IKRPG - First Impressions

Last night I ran my first game of the Iron Kingdoms RPG. I'd like to give some initial impressions on the game.


In essence, the IKRPG takes the tabletop game of Warmachine and lets you play out adventures in the Iron Kingdoms setting. In the most basic sense, its a cross between Warmachine and Dungeons and Dragons.

This isn't the first iteration of the IKRPG. Years ago they released a supplement book that converted the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons into a steampunk setting. I never played it, but the popular opinion is that this caused a bit of a disconnect for Warmachine fans because it A) used a d20 instead of d6 and B) was grid based (moving 1 square at a time) whereas Warmachine allows you to move in any direction.

Having already learned the rules for the war game, the transition in to the RPG was rather painless. The core game is still the same, with a few changes for the sake of balance. I think this is a great design choice because it makes it readily accessible for their fans who don't want to learn an entirely new game.

Originally I was anticipating having 6 or 7 people for our first game, and then settling at around 3 or 4 as people decided it wasn't for them. So after preparing an adventure with several plot hooks, it turned out that only two could play. It was a bit of a bummer, but as an ace GM I didn't let that deter me.

I didn't want to use the adventure I'd already come up with in case the larger group ends up happening in the future. Fortunately for me, Josh had created a handful of characters that anyone could use. He chose a character and then had Zach, a guy with no Warmachine experience, choose another. While they did that, I quickly sat down and pounded out a quick adventure with two combats and a skill challenge. And that leads me to the thing about IKRPG that impressed me most...

Creating an adventure is ridiculously easy. I've seen discussion about how non-combat situations aren't covered in-depth in the rules. While true, I found that very refreshing because it allowed me to craft a short narrative that didn't get bogged down by constant skill checks and abilities. Instead, I called for a few generic skill rolls, but for the most part it allowed me and the players to come up with a much better story that wasn't dominated by non-combat skills.

Combat, however, was simple to create tons of fun to play out. After jotting down a sentence or two for each part of the adventure, I had to find bad guys. In D&D, you tend to be limited in what you can take because a level 20 character can't be touched by a level 1 creature. You can fudge stats, but for the most part it was always a bookkeeping nightmare to make level-appropriate encounters.

In the IKRPG, however, you get a much simpler chart. Instead of an XP budget for each encounter, you get a guideline for encounter points. It ranges from 3-7 characters, and gives you an idea of how many encounter points to spend based on the average number of XP each player has. After browsing through several higher-level enemies, it looks like a zombie they fight at level one could still pose a threat later on. If need be, all I'd need to do is bump up its stats across the board or give it a simple ability.

That's all a bit vague, but my basic point is that I created a decent adventure in 15 minutes with no problems on my end. I had my skeleton of a story, which Josh and Zach helped me fill in based on what they did and how they responded to characters. When it came to combat, I felt like I had more control of the game in 1 night than I did after a couple years hosting weekly D&D games.

Why? Because things flowed smoothly. Characters didn't spike up and down, making me add arbitrary pressure or fudge a die roll to keep combat interesting. Characters don't seem to range from deific to laughably useless. If characters are built with a bit of planning, everyone seems able to contribute.

Granted, that's said after only seeing 2 characters in action. But what amazed me is that both characters were made to crumble if they got it. They both dealt ranged damage, and had to get in to my threat range to kill my characters. But thanks to some brilliant teamwork and improbably-good rolling they managed to take down the final encounter with an appropriate amount of edge-of-your-seat action.

I will say that I'm not so sure about the encounter points budget they recommend. After they decimated my first encounter, I added 5 more enemies to the final one. I didn't add up my points at the time, because as I said I felt like the mechanics gave me so much control over the game that I felt confident in my estimates of what they could handle. When combat had ended and I added all the points together, I realized that they managed to take on an encounter with a budget built for four people! I felt a bit evil when I saw those numbers, but it really spoke to how much players can be pushed in a final encounter.

I am witholding my final verdict on the game until I get some more play time with a larger group. But after last night, I'm already talking my wife in to letting me host a weekly game at my place. The Iron Kingdoms setting is a lot of fun, and I can't wait to create another story within it.

See you tomorrow with another PIP2k13 pledge!