Due to the “sinking” effect that is ever-so-common in Corvis, most construction projects on “bare ground” (often the rooftops of sunken structures) begins with the introduction of large steel posts, driven into the soft earth with the assistance of industrial steamjacks (the local masons have a longstanding relationship with the Steamworker’s Union).

Once the piledriving is completed, a two-foot layer of impermeable clay is laid down to seal off the future basement of the new structure. This basement is typically built above “ground level” and thoroughly sealed against water intrusion (even the Cygnaran Public Works Department’s massive pumps are no guarantee against flood damage, after all). Older structures used pitch for this purpose, but some of the high-end construction projects over the past 100 years or so have taken advantages of certain alchemical compounds developed originally for sealing water leaks in steamworks.

Over the centuries, this has resulted in an irregular pattern of impermeable strata at various depths throughout the city, and structures have sunk despite the best efforts of Cygnar’s best and brightest architects and engineers. As the canal system has been built, rebuilt, redirected, and repaired, there have been no less than twenty serviceable tunnels discovered that actually pass beneath the canals, with only minor leakage from above. Criminal elements such as the Gertens Family have made use of such tunnels for years now for use in evading the Watch for smuggling and kidnapping operations.

Entrances to known tunnels of this nature are under observation at all times by a group of operatives for the Crown for use by King Leto’s intelligence network. The Town Watch is officially unaware of their presence, though Captain Helstrom has made beneficial use of them on a number of occasions.

Healing potions are a cornerstone of D&D and have been since the 1970s when the game was first produced. They allow a battered party to refresh themselves and press on during an adventure when the Cleric is pressed for spells. In parties lacking the healing prowess of a Cleric (or even a Druid, Bard, or Paladin, for that matter), healing potions are an essential safety-net that makes the inherent risks of dungeon-crawling, treasure-seeking, swash-buckling, and evil-vanquishing more feasible.

The Iron Kingdoms campaign world is rich in Clerical tradition, and its priests and Paladins are afforded great respect everywhere you go in Western Immoren. However, the responsibilities of a Cleric of Morrow or Menoth are many and varied, and an adventuring party cannot always avail of one to accompany them in their travels (or perhaps their quest is contrary to the goals of the local church). Traditionally any magic potion in D&D is effectively a spell-effect in liquid form (this doesn’t hold true with a handful of special-use potions, but is generally the case). Healing potions traditionally act as a Cure Light Wounds, Cure Serious Wounds, or directly analogous spell taken orally. A potion is made by somebody with adequate class levels to cast the given spell.

But since when did a Morrowan Chaplain have time to brew up magical soft-drinks for sale from behind the pulpit? The demand for anything greater than a Potion of Cure Light Wounds is likely extremely small, and would likely be the only ones available without custom-ordering them for a hefty “donation” to the church in question. So where does an intrepid adventurer go to get his over-the-counter meds?

The alchemist. That’s right, I propose the introduction of alchemical healing potions. As with other health-influencing alchemical substances (namely poisons), these will be available for purchase in any major city wealthy enough to support a well-trained apothecary. Unlike magical healing potions, which literally contain a divine spell effect, alchemical healing potions are slow-acting and inexpensive. But they have side effects. In my upcoming Iron Kingdoms campaign (in which I will finally act as DM in this setting), alchemical healing potions will be available and have the following characteristics:

1. Upon consumption, roughly 1/3rd of the potion’s benefit will kick in
2. As with a poison, one minute (10 rounds) after consumption, the imbiber of the potion will wil subject to a Fortitude save against poison. Difficulty varies with the potency of the item.
3. If the Fortitude save is unsuccessful, a negative side effect will kick in (as a poison effect) affecting Constitution, Intelligence, and/or Wisdom. Which attribute is affected, and the amount of ability damage done will vary depending upon the strength of the item. Ability damage from multiple potions is cumulative.
4. Regardless of the outcome of the Fortitude save, the remaining 2/3rds of the potion benefit kicks in immediately after the saving throw.

An example would be a Alchemical Healing Potion, which cures for 1d4+1 / DC12(Wis 1) 2d4+2, market price 50 Crowns. This potion is, in the long-haul, more valuable than a Potion of Cure Light Wounds (which heals for 1d8+1 hit points as opposed to 3d4+3) but takes 10 rounds for full effect, with the possibility of 1 wisdom damage.

Matt Wilson, the captain of the good ship Privateer Press has made some recent gestures for the Iron Kingdoms fanbase late last week. In addition to some rather substantial contributions to the Iron Kingdoms Yahoo Group, he has pledged to place some more emphasis on keeping the ever-hungering IK fanbase sated through more frequent web updates.

His sacrificial offering before the rabid hordes of fandom is an early peek at the Gunmage character class. From earlier readings of WARMACHINE: Prime, I had guessed that the Gunmage would be a prestige class available for Cygnaran wizarsd, under the tutelage of the Fraternal Order of Wizardry (in conjunction with the Cygnar royal armed forces). This appears to be one of the minor differances between the d20 system Iron Kingdoms and the miniatures/skirmishing game. All is well however. The Gunmage information made available yesterday on the Iron Kingdoms website includes everything there is to know about the new class, with the notable exceptions of the spell list and the stats on their fabled magelock pistols. These stats will be available within the week, per Captain Wilson.

The new class is interesting in that is appears to have rather limited arcane spellcasting ability (how limited depends upon the spell list, of course), that basically acts as a very specialized Sorceror. They have Simple weapons and pistol proficiency, d6 hit points, two favorable saving throw progressions, and a rather poor amount of skill points per level. Their pistol-related class abilities are about as cool as it gets, though: this is definately a great “tough & cool” character class. If you want to make a PC that swaggers through town like his owns the place, smacks down fools that run off at the mouth at him, and generally oozes pimpness from every pore, the Gunmage may be worth a go. They will also make a great NPC class in urban encounters for player character parties who have self-confidence disproportionate to their abilities.

I know that the publishing world isn’t a democracy, but some thoughts about the IKCG sneak peek have been percolating in my head since I first read it:

1. The book will be starting on what is, for me, a low point: character creation excesses. By this I mean there will be additional Prestige Classes, variant class versions (such as the Fellcaller adaptation of the Bard class) and my personal favorite, more feats. Prestige Classes and additional feats have padded d20 material since the inception of the OGL, and I can only hope that the folks at Privateer Press were able to keep it in their pants.

   Considering that the Lock & Load Character Primer already details much of the Iron Kingdoms variations from D&D canon, so this section should be mercifully brief.

2. The second section is to be a “tour of Western Immoren,” exactly the kind of information a Campaign Guide needs. They promise “everything a manky git should know…” about a variety of places and ethnicities of the IK. I very much look forward to this content, as this is the kind of data a DM really needs in a pre-fab gameworld. Without information such as this, why run another person’s campaign setting at all?

3. Continuing on this line, the third section entails daily life in the Iron Kingdoms. I am a bit concerned that this will ammount to a big equipment listing, but every campaign setting has a place for such things. If this turns out to be 30 pages of equipment tables, I certainly hope that it is exhaustive and I won’t have to go flipping through multiple books to determine the market price of a Scimitar vs. a Greatsword vs. a Military Pistol.

4. The fourth section again is a great cause for hope: details on the Enkheiridion, creation myths, and other religious details that’ll make running a Cleric more productive (both from a roleplaying and a roll-playing perspective). In the Iron Kingdoms game I presently participate in, the details of Morrowan religious observation are possibly the biggest hangup around.

   I just hope that Cyriss doesn’t get shorted. I see that cult as having huge possibilities.

5. Additional information about Cryx, Rhul, and Ios will be welcome additions, and more details about each individual kingdom will be in there. Just some basic information about the political structures of Khador, Ord, Llael, and Cygnar will be very welcome. Although direct participation in political mischeif may not be every player’s cup of tea, it is always good to have a firm understanding of the foundations of whatever the current political (and thereby military) situation is.

   Good info on the Protectorate of Menoth, Cryx, Cygnar, and Khador can be found in the Warmachine: Prime book as they relate to purely military matters, though some interesting insight can be found in Cygnar’s political structure there as well. Though as a rule I don’t care for lots of repetition between sourcebooks, I look forward to the IKCG having a solid, coherant picture of each kingdom and Western Immoren as a whole.

6. Then they will be moving on to History. If you don’t know where you’ve been, you’ll have a heck of a time telling where you’re going. A good grounding in what lead to what over the years can provide additional insight into the mindset of typical NPCs from most areas (you’ll never understand how the French and English feel about each other without some solid history lessons, and it probably holds true in the IK as well).

   I fear that if equipment, feats, and prestige classes are out of hand elsewhere in this book, the history is most likely to receive the brown end of the stick.

7. The book will wrap up with the part I’ve really been waiting for before launching my own Iron Kingdoms campaign: Magic. I don’t particularly care about the 20 new clerical domains, 15 tweaked domains, and so forth: unless they’ve really pulled a rabbit out of their collective hat I’ll read that part last after a quick skim

   The real meat of the magic changes that I look forward to revolve around how, at least among Humans, arcane magic is new and in serveral ways untested. Knowledge of an Astral or Ethereal plane are non-existant (there may not even be such things, but no mortal knows). Planar travel is limited to a generally-accepted one-way trip to Urcaen (upon death, no return flights available). How severely do the Privateers think this should affect arcane spells? How do summoning spells work? Has any wizard even bothered creating the “dimensional anchor” spell? Do Gates, Dimension Door, or Teleport work? How about Blink? Inquiring minds want to know.

   Additionally, we’ve been told that magic item creation is a bit more difficult in the IK than other gameworlds, but have had no hard and fast rules to rely upon. The addition of mechanikal elements supposedly facilitates the process, and we’ll finally have some more complete explanations and guidelines to this effect. I personally envision of a more magic-poor realm than that depicted in Warmachine (I figure some dramatic liscense was in order for a tactical wargame), but having some solid guidelines for when a character wants to “trick out” his rifle or whatnaught would come in handy.

Overall I’m quite looking forward to this book, and will certainly be purchasing a copy for myself. With no solid assurances that this 300+ page tome will have its content properly distributed (light on feats, heavy on campaing setting), and with no solid credibility in the publication timeline (they’re only human, but it is about 2 years overdue now), I see this as a great opportunity for Privateer Press to really come into its own, and with our support, they may be able to quit their day jobs.

The kind folks over at Privateer Press are at it again, teasing and tantalizing me. This time it comes in the form of a rather juicy web rework for their main site, complete with tidbits of information of the long-anticipated Iron Kingdoms Campaign Guide.

Apparently amongst such problems as routine editorial reworks and a pen-arm injury for their lead artist (Brian Snoddy, if I haven’t mentioned it before, is a badass), they’re also trying for D&D 3.5 compliance. Luckily they didn’t announce this two weeks ago, or I may have been rather upset with them. As you would know if you’ve been reading Dragon Magazine or rapid fanboy sites (I suppose this qualifies), there are some rather serious game-mechanism changes happening in 3.5, not all of which I am excited about. However, my generous employer is buying me the 3.5 rulebooks now, no money out of pocket, so I won’t have to blame the PP crew for forcing me to shell out $60.00+ for a new ruleset. I’ll already have had the new core rules for several months by the time IKCG comes out.

Speaking of which, there is additional information now available that projects a release this fall (“…we expect to be sending the book to press near the end of the summer, and shipping it shortly after that…” per their site yesterday). This should give my DM plenty of time to kill us off before I restart my Temple of Elemental Evil campaign. Work progresses, slowly, on the Iron Kingdoms conversion of that particular mega-adventure, along with ample samplings from the Lock & Load Character Primer, the Monsternomicon, and the Book of Vile Darkness. We’ll see how well some of my editorial decisions mesh with the new 3.5 ruleset and the IKCG. Only time will tell, as I keep saying.

I picked up the Warmachine Prime book this past Wednesday, and have been greedily reading through it ever since. It’s a miniatures combat game, so it isn’t exactly my bag (I’ve tinkered with Blood Bowl and play an occasional game of Zombies from time to time, though). Being a non-Warhammer player, my views of this game are largely unhindered by comparisons with the Games Workshop money-making behemoth. The game itself isn’t why I purchased it. I got my grubby little hands on Prime just for the background info.

Background information covered in Prime that isn’t addressed in previous Privateer Press offerings includes more information on the nature of the Orgoth occupation, additional insights regarding the interaction between Menites and Morrowans in Cygnar and elsewhere, and additional information regarding the histories of the four major powers. Naturally, most of this information is of a military nature, and may never apply to your D&D game.
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The Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil is a notoriously large adventure for 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons. It revolves around an effort by depraved cultists of the ancient god Tharizdun trying to bring about the destruction of the world. Heroes interested in stopping this group (or even finding out what they’re up to) are faced with a number of adventuring locations, including a ruined temple (the broken down old Temple of Elemental Evil of yore), and ruined moathouse, a ghost town, a thriving small city, a run-down old mining town, and a 200+ room volcano-top dungeon filled with literally hundreds of baddies.

The module itself is quite well laid out, including a reasonably in-depth explanation of what all is going on at each location, and even going so far as to provide tactics that some of the baddies will use against a party of adventurers. It is also set in Oerth, the world of Grayhawk. That is all well and good, but personally I prefer the Iron Kingdoms.

Because the premise of this adventure, which can be reasonably expected to take a party of four 4th level characters all the way to 13th or 14th level before they’re done, revolves around a religious cult bent on global destruction, this poses a bit of a problem for a DM that wants to plug it into the IK: there are no IK Deities that fit the bill smoothly. Let’s take a look.
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The game word of the Iron Kingdoms includes a pantheon that is in some ways unusual for a Dungeons & Dragons high fantasy environment. This is no great suprise, as the Iron Kingdoms is a significantly unusual D&D campaign setting.

In the similarities column, you’ve got some old standbys: Dwarves and Elves have separate pantheons and religious traditions entirely. The Dwarves revere the literal founders of their race, the Stone Fathers, which the Elves have their own mysterious religious tradition (they don’t like to talk about it).

Humans have yet another pantheon, unrelated to the Elves and Dwarves (we’re still in “similar to other campaigns” mode here). The uncivilized humanoids of the world have yet another religious tradition, and there is your obligatory Dragon Cult.
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It’s up, Errata for the new Lock & Load book from Privateer Press.

This includes a number of minor detail fixes (kudos on some excellent attention to detail, folks!) as well as the ethnicities map for the Southern region. It only took them a month, and it has every mistake I thought I saw fixed, which is only 1/10th of what they fixed.

There’s more conversation going on about the evils of the very existance of the Ranger class in D&D. You know, the class that has the hit points and attack bonus of fighters, the woodland kung-fu of a druid, and a reasonable number of skills. Oh yeah, and spells. And Spot as a class skill. Did I mention they get Two-Weapon Fighting?

Well, not in the Iron Kingdoms, they don’t. Let’s play the comparrison game, shall we?
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