Iron Kingdoms?

[Q-man]

Of late I've been doing a bunch of reading on the Pathfinder rules. I've been perusing some of the modules Paizo has made, and the writing is top notch. Its made me curious about what that talented bunch did to improve the 3.5 rule set.

It got me thinking about some of the stuff for 3.5 that I'd always wanted to use but never found time for. Such as the Iron Kingdoms setting. Given that the Pathfinder rules are still pretty close to the 3.5 rules, I'm guessing that those books could be used without many changes or updates.

Has anyone tried it? Or is anyone familiar with the material enough to offer reasonable assessment?

[Ghostmaker]

While i haven't tried Iron Kingdoms using the Pathfinder rules, I will say that the rules play quite well with a number of systems, and settings. Part of the genius of Pathfinder is that, not only is it OGL compatable with nearly everything, they even go out of the way to give examples of play outside the standard swords and sorcery genre(s). (The Inner Sea Setting guide gives examples in the back section for exploring the worlds in the same system as Absolom as well as exploring other planes of existence.)

I myself have run several settings, both official, and homebrew under the standard of Pathfinder, including: Ravenloft (Swords and Sorcery edition), athas.org's Dark Sun homebrew, Colonial Gothic D20, as well as an improvised Planescape adventure arc.

Its pretty easy to take a setting, like Iron Kingdoms, which already bases much of its rules set in 3.x, it might take a thorough read through and a patch or two here and there, but one of the great parts of gaming is coming up with creative solutions for the game and adventure with your players. It gives them a vested interest in the outcome if they feel they've contributed.

Back on topic. Its much easier than you think, it may take a tweak here or there, but if you're already GM'ing...you've already had some time invested...

[Q-man]

Good to know that it should still work with minimal fuss. Gonna take a bit to read through all the books involved though, but I think the game (assuming it comes together) would be a lot of fun.

I never really looked into what all was encompassed in the open gaming license. Which means it was never clear what all in the game mechanics that it encompasses. I suppose knowing that would have done a lot to answer my question.

[Ghostmaker]

OGL or open gaming licence, only means that you can take the core system, in this case Pathfinder, or more to the point, 3.x rules, and create adventures, settings, spells and the like and publish them for sale or general distribution; so long as you print of the OGL notification at the beginning or end of the supplement. It isn't necessarily exclusive to 3.x or Pathfinder. Swords and Wizardry, for instance, also operates under OGL, and is nothing more than a retro-clone of the original D&D from 1974 produced by Gygax and Arneson. They have several links off of their site, including Dragonsfoot, that produces adventures and settings for the original D&D. Even the magazine Kobold Quarterly has worked with their readers to create a Midgard setting using 3.x rules, with variant classes and racial traits.

In short, it simply provides players and GM's the flexibility to venture out and create some of their own original material, without running into any legal hangups. Unless you are into game design or writing, OGL info isn't something that comes up in casual conversation!