Iron Falcon Release Announcements

This subforum is for discussion of the Iron Falcon Rules for Classic Fantasy Role-Playing. Maybe someday they'll have their own forum, but for now I'm keeping the discussion here.
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Solomoriah
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Iron Falcon Release Announcements

Post by Solomoriah »

EDIT: I'm converting this thread to release announcements only; please post new questions or comments in their own threads. Thanks!

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Well, I'm starting a new project. Actually been working on it for a while, but this is the first public release:

https://ironfalconrpg.com

Feel free to wander over there, read the blurb, download the current (unfinished) game, and then come back with any comments. Realize that OGL rules may make it hard for me to give you a clear answer to some questions... let me apologize in advance for that.

Now, don't panic and run around waving your hands in the air. Iron Falcon won't replace Basic Fantasy RPG. Rather, it's meant to fill a strangely empty place in the lineup of retro-clones.

I plan to charge a bit of profit for this one. As a result, I'm not looking for collaboration. I am interested in your opinions on this, though.
My personal site: www.gonnerman.org
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Re: New Project: Iron Falcon

Post by SmootRK »

OK, I gave a glance. Going for something akin to a 1e game that many of us played in the past?

Of course, not enough time to really read it, but at a glance I like the typesetting style you are going for. Clean and readable. I think it will look good when it finishes up.
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Re: New Project: Iron Falcon

Post by Solomoriah »

0E, actually, with the first supplement. Not merely 0E with the alternate combat system, as some other games have done.
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Re: New Project: Iron Falcon

Post by SmootRK »

Solomoriah wrote:0E, actually, with the first supplement. Not merely 0E with the alternate combat system, as some other games have done.
My knowledge of the 0e system is sketchy at best. When do you project to have this ready? Have you set any such goals/targets yet?
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Re: New Project: Iron Falcon

Post by Longman »

So this is white box 1974? That's a long way back. I only ever played blue box for about 6 months and then straight to 1e. I can barely even remember playing 0e.

Anyway this looks good to me. Did the original rules have thieves? I think the game would be sad without them.
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Re: New Project: Iron Falcon

Post by artikid »

Looks OK, but the font you used for the title made me immediately think of Tunnels & Trolls instead of D&D
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Re: New Project: Iron Falcon

Post by Solomoriah »

White box plus the first supplement. Remember, the white box game required the use of the preceding wargame rules for combat; there is actually a retro-clone of that. The first game I consider recognizable requires the first supplement; you get fighters, magic-users, and clerics in the white box but you don't get thieves until the supplement. Many uber-grognards seem to think that thieves are somehow less important because they weren't in the white box... but as a fan of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, I know that thieves are equal in importance to the other classes.

The thing that I really have trouble with is mimicking the amazing vagueness of those rules, without adding rulings of my own. Not filling in the details of the spells is perhaps the hardest part... there's a lot that isn't said in the original material that most of us would consider necessary. The end result is that two GMs running Iron Falcon (or 0E, for that matter) may be running very different games due to differences in their own rulings.

So far the thing I've changed most is the multi-class rules; 0E actually said that an elf must choose at the beginning of an adventure whether to play as a magic-user or as a fighter. No idea how that would work, but reading the supplement it becomes obvious to me that Gary changed his mind about that pretty quick (after all, the first two supplements came out just a year after the rules). I did deviate from any published source with my rule; partly this gives me some OGL cover, and partly I was trying to come up with something that felt appropriately Old School without being the mathematical nightmare that 1E multiclassing can be.
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Solomoriah
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Re: New Project: Iron Falcon

Post by Solomoriah »

SmootRK wrote:
Solomoriah wrote:0E, actually, with the first supplement. Not merely 0E with the alternate combat system, as some other games have done.
My knowledge of the 0e system is sketchy at best. When do you project to have this ready? Have you set any such goals/targets yet?
My computer in the house went down in a heap last night; I was able to get the data restored from the drive as a slave on another system, so there should be little delay there.

I intend to release R4 with statblocks for all the monsters in a day or two; then my plan is to work my way through the spells and monsters and fill them all in. I'm borrowing what I can from the SRD (flavor text mostly), again, partly OGL cover, partly labor-saving.

I'll probably make a couple of releases as I fill in those blanks. When that is done, I'll sketch out the final section, then start filling that in as well.

My hope is to run a game of Iron Falcon at Quincon in Quincy, IL; I'll run BFRPG in the morning and IF in the afternoon. To get to that point won't require a "final" version, fortunately.
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Re: New Project: Iron Falcon

Post by merias »

This is very nice, as you say a (cleaned up and organized) version of 3LBBs plus Greyhawk. I like that you have kept the level titles, and I agree, multi-classing in 0e needs clarification to have it make sense at all (your example of how to handle hit dice in particular is great). There is definitely room for this type of clone - the closest I can think of is Swords & Wizardy core, which also pulls from the 3LBBs plus Greyhawk, but with non-OD&D changes tacked on - single save being the most frequently cited example. All of the other 0e clones I can think of either concentrate on just the first three books, or incorporate chainmail rules. I would for sure pay for a print copy of the completed version (as I'm sure would most other OD&D fans), rather than having to flip back and forth between the original booklets.

One suggestion for an addition - I always think of non-leveled hirelings as part of OD&D games, like torch bearers and porters. U&WA lists them as 'Non-Fighter' Men-at-Arms at 1GP per month, although I don't think they specify anywhere what use they are.
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Re: New Project: Iron Falcon

Post by Solomoriah »

For a moment here, I'm going to talk about D&D. Let the record show I'm not talking about any other specific games...

The first version of D&D to hit the market, the three books, presented a game that was built around Chainmail. That game had just three classes and lacked other things we instinctively recognize as D&D. For instance; it's obvious that the durations of many of the spells are oriented around Chainmail's combat turns and become much too long when applied to combat in rounds, even at the 10 rounds to 1 turn rate. The relatively low ability bonuses are that way, I believe, to avoid overpowering the 2d6 combat rolls used in Chainmail.

Greyhawk is the first published book that shows the game in a recognizable form; it's how Gary's own game worked, as much as he was able to publish it. I recall having heard that the game was undergoing heavy development, changing all the time, so Greyhawk can be little more than a snapshot... but it's the only snapshot we have.

What's funny to me is that there are no retro-clones I can think of that attempt to replicate that game.
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