Iron Kingdoms: Strangelight Workshop Playtest — “A Strange Light Breaks”
Let’s dive into the latest Iron Kingdoms game – Strangelight Workshop – and see if it’s worth picking up.
Iron Kingdoms: Strangelight Workshop by Steamforged Games Ltd is a standalone RPG set in the Iron Kingdoms: Requiem setting, continuing the legacy of previous iterations going all the way back to “The Longest Night,” the first episode in The Witchfire Trilogy for D&D 3e. Now using the SRD 5.1, it’ll be familiar to anyone who has played D&D 5e.
So, what’s Strangelight Workshop? Described as a game of “occult and otherworldly investigations,” influenced by Hellboy’s BRDP, Ghostbusters, Men-In-Black and X-Files, the game is set in the gaslight-fantasy world of the Iron Kingdoms. Thus, it draws on elements of steampunk mechanika and sorcery to provide a unique setting to become immersed in. My thoughts went immediately to the TV series Penny Dreadful with its elements of horror and magic in Victorian-era London.
Although the game does not go down the horror route, I would highly recommend that before starting a campaign in this setting you run a Session Zero with your players to ensure that everyone is clear about what adventures will involve, and how far on the horror side of the occult players are willing to explore. I would also suggest that any safety tools that are to be utilized are agreed upon before starting.
Strangelight Workshop has only recently completed a successful crowdfunding on Kickstarter, so this is a review of the playtest scenario, including an adventure, five pre-generated characters, and a guide to their abilities. Given the pricing of previous Iron Kingdom books, it will likely retail at $50 for the physical copy of the book and $25 for the PDF version.
Characters
The five characters cover the full set of new classes in the setting – Bouncer, Caller, Investigator, Jammer and Strangelight Mechanik.
Each class fulfils a specific role in a party of adventurers – the bouncer protects their teammates from mundane threats, the caller is there to communicate with spirits and other entities, the investigator is on the lookout for clues to solve the case, the jammer is there to keep their fellow agents safe from otherworldly threats, and the mechanik is there to maintain the various pieces of prototype technology that the team makes use of. An ideal mix of abilities and equipment that complement each other, allowing the party to have options in any situation they might face.
As with previous Iron Kingdoms games, the equipment is a distinctive part of the game. The headlining features this time are Prototypes. These are items that are unique to the Workshop, a tool library that the characters can call upon during an investigation. The sample scenario provides a selection of tools that are available to the characters to make use of, ranging from charged gauntlets to a sensory augmentation hood. This limited selection delivers a good flavoring of the role prototypes will take within the setting.
The Scenario
“A Strange Light Breaks” is described as an introductory adventure for 1st level characters. Split into three parts, the adventure follows a standard approach to introduction a new setting to players.
Part One introduces the characters to their base of operations, a chapterhouse of the Strangelight Workshop known as “Outpost #113”. They also meet an important NPC Emil Todmann, who works as the desk clerk at the outpost, and who will direct the party to the job board located within the chapterhouse. There are no other agents of the Strangelight Workshop currently assigned to the outpost, making the party the only operatives and Todmann their immediate superior as he is the senior field agent working out of “Outpost #113”.
Following Todmann’s instructions, the party will find that there are three notices on the job board, each leading to a different “gig”. These three gigs form Part Two of the adventure and can be completed in any order. Before setting out on their first job, Todmann will supply the characters with their Strangelight Workshop gear.
And so, on to Part Two.
The first gig is reminiscent of the standard “clear the rats out of the cellar” that is a trope within D&D games. However, the unique nature of the creature involved, plus a twist to the challenge, make this an effective version of this trope.
The second gig is a bit more intriguing. The characters are charged with dealing with a “haunting” in a local area of the city. If the party rushes into this as a combat situation, they will likely find themselves in a very precarious position. For 1st level characters the opponent the party will face is very challenging, so this gig requires a more thoughtful approach to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
The third gig again involves a more investigative approach to achieving an outcome. What starts as an investigation into the appearance of a strange spectral creature turns into a unusual situation involving the Strangelight Workshop equipment that the characters have in their possession. Several options are presented in this gig that allow it to be resolved satisfactorily.
After each gig the characters are expected to return to the outpost and report their findings to Todmann. Once the third job is concluded, in whichever order the players choose to complete them, the adventure moves on to Part Three.
Part Three provides a very interesting twist to the whole adventure, and once again requires that the characters try to find a solution that does not necessarily involve direct conflict. Without spoiling the twist, it is difficult to fully explain this third part of the adventure. Suffice to say, it is still a challenge for 2nd level characters, which the characters will be by this point in the adventure and will push them to their limit.
Following the conclusion of this adventure, the characters are presented with a possible lead towards further adventures as agents of the Strangelight Workshop.
Future Material
Steamforged Games has also announced a second book, Specternomicon, which will be a monster book filled with a variety of undead and infernal creatures, alongside other unusual and inexplicable challenges for characters to face in their adventures. With the promise of the inclusion of “Haunting” rules that will allow a Game Master to adjust the complexity and weirdness of an encounter, the Specternomicon sounds like an essential addition for anyone looking to run a full campaign.
Final Verdict
Overall, this play-test adventure was easy to run, and my players enjoyed taking part in it. The setting was intriguing enough that they would be willing to continue playing in it, which means the Strangelight Workshop setting has a lot of potential.
Given what I have been able to ascertain about the setting from the limits of the play-test scenario and the sample pre-generated characters, I would have to say that I am intrigued by Iron Kingdoms: Strangelight Workshop. Its approach to creating a steampunk/gaslight fantasy horror setting that draws upon the ideas of Hellboy, Ghostbusters, Men-In-Black, X-Files and other similar stories within this genre, is very appealing. The sample scenario was enjoyable and provided sufficient details to ensure that the vision of the setting was clear. This is a game that I would like to add to my own collection and will do so once it becomes available.
This adventure’s a solid 8/10 start.
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