About this project
€28,887
375
(AACTA Award for Best Visual Effects, BIFFF Audience Award & Silver Méliès, Jussi Award for Best Art Direction)
Includes Material from the Upcoming Film, Iron Sky: The Coming Race
Release Date on the Same Date As Iron Sky: The Coming Race, the 14th of February, 2018 (Finnish gala - Berlin Film Festival screening on the 15th of February, 2018)
Written by Some of the Best RPG Authors in the Business
Written by award-winning authors, this brand-new roleplaying game will not only include innovative mechanics, but also a hundreds of pictures, as well as artwork and illustrations from both Iron Sky movies, some of which has never been released before.
Only main rulebook needed to play the game, but unique accessories available
Basic rules already available at lower pledge levels
About Iron Sky
In 2012, Iron Sky took the world by storm. The 7.5 million dollar film was catapulted into instant cult status by the fans, who had funded more than 10% of the project, and its quirky storyline, tongue-in-the-cheek humor and great special effects made sure it reaped in 4 major awards and 2 more nominations at leading film festivals. The Iron Sky team didn’t stop there, though: it released its own comic and board game and expanded its universe. As we are writing this press release, the 18 million dollar sequel, Iron Sky The Coming Race is in the final stages of post-production, while spin-off Iron Sky: The Ark is already being worked on.
On top of that, a TV series uncovering the conspiracies that led to Nazis being on the moon in the first place may be added to the Iron Sky setting as well, making sure there is a lot of room for future RPG supplements and adventures.
In the original film, we found out about a secret Nazi community that was established on the dark side of the Moon during the closing moments of World War II. With a new generation being readied to ‘bring peace’ to Earth, Führer Wolfgang Kortzsleisch (played by the German cult actor Udo Kier), is preparing the huge space fortress Götterdämmerung to lead the way in establishing a new Third Reich. When American astronaut James Washington (Christopher Kirby) sets foot on a sector of the Moon too close to the secret Nazi base, he gets captured and finds out about the planned invasion. After being rescued by the beautiful Renate Richter (Julia Dietze), James has to come up with a plan to save the world from near-extinction.
The Iron Sky Universe is firmly rooted in both SF and satire. It's not just about fighting Nazis or shape-shifting reptilians, but also about fighting ignorance, hate and bigotry in all shapes, and forms.
In The Coming Race, the Iron Sky Universe will be hugely expanded. Set 20 years after the events depicted in the original film, the former moonbase has become mankind’s last refuge. The film will reveal the existence of a Hollow Earth buried underneath our planet’s wasteland, as well as the truth behind our creation and the presence of the Vril, an ancient reptilian shapeshifting race that will determine the fate of everyone involved.
About the Roleplaying Game
Iron Sky: The Roleplaying Game will allow players to create characters for different periods within the timeline. Either play just before the Moon Nazis reveal themselves, during the struggle, during the aftermath or 25 years later, when the existence of the Vril is discovered. We'll also provide you with suggestions on how the Moon base got established in the first place, allowing for adventure seeds that can transport the game into the sixties.
The Synthesis rules system provides for rules tweaks according to genre, so you can play Iron Sky as it is intended, as a pulpy satire/pastiche with appropriate rules, as a more serious, gritty campaign, as an epic struggle against evil, as a space opera adventure, as a political intrigue story, or more.
Aside from the genre rules, the setting is also reflected in one of the five Base Traits a character has: Personality (which is divided in 5 Focuses if you're playing the Advanced version of the game, each of them representing one of the 5 major personality characteristics in psychological literature). A Character's Personality will be of tremendous help during the game if it has a positive value, while negative values may get your Character into trouble. Personality can also temporarily be used instead of one of the other Traits if that Trait is lower (or lowered because of injury or other reasons), but usually only when times or desperate.
The game allows you to create your own Character, whilst also including write-ups of all of the major (and some of the minor) characters in the film, pregenerated characters, creatures and vehicles. Full space combat rules are also included and reflect personal combat in order to make the rules easy to digest.
With so much resource material to draw from, the game is sure to expand with supplements and adventures for years to come.
Authors & Designers
Spearheaded by editor and author Dirk Vandereyken (former Regional Director for the RPGA, award-winning author of IJs, de Verloren Planeet, Fates Worse than Death: Hunter and Baour: Strands of Death), the rulebook will bring together some of the best RPG authors out there, including Eloy Lasanta (Third Eye Games), Steven S. Long (Aberrant, Deadlands, HERO System, In Nomine, Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game, Mage: The Ascension, Star Trek: The Next Generaton Roleplaying Game, Star Trek: The Original Series Roleplaying Game, Trail of Cthulhu, etc.) Michael Satran (HERO System), Michael Surbrook (Dark Heresy, Here Be Dragons, HERO System, Rogue Trader), Stephen Tasker (HERO System, The Underground: A Sam & Fuzzy Role Playing Game, Metatopia), Jason Walters (HERO System, The Vast White, Indie Press Revolution, Blackwyrm, Hero Games) and Darren Watts (Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, HERO System, Silver Back Press).
Joining the team will be newbies Andy De Maertelaere (Disney Guide Book) and aerospace engineer Hans De Ryck, who will make sure the crunchy bits are both accessible and playable. With designer Cedric Van der Kelen and Gerry Kissell (The Agency, Alan Wake, Army of Two, Back to the Future, Iron Sky, Vanquish, etc.) also on board and taking care of illustrations and art, the book will look as great as it sounds!
The Synthesis Rules System
Iron Sky: The Roleplaying Game will use a brand-new universal rules system specifically written for Iron Sky. The system is geared towards recapturing the feel of the film, but contains all of the building blocks and elements necessary for the RPG to be adapted to any setting or genre.
Aside from a full-color hardcover rulebook printed on high-quality glossy paper and an enriched PDF, with links to certain subjects, rules, tables and outside resources, some of the unique Synthesis elements include:
A Basic and Advanced Version
Game Masters and players can choose to play Synthesis as a Basic or as an Advanced game. Both are included in the Iron Sky Roleplaying Game and are fully compatible with each other, as the Advanced game simply elaborates on the Basic rules. There’s no need to convert Advanced characters for a Basic game session and Basic characters can easily be inserted into Advanced sessions as well.
Take look at the digital, fillable version of our Basic Rules Character Sheet front. It's a work in progress, but we can already tell you the Character Sheet is printable in several different graphics-light versions to save on ink and it'll show you where the cursor needs to be to make jotting down those scores easier than ever.
Three Methods of Character Generation
The Iron Sky Roleplaying Game offers 3 ways to create a character:
- Point Pool Distribution: the standard way for distributing points in the Basic game can also be used for the Advanced game and simply involves distributing a number of points amongst the Traits, Skills, Perks, Powers and Advantages available in the game.
- Life Path Generation: adapted to the Iron Sky setting and adaptable to any setting, Characters can be taken through different stages in their life, each offering points to distribute amongst Trait, Skills, Perks, Powers and Advantages according to what happened during those time periods.
- Board Game Life Path Generation: Uniquely, Iron Sky also offers character generation through a custom-made RPG board game. Players can each create a Character separately or join to develop their group together by moving their Character Pawns on the board to the life events that have determined their Characters. If the player group and the GM also want to play with an arch enemy or Nemesis in their campaign, the GM can create the Nemesis at the same time as the Character Pawns are moving around. When the Nemesis Pawn crosses the Player Character Pawns, the Characters and their arch enemy meet, creating a past history that adds immersion and a level of suspense to the Campaign.
Whatever method chosen, each Character ends up with exactly the same Character Points as (s)he would have using any other method, making everything completely compatible and interchangeable. Thus, it’s even possible to mix up methods according to player preferences and include Characters created differently in the same group!
The d1000
Synthesis is a d1000 system. It uses three 10-sided dice (one of which can be our custom Synthesis die) to generate results with a single-roll mechanic. No need to roll for Hit Location or Damage: a single d1000 roll is enough to determine all outcomes.
True Normal Distribution
Most things in our reality fit into a standard-normal distribution, with good chances of hitting average numbers and very low chances of generating results on either end of the curve. Don’t waste time discussing how to best reflect a standard-normal distribution anymore: Synthesis uses a simple but effective mechanic that includes the target numbers you would get in an actual Bell curve, while still being very easy to use in play.
Hit Locations
Yes, the Advanced Synthesis game uses Hit Locations and if you’d like to include them in your Basic game, that’s fine as well, but Hit Locations have become more fun than ever! Not only do you use a crosshairs overlay you place over a silhouette to determine where you hit, the silhouettes and crosshairs also vary in size according to range, which does away with a lot of the otherwise pesky modifiers you would need to better reflect size, range, cover, friendly fire and more.
Action Dial
In Synthesis, combat situations are counted in Ticks, each of them representing a tenth of a second. This might have been difficult to track, if not for our custom-made Action Dial! The only thing you need to know is how many Ticks an Action takes. All of the Ticks used in the Basic game are included on the dial, while specialized maneuvers included in the Advanced game have their own Ticks listed in the rulebook.
Stretch Goals
Extras
Reward Tiers Overview
Download the pledge levels, rewards and Extras overview as a PDF
Original Comic Book Cover
The Comic
A few years back, IDW published the official Iron Sky comic by Gerry Kissell. The roleplaying game will include several pages of the original comic, which is also part of the reward tiers. On top of that, the entire comic will be included in the pages of the Iron Sky: The Roleplaying Game Special Edition rulebook!
Your City in Iron Sky!
Every roleplaying game needs to have great locations, exciting backdrops that will bring something unique to both narrative and action scenes. Iron Sky: The Roleplaying Game has plenty of those: the Moon, secret bases, a hollow Earth and much more. However, just like almost any good RPG, we’ll also detail some actual cities and places you may know from real life. They help Game Masters ground their campaigns and add a lot of detail to the setting. Many great cities have been used in RPG’s, including Chicago, Los Angeles and London.
Our introductory adventure will be set in the Clearwater-St. Pete’s/Dunedin area and will come complete with a small city supplement detailing the three cities, famous landmarks, businesses and Non-Player Characters… but we'll add more locations to stage your adventures in! Some of them will make it to the core rulebook itself, others will be covered in free PDF city supplements we'll make available to Kickstarter backers.
Introductory Adventure - Blurb
The Player Characters are called in by a mutual friend of theirs to investigate the disappearance of Jason Rivers (multiple other options are presented in the adventure). Jason, a long-time gun-toting San Francisco resident who had moved out to Gerlach, Nevada, to start up a self-sustaining ranch with his wife, Gina, because of the more relaxed gun laws there, had recently relocated to Dunedin, Florida, after retiring. He and Gina abandoned their publishing company in favor of a local radio station promoting conspiracy theories.
Jason’s more outlandish claims were often debunked only minutes after he aired them, but recently he had started to become more vocal about some of his assertions. In his radio show, Jason Speaketh the Truth, Jason stated multiple times he had found proof of a threat to mankind, lurking in the shadows. According to the conspiracy theorist, he had written to the FBI and the CIA on numerous occasions without ever hearing back from them, supporting his delusion of a massive cover-up.
The Player Characters meet up with a concerned Gina in the Wyndham Grand, where she has been staying because she fears whoever abducted Jason might also be after her. There, they learn that Jason had a hard time fitting in with the friendly and peace-loving citizens of Dunedin, so he mostly took to himself when not walking his dog or sampling new beers at one of the seven micro-breweries in the area. However, a few weeks before his disappearance, Jason had started to frequent seemingly randomly chosen businesses, selling his car in favor of an electric bike and taking up a vegetarian lifestyle. He had even become a regular at a local juice bar, but Gina never bought into his sudden change in behavior, believing her husband was really trying to gather information within what he believed were dangerous alt-left, pro-socialist circles. Jason had become more aloof towards her, reluctant to join in conversation and inclined to silence, as if he had something to hide.
Now that he has disappeared, Gina is almost convinced that Jason found proof supporting one of his theories. The Player Characters will have to travel from Clearwater to Dunedin and Caladesi Island, where Jason was last seen, to find out what happened, in the process uncovering a terrible truth: one of Jason’s conspiracy theories came so close to reality that he was putting himself in more danger than he ever could have realized…
Living Iron Sky
In 2018, we will launch the Living Iron Sky campaign at Gen Con. This will be a series of interconnected adventures you can participate in with shared Characters. Your actions will influence the campaign and advance the Characters, so a shared universe can be created. More details will be made available after the RPG is published in February.
Social Media Rewards
Add-Ons
Risks and challenges
In order to minimize the risk that one of our writers or artists is late on a project, we have doubled-up our staff, making sure there's always someone to take over in case someone gets sick or is otherwise unable to make a deadline. Furthermore, the entire 'Iron Sky' film crew is working closely with us on this project, making sure we stay true to the license and the entire game is officially sanctioned by the creators of the IP. We also have Backerkit support to make sure fulfillment will be as smooth as possible.
That being said, there's always something that can go wrong, however unlikely: a substitute might become sick as well, a computer might crash, etc. We keep our team large enough and have enough back-up copies of our work to recover as fast as possible from those kinds of problems.
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Funding period
- (30 days)