[Recruiting 2/4] PbtA Ironsworn - PbP in Ancient Greece

[KahlessNestor]

Also, Sherlock Hulmes is running some Ironsworn on his channel. It starts here:

 

[doghead]

Hi,

I have recently found Ironsworn and would like to throw my hat in here (also getting back into PbP after a long work induced hiatus).

Welcome TallIan.

So it looks like we have a One Two vote for Greeks or Vikings, and a One Two for Vikings or Greeks. If there is no objection, I would like to try the Mythic Greek setting. There will be a little re-skinning, mostly around linking specific 'magic' to the gods of the pantheon.

The next step is start to generate characters and rough out a starting background, and sort out bonds and vows.

I would like the characters to know each other, to have some ties between them. But it looks like you are already starting to shape that space. I will leave you too it.

thotd

 

[doghead]

Okay, here's the bare outlines. I've left off any setting flavoring, so there's no name, background bonds, or vows, but just the mechanics:
...

Character looks good. Odysseus was known for his cunning (trickery). He was also an archer, defetating all the rival suitors for Penelope's hand in an archery competition (which of course was trick in a way). The he slaughtered them all.

thotd

 

[TallIan]

EDITED

Pallas was born in Gamma. His father had gained some fame in a war and enough wealth to purchase a farm and take a foreign wife. Pallas’ mother was from Alpha and understandably the family were staunch supporters of the alliance between Alpha and Gamma, even as more and more called for an alliance with Beta.

By the time tensions had escalated to war Pallas was old enough to stand in the phalanx. Curiously he was not placed in his usual unit, but handpicked for a flanking maneuver. He was young and unproven for such a task, but Pallas accepted it.

They were led straight into an ambush. Out of site and reach of their own forces an ambush waited. As the trecherous officers and scouts fled, arrows and artillery rained down on the trapped unit and a realisation dawned – all the men in this unit were supporters of the alliance with Alpha. As this news spread through the unit one of the few veterans in the unit called out, “Should any man here escape this butchery, it is on you to avenge us!” Just then Pallas was struck a blow and fell.

Many hours later he awoke. His head ached as his helmet pressed against his skull. Looking around he could see many, many bodies and the first few scavengers routing around but no camp followers searching through the fallen for a loved one; no priests or workers tending to the dead, not even any fires to mark the site of the battle. Whoever won the battle should have cared for their dead, taken their trophies and left a marker for the loser’s priests. To leave a battle site unmarked and allow the bodies of men to be torn apart like carrion was despicable. There must be some dark motivation for such a failing of the requirements of civilization.

Pallas removed his mangled headgear, scraping his skull and drawing fresh blood. Feeling himself for injuries, he found nothing serious. A cut on his head and a slice along his thigh from an arrow and some bruises. Nothing immediately life threatening, but if it wasn’t cleaned soon it could mortify.

He stood up slowly and made his way to Alpha, it was closer and he would likely find sanctuary among his mother’s family.

Name: Pallas
Experience: 0/0
Description:

Stats

• Edge: 1
• Heart: 2
• Iron: 3
• Shadow: 1
• Wits: 2

Bonds:

• The city of Beta
• Mother's family in Alpha
• TBD

Vows

• Background vow: Bring vengeance on the subversive Gamma faction
  • Extreme:
• Immediate (inciting incident):
  • TBD

Health: 5/5
Spirit: 5/5
Supplies: 5/5

Momentum: 2
Max: 10
Rest: 2

Debilities:

Equipment:

• Spear
• Shield
• Short-sword

Assets:

• Skirmisher (if you wield a spear)
  • When you Face Danger by holding a foe at bay using your spear's reach, roll + iron or +edge. If you score a hit you may...
    • Iron: Strike (if you have initiative) or Clash now, add+1.
    • Edge: Take +1 Momentum
• Shield-bearer(If you wield a shield)
  • When you Face Danger using your shield as cover, add +1. When you Clash in close quarters, take +1 momentum on a strong hit.
• Loyalist
  • When you Aid Your Ally, add +1 and take +1 momentum on a hit. This is in addition to benefits taken by your ally.

 

[doghead]

Sounds like I'll have to do some reading on ancient Greece.

This will be a fairly loose analogue of Ancient Greece. If you have seen Troy and the Clash of the Titan movies, you would have enough to get by.

I will put a little Setting Info shortly. Most of it is cribbed directly from Sean K Reynolds's The New Argonauts, in particular Chapter 4: Culture. You can get it for free at DriveThruRPG: The New Argonauts.

So this is kind of what I'm thinking.

NAME was part of a unit sent to defend something/attack something (could be another faction or a beast/horror) but the unit was wiped out. NAME is likely the only survivor and has sworn a vow to avenge the deaths (could be to retrieve a standard)

Here is an option: a story of three polis.

Alpha - A polis whose power and influence have been on the decline. Current home of the characters.
Beta - A rival polis whose fortunes have been on the rise. Militarily aggressive.
Gamma - a traditional ally of Alpha with many close family ties. Now an ally of Beta.
Delta - a small polis sharing boarders with Alpha and Beta. Nominally an ally of Alpha.

Alpha and Gamma recently lost a war against Beta (and her allies). There was a betrayal (on the battlefield? an ally that turns? back at Gamma? both?) Gamma supporters of alliance with Alpha were slaughtered leaving Gamma supporters of alliance with Beta free to seize power. Gamma allied with Beta. The families of the those loyal to Alpha were disposed (in suitable horrible ways, killed, sold to slavery, disappeared)

A few warriors from Gamma loyal to Alpha survived. Most now reside in Alpha.

Spoiler: Brief: The City State (polis)

During the Archaic Age there were over 1,500 city-states of various sizes all over the peninsula and on the shores of the Aegean. City-states have a simple democratic government led by a member of the aristocracy (usually a king) who is the face of the empowered citizens rather than an autocrat with full control. They have a strong military presence whose main purpose is protecting the state from attack by foreigners and rival city-states. People from other city-states are tolerated if allies and attacked if enemies. Alliances can change quickly and old grudges tend to linger. Travel for citizens is open and mercenaries are not uncommon. Each city-state tends to honor one god above the others, but all gods are to be respected lest they become angry.

NAME could originally be from Gamma, a member of a family that supported alliance with Alpha, part of the phalanx that was slaughtered. His Background vow could be something alone the lines of restore his family to power in Gamma? discover what happened to his family? Get revenge of those who betrayed his family?

Feel free to mess around with the ideas if you want, elaborate, adapt. You don't have to use the scenario for your character.

I will probably set up a conflict along these lines for the game.

Assets:

• Skirmisher (if you wield a spear)
  • When you Face Danger by holding a foe at bay using your spear's reach, roll + iron or +edge. If you score a hit you may...
    • Iron: Strike (if you have initiative) or Clash now, add+1.
    • Edge: Take +1 Momentum
• Shield-bearer(If you wield a shield)
  • When you Face Danger using yout shield as cover, add +1. When you Clash in close quarters, take +1 momentum on a strong hit.
• Loyalist
  • When you Aid Your Ally, add +1 and take +1 momentum on a hit. This is in addition to benifits taken by your ally.

Spear and Shield. Classic Hoplite.

thotd

 

[doghead]

Also, Sherlock Hulmes is running some Ironsworn on his channel. It starts here: ...

Thanks for the video link. There are three videos in the series:

1. Generating a World
2. Generating a Character
3. Solo Play: Session 1

I just skimmed the first two. The third video is probably the most interesting. I don't agree with the way he handled everything. But it is interesting to see the game mechanics at work. Some questions it raised for me:

1. Managing multiple vows, especially with multiple characters.
2. Managing Perilous Journeys, especially the incorporation of Way Points.

thotd

 

[TallIan]

Some questions it raised for me:

1. Managing multiple vows, especially with multiple characters.
2. Managing Perilous Journeys, especially the incorporation of Way Points.

thotd

There is a pod cast called “Ask the Oracle” which is the game designer and another guy playing the game. That might shed some light on it for you.

EDIT: a link
Multiple vows is just several tracks for the character to keep track of. I believe they can intersect and overlap. i.e, completing one vow may be a milestone for another vow. PCs don’t have to have the same vows either.

As for journeys, I read somewhere that you can work backwards and think about what waypoints you envision and use that as a way to inform the difficulty. So if you can only think of 2 or 3 waypoints then the journey should be troublesome; 5 or 6 - dangerous, etc. If you can’t picture at least 2 waypoints then the journey should just be narrated. I’ll have to look about to try and find where I read that.

 

[TallIan]

This will be a fairly loose analogue of Ancient Greece. If you have seen Troy and the Clash of the Titan movies, you would have enough to get by.

I use "some reading" loosely. Just something to set my frame of mind.

I will put a little Setting Info shortly. Most of it is cribbed directly from Sean K Reynolds's The New Argonauts, in particular Chapter 4: Culture. You can get it for free at DriveThruRPG: The New Argonauts.

Like this, or even Wikipedia

NAME could originally be from Gamma, a member of a family that supported alliance with Alpha, part of the phalanx that was slaughtered. His Background vow could be something alone the lines of restore his family to power in Gamma? discover what happened to his family? Get revenge of those who betrayed his family?

Feel free to mess around with the ideas if you want, elaborate, adapt. You don't have to use the scenario for your character.

I will probably set up a conflict along these lines for the game.[/QUOTE]

I quite like this. I will wait to see a little more detail on the setting. I am leaning towards revenge as I don't see NAME as the sort of person who would be interested in the political intrigue that goes with reasserting ones family.

He's very combat focus at the moment, so if that isn't where you see this game going, let me know. It won't take a huge shift in character concept or mechanics (probably just one asset) to make him more social or a traveler.

Spear and Shield. Classic Hoplite.

View attachment 117391

thotd

Just what I was aiming for. I like how the second option of Skirmisher seems to synergise with Shield bearer.

 

[doghead]

There is a pod cast called “Ask the Oracle” which is the game designer and another guy playing the game. That might shed some light on it for you. ...

Cheers. The good thing about the podcast is that it seems to have several sessions of play. The other examples of play I have seen get to where things get more complicated, then stop.

Multiple vows is just several tracks for the character to keep track of. I believe they can intersect and overlap. i.e, completing one vow may be a milestone for another vow. PCs don’t have to have the same vows either.

Thats what I understand. The devil, I get the feeling, is in the details. But we will work it out.

As for journeys, I read somewhere that you can work backwards and think about what waypoints you envision and use that as a way to inform the difficulty. So if you can only think of 2 or 3 waypoints then the journey should be troublesome; 5 or 6 - dangerous, etc. If you can’t picture at least 2 waypoints then the journey should just be narrated. I’ll have to look about to try and find where I read that.

In the little mini game above, I released that you need to plan for waypoints before starting. But I wasn't sure how many. I suspect that there will be a Perilous Journey in the podcast. Hopefully Shawn gives some insight into how he deals with it.

thotd

 

[doghead]

I use "some reading" loosely. Just something to set my frame of mind.

I do a lot of roaming through wikipedia and other websites for the same reason. And to cherrypick ideas.

[NAME] is very combat focus at the moment, so if that isn't where you see this game going, let me know. It won't take a huge shift in character concept or mechanics (probably just one asset) to make him more social or a traveler.

I don't see an issue.

On this - as this is something of a play test for everyone, I am not adverse to changing characters as we play. If something is not working of you, we can discuss changing it.

Just what I was aiming for. I like how the second option of Skirmisher seems to synergise with Shield bearer.

I was quite surprised at the number of nice little synergies between the assets whilst I was playing around with character generation. Earlier I calculated that there are around 14k asset combinations, and even if 90% are suboptimal, that still leaves 1400 good combinations.

thotd