Thornwood Thursday: Iron Kingdoms RPG Game Night Report

Over the weekend Geneguard, Cliff and I started playing Iron Kingdoms RPG. We had initially planned for two more dudes but they bailed. Hopefully they'll make time for the next session...

An introduction to our characters: I play Abryssal Lanyssal, a Nyss Sorcerer / Military Officer. I cast ice spells and beat face with a nyss claymore and shoot nyss arrows using my nyss eyes to aim.

Abryssal led his tribe to the north when the blight came and came down two weeks later with no tribe left. He became a mercenary and started his own mercenary group, Cloak and Dagger.

Cliff's dude is a human investigator / pistoleer. He has the social skills necessary to be a detective but can also shoot stuff pretty well. I didn't get as much backstory on his character yet.

The night started with us realizing that we'd been blacklisted by all the local merc gangs. They were shutting us out of getting any kind of jobs so we were basically penniless. We checked the postings and nothing was up so we were waiting.

Soon a horseman showed up and gave Cliff's character (Sebastian) a message. He was asked to meet alone with a former colleague in a bar (the Steamy Flagon). The person did not show up and the residents were getting rowdy... eventually Sebastian attracted the attention of some surly sailors. They attacked him and I had to back him up.

Soon the guards came and saw me cut down two sailors (HEH). Our mysterious contact helped us defeat the surly sailors and get away from the guards. We ran for a while using our parkour skills to get around boxes falling, rats, etc.

We eventually made it into a warehouse that was open so we could hide out. Soon the guards found our warehouse so we muscled a box in front of the door and found a tunnel to get out. We moved down the tunnel continuously looking behind us to make sure we weren't followed. Soon we found our way into a veritable trash haven.

Here we fought some scumbags who wanted to kill us for invading their territory. They were dregs? I think? We killed them pretty fast without any reprisal from the guards although Jacob, our mysterious contact, almost died.

From here he explained to us our mission - we needed to get to occupied Llael to start doing work for his superiors. We received a real mercenary charter so we could pass through the military lines.

All in all it was a pretty fun night. We learned a TON. The combat mechanics are VERY similar to WM/H so if you've played that it is really easy. One thing we did learn is that you can fire while you're in combat without having gunfighter. This makes Cliff's character much better. You still get a -4 engaged penalty but you can shoot.

The skill tests were easy to do. Everything about the whole system is easy - especially character creation. I am loving it!

Combat was pretty brutal. Cliff's character has 15 DEF so he is pretty lucky but I am at 12 DEF and 11 ARM so I feel like if I get hit I will die in two hits probably. Feat points are amazing to help yourself through situations like that.

Spell casting was fun. I managed to hit a few guys with Chiller which made it easier for us to hit with melee and ranged attacks. I figured out that one or two spells I won't use so I asked the DUNGEONMASTER if I could replace them as I didn't realize how they would work. I'm super pleased.

We also advanced enough to gain two more occupational skills. I gained more in navigation so we can get to Llael easier and also Oratory so I can incite mobs. FUN.