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It’s probably safe to say that the vast majority of roleplaying products currently released to market have foregone the idea of attracting new players to the hobby. Those looking to give roleplaying a try are often pointed toward Dungeons & Dragons as a matter of course, with most of those recommending that game conveniently overlooking the fact that Dungeons & Dragons is one of the most complicated games out there. D&D certainly isn’t a helpful starting place for would-be roleplayers in the 10-12 age bracket when many of today’s experienced roleplayers got started. Politically Incorrect Games would like to offer a new option with Iron Gauntlets, a comparatively simple game designed to capture the essence of those long-gone Basic D&D boxed sets that introduced so many to the hobby.
A PDF weighing in at 89 pages, Iron Gauntlets is very well-meaning game. Author Brett Bernstein clearly doesn’t want to turn off newbies, and as a result, Iron Gauntlets has more of an introductory feel than almost any roleplaying release in some time. The game’s only real failing is that it forgets that basic means basic, and attempts to make Iron Gauntlets more comprehensive have the side effect of introducing some unwanted complexity.
Iron Gauntlets is straightforward fantasy. All the classic elements are there, from elves, dwarves and halflings, to magic users and warriors. Experienced roleplayers will get strong feelings of déjà vu from the racial descriptions in the game. As has become the norm for PIG releases, Iron Gauntlets features a simple, but flexible point-based system that eschews dice during the character generation process and encourages quick resolution of rolls during play. It’s all presented in plain language that might seem too simple to some, but is likely perfect for the younger audience Iron Gauntlets wishes to capture.
Organization is a bit of an issue, as the step-by-step example for character generation comes only after the steps are discussed at length. This wouldn’t be too bad, except that vital information about, say, how many points to distribute between attributes, isn’t mentioned until the overview, some 17 pages after the concept of attributes is introduced. Iron Gauntlets also might frighten away some would-be GMs with its opening discussion of world creation – this really would be better farther back in the book – and daunting list of questions a good world design should answer.
Iron Gauntlets has a very cool magic system that allows players to customize their own effects, and further breaks magery down into different forms (crafting, divine magic, etc.). It’s great to see this stuff, but it could fly over the heads of the introductory crowd. Bernstein tries to satisfy two audiences here, and to his credit, he accomplishes a difficult task as well as could be expected. This is true of the entire game: it may not be perfect, but at least Iron Gauntlets tries to do something other games don’t even attempt.
The game is rounded out with a bestiary of the usual fantasy suspects and a useful GM’s section. Overall, Iron Gauntlets isn’t the best looking game PIG has ever done, but it’ll do the job. This is a contemporary answer to the entry-level games of yesteryear, and therefore it uses a different standard. Now…let’s grab some dice and start gaming!
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