Migrating an existing campaign setting from one rule set to another can be a daunting task. Many of the details of the setting are strongly-tied to the assumptions of a given system. In the case of the Iron Kingdoms, a great deal of this has to do with the mechanisms of magic, especially who can use it and how. Dungeons & Dragons themes of Wizards, Sorcerers, Druids, Paladins, and Bards suffuse the setting, and should be translated into any new system for the Iron Kingdoms to any other rule set.

Happily, there are some fairly-close correlations between the various rounds of character creation in the d20 system and Fate, and between one of the recommended Fate magic systems and the way spells have traditionally been divvied up in D&D. I’m sure this is no accident, as most folks that design RPGs have at some point played Dungeons & Dragons themselves.

Considerations

The following major tasks present themselves as needing to be done:

• Generate a representative sampling of Aspects that suit the setting.
• Generate a representative sampling of Skills that suit the setting.
• Generate a representative sampling of Extras that suit the setting.

Upon doing so, a cycle of refinements will be necessary. The following factors strike me as meriting special attention:

• Ensure that Magic skills appropriately allow accomplished characters to attain an appropriate degree of magical power.
• Ensure that the various monsters and constructs of the setting are properly represented, presenting an appropriate array of challenges and flavor (from the lowly Burrow Mawg to the mighty Gorgandour).
• Encourage the use of iconic themes of the setting (e.g. guns, steamjacks) without “overpowering” things inappropriately.

Of course, creating a broad, setting-wide translation from IKd20 to IKFate is likely misguided. Fate suits itself most strongly to have particular Aspects and Skills custom-tailored to a given story.

Roadmap

Big tasks benefit from being broken into manageable pieces, so here’s what I propose to do:

1. Create initial set of Aspects for Player Character generation.
2. Create initial magic system, starting with Wizards.
3. Create initial skill system for Player Character generation.
4. Generate several example Player Characters with mundane, Wizardly, and Priestly character concepts.
5. Play-test example Player Characters combating each other. Multiple scenarios should be used that may favor some types of character concept over another.
6. Generate additional Aspects for monstrous NPC generation.
7. Create several example monstrous NPCs.
8. Play-test example Player Characters combating example monstrous NPCs.

After play-testing PC versus PC and PC versus monstrous NPC, a cycle of modifications should be undertaken. The aim here is to correct or fine-tune the sample Aspects, Skills, Extras, and their interactions with each other, as well as expanding the number of broad character concepts under consideration.

1. 1st iteration is to focus on mundane characters and Wizards.
2. 2nd iteration should introduce Priests.
3. 3rd iteration should introduce alternate Wizard types (specialists, Arcane Mechaniks, and differing wizardly orders).
4. 4th iteration should introduce alternate Priest types (primarily differing religious groups).
5. 5th iteration should introduce Sorcerers.
6. 6th iteration should introduce alternate Sorcerer types (Gunmages, Bards, Fell Callers).
7. 7th iteration should introduce Druids.
8. 8th iteration should introduce Mechanika and Alchemy
9. 9th iteration should run everything through again to make sure things are working properly.

At this point, a playable Iron Kingdoms Fate system should be fully playable. During any given iteration, it will likely be necessary to add, remove, or redefine existing Aspects, Skills, and Extras. At the end of nine iterations, the list will probably be pretty big and unwieldy. DMs seeking to implement it would be well-advised to trim out skills and such that won’t apply directly to their campaigns.

Versioning

I’ll try to keep the development of this system-translation versioned (version 0.23 would be three steps into its second iteration, etc) so I can look back and laugh at my stupid mistakes after everything’s done. As the first iteration’s 0th step, this post will be v0.10.