주도권과 용어집

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.

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.

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?”

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.

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.

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.