Iron Valley is completely stand-alone. Knowledge of Ironsworn will help understand the flow of game-play and some core principles, but that's about it. Iron Valley is very different from Ironsworn. So no, you don't need to have it in order to try this game 👍
If you'd like a physical version to reference the rules, most players agree that once you pick up the rules you hardly need to check the book, except for the oracles which I would recommend printing if you find yourself looking through them often.
That being said, if you'd like a physical version to put on the shelf, and you're the DIY kinda person, there are several people on my Discord server who have printed physical versions of the book (even going as far as hand-binding them 😲).
Sorry there isn't a print version (yet), thank you for showing interest on my little game tho!! 💚💚💚
This looks lovely, I'm excited to try it out! Just FYI, maybe I'm the only one having this problem, but almost none of the in-document links are working.
Thanks for creating and sharing such a great game!
Sometimes things just break, so I doubled checked the document... and all the links are working on my end ❔
It depends on what program you're using, some might require permissions to open links. I used Firefox and it worked fine for me. Sorry for the inconvenience 😥
The Townie Tracker is in pages 6-8 of the file named "Player Sheets". This also includes the calendar, promise tracker, and more. They're together as one document instead of a bunch of separate documents. 👍
curious any chance there could be rune factory like combat /monster optionals ? im specifically interested in like the concept that rune factory games have with rune magic and monstrous creatures that end up as farm animal buddys then like the combat But like the idea of some does sound neat to me
ok after reading the pdf im just going too go with magic and fantastical creatures :D with maybe some custom more odd ones be in the woods to find and befriend adore the magic examples
curious if one can have robotic/synthetic aesthetic thinking a magical automaton or doll could be a fun pc and was curious about how one could go about that
Given that this is built on Ironsworn, you could use that for combat. The base Ironsworn game is free to download.
There is the problem of the monster catching mechanic though... You could maybe emulate the catching mechanics in Animon or Monster Care Squad? Those are paid TTRPGs. Some free ones I'm finding on Itch.io are Ligmamon and Pocket Monsters Manual.
IDK, just throwing some ideas out. I might be a little more comfortable frankensteining my own systems than you are though. 😅
Been having a blast playing this! As someone currently jobless I appreciate the free availability of such a high quality product that's filled with so much love and effort.
Thank you so much for the kind words. I've made it my mission to keep my games (and my upcoming novels) as easy to access as possible. Although I very much appreciate people supporting me monetarily, I am happy enough knowing people are enjoying my work 😊💚
Wow, I just came here looking for this info too. I was re-reading through the book and read the section on Heart Events where it promises that a future update will include more rules around romance and thought I'd see if anything had been posted. Happy to hear it's still on your mind. I really like this Ironsworn hack, and think about it whenever I want something a little slower. It's a great product.
Just a small comment - it says to go to the official website to download goodies, but there's no link on this page to it. I found it in the PDF of the game, but it took me a while :-)
Hey, I’m currently enjoying the game and decided to make my own custom move. I felt like a direct way to dedicate time with a townie would be great. I will test it out to see how it goes. A limit to might be good for balance, but I’m unsure if it should be once a day, once per townie a day, or some kind of cooldown of 1d3 days for each townie. I don’t want to overcomplicate it, so I advise to just choose whatever works best for your current game.
Hang Out:
When you want to do something with a friend, try hanging out. Roll as if you were trying your best, imagine what the activity is and what that would require.
Strong Hit:
You have a great hangout and have time to spare! Gain 2 favor (plus any heart favor). Mark 2 ticks if this fulfills a promise.
Weak Hit:
You manage to have a good hangout, but lose track of time. Gain 1 favor (plus any heart favor). Mark a tick if this fulfills a promise. Time Passes.
Miss:
Despite both of your efforts, something happens that prevents the hang out from being fun or you lose track of time. Time Passes.
I just have a quick question about how the barter/favor economy works. How does one trade for something big, like land to build a house and a farm on? I want to work towards getting a permanent place to stay, but I have no idea where to start.
As you noticed the favor economy is built for day-to-day trading, not things like houses or land. For this situation I recommend using a Promise. I think it makes more sense thematically (and is more fun) to help someone in town and have them give you a house (or build you one), than doing boring stuff like having your credit checked, working for 20+ years, and then trying to get a bank loan.
Here's what I would do:
Envision (or roll) a townie who is capable of giving you a house or helping you acquire one.
Generate a very urgent + very complex Request.
Make a Promise.
Make moves, mark progress on the promise until you are satisfied, then...
Reap the Rewards, doing things as normal and also gaining your house!
Promises are very powerful mechanisms for allowing you to gain things inside the world, make changes, or growing closer to townies. I hope this helps! Please don't hesitate to ask more questions 🐸💚
I created a small random table for the Root Around move that allows the player(s) to mechanically explore their town (going to shops & restaurants, visiting helpful townies, finding inspiration, etc), and I wanted to share it. I hope people find it helpful if they use it.
This game is an absolute gem! I'm about one season into my solo campaign, and just played a co-op game with a friend tonight. It has brought me so much joy and calm in a stressful season, and I cannot recommend it enough. It's easy to pick up, easy to teach, and so much fun to play in both co-op and solo mode. If you're a Stardew fan looking for a tabletop alternative, or just someone looking for a way to unwind and stretch the creative, playful side of your brain, I'd highly recommend picking up a copy!
As a side note, regarding printing, once I worked through a couple weeks, I haven't had any trouble running solo sessions with just the player sheets and the moves, though I'll occasionally pull up the oracles on my laptop or to reference certain holidays. I also suspect it would be easy to track promises in a dot-grid journal, which is what I plan to switch to once I've made it all the way through the journal I'm writing in currently.
Such a wholesome game! It feels like playing an indie. I didn't expect to find such a good game when trying to emulate the Stardew with an roleplaying game. <3
the entire IV system has yet to make it to the table, but the Oracle tables are BY FAR the best low impact tables out there! They are worth every penny of the price just for them. I’m currently using them to run my Apthecaria game. Works perfectly.
Hey there! New player here. I absolutely love the vibes of the game and how simple but deep the promises systems works for this!
I do have a suggestion though regarding Make a Promise. Rather than determining the number of progress boxes based on Complexity X Urgency, I suggest determining it by Complexity X Scale instead (Or Quality X Quantity). I found the original system kind of paradoxical in that more urgent matters took more progress boxes to fulfil which meant that they took more time to complete despite being more urgent.
But that's just a suggestion. I appreciate all the hard work that went into this thing and hope y'all have a good time!
tl;dr edit: "complexity" represents how difficult the task is, while "urgency/importance" represents how much achieving the goal means to you.
One thing that I've found helps me conceptualize my promises when I'm playing is to reframe "urgency" as "importance". It's pretty much an identical concept, and unlike adding something like "scale" it doesn't overlap with the idea of complexity. A big task means it's got more things to do, which I would say means a higher complexity score. But an important task doesn't say anything about how much there is to do, just how much completing that goal is weighing on you.
This works for me for two reasons: one, literally all I need to do is change "urgent" to "important". "laid back" and "critical" still make perfect sense when you're talking about just importance instead of importance+time-sensitivity. And two, having more promise boxes to fill means you'll spend more time thinking about it or working on it, which has the emergent effect of it feeling more important. If the goal is important, you'll put more attention into completing it, right?
Hi! Love the game, got a quick question regarding Reap the Benefits and Progress Tracks.
Can you fulfill a promise and Reap the Benefits without filling all the boxes on the progress track, similar to how you could fulfill a vow early in Ironsworn? With the consequence in this case just being less rewards?
Apologies if this is covered in the book, I thought to have looked through but couldn't find an answer anywhere.
Hey! Will there be combat mechanics later on? This is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for, but I'm itching to play something like Rune Factory or the My Time series :D
You should probably look at the rules for Ironsworn, the game this is based off of. It might take some work and hacking things together, since actual conflict seems to be against the purpose of this game, but it's the whole core of Ironsworn. I don't think you're likely to get official combat rules for Iron Valley, unfortunately.
Thank you for your question~ 🌸 I'm also a huge fan of Rune Factory so I totally get you! I do want to clarify that you can do combat in IV, it would be a Try Your Best!! roll. That being said, IV is meant to be more about personal conflict and relationship-building, so crunchy combat with armor classes and to-hit dice is kind of out of the scope at the moment.
Of course, I will never say never to adding combat because one day I might get a spark of inspiration in the middle of a walk/shower and realize how to add dungeons to this game. Same goes for adding a more in-depth farming simulation aspect. There is a lot of room for IV to grow as you can see~
I hope this answer helps, don't hesitate to ask or reach out to me 💚
It's good! I wouldn't mind at all if any hypothetical combat add on wasn't crunchy, would go against the spirit of Ironsworn and Iron Valley. Thanks for the reply ☺️
Before I even get to playing yet, I wanna say: the writing in the rulebook is a delight. You have the perfect Cozy Tone and sense of humour. Actually, I also find the order it's written to be incredibly nice, as well. Links to other sections are perfectly placed, and I thought I needed to know what skills/stats/options/traits the town experience had before I started playing (the Truths sections) but you know what? You were right! I was already scheming in my head anyway, and I did not need to know much more than what I wanted out of this game before we got to these questions. OK maybe I could have used a lil bit on how items worked first, but I ended up rolling on the oracles by rolling a number and then choosing the most appealing answer from any of the item lists, repeat 3 times total, and I think that's going to turn out just fine.
ALSO ALSO, unlike the robust roleplaying games (with more firm rules, especially when multiplayer-centric) I actually uh... read most of the rulebook in one night just fine without overwhelm. Not all at once mind you, but it was a really nice change from the slogs I'm used to when the books are longer~
PS:I'm using another solo game establishing a character already, and decided to magically slip them between worlds to Iron Valley when their time there is done at the built-in end of the game. That's why I'm not playing this one quite yet c:
Thank you!! I'm a fiction author so a little bit of my writing voice got in there. I'm happy to hear that the fun I had writing the book shone through! It just makes me smile that the book flows well. I have had my share of experiences trying to read a TTRPG book and it feeling like a chore. Reading a book like this in one sitting is no small feat!
Once again, thank you so much for this lovely comment! Don't hesitate to reach out or ask more questions once you are ready to step into the Valley~ 💚👩🌾🥕
← Return to solo roleplaying game
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do you need to own Ironsworn to play iron valley?
Iron Valley is completely stand-alone. Knowledge of Ironsworn will help understand the flow of game-play and some core principles, but that's about it. Iron Valley is very different from Ironsworn. So no, you don't need to have it in order to try this game 👍
is there a print version available to buy
Not at the moment~
If you'd like a physical version to reference the rules, most players agree that once you pick up the rules you hardly need to check the book, except for the oracles which I would recommend printing if you find yourself looking through them often.
That being said, if you'd like a physical version to put on the shelf, and you're the DIY kinda person, there are several people on my Discord server who have printed physical versions of the book (even going as far as hand-binding them 😲).
Sorry there isn't a print version (yet), thank you for showing interest on my little game tho!! 💚💚💚
This looks lovely, I'm excited to try it out! Just FYI, maybe I'm the only one having this problem, but almost none of the in-document links are working.
Thanks for creating and sharing such a great game!
Sometimes things just break, so I doubled checked the document... and all the links are working on my end ❔
It depends on what program you're using, some might require permissions to open links. I used Firefox and it worked fine for me. Sorry for the inconvenience 😥
The Rulebook mentions the Iron Valley Townie Journal, but I can't find anything about it. Is there a way I can find it?
The Townie Tracker is in pages 6-8 of the file named "Player Sheets". This also includes the calendar, promise tracker, and more. They're together as one document instead of a bunch of separate documents. 👍
Ah. I was just confused. Thanks for the info!
No problem at all! Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions 💚
curious any chance there could be rune factory like combat /monster optionals ?
im specifically interested in like the concept that rune factory games have with rune magic and monstrous creatures that end up as farm animal buddys
then like the combat
But like the idea of some does sound neat to me
ok after reading the pdf im just going too go with magic and fantastical creatures
:D with maybe some custom more odd ones be in the woods to find and befriend adore the magic examples
curious if one can have robotic/synthetic aesthetic
thinking a magical automaton or doll could be a fun pc
and was curious about how one could go about that
Given that this is built on Ironsworn, you could use that for combat. The base Ironsworn game is free to download.
There is the problem of the monster catching mechanic though... You could maybe emulate the catching mechanics in Animon or Monster Care Squad? Those are paid TTRPGs. Some free ones I'm finding on Itch.io are Ligmamon and Pocket Monsters Manual.
IDK, just throwing some ideas out. I might be a little more comfortable frankensteining my own systems than you are though. 😅
your an absolute treasure thanks for the suggestions
Been having a blast playing this! As someone currently jobless I appreciate the free availability of such a high quality product that's filled with so much love and effort.
Thank you so much for the kind words. I've made it my mission to keep my games (and my upcoming novels) as easy to access as possible. Although I very much appreciate people supporting me monetarily, I am happy enough knowing people are enjoying my work 😊💚
Is v1.3 in the works? I'm just asking to know if I should hold off on printing for a little bit. Lovely game! :D
1.3 wont be for a bit, since I'm currently finishing a novel + working on a smaller game! Hope this helps, thank you for checking out my game 💚
Thanks for letting me know. I'll go ahead and print my copy then. It looks amazing.
Wow, I just came here looking for this info too. I was re-reading through the book and read the section on Heart Events where it promises that a future update will include more rules around romance and thought I'd see if anything had been posted. Happy to hear it's still on your mind. I really like this Ironsworn hack, and think about it whenever I want something a little slower. It's a great product.
Hey! Love the game.
Just a small comment - it says to go to the official website to download goodies, but there's no link on this page to it. I found it in the PDF of the game, but it took me a while :-)
Sorry about that! I've fixed it now 😅
Hey, I’m currently enjoying the game and decided to make my own custom move. I felt like a direct way to dedicate time with a townie would be great. I will test it out to see how it goes. A limit to might be good for balance, but I’m unsure if it should be once a day, once per townie a day, or some kind of cooldown of 1d3 days for each townie. I don’t want to overcomplicate it, so I advise to just choose whatever works best for your current game.
Hang Out:
When you want to do something with a friend, try hanging out. Roll as if you were trying your best, imagine what the activity is and what that would require.
Strong Hit:
You have a great hangout and have time to spare! Gain 2 favor (plus any heart favor). Mark 2 ticks if this fulfills a promise.
Weak Hit:
You manage to have a good hangout, but lose track of time. Gain 1 favor (plus any heart favor). Mark a tick if this fulfills a promise. Time Passes.
Miss:
Despite both of your efforts, something happens that prevents the hang out from being fun or you lose track of time. Time Passes.
Hi! Do you have a discord for this game? I'd love to have a place to hear people's thoughts and chat about it before I pick it up.
I do! I have a discord for all my games and streams. It's a quiet, chill place. You can find the link for it here 👍
I just have a quick question about how the barter/favor economy works. How does one trade for something big, like land to build a house and a farm on? I want to work towards getting a permanent place to stay, but I have no idea where to start.
Thank you for the question!
As you noticed the favor economy is built for day-to-day trading, not things like houses or land. For this situation I recommend using a Promise. I think it makes more sense thematically (and is more fun) to help someone in town and have them give you a house (or build you one), than doing boring stuff like having your credit checked, working for 20+ years, and then trying to get a bank loan.
Here's what I would do:
Promises are very powerful mechanisms for allowing you to gain things inside the world, make changes, or growing closer to townies. I hope this helps! Please don't hesitate to ask more questions 🐸💚
Thank you for the thoughtful response! I'm really enjoying the game so far!
I created a small random table for the Root Around move that allows the player(s) to mechanically explore their town (going to shops & restaurants, visiting helpful townies, finding inspiration, etc), and I wanted to share it. I hope people find it helpful if they use it.
Thank you for sharing!! 💚
This game is an absolute gem! I'm about one season into my solo campaign, and just played a co-op game with a friend tonight. It has brought me so much joy and calm in a stressful season, and I cannot recommend it enough. It's easy to pick up, easy to teach, and so much fun to play in both co-op and solo mode. If you're a Stardew fan looking for a tabletop alternative, or just someone looking for a way to unwind and stretch the creative, playful side of your brain, I'd highly recommend picking up a copy!
As a side note, regarding printing, once I worked through a couple weeks, I haven't had any trouble running solo sessions with just the player sheets and the moves, though I'll occasionally pull up the oracles on my laptop or to reference certain holidays. I also suspect it would be easy to track promises in a dot-grid journal, which is what I plan to switch to once I've made it all the way through the journal I'm writing in currently.
Thank you for the glowing recommendation!! I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed my game 😌💚
Such a wholesome game! It feels like playing an indie. I didn't expect to find such a good game when trying to emulate the Stardew with an roleplaying game. <3
Aww thank you!! It means a lot to hear that 😌💗
the entire IV system has yet to make it to the table, but the Oracle tables are BY FAR the best low impact tables out there! They are worth every penny of the price just for them. I’m currently using them to run my Apthecaria game. Works perfectly.
Thank you for the glowing recommendation! We had a lot of fun making the tables, love seeing them used in other games 💚
I'm looking forward to a more fleshed out romance mechanic <3
Hey there! New player here. I absolutely love the vibes of the game and how simple but deep the promises systems works for this!
I do have a suggestion though regarding Make a Promise. Rather than determining the number of progress boxes based on Complexity X Urgency, I suggest determining it by Complexity X Scale instead (Or Quality X Quantity). I found the original system kind of paradoxical in that more urgent matters took more progress boxes to fulfil which meant that they took more time to complete despite being more urgent.
But that's just a suggestion. I appreciate all the hard work that went into this thing and hope y'all have a good time!
tl;dr edit: "complexity" represents how difficult the task is, while "urgency/importance" represents how much achieving the goal means to you.
One thing that I've found helps me conceptualize my promises when I'm playing is to reframe "urgency" as "importance". It's pretty much an identical concept, and unlike adding something like "scale" it doesn't overlap with the idea of complexity. A big task means it's got more things to do, which I would say means a higher complexity score. But an important task doesn't say anything about how much there is to do, just how much completing that goal is weighing on you.
This works for me for two reasons: one, literally all I need to do is change "urgent" to "important". "laid back" and "critical" still make perfect sense when you're talking about just importance instead of importance+time-sensitivity. And two, having more promise boxes to fill means you'll spend more time thinking about it or working on it, which has the emergent effect of it feeling more important. If the goal is important, you'll put more attention into completing it, right?
Hi! Love the game, got a quick question regarding Reap the Benefits and Progress Tracks.
Can you fulfill a promise and Reap the Benefits without filling all the boxes on the progress track, similar to how you could fulfill a vow early in Ironsworn? With the consequence in this case just being less rewards?
Apologies if this is covered in the book, I thought to have looked through but couldn't find an answer anywhere.
Your first instinct was correct! You can complete a promise early, earning less rewards.
Also no worries, I love answering questions. I'm just happy that people are playing my game 😊💚
Thank you!
I poured hours into Stardew Valley and some of the older Story of Season games, so I'm excited to dive into this properly.
Hey! Will there be combat mechanics later on? This is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for, but I'm itching to play something like Rune Factory or the My Time series :D
You should probably look at the rules for Ironsworn, the game this is based off of. It might take some work and hacking things together, since actual conflict seems to be against the purpose of this game, but it's the whole core of Ironsworn. I don't think you're likely to get official combat rules for Iron Valley, unfortunately.
Thank you for your question~ 🌸 I'm also a huge fan of Rune Factory so I totally get you! I do want to clarify that you can do combat in IV, it would be a Try Your Best!! roll. That being said, IV is meant to be more about personal conflict and relationship-building, so crunchy combat with armor classes and to-hit dice is kind of out of the scope at the moment.
Of course, I will never say never to adding combat because one day I might get a spark of inspiration in the middle of a walk/shower and realize how to add dungeons to this game. Same goes for adding a more in-depth farming simulation aspect. There is a lot of room for IV to grow as you can see~
I hope this answer helps, don't hesitate to ask or reach out to me 💚
It's good! I wouldn't mind at all if any hypothetical combat add on wasn't crunchy, would go against the spirit of Ironsworn and Iron Valley. Thanks for the reply ☺️
Before I even get to playing yet, I wanna say: the writing in the rulebook is a delight. You have the perfect Cozy Tone and sense of humour.
Actually, I also find the order it's written to be incredibly nice, as well. Links to other sections are perfectly placed, and I thought I needed to know what skills/stats/options/traits the town experience had before I started playing (the Truths sections) but you know what? You were right! I was already scheming in my head anyway, and I did not need to know much more than what I wanted out of this game before we got to these questions.
OK maybe I could have used a lil bit on how items worked first, but I ended up rolling on the oracles by rolling a number and then choosing the most appealing answer from any of the item lists, repeat 3 times total, and I think that's going to turn out just fine.
ALSO ALSO, unlike the robust roleplaying games (with more firm rules, especially when multiplayer-centric) I actually uh... read most of the rulebook in one night just fine without overwhelm. Not all at once mind you, but it was a really nice change from the slogs I'm used to when the books are longer~
PS:I'm using another solo game establishing a character already, and decided to magically slip them between worlds to Iron Valley when their time there is done at the built-in end of the game. That's why I'm not playing this one quite yet c:
Thank you!! I'm a fiction author so a little bit of my writing voice got in there. I'm happy to hear that the fun I had writing the book shone through! It just makes me smile that the book flows well. I have had my share of experiences trying to read a TTRPG book and it feeling like a chore. Reading a book like this in one sitting is no small feat!
Once again, thank you so much for this lovely comment! Don't hesitate to reach out or ask more questions once you are ready to step into the Valley~ 💚👩🌾🥕