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The Good: Iron Gauntlets enables the player to build whatever character he desires from the start. Want to play a renegade king, master wizard, or humble merchant? This game can easily handle it all. Those who dislike lengthy tables or detailed lists of what abilities can do, and prefer more flexibility for the GM, will enjoy this system. Options for using a d6 system, instead of the d10 system, are a nice touch.
The Bad: Some will criticize Iron Gauntlets as a ‘fantasy heartbreaker’ – and they’re right. This game is vanilla fantasy with little unique or interesting material, so if that doesn’t appeal to you it’s probably worth avoiding. Some of the rules in the book are unclear, and the general presentation may require readers to re-read sections. More examples of game play, and especially of the magic system in use, would have been a nice addition.
The Physical Thing
This 174 page black and white softcover showcases slightly above average production values for its $26.95 price tag. While the formatting is simple, it serves the product well and results in no wasted space. Average to below average quality artwork supplements the text well. A short but useful index and the table of contents together make the product easy to navigate.Under the Cover
Chapter 1 Characters - 26 pages.Iron Gauntlets jumps right in to characters and character creation. Before we explore that, let me explain the core task resolution mechanic to you. Characters have Abilities (rated 1-6) and Skills (rated 1-8). When it’s time to roll the dice the player will roll the relevant Ability in d10s and every die that results in the Skill rating or lower counts as a success. So, if a character has an Ability of 4 and a Skill of 6 then 4d10 is rolled and every die that turns up a 6 or lower counts as a success.
Fitness, Awareness, Creativity, Reasoning, and Influence are the core Abilities here and represent a character’s natural aptitude in a given area. Each ranges from 0 (disabled) to 6 (incredible ability) with the average falling at 3. Since two of these may not be immediately understood let me tell you about them. Creativity represents more of a character’s artistic ability while Reasoning is more like a traditional Intelligence or Mind Ability, representing logic and memory.
In addition to these six Abilities there are four additional Magical Abilities that only spellcasters will take. Crafting (wizardly magic), Divinity (priestly magic), Totem (shamanism), and Essence (chi, ki, self-awareness). All Abilities may also have Flairs, which are areas where that Ability is especially strong or weak. Fitness, for example, could have a bonus to dexterity and a penalty to strength. That is to say, it will receive a +1 modifier when manual dexterity comes into play (perhaps when using a bow) and a -1 penalty for feats of strength.
Fantasy Races are also included for player selection. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Centaur, Goblins, Gnomes, and Orclins are all available. These all fit classic fantasy archetypes and, as such, will be immediately recognizable to any group. Each Race provides a variety of bonuses and penalties to provide flavor, but rarely are the modifications so powerful that one race has a distinct advantage in a given adventuring role. Haflings, for example, get a bonus to Stealth rolls and the Undersized Gimmick. Simple and effective. Many Races have attached Backgrounds (such as Lord or Slave), which represents a character’s upbringing. These may also provide minor mechanical changes. For those that don’t, Backgrounds may be selected for even more mechanical bonuses.
Gimmicks, another character option, serve the role of Merits and Flaws here (or Feats for those familiar with d20). They cover wealth, size, reputation, and appearance but also provide for physical abilities like seeing in the dark. A character’s Race will often determine one or two Gimmicks, and many players will select more.
Vocations are used to generally group your character’s Skills into a certain area. Each one is a Skill package, often with some sort of attached ability, and the granted Skills are much less expensive to purchase and increase. Bandit, High Priest, Knight, Merchant, Warrior, and Wizard are just a few examples.
Iron Gauntlets makes use of over 35 different general Skills, grouped under the most commonly linked Ability, and a host of magical Skills linked to the appropriate magical Ability. Characters may also have Styles, which are areas of specialization among Skills that often allow for new or expanded uses for those Skills.
Finally, all characters have 5 points of Health for both Fatigue and Injury. As characters become more exhausted or injured they begin to take negative penalties until, finally, they are defeated.
Got all that? Good! Let’s make a character!
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Example: I’m building a goblin knight who was away on a quest when his kingdom was destroyed. Let’s call him Grishak. As a Goblin he receives the Surefooted, Frail, and Undersized Gimmicks, the Cavernfolk Background, and a maximum Reasoning of 3. His Cavernfolk Background gives him Darksight but imposes a -2 penalty to awareness when in daylight.
Good Gimmicks may be taken at a cost of points later in character creation, while bad Gimmicks add points. I buy the Good Reputation Gimmick to reflect his status as the last surviving Knight of his lost Kingdom and as good and honorable man. For Vocation I choose Knight. This means that the following Skills are Vocational Skills and cheaper to buy/increase: athletics, brawling, dueling, riding, design, literacy, court etiquette, leadership, and composure. I have 16 points to distribute among the five core Abilties, and if I want to use magic I’ll have to buy up a magical Ability as well. I decide to go with this: Fitness 5, Awareness 2, Creativity 3, Reasoning 2, and Influence 4. Luck begins at (1d10 / 2) +1, I roll a 7 so my starting Luck is 5. Luck is a meta-mechanic in Iron Gauntlets and can fluctuate in play as players spend it for bonuses and receive it back for good roleplaying, heroic actions, and other worthwhile actions. I normally have 30 points to spend on Vocational Skills, but since I purchased a Gimmick I have 3 fewer points to spend for a total of 27. I may also buy other Skills, but they cost twice as many points. I buy Dueling 7, Court Etiquette 3, Leadership 3, Composure 4, Athletics 4, Riding 3, and Literacy 3. Money is spent, and we’re done! |
Chapter 2 Task Resolution - 12 pages.
To resolve most tasks the GM sets a Difficulty, typically from 1 to 6 or so, and the player rolls their Ability. For every die that turns up the relevant Skill rating or lower the player scored one ‘step’ and if they get steps equal to the Difficulty then they succeed at the task.
| Example: My character wants to figure out the meaning behind a poem. The GM decides this is a Creativity / Literacy test and sets the Difficulty at 3 (Complex). I roll my Creativity (4) and get 1, 2, 5, 8 – two steps. My character can’t quite figure out the meaning behind this poem – if only he had gotten one more step! |
From this other mechanics can be intuitively derived. In situations where characters are opposing one another, such as with stealth and perception, it’s a simple matter of whoever rolls the greatest number of steps winning the contest. Experience points are attached to Skills whenever a character succeeds at a Step 4 or greater task, resulting in a use-based XP system.
Combat is a little different, but not by much. Combat occurs in 5 second turns wherein every character receives a single action. Characters may also decrease their Fitness or Awareness Ability to receive additional Fitness or Awareness-based actions. So, if you want to both attack once and defend once in a turn you’ll want to decrease your Fitness (technically adding that die to your Reaction, or initiative) for the turn. This also means that characters can either be highly effective at one or two tasks, or less effective at many tasks. Attacks are normally made against a difficulty of 2, but resisted attacks (such as through parries or other appropriate defensive actions) are resolved like all other resisted actions.
Damage dealing is largely based on a character’s weapon. All attacks deal Fatigue damage but many also deal Injury. Fitness may add to Fatigue damage, and the weapon used may add to either Fatigue or Injury damage based on its type. A club, for example, will just deal Fatigue damage. On top of this, every point of Overkill (success) a character gets on the attack may be applied to the damage as well depending on whether the GM is running a more cinematic or realistic game. When everything has been added together to create a damage total, that damage is rolled against the target’s armor. Every die that turns up under the armor rating results in no damage while those that exceed the armor rating deal damage. So against Armor of 7 (platemail), the attacker would hope for high numbers (8+).
Rules for damage by poisons, temperature, and other substances, hit locations, and various other details are included resulting in a thorough combat system.
Chapter 3 Equipment - 10 pages.
This is a simple but complete fantasy equipment list, focused more on classic swords and sorcery gear without any sort of technology mixed in. Armor, shields, swords, potions, transportation, and similar gear is all included.
Chapter 4 Magic - 20 pages.
At its core, magic works like any other Skill. Each of the four types of is a distinct Ability and has several attached magical Skills. Each of these Skills has its own rules. For example, Crafting is classic wizardly magic. Spells must be memorized (with a number in the mind at a time based on the Reasoning Ability), casting can cause Fatigue, and the magical effects are intuitive. Fabrica Ge is a Crafting Skill. It allows for the character to create teleportation portals, and the Skill roll determines how large the created portal is. Most magic is just like this – a simple Skill roll to determine potency with a Range modifier added on.
Magic here isn’t endlessly diverse, but instead focuses on a few key powers for each of the magic types. Healing, buffing, foretelling the future, combat effects – magic can do a lot, but the effects are general and details are largely left up to the describing player. Each type of magic has its own unique feel and mechanical twist, and the powers are sufficiently diverse that each type of spellcaster will play differently.
Chapter 5 Bestiary - 10 pages.
Orcs, Unicorns, Dragons, Zombies – all the classic fantasy creatures can be found here. Rather than provide set Ability and Skill scores for each creature, Iron Gauntlets provides a randomly determined range meant to result in every monster being a little different. On the one hand, this is great because it makes it more difficult for players to gauge just how powerful a given monster is. On the other hand, this is problematic because it means there are no easy to refer to pregenerated monsters. GMs will most likely want to roll up the Abilities and set the Skills ahead of time, and while that’s not excessively time consuming it may be more than some GMs want to do.
Another dual edged sword is the simplicity of the system. Special abilities are few and simple, and while this makes the creatures easy to understand and run it may result in some dissatisfaction among players and GMs who want clearer definition when it comes to what a critter can do.
Chapter 6 Behind the Scenes - 14 pages.
Character advancement, rules customization, story ideas, random encounter tables, simple conversion rules to a d6 system, and general GM advice round out this chapter. It has everything that you would expect from a GM chapter, and while none of the advice or GMing assistance stands out it certainly does the job in workman-like fashion.
Chapter 7 The Chronicles - 46 pages.
The included setting here borrows heavily from past fantasy settings, providing an immediately recognizable Western European inspired land filled with dark forests, harsh deserts, mystical lakes, and incredibly tall mountains. Gods, example NPCs, kingdoms, “a day in the life of” sections, holidays, travel information, and setting specific villains and monsters all receive discussion here. This is a setting a GM can pick up and run with little trouble, which is sure to be familiar to the gaming group.
Crests and standards of arms are provided to add a little more flavor and fun to each of the major political groups. A very short introductory adventure rounds out the setting chapter.
Chapter 8 Deadly Treasure - 16 pages.
This fantasy adventure is probably most appropriate for one to two sessions of play and does a good job of providing a GM with everything he needs to know to run the session. While it is a very structured adventure, as you would expect from a first session included adventure, it does do a good job of addressing what happens if the PCs do one thing or another. It has some flexibility built in, which combined with the NPC stat blocks, predetermined task difficulties, and lack of lengthy NPC speeches makes it an easy adventure to run.
My Take
Iron Gauntlets provides a fantasy gaming experience reminiscent of classic fantasy novels, AD&D, and everything you’ve come to expect from the genre. Complete in a single product, Iron Gauntlets sets out to be no more or less than a solid vanilla fantasy RPG. While it could benefit from a complete example of combat, clarification of some Styles in play, and better artwork I can’t fault the game for anything else. It is simpler than Dungeons and Dragons, but sports many of the features from multiple editions of the game. Characters very closely follow archetypes, and I suspect many groups will find Iron Gauntlets to be an excellent vehicle for their traditional fantasy gaming.If you want a simpler game system, complete in one product, to tell tales of adventuring knights and wizards then check out Iron Gauntlets.
