Category: 2024

Read Part Three here

Dreviz had grown up in Kronholm, but as a goblin, his experience of the city was different from that of the humans who dominated. The goblin artificer was born & raised in Grimscrabble’s Roost, a ghetto carved out beneath the city where the city’s rulers mandated all of “that kind” be forced to live. The goblins could only find work doing the most undesirable tasks, often in service to the aristocracy, who were frequently lost in a stupor of narcotics and shadow magic.

Read Part One and Part Two

Kronholm is a place composed of layers. The first layer, built by the ancient dwarves, was hewn from the great mountain with which the city came to share a name. Their time ended with a blaze of blood & magic, sorcerers acting unrestricted in those days, leading to mass death. In time, like vermin, humans spread across the land and discovered the hollowed-out ruins of a once great city. On top of this, they constructed Sirenhelm Keep, where, to this day, the royal family resides in the palace, though sightings of them are much harder to come by, and rumors spread that the line died out generations ago.

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Read Part Two here

In March 2023, I played through a short game of Ironsworn for the first time. I loved it, but there were definitely some wrinkles Starforged helped iron out (no pun intended). I did want to revisit Ironsworn, though, with some tweaks. This was mainly an interest in seeing how some additional fan-made products worked when attached to the core system. My story hook came from my Dungeon World Solo series, and while that was very fun to play, Ironsworn’s brilliant progress mechanics stand head & shoulders above any solo system I have encountered. If the goal is to create a sense of exploration and surprise, you don’t get better than this system.