Ironsworn
| File:Ironsworn cover.png Ironsworn Core Rulebook | |
| Designer(s) | Shawn Tomkin |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 2018 |
| Genre(s) | Universal, Fantasy, Science fiction |
| System(s) | Ironsworn, Powered by the Apocalypse |
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Ironsworn is a role-playing game written and self-published by Shawn Tomkin.[1] The game received the 2019 ENNIE Gold Winner Award for Best Free Game/Product.[2] Since publication, Ironsworn has found success not only because it's distributed for free but also because of high-quality and simplicity for beginners to role-playing games. The simple mechanics and focus on narrative make Ironsworn a system that encourages the player to fail forward and continue to make the most of their story.
Settings
Ironsworn is a generic rule system, easily adapted to other settings but Shawn has included one main setting in the core rulebook, the Ironlands. The Ironlands setting is gritty fantasy on a rugged frontier. Generations ago, your people settled here in the wake of a cataclysm which drove them from the Old World. Now, you live in isolated villages of wood and thatch at the edge of dark forests, or as nomads among the northern hills, or as seafarers along the rugged coast. Your world is bounded by deep woods, violent seas, and imposing mountains where only the reckless or resolute venture.
System
Character creation
Player characters are built using a system of choosing a number of points (3,2,2,1,1) to allocate to the five different stats. These are edge, heart, iron, shadow, and wits.
Apart from the starting stats, there are also trackers for health, spirit, and supply.
Vows are the main mechanic by which a player can track progress and accomplish goals. The player character should also have a background vow and an inciting incident vow. The background vow can be used to guide the player over time while the inciting incident vow can be used to immediately start with a goal in mind, to advance the story.
Gameplay
There are three ways to play Ironsworn.
- Guided: One or more players take the role of their characters, while a gamemaster (GM) moderates the session.
- Co-Op: One or more players play together to overcome challenges and complete quests. No GM required.
- Solo: One player portrays a lone character driven to fulfill vows in a dangerous world.
Shawn has mentioned that he took inspiration from Powered by the Apocalypse, among other systems. The player narrates the story and then makes Moves when it makes narrative sense. If for instance, the player is about to enter combat, they can make the Enter the Fray move.
The player resolves conflict by making two rolls: the challenge roll of two ten-sided dice (2d10), and the action roll of one six-sided die (1d6). The player then adds any stat modifier to the action roll's result and any other modifiers from Assets and compares the action score to each challenge dice. If the action score is greater than both challenge dice, that's a "strong hit" (a success). If it only exceeds one challenge die, that's a "weak hit" (success with a cost or weaker effect). If it is lower than both challenge dice, that's a "miss" (a failure).
The player accumulates Momentum through succeeding at rolls (scoring a hit, weak or strong) or through narrative. Momentum can be burned (reset) to cancel one or two challenge dice, turning a miss or a weak hit, into a better result, such as a strong hit.
Experience can be gained by completing vows and then spent upgrading existing assets or gaining new ones. Assets in the core game fall under the following categories:
- Companions: these are companions to the player character, with their own abilities that can affect moves and their own health tracker.
- Paths: these are backgrounds for the character, like specializations and characteristics that give flavor and bonuses.
- Combat Talents: these are usually related to bonuses when doing combat moves with a specific weapon.
- Rituals: the setting of the Ironlands is a low-magic setting and the little of it there is can be done via these rituals.
Supplements
There are a few official supplements that have been published by Shawn Tomkin.
- Ironsworn Lodestar (2018): A short reference guide that contains an oracle for character disposition and also alternative starting points for easier and harder modes of play.
- Ironsworn: Delve (2020): The first major expansion adds additional mechanics and content to the game, most notably "Delves" for dungeon-crawling quests, complete with themes and domain assets to create them.
- Ironsworn: Starforged (2022): Funded in a Kickstarter campaign, this is a new core rulebook taking the Ironsworn system to the stars for space-faring adventures. Along with the new setting, there are also new rules, assets, moves, and oracles.[3]
See also
Notes
- ↑ "Ironsworn Review". Tabletop Gaming. 2020-11-29. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
- ↑ "List of ENNIE Awards 2019 Nominees and Winners". Retrieved 2022-09-12.
- ↑ Parkin, Jeffrey (2022-06-14). "Take your role-playing game to the stars with Ironsworn: Starforged". Polygon. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
External links
This article "Ironsworn" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Ironsworn. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
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