This is not a playtest review.
Lock and Load is a 58 page soft cover with a cost of12.99. It’s a little larger then 8 1/2 by 11 offhand it’s say it was maybe 9 by 12. The one-inch margins are filled with an illustration of a black-coated rifleman, superbly done by Brain Snoddy. The font is extremely readable and is appropriately sized and the book is beautiful. This is the nicest looking rpg books I’ve seen in awhile, all of the interior art is done by the dynamic duo of Brain Snoddy and Matt Wilson and whoever does Privateer Press’s graphic design really knows their stuff. The art is so good it’s almost worth the price of admission by itself.
A quick overview of the book reveals that it is a basic primer to playing characters in the Iron Kingdom’s setting, a sort of industrial-age fantasy world. Included are variant rules for some of the classes, rangers getting the most noticeable treatment with the removal of spell-casting abilities and two-weapon fighting in exchange for some bonus feats and a Favored Terrain. The new races of the Iron Kingdoms are presented; these include the Ogrun, Trollkin, Gobbers and the Nyss. The Ogrun are a race of large humanoids who prize keeping oaths they swear above all else, Trollkin are distant relatives of trolls who have a weaker version of their ancestors legendary healing ability, Gobbers are basically goblins who have a more savage subrace called boggers who are also available as Pcs finally, the Nyss, or winter elves are reclusive elves who live far to the north and wield massive ceremonial greatswords and are by far the most interesting new race presented. Regional racial statistics for humans are introduced as well; with optional ability score modifiers and a sort of favored class ability that allows members of the regions favored class to gain some small benefit at first level. These seem a little strong to me, and when I run my IK game I’ll probably reduce the stat modifiers to 1, -1. The benefit from the Regions is that they give human characters a real sense of identity, rather then break the regions down by country as in the Forgotten realms the regions are broken down by racial stock, giving the setting a much more real world feel. Khador, a Russia type country is made up of humans of Kardic stock as well as a fair helping of Ryn. This, as well as other factors, such as the pantheon of gods, gives the Iron Kingdoms a sense of history, something that is lacking in most Campaign settings, cough Realms cough. And speaking of gods, next up is a description of the Iron Kingdoms pantheon. Most of the Faiths are monotheistic, that is they worship one god, given this is a more “modern” fantasy setting this decision to have mainly Monotheistic religions makes perfect sense and is once again much more realistic and believable within the world then most other fantasy religions, which seem to be usually cheap rip-offs of Norse and Greek pantheons. Finally there are a few pages of Iron Kingdoms equipment, including the Ogrun war-cleaver and Nyss Greatswords.
Overall this is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in running an IK or steampunk game. Though most of the other material, particularly the Gods and the Human Region benefits could be inserted into a standard fantasy game without much effort. As stated earlier the book is truly a work of art, easily being the most attractive book released in the last year. There is not one bad or average picture in this whole book. The few problems I have with the book are small, it relies on the forthcoming Iron Kingdoms Campaign setting a little too much, some things seem a little strong, like the regional modifiers for humans and the Ogrun race in General, also some of the rules used seem a tad on the complicated side. For example, Trollkin have a resistance to poison, this is represented by a sort of damage reduction type ability that works but could easly be replaced by a bonus to save against poison. These are minor complaints though and overall this book is a fantastic example o what the D20 system is capable of when put in the hands of the right people.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)