Collected Iron Gods News Thread


Iron Gods

The Exchange

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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Lets get the rumors and confirmed info all together in one place shall we? Just in case someone misses a post on the forums, a event at a con, or a reddit/facebook post.

Stone Soup of news.

Iron Gods - 2nd AP for 2014.

Only confirmed book we can guess at is Guide to Numeria

Pathfinder Wiki has a list of book titles:

Fires of Creation
Lords of Rust
The Choking Tower
Valley of the Brain Collectors
Palace of Fallen Stars
The Divinity Drive

I'd LOVE to know where they got these names. Was it from GenCon?

James has send the 2nd Book is heavily inspired by Mad Max. (Yay!) So expect the rules of Bartertown. And crazy "gangs".

We've been told NOT to expect Kaiju vs Mecha fights. So sorry Pacific Rim fans.

Obvious the main inspirations for this is Thundarr meets Barrier Peaks.

Anyone got any other confirmed info?


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Umm, this post has more inspirations listed...

Paizo Employee Developer

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TheLoneCleric wrote:


I'd LOVE to know where they got these names. Was it from GenCon?

Yep. We announced the names of the individual adventures at GenCon.


There is plenty of other information in this thread, including such gems as:

"[A] new robot in each volume."

"Iron Gods are creatures waking up in Numeria and granting spells."

The Exchange

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Interesting...

And YAY!

So that means Lords of Rust is the MadMax themed AP book. Very fitting.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

From the Paizo Chat not five minutes ago:

James Jacobs wrote:
Fires of Creation doesn't have an obvious flavor. Maybe the CLOSEST flavor would be dashes of Metamorphosis Alpha, but undead.

Also: lasers.


Ruminating upon the titles:

I wonder if Fires of Creation is going to be based in/around Torch?

Lords of Rust sounds like it could be centered around Scrapwall.

The Choking Tower is pretty straightforward. If Furkas Xoud still lives, I wonder if he'll be an ally for the PCs against the Technic League (ISWG mentions he's a former adept, but doesn't say whether he broke amicably or not.)

The Valley of the Brain Collectors must surely be somewhere in the Felldales. They should rename this area "Kidnap Vales."

I wonder if the Neh-Thalggu have a side deal with the Annihilators; "You don't really need those creature's brains, do you? I'll give you a fiver if you could see that one of their heads just sort of... falls off... while in transport." (Given the Annihilator's CR, though, I doubt they'll turn up in this adventure.)

The name "Palace of Fallen Stars" must certainly refer to Starfall, which suggests the PCs will finally reach the Silver Mount by the end of this volume.

Meaning that their explorations of the Numerian ship and their quest for The Divinity Drive likely consist of the final episode.


We know that the alien ship that crashed in Numeria is a human space ship.

We will get an android article in volume 2.

The Kasatha will show up in volume 2.


Mutants will be detailed.

LINK

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Dragon78 wrote:

We know that the alien ship that crashed in Numeria is a human space ship.

We will get an android article in volume 2.

The Kasatha will show up in volume 2.

One out of three isn't bad. ;-P

(The android article is in volume 1, and kasatha show up in multiple volumes but not in #2...)


Oops my bad:-P

Well is this all the info we have gotten so far?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Nope. There's plenty more spread around the site... but I'm not gonna be the one to gather it here! If I see something wrong, I'll pop in to offer corrections though!

Because my powers of nitpicking are not only high... I get paid for each nit I pick! ;-P


Iron Gods has flash Gordon in it.


I really want to see the kasatha NPCs statted up. I've been kind of confused if they can use 2 two-handed weapons and gain two attacks, or not.


I would also like some clarification on how they work with there four arms. What they can and cannot do would be nice.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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More to the point... if they have 4 arms and have ALWAYS had four arms... wouldn't it make sense that their society has, over the course of its existence, invented FOUR ARMED weapons instead of just limiting themselves to two armed weapons?

I say yes. But that's also WAY beyond the current rules expectations of the game, which is built around the assumption that the player characters are human shaped and have only two arms.

The kasatha presence in Iron Gods will, as a result, be focused on their roles as NPCs. We may talk a bit in other products eventually about them as PC options... but the fact that they have four arms changes a HUGE presupposition about the game and not only shakes the foundations of game balance, it shakes the foundation of world flavor.

Kasathas are not appropriate characters to play in Iron Gods for both reasons.


Hm. Unfortunate...

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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captain yesterday wrote:
i myself am disappointed Bestiary 4 present Kasatha as a playable 0 HD race. Oh well cant be changed now:) sounds like an awesome AP tho

They present them as a zero HD race. That isn't the same as saying "This is a player character race." It doesn't automatically equal Paizo giving permission to all tables to play them as player characters—that permission can ONLY come from the GM.

In any event... the role kasathas play in Iron Gods is such that the presence of PC kasathas would be nonsensical and would undermine plot elements.

It'd be like playing Karzoug's apprentice in Rise of the Runelords, or a member of the Council of Thieves in Council of Thieves, or a drow in Second Darkness.

You could do it, but the GM would have to rebuild significant parts of the adventure, particularly those linked to the fact that the adventures are, in part, finding out information about Karzoug or the Council of Thieves or drow.

(And no... none of my examples are meant to be hidden clues as to the role the kasathas play in Iron Gods.)


i realized my mistake:) sorry james:)

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6, Contributor

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Makes me think of the orlens wielding a four-handed sword in Gamma World.

Liberty's Edge

James Jacobs wrote:
the fact that they have four arms changes a HUGE presupposition about the game and (...) shakes the foundation of world flavor.

I'm honestly curious about that last part. Can you shed any more light on how the world flavor would be changed by four-armed weapons or whatever aspect you meant? Would be interested in hearing your views.

Dark Archive

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Russ Taylor wrote:

Makes me think of the orlens wielding a four-handed sword in Gamma World.

This is what I was going to say - about the Orlens.

The way they were managed in GW III ('86) was that they were given larger 4-handed sword and axe options. Those weapons did a bit more damage so I just made them a bit slower on their initiative track.

And as far as the 4-armed thing and PCs (sigh, I've been dealing with this issue since the early 80's) it isn't really that much of a balance issue. Sure they can bulk up on extra shields or use larger weapons, but the flip side is that found armor does not really work for them.

You could also give them a large size drawback due to their mass/limbs without any of the benefits. Multiple arms do not necessarily mean multiple attacks at no negative, look at the current rules we have for putting a sword in each or your hands – it would also apply to the Kasatha. The current rules for two-weapon fighting require some class or feat investment to pull off properly, so it wouldn't be that hard to balance a 4-armed creature against the existing rules.

I think with some work the race could be balanced so that it's playable. That's the Gamma World GM in me - I've had some pretty stupid, er ...interesting mutant ideas presented to me from across the table.

Of course - all of this is outside of use in Iron Gods, since it would mess with the intent,focus and the reveal of the storyline.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Samy wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
the fact that they have four arms changes a HUGE presupposition about the game and (...) shakes the foundation of world flavor.
I'm honestly curious about that last part. Can you shed any more light on how the world flavor would be changed by four-armed weapons or whatever aspect you meant? Would be interested in hearing your views.

My previous example of "wouldn't a four-armed race invent a four-armed weapon?" is one obvious one. We don't have any four-armed weapons in the game yet, because our world flavor assumes that four-armed creatures are exceptions mostly limited to monsters and the like. You can expand it out from there—when you ride a horse, the reins are built for two hands. What would a four armed creature's riding gear look like? What about doors? Or eating utensils? How would shelves be built? Etc. It's a very deep rabbit hole—the more you change something from the human baseline, the more you change how that creature's world would function. It doesn't have to be four arms. Saying a race never sleeps would change the way its world looks, as would saying a race has no legs and simply floats, or saying a race has a long tail capable of hearing scents, and so on.

The more outlandish and strange and alien you get from the human baseline, the more the baseline WORLD has to change to reflect that baseline, and the more the baseline world changes away from the real world, the more brain power you need to dedicate to keeping track of mundane changes to the world. Rather than focusing on things like telling stories about how a group of adventurers have to do a horserace up a mountainside to a castle to reach a diplomatic meeting on time to prevent an assassination, you start spending an equal amount of time tracking how different the saddles and roads and castle doors and cooking methods and so on and so on work.

That type of difference is a LOT easier to pull off in a story or a movie, because that's not interactive—one person can make those decisions, and can focus on a VERY narrow band of things. In an RPG, you can't do that since the setting is interactive and is built by hundreds of different people. The more interactive something gets, and the more people you have helping create it, the more a common baseline becomes important, and the more important it is that you limit deviations from that baseline to the things that are important to the story.

Of course... you COULD just throw in a four-armed race into your world and elevate its numbers to equal that of a core race and not bother with the implications to how that four armed creature's society and history and culture would change and shape the world over the course of centuries and generations... but that feels lazy to me.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Auxmaulous wrote:
I think with some work the race could be balanced so that it's playable.

This is absolutely true.

It's not the choice I made for Iron Gods though. OR for Golarion, for that matter.

Sovereign Court

Bring Me this AP Now! ;-) looking forward to the Iron Gods Mister Jacobs.
The Line Up to the writer's to this AP?
Does the technic League have a symbol, and what does it look like?

Liberty's Edge

Marcus Gehrcke wrote:

The Line Up to the writer's to this AP?

That's a good question. When might we find out who has been given each installment?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Marcus Gehrcke wrote:

Bring Me this AP Now! ;-) looking forward to the Iron Gods Mister Jacobs.

The Line Up to the writer's to this AP?
Does the technic League have a symbol, and what does it look like?

I've been meaning to do a blog post of the writers for the AP for a few months now. I should do that.

The Technic League symbol is a cogwheel, but it's not yet been illustrated.

Silver Crusade

GenCon can't get here fast enough. I want to get my hands on the first part of Iron Gods! We even have folks in my gaming group who normally wouldn't be into this kind of adventure wanting to play it!


Danubus wrote:
GenCon can't get here fast enough. I want to get my hands on the first part of Iron Gods! We even have folks in my gaming group who normally wouldn't be into this kind of adventure wanting to play it!

I'm usually not into this type of adventure, and i want to run it!

tho i'm way more excited for Mummy's Mask!!!!!
bring on the Sky Pharaoh!!!!!!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Danubus wrote:
GenCon can't get here fast enough. I want to get my hands on the first part of Iron Gods! We even have folks in my gaming group who normally wouldn't be into this kind of adventure wanting to play it!

Heh... seems like it's hurtling toward us plenty fast from where I'm sitting...


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James Jacobs wrote:
Danubus wrote:
GenCon can't get here fast enough. I want to get my hands on the first part of Iron Gods! We even have folks in my gaming group who normally wouldn't be into this kind of adventure wanting to play it!
Heh... seems like it's hurtling toward us plenty fast from where I'm sitting...

sits in the James Jacobs chair

I... I can see FOREVER!!!


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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Freehold DM wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Danubus wrote:
GenCon can't get here fast enough. I want to get my hands on the first part of Iron Gods! We even have folks in my gaming group who normally wouldn't be into this kind of adventure wanting to play it!
Heh... seems like it's hurtling toward us plenty fast from where I'm sitting...

sits in the James Jacobs chair

I... I can see FOREVER!!!

And that was the last time anyone heard from Freehold DM after sitting in the great T-Rex kings chair, one of the actions that's forbidden for mortals to do.


Cool. Now I will have some help designing the opponent for my Kingmaker group to go against when they try to take Numeria.

Liberty's Edge

Has it been reported anywhere yet who the iconics will be? I'm guessing no because we only recently found out who was in Mummy's Mask.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Joshua Goudreau wrote:
Has it been reported anywhere yet who the iconics will be? I'm guessing no because we only recently found out who was in Mummy's Mask.

Not yet.

Contributor

Have the authors been revealed?


I don't believe so. I think about all we know author-wise is that James Sutter isn't going to be one (*sniff*); he said it didn't work out, timing wise.


James Jacobs wrote:
More to the point... if they have 4 arms and have ALWAYS had four arms... wouldn't it make sense that their society has, over the course of its existence, invented FOUR ARMED weapons instead of just limiting themselves to two armed weapons?

I'd say probably not. The advantage of using two hands to wield a weapon is that you can control longer weapons that way, due to the lever effect. But this depends on the distance between both hands on the grip and there is a maximum to that distance where you can still move well enough to fight. Having an extra pair of arms would not help in this regard. So at most, four armed weapons could be a little bit heavier, but not really larger.

What I'd rather expect is a two-handed weapon plus two shields style.


Zelda the four swords?

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
KutuluKultist wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
More to the point... if they have 4 arms and have ALWAYS had four arms... wouldn't it make sense that their society has, over the course of its existence, invented FOUR ARMED weapons instead of just limiting themselves to two armed weapons?

I'd say probably not. The advantage of using two hands to wield a weapon is that you can control longer weapons that way, due to the lever effect. But this depends on the distance between both hands on the grip and there is a maximum to that distance where you can still move well enough to fight. Having an extra pair of arms would not help in this regard. So at most, four armed weapons could be a little bit heavier, but not really larger.

What I'd rather expect is a two-handed weapon plus two shields style.

I'd probably forgo reach in favor of board, sword, and bow.

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