Our ultimate goal in Age of Iron is to tell interesting stories. Our favorite stories, be them books, myths, comic books, television or cinema, are ultimately about characters. Settings, costumes and action all serve a purpose and that purpose is to create a place for characters to live, things to wear and things to do. When creating your character this should drive your decisions. The interesting thing about your character isn’t that he is an exceptional swordsman, the interesting thing is: Why did he become an interesting swordsman? Did he become an exceptional swordsman to make money? If so, perhaps you’re a mercenary. Was it because you were the second born son of a noble family? If so you’re probably a knight, and duty should be central in your life. Characters shouldn’t be a collection of skills or abilities; they should be a collection of personalities, motivations, flaws and strengths. What makes Age of Iron unique is that players use different characters to participate in different parts of the story, in the same event.
When designing the rules system for Age of Iron we tried to follow some simple design philosophies: make it simple and easy to memorize, give some points for people to drive towards, and also keep things open-ended for stories. The result is a combat system that is lethal and easy to remember, some rules for large scale conflicts and social maneuvering, and a great deal of leverage for designing a character that fits your vision. The reward for playing in scenes is the connection to new scenes and opportunities. We never wanted a seasoned character to “cap out” and find that they are no longer able to participate because of that, but rather for their presence to be a link to a living and breathing storyline that stretches over time. In Age of Iron, it is likely that many characters will suffer grievous injuries and never recover. That’s fine. You will be playing many characters and all of them are equally valid and can attain great heights (or dastardly lows).
Each event we will post a listing of the scenes designed by the Story Team (which is a team composed of volunteers from the game) that are based on the events that happened at the prior game(s). You are encouraged to play whatever character you have in your “stable” in those scenes when you do your sign-up for the scenes, but also to pick a secondary option if you don’t know what you want to play. You may be surprised by the results. If you never thought of yourself as a person enjoying “social noble” scenes and decided to help out by playing a servant maybe you would overhear an important secret whispered between nobles and suddenly that conspiracy involves you. The servant is just as viable as any other character and has exactly the same range of development. Likewise, you might find that the infantryman you play in a lord’s army grows over time from a green drafted scared farmer to a grizzled veteran. Reminiscing about the wars with your old war pals might be something you look forward to as a break from the other characters you might play. This is the focus of Age of Iron and you are encouraged to pursue and create interesting stories.
For the specifics, please refer to the rules in the “Join” section, but you now have a grounding in the essential parts of what makes up Age of Iron.
Age of Iron 