Wil-E.-freakin'-Coyote
Ever watch those old Warner Bros. cartoons, with the Road Runner and Wil E. Coyote fighting in the desert? You know, the ones where he gets the Acme 50 kiloton firecracker, lights the fuse, and it blows up in is face, and all left standing there is a pile of ash and pair of eyes blinking quizzically? Yeah, that's me right now. Burnout city baby! A month and a half of late nights, ultra-stress at work and bad personal life juju has caught up to me and I'm just very very tired.
On the Game Table
This is a little idea I had about telling you faithful readers out there what those of us on the design team (and friends in the industry) spend our time playing. I love promoting good games, so I'll be infrequently using my space to share it. And without further ado:
On the Game Table: Iron Kingdoms The Witchfire Trilogy and WARMACHINE by Privateer Press
If I were to define my gaming tastes, I would never call myself a 'fantasy guy.' Sure, I started out with DnD like almost everyone else, but I quickly moved on to Top Secret: SI, TMNT and Other Strangeness and a host of other modern or scifi games when I was growing up. Something about fantasy never really grabbed me - maybe it was the shameless Tolkein ripoffs, the bland storytelling of so many games, or just the tired old game feel that saturated many fantasy games I saw. I was excited when d20 came out - the system seemed to make DnD accessible (and cheap) to play again, and I had been playing White Wolf, Cyberpunk and Deadlands for long enough that I had rinsed most of the bad taste about fantasy from my mouth. My group played through the Pool of Radiance freebie module to get a handle on d20 and it was pretty bland, so I ended up trying Oriental Adventures (themed in a homebrew pan-Asian setting) instead. In a 10th level game, I quickly was overwhelmed by the sheer power of the spells and magic items. The bad taste was lingering again, and it was actually starting to break up our group - the former hardcore DnD players wanted to stick with fantasy, while the GM/players wanted to go back to Deadlands, Project X or something less frustrating. In one last ditch effort to get us all back on the same page, having fun again, I picked up the Iron Kingdoms setting, and I can say with confidence it has made us enjoy fantasy gaming again.
The Iron Kingdoms setting is actually developed through the Witchfire Trilogy, which began as a series of modules for standard DnD with a steampunk feel. The land of Caen (similar in many ways to Tolkein's Middle Earth) is a Western European-styled continent, inhabited by 6 large kingdoms established following the defeat of the Orgoth (think Mongols crossed with Vikings and you're on the right track). A key part of this defeat was the development of technology such as gunpowder, the steam engine, and the steamjack, a steam-powered robot driven by a magically attuned brain called a cortex that can be keyed to a wizard for extraordinary feats. The time is 600 years after the defeat of the Orgoth, when these kingdoms are fully established and frequently war against one another using technology ranging across 700 years of human history, from Dark Age to Victorian Era. The story of Witchfire could fit in nearly any standard fantasy setting, but the creative additions and sparing use of technology in the Iron Kingdoms setting creates a unique flavor of the world on the brink of industrial revolution - a time of chaos and definitive change. The players compendium Lock and Load does wonders for enhancing play in the setting as well, providing new weapons, relgions, player races, skills and so forth. At only $12, it's a worthy investment if you plan in playing thru Witchfire
Similarly, WARMACHINE (all caps, per the creators), a skirmish level tabletop wargame set in the IK setting, has a distinct and entertaining flavor about it that sets it apart from its peers. You lead a small army of warjacks (steamjacks built for...well, war) and infantry against opponents from one of 4 rival kingdoms. Each force is led by a warcaster - a fighter/mage hybrid that is the equivalent of a superhero on the table top - who distributes his focus (a representation of arcane power, leadership and inner strength) to cast spells, enhance his 'jacks or increase his own prowess. Warcasters are almost like DnD player characters, host to a handful of special rules, their own unique spell list, named magic weapons and a feat - a once-a-game game breaking power that effects a huge area of the battlefield, from freezing your enemies solid to making single attacks against everyone within 12" to stripping enemy warcasters of all their magic ability for a turn. The overall power level of models in the game, even at the lowest eschelons of infantry, is high, with many special rules and unique abilities - there is nothing crappy or 'cannon fodder' in this game - so if you are a player of GW product, you may go through a little shock. This favors exciting, risky, over-the-top play and tactics, where decisive well-planned actions can turn a game in a single round. And it's cheap - a boxed force contains a warcaster and 2-4 'jacks totalling around 300 points, where 500 points is the standard tournament sized game. Overall investment averages around $100 to play whatever you want in a force - not bad, all things considered. These are the many reasons I love this game to death. Go Privateer!
Next in On the Game Table, I'll probably be talking about Savage Worlds from Pinnacle, Fantasy Flight's Redline, or some other prattle. More later.
Ever watch those old Warner Bros. cartoons, with the Road Runner and Wil E. Coyote fighting in the desert? You know, the ones where he gets the Acme 50 kiloton firecracker, lights the fuse, and it blows up in is face, and all left standing there is a pile of ash and pair of eyes blinking quizzically? Yeah, that's me right now. Burnout city baby! A month and a half of late nights, ultra-stress at work and bad personal life juju has caught up to me and I'm just very very tired.
On the Game Table
This is a little idea I had about telling you faithful readers out there what those of us on the design team (and friends in the industry) spend our time playing. I love promoting good games, so I'll be infrequently using my space to share it. And without further ado:
On the Game Table: Iron Kingdoms The Witchfire Trilogy and WARMACHINE by Privateer Press
If I were to define my gaming tastes, I would never call myself a 'fantasy guy.' Sure, I started out with DnD like almost everyone else, but I quickly moved on to Top Secret: SI, TMNT and Other Strangeness and a host of other modern or scifi games when I was growing up. Something about fantasy never really grabbed me - maybe it was the shameless Tolkein ripoffs, the bland storytelling of so many games, or just the tired old game feel that saturated many fantasy games I saw. I was excited when d20 came out - the system seemed to make DnD accessible (and cheap) to play again, and I had been playing White Wolf, Cyberpunk and Deadlands for long enough that I had rinsed most of the bad taste about fantasy from my mouth. My group played through the Pool of Radiance freebie module to get a handle on d20 and it was pretty bland, so I ended up trying Oriental Adventures (themed in a homebrew pan-Asian setting) instead. In a 10th level game, I quickly was overwhelmed by the sheer power of the spells and magic items. The bad taste was lingering again, and it was actually starting to break up our group - the former hardcore DnD players wanted to stick with fantasy, while the GM/players wanted to go back to Deadlands, Project X or something less frustrating. In one last ditch effort to get us all back on the same page, having fun again, I picked up the Iron Kingdoms setting, and I can say with confidence it has made us enjoy fantasy gaming again.
The Iron Kingdoms setting is actually developed through the Witchfire Trilogy, which began as a series of modules for standard DnD with a steampunk feel. The land of Caen (similar in many ways to Tolkein's Middle Earth) is a Western European-styled continent, inhabited by 6 large kingdoms established following the defeat of the Orgoth (think Mongols crossed with Vikings and you're on the right track). A key part of this defeat was the development of technology such as gunpowder, the steam engine, and the steamjack, a steam-powered robot driven by a magically attuned brain called a cortex that can be keyed to a wizard for extraordinary feats. The time is 600 years after the defeat of the Orgoth, when these kingdoms are fully established and frequently war against one another using technology ranging across 700 years of human history, from Dark Age to Victorian Era. The story of Witchfire could fit in nearly any standard fantasy setting, but the creative additions and sparing use of technology in the Iron Kingdoms setting creates a unique flavor of the world on the brink of industrial revolution - a time of chaos and definitive change. The players compendium Lock and Load does wonders for enhancing play in the setting as well, providing new weapons, relgions, player races, skills and so forth. At only $12, it's a worthy investment if you plan in playing thru Witchfire
Similarly, WARMACHINE (all caps, per the creators), a skirmish level tabletop wargame set in the IK setting, has a distinct and entertaining flavor about it that sets it apart from its peers. You lead a small army of warjacks (steamjacks built for...well, war) and infantry against opponents from one of 4 rival kingdoms. Each force is led by a warcaster - a fighter/mage hybrid that is the equivalent of a superhero on the table top - who distributes his focus (a representation of arcane power, leadership and inner strength) to cast spells, enhance his 'jacks or increase his own prowess. Warcasters are almost like DnD player characters, host to a handful of special rules, their own unique spell list, named magic weapons and a feat - a once-a-game game breaking power that effects a huge area of the battlefield, from freezing your enemies solid to making single attacks against everyone within 12" to stripping enemy warcasters of all their magic ability for a turn. The overall power level of models in the game, even at the lowest eschelons of infantry, is high, with many special rules and unique abilities - there is nothing crappy or 'cannon fodder' in this game - so if you are a player of GW product, you may go through a little shock. This favors exciting, risky, over-the-top play and tactics, where decisive well-planned actions can turn a game in a single round. And it's cheap - a boxed force contains a warcaster and 2-4 'jacks totalling around 300 points, where 500 points is the standard tournament sized game. Overall investment averages around $100 to play whatever you want in a force - not bad, all things considered. These are the many reasons I love this game to death. Go Privateer!
Next in On the Game Table, I'll probably be talking about Savage Worlds from Pinnacle, Fantasy Flight's Redline, or some other prattle. More later.
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