ok, THIS QUESTION IS FOR YOU PEOPLE WHO PLAY, HAVE OR USE any OF THE iRON hEROES' rules:
*Have you ever thought about adding the other races to the game?(obviously yes..but did you alter any of the existing rules like the traits or not?)
* Do you think that the Iron Heroes' combat system can slow down the game? EX: Now that everyone has a pool, don't you guys have to waste time to calculate how many points you have in your pool,etc? Does this pool system make hard to DM Iron Heroes? I heard some DM saying that is too hard having to calculate all the pools for all the npcs in the fight.
* Do you add the magic system from D&D or preferred the one from Iron Heroes?
I hope you guys can help me out here by giving your opinion, thanks
HELLFINGER
ok, THIS QUESTION IS FOR YOU PEOPLE WHO PLAY, HAVE OR USE any OF THE iRON hEROES' rules:
*Have you ever thought about adding the other races to the game?(obviously yes..but did you alter any of the existing rules like the traits or not?)
* Do you think that the Iron Heroes' combat system can slow down the game? EX: Now that everyone has a pool, don't you guys have to waste time to calculate how many points you have in your pool,etc? Does this pool system make hard to DM Iron Heroes? I heard some DM saying that is too hard having to calculate all the pools for all the npcs in the fight.
* Do you add the magic system from D&D or preferred the one from Iron Heroes?
I hope you guys can help me out here by giving your opinion, thanks
HELLFINGER
Well, first I'll state that I have never played Iron Heroes so, unfortunately, I won't be able to answer any of your questions. I do have an opinion that I would like to share about it that pertains to your first question. My buddy picked up the first book based purely on the author and the fact that he prefers a low magic setting. We have yet to play using it but he let me borrow it to get my opinion. I actually like the fact that you can only be human. One of the things that I sometimes don't like with some worlds is that elves, gnomes, dwarves, etc.. are common everyday creatures that are just as normal to see as humans. Sometimes it kind of kills the fantasy side of things. Going into an elven city/dwarven hold is commonplace usually and it loses some of the wonder for me. I hope my rambling opinion makes sense and I was just curious if anybody had the same feeling.
On the other hand I am interested in what other people who have used the system have to say. I usually DM and as I was reading through the book, some of your same questions came up in my mind also.
PS - I'm not a 'nonhuman racist'!!! ;D
I play a kalashtar when we play Eberron!
Great questions Hellfinger!
I bought the book and read it cover to cover. I would like to run an IH campaign, but the token system for stunts has me a bit concerned about the complexity level as well. I do like the low to no magic, humans only flavor. It has a very gritty, Dark Ages type feel to it. I suppose the token system can't be any worse to keep track of than all the other bookkeeping needed to DM a high level game that I've been complaining about in another thread.
There's a lot to like about it, but my players aren't ready for it yet, as they are still enjoying the straight up 3.5 D&D that I've been running for a year and half now.
Would I add the other races? No...as a matter of fact, I plan to use the IH rules for my homebrew campaign world that has been in various stages of production for the last decade. That world is humans only, as I feel that the demi-humans in D&D have devolved so far from their fantasy stereotypes (which I prefer, actually) that they are just an unnecessary complication. I prefer my elves flighty and chaotic good, my dwarves dour, etc....I don't care for all the "cross-over" stuff where there are lots of evil dwarves, evil elves...everyone ends up being "human" after all.
"I don't care for all the "cross-over" stuff where there are lots of evil dwarves, evil elves...everyone ends up being "human" after all."
Couldn't have put it better!
If I ran Iron Heroes, I wouldn't add in the standard races or magic system. Removing these two aspects is part of what makes Iron Heroes the way it is. It's a low-magic world where mankind is all alone and the mastery of magic is something out of mortal reach. In fact, if I ever get around to running a game of Iron Heroes I suspect I'll make the arcanist NPC-only.
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My group started running an Iron Heroes campaign, and I really do enjoy the system. Playing a human only was great and did, indeed, put the "fantasy" back in "fantasy campaign".
Now due to time constraints we don't play that often, so we are only about second level, but what we have done so far is great. At that low a level, most PCs have access to only one token pool, so it isn't to distracting yet. I'll have to let you all know if it gets worse later on.
My character is a Harrier with the Unarmed Combat Mastery Feat (essentially a monk) and the Dodge Feat (which gives him access to the Dodge Token Pool). His job is to basically move around the battlefield and his people as fast as he can. He's great for working with the "heavy hitters" in the party to flank the bad guys.
Essentially, I like the system because it emphasizes feats and skills (the Skill Groups are great) over magic and magic items. In my opinion the system has a gritty, Conan-type feel. I would advise anyone to try it at least once (and no, I don't work for the publishers).
I would also recommend Iron Heroes for a "Horseclans" campaign based on the Robert Adams novels....add "mindspeaking" psionics and take away the arcanist, and you're good to go.
I have the GURPS Horseclans supplement and it would mesh really well with Iron Heroes. GURPS for the fluff background info and IH for the crunch rules.
ok, THIS QUESTION IS FOR YOU PEOPLE WHO PLAY, HAVE OR USE any OF THE iRON hEROES' rules:
*Have you ever thought about adding the other races to the game?(obviously yes..but did you alter any of the existing rules like the traits or not?)
* Do you think that the Iron Heroes' combat system can slow down the game? EX: Now that everyone has a pool, don't you guys have to waste time to calculate how many points you have in your pool,etc? Does this pool system make hard to DM Iron Heroes? I heard some DM saying that is too hard having to calculate all the pools for all the npcs in the fight.
* Do you add the magic system from D&D or preferred the one from Iron Heroes?
I hope you guys can help me out here by giving your opinion, thanks
HELLFINGER
I DM a low magic Greyhawk campaign and have incorporated parts of Iron Heroes into our house rules. We don't use the IH classes, so I don't worry about token pools (and yes, I do think they would slow the game down a fair bit).
What I do use from IH:
a) Defence and Damage Reduction system (instead of AC);
b) Skill groups;
c) The feat system/feat mastery (I still need to revise feats that make use of tokens);
d) Feat progression (I rarely hand out magic items in my game, and there is only one arcane caster in the party, who mostly selects detection, identification, and charm type spells... he's hardly a walking arsenal... so the extra feats compensate for the party's extremely limited magical resources);
e) Combat challenges (these haven't been tested in play yet).
While I do like the idea of a human only campaign (I find many player's roleplay dwarves, elves, etc. -- who should have very different outlooks based on their culture, environment and lifespans -- the same they would a human), I have not imposed this restriction in my game... but then, I am playing Greyhawk, and not IH, and don't want to force my players into a straight jacket. That having been said, I have not made any modification to the traits list as a result of having multiple races in my game, though I really should create more race-specific traits (in some cases, I've been relying on the Greyhawk specific feats described in Dragon as racially appropriate traits).
As far as magic is concerned, I use a combination of the following:
a) the skill-based spellcasting system (Sword and Sorcery Advanced Player's Handbook);
b) the Unearthed Arcana spell point system;
c) modified Insanity rules from Unearthed Arcana.
This makes magic sufficiently rare, unpredictable, and potentially sanity draining for my taste!
Is great to know that we all fell basically the same about IH. I don't think that adding the other races is a good idea but i also don't get the skill chalanges and stunts. ONE MORE thing that I'd like to point out. In the book, when talking about the harrier class, it says that they are good with 'fast' weapons, that include scimitars(a.k.a. finesse) but when I was looking in the weapons sections, I was surprised that it says that scimitars aren't finesse weapons. DOn't get it.
Well, with this exception, I think I didn't waste my $ with IR, but I hardly believe that there will ever be an adventure in the Dungeon magazine about it(reasons kinda obvious)