I happily purchased a copy of the book and have thoroughly gone through it. I must say, it's truly impressive. The document exudes a high level of professionalism, and I'm particularly enamored of the powers, background, stats, and city setting. After reading it, I really want to dive in to Elegy.
However, I must admit that I'm facing a bit of a challenge due to my lack of experience with Ironsworn and solo RPGs. I'm struggling to grasp the practical application of the rules. I've been diligently taking notes, but it feels like I'm going in circles. I learn best when I can immerse myself in examples, and that's the one thing I'd respectfully suggest might be missing.
Are you aware of any resources or individuals who have provided examples of combat using the system and powers? Perhaps combat that leads to and is later affected by stress, impacts, or losing control due to hunger? In short, examples would be a huge help to newbies like me.
Thank you for your feedback. You're right, including an example of gameplay in the book would not be a bad idea. I will keep that in mind for future revisions.
Anyway, KJ Curry has published a bit of her Elegy gameplay on her channel. You might want to check it so you can get a taste of what the game can play like.
Hey, quick question: would it be possible for you to include (or separately publish) a changelog for new versions of the rules? For example, it's currently not possible to see, whether an update was just fixing a typo or whether game mechanics were changed.
Hey, thanks for your response. I finished the book and really enjoyed the lore chapters. Looking forward to giving it a go.
If you don't mind, I have some more comments and suggestions about the rules :)
There is a typo on p. 55:
Drives and goals and goals
About the correction for Sinner (and sorry about not noticing this before):
Sinner may be marked when you are Starving, at 0 blood and consume blood.
and further below
When this impact is marked, you have 0 blood and you consume more blood
I would interpret consuming as drinking, i.e. increasing blood from 0 to something higher, but I think you mean pay/spend/lose blood points, correct?
Elegies
Without reading Ironsworn and being familiar with iron vows it might be difficult to imagine what elegies should look like. A few examples or even faction/lineage-based starting elegies to choose from could help with that.
Blood usage
On p. 10 it says
Power assets are vampiric abilities that always consume blood when used.
and further down in the comments you mentioned
You always expend 1 point of blood when you [...] use a supernatural power or heal yourself
However, this could be made clearer in the book. It would be nice to have a short section "Using powers" in chapter 3 ("Playing the Game") that explicitely
mentions "Activating a power always costs 1 blood in addition to any points mentioned in the power's asset text" (e.g., 1-5 blood points for Acute Senses for a total of 2-6)
differentiates using Power, Nature and "other" assets (I believe there is no category name for non-power non-nature assets like Marked)
makes clear, that it is possible to put yourself at Starving or even Sinner when using a power (waking up + activating Acute Senses + deciding to spend 5 blood points = 7 in total)
warns about the fact that you lose the game, when you go to sleep as Sinner and with 0 blood ;)
Moves
I noticed that there are no moves in your game. This reminds me of World of Dungeons, where practically everything is Dungeon World's Defy Danger move, which is formulated similar to your Action Rolls. Do you plan on creating specific moves in the future or did you specifically decide against them? I always find moves to be a good way to introduce more structure to the game and especially to capture the atmosphere of the genre you play in.
Health
Last but not least, I would be interested to know what you think about and if you ever thought about replacing health and blood with only one Blood resource that represents both health and a character's pool to spend on powers. This would further increase the impact of the decision when to use blood and for what.
Firstly, thank you for your awesome feedback. You've been extremely helpful.
I'll correct the typos, add some examples of elegies (maybe all in the same section, maybe along relevant text parts) and change consume to spend — this one is so obvious, I can't believe I didn't see the confusion!
About the blood usage, I'll make all that clearer. I guess I'll expand the Hunger section instead of adding another one, but I'm not sure yet.
On having no moves (only two types of rolls): Elegy started with almost as many moves as Starforged (so more than 30). It might be partly a matter of personal taste, but I found out that having so many moves was getting on the way of the actual storytelling — I hate stopping my game to look for a rule. To me, that kind of rhythm is more important in a more atmospheric game like VtM than it is in Ironsworn.
Lastly, I actually considered merging Health and Blood in the beginning of the development. It's a very interesting concept, but I couldn't think of an elegant way to pull it off considering aspects of the meters (how fast they go down, how often they should be almost empty, how scarce their resources should be, etc.). Plus, the greater diversity of resources creates richer combinations of situations and challenges your character could face.
Again, thanks for the feedback. I'll implement it and credit you asap.
Hi! I really like the game so far, it's super fun! I'm playing as a vampire detective/P.I. and enjoying it quite a bit. I have a couple questions though!
First of all, I think your oracles are somewhat incomplete, at least if I'm interpreting them correctly. All of the oracles under General and most under Characters share the same issue, being that there are missing numbers. There are columns for 00-10, 20-30, 40-50, 60-70, and 80-90, but no responses for 11-19, 31-39, etc. Am I misunderstanding the way dice are supposed to be used with these tables? Is it like role a d100 to see if you get 00, 10, 20, 30, etc, and then go to the respective column and roll a d10?
Another question I have is using blood. If i don't use a power that requires me to use blood, won't I almost never lose blood? Or I guess my question is really what situations outside of using powers would cause my character to lose blood?
Thanks for taking the time to make this, I love it a lot! I hope my questions make sense and don't come across in a negative way, I love what you've done so far!
EDIT: After reading the rules I see you use a blood everytime you wake up as well as using blood to heal, awesome makes sense! But I still want to know if there are other causes to losing blood other than those 2, although those seem like more than enough to me now that i understand them.
Hi! Glad to hear you're having fun with your vampire detective!
About those oracles: The columns represent the tens, and the lines represent the units. In other words, you roll 1d10 to meet a column and 1d10 to meet a line.
About the blood: You always expend 1 point of blood when you awake each sunset, appear human for a scene, use a supernatural power or heal yourself (edit: after answering this post, I updated the bit about blood and hunger on page 36 to make it clearer). Even if you don't have any Power assets, you'll end up spending blood and needing to feed.
If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask them!
How okay is it to tweak the rules for the setting like how sunlight affects Vampires or adding different monsters to the setting like tooth fairy mice, banshees, mummies or fairies in general.
I personally have no plan to do that officially, but everyone's free to play the game however they want. For the other monsters, you can even base their stats on the ones already existing. That's what I would do.
I've included werewolves and wizards (mages) as sample NPC types. I might include more detailed types of those characters in the future (perhaps with exclusive oracles), but creating player characters that are not vampires would require a really, really deep change in the system.
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Adorei essa pegada de ironsworn para vampiro
Valeu!
I happily purchased a copy of the book and have thoroughly gone through it. I must say, it's truly impressive. The document exudes a high level of professionalism, and I'm particularly enamored of the powers, background, stats, and city setting. After reading it, I really want to dive in to Elegy.
However, I must admit that I'm facing a bit of a challenge due to my lack of experience with Ironsworn and solo RPGs. I'm struggling to grasp the practical application of the rules. I've been diligently taking notes, but it feels like I'm going in circles. I learn best when I can immerse myself in examples, and that's the one thing I'd respectfully suggest might be missing.
Are you aware of any resources or individuals who have provided examples of combat using the system and powers? Perhaps combat that leads to and is later affected by stress, impacts, or losing control due to hunger? In short, examples would be a huge help to newbies like me.
Hi, Mordred!
Thank you for your feedback. You're right, including an example of gameplay in the book would not be a bad idea. I will keep that in mind for future revisions.
Anyway, KJ Curry has published a bit of her Elegy gameplay on her channel. You might want to check it so you can get a taste of what the game can play like.
KJ Curry did a wonderful job. I hope she continues past the second session.
Thank you for the reply and for those of us who learn by exemplars, please do kindly consider adding some detailed examples of the system.
What font did you use for the headers of this book? It looks very good.
Indeed, it's a great font! It's called Mason Serif.
Hey, quick question: would it be possible for you to include (or separately publish) a changelog for new versions of the rules? For example, it's currently not possible to see, whether an update was just fixing a typo or whether game mechanics were changed.
Cheers.
Of course. I did that on the last version (not on the others, my bad). You can see it in the devlog on this same page. Cheers!
I've not read completely through, yet, but it looks great so far. Definitely great work on the layout and art!
Quick question (p. 26):
Shouldn't this be "at 0 blood"? (also "consume" w/o the s).Hi!
You're absolutely right. I just updated the whole sinner part.
Thank you!
Hey, thanks for your response. I finished the book and really enjoyed the lore chapters. Looking forward to giving it a go.
If you don't mind, I have some more comments and suggestions about the rules :)
There is a typo on p. 55:
About the correction for Sinner (and sorry about not noticing this before):
and further below
I would interpret consuming as drinking, i.e. increasing blood from 0 to something higher, but I think you mean pay/spend/lose blood points, correct?
Elegies
Without reading Ironsworn and being familiar with iron vows it might be difficult to imagine what elegies should look like. A few examples or even faction/lineage-based starting elegies to choose from could help with that.
Blood usage
On p. 10 it says
and further down in the comments you mentioned
However, this could be made clearer in the book. It would be nice to have a short section "Using powers" in chapter 3 ("Playing the Game") that explicitely
Moves
I noticed that there are no moves in your game. This reminds me of World of Dungeons, where practically everything is Dungeon World's Defy Danger move, which is formulated similar to your Action Rolls. Do you plan on creating specific moves in the future or did you specifically decide against them? I always find moves to be a good way to introduce more structure to the game and especially to capture the atmosphere of the genre you play in.
Health
Last but not least, I would be interested to know what you think about and if you ever thought about replacing health and blood with only one Blood resource that represents both health and a character's pool to spend on powers. This would further increase the impact of the decision when to use blood and for what.
Cheers!
Firstly, thank you for your awesome feedback. You've been extremely helpful.
I'll correct the typos, add some examples of elegies (maybe all in the same section, maybe along relevant text parts) and change consume to spend — this one is so obvious, I can't believe I didn't see the confusion!
About the blood usage, I'll make all that clearer. I guess I'll expand the Hunger section instead of adding another one, but I'm not sure yet.
On having no moves (only two types of rolls): Elegy started with almost as many moves as Starforged (so more than 30). It might be partly a matter of personal taste, but I found out that having so many moves was getting on the way of the actual storytelling — I hate stopping my game to look for a rule. To me, that kind of rhythm is more important in a more atmospheric game like VtM than it is in Ironsworn.
Lastly, I actually considered merging Health and Blood in the beginning of the development. It's a very interesting concept, but I couldn't think of an elegant way to pull it off considering aspects of the meters (how fast they go down, how often they should be almost empty, how scarce their resources should be, etc.). Plus, the greater diversity of resources creates richer combinations of situations and challenges your character could face.
Again, thanks for the feedback. I'll implement it and credit you asap.
Have a nice day!
This is incredible, Moro.
Thank you!
Hi! I really like the game so far, it's super fun! I'm playing as a vampire detective/P.I. and enjoying it quite a bit. I have a couple questions though!
First of all, I think your oracles are somewhat incomplete, at least if I'm interpreting them correctly. All of the oracles under General and most under Characters share the same issue, being that there are missing numbers. There are columns for 00-10, 20-30, 40-50, 60-70, and 80-90, but no responses for 11-19, 31-39, etc. Am I misunderstanding the way dice are supposed to be used with these tables? Is it like role a d100 to see if you get 00, 10, 20, 30, etc, and then go to the respective column and roll a d10?
Another question I have is using blood. If i don't use a power that requires me to use blood, won't I almost never lose blood? Or I guess my question is really what situations outside of using powers would cause my character to lose blood?
Thanks for taking the time to make this, I love it a lot! I hope my questions make sense and don't come across in a negative way, I love what you've done so far!
EDIT: After reading the rules I see you use a blood everytime you wake up as well as using blood to heal, awesome makes sense! But I still want to know if there are other causes to losing blood other than those 2, although those seem like more than enough to me now that i understand them.
Hi! Glad to hear you're having fun with your vampire detective!
About those oracles: The columns represent the tens, and the lines represent the units. In other words, you roll 1d10 to meet a column and 1d10 to meet a line.
About the blood: You always expend 1 point of blood when you awake each sunset, appear human for a scene, use a supernatural power or heal yourself (edit: after answering this post, I updated the bit about blood and hunger on page 36 to make it clearer). Even if you don't have any Power assets, you'll end up spending blood and needing to feed.
If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask them!
How okay is it to tweak the rules for the setting like how sunlight affects Vampires or adding different monsters to the setting like tooth fairy mice, banshees, mummies or fairies in general.
I personally have no plan to do that officially, but everyone's free to play the game however they want. For the other monsters, you can even base their stats on the ones already existing. That's what I would do.
This definitely scratches the vampire itch! Great work! This is seriously professional level stuff.
Thank you so much!
Great work! Have you ever thought about adapting other aspects of WOD like Mage or Werewolf? Thanks for the hardwork!
Thanks for the compliment!
I've included werewolves and wizards (mages) as sample NPC types. I might include more detailed types of those characters in the future (perhaps with exclusive oracles), but creating player characters that are not vampires would require a really, really deep change in the system.
Amazing work.... the perfect union of Ironsworn and Vampire the Masquerade... If you love World of Darkness, you need to play this :-)
Thank you so much!