Things you never thought you’d want to know about the Iron Kingdoms:
![[the signing of the Corvis Treaties]](/jdf/images/corvis_treaties_64.gif)
I suppose we didn’t really expect to get the IKCG in April of this year, though there was talk of it being sent to the printers “for April.” This is now being interpreted as meaning that the printers should have everything by May, will subsequently print it, and it will hit the streets by some time in… 2043. In a continuing effort to keep the decreasingly-rabid fanbase interest piqued, the folks at Privateer Press have released another peek Behind the Iron Curtain. This time we get a rather neato grayscale image (presumably from the book) and some historical information about the tenative peace between Cygnar, Llael, Ord, and Khador (the Iron Kingdoms proper).
This version of the Iron Kingdoms history varies a bit from my previous understanding of things (as it implies that the Protectorate of Menoth, the Scharde Islands, Rhul, and Ios were signatories to the treaty). Older history info implied that the Corvis Treaties were specifically crafted to ensure an end to hostilities between the four human counties on the continent (the Protectorate did not yet exist, and Rhul and Ios simply weren’t involved). Perhaps it’s just some tricky wording in the second sentence throwing me for a loop.
File under “I’m a lazy DM…” Our buddies at WotC have been putting out a map a week for those of us who are work-ethic-challenged. Many people, myself included, like to be nice and prepared, with relevant statistics for NPCs, notes on general plot flow, and bookmarks for quick rules-referencing. However, toiling away with a pencil and graph paper is time consuming, and compter-assisted cartography software has a bit of a learning curve before you can generate quality output. The Map a Week feature has been a godsend for such lazy DMs. Now we’re taking things a bit further.
Can’t be bothered to draw your own maps? Don’t want to use paper and toner? Don’t have a printer handy? Check out the upcoming Map Folio supplement, complete with what are tauted to be high-quality one-page prints of general-purpose duneon, stronghold, building, and town maps. I may not be motivated enough by my own sense of slack to dish out money for 32 maps, color or otherwise, but I’m sure there will be a lot of folks who will truely appreciate this stuff.
It looks like WotC is at it again, working hard to make my D&D articles less relevant. After all the hard work I put into my Milking the Sneak Attack article back in September, they have posted a Rule of the Game article named “All about Sneak Attack.” In it, the able and competant Skip Williams begins to demystify the Sneak Attack class ability, when it applies, when it doesn’t, and how to go about using it. So far there is only one article in what appears to be a series, but this more authoritative look at the rules authored by one of the co-creators of D&D 3.0 and published under the auspices of Wizards of the Coast will likely serve to marginalize the trickle of D&D-related search engine traffic to this site even more. Good. Keep up the good work, folks!
Privateer Press has intensified its keeping-the-customers-tantalized campaign, and appears now to be making good on EIC Joe Martin’s promise to give us glimpses of the upcoming Iron Kingdoms Character Guide and Iron Kingdoms World Guide until such time as they are actually printed and distributed. The most recent installment includes a look at the names and prerequisites of new feats, as well as a chart of class skills for classes unique to the Iron Kingdoms. This is, I must admit, exactly the kind of information that doesn’t terribly interest me, but it is good to see that real progress is actually being made. I look forward to the next installment of the “Behind the Iron Curtain” articles.
It looks like the fine folks at WotC have a clear understanding of what people find confusing about their ruleset. In what I must say is a far more exhaustive and clearminded article Does it Stack? they take the same look at bonuses and penalties that I took in Stacking – Types of Bonuses a year ago. They have released three installments so far, and if you don’t get the point by the end of part two, well… There’s more.
File under “be careful what you wish for.”
Matt Wilson from Privateer Press recently announced that the IKCG will likely hit the streets in April of 2004. We’ve heard things like this before, and the IKCG has been notoriously over-delayed by a variety of factors before. Not the least of these factors was the sheer volume of material that the PP crew came up with. They were shooting for a 300-page resource to help players and DMs immerse themselves into the Iron Kingdoms. Instead the project snowballed into 700 pages of art, rules, and flavor, of which they were loathe to drop… anything.
So here’s the mixed blessing: Instead of a single 300-page IKCG with a bunch of savage cuts to flavor and rules, we’re going to be getting two hefty tomes instead, an IKCG in April full of crunchy rules, prestige classes, feats, spells, and equipment, and an IKWG released sometime later full of fluffy historical, religious, cultural, and regional information. I have mixed feelings about this, as I was hoping for more fluff sooner than later, but I suppose this is better than perfectly good setting information ending up on the cutting-room floor, eh?
Vasyr continues his journal on the long, cold road to Falconbridge.
Day broke on 14th day of our journey, we had hunkered down after
circling the wagons and covering the horses with all extra blankets.
The Glacier Wolf (Klar) began to lead us through morning, with the rest
of us riding comfortably in the carriages. This lasted until midday
when the horses started to succumb to the cold. We stopped and set up
camp and did our best to warm the horses. At least we have crested the
pass.
Another entry from the journal of Vasyr Zietsev, a Kossite Ranger that has recently found gainful employment. Again, the text is Vasyr’s not my own. Perhaps he can shed some light as to what a “liege of Winterguard” consists of? “A bit of frostbite” may be an understatement, as one member of his party was brought to unconciousness by the Khador’s winter on the first day of the blizzard. More entries will be posted as they are made available to me.
From the diary of Vasyr Zietsev, Khadoran Ranger:
Klar, Alric, and I are hanging out Ohk looking for work, nothing found
– but I did get a letter from Fyodor. I haven’t seen that brainiac
freak since he left our village for Unie. He arrived by train on his
way to Falconbridge to set up some sort of study of fury woodland
creatures’ mating habits, or some such.Fyodor found a way to piss of some sort of Khard barbarian stepping off
the train. I gave almost as good as got, but dam that vinegar smelling
son of a Caspian hit hard. When I awoke we were on the way to then bar
on Fyodor’s jink.
It turned out that Fyodor was not much better off than us, he was
waiting on a grant for some jink, and he had to get his camp set up and
send back some results to the Unie before he would see a horn of the
grant.After a tip or two good fortune found us, “M” be praised. Volden a
local alchemist found himself needing some day labor to get his goods
ready for an over land to Falconbridge, and found himself also needing
some caravan guards and the use of a good scout.We loaded up a cart and a couple makeshift coaches with all of
Volden’s goods for the trip. Good thing we got his goods out of that
warehouse, the rats were huge and had built a small city in the stored
crates there. They weren’t much of an issue for a bunch o’ lads just
out of the Winterguard though.After getting the carts loaded we waited for Volden Mirsk to show and
lead us to a place to stay in town, before taking off at dawn. I
caught a Caspian swine lifting Fyodor’s purse. That joker had a bundle
of jink in that purse – idiot savant I guess. I tracked down the rogue
and gave him a bit of what for, after Klar slowed him down with a bit
of a long-range bowshot. The dirty Caspian gave me back the purse
after he realized the beating that was about to be finished off on him
– Fyodor had come to help, but managed to fall down a hole before
combat.We spent the night at Volden’s old flat with his delightful daughter
Tatyana. We look forward to leaving in the morning.
All misspellings are Vasyr’s, not my own. I will be posting future entries as they are made available to me. Everything here is completely player-knowledge, and does not necessarily reflect what is really going on. The pickpocke, for example, was a Midlunder. But what’s the difference to a backwoods Kossite like Vasyr, eh?