doesn't grab me. None of the existing settings for D&D have really held my interest. However Arcana Evolved and Iron Kingdoms both have interesting settings behind them. Hell, I've got RPGs that I might never run, simply because I love the setting.
So, that's my little bit of musing.
Unusually, I didn't start role playing with D&D. My first game was Shadowrun, and perhaps that's why my perceptions are rather different to others. In fact, to date, I don't own a core D&D book.
I knew of D&D, and even played 1 session, but my initial perceptions were not overly favourable. The class system felt way too controlling after coming from an open game like Shadowrun, and the fact that my rogue couldn't seem to hit anything, and when he did never managed to do more than 2 points of damage, kinda put me off! So, I was playing Shadowrun and Legend of the Five Rings, with a bit of old World of Darkness.
I got a better look at D&D when 3rd Edition was released, but I never really had an opportunity to play in a decent game, so my perceptions were coloured by what I could read about it. It bemused me that Spot, Listen and Search were different skills. Surely just because I'm a rogue does not mean my eyesight is amazing, but I have poor hearing. Why do I have to kill things to get XP? I have these social skills, why can't I just ask them to give me the gold rather than killing them.
It was oddities like that, that stopped me persuing D&D any further. I was quite happy with the other games I was playing, and branching out into more oWoD and looking forward to Exalted. D&D just wasn't a game that inspired me.
It wasn't until my 3rd year at Uni did I take an opportunity to play in a D&D campaign. Starting off during a pause in my Exalted campaign this was my first good look at D&D 3.5 from a player's point of view.
If this was a fictional story, this would be the point where I changed my mind and became the world's biggest D&D fan. I'm sorry to say that didn't happen. But, I got a much better appreciation for it than before. Sure, most of my issues with the system still existed, and given the stupid number of books that were around I wasn't about to go and buy into it, but I was willing to give associated systems ago.
So, when it was released I got Arcana Evolved, and I was ok with the Iron Kingdoms RPG being D20 based.
When 4th Edition was announced, I wasn't taken with what I saw, but Pathfinder, for some reason, I didn't mind. It has fixed some of the odd things (finally a Perception skill) and with so many less books to worry about, I was willing to buy into it. All in all, I've been very happy with the books so far, and am even trying to convert Iron Kingdoms to Pathfinder.
Perhaps I have a problem when the setting doesn't grab me. None of the existing settings for D&D have really held my interest. However Arcana Evolved and Iron Kingdoms both have interesting settings behind them. Hell, I've got RPGs that I might never run, simply because I love the setting.
So, that's my little bit of musing.
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