It looks like the long-awaited IKWG will be a little while more in the waiting. Originally the contents of this book were slated to be included with the IKCG, but there was just too much content, so they had to split it in two. This followup to the IKCG will include more of the nitty-gritty details about living in the Iron Kingdoms, as opposed to the game mechanisms needed to run a game there. Sections are expected to be included for each of the major cities in Western Immorren, including more that just a simply statblock of population sizes, wealth, and major industries. We can expect to find an awful lot of fluffy goodness in here.

Privateer Press announced today that they expect to have this out in March of 2005, the most specific promise-date we’ve seen since the original IKCG project was split. The sticker price on this should be around USD$39.95, but if it’s half as good as I expect it to be, it’ll be worth twice that. A smallish mock-up of the cover art is available on the Privateers’ site.

Sometimes you come across a really good explanation for why something is the way it is in a given campaign setting. On the subject of flying machines in the Iron Kingdoms, we are given further evidence that the Privateer Press writers know what they’re doing:

This question comes up a lot. There are a few hot air balloons in the Iron Kingdoms, mostly as a toy for the very wealthy. You can only go up and down in them. They aren’t dirigible. When Vinter Raelthorne made his escape in a hot air balloon, he went into the Bloodstone Marches because that is where the wind took him. He certainly didn’t want to go there (but it worked out to his advantage when he did).

One out of game reason why there aren’t any aircraft in the IK is lighter-than-air dirigibles and sleek and aerodynamic aerostats go against the heavy, bulky, ironclad imagery that forms the core of the Iron Kingdoms setting. Another out of game reason is that it makes rapid transportation possible outside of preset travel routes. If you want to get from Caspia to Corvis in a hurry in the current setting, you take the train to Bainsmarket (passing through Steelwater Flats and Fharin and many other little towns on the way) and then cut through a pass in the Dragonspine Peaks (passing the Tomb of Lost Souls on the way) to the river and then take a boat down stream to Corvis. With an airplane, you would take off from Caspia and land in Corvis and totally avoid any interesting scenery or encounters. Airplanes pretty much negate geography.

An in-game reason for the lack of aircraft is that no one has developed any. No one wants to break the surly bonds of earth and touch the face of god when that god is Lord Toruk or one of his children. In the real world, we only have to worry about hitting a flock of geese or something. In the Iron Kingdoms, there are big flying monsters who will have the home field advantage. An early airplane would be completely out maneuvered and outclassed by any flying creature. And most flying monsters are predatory and would likely attack a flying intruder into their domain.

After much waiting, tearing of cloth, and gnashing of teeth, Privateer Press really did manage to get the IKCG written, printed, shipped, and into my happy little hands. This was a couple of weeks ago now, and I’ve had some time to thumb through everything two or three times, so here we go:

First off, it’s huge. While the artwork is excellent, it doesn’t pad out the book as much as one might expect. There really is 400 pages worth of material in there. Secondly, it is chock-full of Iron Kingdoms. If you aren’t familiar with the Iron Kingdoms, it is a “Full Metal Fantasy” setting, by which it is meant that the setting combines an era of technological innovation and arcane development that are progressing hand-in-hand. This means 400 pages of flavor, a handful of new classes including the Bodger, Gunmage, and Arcane Mechanik, and lots and lots and lots of new rules that further bolster the flavor of the setting.
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