2021 Day 27: Ironsworn
Ironsworn is not quite the swords and sorcery game I have been looking for, but it’s a lot closer than anything else. (Blue Rose is good and inspirational but, as per my review last year, it’s not generic and the fun parts are not reliable.) It is also stands out as a game explicitly designed for any of solo, collaborative and storyguided play and it does feel like all of those would work.
Another book that starts without much of a setting, it does at least give you the general idea that you have been driven to an inhospitable part of the world where settlements are small and small-scale raiding is common. There are ten pages to give you setting context and inspiration, each page giving brief notes on different environments you might come across. And a few more pages of the sorts of people and beasts you might come across. It’s certainly enough to build a world from, and players get to develop the world as much as the Storyguide.
Ironsworn borrows heavily from Powered by the Apocalypse, but isn’t. Gameplay is driven mechanically by “Moves”, which define their own roles, skill options and outcomes, and rolling against them can give you a strong hit, weak hit or miss. Only players roll. Character generation is mostly quick and straightforward. But at this point it diverges, as you don’t have playbooks to choose and you need to set a number of freeform fields that define your characters. On top of that, you get to pick some assets from four types (companions, combat talents, rituals (magic) and paths (skillsets). Assets add both flavour and options to your character.
The freeform fields are your vows, which are sacred in the setting (hence the name). And it’s a great concept similar to the Beats in Heart. That is: they define what you want to do and reward you for doing it. The difference to Heart is that they are totally in character. Nevertheless, they give the players and/or storyguide tons of prompts for telling a story, and because the players chose these vows they are invested in the story being told.
Instead of rolling against the specific target numbers of PbtA, in Ironsworn you try and beat two random 1d10 with 1d6+skill. It’s an interesting choice which I haven’t explored in depth, however you can find probabilities and discussion here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/l99fhw/ironsworn_probabilities/
It also has an unusual “I really want to do this” mechanic, where you gain and lose Momentum and can, if you wish, reset it to replace your 1d6+skill dice.
Combat is an inevitability of the genre and this is the area where most games turn into a dirge. I can’t promise that Ironsworn combat can’t get repetitive, but it definitely focuses on the narrative more than most games. Take Initiative, for example. Having initiative doesn’t mean you go first - you can take your actions in whatever order makes narrative sense - but rather is the way to put your opponent on the backfoot. You can use better, less risky moves. Success means you wear your opponent down, failure means you Pay the Price (which probably then makes you roll against the Endure Harm move). And when you decide, you can use End the Fight to take an opponent out of combat.
There is also the Battle move to summarise unimportant fights: one roll to determine what happens. To me, that makes up for the potential for a grind against difficult foes. The grind is definitely there. More powerful foes do more damage and take a lot more wearing down, they are not more intrinsically dynamic. But since the fight is all in the fiction, more than any other game I have seen Ironsworn does have the potential for epic narration of fights.
Note that weapons and armour are not intrinsically relevant to fights, except for doing less damage if unarmed, unless you have an asset which has additional rules.Your choice of equipment is largely narrative.
The paragraphs on fights also follow for adventure moves, which you use for travelling. Paying the Price whilst travelling has a lovely table of prompts as well as letting you use your own imagination separately if required.
As a free game with a ton of additional material available, and a solid narrative approach to the genre, Ironsworn has a load of potential and I am not surprised about why it has a surge of popularity.
Sonor is a shaman of a dark god. A god in shadow, who has been punished by other stronger and more selfish gods. Sonor has been blessed with powers for her dedication, using her time to honor him and preach the truth. I think that’s it for my backstory, it’s the kind of thing I would want to develop with the other players as the world grows. For instance, who are the other gods, and what are gods?
You are advised to take one long-term vow, which I have left vague but the key will be in-character satisfaction. Plus actually there is a progress track so the mechanics define when it is accomplished. You are also advised to take a shorter-term vow, your call to adventure. There are a series of quest prompts in the Your World and the Foes and Encounters sections and I chose one of those.
Edge 1, Heart 2, Iron 2, Shadow 1, Wits: 3
Vows:
(Epic) Convert all the nearby villages to worship your dark god.
(Dangerous) Others of your race, and maybe your faith, have landed nearby. Break bread with them as allies.
Bonds:
Jerome, an orphan Sonor took under her wing. A true follower but too young to travel.
Resolute, the local village. Sonor is their local healer and wise woman.
Synedd, the village over the water. While the two villages do raid each other, Sonor has their respect.
Assets:
Asset 1: Ritual: Visage (bonus to intimidation)
Asset 2: Ritual: Augur (prophecy)
Asset 3: Path: Sighted (bonus when studying mystic forces)
Sonor's character sheet
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/12876/Shawn-Tomkin