Scaling Up Ironsworn, Part 1: Stat and Asset Coverage

Welcome to Part 1 of my series on Scaling Up Ironsworn. In this post, I'll address one big issue and one smaller related problem you might run into when playing Ironsworn, Starforged, or similar games with a larger group of players. You can find the intro and overview for this topic in my earlier post here. Links to the rest of the series are at the bottom.

Big Scaling Problem #1: Broad Stat And Asset Coverage

With more players, the party has a broader spread of stats and more total Assets. There are only five basic stats in Ironsworn (Edge, Heart, Iron, Shadow, and Wits). With five players, you can have someone with each of those as their best stat, leaving the party with no obvious weaknesses. Even with just two players, you can arrange things so each PC's high or middle stats cover the other PC's low stats. If you usually have the player with the best stat and assets for the current situation make the Move, they will succeed much more often than a solo PC or smaller group would. More successes means more Momentum gets generated, which then helps mitigate the misses that do get rolled. Misses on action rolls can become rare enough to make the story predictable and leave players feeling unchallenged.

Here's how to adjust for and challenge a party with broad competence:

• Be strict about interpreting which stats and assets can be used for any given move. Don’t let a player roll with their best stat and asset bonuses unless it definitely makes sense in the narrative. Don’t let them weasel their way into things like, “Yeah, I’m dodging the blaster fire, but I’m doing it smartly, so I’m gonna roll Wits instead of Edge, because my Wits is higher."
• Create situations where each player has to make their own roll. For example, "Oh no, the cave we’re in is about to collapse, we all need to Face Danger +Edge to get out in time"
• Create situations where a PC is forced to roll with one of their weaker stats or can't leverage their best stat.
• Create situations where more than one Move is required to accomplish a task. More rolls means more chances that someone will fail and suffer a consequence. Scene Challenges are great for this, but you can also just zoom in on a task and break it into two or three steps or add a complication.
• Don't be afraid to split the party or create situations where PC who would be best at the task is unavailable or otherwise occupied.
• Agree as a group to occasionally take turns rolling, even if it isn't "optimal". For example, on Expeditions, take turns being the Expedition leader and making the Undertake an Expedition Move, instead of having the player with the highest bonus always roll.

On the flip side of having broad coverage, you might also have to deal with...

Smaller Problem #1: Overlapping Builds

Ironsworn characters are already broadly competent by default. With only five core stats, each one covers a variety of situations. In a large party, it is easy to end up with two PCs who are both equally good at something because they put their highest bonus in the same stat for different reasons. For example, one player wants to be a scout or explorer, while the other wants to be a healer. Since Undertake a Journey/Expedition and Heal both rely on the Wits stat, both players might choose Wits as their top stat (though with different Assets to help them specialize in their chosen area). Then, when it comes time to Gather Information, which also runs on Wits, both PCs have the same bonus. Who gets to make the roll?

It's even worse when one player invests in a stat and a related Asset, but another player ends up just as good or even better at some of the same Moves. For example, in Ironsworn, a player with 2 Shadow and the Trickster Asset has the same chance to succeed at a Compel to deceive someone as the player who chose 3 Shadow but took different assets.

Overlapping builds don't break anything or make the game significantly harder, but they feel bad for two main reasons. One is that players may feel they "wasted" resources on being good at something that another PC has covered. The other is that players may feel like they're competing for spotlight time.

On the other hand, you might find that having builds which overlap a bit can be a benefit. It can give you coverage for when the PC with the best stat can't be the one to make a particular Move for some narrative reason. It's also fine if the area of overlap is something where multiple PCs can contribute, such as combat, especially if that type of challenge will come up frequently in your game. The other benefit of overlapping builds is that it can leave the party with a more obvious weakness (such as having nobody with high Shadow when you need to sneak around), which mitigates the problem of broad coverage discussed above and can create opportunities for fun challenges and drama.

Here's how to prevent issues with overlapping builds:

• Create your PCs as a group, so players can notice if their build is stepping on anyone's toes and change it before the game starts.
• Choose Assets that emphasize your strengths and align with your best stat(s), rather than shoring up your weaknesses.
• If two PCs end up with the same top stat, make sure they have Assets that differentiate them mechanically and background/personality differences to distinguish them narratively.
• If two PCs are equally good at a task, try to take turns with who handles it (especially Delve The Depths in Ironsworn and Undertake an Expedition in Starforged, since they offer a choice of which stat to use and you might roll them many times in one session) or give the spotlight to whoever hasn't gotten to roll in a while.

Conclusion and Links

I hope you find this analysis and advice helpful in your own Ironsworn games. For more on this topic, just follow the links:

• Intro and Overview for this series
• Part 1: Stat and Asset Coverage (<- you are here)
• Part 2: Resource Tracks and Aid Your Ally
• Part 3: Combat