[RPG]: Monte Cook Presents - Mastering Iron Heroes, reviewed by Geek in the City (5/3)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11587.phtml

Aaron Duran's Summary:

A well written, if slightly redundant rulebook. Good addition for the hardcore Iron Heroes fan or for the gamer that is on the fence and wants a less expensive way to test out the variant combat rules.

Go to the full review for more information.

[The Fiendish Dr. Samsara]

Nice review, Aaron. As someone who is interested in the theme of IH without any interest in the mechanics, I enjoyed your review. I’m sure the IH crowd will be along shortly to say something more useful. But I wanted to highlight this:

Originally Posted by Aaron Duran

A particularly interesting experience point option presented in chapter 7 is that of earning XP for gold spent.

This is a nearly perfect idea. One of the things that has always bugged me is that the characters in S&S stories are forever seeking loot, but never keep it. This is not, however, generally reflected in D&D games (at least, no D&D game I ever saw, where portable holes full of gold were the order of the day).

During the 2nd ed days, some of the supplements brought in a rule that characters had to gamble a certain percentage of their coin every month, which was cute, but a little heavy handed. I like the above-idea even better, although I’d suggest one modification:

Earning XP for gold frittered away on booze, sex, revelry, and gambling.

Now you’re gaming Conan-style.

[Brand_Robins]

Originally Posted by The Fiendish Dr. Samsara

Earning XP for gold frittered away on booze, sex, revelry, and gambling.

Now you’re gaming Conan-style.

I like it. The problem may be, however, that you're talking less Conan-style than Conan himself. If you're playing a group of Conen, that's cool, but for characters who aren't all Reavers and Throat-Slitters it may not work precisly.

So, I'd suggest ammending it to: Gain XP for gold blown on things that give no game benifit. That way the wanna be noble can spend all his money on fine clothes and wines and philosophers, while the supersitious theif can do it on palm-readers, fakirs, and "luck potions", while Conan gets his booze and whore on.

[The Fiendish Dr. Samsara]

Absolutely. Actually, maybe a character might have a trait called “Weakness” or the like, which defines the way in which he will fritter away his loot. So one guy has “Drinks the house out of ale and then starts a fight”, so that his money all has to go to booze and paying damages and medical bills, while someone else has “Expensive fripperies” and another has “Sucker for a pretty, and scheming, face”.

[jimbojones1971]

Originally Posted by Brand_Robins

I like it. The problem may be, however, that you're talking less Conan-style than Conan himself. If you're playing a group of Conen, that's cool, but for characters who aren't all Reavers and Throat-Slitters it may not work precisly.

So, I'd suggest ammending it to: Gain XP for gold blown on things that give no game benifit. That way the wanna be noble can spend all his money on fine clothes and wines and philosophers, while the supersitious theif can do it on palm-readers, fakirs, and "luck potions", while Conan gets his booze and whore on.

Nice! I think I'll pinch this.

[General_Tojo]

What I've been trying to figure out is, is there a way to have both a means for gaining XP by defeating challenges AND for gaining XP by blowing cash in the same game without your PCs gaining levels faster than you want them to? And, if you use this mechanic in a d20 game that does have magic items (unlike Iron Heroes), would there be a strange divide between those blowing their GP on magic and those climbing up in XP faster?

Originally Posted by The Fiendish Dr. Samsara

Earning XP for gold frittered away on booze, sex, revelry, and gambling.

Now you’re gaming Conan-style.

Word. It's a brilliant idea.

As for being worried about PCs gaining levels too rapidly, don't give out too much treasure. This is one of the blessings of IH. By removing the magic item-driven economy, PCs don't need much cash. 50 gp is a lot of dosh to an IH PC, regardless of level. And you can end up hoarding gps for several levels just to get enough to buy that suit of plate armour you've been dreaming of.

[Trombone4Hire]

To be fair the the author, he does specify that the gold must be spent on something other than game-mechanics benefits, i.e. "wine, women (or men), and song." He also proposes fixes to the problems that characters can potentially gain levels without facing challenges and that gold expendature at higher levels becomes astronomical.