The first part of a guide for using The Ultraviolet Grasslands as a setting for Ironsworn
Replicate the intent of the UVG rules within the Ironsworn system, with a focus on solo play.
Warning: The following rules have been only lightly tested, and are a work in progress.
UVG contains a trove of juicy tables, which you can use as oracles for move results using this conversion table.
| d20 | d14 | d12 | d10 | d8 | d6 | d5 | d4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miss | 1d6 | 1d4 | 1d4 | 1d3 | 1d2 | 1d2 | 1 | 1 |
| Weak Hit | 1d8+6 | 1d6+4 | 1d4+4 | 1d4+3 | 1d4+2 | 1d2+2 | 1d3+1 | 1d2+1 |
| Strong Hit | 1d6+14 | 1d4+10 | 1d4+8 | 1d3+7 | 1d2+6 | 1d2+4 | 5 | 4 |
For example: You got a Weak Hit result on a move, and want to roll on the encounters table for The Low Road and The High (d8). The matching entry is 1d4+2, you roll and get a 3, Slender-legged grazing hares.
Discoveries aren’t numbered, count them and roll the next largest formula (column). If the result is invalid, reroll.
The goal here is to keep things spicy, while splitting results into three categories. Since weak hits are the most common outcome for moves, the Weak Hit row has more variance on uneven splits.
Decide why vows are binding in your version of the Rainbowlands. If playing with a group, make it part of your session zero.
Perhaps vow-breakers suffer biomagical corruption in addition to the spirit penalty:
See mutation tables, UVG p.145.
Cat Lords, Porcelain Princes, Spectrum Satraps, Ultras, and Vomes must take assets to represent their abilities. Other character types may optionally take an asset to represent their heritage, background, or training.
The following are examples, change them to suit your taste. Characters will vary widely, and their assets should represent that.
Note: If any of these character types do not fit your table, rewrite the fiction for them. Perhaps people only become Cat Lord pets or Ultra hosts if they consent, and so on.
The feline overlords and inquisitors of the Violet City. Many people find their tiny human-like hands and serpent-headed tails unnerving. They can enthrall humans into being their pets, and communicate with them via a telepathic link.
Coffee beans eaten and excreted by a Cat Lord can be brewed to create a the potent narcotic known as Cat Coffee.
Cat Lord
● Hypno-Cant: When you Compel or Forge a Bond to enthrall a new pet, add +1 and take +1 spirit on a hit. You have a telepathic link with your pet. You can use the link communicate with your pet, and speak through them.
Pets stay around as long as you do not mistreat them. You can only have one pet at a time.
○ Kopi Koffee: When others drink coffee brewed from beans you have excreted, they take +1 spirit and +1 momentum. If used too frequently, they must Face Danger.
○ Cat O’ Nine Tails: When you Strike or Clash with your venomous serpent tail, roll +edge instead of +iron.
Strange humanoids that wear prismatic bodysuits and glass helmets. They use light to conjure illusions and radiant magic.
Spectrum Satrap
● Crystal Body: When you visit a Spectrum Palace outpost you can save your current personality state in a great crystal. When you Face Death and miss you can choose to have a new body replicated, and your stored personality state implanted in the new body.
- You may only store one state at a time.
- The process costs at least 10 Wealth.
- If you are in good standing with the Spectrum Palace you can take on a debt to pay for the service.
○ Endosymbiont: You have a telepathically bonded symbiotic creature in your synthetic skin. When you make a move outside of combat that uses their expertise, add +1.
Expertise:
○ Interlinked: When you use your Endosymbiont to Gather Information or Secure an Advantage, you can direct them over long distances. On a hit take +2 momentum.
Ancient ghostly beings that possess people, places, machines, and who knows what else. Some don’t believe they are real.
Ultra
Host:
● Ethereal Form: When you Face Death and miss your host dies, but you revert to a cloud of spiritual essence. Remove any physical debilities. While in Ethereal Form you are immune to physical harm, and your interactions with the material are limited.
You can Compel or Forge a Bond to attempt to possess a new host.
- On a strong hit: set your health to the current health of your host, up to +5.
- On a weak hit: as above, but the possession is incomplete or flawed. Envision how this complicates your coherence with your new host. Ask the Oracle if unsure.
- On a miss: you must spend a week reconstituting your essence before another attempt.
You start the game with a host of your choosing.
○ Ethereal Walker: You can attach your ethereal form to a spirit-object, such as the spirit-shadow of an arrow in flight. While your spirit is away from your host, your host is comatose.
○ Memory Palace: When you Compel, Gather Information, or Secure an Advantage, you can walk the halls of your memory palace to find useful information. Add +1 and take +1 momentum on a hit. Your memory palace includes your memories, and copies of all of your hosts’ memories.
Answer the following:
Use the answers as fictional framing for your journey. If the caravan represents a significant force, represent is as a group asset.
If the caravan is large enough, take the Caravan asset:
Caravan
● Stash: You have a storage area in your caravan where you can put wealth you don’t want to carry. Stores up to 5 wealth.
○ Trans-Planar Vault-Sacks: Even more space. Store up to 10 more wealth. When you go to retrieve your wealth, roll +wits.
- On a strong hit: you find it.
- On a weak hit: you find it, but there is a complication.
- On a miss: the wealth is lost until you offer the pocket a worthy sacrifice.
○ (SPECIAL ABILITY): (Based on the particular fiction for your caravan.)
When you Undertake a Journey use the Discoveries, Encounters, and Misfortunes tables as oracles for waypoints.
As always, if you already know what should happen, make it happen. If something in one of the tables jumps out at you, use it.
Remember to narrate the fact that journeys between settlements are at least a week long. Each waypoint should represent a day’s journey or more. When you get to a
A large part of the additional mechanics here are to support trading. If your characters do not use currency, feel free to ignore this section.
Trade
When you create your world, it is helpful to create a table of which factions want which trade goods. Consult the UVG trade goods page (UVG p177) for their properties, sources, and potential worth. Assign values based on demand. You don’t need to fill out the whole table, just the factions you think the PC’s will talk to in the next couple sessions. Assume anything not in at least high demand fetches a lower price.
Example
| Trade Good / Demand | Engineers | Electromancers | Necromancers | … | Doctors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alchemical Lubricants | High | — | — | — | — |
| Bone-work | — | — | Very High | — | — |
| Gold | — | Very High | — | — | — |
| … | — | — | — | — | — |
| Medimagicals | — | — | — | — | High |
When the characters complete a round trip and collect profits, have them make a move such as Compel or Secure an Advantage to determine how profitable the run was. Also consider if relationships have changed between trading partners.
To support carousing I’ve taken vices from Blades in the Dark. If characters wish they can choose an indulgence.
Examples: Faith, Gambling, Luxury, Obligation, Pleasure, Stupor, Wierd, Other.
All characters have access to the indulge move, and an Indulgence progress track.
Indulge
When you Sojourn in a large settlement, you can roll +wealth to indulge your vice. If you resist the consequences:
- With evasion, speed, or acrobatics: Roll +edge
- With charm, authenticity, or camaraderie: Roll +heart
- With fortitude, grit, or a steel gut: Roll +iron
- With guile, misdirection, or schemes: Roll +shadow
- With knowledge, insight, or planning: Roll +wits
- On a Strong Hit: you manage your indulgence as well as you can. Suffer -1 Wealth, take +1 momentum and mark 2 ticks on your indulgence progress track.
- On a Weak Hit: suffer -2 Wealth, and mark 1 tick on your indulgence progress track.
- On a Miss: you overindulge. Suffer -3 wealth and Pay The Price. What when wrong? Who do you owe a debt to? Where did you wake up?
If your Wealth would be reduced below 0, suffer -supply in exchange.
To convert your indulgence progress to XP, make the Wisdom From Indulgence move using the indulgence progress track, as Learn From Your Failures (Delve, p.59).
You can Indulge once per week.
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