Category Archives: DnD

IKWG at the Printers

[Iron Kingdoms World Guide]True to earlier forecasts of the IKWG being available around March of this year, Privateer Press has announced that they’ve sent the final layouts to the printshop. The new sourcebook and companion to last year’s IKCG includes the following long-awaited features:

  • Full Color Detailed Map of the Iron Kingdoms
  • Resources and Industry Maps for All Regions
  • Complete Details for Every City – Industry, People, Points of Interest, Politics, and More…
  • Comprehensive Timeline and History
  • 400 Pages and Richly Illustrated
  • Details on the Monarchs and Rulers of Every Kingdom

They were also so kind as to provide a zipped PDF with a sneak preview of four pages of the Iron Kingdoms’ history (pages 10-13 of the finished product). I’m giddy with anticipation.

*edit on 2005-01-24: Discount RPG will let you pre-order this at a discount now.

IKWG Cover Preview

[Iron Kingdoms World Guide]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.

Classes the WotC Way

[Stereotypes, anyone?]It looks like WotC has decided its website needs some more filler; they’ve taken it upon themselves to re-explain some character classes in a new series “Character Classes.” Unlike the mind-numbing depth and breadth of the Rules of the Game, These articles are brief and to the point, covering a handful of points about each class.

The Fighter article offers a rather narrow look at the Fighter-as-armored-lunk, treating ranged combat as an afterthought and largely ignoring the flexibility inherent in the Fighter class. The Rogue article does a better job of showing flexibility, but then with the high number of skill points and available class skills, the Rogue is more obviously versatile.

Overall, it reminds me that the articles I started out with a couple of years ago weren’t an entire waste of diskspace, including my looks at parties built around particular classes. I should probably go back through and make ones for the Iron Kingdoms classes of Arcane Mechanik, Bodger, and Gunmage.