TTRPG Babble - Ironsworn

So imagine my surprise when I realised that I have not actually used this medium to babble about TTRPG games besides my homebrew and some references to D&D. I mean, what an opportunity missed!

Needless to say, I'm going to being amending that today.

Ironsworn's default setting sees you as an oath-keeping Ironsworn within the cold, harsh Ironlands. You're of the third generation of Ironlanders to live here and you journey from settlement to settlement completing quests/vows.

I'm not really doing the game justice. So let's start with the things that appealed to me.

This is a game you can play guided (with a GM), co-op (2-4 people without a GM), or Solo (that means you. Yes, you! All by your onesy!). I found this a very novel idea.

Another rather remarkable feature is that this game's pdfs are absolutely FREE. Yup, you read that right. This is a game that can bring hours upon hours of joy without you having to fork out an enormous amount of money for it. Naturally, I did because I wanted to support the dude, because he's really cool. But nevertheless, you can play Ironsworn for absolutely nothing.

So how does the game work? 

Well it runs on an engine that's inspired by the Powered by the Apocalypse gaming engine in that your character's narrative actions trigger mechanical moves. Let me give you an example:

Eshan is following the trail of what might be a big beastie. She examines the footprints looking for more information on it.

For this, she triggers a Gather Information move which states:

Wits is one of your character's core stats and represents their intelligence (Or rather their expertise, knowledge, and observation.)

To make a roll, you roll one six-sided and two ten-sided dice. The d6 is your action die and will be what you use to tally your action score - meaning its total + wits in this case. The 2d10s are your challenge dice. You want to have your action score be higher than both of them, which would then result in a strong hit. 

So if I was playing Eshan in a guided game, the GM would tell me to roll Gather Information and will then tell me everything that is 'envisioned'. With co-op, it's more of a team brainstorm as to what it can mean. And solo, gameplay is all me. 

Let's say I rolled a strong hit, maybe my d6 landed on a 5 and I added 2 for my Wits score giving me a 7 action score. My 2d10 rolls were both lower than 7 and I pat myself on the back for rolling such a nice roll. Now I discover something about this beastie. Hm. Maybe the beastie is wounded. I deduce this by the drops of blood that I notice along its trail. Mechanically this might mean that when I encounter this beastie, I'd assign it a lower difficulty rank than initially envisioned. I add two points to my Momentum track (which is another nifty mechanic which you can use to strengthen the outcome of your rolls in certain situations) and continue my narrative.

Let's say I rolled a miss. It says I must roll a move called Pay the Price.

So I would go with the most obvious negative outcome in this case. Now there are two things that immediately come to my mind that could happen. I lose the trail or the beastie surprises me.

But which option do you choose? Well, whichever fits the story best in your mind is one option. Like I would have gone with the beastie attacking me out of the brush and thus catching me off guard. But there is also an Oracle role you can do make to determine which. It's really up to you. The thing with Ironsworn, especially playing solo, is that it's all up to you. It's about your ideas and making it work.

How you record Ironsworn is also your preference. Whether you make a few brief notes, write essays on your character, or try and cram all the information in your head. How you do it is entirely up to you.

So what else is cool about this game?

Reader, I haven't even scratched the surface. 

Imagine this: a game that helps you decide on all the major aspects of the world and make it your own. Ironsworn has that. It has an entire section on building the world. Magic, religion, horrors, beasts, governance, etc.

Don't like the setting? Change it and get help from the book to do it! Ironsworn has a section on how you can hack the setting and change it to your whim. I've seen people set it in Middle Earth, in Westerns, etc. 

The only limitation you have is yourself and, when you start playing, you might realise that you're not as limited as you had thought initially.

But what if a medieval setting isn't for me and I would rather want it in space?

I present to you... Starforged.

Which I'll babble about in a separate post. :)