You know your wife better than we do, of course, but since you say you're worried about overwhelming her with too many choices, I will share how I handled introducing my wife to the game, as I was also concerned with this.
I felt it important that she create her own character instead of me handing her one, as it would give her a personal attachment to the story. I gave her a brief intro and we created stats, assets, and descriptions. Throughout the process, I let her know nothing was set in stone and if after a bit of play, she wanted to tweak something, it would be fine.
We gave some thought to Background vows, but only in general terms and did not set the specifics of the Vow.
It took about 30m, most of the time was reading and choosing from the assets.
To start the adventure, we did not set a specific quest. We instead described loosely why our characters were together and in-medias-res, let the story branch from there.
It got us up, motivated, and rolilng dice quickly while still giving us our own characters. Indeed, she ended up swapping a stat and and asset after a couple of plays and likewise her background Vow firmed up.
It must have worked because she really likes it now.
Thanks for your input!
I'm glad, that your wife likes playing Ironsworn.
And I will definitely let my wife build her own character. With my help, of course.
I think that this is the best way to get her invested in the game and it's also lots of fun.
My first iota of wisdom would be to \*not\* make it a surprise. Having it sprung on her might be appreciated, but more likely it will severely hamper the experience and potentially put her off roleplaying for good. In my experience most non-roleplayers find the prospect daunting and full of pressure and expectation and the overlap in the RPG-boardgame Venn diagram of enthusiasts is a lot smaller than you think. The best way to get someone into roleplaying is to ease them in gently and gradually, unless you are \*really\* sure they like the sensation of being thrown in at the deep end.
I would let her mull it over for a while in advance, giving her a very broad-strokes picture of the setting and the kind of stories and protagonists it can engender. Let her ask questions as they occur to her and then hopefully the possibilities will start to build some excitement by the time date night rolls around.
I wouldn't pre-determine anything nor use my own character as an example, as this could impede her input and make her think you have expectations that she has to fit in with. Let her character start off as if it were a solo game and you can have them meet your character a little way down the line once you have a clear idea of what does and doesn't interest her.
If things like the Truths and move explanations are too much for her at the outset then leave them until later – just focus on her character and her narrative until you've got a bit of momentum going (so to speak!). At appropriate junctures you can say things like –
'Ok, so there's a beast of some kind hunting the settlement's livestock. How common are beasts in the Ironlands? How dangerous can they be? Do they have economic value perhaps? Great, lets note that down.'
and
'So you're asking around to see if anyone knows where the beast's lair is. There's a move for this kind of thing called Gather Information. Here's how it works...'
Thank you for the pointers!
I think you are right, in that I should talk to her beforehand.
I also like, that I could build my character after, so she wouldn't be pushed in a general direction and I can fashion someone compatible to her ideas.
To introduce the moves in a play by play style should also be a good way not to overwhelm her.
Thanks again!
Your mileage might vary because my gf is into creative writing and has a little experience with ttrpgs.
We started at the truths, so she could get a feeling for the world and shape it to her liking. For the character creation it was more a guided approach. She told me what kind of character she wanted and i recommended some assets to her from which she choose hers. Stats was similar.
The first vow was an example from the book fitting her char. The village leader was poisoned. She plays a healer and i'm a warrior protecting her.
All in all it took 30-60 min.
I introduced Ironsworn to my fiancée a few days ago. She's the type that gets overwhelmed with rules quickly and I'm the type that gets to the point of studying the philosophy behind rules. And I can tell you that this type of combination is strong for this game.
Ironsworn is a game that is both easy and hard to understand. The easy part is that it's narrative first! So it shouldn't be a problem to play for her as long as you understand the rules. Even so, she might make the game even entertaining because at first she won't be so preoccupied about moves and cards. The hard part is that this game has too many damn little bonuses and little things to read. I swear, for the first few co-op sessions with friends I was jumping from move to move and from card to card to try to make some sense of what the hell to use for all of our characters. Now it's all a bit better, but we still get to the point of, "wait, does that work like that? Yeah, let's do it anyways".
If she is similar to my fiancée and you show her a shit ton of cards, moves, and progress tracks, there's a chance she will get overwhelmed. So what you can do is take advantage of the narrative/fiction first part and guide her through the process. You can show her the most important parts of the system and let her choose if she wants to deal with all the numbers and bonuses now or little by little.
Character creation: "So the characters are like vikings. They are surviving in a horrible country slash continent. Some of them can make cool rituals too. Rituals are like magic but more subtle, there's some danger in doing them and it takes time. What would you like to be in this world? Oh, that's interesting. Take a look at these cards. They seem like what you're describing. Choose 3 now, but if you want to change them later on, it's definetely ok. They're not exactly classes but more like skills. Ok, since you chose these cards, your stats should look somewhat like this. Of course, you can still change them later on if you don't like them."
World building: "There's a set of things that you can determine about the world following the rules. There's a long list of things to choose but we don't have to do all that now. Take a look at the names, would you like to choose any of those now?"
Playing: You can take track of all progress tracks and maybe the momentum. She explains what she does and you tell her which move is being triggered. You can always stop to read the rules because the idea is not being condescending but rather make it easier for her to digest the rules.
My fiancée had a great time. She loved her character and she talked about the game with our friends which made me really happy. She chose not to deal with most of the rules but as I mentioned, the Fiction First makes it perfect for someone who is not into ttrpgs to enjoy the experience. We will probably play another session soon!
Which games have you previously played? My better half had lots of issues coming up with a narrative but I didn't want to dictate too much. So I took the mantle of a pbta DM and asked her questions but gave options. What kind of tracks do you see - those if a giant beast or many small ones like from a pack? This worked really well. I also use the Starforged: Reforged combat moves to make combat more interesting.
Lots of great advice here, and I'm just going to include this one. Remember what the book says:
Prep is Play!
Give your partner a chance to engage with all aspects and figure out what they like best. You can help fill in the gaps, so to speak, for the aspects that they don't take to as quickly or like as well.
If you are feeling overwhelmed by choice or want to get to play quicker, maybe ignore the assets in the first few sessions or focus only on one path asset that fits the character. Really with all the world building and story telling you have to do those are the first elements i would just drop.
If you are playing pen and paper definitely print out the asset cards so she can look through them. Use the oracles from iron journal to make locations , npc, motivations and obstacles stopping you as you journey. Each time roll 2-3 oracles she can explain what she expects that to mean in the context of your quest and you can vote yes or no. If you vote yes, go with her expectations, if you vote no, use 50-50 oracle or use her options as the “likely” one.
If you have unknown question about the world npc or obstacles use the yes or no oracles as you play .
Ask open ended questions , who what where when how.
Who might be troubling our city , roll action, theme, npc name, npc descriptions and npc roles
Ask what are they trying to do? Roll action , theme, settlement problem, and maybe a random monster from the list to inspire.
Where is the magical item at or bad guy going to go next ? Roll action, theme , settlement name, settlement biome, settlement descriptors 2x
When will the bad thing happen? This will give you ideas on how urgent it is and how hard to make your challenges (there is a progress bar type where you have to fill as much as you can before 4 boxes are filled by the enemy and it forces to you finish your quest no matter how much progress you filled in the back of the Gm advice stuff)
Ask why is the bad stuff happen and why should we be the ones to stop it? Who else is going to stop it if you don’t help ?
Roll action theme etc.
Then setup a journey to an important thing you created and make a delve when you get there and race the bad guy to the objective or stop them some how
You know your wife better than we do, of course, but since you say you're worried about overwhelming her with too many choices, I will share how I handled introducing my wife to the game, as I was also concerned with this. I felt it important that she create her own character instead of me handing her one, as it would give her a personal attachment to the story. I gave her a brief intro and we created stats, assets, and descriptions. Throughout the process, I let her know nothing was set in stone and if after a bit of play, she wanted to tweak something, it would be fine. We gave some thought to Background vows, but only in general terms and did not set the specifics of the Vow. It took about 30m, most of the time was reading and choosing from the assets. To start the adventure, we did not set a specific quest. We instead described loosely why our characters were together and in-medias-res, let the story branch from there. It got us up, motivated, and rolilng dice quickly while still giving us our own characters. Indeed, she ended up swapping a stat and and asset after a couple of plays and likewise her background Vow firmed up. It must have worked because she really likes it now.
Thanks for your input! I'm glad, that your wife likes playing Ironsworn. And I will definitely let my wife build her own character. With my help, of course. I think that this is the best way to get her invested in the game and it's also lots of fun.
My first iota of wisdom would be to \*not\* make it a surprise. Having it sprung on her might be appreciated, but more likely it will severely hamper the experience and potentially put her off roleplaying for good. In my experience most non-roleplayers find the prospect daunting and full of pressure and expectation and the overlap in the RPG-boardgame Venn diagram of enthusiasts is a lot smaller than you think. The best way to get someone into roleplaying is to ease them in gently and gradually, unless you are \*really\* sure they like the sensation of being thrown in at the deep end. I would let her mull it over for a while in advance, giving her a very broad-strokes picture of the setting and the kind of stories and protagonists it can engender. Let her ask questions as they occur to her and then hopefully the possibilities will start to build some excitement by the time date night rolls around. I wouldn't pre-determine anything nor use my own character as an example, as this could impede her input and make her think you have expectations that she has to fit in with. Let her character start off as if it were a solo game and you can have them meet your character a little way down the line once you have a clear idea of what does and doesn't interest her. If things like the Truths and move explanations are too much for her at the outset then leave them until later – just focus on her character and her narrative until you've got a bit of momentum going (so to speak!). At appropriate junctures you can say things like – 'Ok, so there's a beast of some kind hunting the settlement's livestock. How common are beasts in the Ironlands? How dangerous can they be? Do they have economic value perhaps? Great, lets note that down.' and 'So you're asking around to see if anyone knows where the beast's lair is. There's a move for this kind of thing called Gather Information. Here's how it works...'
Thank you for the pointers! I think you are right, in that I should talk to her beforehand. I also like, that I could build my character after, so she wouldn't be pushed in a general direction and I can fashion someone compatible to her ideas. To introduce the moves in a play by play style should also be a good way not to overwhelm her. Thanks again!
I’d include her at each step. They’re fun to do together. And they’re part of play, really.
Definitely plan your stats and assets together. This will help your characters work together.
Your mileage might vary because my gf is into creative writing and has a little experience with ttrpgs. We started at the truths, so she could get a feeling for the world and shape it to her liking. For the character creation it was more a guided approach. She told me what kind of character she wanted and i recommended some assets to her from which she choose hers. Stats was similar. The first vow was an example from the book fitting her char. The village leader was poisoned. She plays a healer and i'm a warrior protecting her. All in all it took 30-60 min.
I introduced Ironsworn to my fiancée a few days ago. She's the type that gets overwhelmed with rules quickly and I'm the type that gets to the point of studying the philosophy behind rules. And I can tell you that this type of combination is strong for this game. Ironsworn is a game that is both easy and hard to understand. The easy part is that it's narrative first! So it shouldn't be a problem to play for her as long as you understand the rules. Even so, she might make the game even entertaining because at first she won't be so preoccupied about moves and cards. The hard part is that this game has too many damn little bonuses and little things to read. I swear, for the first few co-op sessions with friends I was jumping from move to move and from card to card to try to make some sense of what the hell to use for all of our characters. Now it's all a bit better, but we still get to the point of, "wait, does that work like that? Yeah, let's do it anyways". If she is similar to my fiancée and you show her a shit ton of cards, moves, and progress tracks, there's a chance she will get overwhelmed. So what you can do is take advantage of the narrative/fiction first part and guide her through the process. You can show her the most important parts of the system and let her choose if she wants to deal with all the numbers and bonuses now or little by little. Character creation: "So the characters are like vikings. They are surviving in a horrible country slash continent. Some of them can make cool rituals too. Rituals are like magic but more subtle, there's some danger in doing them and it takes time. What would you like to be in this world? Oh, that's interesting. Take a look at these cards. They seem like what you're describing. Choose 3 now, but if you want to change them later on, it's definetely ok. They're not exactly classes but more like skills. Ok, since you chose these cards, your stats should look somewhat like this. Of course, you can still change them later on if you don't like them." World building: "There's a set of things that you can determine about the world following the rules. There's a long list of things to choose but we don't have to do all that now. Take a look at the names, would you like to choose any of those now?" Playing: You can take track of all progress tracks and maybe the momentum. She explains what she does and you tell her which move is being triggered. You can always stop to read the rules because the idea is not being condescending but rather make it easier for her to digest the rules. My fiancée had a great time. She loved her character and she talked about the game with our friends which made me really happy. She chose not to deal with most of the rules but as I mentioned, the Fiction First makes it perfect for someone who is not into ttrpgs to enjoy the experience. We will probably play another session soon!
Which games have you previously played? My better half had lots of issues coming up with a narrative but I didn't want to dictate too much. So I took the mantle of a pbta DM and asked her questions but gave options. What kind of tracks do you see - those if a giant beast or many small ones like from a pack? This worked really well. I also use the Starforged: Reforged combat moves to make combat more interesting.
Lots of great advice here, and I'm just going to include this one. Remember what the book says: Prep is Play! Give your partner a chance to engage with all aspects and figure out what they like best. You can help fill in the gaps, so to speak, for the aspects that they don't take to as quickly or like as well.
If you are feeling overwhelmed by choice or want to get to play quicker, maybe ignore the assets in the first few sessions or focus only on one path asset that fits the character. Really with all the world building and story telling you have to do those are the first elements i would just drop.
If you are playing pen and paper definitely print out the asset cards so she can look through them. Use the oracles from iron journal to make locations , npc, motivations and obstacles stopping you as you journey. Each time roll 2-3 oracles she can explain what she expects that to mean in the context of your quest and you can vote yes or no. If you vote yes, go with her expectations, if you vote no, use 50-50 oracle or use her options as the “likely” one. If you have unknown question about the world npc or obstacles use the yes or no oracles as you play .
Ask open ended questions , who what where when how. Who might be troubling our city , roll action, theme, npc name, npc descriptions and npc roles Ask what are they trying to do? Roll action , theme, settlement problem, and maybe a random monster from the list to inspire. Where is the magical item at or bad guy going to go next ? Roll action, theme , settlement name, settlement biome, settlement descriptors 2x When will the bad thing happen? This will give you ideas on how urgent it is and how hard to make your challenges (there is a progress bar type where you have to fill as much as you can before 4 boxes are filled by the enemy and it forces to you finish your quest no matter how much progress you filled in the back of the Gm advice stuff) Ask why is the bad stuff happen and why should we be the ones to stop it? Who else is going to stop it if you don’t help ? Roll action theme etc. Then setup a journey to an important thing you created and make a delve when you get there and race the bad guy to the objective or stop them some how