A solo playtest of Iron & Fire V2: Wanderers of the Far North

La version francophone de cet article est disponible ici. / The french version of this article is available here.

I recently played the 2nd edition of Iron & Fire, a tabletop rpg by Horos and Rossi (here is the link toward their 5min video presenting the game).

It is a game set into a sword & sorcery universe (with main elements about its universe introduced in the game PDF), playable either solo or with a group of players. 

The simplicity of its rules make it really easy to run, if you want a TLDR of the rules, here is the core mechanic:

Roll your Skill Die.

If you get 1, 2, or 3, you fail. Otherwise, you succeed.

Trying something unusual for your Occupation? → Roll 1d4 instead of your Skill Die.

Simple, efficient.

The authors asked returns about their game. As I had fun playing it solo, here we go!

Our adventure takes place in the north-west part of Skandia.

More precisely, in the highlighted hexes:

Our synopsis is:

The adventurers are traveling from Udhum to the City of the Dead looking for treasure. 

The place is occupied by bandits and the treasure is guarded by strange shadow creatures.

Here is an ascii reproduction of the area: 

(the group starts from A1 and travels toward C4)

 *  =  *   .   *  =  *   .   *
//     \\     //     \\     //
* Udhum *  =  * forest*  =  *
\\ A1  //     \\ A3  //     \\
 *  =  * forest*  =  * forest*
//     \\ A2  //     \\ A4  //
* coast *  =  * forest*  =  *
\\ B1  //     \\ B3  //     \\
 *  =  *  bog  *  =  * hills *
//     \\ B2  //     \\ B4  //
*  bog  *  =  * hills *  =  *
\\ C1  //     \\ C3  //     \\
 *  =  *  bog  *  =  *  CotD *
//     \\ C2  //     \\ C4  //
*   .   *  =  *   .   *  =  *
_____________

The adventurers:

>>> Glauros (Warrior skilled in combat)
Inventory: Axe (1d6) ; Long Shield (+2D) ; Chainmail (+3D)
Skill: d10    ; Stamina: d8    ; Willpower: d6
          Defense: 18/18    ; Grit: 6/6

>>> Hagla (Sorceress skilled in the arcane arts)
Inventory: Staff (1d6) ; ceremonial Dagger (1d4) ; wolf skull
Skill: d6    ; Stamina: d8    ; Willpower: d10
          Defense: 14/14    ; Grit: 11/11

>>> Juliana (Priestess skilled in warding off the undead)
Inventory: Mace (1d6) ; Shield (+1D) ; Studded Leather Armor (+2D)
Skill: d8    ; Stamina: d6    ; Willpower: d10
          Defense: 10/10    ; Grit: 8/8

>>> Manthar (Rogue skilled in raiding tombs)
Inventory: Short Sword (1d6) ; Crossbow (1d6) ; Leather Armor (+1D)
Skill: d10    ; Stamina: d6    ; Willpower: d8
          Defense: 8/8        ; Grit: 9/10

_____________
My notes about characters' backgrounds (self made):

Glauros the Warrior is a former enslaved Rhuranian gladiator who won his freedom in the arena. He hates slavers but have natural affinity with proud warriors. 

Hagla the Sorceress is an erudite both afraid and fascinated by her own arts. She's counting on her willpower to compensate the unpredictable nature of the powers she wields. 

Juliana the Priestess is a Obrestian knight seeking clues about Bhaligund's servitors weaknesses. Unlike the others, she is motivated firstly by her quest, and secondly by bringing back treasures. 

Manthar the Rogue is native from Udhum, but not familiar with local wilderness. Nonetheless, being deceitful or st0ealthy is still his speciality, even outside the walls of a city.

_____________

Encounter tables: 

Note: I completely ignored/forget that the map says 1 hex = 12 miles.
And I'm very bad at figuring distances as soon as units aren't in metric system.
So, I decided the days are split in 6 segments as follows: morning, afternoon, dusk, early night, late night, dawn.
Crossing an hex usually takes 1 segment of day, unless some event slows the adventurers.)
 

Is there any encounter? (1d6)

1-3: no encounter ; 4-5: clues about a nearby encounter ; 6: surprised by the encounter

Forest (1d6):
1-3: wary poachers ; 4-5: Sons of Skandir (roll on special table) ; 6: territorial spirit

Bog (1d6):
1-3: giant mosquitos ; 4-5: tribal hunter ; 6: drowned ghost

Hills (1d6):
1-3: foraging small bandit party ; 4-5: cyclop lion ; 6: prisoner escaped from bandits

City of the Dead (CotD 1d6):
1-3: pair of bandit sentinels ; 4-5: hunting shadow ; 6: Bhaligund's spy

Coast (1d6):
1-3: merchants (50% disguised slavers) ; 4-5: proud sea raiders ; 6: giant sea eagle

Sons of Skandir (1d6): band of small Gryms and ...
1-3: ... their cunning Vordak leader ; 4-5: ... a Voskur Giant (50% chained slave, 50% terrifying warrior) 6: ... a few Varogs brutes pulling caged prisoners convoy

Weather table:
1-3: typical weather, undeads and sons of Skandir are less threatening during the day ;
4-5: fog, a character roll for the group to avoid getting lost (random move if they are lost), but sneaking is easier ;
6: heavy rain, hard to light a fire or to recover, but sneaking is easier

Encounter initial behaviour (1d6, evolve according to the characters actions):
1-2: more hostile than expected (savage aggression, or initially threatening behaviour) ;
3-4: as expected ;
5-6: less hostile than expected (helpful, or initially keep their distances)
_____________

Chapter 1: Wanderers of the Far North

The four adventurers leaves Udhum with enough supply to travel to the City of the Dead and come back. Their backpacks include food, torches and various tools easy to transport. Manthar provided a partial map of the City of the Dead, meant to lead them toward a crypt of an ancient noble. Some messenger was intended to bring the scroll to a camp of bandits improvising themselves as treasure hunters... until Manthar ensured this map was "left behind".

The first choice to do is if the group will either follow the coast toward the south, or if they will begin their trip by walking through the pine forest toward the south-east.

>>> even=vote for the coast, odd=vote for the forest: even for Juliana and Manthar, odd for Glauros and Hagla. Final result after deliberation: odd. Travel A1 to A2.

Juliana and Manthar prefered to avoid the forest, arguing that the coast path offered more visibility and was traveled, while Glauros and Hagla were in favor of travelling right in the direction of the City of the Dead through the forest. After some debates, they decided to follow the second path, because they could always choose later to continue through the forest or to leave it to progress through the swampy area at the south.
This first arguing worried Juliana about the cohesion of the group, but she chooses to avoid the subject for now.

>>> afternoon (Travel A1 to A2)
>>> Weather: 1 = typical ;
>>> Encounter : 4: clues of a nearby encounter ; forest 3: wary poachers
>>> Group want to ask the best path to reach their goal: 3: suspicion of the poachers
>>> adventurers decide to avoid escalating conflict, and continue their route.

The group comes across the path of a poachers family, occupied to set traps for animals. Glauros the Warrior asks them advices about a safe path to cross the forest, but the hunters seems distrustful, either about his tone or about the outfit of Hagla the Sorceress. Manthar wishes them a good hunt with a forced smile, and incite his companions to continue their route before the locals begin to shoot arrows at them.

>>> dusk (Travel from A2 to ...)
>>> Weather: 4 = fog ;
>>> Encounter : 2: nothing
>>> Does the group decide to stop to camp now? No
>>> Orientation test: Hagla invoke the spirit of her wolf skull to inspire her visions about the way to follow: d6=4
>>> Does the group leave the forest to camp at the limit of the bog and the forest? Yes ; (Travel from A2 to B2)

As the sun lowers into the sky, a cold mist creeps between the trees. Soon, Hagla demands a pause, and begin a sinister ritual, holding high the wolf skull she usually carries hidden. Manthar is disturbed by this strange scene, but becomes admirative when minutes later, the Sorceress tells them that she knows the way toward the edge of the forest.
Following Hagla, they finally set their camp at the limit between the forest and the southern swamps. They hope their small fire will be enough to keep at bay beasts and other threats.

>>> early night (B2 camp)
>>> Weather: 5 = fog ;
>>> Encounter : 4: clues ; bogs : 1: 1+1d3=4 giant mosquitos
>>> giant mosquitos : 2d6 Defense (large insect, but still frail body), attack with haematophagous rostrum (d4 damages and healing themselves), flight (hard to touch, unless when it just attacked someone).
>>> initial behaviour : 5: less hostile than expected (smoke from the fire?)

As they eat quietly dried biscuits and smoked meat, the adventurers hear a rumor coming from the dark wetland. A buzzing identified only as four mosquitos come out the fog. Thankfully, the emaciated flying parasites are repulsed at first by the acrid smoke of the humid burning logs. But for how long?

>>> Glauros and Juliana hit their weapons on their shield to intimidate the mosquitos: Glauros: 1d10 (well armored and skilled in fighting, so probably the most menacing)= 5 ; Juliana: 1d4 (not an expert at intimidating living creatures)= 1 ==> Mosquito 01 morale test: 1d4=2 : it flees
>>> Manthar try to shoot at the slender insects: 1d4=4! (still a crit despite 1d4? Oracle said yes) ; 2d6=5 dmg
==> Mosquito 02: 2/7 Defense (NOTE: I roll the total Defense of an enemy only after it suffered a first blow in order to keep the surprise about how hard to kill it is) ==> morale roll (suffered more than half of its total Defense in one attack): 1d4=3 ==> flees too!
>>> Morale roll for others: 4: Mosquitos 03 and 04 are literally bloodthirsty!

Glauros jumps on his feet and begins to shout at the creatures while banging his axe on his shield's umbo. The cacophony is apparently sufficient to detter one of the insects. Juliana tries the same stratagem, but her small shield is less adapted to this kind of sonorous intimidation.
Meanwhile, Manthar loads quickly his crossbow and shoot at a buzzing mosquito: the bolt harms it enough to makes it flee the fight too!

Apparently those nightmarish creatures aren't too eager to fight... Or so the adventurers first believed, as the two remaining insects take a nosedive at them, thirsty for warm blood!

>>> Hagla try to hit one of them with her staff: 1d4 = 4! (crit?==> yes) : 2d6= 9 dmg ==> Mosquito 03: -6/3 Defense (ouch)
>>> Last Mosquito 04 tries to attack Glauros (target rolled on 1d4) : Glauros isn't surprised or distracted by other targets, so 1d4: 2 the Mosquito misses
>>> Juliana exploit the missed attack: 1d6=4 (not a specialist at fighting, but the mosquito is easier to hit while it just missed an attack), 1d6=6 dmg
==> Mosquito 04 : 0/6 Defense (a clean kill)

Hagla madly hit around her with her staff, managing per chance to hit the body of one of the murderously buzzing menace and send it sizzling right in the campfire.
The last giant mosquito lands on Glauros, trying without success to find a flaw between his armor and shield. Juliana manages to hit it with her mace, crushing the bloodsucker before helping Glauros to stand up.

>>> late night (B2 camp)
>>> Weather: 3 = typical, clear night ;
>>> Encounter : 6: clues ; bogs : 5= tribal huntress
>>> initial behaviour: 2= more hostile than expected
>>> do we manage to guess why? Yes (Juliana)
>>> Mosquitos killed?= Yes. Considered as poaching on her hunting grounds= Yes.
>>> Appeased by giving her the dead mosquitos?= No
>>> Appeased by supplementary gift of some food?= Yes (but now they won't have enough food to come back without foraging)
>>> Accept to guide them through the swampy area?= Yes

A few hours later, despite Juliana being on guard duty, a unknown woman wearing a strange outfit crafted from warty leather and driftwood awake everyone by accusing them of trespassing on her hunting grounds, menacing them with her spear.
Among her accusations and her peculiar dialect, Juliana understands she is speaking about the two giant mosquitos killed earlier, and offers her the remains.
She snorts of disdain, before Glauros adds to the offering a consequent part of their food supply, if the stranger helps them to quickly cross the swamps.
The huntress finally accepts, grunting something about not letting them meandering around and frightening the preys. She tells her name is Gierd.

>>> dawn (Travel from B2 to C3)
>>> Weather: 3 = typical, sunny dawn (to add flavor, I roll a die to see how pleasing is the weather)
>>> Encounter : 1: nothing

Guided by Gierd, the four adventurers manage to cross the bog without any other dangerous encounters. Even the weather is unexpectingly clement. Now from the top of a hill, they catch sight of the City of the Dead.

>>> morning (Travel from C3 to C4)
>>> Weather: 6 = heavy rain
>>> Encounter : 2: nothing

Like a cruel joke after the sunny dawn, a wind bring from the north dark clouds which soon pour a heavy rain on the group, soaking their clothes and their hope.
Per chance, they don't make any bad encounter in this harsh weather.

>>> afternoon (arriving nearby the City of the Dead)
>>> Weather: 2 = typical, cold wind
>>> Encounter: 5= clues ; 2= 1d6= 2 bandit sentinels patrolling

Several hours later, the cold wind continues to blow even after the clouds were sent away. The sound of two bored bandits speaking about the failed attempts to salvage valuables from the abandoned city incite the adventurers to send Manthar scouting.

>>> Manthar wants to help his allies to pass unnoticed through the bandits camp
>>> A single roll seems a bit too easy, so lets detail the infiltration sequence (which will evolve if any step fails):
>>> Step 01: to stay hidden from the sentinels
>>> Step 02: to scout if there is a gate of the necropolis out of sight from the bandit camp
>>> Step 03: come back and guide the group in the walls
>>> Step 01: 1d10: 1! (well, it doesn't seem like it will be as easy as expected)
>>> does the rest of the group is close enough to help Manthar? No!
>>> Manthar tries to lure the sentinels away from camp to avoid getting all the camp under alert: 10!

As Manthar tries to sneak past the watchers, their discussion stops as he disturbs some birds who fly away.
Manthar improvises by throwing a rock under bushes, which luckily works as the sentinels curse against this "bloody stray dog", trying to chase the false lead.

>>> Step 02: 1d10=7
>>> Step 03: 1d10=3+1=4 thanks to Grit (9/10 Grit)

Manthar manages to find a discreet access to the inside of the City of the Dead, but nearly bump into the sentinels as he comes back toward his allies. He doesn't mention the least glorious episodes of his expedition as he guides the adventurers to the necropolis.

_____________

NOTES FOR FEEDBACK:

Positive points:

- Grit is a great mechanic, both simple and efficient to help a player suffering from bad rolls. The fact you can choose to accept the failure is a good thing too.

- the example of play is cool to verify how the rules could be used, and especially how Grit points can help a 1d4 roll to be successful.

- the table of chances of success for each dice is a good idea to help new players not familiar with the rules to know what to expect when allocating their dice to their attributes. I personally didn't used it while playing.

- the hexmap is great. Differently colored areas are easy to interpret as different biomes (as an example I decided that the dark gray area around Udhum was forested while light gray was a mix of low hills and steppe).

- I personally love the fact that the example Adventurers are a diverse cast, and that the gender of the player doesn't have to correspond to the gender of the character. Subtle but clear message: as long as it's coherent with the setting you can play whatever character you want to. Maybe using very similar names like Halga and Helga could confuse some readers (I changed one of these names for my solo playtest while I kept the same group composition), but I'm probably nitpicking there.

- I absolutely love the wolf skull and the ceremonial dagger as starting items for the sorceress. These items add a distinct flavor to this character.

- character creation is both quick and include lot of liberty about the occupation and starting equipment. For my first try I decided to keep the example group of adventurers (randomly allocating their dice between Skill, Stamina and Willpower)

Confusing points:

- no precised use of Willpower aside to reset Grit. → I used it to roll both diplomacy actions (if Skill is irrelevant) and morale tests when facing some awful situation (which didn't happened there).

- weapons: while there is a logical progression between armoring devices (more defense = cost more), the weapons don't follow this rule (example: a crossbow is more than twice the price of a bow for the same damages).
I would either give the same price for all weapons of the same category (one handed, two handed, ranged...), or give an additional bonus or malus to explain why some weapons are so expensive (more damages against some enemies, concealable, symbol of status which helps in interactions with some NPCs, or on the contrary will make you look like a bandit...).
There are implicit benefits easy to guess for some weapons (axes can also be used to cut trees or break doors, some weapons need both hands to be used) but it still confused me for others (especially comparing crossbow and bow, or pole weapon and battleaxe).

Here is how I managed the numerical aspects of encountered creatures: 

→ The Defense is rolled after the first damage inflicted (to keep that surprise factor : heroes can guess exactly how tough is a creature by hitting it, unless they spend time to assess the strength of the enemies).
Small critter: 2d4 Defense, Frail humanoid: 2d6, Medium humanoid: 2d8, Large humanoid: 2d10, Tough Bear: 2d12, Giant: 2d20

→ The creatures dice were chosen according to the situation.

Final word:

In my opinion this is a really cool game, with a nice balance between mechanics and liberty of play.

I think it would be quite easy to adapt it to different settings if someone wanted to.

I had a lot of fun playing it. I may publish a 2nd chapter about the adventures of the group trying to steal treasures from the City of the Dead, where the threats should be deadlier.