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Iron Edda: World of Metal and Bone

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Average Rating:2.7 / 5
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Iron Edda: World of Metal and Bone
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Iron Edda: World of Metal and Bone
Publisher: TheOtherDev Productions
by Zachary S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/01/2017 12:07:15

I really wanted to like Iron Edda: World of Metal and Bone. I read the negative reviews and figured since it was a Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) game that I’d be able to home-brew around them. After attempting to run several sessions it became clear that the flaws of this game outweigh the interesting bits.

The biggest issue, is that the setting and premise, of Viking style warriors riding giant bones and fighting Dwarven mechs is not supported by the rules at all. The best PbtA games have their mechanics centered around the premise of the game, but the playbooks and mechanics of Iron Edda are for a semi-historical, low-magic Norse flavored game and not for a game about epic warriors fighting legendary adversaries. The +Giant tag does not provide any mechanical effect by the book. I was treating +giant enemies and PCs like Apocalypse World gangs but then when I re-read the rules trying to figure out how to fix many of the issues I realized that was something I had added on myself and not something that was even hinted at in book, that a +giant creature would do additional damage and take less in return. The playbooks are not well balanced, tending to either be very combat focused or having nothing to do during combat, which quickly became an issue when I ran for my group.

Another big issue is since the game does not use either the standard six fantasy attributes like Dungeon World or the 5 Apocalypse World attributes (Hot, Cool, Hard, Sharp, Weird), it is extremely difficult to pull in moves and tricks, or anything really, from any PtBA game. But the rules themselves are pretty sparse, even for a PbtA game. Lots of moves are copied almost verbatim from Dungeon World and the game-master advice doesn’t add anything new, interesting or especially useful.

Overall, the only interesting thing I saw in Iron Edda was the wound system, but I am not sure if that was original to that game. If you’re really interested in the setting and concept, maybe check out the Fate rules version? I’m not at all familiar with Fate, but that set is at least better reviewed. The end product feels like it could have used an additional round of play-testing and GM advice more tailored to the game. When I got the Fate version for comparison, it was clear that many of the most polished parts of Iron Edda: World of Metal and Bone were taken from those rules. Otherwise, there are plenty of other PbtA games that are much better developed.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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Iron Edda: World of Metal and Bone
Publisher: TheOtherDev Productions
by Douglas S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/01/2016 18:41:55

I own most of printed Apocalypse Engine books and this is the one I like the least.

The theme of the book is a Ragnarok of sorts where dwarves rise piloting giant metal monsters. Not bad. Mankind responds rising the bones of giants (and the wrath of the living giants!) to fight back. Cool. Even elves are said to start using treant like suits of armors. Fine.

But then the writer lost focus and and kept on investing much of the little page count talking about clans and foreigners... in case you wanted to play with a roman-ish or celtic-ish character. The evolution and development of starter stories to the central premise is a long shot.

We got used to quality with games PbtA: Urban Shadows, Dungeon World, Monster of the Week, Tremulus, Spirit of 77, Legacy, City of Judas, etc. This book is clearly a sign that people started churning out books just to join the fad, without much foresight or care.

For the price they ask we deserve much more.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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Iron Edda: World of Metal and Bone
Publisher: TheOtherDev Productions
by John R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/05/2016 17:53:45

I didn't like this product at all.

I really like Dungeon World. I've bought two other settings, both of which were very imaginative and fun.

This was just flat and dull.

First off, the cost versus the size. I take some ownership for this... I didn't look carefully to see that the approximately $40 book including shipping that I bought was about 100 pages. And describing it as 100 pages doesn't do it justice, as the pages are teeny-tiny. If this was a standard size book, it'd likely be about 50 pages. Which would be criminal for $20, let alone $40.

And the book is boring! The description of the book on DriveThruRPG was evocative, so much so that I purchased it. When I read it, though, nothing about it excited my imagination.

And some of the stuff in the description that sounded pretty cool, like giant pseudomechs piloted by dwarves fighting humans magically bonded with giant bones, have only the most superficial of descriptions in the book.

This book was bad. This is probably the only time I bought something on DriveThruRPG that I wish I saw at a store and skimmed through before deciding to make a purchase. I would dearly like my money back.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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Iron Edda: World of Metal and Bone
Publisher: TheOtherDev Productions
by Kerry H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/23/2016 11:27:19

This game is not really compatible with Dungeon World (nor does it require the Dungeon World rules to play), it's a Powered by the Apocalypse game that has some resemblances to Dungeon World. The game itself looks fine, but it's not Dungeon World.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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