We each wrote separate character prologues leading into that meeting. We did OOC chatter in the GDocs chat sidebar, and dice in Hangouts, which was apparently hellbent on killing us until we started rolling Hits and even Matches. The Hangouts dice were so badly against us that Mike Leavitt actually wrote a simple Ironsworn diceroller tool that pulls results directly from a truly random online RNG. I'll leave it to him to offer that in the Tools section, but it is really sweet.
Oh, and obviously please let me know if you have any feedback as an outcome of your playthrough. Anything confusing? Irksome? You've done a great job of forming a narrative. Was that supported by the mechanics or in spite of them?
Oh we're gonna continue Shawn Tomkin. I oughta post up Vesna's prologue too, it was some intense solo.
Based on our experience yesterday, this thing really shines for co-op; just tossing the first two ideas, or an idea each, into the Oracle as a 50/50 or a Likely, does most of the "GMing" if you really want some unpredictability. Like, I'm glad this game CAN be GMed, but it hardly seems to NEED it unless someone really prefers to be in that role vs playing a single PC.
Yeah, it tends to work better with a GM who is more of a moderator, facilitating discussion. Also good when two players want to experience a story focused on a single protagonist. But, not the "default" for Ironsworn for sure.
Shawn Tomkin Hadn't noticed your second comment as I was replying. Mike and I both felt that the mechanics supported the narrative we were aiming for, and kept it interesting without dictating. They basically felt like a fairly responsive GM. It was my first time using the actual combat mechanics (I'd sort of montaged my way around with them noncombat moves in Vesna's prologue), so the only frustrations for me occurred in building muscle memory (particularly around the math on inflicting harm; bit of a learning curve there, it'd benefit from a real concise single example IN that section of the core book), and screaming typing obscenities at the dice for nearly getting us killed.
We each wrote separate character prologues leading into that meeting. We did OOC chatter in the GDocs chat sidebar, and dice in Hangouts, which was apparently hellbent on killing us until we started rolling Hits and even Matches. The Hangouts dice were so badly against us that Mike Leavitt actually wrote a simple Ironsworn diceroller tool that pulls results directly from a truly random online RNG. I'll leave it to him to offer that in the Tools section, but it is really sweet.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome Josh McGraw. Really atmospheric start and cool characters.
ReplyDeleteI think I can tell where the dice finally turned in your favor :)
I'm happy to see a co-op play. Ironsworn actually began as a game intended primarily for co-op GM-less. I hope you guys continue....
Oh, and obviously please let me know if you have any feedback as an outcome of your playthrough. Anything confusing? Irksome? You've done a great job of forming a narrative. Was that supported by the mechanics or in spite of them?
ReplyDeleteOh we're gonna continue Shawn Tomkin. I oughta post up Vesna's prologue too, it was some intense solo.
ReplyDeleteBased on our experience yesterday, this thing really shines for co-op; just tossing the first two ideas, or an idea each, into the Oracle as a 50/50 or a Likely, does most of the "GMing" if you really want some unpredictability. Like, I'm glad this game CAN be GMed, but it hardly seems to NEED it unless someone really prefers to be in that role vs playing a single PC.
Yeah, it tends to work better with a GM who is more of a moderator, facilitating discussion. Also good when two players want to experience a story focused on a single protagonist. But, not the "default" for Ironsworn for sure.
ReplyDeleteShawn Tomkin Hadn't noticed your second comment as I was replying. Mike and I both felt that the mechanics supported the narrative we were aiming for, and kept it interesting without dictating. They basically felt like a fairly responsive GM. It was my first time using the actual combat mechanics (I'd sort of montaged my way around with them noncombat moves in Vesna's prologue), so the only frustrations for me occurred in building muscle memory (particularly around the math on inflicting harm; bit of a learning curve there, it'd benefit from a real concise single example IN that section of the core book), and screaming typing obscenities at the dice for nearly getting us killed.
ReplyDeleteThe link is not showing up on this post from mobile, so here it is again: docs.google.com - Chapter 1: Introductions
ReplyDelete