The First City: An Ironsworn Actual Play (Session 0, Part 2)
Creating our character
In the previous entry of this series, we started setting up our campaign and selected our truths. In session 0, part 2, we’re going to finish campaign setup by choosing our starting Ironlands region and creating our character.
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 Setting
Now that we’ve painted the broad strokes of our world by selecting our truths, let’s zoom in to where our story takes place. Ironsworn is set on a continent called “the Ironlands,” but the Ironlands are composed of a diverse set of regions, including areas marked by ancient forests, towering mountains, and icy plains. When setting up your campaign, you can pick one of these as your starting region.
For this campaign, I’ve chosen the Havens as the place where our story begins. The Havens are “an expansive region of forests, rivers, shrubland, and low hills.”
Each of the Ironland regions has an associated Quest Starter, and to complete our Quest Starter challenge, we’ll need to incorporate the Quest Starter prompt for the Havens somewhere in our narrative:
Quest Starter: A settlement has fallen under the unjust rule of a cruel leader. What leverage do they hold over these people? What is your connection to the community? What can be done to overthrow this tyrant?
I like stories that deal with political and psychological themes, and I think that a ruthless and powerful political leader could make for a formidable antagonist.
Our Hero
Finally, we come to the most crucial part of campaign setup: creating our character.
Name
The Ironsworn rulebook contains a handy oracle table for Ironlander names. I have a hard time coming up with fantasy names, so I’m going to use this table anytime we need a character name for our story.
Oracle: Ironlander Names
<81>"Pendry" or "Shekhar"
For our player character, I rolled dice on the Ironlander Names oracle table and got an 81, which gave me the options “Pendry” and “Shekhar.” I wasn’t feeling either of those names for our character, so I took a mulligan.
Oracle: Ironlander Names
<76>"Kormak" or "Lucia"
My second roll gave me a 76 and the options “Kormak” and “Lucia.” I felt that “Lucia” was a good fit for our hero, and so “Lucia” is what her name shall be.
In our version of the Ironlands, I’m thinking that in lieu of surnames, people could be referred to according to the community where they’re from—for example, “Kormak of Deepwater” or “Shekhar of Whitefall.” As I mentioned when we went over our truth for the Old World, I’m picturing our protagonist as a loner who’s been rejected by society because of her Skulde ancestry. Thus, she wouldn’t really have a community. She could instead be referred to according to the region where she lives: the Havens. And so, our character’s full name would be “Lucia of the Havens.”
Stats
In Ironsworn, there are five stats that define your player character’s strengths and weaknesses. When creating your character, you can put a value of 3 in one of these stats, a value of 2 in two of these stats, and a value of 1 in the remaining stats. I’ve decided to give Lucia a 3 in Heart, a 2 in Edge and Wits, and a 1 in Iron and Shadow.
Heart
Heart represents “[c]ourage, willpower, empathy, sociability, and loyalty.”
I gotta admit: I’m a sucker for heart. When I play a character in an RPG, I usually want them to be a good and admirable person.
Now, it might feel contradictory to say that our character—whom we’ve described as a loner—has her highest stat in a category related to sociability. To reconcile those facts, we’ll put greater emphasis on the other Heart traits like courage, willpower, and empathy. And, who knows? Maybe this will end up being one of those stories where the protagonist finds friendship, community, and belonging along the way.
Edge
Edge represents “[q]uickness, agility, and prowess in ranged combat.”
I have to confess: I’m not a huge fan of ranged combat. In video games, I always go for a melee fighting style—swords and other close-range weapons are more my bag. But I feel like sword-wielding warriors tend to be overrepresented in fantasy stories, so I want to try something different in our campaign. Lucia’s primary weapon will be a bow and arrow.
Wits
Wits represents “[e]xpertise, knowledge, and observation.”
I want our character to be intelligent and thoughtful. I like stories with nuanced character arcs and introspection, so I’m hoping that giving Lucia a decent score in Wits will grant us opportunities to feature those things in our narrative.
Iron
Iron represents “[p]hysical strength, endurance, aggressiveness, and prowess in close combat.”
As I mentioned when we went over our Edge score, I think that melee fighters are awesome. But I believe our character could be more interesting if she wasn’t a badass warrior like you might expect of the protagonist in a fantasy story. Lucia won’t be particularly strong, aggressive, or physically imposing, and I think it’ll be intriguing to see how she gets out of scrapes and emerges victorious in fights without those traits.
Shadow
Shadow represents “[s]neakiness, deceptiveness, and cunning.”
Sneaking and deception aren’t game mechanics I usually gravitate toward. Shadow isn’t a category that interests me much, so I gave this stat the lowest value. That being said, it could be a source of humor throughout our story to show just how bad Lucia is at deception.
Health/Spirit/Supply
Health, Spirit, and Supply are our character’s vital statistics, and they’re values that range from 0 to +5.
Health represents your “current physical condition and stamina,” Spirit represents your “current mental state,” and Supply is “an abstract representation of your preparedness, including ammo, food, water, and general upkeep.”
If Health gets too low, your character could die. If Spirit gets too low, your character could succumb to despair (which, like death, ends their story). If Supply gets too low, it could have negative consequences for your Health, Spirit, and Momentum.
During character creation, Health, Spirit, and Supply are each set at +5.
Momentum
Momentum is a value ranging from -6 to +10 that represents “how you are faring in your quests.”
Negative momentum can make it harder to succeed on your dice rolls, and if your momentum drops too low, you could suffer negative consequences to your vital stats. Positive momentum, on the other hand, can help you succeed on your dice rolls. You can also use a mechanic called “burning momentum” to sacrifice momentum in order to turn a failure into a success.
I don’t want to get bogged down in the intricacies of how momentum works right now; I’ll explain the mechanics in more depth as they become relevant in our game.
During character creation, Momentum is set to +2.
Bonds
Bonds represent relationships your player character has with other characters and communities in the Ironlands. Bonds affect your narrative and various mechanics in the game.
You can start your campaign with up to three background bonds, and you’ll likely forge new bonds throughout your story. For now, I’m not going to define any bonds. We’re allowed to save our starting bonds for later, and I’d like to define those bonds as opportunities rise organically in our narrative.
Assets
Assets represent your “background, skills, and traits.” There are four types of assets—companions, paths, combat talents, and rituals—and each asset has three abilities you can acquire as you progress in the game.
Companions are “NPC helpers.” Paths represent your “background, interests, training, and skills.” Combat talents represent a “particular area of expertise” in fighting. Rituals are magical moves you can perform.
During character creation, you grant your character three starting assets1, and they can come from any combination of the aforementioned types. I’ve given Lucia the Archer combat talent asset, the Fated path asset, and the Hound companion asset (with the Loyal ability):
The Archer asset was an obvious choice since Lucia’s main weapon will be a bow and arrow.
The Fated asset can save us from death if our background vow isn’t yet fulfilled (it marks our character as destined for a great purpose). Since our background vow (founding the first city of the Ironlands) will likely take a lot of in-game time and effort to fulfill, I think that having our hero come back from the brink of death at some point could make for an epic moment.
I chose the Hound asset because dogs are great and make any story better. Also, since we’ve established Lucia as a loner, I imagine her living by herself, and I think that having a hound to help protect her would make that situation more plausible. The Ironlands are a dangerous place, after all.
I’ll explain our assets in greater detail when their abilities become relevant to our dice rolls or other gameplay.
Equipment
In Ironsworn, you don’t need to keep detailed track of your inventory. Your Supply track abstractly represents your gear and resources. During character creation, you can list significant items your character possesses. These items can affect which game moves are available to you, but the purpose of this list is largely narrative.
For Lucia, we’ll keep things simple and just say she has a wooden bow and arrows. The bow was made by her father before he died, so it has sentimental value for her, and it’s a sturdy weapon she can use to get out of scrapes as we start our campaign.
Vows
In Ironsworn, vows represent significant goals your character wants to achieve. Fulfilling your character’s vows is your driving objective in the game. Each vow has a level of difficulty, represented by a challenge rank. In increasing order of difficulty, the challenge ranks are: troublesome, dangerous, formidable, extreme, and epic.
During character creation, you must define a background vow, which represents your character’s ultimate, long-term goal. Lucia’s background vow is inspired by the Quest Starter for our Leaders truth:
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.
Lucia’s background vow is to found the first city of the Ironlands.
The challenge rank of this vow is epic. Founding a city will take years and the cooperation of countless people. Lucia will have to forge strong bonds and undertake plenty of perilous adventures on her journey to fulfill her ultimate goal.
Our Backstory
Now that we’re done with character creation, let’s write a brief profile of our character.
Nineteen-year-old Lucia lives in a modest homestead on the vast, grassy shrubland of the Havens. The home has been in her family for generations, and she shared it with her parents until their tragic deaths two years back. Now, she takes care of the place on her own, accompanied only by her loyal hound Kormak, who helps protect the property. The nearest settlement is miles away, and she visits it as infrequently as possible, stopping by only briefly to trade for food and other necessities.
Because of their ancestral connection to the Skulde—the clans who ruthlessly invaded the Old World and drove its people across the sea to the Ironlands as refugees—Lucia’s family has for generations been shunned by Ironland society, and for Lucia, the distaste is mutual.
Capable and fit, though not physically imposing, Lucia’s weapon of choice is the bow and arrow. She routinely uses a sturdy elm bow her father made for her to hunt game in the dark, dense forests that are scattered across the Havens.
Lucia has been haunted of late by dreams of a wondrous city where she’s never been and that, as far as she knows, doesn’t exist. Despite Lucia’s contentment in living out her simple life on the homestead, fate seems to have grander plans for this daughter of the Ironlands.
Player Character Sheet
Lucia of the Havens
Experience: 0
Edge: 2 | Heart: 3 | Iron: 1 | Shadow: 1 | Wits: 2
Health: +5 | Spirit: +5 | Supply: +5
Momentum: +2
Debilities: None
Bonds: 0
Assets
Archer
Abilities:
[X|_|_]Fated
Abilities:
[X|_|_]Hound
Name: Kormak
Health: +4
Abilities:
[_|_|X]LoyalVows
To found the first city of the Ironlands
Rank: epic
Progress: 0/10
Challenge Progress
We’ve come a long way! We’ve set up our Ironsworn campaign by selecting our truths, picking our starting region, and creating our player character. Before we wrap up session 0, let’s check in on our challenge progress.
For our Quest Starter challenge, we need to incorporate into our narrative every Quest Starter prompt associated with our truths and starting Ironlands region.
In this session, we started making progress on our Quest Starters for The Old World and Leaders.
[X]1: The Old World - During character creation, we described Lucia as having Skulde ancestry and being ostracized by Ironland society as a result.[ ]2: Iron[ ]3: Legacies[ ]4: Communities[X]5: Leaders - During character creation, we said that Lucia is haunted by dreams of a wondrous city, and we defined her background vow as being to found the first city of the Ironlands.[ ]6: Defense[ ]7: Mysticism[ ]8: Religion[ ]9: Firstborn[ ]10: Beasts[ ]11: Horrors[ ]12: The Havens
Coming Up Next
In session 1, our campaign commences and our story begins!
You can download a free PDF containing a set of Ironsworn asset cards from Tomkin Press; I recommend checking it out and referencing the asset information throughout this series.