What do you think of Ironclaw as a system? The setting is furry trash, but I very much enjoyed the stepped dice pool mechanics. Any comparable systems? Has anybody else run or played it?
I myself ran a few games in it for about a year with a gang of furries, which was... an experience.
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Well, share your experience.
And the .pdf, if you have it.
I really like the dice pool system, too. I honestly don't mind the setting that much either, because even though a lot of the art is horrid the lore itself it actually pretty solid. Probably the best system out there for running any sort of Redwall-themed game. Every game I've run has been with chill people (and the only guy I suspect might have been an actual furry keeps it in check pretty well), so it's just like any other system where the people who do fetishy shit are probably predisposed to do it regardless of the system.
The same company has been building up the mechanics in a couple other products, and Urban Jungle is pretty neat as well if you want a noir slant to the gameplay.
I enjoy it. The martial arts is nice, as is the lethality. I enjoy Dice pool.
When setting appropriate, I usually switch out Savage Worlds for this and trim out the furshit.
If you're triggered by furry shit you're probably stupid. The system is fun, the setting is fine. Jadeclaw adds martial arts to the mix and makes monks more viable.
The .pdf is fairly big. What's a good site to upload it? I usually use Sendspace but it might not be best here.
I may have slightly misrepresented what I meant to say. The group were actually generally very enthusiastic and good roleplayers, though the roleplay often spun off into sex stuff between one character and another or an NPC. Most of the weirdness was in interacting with the players, who were mostly NEETs with personal issues I got dragged into. Trouble really got started up when one of my players got much, much too invested in their character and started lashing out at me when, to put it briefly, their character's love life didn't work out. He settled down after a few weeks, their character made a go for another NPC, who rejected him for being a womanizing asshole, and the problem player stirred up enough shit that I finally had enough and dropped the game. Booting the player wasn't agreeable to the rest of the group, and I wasn't having fun anymore, so it was the best option. Things had gotten too bogged down in detailed roleplay, anyways, so much so that the plot couldn't advance because the players only had an interest in their characters' day-to-day lives and intricate romances.
I played the 2nd edition, but the Book of Jade supplement was a pile of trash. Poorly put together, a jumbled mess. Martial arts was a good idea, but the execution needed some work, and many styles tied into weapon descriptors that made no sense.
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>furrshit garbage.
>Redwall-themed game
Been sitting on an idea for a good long while now. What makes it good for Redwall?
>What makes it good for Redwall?
Every species in Ironclaw has a few starting Gifts that reflect on what that type of animal can do, and there's even a Species stat that reflects where your character is on the human-to-feral scale. A couple of the skills are also very much built around animalistic traits and qualities, like Digging and Weather Sense. Coupled with the game's default setting being very much a Game of Thrones type of quarreling houses, and there's already a basis for political campaigns without much refluffing to something like Redwall. Magic is pretty low-key as well, though it can be powerful with enough investment.
I guess you could make an argument for other systems being "better" for a Redwall game, but Ironclaw is probably the one that would need the least amount of tinkering.
mega. nz/#!Z0xAUKZK!tenUHWElNL3K0n8vlsf2BIhF_m4F24XweGCh9cpNXYw
The one major thing that would need changing is that everyone in Ironclaw is at about the same size, so a GM would have to come up with something for that. A common-sense bonus/penalty die based on the scale would probably be enough 90% of the time, though.
Easy fixes, though some species need tweaking / creating, as badgers should probably be stuck with Giant and moles need to exist. I'd probably drop magic entirely for a game set in the Redwall setting, as there the only magic is just prophecies and some questionable divinations from foxes, not fireballs. Now to find a group.
Yeah, giving some of the species a Giant gift would work. Maybe as a quick and dirty houserule you could even assign a limit on the size of the Body die for each animal, reflecting on their relative size to each other. The smaller rodents would have to assign the d4 for their Body, for example.
I dunno about that. Body drives how tough you can be as well as how strong. There's been some pretty strong mice, and certainly most of them rate better than a d4.
Better might be creating three size classes like DnD does, with bonuses and penalties to each category. Large is a penalty to be hit, bonus to Soak and lift things. Small is harder to hit, lift less, etc. It'll need a little tuning, but that's a mechanical solution.
That or just use common sense and scale the difficulty / possibility of tasks per character size. A badger can probably easily pull a logboat ashore on their own, but a mouse would find it very difficult. However, when it comes to hiding under that logboat from a gang of foxes, the mouse will find it trivial, but it's impossible for the badger. That's a lot of GM interpretation, though, and the players would need to be able to understand and accept the GM's rulings on it.
Personally, I think you could handwave it with the justification that in the books, size differences between species aren't consistent or even important until they ARE important narratively. For example, the fact that the old badger marm ought to be the size of a bus compared to a mouse isn't all that important most of the time.
However, when the rats in the abbey piss her off and she lifts an entire oaken table to menace them, then her size and strength matter in a way they don't for a mouse.
It's one of the reasons I'd considered using Fate for the Redwall game I want to run, because all those species and size differences can be wrapped up in aspects, permissions, and stunts if need be.
>The setting is furry trash
Actually... I thought it was pretty good. It was well fleshed out. All the major factions have flavor, and even the minor factions have enough background and motivations to function with just the core book.
I liked the questionable founding of the white magic church, where few realized the true nature of the magic involved in the miracle which founded it. It had an excellent definition of what is "black" as opposed to "white" magic, and how blurred that is with any ruling entity defining that for itself. I also liked the pre-historic setting for magic, and the intentional rejection which led to a Renaissance development.
I like the non-magic of the setting too. The old institutions of monarchy are being, sometimes aggressively, replaced with the emerging powers of merchants and the middle class tradesmen, while even older pagan and naturalist societies are still trying to hold their own relevance or are forced to modernize.
The first novella is excellent too. The one about the bounty hunter during the kingslayer crisis.
Haven't read the other novels yet.
I thought Redwall already had Mouseguard? Seems much more fitting.
Mouseguard is too brutal for Redwall, I think. Ironclaw bakes in a heroic feel, well suited to lighter fare.
Did anyone here back the Middle Eastern setting book?
Mouseguard is suitable for Mouseguard. The two settings have almost nothing in common, save for mice.
I thought it was African?
Didn't back it, but the art actually looked decent, compared to the core book anyway.
Sanguine's been a total mess lately, I don't trust their Kickstarters anymore. Last one I backed was Bleeding Edge, which was delivered as an unplayable mess and never revised.
The inside art of the latest edition of Ironclaw is amazing, regardless of the terrible cover. Chris Goodwin is awesome.
>lately
Lately?
As I understand it, they put out a whole new RPG ~1-2 years. I'd be amazed if they put out a hit intentionally. They rapid fire these things, each a slight permutation from the last.
I've actually skimmed all their RPGs since the original 90's. It's kind of fascinating to see them pick up new design ideas, and drop or revise them in the next unrelated game. Ironclaw 2e actually owes some to Albedo and Usagi Yojimbo playtesting, which came inbetween Ironclaw 1.0, 1.5 (Jadeclaw), and the current 2.0.
>Lately
...You're right. I can't think of a Kickstarter they've managed to pull off without delays, faulty product, bad editing, bad printing. Book of Jade was delayed by months and months, and they started selling hard copies at conventions before finishing fulfillment of Kickstarter orders. Myriad Song might be their best one by virtue of having the lease fiascoes involved in its production. That was pretty solid, used the same mechanics as Ironclaw to run a space opera.
Honestly, In my experience, the system is really fucking good, Like rock fucking solid, the problem is it's tied to fur shit.
Ya know, that kind of art I'm totally okay with. I'd be totally down with playing anthropomorphic animals like that.
It's just the terrible furry anime shit like that really turns me and many others off of it.
Someone have Urban Jungle?
PDFs?
See
>Ironclaw Bestiary
Are there humans in there?
No, it's a collection of the art the guy did for the game. I can dig through my notebooks and find stats I did up for standard fantasy races in the system, though.
Ah yes that finally gives me an excuse to share an idea of mine.
If you have a setting that primarily focuses on anthropomorphic animals and want include humans and not have them be the most boring vanilla shit,
instead making everything else human +/-1 one should "scale" them correctly in stats and technological development and preserve the character of our current relationship with animals.
Basically in such a setting Humans would be extremely long lived, hyper intelligent beings with an nigh incomprehensible culture and language and technology so advanced it seems like magic.
They'd go around stealing away other creatures young so they can either eat them or turn them into their slaves.
And those that they steal would be warped and mutated into strange parodies of their species to serve their new masters strange whims.
Basically if you "scale" humans correctly they become something similar to True Fae.
>True Fae
Is that like TRVE KVLT?
No I was thinking of Changeling the Lost.
I always sort of imagined the Autarchs (Ironclaw's obligatory "powerful race that has mysteriously vanished") as a nearly human species. Since what little the game describes of them refers to the Autarchs as tyrannical "wizard-kings", it wouldn't be hard to think of humans as being the superiors to all the lowly animal people.
What makes the game worth playing over D&D, GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, Runequest and the like?
It's point-based, classless/class-lite, features state-based damage and mixed dice pools. If those qualities strike your fancy, then it's worth playing over different systems that don't have those.
Thought of a similar idea. Where the world is run by several different Not-Humans, and the age of man is basically over. At they end of the Human Race's life they manage technologically marvels that boarder on magic yes. The remaining humans often huddle in large power-plant like structures which DO provide electricity to nearby communities (normally metropolis)- for a cost. Depending on settlement they may also produce other materials or metals.
Trades and payments happen on schedule with daring merchant or officials, but generally humans are shunned and feared for their strange way of thinking and appearance. Wars could be fought on their doorstep and destroy their neighbors and the humans would generally not care unless it directly threatens them. Then the opposing army generally faces off against vastly superior weaponry.
Normally a human will have deceives on their person which allow them to do extraordinary things. My most common appear are usually a tesla-like inspired outfits that allow Magneto-like control of electricity, rocks, and metal. Heavy googles and face masks often to conceal themselves. Mostly encountered alone or in pairs, with several drone servants to help with heavy lifting. A Disarmed and naked human still has to ability to construct fantastic things out of raw materials- an ability they unlocked in themselves a long time ago.
I had fairly similar ideas too my idea was that most humans would have fucked off into space or live hooked up to VR 24/7.
The last remaining populated human settlements would be well hidden and near impossible to reach despite all existing at the base of massive space elevators that could be seen for miles.
Their appearance wouldn't be so typically technological though, I had something closer to Blame! Or Abara in mind.
Anyway older abandoned human cities would make for great locations for more open air dungeon crawls with the PCs likely having to contend with old security system (robots, auto turrets, self quarantineing building etc.) as well as all manner of discarded abominations many of which are probably made of people (as in non human races), if they want a chance at acquiring expensive, valuable or powerful artefacts.
There would also likely be many newer cities built in or on the ruins of the old which could make for and interesting aesthetic of medievalist castles build into ruined skyscrapers and whatnot.
>Urban Jungle
I wish I could find a pdf to check it out.
Why do people keep calling the setting 'furry trash' when it's so much better thought out then the actual furry trash.
There is scheming, politics, game of thrones style complicated layers of backstabs on backstabs. The different animal species are as well thought out and reasoned as they should be, bats have an ultrasonic language, dinosaurs are well detailed for their uses, et cetera.
And it's a fantasy setting that fits closer to the historical era it parallels despite not having a single human.
Many people have difficulty seeing past superficial impressions.
link don't work senpai
Don't it? There's a space in there, check your link
link works. you just need to remove empty space between mega. nz
this is standard way to post links because otherwise Veeky Forums won't upload your post
OP here. I think it's actually a very well done setting, I was just afraid of being bullied by mean ol' Veeky Forums. Ain't been around here in a few years, didn't realize y'all stopped sperging out about furry stuff.
we are still sperging but some of us grew a tougher skin
Anybody play Urban Jungle, or better yet have a PDF they'd be willing to share?
I'd sure as shit like to know if it's worth playing or if it's a pile of garbage, because who doesn't like Lackadaisy or Blacksad? I might buy it out of curiosity after my next paycheck.
If you do, please for the love of god, make a thread about it.
o7
You got it, user. Likely within a week. I might even run it -- I posted above, I have a lot of experience with Ironclaw. No promises, though, my time these days is limited and there are competing fantasy ideas in my head.
>>furshit garbage
>posts weeb reaction pic
Is this a meme?
Godspeed, user.
bullshit it works just fine
mega.nz
>Lackadaisy
Tracy Butler did the cover for the first edition (you know, the Slayers: the Motion Picture pastiche), and I always find that funny for some reason.
She also did the cover for Urban Jungle.
Newfags are ruining Veeky Forums.
Seriously how did that cover turn out so horrible? Butler is an amazing artist.
>OH GOSH IT HAS ANTHROPOMORPHIC ANIMALS OH MY GOD PURGE >>>/TRASH/ >>>/TRASH/ >>>/TRASH/
kill yourself idiot
oops, sorry, don't kill yourself, you are okay
I should really get off my ass and clean my copy.
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