Entry 0 - Start Here! - Truths Summary and Character Creation

Entry 0 - Start Here

Thanks for reading! 

OK so I'm actually starting the actual play blog I've been thinking about for months. Awesome. First off I love Ironsworn and a big thank you to Shawn Tomkin for creating my main coping mechanism this last year. 

My name is Jacob and online I go by Jacob Munkie or themunkie depending on the platform. Over in the official Ironsworn discord (link in the sidebar) I'm called Munkiesworn. I go by He/They pronouns and a fun fact about me is that I have a wonderful dog named Boone and he is eleven years old now! Big boy!

Just an fyi. this blog may have adult content depicted or alluded including but not limited to violence, death, and foul language because you know... 

Fuck it.

Down to business, let's get to the Ironsworn! If you don't know what that is or what I'm doing Ironsworn is a table-top role playing game built in the Powered by the Apocalypse engine. Lots of big words and proper nouns that basically boil down to this is a game in the same genre as Dungeons and Dragons and I'm going to play it by myself in this blog. Well, I'll post in this blog but I will be playing in a virtual table-top website called Roll20. 

From here on out I'm going to go ahead and assume you know what Ironsworn is and how it works.  If you don't then the links in the sidebar are a great place to start. Here are the Ironlands:

Went ahead and labeled them in my Roll20 to keep things straight. Underneath the header on the home page should be a page titled "World Truths" and if you want the specific Truths and my comments on them look there. 

In a quick summary, our Ironlands here are relatively well settled. Commerce and politics are the bigger concerns than day to day survival, at least in the settled portions of the Havens. Clan Chieftains compete for power using their wardens and conscripts while trying not to anger the firstborn communities near their borders. Scholars and Clergy clash over the significance of the Iron Pillars, whether they be divine or arcane. All in the meanwhile, the commoners are pulled in whatever directions their current leaders tell them to go and bandits become an ever increasing problem.

From here we are ready to make our character! Coming into this I knew I wanted to use the Challenging stat array from the Lodestar. I love playing a character whose heart leads them into trouble even if they try to deny it so the four will be going into Heart. I imagine our character as one that chooses to be a loner but makes fast and easy friends and bonds. Next I want to establish our combat stat as the next highest and melee is calling out to me. At this point a view of this character is taking shape as some sort of free warden or wandering warrior is in my head so Iron is a 3. Edge we will dump to a 2 and I'm not seeing this character as very sneaky in my noggin so Shadow will also be a 2 which makes our Wits a 3.

So very courageous, loyal and charming and rather strong, enduring and insightful. Getting a real classic knight vibe from this dude. Protector of the weak sorta thing. Maybe a bit boring, maybe a bit overplayed, but its a cliché for a reason.

As for a name, lets roll for it: 62 - Alban. Alban is good, can go by Al for short. I like it. 

Assets next! I want to prioritize a combat talent because for one it's the Ironlands and it's a dangerous place and two I see Al as a competent combatant. The two I kept coming back to were Ironclad and Swordmaster, but I decided on Swordmaster for the third ability where you can kneel with your blade to get a bonus on swearing oaths. It created a distinct image in my head of Al making a grand gesture for a worthy cause.

Asset number two - Paths are fun. Let's lean into either our Wits or Heart for this one. Animal Kin could be good if we wanted to have/get a companion at some point. Bonded could be cool too if we want to lean into his ability to forge bonds. Hmm, let's see if any companions seem good and if we like one we'll take it and Animal Kin. Otherwise we will take Bonded and something else. A Horse could be solid, but I'd want something that could follow me into the fray easier. Hound looks pretty good to be honest, a good dog is pretty choice. We doing it. Hound named - rolled a 43 - Cera! Good Girl!

Third asset: Animal Kin is a good idea if we want to lean into the Hound, which I think we do. I like all three of her abilities and if I get the second ability in Animal Kin first I can get two for the price of one on Cera the next time. Yep I like that and I'm locking it in, final answer.

OK, two more goals for this post-  let's establish his bonds and then use them to inform the background vow. So let's state the facts we know: Al is fierce but more than that he is compassionate, protector of the weak, traveling warrior, and a friend of animals. As far as the traveling warrior part goes I think we should commit to being a free warden. So if we were a free warden then at one point we were probably sworn to a Jarl or Chieftain, but have since left. It would have to be a good reason to leave if someone as loyal as Al deserted, so let's go with they weren't a very good person, maybe Al participated in something that disillusioned him to his liege. I want that guy to be a threat so let's make him a Chieftain in the Havens. Their capital can be the community we have a bond with, which we can spin to be an oppressed population and therefore Al can maintain a bond to those people without him having a bond with their leader. Rolled for a name: Woodrock.

Side note: I will soon have a page up for Bonds and other NPCs including brief descriptions and notes. This blog's layout is a WIP and subject to change.

One bond will be left for determination during play because that's fun but the other should be an ally of some sort. I'm going to roll 50/50 to determine if they also served Al's former liege- that's a no, so who are they? Oracles say Healer and Infamous. Hmm, maybe the event that Al witnessed that made him leave the wardens had something to do with it. Oh! Maybe the Chieftain's wardens were ordered to raze a village that began to show plague symptoms (connecting it back to our World Truths) and this healer was one of the people that Al managed to save from the other wardens. Yeah I like that. Let's get a name. Gwen the Healer, now a fugitive along with Al and the other survivors of that day. I am liking this.

I think I want the background vow to be about this Chieftain. If Al was related to the Chieftain it would make sense for both why he initially worked for them and for why Al would be in a position to dethrone them. So if they are from the same clan then let's name the clan; looked at a couple generators and got Ormung. Alban of Ormung sounds good. 

So the vow: I will put a stop to the vile deeds of Chief Ormung.

Alright then that's pretty much us done here for now. Between now and next time I'll update the blog a bit and flesh out some stuff in the background and then when we play next it will be our inciting incident and straight into the action! See ya later Ironlanders