Welcome back to the fourth tier of our getting started in Warmachine series. This part of Tier 4 will continue building on the fluffier side of the Iron Kingdoms. This guide is intended for those new to Warmachine and those new to wargaming as a whole. Our intent is to take a player who has never played a wargame or a miniatures game through the basics of all aspects of the game. If you have missed our previous Getting Started tiers that led to this one you can jump back and check them out now: Tier 1 – The Basics, Tier 2 – Beyond the Basics, and Tier 3 – Fluff.

In the Tier 3 – Fluff article we scratched the surface of the Iron Kingdoms fluff available by looking at the core rule books and subsequent expansions (Mk I and II)  provided for Warmachine.  But now we’re going to step deeper in by going back to before Warmachine (the table top game) existed.  Before Warmachine and Hordes became games of their own, the Iron Kingdoms was built as an RPG setting based on the d20 system popularized by Dungeons & Dragons 3.0.  Whereas the Warmachine books give a brief history of Western Immoren and tell us about current story lines, the IK RPG books break down the entire world.  Religions, calendars, professions, cities, trade routes, and on and on.  These books are designed to help a Dungeon Master build a role-playing campaign and for players to make characters for the game, but there is a wealth of information in these books available nowhere else that is perfectly accessible even without any RPG experience.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Iron Kingdoms, Privateer Press, Review, RPG, Warmachine

Another fine Flaming d20 production.

Bearding the lions den of miniatures games (which, despite common opinion, I do play…) I have taken upon myself the effort of bearing the torch of modern Role Playing Games. In this article I discuss the upcoming IKRPG and what I’d like to see from it.

In my drooling fanboy anticipation of the new system, I keep going over things that I would love to see put in. I fondle my Five Fingers book and dream of what might be. While the dark whispers of a horrid hybrid of 1st Ed Boot Hill (The single most lethal game I have ever seen. Every time anything damaged you it had a 1-in-6 chance of outright killing you. Then again, most guns did more damage than you had hitpoints…) and HARN (Overcomplicated. If you ever wanted a system that tells you exactly how sharp your character’s sense of smell is, HARN is that system). Maybe with a touch of Synabarr. But I refuse these demons of doubt. I have faith in The One True Seacat, and He shall not lead me astray. I hope.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Boot Hill, Five fingers, Iron Kingdoms, Mouse Gaurd, Mutant chronicles, Privateer Press, Role-Playing, Roleplaying, RPG

I actually roll this.

It is the calm before the storm. There is word that there is a new Iron Kingdoms Role Playing Game in the works, and that someday, someday, it will come out. This is something that us RPG fans are quite used to; the IKRPG guide was initially announced to be released in January of 02, and the Character Guide actually hit in June of 04.. So waiting for huge amounts of time for a product that may (or may not) see the light of day is par for the course. But when it does hit, it is so brilliant that our waiting was worth it. The Character Guide (for all its flaws) is a brilliant gaming resource, and books like the World Guide and Port of Deceit are literally the gold standard of the industry.

But let’s face it. There is one adventure, and 6 (and a half) books in the whole setting. Quality does help, but a bit of quantity doesn’t hurt either. But so much (especially in d20) isn’t worth the effort. So what resources does a group have to draw upon? In this series, I will draw upon a few of my favorite ones that port over to IK with a minimum of fuss, and give you ways to breathe some life into your IKRPG games…

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Iron Kingdoms, Privateer Press, Role-Playing, Ronin Arts, RPG