Category Archives: DnD

Privateer Press Updates

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.

3.5 Druid & Ranger

With Wizards of the Coast working hard to get us all to pick up three new core rulebooks, they’ve been trickling out details of changes for months now via Dragon Magazine and the official D&D website.

In the past couple of weeks I’ve seen their teasers for the Ranger and Druid classes in specific. These classes, along with the Bard, have been the red-headed stepchildren of the main character classes. Generally speaking, I would consider this to be right and fitting (I still think of Cleric, Fighter, Thief, and Wizard as the proper D&D character archetypes).

However, they’re making a big push to right all the perceived wrongs with the 3.0 d20 system. Rangers will have fewer hit points, more skill points, and a more useful “Favored Enemy” system. Druids will have some serious improvements to the “Wild Shape” class ability, and pick up a spontaneous-casting ability for “Summon Nature’s Ally.” In addition, Wilderness Lore and Intuit Direction have been merged into a single skill “Survival” and “Animal Empathy” has been dropped in favor of a new skill available only to Rangers & Druids that functions much like “diplomacy” but only for creatures of animal intelligence.

I’m not sold on it yet, but amongst my coworkers I’m sure I’ll be able to browse the finished product and see how it all balances out. Supposedly each of the main classes will be more fully balanced and useful, with an eye toward accentuating the distinctions of the mongrel classes of Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Monk, Paladin, and Ranger. Word is that Sorcerers (also a mongrel class IMHO) are practically unchanged apart from some reworded spell rules that also apply to Wizards.

Time will tell.

IK – Warmachine

Cygnaran IroncladI 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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