Friday 27 March 2015

[review] Unleash the Beast - Iron Kingdoms Unleashed Abridged Rulebook

Biting, Snapping, Tearing, Growling!







So out to download are the pdfs for the books contained within the new Iron Kingdoms: Unleashed starter kit. That kit contains the abridged rulebook, miniatures, and tiles and counters to represent the battlefield in the adventure you can play through.
The books within that box are the abridged rulebook, character sheets for the pre-generated characters, and the adventure.
In this post I'm going to briefly review the abridged rulebook.
If you already play IKRPG you will get a good kick out of this!
Seriously. The abridged rulebook serves two great functions than just being a primer to the rpg. It's 32 pages long and just has rules within it. You get all the standard rpg rules as seen in IKRPG core book, plus the rules and spells for the magic users of the wild. So it's a cut down rulebook. Great to dish out to players for either flavour of IKRPG. And, it is a nice add on to IKRPG if you are not ready to get the full Unleashed book.
So other than all the standard rules, what is new?
Well we get the rules needed for the pre-generated characters of the adventure box. We get rules for the third magic user path. Harnessers. So these are our Warlocks. The rules are as expected, ported straight over from Hordes. We get a bit a bit of info (though no specifics in this book) on how Warlocks have paths, which tie them to certain types of beasts. Obviously life is hard for Warlocks without a beast, because then you have no source of Fury. So starting characters that are warlocks are more than likely to have at least one or two easy to manage beasts. On top of that there is a bit on what happens when a warlock dies, or goes unconscious. The link to their beast is broken, and it goes wild - which could mean a lot of different things.
While mentioned, we get no specific rules to cover Bone Grinder, other than their spell list. Bone Grinders are a form of alchemist of the wilds, that make totems and magical items from animal parts. Fun! Very eager to seem them in action. Plus, not all Bone Grinders are Farrow (the only type seen in Hordes so far).
Totally new and cool are Blood Mages. Think Gun Mages, but that use magic via their close combat weapons. Really nasty spell list (oh you die and explode blood, have an AOE attack on the enemies nearby).
So in total, this book in pinch, combined with the beastiary for IKRPG, Monsternomicon and NQ articles, really quickly gives you the ability to drop in Warlocks into your games of IKRPG. Of course, the main Unleashed book will have all the background info, rules, and monsters (lets be fair - glorified weapons and warjacks) for warlocks to use.
Am I excited to get the big book? Oh hell yeah. Do I want the actual boxed set? I am seriously thinking about it. Do I want to play a Gatorman? Oh yes please!

No comments:

Post a Comment