Continuing with our Ironclaw articles, on the past weeks, Ironclaw’s “The Book of Monsters” was presented on Anthrocon, a bestiary for the base game.
This book was originally begun its kickstarter on Aug 21th, 2018 where it quickly reached its funding goal.
It’s a colllaboration between Tempe O’Kun (Windfall, Sixes Wild) as the writer and Ursula Vernon (Digger, Dragonbreath series) for illustrations.
On this Sanguine Games’, Book Of Monsters, Tempo and Ursula reimagines the world of Ironclaw with the premise that in a world where animals can talk and form societies, why wouldn’t plants be able to walk and hunt?
Imagine a tree bark that can walk and can transform into any other character, fungi that attacks using its toxic mist, these imaginative situations can make very funny situations (like being chased by a maniac, murderous onion) to very creepy ones with a bark clone of a recently-deceased loved one following you around.
Ironclaw is a very inmersive game, more focused on the diplomatic side, that invites you to interact with the civilized world around you (even when it’s about animals), however this new “expansion” adds more interesting enemies and adventures that some of the critics of the game found lacking.
While I was reading this book, I couldn’t stop thinking of the Ghost of a Tale videogame, and the excitement I felt scurrying around as Tilo, in a dungeon filled with rat guards.
I think Ironclaw and this new expansions are a great way to play a bit more interactively with our fursonas in this gamethat reminds us a bit of the old Furcadia MUCK.
Ironclaw is a game that contrary to other pen-and-paper games, does not use the hitpoint system, and it’s more based on placing status onto other characters based on a dice-throw successes. This may be a bit confusing or off-putting at first for old-schoolers of more complex games like D&D, but it quickly becomes fun and immersive due to it’s complex societal and diplomatic relationships and stories.
I think it’s the perfect games where RPG veterans can introduce newbies into the RPG world in a way where they also have to manage more complex stuff (like the gifts or managing the status heriarchies)
The design of the interiors is pretty good and has a nice continuity with the base Player’s book. The cover art may benefit of a more modern look as it looks a bit dated even when it’s just been released, however, that part also helps to keep that feeling of continuity with the entire series.
Ironclaw it’s a game by furries for furries (And not just for furries, of course) that it’s very well made and it’s very fast to start playing as it doesn’t take a lot of setup to start playing from starting your character sheet (it even has some pre-made) to begin the adventure itself.
You can get your copy of Ironclaw and “The Book of Monsters” on DriveThruRPG
