The First City: An Ironsworn Actual Play (Session 0, Part 1)
Selecting our truths
In the previous entry of this series, I introduced the concept for our campaign: a solo challenge run of the fantasy tabletop RPG Ironsworn. In session 0, part 1, we’re going to start setting up our campaign by defining our world.
Welcome back to The First City! This is an actual play of the Ironsworn TTRPG.
New to the series? Check out the introduction.
For an in-depth guide to the story, see the reference guide.
Our Truths
In Ironsworn, truths describe various aspects of your setting—from its history and political structures to the prevalence of magic and existence of supernatural entities. In the Ironsworn rulebook, there are 11 categories of truths, and each category has 3 options you can choose from to customize the details of your world.
I’m going to list the truths1 I chose for this campaign and offer some initial thoughts on how the truth and its associated Quest Starter could play into the story. Remember that for our Quest Starter challenge, we’re going to need to use every single one of these Quest Starter prompts somewhere in our narrative.
1: The Old World
The savage clans called the Skulde invaded the kingdoms of the Old World.
“The Old World” refers to the place humans came from before they arrived in the Ironlands. According to this truth, our people were driven out of their homeland by invaders, and the survivors escaped as refugees across the sea to the Ironlands.
Quest Starter: You are a descendant of the Skulde. Because of your heritage, your family has long borne the distrust of your fellow Ironlanders. Now, a small force of Skulde have landed on our shores. Are they the harbinger of an invasion? Where do your loyalties lie?
The phrase “your family has long borne the distrust of your fellow Ironlanders” makes me picture our protagonist as a loner, ostracized by society, who will need to go through a personal odyssey to overcome their community’s mistrust.
2: Iron
The weather is bleak.
This truth characterizes our world as a cold, unforgiving place where survival is precarious.
Quest Starter: The harvest fell short. The unrelenting snows left the village isolated. The food is running out. What will you do to see these people through this harsh season?
The idea of a community running out of food isn’t a groundbreaking concept, but it’s very primal. A dire conflict like this could inject a sense of urgency into our campaign.
3: Legacies
Other humans sailed here from the Old World untold years ago, but all that is left of them is a savage, feral people we call the broken.
Quest Starter: You find a child—one of the broken. It is wounded, and hunted by others of its kind. Do you protect it, even at the risk of inviting the wrath of the broken tribes?
This is one of the Quest Starters I’m feeling the least confident about in terms of integrating into our story. I don’t foresee the Broken as a major presence in our campaign, and a subplot related to a peripheral society might be hard to include in a way that feels natural.
4: Communities
We live in communities called circles.
This truth states that societies in the Ironlands are diverse in terms of size and culture.
Quest Starter: A decades-long feud between two circles has flared into open conflict. What is the cause of this dispute? Do you join in the fight, or swear to put a stop to it?
I like complex conflicts in stories, and this Quest Starter could offer opportunities for featuring nuanced, clashing philosophies and compelling NPCs.
5: Leaders
Leadership is as varied as the people.
This truth states that communities in the Ironlands have diverse political structures.
Quest Starter: You have vivid reoccurring dreams of an Ironlands city. It has strong stone walls, bustling markets, and a keep on a high hill. And so many people! Nowhere in the Ironlands does such a city exist. In your dreams, you are the ruler of this city. Somehow, no matter how long it takes, you must make this vision a reality.
This Quest Starter is fundamental to our campaign. It inspired the title of this series—The First City—and it’s going to feature in our character’s background vow and act as the guiding star for our narrative.
I like stories with a grand scale and political themes, which is why I chose this truth. That being said, founding a city is a huge undertaking. I don’t know how we’re going to get our character to that point, and I have a feeling that this is going to make for an epic and lengthy storyline.
6: Defense
The wardens are our soldiers, guards, and militia.
Quest Starter: You come upon a dying warden. She tells you of an important mission, and charges you with its completion. “Swear to me,” she says, reaching out with a bloodied hand to give you an object crucial to the quest. What is it?
I don’t know why, but I kind of love this prompt. I guess epic missions and badass lady warriors just speak to me. I don’t know how organically we’ll be able to make this subplot rise out of our main, city-founding storyline, but we’ll find a way to fit it in.
7: Mysticism
Magic is rare and dangerous, but those few who wield the power are truly gifted.
Quest Starter: You have heard stories of someone who wields true power. They live in an isolated settlement far away. Who told you of this mystic? Are they feared or respected? Why do you swear to seek them out?
Another subplot that could end up coming out of left field. I’m not sure how we’re going to incorporate a mysterious, isolated mystic into our story, but we’ll find a way.
8: Religion
A few Ironlanders still make signs or mumble prayers out of habit or tradition, but most believe the gods long ago abandoned us.
Quest Starter: A charismatic Ironlander, encouraging her followers to renounce the vestiges of Old World religions, proposes a new path for this new world. What doctrine does she teach? What does she seek to achieve? Are you sworn to aid or stop her?
This prompt hasn’t sparked any ideas for me yet, but it sounds like it could give rise to a fascinating NPC. Charismatic cult leaders always make for an interesting time.
9: Firstborn
The firstborn have passed into legend.
In Ironsworn, the firstborn are fantastical, non-human species like elves, giants, and trolls.
Quest Starter: Someone obsessed with the firstborn wants to find evidence of their existence. This will require an expedition into the far reaches of the Ironlands. What is your role in this mission?
I tend to prefer human-centric stories (which is a bit ironic considering that my favorite literary genres are fantasy and science fiction). Given that, I don’t foresee the firstborn playing a huge role in our campaign. That may change, though—especially if we follow through on this Quest Starter.
10: Beasts
The beasts of old are nothing but legend.
In Ironsworn, beasts are large, monstrous creatures like basilisks, leviathans, and wyverns.
Quest Starter: You were witness to an attack by what you thought was an animal of monstrous proportions. No one believes you. In fact, you are accused of the murder you blame on this beast. How can you prove your innocence? Can you even trust your own memories of the event?
I like the idea of asserting that fantastical beasts aren’t real and then flipping that assumption on its head later in the campaign. A cool thing about Ironsworn is that its ruleset gives you the freedom to subvert your truths. A truth can represent a widely held belief in your world, but since this is your story, you can shake things up whenever and however you want.
11: Horrors
Nothing but stories to frighten children.
In Ironsworn, horrors are supernatural entities like chimeras, bonewalkers, and revenants.
Quest Starter: The murders began last season. Local gossip suggests they are the work of a vengeful horror, but there may be more mundane forces at work. What is your connection to these killings? What will you do to stop them?
Similar to our truth for the Beasts category, I think it’ll make our story more dynamic if we initially say that horrors aren’t real but then bring them into play later on.
The Quest Starter for this category is also fairly similar to the one for Beasts. They both involve horrific and mysterious, supernatural murders. The conflicts implied by these prompts feel visceral and urgent, and they’ve sparked some ideas in me for our campaign’s inciting incident.
Coming Up Next
We’re not finished setting up our campaign, but since this post is getting pretty long, I’m going to split session 0 up into two parts. In part 2, we’ll select our starting Ironlands region and create our player character.
To minimize the amount of content I copy from the Ironsworn rulebook, I’m only going to show the first sentence of each truth. If you like the excerpts you see here, I’d encourage you to check out the rest of the rulebook by downloading it from Tomkin Press.