OOC Chatter

Chatter of the OOC.

Welcome Generator! You offered to be put in the torture chamber, so I got off my bum and put something together. BWAHAHAHAHA!

Some stuff:

- I put posts at 5/week, but if that's too fast, no worries.

- I assume you want to use your custom character sheet?

- Character creation is RAW core rules. For bonds, the world isn't that fleshed out, so you can skip if you want.

- As I mentioned, I have Delve, but I'm only using flavor/lore from it, not mechanics.

- For roll resolution, I saw this mentioned somewhere for guided games:

Strong hit: Player chooses success, within reason.

Weak hit: Player chooses partial success portion, GM chooses partial failure portion.

Miss: GM chooses consequences.

Sound good? And the above it just a general rule-of-thumb. Some of the actions have specific mechanics we'll have to address. We can figure it out as we go.

- For the lore, you can skim over or ignore the gods for now...or not, if you want to incorporate them. I already made them, so figured I'd go ahead and share them.

I'll post more stuff as I think of it.

The inciting incident is already up!

Any questions or ideas? Lemme know!

Hi! Thanks for the invite.
Can I call you Totes or McGee for short? I usually go by "Gen".

I'm not sure I'll manage 5/week as I'm already in more games than I should have allowed myself to be in :P
That works for me. I'm curious to try it this way.
I believe you can leave them blank and fill them in during play.

I'll have a look at the lore.

Some questions:
Are you also playing a PC? If so, which assets did you pick? Then I know to avoid those.

Should I create a hero type character or more of an average joe who got sucked into more than he can handle?

Which stat array are you using? I've found that the basic 3,2,2,1,1 can be very tough as a solo game.

I've created a character that I think would work for the inciting incident. Let me know what you think.

Btw, what's your timezone? I'm in central Europe (CET)

Yep. Either works.
Understandable. If this was a normal game, I'd enforce consistent activity, but since it's just a playtest with one person, we'll just chill.
Not to start with. You may encounter possible companions on your journey, and you can decide if you want to team up or not. But it'll usually be a short-term arrangement. I'd like the spotlight to be on you.
Up to you!
Really? That's interesting. Kind of disappointing, too, for a game that bills itself as having solid solo opportunities.

Let's start with 3/2/2/1/1, and if you're getting whupped, we can adjust.
Ah, a descendant of Rackon! I was wondering if you'd choose that route. So Caldus will know you.

Most of the stuff looks good. Some questions:

Callsign is Obi? Is that his nickname?

Is his background vow to become a legend like Rackon? Is it Extreme or Epic?

The "red-eye" quest will be Dangerous, just so you know. If you choose to go southeast as Caldus suggests, the journey will be Troublesome. But if you choose a different option, the journey's rank may change.
Eastern US.

Also, I prefer games that are roughly PG-13. No endless gore, no graphic sex scenes. If you do want to hook up with someone, please fade to black. I'm fine with coarse language.

Also, I love me some character avatars, so feel free to create an image!

The char sheet I'm using is actually more tailored to Ironsworn:Starforged. For my last game, I kinda mixed the 2 so I could use the new moves in the old setting. But I like its layout. So you can ignore that, but yes, it's meant as a nickname in this case.

That's also why you'll see a "legacies" section which we will be ignoring for this game.
I wasn't sure if I wanted this to be my background vow or not. But it surely can be. I'll add it to my vows list as an epic quest. Since it's a playtest, it's unlikely to be relevant.
I just put a provisional difficulty on it :) Changed it to dangerous now. If Sounds totally fair! :D
That's also my preference. I tend not to use coarse language besides things like "damn" and "hell".

Btw, from tomorrow until Sunday I will be out of town. I'll have internet, but will likely be slow to post and keep the posts short if I can.

Understood. 👍

So I'm trying to use your custom sheet for Etta (the one you're using for Gevin), but it won't let me save my changes...?

Not skilled with this techy stuff, so any help is appreciated.

I'm assuming you mean the fillable fields? For those you can only do them outside of the edit mode. I think you may be doing it inside the edit-preview.

Just go to the saved representation of the template, or click on your character name here on this forum page below the "rolls" section. There should be a small button with your character name. If you click it, it will show your sheet and you can edit underlined fields by clicking on them.

Not yet. You have to make it publicly viable by clicking the grey book symbol on your "my characters" page.

After refreshing the page, it should become red. If it's not red, then it's not public and you can try again.

FYI: I'll be gone Tuesday and possibly Wednesday, 6th and 7th.

Yes, it works :)
No worries!

Sorry for the delay, busy weekend. I'll try to post something tomorrow

In my first solo game, my character was looking for 2 missing people out in the woods. He found one of them, but due to some bad rolling it turned out they did not survive. So my character now had to choose between continuing the search for the other person, or take this information back to town.

Now, at this point I was already running low on resources (the game can be brutal sometimes). So in my opinion I thought going back to town would be the best course of action. However, as I always did, I decided to roll Action & Theme to guide me in what to do next.

I rolled: "Escort Death"

It made perfect sense. The game wanted me to bring the dead body back to town. It totally confirmed my best course of action. That was probably the coolest moment I've had with Ironsworn so far. I mean, I could have rolled something like "Resist Love" or "Seize Danger" and really would have had to think hard on what that meant for the story.

Yeah, it's serendipitous when the dice gods deliver something like that. Almost makes you forget the times they screw you!

Haven't run a solo game yet (except daydreaming about it, which half-counts, right?), so should probably start a thread here.

One concern is difficulty. I feel like any enemy above Troublesome difficulty would be tedious to fight solo. And juggling multiple characters for a party would also be tedious.

If you want to do a solo game without setting up your own game, you can sign up for this one: Solo Gaming That's where I did mine.

You have to think of ways to stop fights from being tedious. For example, you can choose to
- try and "end the fight" when you only have 5 or 6 progress.
- Use "face danger" to escape or hide (thus ending the fight)
- Use "compel" to calm down your foe
- Get some kind of divine intervention perhaps when you roll a twist
- Surrender and continue your story from a jail cell

There are ways to keep things fresh. It's about the story. If the mechanics are making the story boring, ignore them and do something cool or fun instead :)

I'm sure there will be some more twists, but it looks like the end of our first mission is within sight. This has had more than enough work for a playtest.

Enjoyed playing with you! Your efforts have been great. I have a better handle on the rules, and how I want to generally approach Ironsworn. Also, I'm usually reluctant to roll on Oracle tables, as I think my Big Brain can come up with something, but you've inspired me to dip my toes into that metaphorical pool.

If you want to keep playing, I'm up for it. I expect to play Ironsworn long-term regardless. We can continue this game just as we've done, as a one-on-one co-op. I'm enjoying this format, as it keeps the RP cleaner, gives each of us chances to shine, and there aren't a ton of player personalities/sensibilities to manage.

If you don't, that's fine. No pressure! (Well, maybe a little bit of pressure.🤣)

Yeah we're close to a one-shot conclusion I'd say. :)

It's been great. I've really enjoyed the way each of us did whatever we thought was a good idea and the other went with it regardless.

I saw that you used the action & theme table a few posts ago. Was fun to see you switch it up. Hehe. And I think it worked for you. The biggest reason for me to do that is to make sure I don't always default to the same idea. I think in Solo RP it's easy to fall into that pattern.

Although I very much enjoyed this game, I'm afraid I have to drop it after finishing this vow. It's more a time management thing than anything else. Cause this really has been great fun! I just can't find the time to keep up with all my games.

That being said. In a month or 2 I expect at least 1 of my games will have ended. If you're still interested then, we could pick it up (or start over). If you're not too busy. Alternatively, if you'd like to keep this fire smoldering, I'd be willing to keep this going at a rate of 2 posts per week-ish. I will have weeks where I can do more than that, but I can't commit to it.

If we do decide to continue, I think we'll need a journal thread to kinda remember things that happened in the past more easily. (My memory sucks :P)

If I may give a point of feedback about your posts. I've noticed that your 'Clash' action didn't really fit the Clash trigger.
Your RP:
The way I've always seen it is that in a clash you are defending against an attack (or some other enemy move) while trying to find an opening. It also makes the situation a bit more dramatic and dire, which I quite like.

Just something I happened to notice and, as anything in this game, it's open to interpretation ;)

Understand your situation completely. I'm looking for more than 2 posts per week, so we can end this once we complete our vow. But if you summon more RP capacity in the future, as you hope, definitely PM me. We'll see what we can cook up.

I probably won't retire this game, as I might run solo adventures here. Or just fool around.

I agree about Clash. I seem to forget the "your foe has initiative part." And in general, combat has taken some getting used to. But yeah, having the foe(s) try to harm you (even if it's destined to fail) makes for more interesting RP.

No problem. Yes, please keep it open at least for a while. If I get more capacity I will gladly pick it back up :D
Etta and Gevin can ride once more! (if Gevin lives :P)

I'm going to start a thread for a solo adventure. It won't pertain to our stuff, so you can ignore it.

Cool, have fun! :)

I see you're still looking for a coop game in the tavern. One of the games I was in didn't click for me and so I decided to pull out of it. And another game I am in is going at a lower rate than expected. Which is fine by me, but it's giving me some more time to fill up again.

If you want to continue the story of Gevin and Etta at the same rate as we were going before, I'm up for it :)
If you'd rather try with someone else or the pace doesn't suit you, feel free to say so. No hard feelings.

Sorry about your game trouble. Unfortunately, that's the nature of PbP. Can't really be sure how things pan out.

Yep, I'm up for continuing our (mis)adventure!

Some points:

1.) To be clear, you can post 5x/week? Doesn't have to be exact. I don't keep an activity spreadsheet or anything. Just as long as we're moving along at a good clip.

2.) Since we're doing co-op now, it's your world as much as mine. So if you want to create some lore, go for it. I'll unlock the World Lore thread, so you can post at your leisure. We can also redo the World Truths, if you want. Either roll randomly, or split up the choices between us. Or I'm fine with keeping them as is.

One request for lore, though: please make it manageable. I'll have a hard time digesting a ten-page biography of some ancient king. 😅

3.) Again, since this is co-op, I think it's fair to alternate who designs quests. So the next quest would be yours to make. We could stick around Rackon's Bluff, or venture out into the vastness of the Ironlands. Sound good?

4.) Even if our game continues, I still have the capacity to run another co-op game. So it's not a question of choosing between you or someone else. Both can be done! I'll make a new game forum if someone bites on my Games Tavern post, so this one doesn't get cluttered.

1) depends how you're counting. I don't think I can post every day. But when I post (like before) it will be 2 or 3 posts in one go. I'm expecting to be able to post every other day or faster. So 3 to 4 days a week with 2 or 3 posts each time.

Also as before, if I am delayed, I will mention it.

Please be honest if that's too slow for you. It would only cause each other frustration if we're not aligned.

2) I'm absolutely fine with the current lore. If I create new lore, it will probably happen during play. If it's anything important enough to make note of, I'll add it to the lore thread.

I'm also not a fan of huge back stories. So that works out. Hehe

The truths are already to my liking.

3) That sounds great. I will likely consult the oracle about it. :)

4) By all means :D
I'm also fine with it being part of this game but I think that would only work well if we are sharing the lore between the 2 stories.
It's an interesting idea to have them play out in the same universe and perhaps influence each other. But at the same time it could be a hassle. Haha.

Totally up to you!

1.) Yeah, that pace works for me.

2.) Got it.

3.) Oh, you and your oracles! 🤣 Can't wait to see what we get into.

4.) I'll probably keep any games separate. I want to create a whole new world, with new lore. That should also be easier for my other co-op partner.

Also: are you getting the "unread/read" post issues? I am. I double-check stuff frequently, so I shouldn't miss anything...but feel free to ping or message me if something seems amiss.

Are we ready to rock n' roll? We're still not technically finished with our first quest. Do you want to post what happened during our ill-fated trip back? I can, if you don't wanna.

Yes there's a bug going on with the read/unread posts. Keleth is aware and working on a fix.

Oracles are awesome. Haha. I think we ended with something that suggested that we don't make it back to town yet. Perhaps that can already be a new quest. I'll come up with something :)

With the Vestige staying with us (for now), I was wondering if you wanted to create some sort of buff.

I don't see an Asset that really fits, since the Vestige has wide-ranging power. Maybe if we use it for magic-y stuff, we add a +1 bonus? A Pay the Price situation could mean we roll on the Mystic Backlash table.

Maybe it eventually makes our lives so complicated/difficult that we want to get rid of it, or destroy it? Or if you want to basically keep it in the background, I can see the reasoning. I don't think it should dominate the story forever, or be a silver bullet we run to for every situation.

Open to suggestions.

In starforged there is a path named "Vestige".

In our story so far, I think option 2 or 3 are more fitting. What we choose as 'pay the price' can always be diced when the miss happens. The backlash table is a good choice, though I don't think we need to limit ourselves to that.

You've established that Etta wants to know more about the vestige and maybe use/control its power at some point. So I think we should use it in our story going forward. It can be an interesting plot device.

For Gevin, I'm probably going to focus more on the eye and the vestige's power that's now inside him. So, I'm happy to leave the item completely to Etta :) The things above are just suggestions. Pick what you feel like is best. If you want to create your own asset, by all means.

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Rules wise - I'm not sure we're supposed to just add a new asset for free, cause they usually cost XP. Maybe we can put a basic price on using it or limit the amount of times we can use it until either of us can spend the XP to unlock the power without cost. That would also fit with the narrative of Etta still learning how to control its power.

The Delve add-on details Artifacts and Rarities. It says Artifacts shouldn't provide ongoing mechanical benefits, but there is a move that allows you to use a Rarity.

I don't want to use too many (if any) non-core moves, though. And after reading your response, I think for now Malkath's Vestige will be treated like a normal weapon/item. So if I wanted to fire a magic bolt at someone, I'd roll +edge as if I were firing my bow, with no special mechanical benefit.

And of course, since it's a powerful item, it has significant narrative weight.

I think once I reach 3 XP, and can purchase a new asset, I'll come up with something to fit the Vestige. That'll mesh with Etta learning how to use its power. Unless we lose or destroy it before then! Dun dun dunnn....

For Summary of Events, I could add a zillion things...but then it wouldn't be a summary!

You can be the "owner" of that thread, if you want, and I'll chime in here if something's off.

Haha. I know. It was tough to make that list and I left out a lot of nuance and details. But I like to keep it consice.

Man, this game is so much fun to play co-op. :D I'm really enjoying the story.

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In my last solo game I used the general rules from Starforged but with the Ironsworn setting. (I'm not that into sci-fi settings)
The newer rules are very similar to Ironsworn's and generic enough to use in any setting (mostly), but they adjusted the balance a bit to be less taxing for the player. On top of that there are 3 experience tracks. Quests, Bonds and Discoveries. Either of those 3 can upgrade your character.

This is something I feel is missing in Ironsworn. There is no reward for finishing a journey, whether it was troublesome or epic. This means that a long journey will simply delay your progress on a vow. If you fail the vow, it was all for nothing. That's why I switched to these rules. Unfortunately it does require some homebrew changes, which makes it annoying to implement.

I'm not saying I want to switch. I'm happy with how things are going :) Just thought you might be interested.

I'm enjoying it as well! I wish I'd found Ironsworn earlier, instead of struggling with other systems.

For my part, I've never been much concerned with XP and mechanics; good ol' RP keeps me coming back to games. And IMO, the Assets in Ironsworn are underwhelming anyway.

However, I'm not opposed to homebrewing a way to gain more XP. Quests, Bonds, & Discoveries does seem a bit too much, though. Maybe we say journeys also give you XP? Or vows give double XP?

On the other hand, I also understand journeys feeling like unnecessary preludes. We're both eager to start hacking away at those vows, right?

Some other ideas:

1.) Maybe make a Super-Easy journey, with 7+ progress per waypoint, so we can feasibly roll Reach Your Destination after only one waypoint.

2.) Combine the journey and vow tracks. After all, traveling to a specific location is part of a quest, right?

3.) Handwave it, and just appear where we need to be. Maybe we could each roll one move (like we did with Sojourn), and use those outcomes to determine whether we arrive hale and hearty or injured and demoralized.

I don't have Starforged; like you, sci-fi ain't my jam. I probably won't pick it up, unless you think it's so amazing I have to.

Do you have any experience with Elegy? It's an Ironsworn hack. Vampires ain't my thing (unless I'm killing them as a PC), but it has good reviews.

Fair enough. I also like the RP more than the gaining of XP. In what way do you find the assets underwhelming? I don't mind that they don't give you super powers. In that sense, I agree they are pretty straight forward. But I do like the narrative behind them. Of course that's up to the player to really lean into. And you could just as easily do it without an asset, I guess. Hehe.

No need to change anything at this point. I was just mentioning what I tried :) I haven't even done enough playing to really make a good estimate of what's the better way.

Of your suggestions, I'd go for number 3. We can just finish a journey with a single face danger roll if need be.

From what I've read, the starforged moves are more balanced, according to both the author and the community. It's like a 2nd edition in a way. But that doesn't mean the original is bad :)

I've never heard of Elegy. I've played some Vampire the Maskerade, but just like you it's not my preferred setting. I might check out the moves though, just for inspiration.

---

BTW, I had another idea about our story. Instead of the formidable journey, how about we turn it into a delve? I don't know if you're interested in that expansion set. I've used it before and have mixed feelings about it.
Pro:
- it's more fun than a journey
- it has some more interesting moves than just the plain "undertake a journey" move
Con:
- it's a bit complicated to set up imo
- it's more administration

If you want to give it a try, we can definitely do so. But don't feel obligated.

Oh forgot to say. Nothing prevents us from finding vow milestones while on the journey, of course :)

Regarding Assets: some are decent, but others are ultra-specific or just flat-out weak.

Take Wayfinder, one of Etta's assets. It fits the character, but for the first rank, only +1 momentum for a strong hit? And an additional +1 momentum if you burn momentum? Meh.

Take Waterborn. Again, good for flavor, but why take this unless the campaign is going to feature numerous adventures near water sources? It seems like a player with this Asset would be creating situations to use it, instead of a free-flowing (pun intended!) campaign.

Then you have the Rituals. Bind: "When you wear an animal pelt and dance in moonlight...." Uh, OK? Is that the only way to do that, or....?

An asset like Infiltrator, on the other hand, feels like a good choice...especially if Shadow is your +3, which will make the second and third ranks excellent.

Again, I'm not a power-gamer, but I still want plenty of cool choices.

I'll pass on a delve. I enjoyed the flavor/lore/oracles presented in Delve, but the extra moves don't add enough spark or coolness to persuade me to use them.

OK, we can Face Danger in the future, to skip through a tedious journey. This will be especially useful during a return trip, when we're eager to complete our vow and get XP, and probably aren't keen on having 10 more adventures.

I see what you mean about the assets. Yes, those you mention are not the best. I suppose you'd only pick waterborn if you're planning some kind of pirate campaign. Though the first option does give you a wide range of options because it says "related to your knowledge of". Doesn't mean you have to be on a ship. You could use it to cross a river for example.

But even then, the '+1 when you do X' assets are a bit boring. Though more useful than some of the rituals. I think, just like interpreting the oracles and such, you have to make them interesting.

From my games, I feel like it's a bad idea to go all-in on one stat. Yes, you could be the best sneaky guy ever, but you'll fail so many +heart and +wits rolls that it will either make your games boring (since you're always choosing to sneak) or make it very easy for misses to stack. I've found that an asset giving you +1 on a bad stat is often more interesting :)

Alright. No delve is also fine :D I'm having fun either way

Are you sure? You know I'll just use random rolls/the oracles, right? :P

I wanted Sann's "superior forces" to be an unknown at first. But now one has skedaddled. Coward!

Yeah, I wish the Assets were spicier. Like for Wayfinder, you could reroll an Undertake Journey. Or take +2, but a miss causes you to suffer 2 stress and/or some other negative thing. Or a strong hit gives extra progress. Or...I could go on. 😎

The one who ran could still bring us trouble later on :)

Yeah I get what you mean and I agree 😁 I'm not opposed to some homebrew assets if you so wish.

Cool! We can workshop some awesome stuff when it's time to add an asset.

What does "ph" mean? Post happening?
Just curious :D

Ah, I had also set the fight to dangerous, but didn't realize that you added it to Etta's sheet.
Maybe we need a shared sheet that we can both edit for the shared tracks.

If you increase the number of allowed character sheets for this game, I can add a sheet with only the tracks for us to use. As the GM you should be able to also make changes on my sheets. What do you think?

"Ph" means "placeholder." Though "post happening" is also appropriate!

I don't usually like to write much until I know how the rolls turn out.

It's not a big deal about progress/ranks and whatnot; I can just look back if we get confused. But if you want to do some tech wizardry, go for it. I'm adjusting the sheets allowed now.

Ah that makes sense too now :D

Yeah, I noticed that before. Hehe. A different process from mine, but we get to the same result. I now understand why your notes on the roll are at the top of that post instead of at the top of the next post like I usually do :)
It's all fine by me.

Cool, I'll add one soon.

Nice! It does actually make things cleaner. 👍

I marked one progress for three of the empties, to make sure I can alter the sheet. Do you see them? If so, you can remove them.

Yup I see them and removed them :)

In case you don't know this yet, you can find them at the bottom of the page for easy access. If you do, ignore this.

At some point in the past, I did know that...but typically forgot.

I only have 1 point in my Tech Knowledge stat.

Haha! :D

Gonna try to post today, but things are a bit busy so I might not get the time.

Oof, I managed. Boy this week is crazy busy for me :/
It seemed almost inevitable that we (mostly Etta :P) would get the husk angry. Hehehe.

You mean you don't organize your life around PbP?!

For shame! 🤣

I know, right? :D

In Ironsworn it's a bit tough to regain spirit. The best way to do it is with a sojourn. But for that you need to spend time in a community. Not always easy while on the road.
Other ways are make camp or test a bond. But they only give you +1 each.

In Starforged, they introduced this new move. It's basically the same as the heal and resupply moves (+2 on a strong hit) but for spirit.
I suggest we make use of this one too.

You read my mind. I was looking through the core moves recently, but as you say, regaining spirit ain't easy.

I agree that using this move will make things more balanced.

In addition, I was thinking of making a custom Asset that mitigates spirit loss. It fits Etta, as she wants to be fierce and strong-willed.

I'm all for it! :)
We can do a sort of milestone leveling instead of XP-based if we want to. Or would you be replacing one of your current 3 assets?

I'll wait until we're done with this quest, which will put us at 5 XP. Enough to get a new asset, then upgrade an asset, if we so choose.

I'm not really hankering to level up more quickly. Unlike a system like D&D, in Ironsworn it almost seems like an afterthought.

But if you want to see your XP coffers fill up sooner, we can brainstorm ideas. I think we discussed some possibilities earlier.

That works for me. No need to change anything.

Nice post, I like the lore you introduced with the monks and Steelharbor :)

I might not be able to post until Monday. If I find the time I will but I'll be out of town for a few days.

Thanks! Tried to tie everything together. Give you something to chew on.

OK, have fun! I don't know how you can survive without RP for that long, but anyway....🤣

Turns out I couldn't! Haha

To clarify: the duo will accompany us to the borders, but then expect us to travel with them back to the "pitstop"? So we'll have to make a round trip?

And will this be an additional Iron Vow? If so, what rank?