My 3.X campaign is wrapping up after close to two years. The whole group is pretty sour on 4E, even though I like it enough that I'm going to play it with other people.
The question for our group is this: what are we going to do next? The group is leaning toward an Iron Kingdoms campaign because they haven't played in that setting and it looks cool to them. I've played Iron Kingdoms and I love it.
But I've purchased some Pathfinder stuff from the store (I'm new to Paizo, having never really used Dragon or Dungeon or other Paizo materials) and I really like it a lot. I would rather run some of the Pathfinder adventure paths than do Witchfire Trilogy in IK, for example.
So here's the question, and this is for anyone familiar at all with Iron Kingdoms - how well would Iron Kingdoms races and classes fit into a Pathfinder adventure path? That way, I can use the cool Paizo stuff I want to play, and the players in my group who are really excited about some of the IK stuff (like Ogrun and the Gun Mage) can still play what they want to play.
What do you think - easy to bring those classes and races in, or will I be asking for a headache?
I've played Iron Kingdoms a few times, never DM'ed mind you. As I see it for low level advantures there should be little issues, if you game takes place in the Iron Kingdoms when in doubt go with IK, little things like Pathfider goblins vs IK boglins (spelling?) can be explained as a subrace thing. Classes to simply keep out would be the Cleric (if you know the IK you konw why) and Sorceres, though you might simply restrict what bloodlines they can have. Races should be easily modified with a +2 here and there.
I like to mix in a lot of stuff from differnt settings into any game My worlds as well as settings. The first thing you should do is sit down and work out which skills will be included and which will not. I have found that starting with skills any conversion falls naturally into place.
Choose carefully what advantures you pick. I'm thinking of doing Rise of the runelords right now, and I don't see any problems playing it up to about isssue three or four in terms of IK, after that you hit diviation to the setting. But at that point if your players are into it that shouldn't be a issue.
Cool, thanks Andre. Good points, all, and I'll take them into consideration.
Which of the current Adventure Paths do you like the best? I want to start with one that will make my players say "Oh, yeah, we want to do more of these!"
Chief Technical Officer
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Cool, thanks Andre. Good points, all, and I'll take them into consideration.
Which of the current Adventure Paths do you like the best? I want to start with one that will make my players say "Oh, yeah, we want to do more of these!"
What kinds of adventures do your players like?
Have you considered showing your group a few Pathfinder teasers?
Both DM and Players are excited about Iron Kingdoms. The DM is excited about Pathfinder. Get everyone excited about everything; then your group can help you as well as we can on marrying the two.
-W. E. Ray
Good thought. I know some of them have flipped through some Pathfinder materials in the store, but I haven't done anything in terms of teasers. I could do something like that as soon as the current campaign ends.
What kinds of adventures do your players like?
Well, we like good stories, with good roleplaying opportunities. Plenty of fighting is nice, of course, but we like fights where being smart has some impact on things, rather than just running in swinging swords. Traps are fun for us. Puzzles to a more limited degree (the group recently had a frustrating experience with a puzzle - my bad as a DM, because in designing it it seemed like the solution would be a lot easier than it ended up being!).
Keep in mind that, adventure-wise, when starting something new, use something short. RotRL is a huge campaing. Don't start with that. Get a single module that you can run in 1-3 sessions. See if you guys like the marriage and tweak as you go.
Yeah, that's a good idea as well. I'll do some looking when I'm back in the store (or in the online store here).
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I think you'll miss a lot of the flavor of Iron Kingdoms if you run a Pathfinder AP. Plus, you'll have a lot of conflicting flavor in the AP you'll have to remove. Iron Kingdoms is a great setting, I really got into it after working for Privateer Press for a few months (and getting the books at 15% cover price). The problem is that the Pathfinder APs are really designed for somewhat generic settings, like Greyhawk, Mystara, and the Forgotten Realms (or Golarion). They're so flavorful themselves that they run best when placed in a setting with pretty generic fantasy flavor.
If you want to keep it IK and run an AP, you'll end up practically re-writing the whole thing. Personally, I would do one or the other.
I agree with Gail.
I ran Age of Worms (the second AP in Dungeon magazine) in Iron Kingdoms, because it seemed like a great setting. What I found, though, was that the expectations of the adventure path were so different than the assumptions of the setting that I either had to re-write practically everything in each adventure or (as it worked out) I just lost a lot of the Iron Kingdom flavor towards the end. The high-level adventures, in particular, really don't play well with the low-magic, steampunk, low-healing concepts of the Iron Kingdoms. Honestly, I can't even imagine running something like Sins of the Saviors (the 5th adventure in Rise of the Runelords) in Iron Kingdoms.
As a slight aside, I found that IK is wonderful to read and that Privateer Press prints lovely books, but the setting was way more hassle than fun, in the long run.
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Why not try starting things off with a module or two? I think this one might work well in IK. Although I'm not as familiar with the setting as I should be. :D
Browse the store, or visit your FLGS, and pick up a low level module or two and see where things go from there. Often the best games are the ones that have the humblest beginnings! ;p
Peace,
tfad
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Maybe try some of the Pathfinder (Gamemastery) Modules. I think River into Darkness would work tremendously well with IK, for example.
Also, the Falcon's Hollow adventures (a miniAP in and of themselves) would work with easy adaptations, I think. [Hollow's Last Hope, Crown of the Kobolod King, Carnival of Tears, Return of the Kobold King...Haven't seen the Last Baron stuff, but that might work on one of the many disputed borders in IK]
Thanks, guys. I appreciate the advice. I'll check out the River Into Darkness module.
I like IK a lot and have had a blast playing it over the years. If I can't fit Pathfinder material into IK fairly easily, I'll go with Pathfinder for now, then probably run some IK stuff on the side from time to time.
We have a special Halloween game every year, for example. Last year was a zombie attack with Call of Cthulhu rules where every player wrote themselves up as a PC and we staged the game in our town, with the whole thing starting in the gaming store where we play - was a blast.
Anyway, point is we run side stuff all the time, so if need be we'll do IK on the side :)
Well my group isn't playing right now (lots of personal problmes. However Steerpike I would go with Burt Offerings but don't stick with rise of the runelords, like others have said, upper levels it gets too hard to mix the two. Its been my experince Steerpike that the only flaw with Advanture paths (much as I like them) is that a really good adv. takes on a life of its own. Yeah your the conductor, but like a good Jazz session the players take it in there own direction. So start with either an Adv. Path or one shot at 1st level and move on from there. Don't stick to one path, mix things up a little. With any luck you're not going to need a set adv. after a little while.
Just don't leave home without them, us GMs always need a little edge.