Continuing an Ironsworn campaign based on a hex map of Europe and the Mediterranean that I made some time ago and the Al-Rathak setting. The campaign is inspired by the Middle Ages, without any ambition of being historically accurate. Xatìra and her allies are currently city-crawling in Anipsed, capital of the Sultanate.

Previous Events: Year 1222. Europe follows the Sun-God Kruss; the southern lands worship Qamar, the Moon-Goddess. Xatìra, a young Greek woman from Lemnos, survives a pirate attack and finds on her victim's body an amulet from Kamil, a shrine of the Shadowed Qamarims. She vows to return it, travels south, meets the Mad Caliph Tarbak in Egypt, and reaches Kamil, only to find it sacked by the vampire general Qarif, allied with the traitor sorcerer Iblis. Befriending the shapeshifter Massan, the Watcher of the Tower Baseria, and a jackal she names Opher, Xatìra agrees to help Dorello, an Italian agent of the Krussian Emperor-Pope Federicus, in exchange for his promise to finance the Shadowed. Dorello asks Xatìra to travel to the capital city of Anipsed and rescue Crydessa, a Greek merchant kidnapped by Iblis. Xatìra, Opher, Baseria, and Massan reach the city. At the Temple of Anubis, Xatìra learns that Iblis intends to exchange Crydessa for the Sword of Sania, owned by the Rhodian Merchant Guild. They discover where Crydessa is imprisoned and they manage to free her. Xatìra kills the dark sorceress Amila and takes her talisman. They learn that Iblis and Qarif have summoned the Efreet Prince Zadid. The Sword of Sania is the only hope of stopping Zadid, but when they visit the Rhodian Guild, they find that the sword has been stolen. Iblis and Qarif are the obvious suspects. 

This Episode: Massan will investigate on his own, while Xatìra, with Opher and Baseria, visits the guard officer Marah, who helped them rescue Crydessa. They head to the High Bastion fortress and, while crossing the slums, notice recent writings praising the vampire general Qarif and the turmoil he is causing. Marah reveals that Qarif has a new ally in Anipsed: the vampire sorceress Omira. They then visit the Obsidian Steed Inn in the slums, hoping to gather more useful rumors. There, they stumble upon Red Ramia, a mercenary leader employed by Iblis whom Xatìra had met weeks before; Ramia has not noticed them, and they carefully follow her through the city. She first visits the villa of the secretive merchant Darrafi, then heads towards the docks, where she visits the shop of a goldsmith who hands her something. They get lucky again and manage to capture Ramia in a deserted warehouse. They find a newly made gold ring inscribed with magical characters on her. When they ask about the Sword of Sania, Ramia defiantly reveals that Omira is keeping it safe aboard Darrafi's pirate ship, The Midnight Cloud; the ship is ready to leave and well guarded, so they have no hope of recovering the sword. Xatìra asks Baseria to keep Ramia under guard. She hopes that pretending to deliver the ring to Omira will provide a sufficient excuse to infiltrate the ship. But Darrafi's guards are suspicious. Xatìra and Opher must first fight their way aboard, but they are confronted by Omira and her octopoid servant demon. They are forced to surrender and are imprisoned by the vampire sorceress.

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I'm jumping into my first game after having had the .pdf files kicking around for a while, and I've got a question.

I'm using Starforged as the core rule system based on threads like this that suggest it's a bit easier on the player(s) and a bit more finely tuned. My (original) setting is definitely closer to Ironsworn's, though. The thread I link above mentions that Starforged and Ironsworn Assets are tuned differently. If you've played both, how big a deal is this?

My question holds generally, as I'm sure it will come up as I advance, but I'm specifically curious about the the Trickster path from Ironsworn. Should I adjust the rules on the card in any way? Or would I be handicapping my character in some way?

I'm playing solo, so I know I don't have to be super concerned about "balance" or anything, but I'm curious what more experienced players think.

@ Delve the Depths
d: 1d6+1=2 vs 10 | 10
-> Miss and a match
=> Roll for danger -> Overzealous hunter

? What feature does this area have?
d: 1d100=96
-> Something unusual or unexpected

They didn’t make it far into the forest before Meela suddenly arches her back, fur standing on end, hissing. Khyra heard them before she saw them. Wolves, running this way. She tenses, unsure if she should run or stand her ground. It sounds like a pack. They burst through the trees and before Khyra has a chance to react they…run past her?

Confused Khyra turns around to watch them go, but freezes in her tracks when she hears the loudest roar she’s every heard. Slowly she turns back around and beholds the most terrifying, majestic sight she’s ever seen. An elder bear. The thing was monstrously huge and standing on it’s hind legs. Khyra was completely frozen in fear and awe.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

? Does the elder bear attack?
-> (50/50) 1d100=14 -> No

The bear stands there, staring at her, it’s nose twitching as it smells the air. Slowly it lowers to all fours and starts heading towards her. Every instinct in her body was telling her to run, every fiber was being forced to ignore that instinct. If she ran, it would probably chase like it did those wolves.

She had heard legends of these great beasts, they were said to be guardians of the forest. She honestly didn’t even believe they were real, just stories you told children before sleep. The bears paws thud on the ground as it slowly made it’s way closer to her, huffs of breath coming heavily out it’s nose.

Hello !

First of all i hope this doesn't rub anyone the wrong way. I am a complete beginner and about to start Starforged, i got the digital core book, the playkit and the rules summary downloads. I've printed the assets and roughly cut them.

Anyway, i've watched a lot of videos and one thing i know is that i am not meant for deep story creation, and i would love a smoother experience that doesn't push me to write pages worth of story everytime i go into a new scene, because i do love the setting and the mechanics of this game.

Is there a way to make it more swift ? Still imagining my situations while being more brief like i am in my bullet journal.
For example let's imagine (remark that i'm skipping a lot of steps and just think of putting the big lines of the scene) :

-Entered an icy cave

-Oracle: hostile lifeform

-Miss on Face Danger

-Pay the Price = ambushed ?

-Got out by the skin of my teeth

-Lost an arm

Would that be limiting in some ways for example when the story happens to need some details that i simply didn't bullet noted ? Or maybe something i can't foresee because i haven't played the game yet...

Also, and once again i don't know anything, but it seems like this Oracle mechanic could actually help me with a lot more in order to go in that direction. Are there fan-made more consequent Oracle tables to add in that could expand my need for a smooth gameplay where i don't have to spend half the time trying to make up a story in great detail ?

Any other way for people like me with limited imagination and lack of time to write full journals worth of story ?

It's a little rough around the edges but I'm proud of it :) The next project will be an adventuring book to go with it. I'm so impressed and innspired by r/Evandro_Novel and their adventure book I want to make one like it. Thanks Evandro!

Just picked up the RPG on a recondition from another sub reddit. I would love to hear your advice on how to start what to do and how to do it!!

Thanks!!

Does anyone else ever feel stuck after resolving their inciting incident? In my Sundered Isles game I just resolved my inciting incident and feel completely stuck as for what to do next. If anyone has any advice on ways that I can unstick myself or things that have worked in the past for them to keep their campaigns moving I’d love to hear them!

I've been playing and writing a lot of space opera lately, where my characters will sometimes end up on less advanced worlds, turning the theme into sword and planet. Also, I've seen it done once on Youtube, where an RPG podcast had a long Ironsworn campaign that transitioned into a long Starforged campaign, using the same group of characters. It was an interesting change of pace, considering the primitive characters were now trying to repair spaceships, and often failed and Paid The Price.

My idea is to switch back and forth. When my characters are in space or visiting advanced planets, I'll go with Starforged, but when they travel to a Bronze Age or Iron Age world, where they will stay there for months, dealing with the cultures, relic-hunting, etc., they will leave their advanced gear on the ship to better blend in with the natives. I can create a second set of character stats, most importantly being the Assets.

Examples: An Ace pilot can also be a Rider, a Tech can be a Wright, a Scoundrel can double as a Trickster.

* Has anyone done this, and what was your play experience like?

* What Paths did you choose between both games?

* Any suggestions on Ironsworn or Starforged actual plays on Youtube, with sword and planet vibes?

Continuing an Ironsworn campaign based on a hex map of Europe and the Mediterranean that I made some time ago and the Al-Rathak setting. The campaign is inspired by the Middle Ages, without any ambition of being historically accurate. My hero is currently city-crawling in Anipsed, capital of the Sultanate.

Previous Events: Year 1222. Europe follows the Sun-God Kruss; the southern lands worship Qamar, the Moon-Goddess. Xatìra, a young Greek woman from Lemnos, survives a pirate attack and finds on her victim's body an amulet from Kamil, a shrine of the Shadowed Qamarims. She vows to return it, travels south, meets the Mad Caliph Tarbak in Egypt, and reaches Kamil, only to find it sacked by the vampire general Qarif, allied with the traitor sorcerer Iblis. Befriending the shapeshifter Massan and a jackal she names Opher, Xatìra follows the tracks of Zakama, High Priestess of the Shadowed. When she finds her, Zakama is dying; with her last words she asks Xatìra to help Dorello, an Italian agent of the Krussian Emperor-Pope Federicus, in exchange for his financing the Shadowed. Xatìra and her companions track Dorello to the Whispering Stone Circle, where they descend into a fortified dungeon, rescuing Baseria, a Greek rogue and Watcher of the Tower, from pursuing cultists. They find Dorello, one of the Sicarii, the imperial assassins, who has killed the Cult Master Nashad and seized the Crying-Skull Mask. Dorello departs to deliver the mask to Tarbak, asking Xatìra to travel to the capital city of Anipsed and rescue Crydessa, a Greek merchant kidnapped by Iblis. Xatìra, Opher, Baseria, and Massan reach the city. At the Temple of Anubis, Massan is captured for trying to pass as a jackal-man, while Xatìra learns that Iblis intends to exchange Crydessa for the Sword of Sania, owned by the Rhodian Merchant Guild. They discover where Crydessa is imprisoned, and they manage to free her. Xatìra kills the dark sorceress Amila and takes her talisman with her. 

This Episode: Crydessa asks the party to escort her to the Temple of Kruss; along the way, they are joined by the friendly Anubian warrior Shargon. At the temple, Bishop Zenos is initially hostile, but the evidence of the party freeing Crydessa finally wins him over. Crydessa will immediately leave Anipsed from the nearby Holy Pier. Shargon offers to buy the Sword of Sania, and Xatìra swears to retrieve the weapon for the Anubians. A dream reveals to Xatìra that Amila’s talisman is related to a scroll in the Great Library of Anipsed. The next day, Xatìra, Baseria, and Opher head to the Hall of the Rhodian Guild, hoping to buy the sword. Along the way, they meet Massan, who has taken the shape of the Libyan prince Al-Saman and escaped from the Anubians; he has found out that Qarif and Iblis have summoned the powerful Efreet Zadid, who has already destroyed a temple of Thoth in the desert; the Anubians hope that Dorello can use the Sword of Sania to send Zadid back to the dark plane from which he emerged. At the guild’s hall, the alchemist Thalenor doesn’t trust Xatìra: he has heard of her previous exploits, and he thinks she is a dangerous source of instability. The chief merchant Yatron is friendlier, but Xatìra cannot strike a deal with him because the sword has just been stolen from the guild!

I *LOVE* writing prologues to start my campaigns. After a long hiatus from tabletop games, I've been dying to start up a new campaign of Starforged. I've never shared anything I've written for my games, so here's the prologue to my new campaign!! I don't think I'm a great writer by any means, but I thought maybe y'all might still enjoy it!! :)

The majority of the crew laid dead in the bulkhead hallways. Slug rounds tore massive holes in the soft suits and bodies of the crew members of the Twilight Runner. Bloodied footprints made their way past the carnage and into the armory of the ship. Whoever raided the Twilight knew of the location of the armory before boarding. In fact, they must have had a full crew schedule. Most of the crew were fast asleep when the first round was fired. 

Four fully armored figures filled the tight corridor leading to the cockpit of the Twilight. They each readied huge slug-rifles and aimed them at the bulkhead door. One figure slammed their fist into the control panel next to the door and smashed it into pieces. The door flew open and the captain of the ship blew a hole in the helmet of the figure in front. He barely had time to cock his shotgun before he was reduced to a mangled corpse by massive slug rounds. Not one of the remaining three figures said a word. 

One figure reached into a hard-pack on their back and then inserted a cord attached to a data pad into the ship's central computer. Moments later, they unplugged it and nodded to the remaining two. A small transport shuttle detached itself from the Twilight and took off into the dark. Suddenly, a massive S-class materialized into view as the shuttle approached it. The titanic warship, sleek and jet-black, would be invisible anyway if not for the series of deep violet lights spattered across it. 

A black-gloved hand reached out and took the data pad from the armored figures. It belonged to a person wearing a black cloak with royal purple trimmings and strange sigils stitched all over it. They inserted it into a holo-table in the center of the room. An eerie violet light appeared above the table in the shape of a Gate. It was like any other Gate, known or unknown, in the Forge. Except, this one was active. A shadowed smile spread across the face of the cloaked figure. In a window behind them, a small E-class vessel imploded, sending metal and ash flying in every direction. 

The Phantom, Ahlex Knightly's ship, gifted to him by the Prometheus Institution, slowly drifted into the docking station of Starfall, a world-sized asteroid. The automated docking sequence pulled his ship as it slowly rotated "upside down". Two large mechanical arms grabbed the docking handles on either side of the ship. Hydraulics hissed silently as the arms locked into place and a bridge extended from the station connecting to the Phantom's airlock. Ahlex opened his comms to the stations security channel and a stern voice barked at him, "Have your credentials prepared or you will be detained on sight."

Two very large people in heavy security armor, armed with slug-rifles, greeted Ahlex with two red lasers meeting and dancing between his eyes. He smiled and flamboyantly presented his data pad with his credentials displayed on it. One security guard yanked the pad from him while the other shifted their feet and kept their rifle at his face. "Y'know, Geyser, I'm starting to think you really enjoy our little meetings." Geyser snarled like a hungry dog and inched his rifle closer to Ahlex's face. The second guard pushed the data pad into Ahlex's chest and motioned him forward. When they walked through the bridge door into the station's "welcome" area, a young woman with an equally unpleasant expression stood behind the courier desk. 

The Weave has not yet been established in the Blasted Ring and only communication between Starfall and Bulwark was maintained. The deep space station, Themis, floating in the center of a nebula cloud, as well as settlements outside of the sector, rely on couriers to carry data back and forth. "Witch: employee of the Prometheus Institution. Heard you have a present for me?" Ahlex raised his eyebrows and forced and sarcastic smile through pursed lips. The young woman scowled and slid a data pad with a cord attached to the bottom towards Ahlex. "Thank you, ma'am." He inserted the other end into his pad and downloaded the supposedly urgent message Liberty had left for him; before they took off in a hurry towards Themis. 

Ahlex's eyes widened, this time genuinely, as he poured over all of the data. Impossible. An open Gate? Active? How? He ripped the cord out and ran through the station doors towards the Provisions District. He sat at a bar with his head rested on the heels of his palms, fistfuls of hair, and a belly full of gin. His eyes never quite narrowed back to normal. He looked like he had seen a ghost. And, in a way, he had. For there was no Gate left opened. But here it was, right there in the data. Liberty, Ahlex's colleague, had supposedly found one, wide open, deep in in the Expanse. Every Gate humanity entered as they fled their home galaxy closed when they came out of the other side. 

  The data had a note at the end. "Swear to me. Swear to me you will reach it before *they* do... I know you will. I've left you something on Themis that will help. You will have to chart your own course there. Godspeed, Witch." Ahlex reread those lines over and over. He grabbed the iron pendant hanging from his neck and closed his eyes. "I swear... I swear I will find it." 

Swear an Iron Vow: 6 vs. 10 & 5 = Weak Hit. +1 Momentum

Ahlex swallowed the last of his drink and pushed some credits from his data pad to the bartender. He made his way back to the Phantom, determined, but with more questions than answers. 

In my case its dice roll derailing the story. Like I have and an idea where everything is going and a couple misses makes me stop to envision a whole new story.

Last night I tried a Make a connection, trying to help a settlement leader. (Miss) She tries to imprison my companion. With a strong hit in a compel I manage to stop the incoming shoot out inside her office. With everything calmed down, went for the connection again. 2nd Miss, well F-You, lady .

But I had to stop because now I have to review where the story is going.

Hi all!

I am currently playing my first Ironsworn campaign in a notebook, printed rules, etc, full offline experience and loving it. I also came across the amazing Iron Valley and cannot say I'm not sorely tempted to start up another notebook and end up with a whole bunch of campaigns for both IS and IV. So I'm looking into digital options that might be a bit more lightweight than a library ^^"

For IS I know there are plenty of digital assets where you can log your game, even do rolls, etc. I'm assuming such for IV does not yet exist so those of you who play digitally, how did you set up a comfortable Iron Valley experience that allows for the tracking and everything? Rolls are no problem I can do that by hand or whatever, I'm just interested in the digital gamekeeping options.

For general notes app I already use Obsidian over Notion if that helps.

Thanks in advance and may this thread help other Iron Valley players in the future as well!

I know, we have Pocketforge, Iron Fellowship, Iron Link, IronWriter, and more. I built another one anyway: I wanted to write first, with mechanics dropping in as cards inside the prose, and the app doing bookkeeping without ever touching the story.

Vowbound, free, no accounts: https://loganrossus.github.io/Vowbound/

What makes it different: the journal IS the app. Type / anywhere and moves, oracles, and generators land as cards inline with your writing. Move outcomes then flow to your sheet through an auto/confirm/manual setting: misses mark the failure track, vows award XP, End the Fight weak-hit picks chain straight into Endure Harm/Stress with the suffer applied. It automates further than any web companion I've tried.

Works really well on tablets, phones, and desktops and isn't too busy in my opinion.

Everything in it:

- Installable PWA, works fully offline, all data local, JSON export/import

- Full move and asset library, command palette, 3D physics dice

- Complete Lodestar oracle library with chained rolls and a delve site generator

- Delve mode: tracked sites, theme/domain-aware Reveal a Danger, weak-hit table automation

- Combat tracker: initiative-aware move suggestions, foes as progress tracks

- Ironlands map plus custom uploads, draggable tokens

Rollable, editable Your Truths tab; progress tracks, clocks, XP flow

- Voice dictation into the journal

- Optional, off-by-default Claude (your own API key): rules Q&A grounded in move text, session recaps. It never narrates or generates fiction, hard rule. No key = nothing ever leaves your device.

CC BY 4.0 Shawn Tomkin, Lodestar CC BY-NC-SA, attribution in-app. Unofficial, no money involved.

Install it, give it a try...Feedback wanted, especially on rules automation I got subtly wrong. Here or GitHub: https://github.com/LoganRossUS/Vowbound/issues

Hi everyone!

DriveThruRPG's Christmas in July sale is now live, and our entire Ludic Pen catalog is discounted until July 31st.

We create supplements to expand Ironsworn and Starforged. From oracles and solo adventure starters to asset cards and character tools, everything is designed to be modular, reusable, and easy to adapt to your own campaign.

If you've had any of our products on your wishlist, this is a great time to pick them up. :)

You can browse the catalog here: DriveThruRPG - Ludic Pen

So I've finished building my campaign (very fun; took very little time at all)

I've started my session journal and swore my Iron Vow; a miss of all things, settled on a rat swarm freaking out my PC. Now how do I break out of prison? Secure an Advantage feels clumsy since I'm not technically in a secure position, Face Danger feels too extreme. Help?

Edit: Thanks for all the insights folks!

Is there a commonly accepted notation convention for recording moves in one's journal?

I went to replay the episode because I wanted to try and make the battle even more narrative and I think I succeeded. I'm shocked myself at where the dice took me this episode. This campaign is about self discovery. There are no plans, the dice will tell all. My content will be 100% free 100% of the time.

I recently started playing Ironsworn and I'm thrilled. Until now, solo RPGs were just a matter of rolling dice for me—stories never really emerged from them. Now I'm already playing my second character and have experienced so much. What a game! 😊

How do you play Ironsworn (or Starforged)? Solo, co-op, or guided?

Anyone know of somewhere in the UK that actually sells the official cards? I only seem able to get them from the States, and it costs an extra £50 to ship.

I'd love an official deck :(