IRON FIST
A d20 3.5/Iron Kingdoms Game
INTRO
The Iron Kingdoms is a region on the world of Caen where “full-metal fantasy” is a way of life. It is a fantasy steampunk setting where steam-powered mechanisms, black powder weapons and burgeoning pseudo-science co-exist alongside magic and alchemy.
You have been ‘recruited’ into the Iron Fist, a Cygnan ‘elite’ mercenary unit of misfits (think Dirty Dozen meets French Foreign Legion, perhaps with a touch of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). You will be sent on missions that no one else would do or would be capable of doing.
CHARACTER GENERATION
1. ABILITY SCORES
Standard Ability Scores: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma.
Ability scores are generated as follows: 18, 16, 14, 14, 12, 10. Assign these scores to your abilities as you wish. This ensures everyone is good in at least one thing. NOTE: This is before racial adjustments.
Additional Adjustment: you can lower any one score by 2 points and then add it to any other. No score can be raised past 18 with this method.
2. CHOOSE RACE
Race grants you ability score adjustments, a racial bonus feat (usually a choice), racial class skill, racial skill bonuses, and possibly other racial abilities. Races available include: Gobbers (civilized goblins), Half-Elves, Humans, Iosans (Elves), Nyss (Winter Elves), Ogruns (civilized ogres), Rhulfolk (Dwarves), and Trollkin (civilized trolls). Humans are the most numerous species, but are ethnically diversified; there are 34 Human ethnicities to choose from. (See separate thread for Race Details.)
3. CHOOSE NATIONALITY
Regardless of species, they have all formed only a few nations at this time, but they are constantly on the verge of war. Each nationality grants you a bonus feat; several are listed for each nationality, but you can only choose one.
Cygnar: Iron Will, Negotiator, University Educated or Wealthy (x2 gold)
Khador: Animal Affinity, Mounted Combat or For the Motherland
Llael: Persuasive, Weapon Finesse or Signs and Stories
Ord: Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes or Two-Pistol Fighting
Protectorate: Combat Casting, Spell Penetration or Witch Hound
Ios: Forge Ring, Myth Delver, or Stealthy
Rhul: Endurance, Great Fortitude, or Mountaineer (+2 to Climb and Jump checks)
Cryx: Sea Legs (from Stormwrack; +2 bonus to shipboard Balance and Tumble checks, +1 to initiative), Steam Monkey or Tall Tales
Skorne: Cleave, Power Attack or Self-Sufficient
4. CHOOSE CLASSES
This is a gestalt campaign utilizing a Starting Class and an Adventuring Class, so you actually have two classes. Overall starting level is 3rd.
Your Starting Class is essentially a somewhat mundane “background” class. There are many options, but they all use the NPC classes (Adept, Aristocrat, Commoner, Expert, Warrior) as a basis for each.
Your Adventuring Class is the one that will make you famous… or else dead. They include: Arcane Mechanic, Berserker (Barbarian), Bodger, Cleric, Druid, Fell Caller, Fighter, Gun Mage, Monk, Paladin, Rogue, Scout (Ranger), Sorcerer, War Bard or Wizard.
Rules from Liber Mechanika are in full use.
NOTE: Everyone will start out with maximum Hit Points for 3rd level.
If you have some other adventuring class you want to use, I’ll consider either 3.5 or Pathfinder ones if you give me a good explanation of how they fit into the Iron Kingdom scheme of things. (See separate thread for Class Details.)
5. CHOOSE SKILLS
Pretty much standard, though the Iron Kingdoms have a few additional skills: Craft (cannoneer) (Int), Craft (clockwork) (Int), Craft (demolitions) (Int), Craft (gunsmithing) (Int), Craft (mechanika) (Int), Craft (small arms) (Int), Craft (steam engine) (Int), Craft (tools) (Int), Creature Lore, Jack Handling (Cha), Knowledge (mechanika) (Int), Knowledge (tactics) (Int), Knowledge (all skills) (Int).
I'm going to use the Pathfinder rule that if you put at least one rank into a Class skill, you automatically gain a +3 class bonus to that skill.
6. CHOOSE FEATS
Standard feats plus Iron Kingdoms (including Liber Mechanika) feats, are all valid.
7. CHOOSE EQUIPMENT (Starting gold and gear)
You have 12,000gc (gold crowns) to spend on equipment (or save it for a rainy day). While all standard equipment is available for ‘acquisition’, you should keep in mind that the military may not support some equipment, but they may supply you with others.
MAGIC ITEMS and MECHANIKA: You can start out with whatever magic items or mechanika your gold crowns can afford, including any blend of the two (such as a +1 pistol, a rifle of distance, +2 steam-armor, etc.); consider this Fate's compensation for your misfit status.
8. CHOOSE MOTIVATION
This is the reason you qualify as a misfit and are ‘willing’ to join the Iron Fist. The following is a sample list of that motivation, but others may be considered.
Banished: You have been banished from your homeland for heresy or treason and marked with either a branding or a magical aura or a mechata (a mechanical device that you can’t remove, such as an iron mask, iron boots, etc.).
Bogatyri Bloodline (Khardic): Others have accused you of having Bogatyri blood running through you. Even if you do, it isn’t your fault! Your additional height, weight and brutish appearance have forced you to leave your home. Add 6” to your height and +50% to your weight.
Branded (Skirov): You were branded a witch and had to flee to keep from being burned.
Criminal: You have been convicted of a serious crime and rather than being executed or imprisoned in the deepest dungeon for the next 100 years, you’ve been reprieved as long as you do well in the Iron Fist.
Directionless: You have no goals in life yet, have no idea what you want to do. You've probably been wandering around just trying to stay out of trouble. You do know that you want to make a difference, somewhere, somehow.
Disavowed: You were a member of some order or organization that evicted you due to the political machinations of an adversary or competitor. They now deny that you were ever a member or ever worked for them.
Disinherited: The patriarch or matriarch of your family claimed you dishonored the family and they have removed you from the inheritance chain.
Disowned: You did something that your family considered inexcusable (dated someone out of your faith, got a girl preg-nant out of wedlock, converted to a different faith, struck a priest, ate a forbidden food, etc.) and they now deny you are part of their family.
Discommendation (Orgun): You were legally and ceremonially shunned and stripped of honor and severely reduced in social status with few rights in your society. You have become a pariah to all Ogruns everywhere. Other Ogruns will often refuse to associate with you, and it is customary for them to refer to you as "that" (an object, rather than a person).
Exiled: You have been exiled from a country for treason or heresy, but the importance of your family kept you from being executed.
Freak of Nature (Khardic): You were a freakish physical misfit in your culture and were driven out by insults, taunting, and ridicule. Add 12” to your height.
Hunted: You believe you are being hunted, possibly by assassins or bounty hunters, or maybe even some supernatural beast.
Lost Soul: You have no idea who you are or where you are from; you are looking for an identity, any identity, even if it isn’t yours.
Mark of Slavery: You were enslaved for part or all of your youth, and marked as such with a brand or tattoo that still re-minds you of how you were punished whenever you failed to do what you should. Whenever you fail a skill check, you take a –2 morale penalty on any skill check or attack roll you attempt for the next 5 minutes while you work through it.
Midnight Rambler: You have trouble sleeping at night; you prefer to sleep in the daytime. At night, you are restless, and must move around constantly.
Misbegotten: Whether due to the influence of malign magic, disease, or the scorn of the gods, you were born with a troublesome deformity that interferes with your movement. You take a –2 penalty on all Dexterity-based skill checks OR a -10 feet reduction to your speed.
Misfit: You’ve never quite fit in, and it showed. You may have been driven out, or politely requested to leave as you were disrupting the harmony of the community.
On the Run: You did something you shouldn’t have, and you are trying to get as far away from the authorities that are looking for you as you can!
Outcast: You have been cast out from your home town or community for a criminal act (which you may or may not have actually committed). No one from there will talk to you or deal with you anymore.
Outlander: You are from a wilderness area, far away from the cities and lands of civilization, caught up in the pressures of civilization to conform.
Pariah: Result of a great wrong against a powerful member of a noble house, military sect, or religious Fane.
Soulless: Thought primarily to be only an Iosan condition, it appears to have spread to other species. As the eyes are the windows to the soul and you have no soul, your eyes are the jet black of the abyss.
Superstitious: Raised around those who regarded most magic as innately dangerous, no matter the source, you cannot bring yourself to submit to magic willingly even for your own good. Whenever you are affected with a harmless spell, there is a 50% chance that you must roll a saving throw to prevent that effect, even if it would benefit you. You must succeed at Will save DC 10 + your level even to cast a spell upon yourself.
Tainted Spirit: When you were a child, a parent or other person with authority over you made a minor pact with a fiend on your behalf, stealing some of your vitality in exchange for a minor boon. At the end of any combat, you must suc-ceed at a Fortitude saving throw (DC = 10 + the number of rounds you acted in combat) or become fatigued for 10 minutes per round you acted during that encounter.
Vendetta: A person or family has declared a vendetta against you. Normally, there’s nowhere to hide from a vendetta, but you are hoping you just may have found one.
Wanderlust: You can’t stay in one place for very long—your feet have to move on.
Wedding Bell Blues (Tordoran): Your marriage was a done deal. Negotiations had been concluded, contracts signed, and your fiancé was waiting at the church. Suddenly there wasn’t enough dust between you and the church. No broken hearts were left behind, but a broken contract could have bounty hunters after you. Worse, her family could have sworn a vendetta against you.
9. BACKGROUND
I’m not looking for a lot of detail here, just something that lets the rest of us know what your character is all about (but feel free to expound on it if you really want to). Maybe you’re a farmer who just fell off the turnip truck, or maybe you’re the son of a son of a sailor that’s just in port (or is trying to get out!), or maybe you’re a mercenary out for gold and glory. Maybe you’re an exiled noble, an outlawed wizard, an obsessed alchemist (think mad scientist), a lost ranger, or a down-on-your luck rogue. Some of the direction of the game will depend on what the backgrounds are. Note that your background may be tied to your motivation.
Whether you know any of the other characters before joining the Iron Fist is up to you and the other players and the background you come up with.
10. PERSONALITY
Some idea of your personality would be good. Things like reserved, talkative, brave, foolish, creative, happy-go-lucky, cheerful, grim, charming, enthusiastic, gullible, cautious, impulsive, etc. will help me direct the story. Quirks and mannerisms are also cool, but I know how hard it is to maintain mannerisms (it is for me!).
11. RTJ
I just need the name of your character, his/her race and class, motivation for joining the Iron Fist, a brief background and some idea of personality. Any questions, just ask!
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:24, Sun 24 Oct 2021.
