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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At long, long last Privateer Press is reporting that not only is the IKCG written, edited, laid-out, printed, proofed, re-printed, and shipped. It has also been received by distributors. Keenly aware that they have a PR problem with the severe delays in releasing this product, they had the excellent taste to display the following on their main page:

Flying pigs spotted off the coast of Washington!
[7/20/04 19:28 GMT]
First reports have started popping up of distributors receiving the Iron Kingdoms Character Guide! We have seen the reprinted sections of the book, and though the additional delay was inconvenient, we are quite happy with the decision to fix the sections that were too dark. The book finally is real, and should be in stores within the next week or sooner…

Note that I’m not holding my breath yet, but I’ll probably feel a little less pessimistic when I head by my FLGS on Friday to pester the staff about whether UPS has shown up yet.

It’s out. Or so they say. Sure, the IKCG showed up at Origins this week, but could it be that Privateer Press has actually managed to write edit, lay-out, proof, print and ship the dang thing for general consumption. Well, that’s what they’d have us think:

The wait is coming to a close, the ulcers are beginning to heal, and the Iron Kingdoms Character Guide is SHIPPING. It’s printed. It’s finished. It’s being packed into boxes, taped shut, slapped with packing slips, and loaded onto trucks.

Heck, they even put out a third preview complete with the forward by Joe Martin, Editor-in-Chief and all-around nice guy.

Unfortunately, my local gaming store doesn’t reserve copies, so I may have to resort to violence when their normal shipment arrives this coming Wednesday. I swear I won’t be responsible for my actions if it is sold out by the time I show up on my lunch break…

The folks at 3rdedition.org managed to shoehorn themselves into the headquarters of Privateer Press and manhandled Matt Wilson into giving them a tour of the facilities. Check out the full article for their take on the good ship Privateer. Now if only somebody that’s going to Origins would be so kind as to pick me up an IKCG and mail it back to me…

The Privateers are at it again. Having shipped the IKCG to the printers back in May, the crew of Privateer Press have decided to wave pages of their long-awaited tome under our noses. Last week we were given glimpses of several sections, and this week we get even more.

The second preview contains a lot of juicy goodness:

1. A fraction of the explanation of the Morrowan Calendar, including major feastdays and the origins of month names.
2. The the Cleric class entry and the beginning of the Druid entry.
3. A snippet of item descriptions for miscellaneous equipment.
4. The tail end of the description of the god Menoth, and the beginning of Dhunia’s entry. Information regarding the origin of Menoth is especially tastey. We also see that Dhunia has four brand-spanking-new clerical domains, one for each season.
5. A pageful of alchemical healing items. A couple of them look at lot like what my players have been relying on in my Falconbridge campaign. Volden Mirsk would be proud. My version is a lot more potent and I have made them much more affordable, but I tend to run low-money games, so I suppose it fits. Nothing listed for alchemical goods is what I would normally consider a good bargain.
6. An appendix of clerical titles (Priest, Chaplain, Battle Chaplain, Rector, et cetera).

Overall, this provides a pleasant combination of fluff and crunchy rules-stuff. I was seriously concerned, when the IKCG and the IKWG were split apart from the original IKCG project, that we’d get a whole bunch of new rules in the first book, and all the excellent Iron Kingdoms fluff in the second book. I recognize that more people are looking for crunchy rules than fluffy background information, but I’m glad that it at least looks like they’re putting in a solid effort to achieve a balance.

The IKCG is at the printers as of this past Thursday, and after a night or two of joyous celebration, the Privateer Press folks have released an official IKCG Preview. This is differentiated from the various “sneak peeks” we’ve been given in the past in that

1. It shows the actual version that is being printed, not a draft subject to changes
2. There is a rather broad cross-section of content, ranging from descriptions of the Midlunder ethnicity, to the beginning of a multiple-page entry regarding Iosan Mage Hunters, to descriptions of Wurmist Cults, to rules regarding the creation of Mechanikal magic items
3. It is in the form of permanent content on the Privateer Press webpage instead of simply an entry in the “From the EIC‘s Desk” section, which I’ve always perceived as temporary.

It looks like their server has fallen over, so I am putting up a temporary mirror of the IKCG Preview PDF file. Download a single copy of it to your hard drive for posterity. It’ll be a few weeks before the finished product actually hits the shelves, so this will have to tide you over.

Here’s a direct link to the IKCG Preview. It looks like their name servers had issues earlier today, so who knows if the link will be working…

The fine folks at Privateer Press have the IKCG in layout now, and have decided to consolidate all their past Behind the Iron Curtain entries and give us an eighth sneak peek at the contents of this long-awaited tome of RPG goodness. This time we get snippets of the descriptive text for the various races and ethnicities of Immoren. Caspian, Sulese, Kossite, Dwarf, and Ogrun are covered, each getting several paragraphs accompanied by Brian Snoddy’s excellect artwork. The following is from the entry on Kossites:

“In the khurzic tongue, ‘kos’ means ‘wolf.’ Indeed, like ravenous wolves, the Kossites once stalked and raided throughout the north, but by the time they decided to move southward, the Khards were already firmly entrenched. At first, they dealt with one another harshly, pillaging, plundering, and burning one another’s settlements, but after decades of violence, the Kossite chiefs opted it was more lucrative to make an alliance–actually they pledged fealty–and be united with what was an even more numerous tribe. The Kossites immediately took to the partnership with delight, leading many of the Khardic charges against their shared enemies, and before long, they were accepted as mighty “wolf-brothers” by the roving horselords….”