Making Moves

Moves help you decide what happens when you do something risky or uncertain, and they resolve various fictional and mechanical situations. There is a move for most common actions and scenes you will portray in Ironsworn. When you do something or encounter a situation within the scope of a move, refer to the move and follow its instructions to see what happens. 

When a move is referenced within this rulebook or within another move, the move’s name will be italicized. When you see italicized text, it’s your prompt to make that move.

The Ironsworn moves are also available as a printable reference at ironswornrpg.com. Refer to that handout during your session, and come back to this chapter when you need guidance or want more detail.

Move Outcomes

Most moves use an action roll (page 8) to resolve the outcome. Roll your action die and challenge dice, add the relevant stat to your action die along with any adds provided by the move or your assets, and check the result. 

• Strong hit: When your action score is greater than both of the challenge dice, you succeed at what you are trying to do. Take any benefits as defined by the move. You are in control. Envision what you do next.
• Weak hit: When your action score is greater than only one of the challenge dice, it’s a mixed result. You’ve probably succeeded, but with a lesser effect or a cost. The move will describe the outcome or choice you need to make. Control of the situation is slipping away. What happens next?
• Miss: When your action score isn’t greater than either of the challenge dice, you failed or need to make a serious concession. The move will give you a specific result, or tell you to Pay the Price (page 105). You’ve lost control of the situation. What happens next?

A progress roll (page 18) is a variation of the action roll used to resolve an extended challenge. When you make a progress move, you won’t roll your action die. Instead, roll the challenge dice and compare to your progress track. Then, check the result for a strong hit, weak hit, or miss.

Other moves leverage an oracle roll (page 22) to help guide the fiction. You’ll roll two ten-sided dice to generate a number between 1 and 100, and check your result against a table. 

Some moves don’t use dice at all; don’t roll unless the move tells you to.

Best Practices for Moves

Fiction first, then move

What are you trying to do? How are you doing it? What complications might you face? Envision it. If you’re playing co-op or guided, talk it out. If—after thinking through the fiction—you decide you are doing something or encountering a situation that falls under a move, make the move. 

Depending on the scale of the current action, you might be visualizing a montage of days (a journey, for example) or the passing of a mere second (an intense fight). Always think from the standpoint of the fiction—even if it’s obvious what move you’ll make. Then, translate the fiction into the mechanics of a move, and back to the fiction again as you play out the result.

To learn more about how fiction and mechanics interact, see page 203.

Not everything is a move

Don’t let your session jump from move to move without any roleplay, worldbuilding, or storytelling. If you’re doing something safe and certain, it’s probably not a move. If you’d rather gloss over something, do it.

Many moves offer a potential benefit and cost, and it’s ultimately your decision whether to risk the move to gain the reward. If you happen across a community in your travels, and decide to roleplay some low-key interactions with the locals, that’s not necessarily a move. However, if you are wounded and low on supplies, Sojourn (page 71) gives you an opportunity to recover.

Moves are also used as a pacing mechanism. Moves leading immediately to other moves make the situation feel more intense and dangerous.

Make moves matter

Let your moves flow organically out of the narrative. Don’t make moves purely for a mechanical benefit without some support in the fiction. Don’t repeat a move trying to get your desired outcome. A move, hit or miss, should always result in a change to the current situation. 

For example, you are trying to Compel (page 69) a clan leader to agree to an alliance. You roleplay how you attempt to reason with them. Then, you make the roll, and fail. They refused. Why? What else do you learn or what do they do to make your situation more complex or dangerous? Whatever happens, something happens. You shouldn’t try to Compel them again unless you bring a new approach or leverage to bear.

However, there will be times when you make a move multiple times in sequence. In combat, you’ll often Strike (page 79) or Clash (page 80) with consecutive rolls. When you Undertake a Journey (page 65), you may make the roll several times to gain progress. That’s fine as long as the rolls don’t get too mechanical. Break up the flow of play with other actions, narrative beats, and events that cause you to rethink your approach. When in doubt, follow this guideline: If you’ve made the same move three times in a row, switch things up. Make something happen.

Making Group Moves

When you are adventuring with allies (other player characters), you will often make moves to resolve a challenge for the group. This represents your character taking the lead in a particular scene. You might serve as the spokesperson as you Compel an enemy to negotiate a surrender. Or, you might guide your party through a dense wood as you Undertake a Journey. Unless a move specifically offers benefits for your allies, any mechanical bonus you gain from a hit is applied only to the character making the move. For example, if you represent your group as you Swear an Iron Vow (page 98) and score a strong hit, you take the mechanical reward (per the move, “take +2 momentum”). Everyone else benefits from the narrative success.

The exception are moves such as Make Camp and Sojourn, which provide specific options for your allies to improve their status tracks or clear debilities. Also, your supply track is shared when you travel together, and any change (positive or negative) affects everyone in the group.

Allies can contribute to your action by making the Aid Your Ally move (page 76). On a hit, you gain a bonus you can leverage to improve your chance of success. If more than one ally makes this move, bonuses can be stacked.

When you make a move for your group and face a negative outcome, you should apply mechanical and narrative costs as appropriate to the current situation.

Making Progress Moves

There are four progress moves: Reach Your Destination (page 68), End the Fight (page 82), Fulfill Your Vow (page 101), and Write Your Epilogue (page 77). These moves represent your attempt to act decisively and resolve a challenge or complete a narrative arc. When you make these moves, you won’t roll your action die and add a stat. Instead, you tally your progress score by adding +1 for each fully filled progress box. Then, roll your challenge dice, compare to your progress score, and resolve the move as directed. You cannot burn momentum when making a progress move, and you are not affected by negative momentum.

To learn more about progress tracks and progress moves, see page 14.

Equipment and Moves

Equipment and items can contribute to the fiction of how you make or avoid a move. What you wear or the items you carry might also affect how you envision your character. Otherwise, equipment is not especially important. To learn more about equipment for your character, see page 25 and page 45.

Weapons and Armor

In combat, the weapons you wield and armor you wear mainly provide narrative detail for the scene. When you envision how you fight, take your equipment into account.

Weapons have implied characteristics. Light axes, knives, or spears can be thrown. A bow is fired. A sword is a fine weapon balanced for attack and defense. When you wield a spear, you leverage its reach to hold your opponent at bay or attack with speed and precision. When you fight with a knife, you move inside your opponent’s guard and slash and cut. When you hold a shield, you deflect blows, bash or shove your foe, or even block arrows at range.

Similarly, you can envision yourself relying on armor as you like. Do you wear crudely stitched hides for protection? Perhaps a fine shirt of mail handed down from your kin? Do you hide your face within a visored iron helm? How does your armor affect your combat stance and tactics?

You can lose a weapon, run out of ammo, or see your armor damaged as a result of a failed move. This can be represented mechanically through a loss of momentum. Or, you might Endure Stress if an item of sentimental value is destroyed. Losing access to a weapon also limits your ability to inflict harm (1 harm instead of 2—see page 19). Always start with the fiction. What moves does this item allow you to make or avoid? What happens when you no longer have it?

If you have a combat talent asset (page 40), your weapon and armor may provide additional benefit through abilities. As long as you carry the item, you may use those abilities.

Initiative

Initiative is a special mechanic in combat. It reflects who is in control. When you have initiative, you make proactive moves and have more options. When your foe has initiative against you, they are forcing you to react. Initiative shifts between you and your foes depending on the result of your moves. Some moves are inherently proactive or offensive and can only be made when you have initiative. Others are reactive or defensive and are made when your foe has initiative.

Combat moves (page 78) usually specify when you make the move (with or without initiative) and whether you take or lose initiative as part of the outcome. However, you will make moves which aren’t specifically combat moves to take action or avoid dangers in a fight. To determine whether you have initiative, follow these guidelines (unless a move tells you otherwise):

• When you score a strong hit, you take or retain initiative.
• When you score a weak hit or miss, you lose initiative.

The ability to take initiative on a strong hit applies even to suffer moves (page 90). For example, if you score a miss when you Clash and your foe inflicts harm, you can still take back initiative with a strong hit on Endure Harm. This is your character shrugging off the hit and roaring back into the fight. To learn more about other moves in combat, see page 85.

NPCs do not make moves. When an NPC has initiative, they take actions in the fiction of the scene which force you to react. When you have initiative, you are in control and taking proactive actions to achieve your objectives.

Initiatives and Allies

When you are playing with allies (other player characters), you each track your own initiative based on the outcome of your moves. You can shift the focus between characters and make moves as appropriate to the situation. A character with initiative makes proactive moves to inflict harm or setup an advantage. A character without initiative defends against attacks or tries to get back into the fight.

Keep in mind that initiative doesn’t represent who goes next. Talk out what happens as if moving a virtual camera around your imagined scene. Bring the chaos of a melee to life. Use a dramatic moment to jump to a different character and leave everyone in suspense. Keep things moving to give everyone a chance in the spotlight.

Example: Initiative In Action

Ash and Tayla are playing Ironsworn in co-op mode without a GM. They are helping defend a village against a raider attack. They come across two raiders in the longhouse. 

Both of them make the Enter the Fray move (page 78). This is the move that triggers combat. Per the description of this move, the situation and their intent determines what stat to use for the roll. The raiders aren’t aware of them yet, and Ash wants to use this to their advantage and get a shot or two off with his bow. He’ll roll +shadow. Tayla, meanwhile, is eager to wade into the fight. She rolls with +heart, caution be damned.

Ash rolls a strong hit, and gains initiative. Tayla rolls a weak hit.

They think for a moment about how to manage the initial focus of the fight. Ash suggests, “Tayla, you are charging into battle, but these raiders are no greenhorns. They react quickly, readying their weapons, and one of them lunges with a spear.”

This narration shows that Tayla does not have control of the situation. She’ll have to react to the raider and try to gain back initiative.

However, Tayla wants to put the focus on Ash, who has initiative. This gives him an opportunity to intercede in the trouble Tayla is about to face.

“You’ve got a second before I’m in the thick of it,” Tayla tells Ash. “What do you do?”

“Quick as I can, nock an arrow, pull back, and send it flying towards the guy with the spear. That’s a Strike.”

Ash rolls +edge for the Strike (page 79), and scores a weak hit. He can mark progress against the raider, but he has lost initiative.

“I was just a bit slow with that arrow shot,” Ash says. “Let’s inflict harm for it in a second. First, though, the raider thrusts the spear at you. What do you do?”

Ash and Tayla are essentially rewinding time for dramatic effect. The result of Ash’s move, the arrow shot, hasn’t occurred in the fiction yet. They’ll use this as a technique to resolve the weak hit and give the raider an opportunity to act before getting hit with an arrow.

“I’m going to try to evade the attack and get inside his guard,” Tayla says.

“Clash?” Ash asks. This move (page 80) lets Tayla to try to inflict harm on her foe.

“No. I just want to defend.”

“Sounds like Face Danger then. Roll for it.”

Tayla makes the Face Danger move (page 60). She gets a strong hit, and now has initiative.

“He thrusts with his spear,” Tayla says, describing the outcome of her move, “but I knock it aside with my shield. I’m inside his guard, bringing back my sword for a swing…”

“And at that moment,” Ash says, “thwack! An arrow slices right past you and into the guy’s shoulder. He reels.” 

“Nice,” Tayla tells Ash. “You probably don’t have another clear shot now that I’m mixing it up with them. What do you do?”

“I’ll drop the bow, draw my axe, and join the fight.”

Ash doesn’t have initiative, so the fiction needs to show him not in control of the situation. “As I move forward,” he adds, “the raider on the left suddenly charges at me.”

“Let’s see what happens with me first,” Tayla says.

“Sure. You’re inside his guard. He’s reeling from that arrow shot. What do you do?”

Tayla pantomimes a sword swing. “Right across his neck. Strike.”

Tayla makes the roll. Another strong hit. She marks the harm as progress against the raider. He’s at ten progress.

“I’ll try to End the Fight,” Tayla says, triggering the move that determines whether she’s defeated this raider (page 82).

She makes the roll. A strong hit. The raider is out of this battle.

“Meanwhile,” Tayla says, “you’ve got the other one bearing down on you. They’re holding their shield out like a battering ram. What do you do?”

Move Glossary

There are several common phrases, terms, and prompts you’ll see as part of moves and assets. They are summarized here (in alphabetical order).

Add +X

Add this number to your action die. This is in addition to any other bonuses you otherwise receive, such as your stat. Your action die + your stat + adds is your final action score. See page 8 for details.

Allies/Ally

An ally (page 25) is a character controlled by another player.

Ask the Oracle

When you seek inspiration to decide the outcome of a move, resolve what happens next, or get details about your world, you can Ask the Oracle (page 107). This move lets you ask questions to get a yes/no result or use random prompts for brainstorming. When you are playing with a GM, they are the oracle. Ask them what happens, or talk it out.

Companion

A companion (page 25) is an NPC asset. 

Choose

The move will provide a list of options and the number you may select. You may not select a single option more than once.

Endure Harm (X Harm)

Make the Endure Harm move (page 91), reducing your health track by the indicated amount of harm.

Endure Stress (X Stress)

Make the Endure Stress move (page 95), reducing your spirit track by the indicated amount of stress.

In Exchange For

Adjust the appropriate tracks by the amount indicated in the move. Typically, you will trade +1 in one track for -1 in another.

Inflict Your Harm

When you inflict your harm (page 19), you mark progress against your foe. If you are armed with a deadly weapon (such as a sword, axe, spear, or bow), you inflict 2 harm. If you are unarmed or using an improvised or simple weapon (such as a shield, stick, club, staff, or rock), you inflict 1 harm.

Each point of harm you inflict is marked as progress on your foe’s progress track, as appropriate to their rank. For example, each point of harm equals 2 ticks when fighting an extreme enemy, or 2 full progress boxes when fighting a dangerous enemy.

Inflict +X Harm

“Inflict +1 Harm” tells you to add 1 harm to your current attack. Some assets increase your harm in particular circumstances, or a move might give you an option to increase your harm. You must inflict harm as a result of your move to gain the bonus. Always add your harm and any bonus harm together, then apply it to your foe’s progress track. 

On a Hit/If you score a hit

Act on these instructions if you score a weak or strong hit on a move (your move score beats one or both of the challenge dice).

On a weak hit/If you score a weak hit

Act on these instructions if your move score is greater than one challenge die, but less than or equal to the other.

On a strong hit/If you score a strong hit

Act on these instructions if your move score is greater than both challenge dice.

On a miss/If you score a miss

Act on these instructions if your move score does not beat either of the challenge dice.

Pay the Price

When you roll a miss on a move, you’ll usually see a prompt to Pay the Price. This move (page 105) helps you resolve the outcome of failure. If you’re playing without a GM, you make the most obvious or interesting bad outcome happen based on the current circumstances, roll on the Pay the Price table to see what happens, or Ask the Oracle (page 107). If you’re playing with a GM, they can decide what happens, ask you to roll on the table, or talk it with the group.

Progress Move

This is a special type of move to resolve the outcome of a goal or challenge. When you make a progress move, tally the number of filled boxes on your progress track as your progress score. Only add fully filled boxes (those with four ticks). Then, roll your challenge dice, compare to your progress score, and resolve a strong hit, weak hit, or miss as normal. You may not burn momentum on this roll, and you are not affected by negative momentum.

To learn more about progress tracks and progress moves, see page 14.

Reroll any dice

After you roll your move, you may pick up and reroll your choice of any dice, including either or both of the challenge dice and your action die. Set aside the dice you intend to keep. You may only reroll once, using a single throw for all dice you choose to reroll. Choose carefully, because the new result for all dice must stand.

Roll +[stat]

Add the value of the indicated stat to your action die. This is the basic action roll (page 8). Most moves indicate the stat you should use, such as “roll +iron”. If it doesn’t, or gives you a choice, use the most appropriate stat.

Suffer -X

Subtract this number from the indicated track. For example, “Suffer -1 supply” tells you to subtract 1 from your supply track. If a specific amount is open to interpretation, reduce the track as appropriate to the challenge faced.

Rank	Amount
Troublesome	-1
Dangerous	-2
Formidable	-3
Extreme	-4
Epic	-5

When you are fighting a foe, they inflict harm and stress based on their rank. For example, a formidable foe inflicts 3 harm or stress.

When in doubt about the amount you suffer, just assume it is a dangerous result and adjust the associated track by -2.

Take +X

Add this number to the indicated track. For example, “Take +2 momentum” tells you to add 2 to your current momentum track.

Some assets may offer additional bonuses. Unless stated otherwise, this bonus is added to anything else you gain as a result of your move. If you take +2 momentum as part of a move, and you are using an asset which gives you +1 momentum on the same move, you take +3 momentum total.

When you…

This is the move trigger. When you do this thing, or encounter this situation, make the move. Only you, the character, makes moves. You or the GM don’t use moves for non-player characters or creatures. If you’re just checking to see if something happens or how someone acts, you can Ask the Oracle (page 105).