Race |
Gifts |
Flaws |
Skills |
Weapons |
Habitat (choose one) |
Senses |
Page |
|
Apes (3 points) |
Prehensile Feet
(1 point); |
None |
Acrobatics, Brawling, Climbing, Wrestling |
None |
Forest or Mountains |
Spot |
p. 25 |
|
Armadillos (5 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
Poor Sight (‑3 points) |
Resolve, Tracking |
Claws |
Plains |
Listen, Smell |
p. 26 |
|
Badgers (2 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Resolve, Stealth, Tracking |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest |
Smell |
p. 27 |
|
Bats (special; 2 points plus Size) |
Echolocation
(3 points); |
Frail (‑2 points) |
Flight, Night Speech |
None |
Forest |
Listen |
p. 28 |
|
Bears (7 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Choose one (Climbing or Swimming), Choose one (Fishing or Tracking), Wrestling |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest |
Smell |
p. 29 |
|
Boars (1 point) |
Tusks (1 point) |
None |
Resolve, Tracking |
Tusks |
Forest |
Smell |
p. 30 |
|
Cats (3 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Acrobatics, Climbing, Stealth |
Claws, Teeth |
Forests, Mountains, or Plains |
Listen |
p. 31 |
|
Coyotes (3 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Hiking, Tactics, Tracking |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest or Plains |
Listen, Smell |
p. 32 |
|
Elk / Deer (zero or 1 point) |
Antlers (if male) (1 point) |
None |
Camouflage, Herbalism, Hiking |
Antlers, if appropriate |
Forest or Plains |
Smell |
p. 33 |
|
Ermines (2 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Contortionist, Dodge, Stealth, Tracking |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest or Plains |
Smell |
p. 39 |
|
Ferrets (2 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Contortionist, Dodge, Stealth, Tracking |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest or Plains |
Smell |
p. 39 |
|
Foxes (3 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Climbing, Sixth Sense, Stealth, Tracking |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest, Mountains, or Plains |
Listen, Smell |
p. 34 |
|
Goats (1 or 2 points) |
Horns (if male)
(1 point); |
None |
Climbing, Herbalism |
Horns, if male |
Mountains |
Smell |
p. 35 |
|
Horses (4 points) |
Extra Move +3
(3 points); |
None |
Hiking. Tactics |
Hooves |
Plains |
Spot |
p. 36 |
|
Mice (3 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Choose one (Climbing or Swimming), Contortionist, Stealth |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest or Plains |
Listen |
p. 37 |
|
Minks (2 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Contortionist, Dodge, Stealth, Tracking |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest or Plains |
Smell |
p. 39 |
|
Monkeys (2 points) |
Prehensile Feet
(1 point); |
None |
Acrobatics, Climbing, Contortionist, Wrestling |
None |
Forest |
Spot |
p. 38 |
|
Otters (1 point) |
Claws (1 point) |
None |
Breath‑Holding, Contortionist, Fishing, Swimming |
Claws |
Plains |
Smell |
p. 40 |
|
Porcupines (4 points) |
Barbed Spines
(2 points); |
None |
Stealth, Tracking |
Barbed Spines, Claws, Teeth |
Forest |
Smell |
p. 41 |
|
Rabbits (2 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Herbalism, Jumping, Stealth |
Claws |
Forest, Mountains, or Plains |
Listen |
p. 42 |
|
Raccoons (3 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Climbing, Fishing, Stealth |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest |
Listen, Smell |
p. 43 |
|
Rams (1 or 2 points) |
Horns (if male)
(1 point); |
None |
Climbing, Herbalism |
Horns, if male |
Mountains |
Smell |
p. 35 |
|
Rats (3 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Choose one (Climbing or Swimming), Contortionist, Stealth |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest or Plains |
Listen |
p. 37 |
|
Rhinoceros (8 points) |
Horn
(1 point); |
Poor Sight (‑3 points) |
Resolve |
Horn |
Plains |
Smell |
p. 44 |
|
Sheep (1 or 2 points) |
Horns (if male)
(1 point); |
None |
Climbing, Herbalism |
Horns, if male |
Mountains |
Smell |
p. 35 |
|
Shrews (5 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Resolve, Stealth |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest or Plains |
Listen, Smell |
p. 45 |
|
Skunks (5 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Stealth, Tracking |
Claws; Spray; Teeth |
Forest |
Smell |
p. 46 |
|
Squirrels (1 point) |
Claws (1 point) |
None |
Acrobatics, Climbing, Jumping |
Claws |
Forest |
Listen |
p. 47 |
|
Weasels (2 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Contortionist, Dodge, Stealth, Tracking |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest or Plains |
Smell |
p. 39 |
|
Wild Dogs (3 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Hiking, Tactics, Tracking |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest or Plains |
Listen, Smell |
p. 32 |
|
Wolverines (2 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Resolve, Stealth, Tracking |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest |
Smell |
p. 27 |
|
Wolves (3 points) |
Claws
(1 point); |
None |
Hiking, Tactics, Tracking |
Claws, Teeth |
Forest, Mountains, or Plains |
Listen, Smell |
p. 48 |
What’s the name of the Race? What sort of function does it fill in society?
Is the Career too similar to another Race already made? What makes this Race “different”?
What Racial Gifts and Flaws does the Race have?
What sort of Racial Habitats are available to the Race?
What sort of Racial Senses does the Race have?
What skills would the Race apply to? Do these choices make sense? (For example, a Race that applies to Dodge – the Skill of avoiding pain – probably shouldn’t apply to Resolve – the Skill of withstanding pain.) As a rule, a Racial Trait should apply to no more than eight things, including Habitat, Senses, Skills, Weapons.
Have you asked the other Players and the Game Host what they think of the Race?
Yes, you can – pay the difference in cost out of your Personal Gifts. For example, Strength +2 costs 5 points, Strength +3 costs 7 points. Spend 2 points of your Personal Gifts to increase that. Since Racial Gifts and Personal Gifts are broken up into different sections on the latest Character Sheet, you should make a note in both places, with arrows pointing at each other or footnotes, or some other device that makes sense.
Remember – you may only spend 10 points on “Personal Gifts”, which includes the points you spend to increase your Racial Gifts. (Think of this as how you “personally” differ from the “racial” norm.)
With specific permission from the Game Host, you may spend Points (or Experience, later in the game) to remove Racial Flaws. If you “buy off” these Flaws at Character Creation, the points you spend come out of your Personal Gifts. (Once again, this is how you “personally” differ from the “racial” norm.)
Firstly, having no Size restrictions makes Character Creation easier. Secondly, some folks have fun playing a “character against type”, such as a tiny bear or a giant shrew – this is a fantasy world, after all.
Thirdly, if it bothers your Game Host and party of Players, then simply don’t build characters of “inappropriate” Sizes. As usual, the point of the game is to have fun, the aesthetic judgments of what’s fun to role‑play will vary from one group to the next.
The bat is the trickiest race to play. It costs 2 points, plus the Bat’s final size. This is because the Gift of Flight costs as much as the character’s final Size.
So, in order to build a Bat character, first you must choose your Body, choose all Gifts and Flaws that modify Size, then you can determine how much the Gift of Flight would cost.
Example: Annushka is a bat. Her Body is d6. She has the Flaw of Frail. Consulting the Physical Characteristics table on page 11 of the Ironclaw book, her Size is determined to be 5 stone. Thus, for Annushka, the cost of the Gift of Flight costs 5 points.
Adding up the math, Annushka’s Racial Gifts and Flaws come up as Echolocation (3 points), Flight (5 points), Prehensile Feet (1 point), Frail (‑2 points), which makes her total Racial Cost at 7 – which is also 2 plus her Size of 5. You can find Annushka’s completed write‑up on page 21 of the Ironclaw book.
Why is this calculation so complicated? Well, basically it means that you can play a Bat character of any Size you want, it just costs more points. (As an example, it would cost 13 points to play a Bat with a Body of d12.) As mentioned above, the Ironclaw game places no restrictions on the Size of your character, regardless of Race – but it does encourage smaller Bats by making larger ones cost more points. (However, giant bat warriors can be lots of fun to play – try it sometime.)