A few questions!

[Godslayer]

Hey everyone! *waves* ^^

Just got Iron Dynasty and have been reading it, the system seems really great and I'm very curious about the setting, it seems really good, I got a few questions about the game, and I'm hoping the community will be able to answer.

First, its never stated from what I've read, if women can be Samurai or have the equal opportunities as men in the setting, does anyone know?

Are there any plans for putting the guidebooks into a single book that could be bought as a softcover? I prefere to have my rpg books in a deadtree version to having pdfs, although sometimes I have both.

I've just started reading Okko, and I'm intrigued by the Exo-Bunraku, are they basicly Kikai's?

I also have a few of the 4th Edition L5R books, never played the game myself, but I like the setting. Could the ID rules be used to portray the setting successfully, or would major revisions be needed?

Any help with any and all of these questions would be greatly appreciated! =D

[SoS Michael]

Hi Godslayer,

As far as your question about women in the game, I don't believe there are any restrictions. In the region description of Ato it says that Lady Kansaku of House Sakura is "a master ninja, as all women of the noble line have always been". Later, in the Twenty Mystic Relics section, there is an entry for The Iron Bow of Nakagawa Fumiko. It says "The Emperor repealed his law that women could not fight on the battlefield".

Based on those entries I'd say restrictions based on sex are up to the discretion of the GM. It might make for interesting role playing to introduce that in a certain province. Perhaps in some place like Ikusa Kokoro, which keeps closer to the old ways. I don't know if you meant women as samurai exclusively or were just referring to chauvinism in the class system in general.

I"ve never read Okko though I'm interested now. The description of the Exo Bunraku says they are contolled by marionettists which to me sounds like they are sort of like suits of armor with no auxiliary power source. The Kikai are steam powered. Again though, I haven't read it so my perception may be wrong. I'll have to give it a read!

I have a tablet and the formatting for the ID series is awesome for use on those types of devices. Having said that, I'm a bit of a collector as well and print copies of all of the guide books and kesshi tales would be a must buy for me. I don't know if the demand is great enough to warrant print copies or not.

[Godslayer]

Thanks for your input Michael! =)

I'm gonna go with equal opportunities regardless of gender. I checked your out your site, nice review on the Kesshin Tale #1, you have any plans on making one for the first guidebook? I'm still on the fence for buying one. Hoping they'll make a bundle or a softcover book collecting them all.

[taronstar]

Konnichiwa! Welcome to Konoyo!

As Michael mentioned, there are no restrictions on gender in the Iron Dynasty. It is left up to the GM if there are any he would like to impose.

As to making a print bundle for all the Guidebooks or Kesshi Tales, I think that would be a great Kickstarter project to gauge interest in them. They do work incredibly well on most tablets in a PDF reader, but I know there are people out there who would like physical copies.

I have to say that the Guidebooks and Kesshi Tales are worth it. If you can only get one, my preference/suggestion would be the Guidebooks. They expand out the provinces, give you a slew of extra critters, random encounter/weather tables, and more detailed information. However, given the price both the Guidebooks and the Kesshi Tales are a valuable addition to the setting if you can get them.

[SoS Michael]

I will probably do a write up of the Guide Books very soon!

As Taronstar said, the Guide Books have the greater utility factor of the two and do a nice job of further fleshing Konoyo out. Fortunately, they are inexpensive so you can have a look without a huge monetary investment. The Kesshi Tales line up numerically with the Guide Books so getting them together creates a pretty complete expansion package.

Glad you are liking the setting.

Hopefully it will work out for you to join our ID Google + game!

[tibour]

Hard copy guidebooks would be greatly appreciated. Some of us don't play well with tablets etc..............
So far I have grabbed 1-4 in each series and I really like them, but hard copy would be better

Also does anybody do a large map for ID?

[taronstar]

There has been some discussion in the past of making the Guidebooks into a printed Compendium. I will bring it up again. I am on the opposite spectrum and pretty much only use PDFs any more, but I know hard copies are still handy and there is something nice about having an actual physical copy.

I just had the *slight problem* of having too many and my wife decided that having RPG books stacked like an Antiquarian's back closet was a bad thing.

I do not know of any large scale Iron Dynasty map, but it would be a nice to have.

[razorwise]

Hello All!

Any player can play a character of any gender without restriction.

We'll look into getting a luscious, hi-res version of the map out into the world later this year.

Best,

Sean

P.S. We'll revisit a printed compendium down the road.