IRON on IRON on IRON - Sharpened Edition
This is post about IRON on IRON on IRON new version, the SHARPENED Edition, which will be out for free in Nov 1st.
IRON on IRON on IRON is my one project I am most excited about, enough that I have now finished a full new version with updated rules, full layout, and even a cover art!
So let me hype and excite you too, by sharing the handful of reasons of why I think this is a game for you.
Cover art generously made by Jonas Merlin-Schumacher.
Sword and Mud TTRPG
If you are not one of the hundreds that downloaded the Minimalist Jam version on Itch.io, IRON on IRON on IRON is a Rules-lite Sword and Mud TTRPG, made for the lowest of fantasies, if any.
It is rules-lite - with 28 pages including its starter adventure - and quite objective in its design, including a realistic weapon and armor table, a deep injury system, and six different attributes (or Qualities) that determine who your Character is.
Think of Sword and Mud not really as Arthurian, and not really elfgame. You could run a Game of Thrones campaign, or a Between Two Fires story. A Kingdom Come inspired adventure, or your Pentiment inspired game.
Games about medieval troubles.
Now, first and foremost, what I want to tell you is; the system is tried and tested fun1. Undoubtely the most important point of this entire post.
It's made of a lot of rules for fighting with swords and other weapons, with deep injury and stamina systems. And plenty of evocative and suggestive space for adjucating all the rest.
Complex rules for physical confrontations. Complex rulings for other problems.
Simple rules, deep decisions.
And these rules - inspired by Luke Gearing's Violence - are brutal.
Injuries take time to heal, and debilitates you while you are hurt. Neglect it, and your attribute reduction may become permanent. Even your Stamina - more on it below - takes days to recover after an intense skirmish. This can even interrupt your growth, as you now must focus on getting healthier instead of training.
If a sword is drawn, everyone has already lost.
This has been a driving design principle from the start, and the second reason IRON has been in the forefront of my mind.
The third is the Stamina mechanic and the exchange blows resolution.
The former quite efficiently adresses my growing distaste for the classic HP and its forgiving cushion before any consequences, as you have to manage a resource pool that is connected to i) growing your stats, ii) how well can you fight, iii) solving other issues, and also iv) what you spend as you get hurt.
If you know Gloomhaven, this won't be a mystery; instead of a hand of cards, you have a hand of dice at your disposal.
"Spend" them do stuff - such as swinging a sword, or dodging, or even resolving other problems - and "exhaust" one of them to recover all spent dice.
So as you spend all your dice, you exhaust one to get them all back, hence reducing your resource pool until you rest.
It's a cycle that shrinks your stamina little by little, eventually leaving you with a couple of dice.
Tied into it is Character Growth - as you have to dedicate yourself into learning and getting better at stuff, you keep one of your dice exhausted for the duration. A neat representation of putting effort into yourself.
With all that in mind, you have the exchange blows mechanism, that uses hiding your dice in your hands and revealing them together for simultaneous information! This was the greatest hit for the playtests.
A cheat sheet of all moving pieces and the flow of a fight.
So if you are want a deep system for realistic medieval armed combat, inspired by Riddle of Steel but vastly lighter in complexity, this might be for you.
Of course, this is all simply its rules.
The game itself can be summed as all the efforts one takes to not use them. Drawing a sword is disaster, after all. And even with games such as Pendragon and Mythic Bastionland, I found it difficult to find a game in the lowest possible end of the fantasy scale that were not old crunchy tomes. Stories about villages, and small churches, and local lords, and plagues. If you are looking for a system that scaffolds deep rulings for medieval stories, then IRON on IRON on IRON might also be for you.
"But Shurebis, I am one of those that downloaded your Minimalist version. I have all I need already!"
Well, let me list you some of the new stuff.
- Rules for Character Progression;
- Further developed structure for Other Problems;
- New Targeting system for exchanging blows;
- Rebalanced rules for Multiple Adversaries and many other tweaks;
- A fully playable Adventure Poem for slaying a dragon!
Finally, with all that in mind, the forth reason of my excitement is simply how beautiful everything is turning out to be, including the amazing cover art by Jonas Schumacher!
If you are looking for a new dice mechanic and combat resolution; or a system for grounded medieval stories; or an easy system for deep realistic combat; or stories where violence is not the solution, but a terrible consequence.
Coming Nov 1st, sharpen your blades in case your tongue fails to resolve your troubles, and download IRON on IRON on IRON - SHARPENED Edition.