This will be my first foray into the world of solo gaming. It has always been something I have wanted to try so I can test out new systems before I use them in live games. I have decided I am going to start with the IronSworn system, including Delve, and go from there. I will use this thread for out of game notes and the in game thread, as much as possible, to stick with the story as it develops. The best part is that even I don’t know where it is going. We’ll see as we go.
Character Creation- Before I can play, I need a character. The system says to start with the fiction, which I will do once I know who I am and create an alias for them.
So starting off and considering the setting, I am thinking that I want to start with the world first and then see how I fit into it. With that in mind, I skip to the world creation chapter and go from there. For now I will randomize things until a situation forms in my head.
The Ironlands are a harsh environment, a peninsula in the north seas. I am already imaging bare tundras and vast tracks of barren land.
I start in the Havens, a vast region of low hills, dense forests and rivers. This sounds like a perfect place to have a village or even a town in which to start.
Where we came from was overpopulated and overused. We moved to a new land to find fresh resources and space to spread out and get away from the petty wars.
This is a bleak place with terrible rain storms and harsher winters. Only those made of Iron will survive.
Others were here long before us, but they have become savages and they ravage the land. We call them the Broken.
Communities are called circles that can be as small as a hamlet or as large as hundreds of families. Some are nomadic and some are so powerful they contain many settlements.
Numerous clan chiefs rule small domains, each with petty squabbles with each other over rights to land and resources and eventually ruling over all. I can already see how this plays out as a sort of dark ages land of might makes right.
Wardens are the guards and militia of the circles. There are also free wardens who roam the lands to protect travelers from harm.
Many still follow the old ways, hoping to help with children and crops and fearful of those who they feel have become corrupted by powers beyond their means.
People honor old gods and new ones. Most prayers are simply for comfort more than anything.
Live in isolation and fiercely keep it that way. They want nothing to do with humans.
Beasts of all kinds roam the lands, usually staying in the reaches but sometimes coming into settled areas to hunt. This has Monster Hunter written all over it.
Stay away from dark places and don’t go out during the long night. You may never come back.
And with that, the world is created and I have a vision for my character. I am imagining a Free Warden Monster Hunter that comes into communities to help them with their local problems with beasts and horrors.
Next time, making the character…
As for making my character, I have a few ideas in mind and though it leans towards a Witcher type theme, or maybe Monster Hunter, or some semblance thereof, I still want this to be a unique person. Let’s see how that plays out.
The first step is envisioning my character, which I see as someone who wears a lot of furs to keep out the bitter cold, most of them caught and made by himself. His weapons are well used, with nicks and stains, but otherwise well taken care of. Being a sort of nomad, he carries little else, and what he does bring with him fits into a small bag that is strapped across his chest. His face is kept clean but his facial hair is bedraggled and less kept up. His head hair follows the same pattern, but is kept together by leather bindings, to keep it out of his face. We’ll keep the rest of the details to come out in story.
We then have to name our character, give them something to try and put down into history. I am going to do this randomly from an Oracle in the back of the book.
Lestara. This sounds more feminine to me and I can see making this into a female character, but I started with a male one and so that’s why he will be called Lesar, Walker of the Wastes. He has no last name yet, so we might determine what that is about later in the story.
Next, we pick our attributes. There are five and I get 3, 2, 2, 1, 1 to place. Being a wanderer of the wilds of IronSworn, I feel he needs to have some strength and fortitude in him to survive agains the elements and the beasts that roam the land. We’ll put the 3 into Iron.
He has to know a lot of things about what he is dealing with and how to survive on his own, so a two goes into Wits.
I don’t see him as the sneaky sort, so we will put a 1 in Shadow.
The difficult part is choosing whether he has more Edge or more Heart. He does have a lot of courage, but he doesn’t deal with people well. He is fast and quick though, as he has honed reflexes from years of fighting monsters. We’ll put two in Edge and 1 in Heart.
So there you have it. His stats:
Edge 2
Heart 1
Iron 3
Shadow 1
Wits 2
His health starts at +5, Spirit at +5, Supply at +5.
Momentum is +2 and resets to +2.
The next part will be choosing his first vows, one long term and one immediate. We will do that in game, along with three bonds and three assets, using the story to drive us along. In the meantime, I will create and alias for Lesar to post with.