The release of a new game always brings with it a slew of firsts, and this past spring I took up the nerve-wracking task of producing the first official Iron Kingdoms Full Metal Fantasy Roleplaying Game adventure. This adventure needed to provide a fun and flavorful introduction to the Iron Kingdoms in a two-hour convention event timeslot. It was to be rolled out at Gen Con and then released as part of a free download that would include quick start rules and everything else a group of new players would need to play the game!
I wrote the original drafts of the adventure in the late spring. I knew I wanted to place the story in the city of Corvis as a nod to Privateer Press’ first d20 adventures. I also knew I wanted the story to have elements of mystery and intrigue interspersed with dramatic action. Not an easy task when the game needs to be playable in less than two hours! This being our first official adventure, naturally I sought the input of Privateer’s founder, Matt Wilson, who provided some excellent notes to punch up the intrigue and the action. At that point, lead writer Doug Seacat and I worked to compress the events down into a storyline a Game Master could reasonably address in two hours.
With the main story handled, it was time to work on the pregenerated characters. We needed to showcase the most iconic elements of Iron Kingdoms RPG characters, and I had a few ideas. I wanted the characters to comprise the tight-knit founders of a fledgling mercenary company. They’d be heroes, but heroes with an eye on keeping their purses full. Brent Waldher, Doug, and I developed character concepts we felt would play well while also representing the richness of the game, and then Doug went to work writing up bios for each character, short enough for new players to take in but containing enough juicy history to give them something to chew on while roleplaying. We went back and forth on the details before settling on our four adventurers: Colbie Sterling, “The Boss,” human Field Mechanik/Soldier; Gardek Stonebrow, “The Muscle,” trollkin Bounty Hunter/Man-at-Arms; Eilish Garrity, “The Sleuth,” human Arcanist/Investigator; and Milo Boggs, “The Specialist,” human Alchemist/Thief.
While I worked on playtesting the adventure and characters, it fell to art director Michael Vaillancourt and creative director Ed Bourelle to oversee the creation of art for our new characters. For this, they tapped Core Rules cover artist Nestor Ossandón. I have to say, they knocked it out of the park, especially given the ludicrously tight deadlines they inherited! On top of the fantastic art, graphic designer Laine Garrett produced a pair of beautiful battle maps for the adventure.
Adventure, characters, and art in hand, we were ready for Gen Con! Doug, Brent, and I had an amazing time demoing this adventure, then titled “Down at the Docks,” to more than 150 players over the course of the weekend. I speak for all of us when I say we had nothing but great experiences. I’ve never met so many excited, positive, and awesome roleplayers as I did in those fifteen sessions!
Once Gen Con was over and we’d gotten some much-needed sleep, it was time to make a few tweaks to the adventure based on the demo sessions and prepare the document for web publishing. At this point we ran into one of those “good problems to have.” I’d originally been working on a schedule that would see the adventure published in early October, just prior to our original release date for the Core Rules. When the books arrived early from our printer, however, we were thrilled to move the release date up to September 19th. Good news! Well, good news unless you’re trying to get an adventure ready to publish a month early.
While most of the elements were in place, we still had to draft quick start rules, edit the text for layout, finalize the look and the graphic elements, and then proof the document, all while trying to keep up with the multitude of other things we’re working on (like writing the next book for the roleplaying game). Oz Schoonover took on the unenviable task of boiling the game rules down to the essentials needed just for this adventure, to make it easier for new players to dive right in, but that still left a lot to do before we could post the documents for everyone to see. Fortunately, editorial manager Darla Kennerud and graphic design director Josh Manderville stepped up to the plate like the badasses they are and pulled more than their weight in finalizing the adventure, now titled “Fools Rush In.”
Like everything relating to the Iron Kingdoms RPG, this adventure is the result of collaboration and a labor of love. It may be short, but I think we managed to get into it everything I love in roleplaying games: intrigue, investigation, and action!
“Fools Rush In” is a short adventure meant to introduce four players and one Game Master to the Iron Kingdoms Full Metal Fantasy Roleplaying Game. Besides the scenario, this downloadable doc contains:
- Quick start rules
- 4 Pregenerated characters, including character sheets, biographies, and reference sheets for each character’s key abilities
- 19 Standees representing the player characters and non-player characters
- 2 Battle maps
Players will just need to supply pencils, several six-sided dice, a ruler or tape measure, scrap paper, and a thirst for adventure.
I invite you and your friends to step into the boots of the Black River Irregulars and seek your fortunes in the streets of Corvis.
Welcome to the Iron Kingdoms!