TTRPGS I've Been Playing - Ironbound
Ironbound by MarrenMusings is probably the closest I'll ever come to playing a Dark Souls game. This 8-page mini-zine doesn't necessarily have the same depth in lore and mechanics, but what little there is in this book does a wonderful job of establishing the tone. A particular favourite is the use of your character's limbs and head as a tracking device, that was really unique and thematic!
This simple game used a few die, pen and a little sheet on the back of the zine. These die were used to track health, make attack rolls and generate what as well as where you're fighting.
Death is expected and play gets easier every time you die. There's a balance to be struck between dying so often the game ends and dying enough times that you actually get somewhere. This makes for tense gameplay, especially as each death grants you another hint at your character's backstory.
However, there were some aspects in which the game feels undercooked. The phrasing of the combat rules are unclear and difficult to understand. There's a lot to keep track of in your head and even with the dice to serve as a hp tracker I kept losing my place. I especially struggled with tracking what room I was up to in the game. Finally, and I acknowledge this is the mildest of my critiques, while none of the monsters or locations generated felt outright contradictory, many of them were incongruous and didn't really match up.
Despite my critiques, I had a good time with Ironbound. It's a neat little TTRPG that doesn't overstay it's welcome.
Check out Ironbound here.
