Ironsworn is the award-winning tabletop roleplaying game of perilous quests for solo, co-op, and guided play. The free Digital Edition includes everything you need to play.
Ironsworn
The Award-Winning Free RPG
In the Ironsworn tabletop roleplaying game, you are a hero sworn to undertake perilous quests in the dark fantasy setting of the Ironlands.
Others live out their lives hardly venturing beyond the walls of their village or steading, but you are different. You will explore untracked wilds, fight desperate battles, forge bonds with isolated communities, and reveal the secrets of this harsh land.
Are you ready to swear iron vows and see them fulfilled — no matter the cost?
Ironsworn is a Gold ENNIE winner for Best Free Game, and has over 800 5-star ratings at DriveThruRPG.
What's Included
- Innovative, quest-driven mechanics
- Fast, flexible character creation
- Story hooks and creative prompts to eliminate game prep and push your adventures forward—with or without a GM
- A setting guide for the Ironlands, a rugged and treacherous peninsula at the edge of the known world
- Inspiring tools to customize your setting and fine-tune your game experience
- Extensive advice, examples, and options for exploring the story of your characters and their fateful vows
Three Ways to Play
Guided
One or more players take the role of their characters, while a gamemaster (GM) moderates the session.
Co-Op
You and one or more friends play together to overcome challenges and complete quests. No GM required.
Solo
You portray a lone character driven to fulfill vows in a dangerous world. Good luck!
Whatever mode you choose, you will create your character, make some decisions about the world you inhabit, and set the story in motion. When you encounter something dangerous or uncertain, your choices and the dice determine the outcome.
You are Ironsworn
In the Ironlands, a vow is sacred. When you declare your solemn promise to serve or aid someone, or to complete a personal quest, your honor is bound to that vow.
Vows are the core of playing Ironsworn. These goals create the context for your adventures and challenges. As you fulfill vows and gain experience, you add new assets — skills, animal companions, combat talents, and rituals — which deepen your abilities and options.
Character creation is fast and flexible. Assign values to your stats. Pick three starting assets. Play.
The System
Moves
In Ironsworn, moves help you decide what happens when you do something dangerous or uncertain. There is a move for most common actions and situations you will encounter in Ironsworn.
Ironsworn moves are inspired by the innovative, fiction-first mechanics of games such as Apocalypse World and Dungeon World.
Momentum
Momentum is a special track which is core to playing Ironsworn. When you have positive momentum, you are building on your successes and ready to make decisive moves. When you have negative momentum, you have suffered setbacks and your quest is in jeopardy.
You can use momentum to gain a decisive result — or avoid dire failure — on a critical move.
The Action Roll
When you make a move representing a risky or uncertain action, roll three dice at once: An action die (D6) and two challenge dice (D10). Add your relevant stat and any bonuses to your action die. This is your action score. Then, compare your action score to each of the challenge dice and check for a strong hit, weak hit, or miss. The move will tell you how to interpret the result.
Strong Hit
Your action score is greater than both the challenge dice. You succeed at what you are trying to do.
Weak Hit
Your action score is greater than only one of the challenge dice. You probably succeeded, but with a lesser effect or cost.
Miss
Your action score isn’t greater than either of the challenge dice. You failed, or you need to make some serious concessions.
Did you roll a match on the challenge dice? If so, you encounter a surprising complication or opportunity.
Ask the Oracle
In Ironsworn, oracles are random tools which help determine the outcome of an action, a detail in your world, or a narrative event. These generators and random tables answer questions in solo or co-op games, or provide inspiration for the GM in guided play.
Ironsworn includes a full suite of moves and oracle prompts designed to lead your story in exciting and unexpected directions — with zero preparation. You’ll be surprised how often a seemingly random oracle answer feeds directly into your character’s story and the world you’ve established through play. This is the power of your creative interpretation at work!
What will your oracle dice reveal? Play to find out.
Explore a
Perilous World
Generations ago, your people settled the Ironlands in the wake of a cataclysm which drove them from their former homes. Now, you live in isolated villages of wood and thatch at the edge of dark forests, or as nomads among the northern hills, or as seafarers along the rugged coast. Your world is bounded by deep woods, violent seas, and imposing mountains where only the reckless or resolute venture.
However, the default assumptions are only a starting point. You are encouraged to make Ironsworn your own, and to bend the setting to your liking. Your version of the Ironlands will be unique because you’ll define aspects such as the history of your people, magic, mythic beasts, and much more. The choices you make will also help inspire the personal vows that drive your character.
You can also ignore the default setting entirely and play in your own world, or in one inspired by media, history, or another RPG. The Ironsworn system is flexible enough to accommodate many forms of fantasy and historical fiction.
Praise for Ironsworn
Delve Deeper
Ready to take your Ironsworn adventures to the next level?
Ironsworn: Delve is an ENNIE-winning expansion for the Ironsworn RPG. This supplement takes your quests to the deepest, darkest reaches of the Ironlands. Plunge into subterranean caverns. Explore untracked forests and foreboding swamps. Journey across icebound wastes. Uncover lost secrets within ancient ruins. To fulfill your sworn vows, you will brave the most dangerous places and face the most terrible foes. Will you escape the depths? Play to find out.
With an array of new options and tools, Ironsworn: Delve is the perfect companion for your Ironsworn campaign — in or out of the dungeon.
Free Digital Edition
Get Ironsworn Now
The free Ironsworn Digital Edition includes a 270-page rulebook, character sheet, printable asset cards, and reference handouts. It's a complete game, ready to play.
Want a physical copy? You can also purchase the rulebook in hardcover or softcover.
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