Pathfinder Adventure Path: Iron Gods Player's Guide (PFRPG) PDF

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The Iron Gods Player's Guide gives players all the spoiler-free information, inspiration, and new rules they'll need to create characters prepared for delving into the adventure and mysteries of the Iron Gods Adventure Path.

Within, players of this campaign will find everything they need to create character backgrounds tied to personalities and events vital to Pathfinder Adventure Path's exploration of some of the strange technological wonders and ancient ruins of Numeria, along with new campaign—specific traits to give bold adventurers the edge they'll need to take on the strange and deadly threats faced in the Iron Gods Adventure Path. This player’s guide also features a view of the town of Torch where the adventure begins, an overview of Numeria, and various class options and advice for heroes ready to dive into an Iron Gods campaign.

Adventurers don't need to set out unprepared! Get the party together and let the Iron Gods Player's Guide start your trip into the thrill and danger of the savage land of super-science.

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4.50/5 (based on 2 ratings)

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Enticing!

5/5

NO SPOILERS

While playing in one weekly game and running another, I don't have time to get involved in another campaign. But, I might just have time for a play-by-post game, which has led me to offer my services as a player for a PbP Iron Gods game. The game may or may not get off the ground, but I've had the pleasure of reading the Iron Gods Player's Guide and thought I would review it briefly here.

The Iron Gods Player's Guide is a free, twelve-page PDF that can be downloaded from the Paizo website. It's in full colour, and the cover is a very cool, evocative picture of three characters that instantly convey that this will not be your standard "sword-and-sorcery" adventure. The reason is that Iron Gods is set in the land of Numeria, a country in Golarion that was the site, ages ago, of a mysterious spaceship crash! The wreckage of the vessel has led Numeria to becoming the most technologically advanced country in Golarion, and characters in this adventure path are told to expect more than just orcs and swords. The document makes it quite clear what the opening premise of the adventure path is: the PCs will start out as members of an adventuring party in the Numerian town of Torch, and have been asked to find out why a seemingly eternal source of energy, used to forge skymetal, has suddenly stopped.

I really appreciate how forthright the guide is about the character options that are and are not suitable for the adventure path. A four-page "Character Tips" section gives suggestions on suitable alignments, archetypes and class options, animal companions, sorcerer bloodlines, oracle mysteries, ranger's favoured terrains, races, religions, and important skills and feats. A player can certainly play against the suggestions, but at least they know what they're getting into. Sidebars suggest further reading for both players and GMs, explain why the Technic League should not be an option for a PC, and reprints the racial stats for Android characters.

Next, six campaign traits are provided; each is fairly detailed and definitely explains why the PC has come to the town of Torch. Mechanically, they fall within the expected power range of traits, though of course some of them do some quite unique technology-oriented things.

Speaking of technology, it's obvious that technology will play a very important role in the campaign. Again the guide is frank that players shouldn't have their characters start off with technology, and should instead let their encounter with it happen organically. Indeed, the guide suggests that players shouldn't even read the Technology Guide unless the GM says it's okay. A "Technology Primer" section of the guide reprints the all-important Technologist feat and explains how several important skills (Craft, Disable Device, and Linguistics) operate differently when dealing with technology.

Last, there's a brief overview of Numeria and the town of Torch. A full map of the town, including a key with 24 named locations, is provided. The starting location sound really interesting, but the guide again is helpful in making it clear that the adventure path does not stay in Torch and that characters have to be willing to leave it and perhaps not come back.

I've only ever read two player's guides: this one, and the one for the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition. The Iron Gods Player's Guide is far superior. It concisely explains what the campaign is about, provides the information needed to get a PC off to the right start, and, most importantly, it makes the adventure path sound like fun! I don't know if I'll get a chance to play in that PbP, but if I don't, it certainly won't have anything to do with a lack of interest.


Very good

4/5

Read my full review on Of Dice and Pen.

All things considered, the Iron Gods Player's Guide does a very good job of setting the scene for the players and preparing them for what is to come. It gives just enough information to help them create characters that will fit the adventure path, without giving away too many spoilers of what will happen during it.


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Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

WOOHOO!!! At last! Now to the reading...

:D

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Yoink!


Thanks guys! Didn't think this would be out before Gencon. Good to have something to tide me over until the actual adventure begins! Also, is the purple-haired lady on the cover the same one on the 1st adventure's cover?

RPG Superstar 2009, Contributor

She is indeed.

In fact, all three of those NPCs will be appearing in the first adventure.


Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Silver Crusade

Ross Byers wrote:
Yoink!

Seconded! Thanks, Daigle!


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I believe the page numbers referenced in the skills section on page 10-11 are from the Technology Guide book.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

If I could shapeshift, I would want to look like that android lady forever.

Contributor

This is another well done Player's Guide. I feel you've truly found the sweet spot in providing just enough information to be informative and enticing, without entering spoiler territory. Commends!

Paizo Employee Developer

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Blackfingers wrote:
Thanks guys! Didn't think this would be out before Gencon. Good to have something to tide me over until the actual adventure begins! Also, is the purple-haired lady on the cover the same one on the 1st adventure's cover?

I was worried that it wouldn't be out as early as it is, but things turned out for the best. Go Team AP!

Paizo Employee Developer

zergtitan wrote:
I believe the page numbers referenced in the skills section on page 10-11 are from the Technology Guide book.

Derp! You're correct. I failed to correct that when I picked up that text.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

It's happening!

Remember that time Iron Gods was announced right before April 1st? Guess it wasn't a joke!

Dark Archive

I am happy to hear that the campaign traits are tied in to the story more. I like when they tie in to events in the story.

The picture of Torch on the 3rd page is really cool.

Paizo Employee Developer

1 person marked this as a favorite.

It should also be noted that the campaign traits in the Player's Guide are slightly different than the ones presented in People of the River. The mechanics are the same for both, but with more space to play around with in the Player's Guide than People of the River, James provided a lot more flavor to help tie them closer to the story.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

I noticed an error in the Player's Guide. On pg. 4, it lists the Galvanic Saboteur as a Rogue Archetype. It's actually a Ranger Archetype.


I was hoping for some favored class bonuses for the Android race.

Otherwise, I am very excited for this AP.

Paizo Employee Developer

Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:
I noticed an error in the Player's Guide. On pg. 4, it lists the Galvanic Saboteur as a Rogue Archetype. It's actually a Ranger Archetype.

Thanks, Irnk. Evidence that I was pushing too fast. :)

Veldan Rath wrote:
I was hoping for some favored class bonuses for the Android race.

Player's Guides aren't really the best place for those kinds of new mechanics, and sadly People of the Stars just doesn't have enough space for that either. Especially as we add more classes to the game, the space needed for racial favored class bonuses grows and grows.

Glad you're excited for the Adventure Path!


Sounds like an interesting idea for a Blog Post, that Android Favored Class Bonus.

Paizo Employee Developer

Blogs are also not great places to hide mechanics. Good ol' fashioned print is where that stuff lives. :)


The images, including the cover, look really dark in my downloaded version. The cover on the product page looks much better.

Were the PDF images saved as CMYK instead of RGB?


-Steve Johnston- wrote:

The images, including the cover, look really dark in my downloaded version. The cover on the product page looks much better.

Were the PDF images saved as CMYK instead of RGB?

I do not have this issue with my download.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
-Steve Johnston- wrote:

The images, including the cover, look really dark in my downloaded version. The cover on the product page looks much better.

Were the PDF images saved as CMYK instead of RGB?

I've noted the same thing.

Usually, with many Paizo PDFs, they look too dark when I use Adobe Reader on Linux, or Goodreader on my iPad, but they look nice with Poppler or MuPDF on Linux, or PDF Expert on iPad.

With this PDF, however, it's also dark in PDF Expert.

Liberty's Edge

I, too, noticed that the images were dark. Neither were they as "crisp" as Paizo images usually are. Don't know if this is intentional or not. Otherwise, this is an excellent player's guide and I'm excited for more stuff.


HangarFlying wrote:
I, too, noticed that the images were dark. Neither were they as "crisp" as Paizo images usually are. Don't know if this is intentional or not. Otherwise, this is an excellent player's guide and I'm excited for more stuff.

No tone problems here in Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro or Adobe Reader XI on Windows. The cover is more layered than usual (looks like several background images with lots of blending instead of a single flattened image) and loads pretty slowly, but that's the worst thing I can say.

Looks like Paizo's recently made the jump from InDesign CS6 to CC 2014, but not much else looks different production-wise. Color space on images looks like it's Adobe RGB as usual.

Got a screenshot?

Paizo Glitterati Robot

Looks like something went awry with the colors on export. I'll be pushing a corrected version later today.

Liberty's Edge

I just wanted to say that the skills section was my favorite. I really wanted to make characters that would be great with tech and/or astronomy, but I wasn't sure which skills I should pump. Now I know. Thank you.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Certainly an intriguing look into the Iron Gods AP, now my anticipation for the actual first adventure is even higher!

...I also really want to know who that android is on the front of it! She's gorgeous!

RPG Superstar 2009, Contributor

Dromeda wrote:
...I also really want to know who that android is on the front of it! She's gorgeous!

Wish granted...

Spoiler:
Her name is Meyanda.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Cheapy wrote:

It's happening!

Remember that time Iron Gods was announced right before April 1st? Guess it wasn't a joke!

I guess technically August is right before April 1st, since that was when this was announced. :D


...is Meyanda's cape a hex battlemat? :D

Liberty's Edge

Have only read the first few pages but so far it looks

Spoiler:
like Meyanda is this AP's Velriana, i.e. the end boss of book 1.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Please don't spoil the plot of the AP in the discussion of the Player's Guide. :)

Samy wrote:
Have only read the first few pages but so far it looks like
AP Spoiler:
Meyanda is this AP's Velriana, i.e. the end boss of book 1.

Webstore Gninja Minion

Added spoiler tags!


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Question regarding Androids in general. While they are described as, for the most part, passing for human; does this mean they get any bonuses to Disguise checks to pass as human, or just that they don't take the 'other race' penalty to Disguise checks?

Liberty's Edge

Sorry guys!! I wasn't thinking.


*Dies* It's out! Now I just wish I could get a group together to play it... :(

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:
Question regarding Androids in general. While they are described as, for the most part, passing for human; does this mean they get any bonuses to Disguise checks to pass as human, or just that they don't take the 'other race' penalty to Disguise checks?

They do not. They suffer the standard penalty for disguising as another race. They look like humans, but they have trouble acting like them. Kind of an uncanny valley thing.


Hi Chris. I re-downloaded this moments ago and it still looks the same.

Chris Lambertz wrote:
Looks like something went awry with the colors on export. I'll be pushing a corrected version later today.


James Jacobs wrote:
Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:
Question regarding Androids in general. While they are described as, for the most part, passing for human; does this mean they get any bonuses to Disguise checks to pass as human, or just that they don't take the 'other race' penalty to Disguise checks?
They do not. They suffer the standard penalty for disguising as another race. They look like humans, but they have trouble acting like them. Kind of an uncanny valley thing.

So then they don't actually have the circuitry unless it's 'active' when they are using their nanite surge or such, or is that part of what requires an actual Disguise check, to hide the 'tattoos'?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
AbsolutGrndZer0 wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:
Question regarding Androids in general. While they are described as, for the most part, passing for human; does this mean they get any bonuses to Disguise checks to pass as human, or just that they don't take the 'other race' penalty to Disguise checks?
They do not. They suffer the standard penalty for disguising as another race. They look like humans, but they have trouble acting like them. Kind of an uncanny valley thing.
So then they don't actually have the circuitry unless it's 'active' when they are using their nanite surge or such, or is that part of what requires an actual Disguise check, to hide the 'tattoos'?

The tattoos are only active when they're naniting, but their flesh and bodies and eyes and blood are all different two. There's lots of subtle differences.


James Jacobs wrote:
AbsolutGrndZer0 wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:
Question regarding Androids in general. While they are described as, for the most part, passing for human; does this mean they get any bonuses to Disguise checks to pass as human, or just that they don't take the 'other race' penalty to Disguise checks?
They do not. They suffer the standard penalty for disguising as another race. They look like humans, but they have trouble acting like them. Kind of an uncanny valley thing.
So then they don't actually have the circuitry unless it's 'active' when they are using their nanite surge or such, or is that part of what requires an actual Disguise check, to hide the 'tattoos'?
The tattoos are only active when they're naniting, but their flesh and bodies and eyes and blood are all different two. There's lots of subtle differences.

Cool! Can't wait to get the Iron Gods AP, I had to quit subbing for awhile but Iron Gods I had to resub for... Numeria and Alkenstar are my two biggest loves in Golarion.

Liberty's Edge

2 people marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:
AbsolutGrndZer0 wrote:


So then they don't actually have the circuitry unless it's 'active' when they are using their nanite surge or such, or is that part of what requires an actual Disguise check, to hide the 'tattoos'?
The tattoos are only active when they're naniting

I think there's some confusion about what "active" means. The initial question seems to equate "active" with "visible", so that androids do not normally have visible circuitry, but when they use their nanite surge, the circuitry becomes visible. James' comment seems to agree that there's a change when the nanite surge is used, but I'm not sure he means the same thing with "active" as the original poster.

My impression was that the androids always have visible circuitry, but that it glows when they use their nanite surge. This from the "Ecology of the Android":

Quote:
Each android bears a set of unique markings that resemble tattoos but are in fact a kind of biological circuitry. When androids use their nanite surge ability, these markings glow

So instead of

invisible>visible

the circuitry goes

visible>glowing

when nanite surge is used.


Samy wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
AbsolutGrndZer0 wrote:


So then they don't actually have the circuitry unless it's 'active' when they are using their nanite surge or such, or is that part of what requires an actual Disguise check, to hide the 'tattoos'?
The tattoos are only active when they're naniting

I think there's some confusion about what "active" means. The initial question seems to equate "active" with "visible", so that androids do not normally have visible circuitry, but when they use their nanite surge, the circuitry becomes visible. James' comment seems to agree that there's a change when the nanite surge is used, but I'm not sure he means the same thing with "active" as the original poster.

My impression was that the androids always have visible circuitry, but that it glows when they use their nanite surge. This from the "Ecology of the Android":

Quote:
Each android bears a set of unique markings that resemble tattoos but are in fact a kind of biological circuitry. When androids use their nanite surge ability, these markings glow

So instead of

invisible>visible

the circuitry goes

visible>glowing

when nanite surge is used.

Ahhh, yeah that's what I meant... so it's obvious that they have these "tattoos" so at the very least even if you think they are human, you'll be like "whoa, strange tattoos, bro"


1 person marked this as a favorite.
AbsolutGrndZer0 wrote:


Cool! Can't wait to get the Iron Gods AP, I had to quit subbing for awhile but Iron Gods I had to resub for... Numeria and Alkenstar are my two biggest loves in Golarion.

Similar for me. I stoped my subscription for some time, but Iron Gods has brought me back. Numeria is among my favorite areas and I love science and sorcery.


I noticed in the Player's Guide that androids are referred to as her which is very strange shouldn't they be referred to as it?

Liberty's Edge

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Insnare wrote:
I noticed in the Player's Guide that androids are referred to as her which is very strange shouldn't they be referred to as it?

Uh...androids have sexes. They are anatomically correct and can have sex. They might not be fertile...but they have all other necessary prerequisites of having a sex. Why would you refer to them as 'it'?

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Deadmanwalking wrote:
Insnare wrote:
I noticed in the Player's Guide that androids are referred to as her which is very strange shouldn't they be referred to as it?
Uh...androids have sexes. They are anatomically correct and can have sex. They might not be fertile...but they have all other necessary prerequisites of having a sex. Why would you refer to them as 'it'?

Relevant

I imagine a lot of android characters would take offense to "it".

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Mikaze wrote:

Relevant

I imagine a lot of android characters would take offense to "it".

This is also true, and I'd imagine they would. But while calling them 'it' would still be problematic, it would at least make some sort of sense if they had no sexual characteristics. They have such characteristics...so it couldn't possibly make less sense.


I would disagree, I would say androids aren't human and they aren't living beings which means to me that they should be "it" not her nor him...


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Insnare wrote:
I would disagree, I would say androids aren't human and they aren't living beings which means to me that they should be "it" not her nor him...

Actually they are living beings, and they have a soul. In game terms, they are humanoids with the android subtype, and thus affected by anything that targets living creatures. They do, however, have the Constructed extraordinary ability, similar to inevitables, so they are also target by effects that constructs. The fact that they have souls and outward sexes implies that they also have gender, and as such should not be referred to as "it" unless you have the intention of insulting them.

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