ffilz
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So I keep wanting to get a Cold Iron campaign going... But trying to create my own setting just is not going to happen, so I'm looking for thoughts on a setting that is well supported that would be amenable to Cold Iron. Having been running two RuneQuest campaigns for some time., one in Glorantha, and one in the Free City of Haven and surrounds from Gamelords (Thieves Guild - NOT Robert Lynn Asprin's Sanctuary/Thieves World...), I find Glorantha easy to run in because it's well supported (well, and I've been running it for decades...). Haven is so sparse that I'm close to burnout on the campaign...
Now in the past I have run Cold Iron in the following settings:
Harn - This campaign ran for over a year, but eventually the disconnect between Cold Iron and Harn became too much to ignore. It did have an advantage that the gods were described well enough that I could write up Cold Iron style cults. On the other hand, the evil gods, particularly Agrik were way more cool to the players than the good gods... Contrast this to Glorantha which has a quite a number of fun "good" cults (Orlanth, Storm Bull, Humakt, Yelmalio, and more).
Ice World - A home brew frozen north setting that I ran for a change of pace from Harn. Not really sustainable - it was deadly... Adventuring happened in the winter, ice trolls would sneak into camp during a blizzard and take out two or three PCs before anyone else even realized anything was going on... (they DID start working up better camp strategies...).
Blackmoor - Another campaign that ran for a year or two. Ultimately not much background, just a neat map. Gods were just made up and were somewhat interesting but way too many and no real logic behind them.
Talislanta - It sort of worked, but it was hard to figure out what PCs should do in the setting. It was a drain dealing with a setting with no terrestrial animals and not even basic fantasy critters to provide grounding.
Tekumel - Sort of the same story as Talislanta...
So one of the issues is fit of the game system, so some features of Cold Iron that can be tough to fit into settings:
Class and level with a twist. Cold Iron characters have levels in classes. The twist is everyone has a Fighter Level (it may be piss poor...). Hit points scale with Fighter Level. Spell effects scale with Magic or Cleric Level. Casting is split between Magic User and Cleric, with 95% of the spells available to both classes, though Clerics never get the full list, having lists customized for the god/cult. Clerics do get some spells earlier than Magic Users and have the best healing spells (if they are the right persuasion - or they have cause spells though those are only useful in special circumstances). Everyone can wear armor and use weapons (which has created somewhat of a disconnect for Cold Iron Samurai Adventures, though it hasn't been too big an impact yet).
Magic is pretty common, though somewhat low power. Magic items are very common, often I start PCs with a couple potions and a charged item or two, but certainly purchasing such early on is likely. Intelligent opposition also uses magic items (treasure!). Magic is mostly never as powerful as D&D, most spells are single target. Magic items are MOSTLY personal, but anyone CAN use wands... Other than potions, swords, armor, and very high level magic items, all other magic items require the user to supply the power. There are lots of buffing spells. Every city or large town will have one or more magic shops, or at least it's easy to find wizards who will sell you magic items, and folks who will purchase your unwanted treasure.
The system is amenable to creating creatures as long as there is something that provides a grounding for size. On the other hand, creatures generally have limited special abilities, relying mostly on raw damage with some breath weapons and special effects like blur or shadow.
Combat drains enough resources that the adventures that work best have areas with at most a few different encounters so there is plenty of time to rest between encounters or groups of encounters.
I'm not looking to change the fundamental play style. On this note, I have yet to figure out a non-combat skill system that really pleases me, so the play style is better suited to those activities not being too dominant and no PC should be crafted as a skill hacker with little or no combat or magic ability.
I'm looking for a setting that describes religion in a way that is easy to write up a cult or a few cults. It should be easy to make inferences on what types of magic are appropriate for clerics. I'm not totally opposed to a setting where there ends up being one PC cult that focuses on healing magic but has some other combat useful magic. That can be countered with an evil cult. Necromancy could be a cult thing or it could just be evil magic users. Ideally, the setting would have plenty of adventures available, or be amendable to dropping in a D&D adventure.
I dunno, I think that's enough to start some discussion. If anyone cares to peruse the system to get an idea of what it does, here's a starting place:
Now in the past I have run Cold Iron in the following settings:
Harn - This campaign ran for over a year, but eventually the disconnect between Cold Iron and Harn became too much to ignore. It did have an advantage that the gods were described well enough that I could write up Cold Iron style cults. On the other hand, the evil gods, particularly Agrik were way more cool to the players than the good gods... Contrast this to Glorantha which has a quite a number of fun "good" cults (Orlanth, Storm Bull, Humakt, Yelmalio, and more).
Ice World - A home brew frozen north setting that I ran for a change of pace from Harn. Not really sustainable - it was deadly... Adventuring happened in the winter, ice trolls would sneak into camp during a blizzard and take out two or three PCs before anyone else even realized anything was going on... (they DID start working up better camp strategies...).
Blackmoor - Another campaign that ran for a year or two. Ultimately not much background, just a neat map. Gods were just made up and were somewhat interesting but way too many and no real logic behind them.
Talislanta - It sort of worked, but it was hard to figure out what PCs should do in the setting. It was a drain dealing with a setting with no terrestrial animals and not even basic fantasy critters to provide grounding.
Tekumel - Sort of the same story as Talislanta...
So one of the issues is fit of the game system, so some features of Cold Iron that can be tough to fit into settings:
Class and level with a twist. Cold Iron characters have levels in classes. The twist is everyone has a Fighter Level (it may be piss poor...). Hit points scale with Fighter Level. Spell effects scale with Magic or Cleric Level. Casting is split between Magic User and Cleric, with 95% of the spells available to both classes, though Clerics never get the full list, having lists customized for the god/cult. Clerics do get some spells earlier than Magic Users and have the best healing spells (if they are the right persuasion - or they have cause spells though those are only useful in special circumstances). Everyone can wear armor and use weapons (which has created somewhat of a disconnect for Cold Iron Samurai Adventures, though it hasn't been too big an impact yet).
Magic is pretty common, though somewhat low power. Magic items are very common, often I start PCs with a couple potions and a charged item or two, but certainly purchasing such early on is likely. Intelligent opposition also uses magic items (treasure!). Magic is mostly never as powerful as D&D, most spells are single target. Magic items are MOSTLY personal, but anyone CAN use wands... Other than potions, swords, armor, and very high level magic items, all other magic items require the user to supply the power. There are lots of buffing spells. Every city or large town will have one or more magic shops, or at least it's easy to find wizards who will sell you magic items, and folks who will purchase your unwanted treasure.
The system is amenable to creating creatures as long as there is something that provides a grounding for size. On the other hand, creatures generally have limited special abilities, relying mostly on raw damage with some breath weapons and special effects like blur or shadow.
Combat drains enough resources that the adventures that work best have areas with at most a few different encounters so there is plenty of time to rest between encounters or groups of encounters.
I'm not looking to change the fundamental play style. On this note, I have yet to figure out a non-combat skill system that really pleases me, so the play style is better suited to those activities not being too dominant and no PC should be crafted as a skill hacker with little or no combat or magic ability.
I'm looking for a setting that describes religion in a way that is easy to write up a cult or a few cults. It should be easy to make inferences on what types of magic are appropriate for clerics. I'm not totally opposed to a setting where there ends up being one PC cult that focuses on healing magic but has some other combat useful magic. That can be countered with an evil cult. Necromancy could be a cult thing or it could just be evil magic users. Ideally, the setting would have plenty of adventures available, or be amendable to dropping in a D&D adventure.
I dunno, I think that's enough to start some discussion. If anyone cares to peruse the system to get an idea of what it does, here's a starting place:
Cold Iron Overview
docs.google.com