Happy Hogmanay 2025

 Happy Hogmanay 2025

               Here comes another year again. Just as I was getting used to the old one. For those in northern UK, stay safe with the nasty weather that is expected. I hope it does not disrupt your plans too much. In Birmingham, the late night crowd did not seem to be too bothered, as the fireworks started about 23:30 and went onto 0:30. I hope they were wrapped up warmly.

              Hobby-wise, I treated myself to the ring binder expansion pack for Ironsworn, The Sundered Isles. I have only flicked through parts of the books, but the quality is great. Many of the Oracle Tables in the second book can be used in other settings with a bit of imagination.

Regards,

Ivor Cogdell

Thoughts On - The Augur VTT

 Hi everyone,

                      Thanks for stopping by today. I was just digging about in "Netland", wondering if the "Ironsworn: Delve supplement" was suitable for use with "Ironsworn: Starforged" or if it had been superseded with the Explore mechanic in the rules. I found a couple of comments on Reddit and one of them mentioned "Augur". I just thought it was an oracle that someone had made for exploring. I decided to click on the link and find out more.

                      As it turns out "The Augur" is a Virtual Table Top setting for Starforged, Ironsworn and other Sci-fi and fantasy games. It has the Moves, Combat etc. enabled for the Starforged game engine. It is hex-based and can auto-generate planetary surfaces, planets, ships in orbit, maps of ships, dungeons, robots, NPCs etc. Another feature is that ChatGPT is built into the text area so that it can generate relevant content in response to what has gone before. 

It is currently priced at $24.99, as of 18th August 2023. There is also a free mode that you can try out too. I plan to dig into that later.

https://www.augurvtt.com/

It looks well worth your consideration if you use these rules or if you play solo games in general.

Ivor Cogdell

Thoughts On - Hobby Shopping - Updated

 Hi Everybody,

                      I have been pondering spending in the hobby at the moment, as I have been earning a wage for the last 6 months, after a two-year gap of employment. There are some great products out there, but I have a problem justifying the expense of it.

 Hardback rule sets have come in at £20 - £30 pounds, with fantastic artwork. But the problem is, we have a major crisis coming down the road at us all, with food and energy bills going up and that's just what we know about at the moment.

 There is usually .pdf files of games and rules available, which is great, but without a tablet, you are usually looking at a large outlay of ink to do it justice, which does not come cheap. (I don't think I have turned my printer on this year, as I was on my last cartridge.)

                      So the question is, "Do I spend on the hobby, now or later, go down the PDF route (with or without printing the files out), or use what I have until things calm down if they ever do."

In case you are wondering what my shopping list might be, Edition three of Five Parsecs from Home in hardback (Modiphious Press) .D100 Solo Adventures, Ironsworn Starforged, not to mention some sort of upgrade for my 12-year-old, long-suffering PC.

Do let me know if you have a similar situation in the comments and what your goody list is at the moment.

Regards all,

Ivor Cogdell

P.S. I do have the second edition of Five Parsecs From Home, which I have had for a while. I have been waiting to get some more figures and terrain, thanks to the generosity of the author, Ivan Sorensen.

P.P.S. 15 October 2022 - I have upgraded to a SATA 2 SSD, it was delayed by the postal strike, plus the events described in the post "Disaster" (3 Nov 2022"), so it has not been fitted yet. I plan to do a clean install of Windows 10 on it. 

3rd November 2022 - I was made redundant at the end of last month, so that pretty much limits me to free stuff on Drive through RPG until my fortunes do an upturn. Please do comment though if you see something I should add to my wish list.

7th November - I spotted a 10" Samsung Tablet in a second-hand shop. "Not too expensive", I thought, "at £38 GBP. Once home, I found out why. I could not get a secure connection to the net. The "Play Store" was out of date and would not load. Edge, Chrome, Safari and Firefox browsers would not load. I could not download any PDF reader/editors, which is what I had planned to use it for mainly. Needless to say, it went back to the shop the next day.

 A sales assistant asked, "Were you not told it was sub-standard when you bought it ?" 

"No", I replied, thinking "Otherwise I would not have bought it, you idiot".

I am proud to say, I gave better service to my customers when I worked in retail. But, at least I did get my money back.

Ivor Cogdell

Thoughts On - Ironsworn Solo RPG

The FREE Solo Fantasy RPG Ironsworn by Shaun Tompkin

Hi Everyone,

                      If you are alone and/or stuck for something to occupy yourself with, when you are waiting for your models or your scenery to dry, take a look at  "Ironsworn" by Shaun Tompkin. There is a core rulebook and assorted guides to playing it, plus a character sheet. It comes in PDF, soft and hardcover versions. You need two ten-sided dice and a six-sided dice, or use an online dice roller on the net.

Ironsworn rpg download link

drivethrurpg.com/Ironsworn

The built-in setting is a Viking-type land, but this would suit any homegrown setting or fantasy module you care to drop it into. It uses an easy dice mechanic. The 2 x d10 "Challenge" dice and the single d6 "Action" dice with possible points modifiers, generate actions and outcomes.

 

For example -

Roll all three dice.

You score a strong hit, if your "Action" Dice plus modifiers beat both of the single scores (not added together) of the "Challenge" dice.

Eg. An "Action" dice roll of 6 + a situation modifier of 2 for a score of 8, beats both a "Challenge" dice roll of 7 and 5. Result -  A strong hit. (Meaning a Success with a bonus).

 "Action" dice roll of a 2 + a modifier of  1 for a score of 3, beats only one of the "Challenge" dice rolls of 9 and 2. Result - A weak hit. (Meaning a Success, but with a complication thrown in).

 "Action" dice roll of a 2 + a modifier of  1 for a score of 3, beats none of the "Challenge" dice rolls of 9 and 3. Result - A miss, the "Action" dice must beat the "Challenge" dice not just draw with it to win. A miss means just a complication - usually rolling on the "Pay the Price" table or losing health or supplies..

 Dice outcomes can be modified by bonuses generated through the game too. It may sound complicated written down like that, but it gives smooth gameplay. There are much clearer diagrams in the downloads.

                      There are lots of tables to aid in World history generation, "Oracle" tables to give outcome generation, scene setting, names, plots, simple movement tracking and journey time, character generation etc. Health and stores are tracked, which interact with the storyline and dice rolls. A large-scale setting map is provided.

Youtube

                       There are a few actual play sessions posted on "youtube" to spark your imagination and show the game mechanics, including one shot games and campaign sessions.

Youtube / ironsworn

More Goodness

There is an expansion pack on Drive through rpg called "Ironsworn, Delve".  - "Expeditions into perilous places, more foes and encounters, an array of new oracles (Tables), expanded setting info, mysterious objects of power, campaign threats, and much more!"

I have not tried it yet, but am looking forward to doing so.

drivethrurpg.com/Ironsworn-Delve

Support

There is setting support available on Roll20.net/. but I am not familiar with using Roll 20 so cannot give you the exact link.

 

 This is a boon for the solo player. Well worth trying out. Tell me if you like it in the comments. 

There is a space version coming out in 2021, Ironsworn: Starforged. so keep looking out for that one too.

https://www.Ironswornrpg.com/starforge-preview-july-2019

There is a small homebrew RPG on Youtube already.

Ironsworn: Starforge Co-op RPG | Episode 0, Part 1 - World Building & Character Creation

You can subscribe and see where it goes. I am a fan of both sets of rules.

Stay safe.

Ivor Cogdell.