Full Metal Fantasy

Starting a new gaming group is always an adventure. Tonight I headed out to the Little Shoppe of Games after work to day to meet a gaming group Lane told me would be starting up an Iron Kingdoms campaign. He said this group tends to be pretty laid back about making it in every week, which I need because I have dinner with my daughter on alternate Mondays before driving her to ballet class. He said they often wind up with a large group one week, and people playing multiple characters to cover for each other the next. Sounded like a group worth checking out, and definitely another way to support my local gaming shop. Iron Kingdoms sounds interesting, too. The source books describe it as "Full Metal Fantasy." It looks like it takes your standard fantasy role-playing setting, and adds guns and robots. Steamjacks appear to be major feats of both engineering and magic in the form of steam-powered mechs. They're hugely expensive and very rare, but becoming increasingly common in the Iron Kingdoms world. Gun mages and riflemen bring their affinity for firearms to the standard cast of character classes. Other classes receive some modifications to fit them into the world, but I don't know a whole lot about them. Steampunk and magic, brought together with the potential for a lot of fun. Tonight we did the standard first session character creation, not the most interesting to tell about, but it was still a good time. The rest of the group seem like good guys. The DM was a big help to all of us getting our characters rolled up, and one of the other guys, the one who requested the Iron Kingdoms setting, seems to know the setting inside and out. There are four players currently, though we're trying to talk Lane into joining in as well. I, myself, am playing a straightforward figher, a half-orc tank and damage sponge. I'm joined by a rogue, an arcane mechanic or engineer of some type, and a dragon shaman. That's all I know at the moment. We didn't get beyond character creation tonight. I'll post more as the campaign progresses; it has a lot of potential already.