Iron Heroes ...for Conan or no?

[Supplement Four]

Having not played a fantasy rpg in over a decade, I'm a bit out of the loop. Scanning the net tonight for stuff I can use with my Conan game, I discovered the Iron Heroes rpg.

Now, I haven't ordered anything yet, but I'm damn tempted. This game looks like it will fit like a glove with Conan.

Opinions from my learned forum mates? Is Iron Heroes any good? Will it work well with Conan?

 

[Krushnak]

Is Iron Heroes any good?

Yes it is.

Will it work well with Conan?

Parts of it will but you will have to change a decent amount of it to fit.

 

[Strom]

I would make sure to pickup the newer version - I believe only available by PDF - the original version is loaded with errata and typos. I marked up my copy quite a bit just trying to keep up. I agree Iron Heroes is a good game but now with 4e I would spend the time converting 4e to Conan if you want a cinematic, terrain impact, powers/expanded feat mechanic in your Conan game.

 

[Supplement Four]

I would make sure to pickup the newer version - I believe only available by PDF - the original version is loaded with errata and typos. I marked up my copy quite a bit just trying to keep up. I agree Iron Heroes is a good game but now with 4e I would spend the time converting 4e to Conan if you want a cinematic, terrain impact, powers/expanded feat mechanic in your Conan game.

I glanced through Iron Heroes a friend has. Didn't have time to spend much time looking at it. But, from what I saw, it looks like a Conan clone.

I mean, much of the stuff is exactly what's in Conan 2E.

 

[Strom]

It's really about capturing the grim & gritty sword & sorcery feel- who captures it better - Conan or IH? I've long since traded my IH books away - for more Conan books 8) - but here are a few good discussions back in the day:


http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/search.php?search_id=641913428&start=200


http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/p...0&postorder=asc&highlight=iron+heroes&start=0

 

[Supplement Four]

It's really about capturing the grim & gritty sword & sorcery feel- who captures it better - Conan or IH? I've long since traded my IH books away - for more Conan books 8) - but here are a few good discussions back in the day:


http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/search.php?search_id=641913428&start=200


http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/p...0&postorder=asc&highlight=iron+heroes&start=0

Thanks for the links. I'll look 'em over.

I did notice, though, that IH defaults to heroic stats, while with Conan, it's an option.

That leans me to Conan right there.

I wasn't thinking of switching...I was just thinking that maybe IH scenarios would be super easy to convert to Conan, and I thought maybe IH supplements could be used as Conan supplements.

As I said, I didn't see much new. Some of it different, but not new. In my quick cursoy scan, I didn't see much that I would want to buy...although the game looks great if you're already playing Conan.

 

[quigs]

IH is good for playing D&D adventures with no magic or magic items. That's about it.

Conan is good for playing Conan adventures.

I would be cautious about mixing those up in any other combination.

 

[kintire]

My experience with Iron Heroes is that it is very fun to play, and extremely not fun to GM.

It has a whole lot of interesting classes, skills and feats which make building an interesting and varied character easy and fun. But a lot of the mechanics depend on token pools. You gain tokens by various means, and then spend them to gain dramtic effects. For example, a berserker gians tokens by being hit, and then spends them to make their attacks more dramatic.

This is all very fun, but each character can easily have four seperate token pools, and few have as few as two, from their class, from feats and from skills. Also, you can have situations where your pools are split, so you have some tokens which you can use against one opponent and others you can use againt another. It can get a little complex for the players.

For the GM, its a nightmare. Four or five tough NPCs can mean twenty different token pools, both pools in their own right and subpools specific to different PCs. Keeping track of all that turns a genuinely fresh take on combat into an accounting nightmare.

Shame really. great ideas, execution needs work.

 

[rabindranath72]

Interesting idea, Iron Heroes. But it is a complete mess. If there is anything worse than D&D 3.x for a DM, that's Iron Heroes.

 

[Azgulor]

Iron Heroes and Conan are both about ass-kicking heroes that don't rely on magic items.

Unfortunately, the similarity stops about there.

Iron Heroes characters are more "over the top" for lack of a better term. The heroes are supposed to have a power level equal to a D&D character of equal level loaded out with magic items.

Conan heroes are badass without resorting to fantasy-superhero tricks.

I was really hoping the game could be used as a companion to Conan. I wanted a good archer class, for example, but the two sets of classes really don't mesh well. By way of example, one of the higher-level abilities granted the archer is the ability to effectively build a ladder by firing arrows. If memory serves, you could build that ladder in a cliff face or a castle wall as easily as a tree trunk.

Iron Heroes is filled with a lot of cool ideas, however. If you can pick up the PDFs of the revised game and the Mastering Iron Heroes book, it's a great resource for spicing up your combat and skill checks. The combat manuevers, battle zones, and skill check tweaks can be lifted straight out and dropped into your Conan campaign.

So my advice is pilfer sections out of Iron Heroes. I haven't run an Iron Heroes campaign althought I'd like to try it. But for true swords-n-sorcery goodness, it's Conan all the way.

 

[Supplement Four]

Iron Heroes characters are more "over the top" for lack of a better term.

Yeah, I'm agreeing with the posts and reviews in this thread. I've looked through IH, and it's just not what I wanted it to be.

It's too much "over the top". You're correct.